Please Balance PVP Loots To Prevent PVP Parasite From Being A Viable Playstyle

Due to the complete lack of balance with regards to PVP bounty values vs NPC sale value of other mob loots drop, there has been a recent emergence of a new class of player, which I call "The Parasite"

These players generally use Air and Fire magic, and are not really interested in a fair PVP fight. In fact, they will almost always run away if they think they might loose.

The strategy employed by Parasites, is to attack Avatars who are fighting NPC mobs in a PVP zone, whilst they are compromised by already being engaged in combat with one or more NPC mobs. This potentially costs the victim a bounty of over 30k in a single kill, and may cause a decay hit if the mob your were fighting kills you instead.

The parasite invariably has the upper hand when attacking since:

a) Because you are fighting NPC mobs you are likely not using your optimal PVP deck.

b) The parasite tends to attack mid fight, so your health may already be down.

There are players out there who do this all the time, this is the entirety of their play strategy.

Unsurprisingly, these players are not very popular with the vast majority of the PVP zone going community, or good for the popularity of PVP zones on the whole.

@Chris please try to do something to prevent this from being a viable and profitable build to play.

 

Hate to break it to ya, but this is a playstyle that is as almost as old as MMO's. You are in a PVP zone, engaging in some PVE, and are probably doing so for a potential gain, else you would do so somewhere safer (from a PVP standpoint). There probably isn't anything that can be done to break this, since it is basically working as intended.

 

Of course there is something that can be done, why should one cowardly kill for this playstyle potentially reward over 100 NPC kills worth of gold?

 

Because by entering a PVP zone, you are accepting the risk that there might be such a cowardly person there waiting to do exactly as you describe. Much as we hate it, there is nothing forcing PVP players to be honorable... otherwise it wouldn't be a virtue.

 

Saly the game rewards the griefers, we've been saying it for a looong time. We're against griefers thats why we have pvp flags, but we're doing nothing to actually make it functional.

Such cowardly tactics do not even give a bad karma hit...

Thats what my experience in PvP since its beginning is... I either get one shotted while fighting mobs by someone invisible that shows up when I'm in trouble, or I serve as a savings supermart for invisible thieves, which I never see, only when they're long gone I see ransom of the oracle pop up...

A thief can sneak in my pack, steal 60 tungsten... and I don't notice you've removed 100kg from my pack, right.

Ima stop there because the whole system makes no sense to me.

 

There is something you can do, however... Carry some relatively worthless stackable item(s), and split them up into smaller stacks, that way when items are chosen, either for ransom from your dead body, or when they are chosen at random for thieving as @StrangerDiamond notes, the likelyhood of something valuable being selected is greatly reduced.

 

The oracle judges your virtue, its part of the game brother... the incentive is really weak but its there.

I am flagged PvP, I am not entering a PvP zone free for all... I get jumped anywhere, even in town.

Last night while I was banking, a thief stole from me without any of my 4 guildmates ever seeing him... over 5000k worth of items... completely invisible.

My whole fortune is 15k so yeah, unbalanced.

 

I'm far from a noob, kickstarter backer here, I do, I do... but they more often than not get my best items which I cannot even dream of ransoming (I amassed 15k gold in months and months of play)...

The worse part is that there is no fun, no sport... its a one hit kill, ALL the time. And the thieves, its a perfect steal everytime.

I stay flagged pvp only because I was a siege perilous player, its a question of principle because thats how I like my games.

But any siege perilous player would arrive here and not say nice things, no no no.

 

For some, the Oracle's Judgement is apparently unimportant when compared to the gain to be had.
Don't bank while not under the oracle's protection? Unbalanced, but there is a smart play option.

 

Siege perilous... as in UO? That's where this playstyle originates (Pre-UO:R, not specifically SP)... I've been on the bass end of that one many times.

 

That is all cool on the surface, but what real pvpers (those who don't opportunity jump) will feel if those systems are unbalanced is that the devs don't care about real PvP... that they encourage griefing... don't take my word for it, ask people.

 

Yeah I was here for the whole process... we refused to have a pvp server in SOTA because of the poor poor players who were on the receiving end, went for the flag then all our concerns were swept under the rug... pvpers are self-sufficient right ?

it really comes off as BLAH, make your own game we don't care.

The griefing I experience in SOTA (which is impersonal, with NO opportunity to get a revenge, the offender can just exit zone and laugh at me) is about 10 times as worse as any bad pvp experience I had in the harshest UO conditions imaginable.

 

they already removed that and only singular items of one type are accounted when stealing or ransomed (so it no longer helps to have multiple stacks or multiple trash items AFAIK)

 

You're preaching to the choir, friend... this argument has been fought back and forth for years.

The reality is, that the closest they can come to what you desire, is the Ruins and Shardfalls.

Perhaps a third PVP flag option, Knight Avatar (or something of the sort), that:

• allows a separation between the backstab PVP community and the honorable PVP'ers
• disables the Camouflage tree in Subterfuge, as well as Poison Weapon
• can attack all PVP flag characters, but cannot be attacked or interacted with by the Open PVP crowd until they attack an Open PVP flagged character

This could allow you to go about being flagged for semi-open PVP, and engage in PVP on your terms, while allowing you to openly challenge those who are also open PVP, also only on your terms.

Just a thought.

 

That might explain it... so instead of listening to our concerns portalarium made it worse.

When I hear people say that devs catered too much to pvp players... rofl...

My whole guild are pvp fans since forever... I'm the only one that ever flags... they say yeah sorry we can't heal you this is stupid, but we also cannot pvp because its stupid.

I can tell them any mitigating reason... oh but you don't meet pvp players so often... we can always switch to party mode... they don't care anymore until it gets a overhaul or until they reach endgame.

Because thats the only way to have a fight that lasts more than a second, you gotta be a powergamer, great pvp game really... BDF even ragequit over this, of all people, should give a clue.

 

Ah, well, that's what I get for watching out-dated streams *laughs*

Sorry...

 

You have the right mindset in trying to find a solution, alas I think it isn't shared with the devs... I don't mind stealthers and thieves, in fact I am very used to them in UO, I even have my potions in case.

The main problem is that a level 120 rogue can one shot me... I don't even have time to drink one potion.

So ANY level gated game would have at a bare minimum a system of damage reduction that sure leaves the 120 level character overpowered, but not SILLY overpowered... so that at least it seems like a fight.

Then and only then we would care about bothering with spells like reveal (in the sun tree) and then and only then we would bother to even try to fight.

Right now as it is... I just know that if I meet any of the griefers, I can't do nothing, so I just sheath my sword and die. It don't matter if the griefer has poison, stealth or whatever else... I'm an insect compared to him.

Do you see how bad it makes me feel ? A players used to HUGE setbacks and harsh community such as I ?

Imagine for someone that comes from other games... they won't believe it.

 

Chris said he has a fix to remove insta tagging that got pushed to R54 when I asked him on twitch not too long ago in regards to this.

 

tagging ?

 

Guessing he meant flagging, but that was his quote.

deadlyhabit: doh my biggest gripe sorry to bring this up but non pvp players being able to attack pvp when they're in battle etc is a big issue
Chris: I have a design to fix that, remove the insta tagging. Got bumped
Chris: to R54