What does Blood Bay bring to the table?

Im curious to hear some speculation on what Blood Bay offers the future of the PVP aspect of SOTA?

There is another thread open by Vallo, regarding the roadmap changes in PVP and kickstarter promises, but im curious about some of the player speculation and expectation for PVP in SOTA now that Blood Bay is out?

Myself, im surprised by the size difference of Blood bay and the other zones. I for one found it a nice surprise, and can actually see multiple groups fitting in the zone.
Downside, is i feel the *Special Effects * triggered from around the map, were over-hyped. I think they wont add much to any real PVP in the zone, and are pretty ignore able.
I see the 2 towns, and i understand some virtue limitations coming into play, but im not seeing the big picture of if its going to really EFFECT the PVP play or not.
Upside, the zone is sexy as hell for looks, and like everything in the game, has potential.

Has Blood Bay changed anyone's outlook / expectations for PVP in the future?

( I think its a good place to host some player generated PVP content, but only because of the size increase over other zone. Frankly, i dont really see much difference between it and a shardfall, and im not sure what to make of that. ) ( And secondly im seeing the necessities to compete properly in PVP growing everyday. - Example : Going in without a solid resist across the board to most magic types is suicide (The minimums are growing each day )

Id love to hear some general thoughts from people, while we wait for the dev's to finish with the patches and give a good roadmap answer to the other threads.

Edit -
After reading some of the posts from the Dev++ forum that have been forwarded. I keep seeing the *Facts* that the pvp community is VERY small in the developement picture? (As i would have guessed 50% people here would want PVP in one form or another, but people are claiming its under 20%. ) Is there any real number on PVP focused people vs those with no interest of it? And if not, what would you guess those numbers lay, based on your experience / social connections in game ? ( I know its a solid 50% for me, if not higher, for people that were here supporting and expecting good PVP game )

 

4 PRTs were removed from the Overworld map a few releases ago. Some of that potential land use will appear in Blood Bay, or maybe all of it. The zone is roughly 4 times the size of any other map, and in a sense it also is a place where game mechanic technology was successfully prototyped and on display -- The flying ship / moving platform, among other things.

As far as myself being a PVP'r, I don't purposefully flag myself as PVP but I do wander into PVP zones from time to time. I cast myself as a support role in past PVP games and it was fun being a scout in such places.

 

No expectations left here.

That being said: Blood Bay is a big test kitchen for a ton of mechanics. General game mechanics, not PvP only mechanics. The Airship for example.

At some point it was maybe 50/50 but most of us (read "us" as the pvp peeps) got pushed out by the PvE hardcores (i would use another name but that would get me moderated).
It's sad to see just how many pvp players we have lost since i joined this game.
Ah well. Nothing to do about.

 

since it's automatic PVP when you enter Blood Bay then I might not go there too much... unless, I'm forced to go there like a required Virtue Quest or something... which kinda sucks if that happens... LOL

 

I love player versus player games... but not in SotA... enjoyed PvP in City Of Heroes and Guildwars... spent countless of sleepless nights when Counter-Strike first appeared... played a ton of Blacklight Retribution and Special Force 2... I love SMITE and even enjoyed League of Legends because of my kids... he he he...

 

I think it will end up like every other PvP zone, empty as hell and waste of dev time, not the tech part, but the scene and dungeon.

PvP should never be mixed with PvE, what PvP needs is actual PvP objective scenes (zones/control points), not PvEvP zones.

Solution
1. Make all current PvP scenes with PvE, PvE only unless flagged for PvP
2. Add PvP Scenes that are just PvP, see examples below
3. Open world PvP for those who really want it, but must be flagged as it is now, and it is full loot drop/ransom
4. This would also add a lot more POI/scenes to the world map, making it look fuller and less empty space between scenes.

Examples of PvP Scenes
1. PvP control point passes (does not replace PvE passes), guilds that own* these PvP passes can charge a tax to instantly teleport players past passes, from world map, similar to boats mechanic.
2. Region control point scenes, guilds that own* these get combat XP bonus's
3. Resource control point scenes, guilds that own* these get gathering bonuses based on type of control point scenes (mining = rock query's, forestry = saw mills, Agriculture = farms, fishing = river docks, etc)
4. Production control point scenes, guild that own* these get refining and production bonuses based on type of control point scenes.
5. Dock control points (does not replace current boats travel systems), guilds that own* these can charge a tax to instantly teleport players to various docks around the world map (different locations then the PvE ones that are free), example: Northwood to Graff island, Jaanaford to Storm's Reach, etc

PvP scene notes
Control point scenes do not have loot or xp penalties on death.
Respawn in zone after 60 seconds, safe area, no spawn camping system
Development (because there would be many copies of each scene, dev time wouldn't be spent making many unique PvP scenes, just a few unique ones based on type, then copies of each like scene, ie all passes would be the same scene, all docks the same, etc). Also, sine they are meant for PvP they wouldn't have to be super large, maybe the size of some of the smaller passes, with multiple routes and strategic points.

* own
1. Guilds (not individuals) can own as many control points as they can capture
2. These scenes have NO PvE at all, just PvP
3. These scenes are battled over in a 24 hour period (fair for all regions of the world) for points
a. Points are gained passively for controlling a control point (1 point a min or something)
b. Points are gained actively for kills (30 points of something per kill)
c. Control points are owned for 48-72 hours, entering these points can only happen during the battle phase, rest of the time they are no entry.

PvE Risk vs Reward adjustment
PvE durability loss for normal use is faster
PvE durability loss for death is higher
PvE death, after 60 seconds (if not resurrected by another player) player revives at current bind point

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Mixing PvE and PvP just means that few people use the scenes (see shardfalls and ruins now), the bulk of almost any MMO community is PvE,
PvE should not have to PvP to experience PvE content, EVER.
PvP should have something to fight for, not just PvP for PvP sake.
Give PvPers AND PvEers a reason to PvP, some thing to gain from it, not just loss, where they don't feel like they are loosing there hard work (character development/gear, etc)!!!

Sadly though MMO's never do things like this and all we (the players) get is poorly designed PvEvP zones that are empty...forever empty. Along with PvPers whining that everyone should be flagged and PvE's whining that they shouldn't have to PvP to experience PvE content.

 

Good solid, well thought out post that i agree with.

Any objective based PVP i would be happy with.

We were talking about even something simple like *hold the keep!* with either forced teams, or a que for 12v12 or something. Simple arena style.. would amuse me more then anything currently in play.
Intense guild wars is something talked about in the other thread.
Good read.

 

I really like the idea of an objective based non item and exp loss PVP zones. Hopefully they will experiment with this, even just start off with a free for all PVP zone with no item loss until objectives can be added.

I think this would get a lot more people trying out and getting comfortable with PVP which will lead to more doing open world PVP. Of course they still need to add to PVP to make it more interesting with some good ideas already mentioned.

There are a few reasons I have not tried PVP, never ran into anyone when I flagged a few times when the 20% bonus was active. My build is not PVP friendly, my plan was to add skills that will help, like mez, chained lightning and stealth but it will take awhile still. I am to lazy to do all the inventory management required to limit item loss right now. I have no PVP experience so will die a lot which will lead to more item loss. I want to use my crafted gear so PVE is easier and I can mine more.

I know, a lot of excuses.

People use pledge or bought items now so not to lose items which means they do not get to use or show off their crafted gear they worked hard on. I think this makes people less likely to PVP too. If people get more PVP experience and think they can compete then they might wear low to mid-level gear in open world PVP.

 

I think this can be found out in two ways: @Berek, can Portalarium share it's numbers (what percentage of people flag for PvP and what percentage of that engage in PvP)? OR we conduct a less scienntific poll on the forums, but this may not be very useful if the people who do PvP do not come on and vote in the poll.

 

I loved this is Warhammer Online. Despite the games flaws, I spent most of my time in those open PvP areas where you had multiple objectives within the keeps. That was a lot of fun. Bear in mind a lot of the "tech" seems to be in place here (thinking control points, for example) to do something like this.

 

Some of the 'Special Effects' are going to be spread around now that they're functional, and may pop up in other scenes.

Don't forget Blood Bay is going to have housing! We're working on it. I expect the virtue split of the towns will come more into play with people choosing to put their house down on the north side or the south side.

I hope people can enjoy the scene and not think of it as a giant deathmatch map... I like to think of it as an adventure scene where attacking other players is on the table. Great feedback.

 

the scene is beautiful. took me about .3 seconds to come up with that, in terms of "what does it bring to the table..."

 

I definitly wouldn't dispute that. I was pleasently surprised by how good looking it was.

My only problem with that statement is, i also think all the shardfalls are spectacular looking as well. So good looking zones, isn't something new.
Guess more question more falls under does it bring in any glimpse into what you think they will be able to do long term PVP'wise, and what do you speculate they might build off of, now that you've seen blood bay?

I'd never say they cant build good looking zones. heh.

Id love to hear some of their elaboration on how they will incorporate the 2 sides. The housing idea is neat, but i just cant fathom how they will make the zone any differnt then anywhere else. Will a *good player* only be able to attack *bad* players? Will it be virtue vs lack of virtue? It will be interesting to see, and would be awesome to get some idea before devoting too much time into a hope.

 

Glad to hear that. A lot of us are afraid that SotA becomes a Mini Game Fest, instead of a player controlled virtual world

From what I see outside of the game the population of players that want both PVE and PVP content working with each other.. It was advertised as sandbox and didn't bring much to the table in that regard. Unless it becomes a true sandbox we will lack players.

 

Also I think what will help every scene in the game is to have quest lines that take them there. Why will we go anywhere after we've seen it all many times, well for grinding or pvp battles of course, but speaking of every area of the game give we need to have more reasons to see the world.

 

not only story but also economy or player driven content like wars, building of castles or trade caravans.... Story might only get you to see places once

 

Yup,

Give me a sandbox!
Ill check out bb when I can drop my house. (Yew moongate style pvp)

 

As much as i hassle devs,
I feel sota has the potential for all of this, still.

Very interested.

Any other thoughts on other implementations of pvp features?

 

Yes make them an option without exclusive content and grant people to have everything without taking the risk to be really consensual without to accept to locked out of scenes!

Btw curious if Bloodbay offers PvE like Shardfalls and Ruins do?

You asked, sorry if you dont want to hear that

 

*shrug* i want constructive conversation lol so no complaints here.

Yea theres actually a good chunk of mobs in there. Some pretty neat ones, and unique ones.