Ok, first off, I am not that well known in the game. Well enough known by a few that matter to me I guess. I have been playing this game for almost 5 years, and I must say that it is one of the things in my life that keeps me sane lol. (well partially) With that being said, I have spent a good deal of my time here beating the snot out of others, for gold, for prestige, for medals, but most over-all, for FUN. PvP in this game used to keep me sitting at this damn computer for hours on end. I used to sit here for ENTIRE ladder sessions, I used to sit up for 24 hours straight bounty hunting, I used to sit here for hours on end just talking to people. Lately, not so much, as my work schedule has gotten quite hectic, but I am going to sit here tonight and put out the way I feel that PvP should be handled on this game. Not that my thread will change anything in the game, but just so that my thoughts are gathered in one place instead of all over cyberspace. The things I am going to discuss come not only from me, but from a collection of ideas from many different players in the game, both past and present. Bear with me as I knew when I sat down to type this out that it was going to be a long one.
I.) Open world PvP- The biggest issue(complaint) with open world PvP in this game is the fact that you lose experience when you lose an attack (either incoming or outgoing). Why should someone lose experience in an attack from another player? This is the first game I have played where PvP affects character level in such a way. Losing experience to creatures makes sense, it is where our character experience comes from after all. So, here are my thoughts on it.
A.) Open world PvP hits should only exchange prestige and gold. Yes, I said it, and I am a PvP player. PvP died a long time ago in this game because of the simple fact that people were tired of losing (hard earned) experience. If there is any hope of revitalizing the part of the game that has kept me coming back, then this portion, has to go. As the game has evolved, it has turned into an entirely different creature, and we (players AND developers) have to evolve along with it.
1.) Even though open world PvP hits will only exchange gold and prestige, they should be bounty-able for experience loss on the bounty board. The bounty board was meant as punishment so lets do just that. Yes, most PvP players don't mind experience loss but they have to stay within certain levels for gear and targets.
2.) With the removal of experience loss in open world PvP, the thievery enhancement should be made to take 30-50% of gold on hand to offset that. Also, the master thief rate should be raised as well. This will give gold hitters more of an incentive to swing, and will give more people a reason to use the bounty board to seek punishment for wrong doers.
B.) The bounty board - With the removal of experience loss in open world PvP, MULT-BOUNTIES are not needed. Multi-bounties meaning the ability to bounty EVERY hit received. As that was added to quell the complaints about bounty marks getting "free" hits on the target. With no experience loss the "free" hits will amount to nothing but a few gold in repair costs. But, there have to be some changes made to the bounty board as well to make it worthwhile to people placing bounties.
1.) Bounties DO NOT expire. Once a bounty is posted it stays on the board until it is completed, period. All bounties guarantee a 3 level decrease, not the normal 10 hits we have right now. The bounty board was once fun and exciting because you didn't know that someone was already on a bounty. You just jumped in and started swinging. So the proposition I am throwing out is that you take the "experience left to lose" section off the bounty board, and make all standard bounties lose 3 levels. Once the mark has lost 3 levels worth of experience, the person who took the most experience off the mark wins the bounty and the prize. This will add some randomness to the bounty board like the years of old.
2.) Bounty hit limitations need to be removed. What i mean by that is there should be no time needed between hits from bounty hunters. Once you take a bounty, you can hit and hit and hit without having to wait 2 minutes. This will ensure that bounties are completed in a fast manner and yet increase my argument for the unneeded multi-bounty option.
3.) Bounty tickets - The addition of buying bounty tickets with gold was a step in the right direction. But, the reason for making this addition was to act as a gold sink, you must remove the FSP upgrade for bounty tickets for it to be an effective sink.
4.) War bounties - I will discuss this later......
II.) GvG - Oh the mighty GvG machine is under my scrutiny as well. The GvG system has been broken since it's inception as a profit earning section of the game. Basically, since the introduction of RP items other than guild buff packs (which in their own right are COMPLETELY outdated). Here are my thoughts on GvG......
A.) RP(reputation points) are kind of a bad joke when it involves GvG battles. So many guilds have exploited the RP system to the point of it not being worth anything. So, i propose a totally new system (sort of). RP points should stay where they are, gained by winning GvG's against rival guilds, but SHOULD NOT be used to buy the current epic recipe items used today. Guild RP should only be used to buy buff packs for the guild (which need totally revamped!). The purchase of Epic item resources would be instead purchased by an entirely NEW point system........
1.) The Guild Domination Point(s) - These points are awarded to a guild who remains in the top "X" of the RESETTING GvG ladder. The GvG ladder should reset every 14-28 days, at random, to ensure that those active in this area of the game remain actively searching for guild rating. Like the PvP ladder (which I will also discuss), Guilds that remain in the top "X" spots will gain GDP every 3, 4, 12..... hours they are on the ladder in those respective ladder ranks, and receive a set number of points at reset for the ranking they finished at (for the top "X" spots on the ladder). They can then use the GDP to buy items such as the Bobonarts crystal skull to sell or create those epic items which require it for creation.
2.) RP buff packs as I said, need to be completely revamped. Any buff in the RP buff packs pertaining to leveling (Adept learner, Librarian, Doubler Etc.) Need to be a MINIMUM of 250. With current potions it is not a hard feat, or an overly expensive one, to gain almost the same or better levels from potions. So where is the incentive for guilds to put forth any effort to gain buff packs that are easily and often times trumped by potions? There isn't any. PvP based buff packs are open to discussion since I wouldn't want to kill the higher level people in the games buff sales.
III.) This brings me to Guild Wars, which are kind of their own animal in most respects. With the removal of experience loss from open world PvP, Guild wars would take a massive hit in my system. So, to fix that issue, I again propose a NEW addition to the game......
A.) Declaring WAR on another guild should be similar to GvG, except there are no points gained, no rewards to earn. There would be a new clickable thing on the guild management page that would enable people with the right guild permissions to declare WAR on another guild. This would have to be approved by a certain amount of members from the declaring guild, and once approved(declared), the target guild could not be attacked for a set amount of time. (let's just say 24 hours) This would give the guild that is being targeted ample time to try to resolve the issue diplomatically, in which case the declaring guild can resend the declaration, and resume game play as normal. If the declaration is not satisfied to the declaring guilds satisfaction, a WAR would ensue.
1.) Any 2 guilds involved in a WAR, would have normal experience loss as it is now in open world PvP. Loses either incoming or outgoing would result in lost experience, ALL outgoing attacks would be bounty-able, and any bounty placed by a wartime guild would go to the WAR board. This would act just as the bounty board, but the only people allowed to accept these or hit on these would be members of the warring guilds (or allies, to be discussed). Experience loss would be the 5 levels of max bounties now, and like the bounty board idea in this thread, the time limit, would be the same on the WAR board.
2.) Any one guild can only be involved in "1" war at any given time. So if a guild is at war with another guild, a guild outside that war CAN NOT declare war against either one of those guilds. Guilds at war can bring in allies, but only on the occasion that the guild they are at war with can bring in the same amount of allies. So, if guild A wants to bring in guild A-1, guild B can bring in guild B-1 and so forth.
3.) Guild wars are won only by the submission of one of the major guilds involved in the war. Allies can not submit to end a war, only the declaring or declared guilds may submit to end a guild war. Once submitted, the guilds involved can not have any DIRECT interaction, accept through guild diplomats which would be made a guild permission. Essentially, those 2 guilds would go on "cool down" similar to titans for guilds who secure a titan.
B.) End of war, as i don't really know what to call it at this time, would ensue. During the "cool down" after a guild war, only diplomats would be able to speak between guilds. This would limit the amount of trash talking between players that tends to happen these days, and would also allow those deemed to be level headed to work out issues between guilds. A guild would have to lose an "X" amount of experience (combined) before a submission and End of war could ensue, this would keep guilds from just submitting to ensure they didn't lose any experience during the exchange. The lost experience would count as a deficit the same as a leaving player would so that experience would have to be made back before the guilds could progress on the guild experience ladder.
IV. PvP ladder - The focus of SOOOOO many complaints, grievances, gripes, BITCHING. This is my take on the whole idea (again with ideas from many different players in the game, not only my own).
A.) Bounties between 2 ladder contenders should be null and void. The ladder was meant as a place where 2 players could pit their skills against each other, not where guilds could BULLY other players into quitting the ladder. Ladder bounties need to disappear first and foremost, before any of the soon to be proposed changes occur.
B.) PvP token rewards were a great addition to the game. The gear you can make is premium in most level ranges, but it has become over-saturated at most levels. The introduction of NEW sets at each LADDER range needs to be implemented. These sets do not need to trump existing sets, just merely create some balance in the ranges. The introduction of sets that offer varied stats in each range would be a start. For example, the 25-49 ladder range is completely dominated by INVENTABLE gear for armor set-ups. (Sir Gwan's, Odhar's) The addition of defense based gear in this range would balance the gear out in my opinion(as with all the current ladder ranges). Each ladder range should have its own specific sets that are inventable in both armor AND defense minded stats. This would add variety to each of the separate ladder ranges. Now to discuss a BIG addition that most EVERYONE has been asking for......
1.) Potions, bought with PvP ladder tokens. These have been a long time in coming to be honest. What do you do with PvP ladder tokens once the gear you can invent is almost WORTHLESS? (meaning it doesn't even begin to earn you near what you had to invest to get it)..... You make POTIONS with those tokens. Now a lot of people want them to be bound, and I myself wanted them to be bound at first. BUT, I have sat back and looked at this game as a non-playing member of the society. Non-bound leveling potions, between donation potions and the highest non-donation potions in the game would be money MAKERS! Librarian 300 potions, Adept Learner 400 potions and so on would earn massive amounts of income. (for both the player, and HCS!) PvP players would fight their BUMS off to be able to invent a Librarian 300 that they could sell to a leveler. Levelers would spend FSP to buy them, PvP players would spend FSP to earn the right to invent them, meaning that FSP would become a HOT item. This would most likely bolster the sales of FSP during even non-special offer times.
Ok, this is all I have the strength to offer right now. This thread is open to ADDITIONS that will HELP it. It is not open to FLAMING, so if you have some sort of constructive feedback by all means leave it. If not then read and pass on by. COWS i would really like some kind of recognition on this thread from you! Pleasant reading everyone!
