PVP

[scrup]

Will there by any emphasis placed on PVP? I leveled up originally on a PVP server and it was a BLAST. SOE seemed to venture more and more AWAY from the whole PVP thing, but I would love to see some actual support for the portion of the game that made it really quite a challenge. I can remember boring grinds being broken up by a group venturing in and trying to kill my group and us spending 30 minutes fighting each other over spawns. Nothing like one group fighting another group for a rare spawn or for a dungeon. Added a whole other really unpredictable element and really encouraged teamwork and grouping up. By modifying infamy to actually serve a purpose this could be made to be a pretty useful mechanic. (certain lvl infamy=specific title so you are known as a player killer and people would probably not like you much. Higher lvl= town NPCs attack you) something like this could really server as a balance point for the anti-pvp arguments.

A good chance no one else would like this, but I gotta try!

[John Adams]

Hello scrup,

While the general community has very strong opinions AGAINST PvP, personally I can see the benefits of it as an option on a custom server. While SOE did not have a PvP server for us to collect packets on, Xinux and I did kill each other a few times in a /duel I know it's not purist PvP, but it would be a start. If you (or anyone else) can detail out the entire ruleset for a PvP server, we can determine if it's possible or not.

If it's just code/calcs, that's one thing. If the Skills and Abilities were coded completely different (in data) it would be much harder, but still possible - given someone is dedicated enough to tweak our core database to PvP rules.

[scrup]

As I remember it, PVP worked on a pretty simple premise. Kill someone, get percentage of their infamy (if 0 then you would still get 1) and 5% (maybe 10%) of their currently held money.

If they were 5 or more levels below you there was no benefit what so ever.

Groups made no difference in this, which did present complications as you could have higher level characters whittling down lower lvl chars and letting lower levels finish them off, but that was not very common at all as the only benefit to that was a little money and infamy which was useless. Really as long as there were safe zones/penalties, PVP would have totally worked.

What you did get was groups of the flavor of the month(FOTM) classes harassing normal players for fun in town. I once came across a group of low lvl druids named after celebrities. They would hang out in the town just outside of Tursh (forget the name), and kill anyone working on missives. I was killed by angelina joie and brad pitt more than I care to admit. Adding a value(a negative one) to infamy would help to make this behavior an exception to rule that is fought against by NPCS rather than the rule of the land, which was the sad and eventual downfall of sartok.

[Happytrees]

I'm definitely in favor for some PvP fun. While I think it shouldn't be the main server(most people don't like PvP in MMORPGs I've found.) a separate PvP server could only add to the people who get to enjoy VG, as some players(like myself) simply cannot have a good time slaying mindless NPCs unless they're working towards something that'll make them stronger against other players.

I also would definitely volunteer my time to work out a server ruleset, brainstorm some ideas on how to make PvP fun and balanced for all who want to participate, and could even help run the PvP server by being a guide or something in game.

If this is an idea that the devs would get behind, I don't mind putting in my share of time and effort at all if there's a possibility of me being able to PvP in Vanguard again

[tad10]

Didn't the Zaraj Arena allow PvP within the actual arena?

[Kandra]

[quote="tad10"]Didn't the Zaraj Arena allow PvP within the actual arena?[/quote]
Nope. At sunset there were only 3 different areas where PvP was enabled; The floating areana in Tehatamani Harbor, the small island in Blinding Shallows, and by the level 55+ mobs in Southwatch. The area in Southwatch was only added the last few months before the sunset.

[John Adams]

Kandra, do you happen to know the area in Southwatch's loc? I'd like to wander over there to see if the client is set to trigger the area, or if it's something we'll have to handle in Chunk Scripting.

[Kandra]

I don't have the coordinates for the area in Southwatch. Guess it would be easier to check the two other locations since they are difficult to miss.

[John Adams]

Aye, which is why I asked for the hard one since it sounds like "it's just an area on the map" vs some clearly defined structure (ref: eq1 arenas that spammed "you are in a pvp area" hard-coded into the client). I never wandered near anything PvP so I have zero knowledge of this part of the game.

[Kandra]

I just got home from a Verdi rehearsal so now I can log in to the game and check.

There seems to only be a few level 55+ mobs around (-65535 6000 54600) on New Telon, but that should be the area if I remember correct.
You would get a message like "You have entered a PvP area", or something like that, on the screen on the live server, but I don't see any message now.