Akahai said:As few servers as possible!, I loved the way SWG did it pvp/pve enabled by using the TEF flag. And how RPG/PVE/PVP all exisited on the same servers, thats what made the community for me, players had to police things themselves, it was not perfect but it brought folks togther. And was most fun i ever had in an MMO.
This is how we have said we will be handling it too, we don't want to divide our community with hundreds of ruleset servers with hardly anyone on each of them, we want servers to be bustling and social places where people remember your name and your actions, who makes the best swords, who gives out free buffs etc. So we want to find that perfect balance between server performance and population cap/overcrowding and testing is where we will be calling on everyone to help with that and how the server feels and handles. :)
We don't mind having a few different rulesets but there won't be anything crazy to start with and we certainly won't be making one just for a handful of people, there will need to be evidence that shows a decent percentage of the community wants it before we seriously consider adding it.
Polls can produce wildly skewed results for a variety of reasons but as you get closer to release you might consider a poll here asking for opinions on some of the types of servers you are considering. Maybe several polls - one limited to pvp ruleset for example. I emphasize that results should be very much for your internal consideration only and you might not even let us know the results. If you know what you want no need for this - only if you feel that input will be helpful.
As a marketing device (but also for input) you might conduct a poll of non-forum members on whatever outside sites or by whatever means you can get access to for this purpose. Perhaps during public beta, if there will be a public beta. To spread awareness of the game not too far before release as well as to see what the general public has to say, keeping in mind that any public poll is quite subject to manipulation.
Free for all PvP: Rallos Zek ruleset
You can attack any player that is - 4 levels or + 4 levels from your own level, all coin loot and 1-item (non-weapon) loot from a player kill, GM intervention for severe exploitation and hacking, NO play nice policy and NO exp loss from player kills.
Luclin, PoP and Stormhammer infringed the NO PvP safe zones, NO renames, and NO transferring to FFA.
I’m a Rallos Zek hardcore that considers team based PvP tame with safe haven expectations. PvP grew out of whack by Luclin and PoP. SOE abandoned PvP adjustment and PvE bugs. By GoD, with WoW on the way, it was a no brainer for every hardcore PvPer to jump ship. That caused the 4 PvP servers to merge into Zek, which kept the Rallos Zek ruleset. SOE/Daybreak let the hackers run rampant, never reworked spell resists, and never reworked tradeable/craftable itemization to support the 1-item loot.
Item/coin loot seems unnecessary to me. I'd rather see EQ2's model where PvP kills/deaths involve the win/loss of titles. Having to constantly worry about gear seems like it would prevent a lot of fights that people would otherwise take due to the unnecessarily high risk.
You either have gear that is trivial to replace (tons of crafted or other gear sitting around to replace what you lose), or gear that is extremely hard to replace (discourages PvP fights unless the odds are ridiculously stacked in your favor). It doesn't seem worthit to me.
The blow to your pride and general competitive nature of PvP has always been enough of a driving force to me without elements of coin/gear loss. I think most people feel this way, honestly. Just my two cents.
Lets keep it simple and as few as servers as possible not needs for all these different types of servers and spliting us up over tiny differences of a server, we need to stick together and make a great community not have 3 different types or pve/pvp servers and make the world feel all kinds of empty and nothing happening.
Riahuf22 said:Lets keep it simple and as few as servers as possible not needs for all these different types of servers and spliting us up over tiny differences of a server, we need to stick together and make a great community not have 3 different types or pve/pvp servers and make the world feel all kinds of empty and nothing happening.
Pantheon will likely launch with at least 4, and as many as 10+ if the population demands it. Having alternative rulesets isn't going to splinter the playerbase that much.
Liav said:Riahuf22 said:Lets keep it simple and as few as servers as possible not needs for all these different types of servers and spliting us up over tiny differences of a server, we need to stick together and make a great community not have 3 different types or pve/pvp servers and make the world feel all kinds of empty and nothing happening.
Pantheon will likely launch with at least 4, and as many as 10+ if the population demands it. Having alternative rulesets isn't going to splinter the playerbase that much.
Right im fine with the the increase of servers for as long the server remains life like, but the different types of servers was what i was against.
I would like to see a PVE with (I don't know how you would call it?) "RP enforced" and by that I don't mean you must say "thee" and "thow", what I DO mean is your not in General Chat talking about the anti depression meds your Doc prescribed you or who is going to win the Super Bowl... take that to PM's. If they can't enforce that on a normal PVE then one they can enforce it on.
And then a full open world PVP. Kill anyone anyplace anytime. Loot all there gold silver plat, one piece of gear or item from bags. Balance nothing, Let the server police itself. And see what civilization, goverment, ruling party evolved from it.
Zybane said:Before I could comment on what server types, we would have to know how many concurrent users each server can host. Also, the marketing statistics on how many players they anticipate.
They've already mentioned they don't have this info yet. It's one of the big things they will be discovering during the testing periods.
As far as players they anticipate, in sure they have a number based on pledges and forum access, but would not be at all accurate.
BamBam said: Nephretiti that would be a lot of fun add pvp to that and we have something explosive :)
I would like to claim this as my own idea - I really would - but the fact is that this actually happened in EQ. In that case it really was open world PvP - everyone vs. everyone. It was awesome. But I still don't like PvP : )
I think we should keep it simple. PvP and PvE. And even on PvE servers, there should be limited PvP via flagging/arenas. Full PvP servers are just a permanent flag.
The only reason I think we need this split is that there are lots of players who really thrive on the challenge and environment of a PvP community - and, there are just as many who really would not be comfortable playing in that environment as well. It's possibly the oldest divide in MMOs.
I'm not a fan of designating "roleplay" servers or any other similar behavior categories. The reason for that is that I feel that most community-minded players will gravitate to the roleplay server. Not only does that potentially flood the roleplay server with way too many people (crowding sucks), but it starves other servers for the folks that make their communities go. This isn't always the case but I see it happen this way more often than not from game to game.
I'd be willing to consider a 1-character "progeny" server as an experiment at some point, but not at launch - that's the kind of thing you do a year or two in when the game's population has stabilized and matured a bit, imo :)
Zorkon said:I would like to see a PVE with (I don't know how you would call it?) "RP enforced" and by that I don't mean you must say "thee" and "thow", what I DO mean is your not in General Chat talking about the anti depression meds your Doc prescribed you or who is going to win the Super Bowl... take that to PM's. If they can't enforce that on a normal PVE then one they can enforce it on.
And then a full open world PVP. Kill anyone anyplace anytime. Loot all there gold silver plat, one piece of gear or item from bags. Balance nothing, Let the server police itself. And see what civilization, goverment, ruling party evolved from it.
This is why I play on RP servers. I would turn off chat on regular servers when people would use them as a soap box to talk about real life politics and problems. I play fantasy games to escape that.
I would like a hardcore server like path of exile has. Meaning that if you die on that server, your character will automatically be transfered to the related softcore server. So people would not lose their character... but staying on that server until high level would be a major acomplishment.
Humperding said:I would like a hardcore server like path of exile has. Meaning that if you die on that server, your character will automatically be transfered to the related softcore server. So people would not lose their character... but staying on that server until high level would be a major acomplishment.
Cool concept, but could you imagine all the low risk camps that are perma camped and lack of desire to raid end game? everyone would learn on softcore servers then try their hand at hardcore..but never have it be capable of being cutting edge.
Also in response to the gender wars...LOL in game :D b/c 95% of all female toons are dudes at the helm, and I know some chicks who play male toons only to avoid the hassle or enjoy looking at male avatars vs females...
Liav, it probably seems unnecessary because you think players don’t want to subject themselves to that type of hardship when they do. I posted the FFA PvP ruleset I found meaningful back in 1999 – 2005.
Titles from killing players is a nice touch, but I wouldn’t envy them like I would for tournament winners. There are always ways to circumvent win/loss systems. VR could re-introduce new tourneys with new content instead of 1-time event exclusivity. I didn’t participate in the Wizard Best of the Best because of my lack of gear and 4 missing levels, but later on I won the priest/caster FFA on RZ. Its fairer to give new and old players more chances to win new titles, as the servers change and grow.
You can’t avoid PvP ganking if you don’t pay attention to your surroundings and if you are jumped you wear your gear or you die. You are more intent to fight tooth and nail if you know the circumstances. In FFA, players will hesitate to pick fights if they face serious server repercussions.
Players won’t fear PvP death if there is no chance of item loss, similar to the PvE death penalty. PvP death only halts the PvE progress of the defeated. Without 1-item loot there is less incentive to prevent zerg tactics. Faction PvP is essentially good vs evil zerg fests with coin loot. That perk suits the style.
FFA PvP is more personal and chaotic. There is a mutual respect to participate in the inevitable brutality because the server self-governs itself. Item loot in EQ distinguished the FFA ruleset from Faction PvP.
If I lose an item in PvP like jewel craft resist gear I replace those items and feed the economy. It’s not a big deal. Open world PvP players carry the same situational gear as PvE players. If you anticipate dying your extremely rare items get bagged first. An item swap GCD would intensify swapping.
Players will eventually consume the PvE content and fill all item slots with no drop raid and epic quest gear. There was usually 2 – 3 tradeable (worn) rare effect items that were swapped in during skirmishes. VR could keep this in mind when they are itemizing future content.
The truth is PvP players seek reputable reasons to be villains, heroes and anti-heroes in open world PvP. We want to gossip over the whole kit n caboodle. Personal vendettas that last years start with cutthroat thievery among other shenanigans. That was the whole point of item loot and the no play nice policy.
Vandraad said:Give me a server where I can pay a dramatically increased monthly subscription fee (3x would be good) and be guaranteed better customer service, lower server population, unique encounters and more GM events. I've got a lot of disposable income to burn on this game.
So what I'm hearing is that Vandraad wants pay to win... ;)
The more varient servers you have, the less dense the servers are. And then, I hope not for a long time, but there will be a consolidation and when consolidations happen is when peeps are not happy. I feel that less is more.
As far as a RP server(s), as mentioned upstream, RP servers tend to have a more mature player base. Eventhough I gravitate towards RP servers, I really do not rollplay and I do not meet many that do RP, they just tend to be a more mature population.