DoomBringer wrote:I'm here for the PvP part of the game,... PvP is as important part of the game as is PvE.
I understand what you say that the MMO will be different etc but I feel I need to repost this comment of mine for the benefit of all. It resolves around a gross misunderstanding of what the majority of players want from a game, i.e. those players that are not predominantly into PvP (at least if you want a decent player base) and how the competitive PvP section can hurt the experience of someone else.
For many of us it is the overall RPG experience of the sandbox where we want to create things. Risk, combat, death, war, loss is all acceptable as long as it happens within context. Random PvP is 99% out of context and that is what eventually kills the population in any game that supposedly contains non-PvP elements.
ALIGNMENT/GRIEFING/PvP-onlyI have this feeling people still don't get the reality of why games like DF/MO struggle (not necessarily fail, let me be clear on that). I would like to think all of us would like LiF to have more than a "few" thousand total active subs 12 months after launch.
There are two aspects of the problem an open-PvP game faces;
- The majority of highly competitive PvPers will band together in a sub-section of such themed clans due to shared mindset instead of being spread around reasonably evenly.
- These PvP clans essentially force everyone else to play "their" game. RPG immersion is already low due to the open ended nature of a sandbox game. Eventually the players that have interest outside of only PvP get frustrated trying to find/maintain any semblance of an RPG game and quit. This leaves everyone poorer.
It is a sorry process whereby the more and more elite PvPers (let us for argument's sake say the top 20% of the ever reducing remaining population) cannibalizes the game until only those who are mainly interested in PvP are left. At this point the game reaches a stable equilibrium and Voila! You have MO/DF as they stand today; PvP arenas. So sad compared to when at launch we dared dream of realistic sandbox worlds that would support multiple player types. Multiple player types being essential if you want a subscription count higher than a "few" thousand.
The purpose of an alignment system should be to direct PvP to legitimate targets, i.e. realms that are at war with each other, 90%+ of PvP should take place there.
People will join this game with varied expectations of which PvP will only be one aspect. In nearly every open PvP game the PvP aspect crushes the life out of everything else. People don't mind losing, they do mind not being able to play the game they imagined a sandbox medieval world to entail.
For this reason any non-legitimate PvP needs to have very harsh penalties. I see some say the skill loss will be harsh. Well, it will be impossible to avoid alts and thus some side stepping of these penalties. I don't believe the very survival of a game should be entrusted to such a mechanic alone.
The majority of competitive players will want a part of the political landscape, i.e. kingdoms. It must be required that they apply non-abusive rules of behaviour to members. Clans that do so should gain tangible in-game competitive advantages. Thus making it a non-negotiable for any group that aspires to be a political force to have zero tolerance towards non-legitimate PvP. Non-war related PvP should be scarce unless it is really a lone band of thugs with no political leanings who can be effectively hunted by a local community and force them to leave or render them completely ineffectual.
FINAL WORD IN REPLY TO QUOTED POSTER: If you only want to PvP then you should HAVE to be a mercenary that sells his services and you just go from conflict to conflict fighting other clans that are on a war footing. Anything else and this game will struggle to keep enough players to make the sandbox work.