The introduction of the Relic System was, IMO, a great incentive for PVP. From it's inception it has produced an amazing amount of high lvl PVP. Therein lies the problem. It's basically for only a few at times, and new players are virtually excluded. This will become clearer further on.
The best PVP encounters that I've been involved in were, of course, raiding and defending relics. The others were DM sponsored events. This is where you'll get some of the most fair and balanced PVP you can get. The random PVP encounters that you'll get that were memorable and enjoyable are few. If you're like me you don't like engaging players who aren't prepared to be engaged. It can lead to hard feelings. The best PVP will end with no hard feelings.
As it stands the servers greatest incentive for good PVP (the Relics) is reserved almost exclusively for lvl 40's. It's gotten so that if players of one faction see too many players of another faction on they won't even play, or won't try to raid. There's a certain time during each day when the relics are 'up for grabs', and that's when you see alot of the raiding take place. The raiders are hoping to avoid any sort of engagement. The point is that alot of players have had more than their fair share of raiding and defending. They've been there, done that, and would prefer that their chances of success are assured before they engage in the task. The upshot is there's alot less Relic PVP taking place.
And what DM is going to show up and put on DM events on a daily basis? He'd have to be very creative to attract a crowd night after night and not get booed off the stage or fall off from exhaustion. It's too much work.
The Idea and Suggestion here is to create more incentives for good PVP at all times and at all levels.
9 new level restricted areas is my proposal. Let's call them Pits since the central area will be the scene of most of the fighting. 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-15, 16-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, and 35-40 areas. With each area being exactly like the previous one in layout.
Imagine an area with 6 doors. One for each faction. A door in the N, NE, SE, S, SW, and NW. If a factions door is the N then their ally faction will be in the S. If their faction door is the NW their allies will be SE. If their faction door is NE their allies will be SW. Behind each door is an area belonging to that faction exclusively, with NPC defenders. So that players will get xp for killing enemy faction players in those areas. This will give players that retreat some back up from PC's that might be trying to kill them. It will also give them a way out since this is where they'll enter, and exit, and bind, depending on their faction. On entering the central area NPC's will spawn in front of their factions door, and enemy NPC's will spawn in front of theirs, so that a faction vs faction NPC battle will take place (I like npc vs npc fights
). This will give a player entering solo a chance to have some backup.The 1-4 area should set the stage for things to come. This could be a big attraction for new players if some new items were available that would be useless at later stages but extremely useful in the early going. I'll give some suggestions for low level items later. The NPC fights can produce some real eye candy by way of spectacular fights from the start. Since we're talking about a 1-4 area the median cr would 2 and 3. There could be a cr 5 boss in every faction area with a box along the lines of the relic cradle whereby if the defenders are defeated the box can be 'tapped' and a server shout declaring the defenders of that area had been defeated. When 'the box' is defeated the contents are up for grabs. Some gear for the next gear upgrade would be nice. Pretty good incentives for PVP early on. At least 4 different bosses in each Pit that you can fight without losing faction. 6 if you're willing to lose faction. A selection of NPC's representing some of the starting classes available in each faction would be awesome.
The same cast of characters would show up again in the 5-8 Pit only higher lvl and perhaps beginning to show some cross classes. "Each house repeats a mold.", so to speak. As the areas get higher in lvl we'd be seeing some truly spectacular fights.
An option to be transported to Avendell upon creation, after the players have chosen their faction, should available for this. Since it's kind of logical for these areas to be placed there. This will also give new players from different factions who are separated by long distances a chance to get together with other very low lvl players and get a party going.
Ok, that was a rough sketch of just one idea to give players fresh incentives for PVP. I hope other players can add to it or improve upon it.
To sum up I'd like to repeat and suggest a few points and then suggest a few goodies for the new players.
A few points:
1. A way to hook and hold new players is essential.
2. That new players have no problems getting a party/and/or PVP from the start would be a good way to hold onto players.
3. That they feel they're getting some interesting gear from the start helps set the hook.
4. Eye candy, eye candy, eye candy. This would include spectacular NPC/and/or PC fights, and cooler looking gear from the get go.
5. Ear candy* For this see gear suggestion #4 below.
Some suggestions for new low lvl gear:
1. Lvl 1 requirement weapons with damage type appearances. This could be weapons with anywhere from 1 point of elemental damage on top of the existing damage or have the damage type changed from 1d4 slashing/piercing/or bludgeoning to 1d4 random elemental damage. As far as I know there are no weapons of this type for players from lvl 1-4.
2. Lvl 5 requirement weapons with damage type appearances.This could be anywhere from 1 point of 3 different types of elemental damage on top of the existing damage or have the damage type changed from 1d6 slashing/piercing/or bludgeoning to 1d6 elemental damage.
3. Some low lvl belts and helmets that have various resistances and/or immunities to the different types of slashing/piercing/bludgeoning physical damage. So that players can get some resistance to all 3 types of damage. This would help players who don't use a shield.
4. A line of low lvl Tasha's Hideous Laughter ammo. Useless at higher lvls but hilarious at low lvls. If it were available in occasional drops only at low lvls players would run out of it sooner or later. The server wouldn't have to deal with On Hit Cast Spell scripts firing off constantly. It would certainly make for some very entertaining fights. This is what was meant by 'Ear candy'. It would make fuller use of the existing emotes being used by NPC and PC's.
I really don't know how feasible all the above is. I just want to throw this subject out there and kick it around a bit.
) played with any of those older villians, I didn't learn their type of ettiquette. I learned on this server to kill everything I see (even blue, many times). But I also learned that drawing mobs to kill people causes a lot of hassle. Attacking others while they are engaged with mobs and *not* getting the kill results in a lot of hassle. Unfortunately, there are a lot of whiney girls out there that like to call foul and lie about what they think the rules *should* be. The big difference (from what I can know) is that the MASL villians of today are a tad more respectful with regards to the time, place, and action for PvP. Meaning we WILL still kill you. We just might wait for you to finish of that group of mobs, let you rest, buff, then kill you. That way you can't whine about any of it. It's not about griefing, its abouting beating another player.
SyNners took a break and FoN has been guilted into being nice.
