PVP News from the R30 Hangout today...

Good News from the hangout today:
1. Chris says they are still discussing this, but he thinks they MAY make Shardfalls multiplayer only in July. I'm hoping this includes PVP POTs too.
2. Shardfall Obsidian Crown drop rate are increasing.
3. Obsidian Crowns are fully lootable. Even the ones from the add-on store.
4. As of R31 players will no longer be able to pay off the ransom for body parts.
5. Obsidian Crowns will work as decorations in R31.

Bad News from the hangout today:
1. They are keeping the current pvp flag rules. So unflagged players will still get to attack you first if you are flagged open pvp. No cool down. No stopping at the Oracle. (yes, of course after they've done their damage they will have to go to the Oracle to unflag, whopidie-do-da)
2. NPC guards probably won't do anything before the final wipe.

Overall it was a lot of good news. I'm pretty happy with that forecast. As much as I LOVE the added risk of having Obsidian Crowns be lootable, I don't see where the balanced risk vs. reward is here. PVP is like 95% risk and 5% reward for anyone openly flagged for pvp. For people living in a pvp zone, the risk of being looted is very high already. It doesn't seem very well thought out to me. I think if there were working guards, this might make more sense.

 

Sunbeam in darkness !

Good news and great move for SotA !

 

1. Chris says they are still discussing this, but he thinks they MAY make Shardfalls multiplayer only in July. I'm hoping this includes PVP POTs too.

Still don't know why they made them SPO/FPO in the first place.

2. Shardfall Obsidian Crown drop rate are increasing.
3. Obsidian Crowns are fully lootable. Even the ones from the add-on store.

This is what Shardfalls are all about. The add-on store part is nominal because only people not knowing the game will fall victim to this. Learn the hard way.

4. As of R31 players will no longer be able to pay off the ransom for body parts.

Still wishing they would forget about the insurance... I mean ransom.

PS 95%/5% doesn't work with the math. Someone wins and someone loses. Reward and loss will be both 5% since the reward comes from someone else's risk. *poke poke*

 

Point taken. I was a little on the emotional side when I wrote that.

I'm not sure what the actual risk vs. reward ratio is. But I'm certain it's not balanced yet. The risk of pvp is not very much for someone that uses add-on store/pledge items, doesn't carry around Obsidian Crowns, and doesn't flag pvp. If you want to sit back and wait for someone to be at a disadvantage, the game will reward you very well for taking virtually no risk.

 

Items looted in the zone being lootable is one of the better features I have seen. It does skew in the direction you describe though. I like the concepts behind Shardfalls. Just need more push to get people there and higher Obsidian Crowns drop rate should do the trick.

 

Time to put my crown coins on the storage just to be safe

 

Ha, good news at last.

 

So what about Shardfalls in offline mode?

 

I don't think this falls under good news, my name is more valuable to me than the loot I can save by paying the ransom.

 

I assume everything is fair game in offline mode.

 

That's exactly the point.

I understand that some players will not care at all, but I'm with you. And that makes pvp a little more meaningful for you and I.

 

More meaningful? How about more likely to dissuade from taking part.

 

Yes, I get that.

But there's a risk vs. reward balance that I'm personally looking for and I hope the developers continue to seek. If there's no meaning (no loss) then what's the point in doing it? For example, if all you care about is your reputation, and that's measured by the number of times someone can take one of your body parts so you always pay the ransom, then your reputation can never be damaged. And if your reputation can never be damaged then you risk nothing that you care about. Hence, there would be no point, there would be no meaning.

It's the same reason that allowing players to attack people that are flagged when they themselves are not flagged is a really stupid idea. Because it allows people to avoid risking what it is they are most adverse to losing, initiative and opportunity.

Or the example of allowing people to go into single player online mode in a pvp zone. The list goes on and on.

At the end of the day, the only way pvp can be meaningful is if people are risking what they don't want to lose. Reputation, items, wealth (obsidian crowns)... But to balance that out there needs to be an equally compelling reward system. You can take someone elses reputation (body parts), you can loot their items and make them pay a ransom, you can take their wealth (obsidian crowns). I'm not saying it's balanced yet, and I recognize that the more risk they put in, the less people will participate (unless the rewards are enticing enough to draw them back in). But my argument would be that I would rather have infrequent meaningful pvp then frequent meaningless pvp.

Unfortunately I still think the two things I listed as bad news will impact the amount of meaningful pvp we see in the game.

 

Only thing wrong with shardfall idea, no one but pvp'ers will go in there. You cannot force people to play the way you want them to play or to risk what they don't want to risk. Might as well just change it to pvp only zone and be done with it. Just exclude all the rest except pvp and start from there. Pvp'ers love a challenge so it should justly be hermano on hermano. My 2 cents on human nature.

 

Soubd like we will have an opportunity for after market body parts trading.

 

If I were roleplaying a merchant character that never wanted to fight a day in their life. This is what I'd do.

I'd hire the biggest toughest players I could find to protect me and my business. I'd go into that shardfall and mine the heck out of it. Because I'd have protection, this would raise the stakes for people trying to attack me. They'd have to bring a lot more people to the fight. So my risk just went down exponentially, but my profits just went up exponentially because I'm getting more resources than any of my non-pvp competitors.

The point is, the shardfalls weren't made for people to go exploring inbetween getting tons of rare drops. They are pvp zones, and those rare drops are there to entice people to take the risk. If you don't want to take the risk, that's fine. But for players that do (and that doesn't mean just people that like pvp), it's now available to them without the single player online training wheels attached.

 

Some players don't care about the body parts and only their loot which they can pay the ransom for so there's less risk for them. My objection isn't in a hit to one's reputation from a loss in combat as you say there's risk and reward but specifically having my body parts being on display for someone elses gratification.

 

Then your premise goes right back to a pvp player for hire. If the role playing merchant isn't willing to take the risk for greater rares it sort of defeats the purpose of the shardfall to begin with. It then becomes an exclusive area for just the pvp player. If I were the merchant, greed would be the bane of my existence. No intent to side-swipe the thread , just another perspective. I play pvp on GW2.

 

Isn't that effectively what the ransom was doing except now I may not have a choice in the matter?

 

@Lained It is a possibility.