Ever since I got into MMORPGs with DAOC, I've always felt like they almost hit on a really great PvP design. I say almost because, while the core PvP design was revolutionary, (IMO, of course) I still think it was fairly shallow and too restricting.
Before I get into that though, I'll briefly explain the basics of DAOC's PvP system for anyone who may not be familiar with it. In DAOC, there were three realms, separated by physical barriers and "connected" by frontiers, with HEAVILY guarded realm gates. There was no PvP inside of the realms and the frontiers were full-on RvR. As far as I know, the only way anyone ever managed to get into an enemy realm was through gaps in the zone walls. This was considered an exploit.
So, what would I add or change?
Frontiers - I would add a few features to the frontiers to give them more depth and to give players more incentive to populate them.
1) Resources - Ideally, the frontiers would hold the most valuable crafting resources. Locating these resources and controlling them would be an important aspect of the game.
2) Structures - Players could build structures almost anyone in the frontiers, however, these structures would be vulerable to attack. To counter this, guilds/players could purchase a very significant amount of defense for their structure, such as more durable materials, NPC guards, and possibly spawn points.
Realms - This is where I would make the biggest changes.
1) PvP Raids - It would be possible, though difficult, to raid the enemies realm. All that would be required is a force big enough to fight their way through the realm gate with it's uber guards and defending players. Once inside an enemy realm, the raiding force would have free reign to slaughter and loot players and NPC's as long as they can stay alive. I might even suggest moving the relics into the capitol of the realm that's currently in possession of them. Of course, the big challenge would be to make sure that this is not a "common" occurance. It should be extremely difficult to bust into an enemy realm and once inside, the realm gate guards should respawn at twice their original numbers (or something along those lines) and should stay this way for a pre-determined amount of time. In addition, there would be no respawning in an enemy realm and resurections might be restriced.
2) Guild vs. Guild - I know this is an RvR design, but I would also add the ability for guilds (of the same realm) to declare war on each other. Members of enemy guilds would be attackable anytime, any where. Although, NPC guards would aggro and join in if there is fighting near them. Not sure if there should be any rewards or incentives for this, other than settling a dispute or possible RP purposes.
Of course, there are many other changes I would make (such as removing the level grind, changing to skill based, and focusing more on a player driven economy) but this is what I would love to see, as far as PvP design.
User Comments
1 of their main flaw was that they couldn't appeal to PvE players. They are "trying" in WAR...
Trying to make PvE players involves in PvP...I don't think it will work, but eh...*cross fingers*
One can tick through a LOT of things Mythic should have/ could done.One of the most devistating rule changes they made was to allow 'cross realming" This allows players to play on the same server but play any realm character they have with a five minute delay.This completly destroyed a pillar of the games structure FACTION vs FACTION warfare.Players choose the strongest/winning faction and play that character.All sence of "realm" vs "realm" has destroyed.
Arawon, I find your comment interesting, because it is completely missing the PvE focus.
See, a PvE player doesn't necessarily want to play on the other faction, I want to play WITH the other faction. Cutting half the grouping options from the start, for some stuff I don't care about...
Now now, there would be many way to handle that. Maybe a 3rd faction has no PvP zones but can group everyone (maybe not in the same group, or maybe in some zones), maybe...maybe...maybe. But removing me half my grouping options right away, for some RvR concept which I don't care about? Not going to make me want to try or enjoy this RvR or even the game.
Anofalye, PvE was pretty awful. Extremely boring, grindy, and repetitive. No doubt, you could do a lot to improve that experience. I wouldnt go with any kind of cross realm grouping though, as that would really ruin the whole RvR feel. However, if the game was skill based, rather than class/level based, the world would be far less segmented and you should have many more grouping options.
Arawon, yea you could list many problems with the game. All I'm really focusing on is the PvP system. As I said, I think it was almost a great design. I just wish some one would rip off the idea and make some adjustments...
I think the best idea would have been to submit this idea years ago, back when people played DAoC.
DAoC pvp failed for three reasons.
One they could not manage to balance the classes, then every new expansion added more unbalanced classes. Far too many of the various character builds are useless in pvp, hence favoring the fotm builds that became prevalent.
Crowd control spells were far far too powerful without effective counters. Nothing more frustrating being frozen in a fight and dying without being able to do anything. Just a horrible design decision.
Lastly is just my personal opinion, stealth was far too powerful again without effective counters.
I think the game would have survived with the weak pve if they had made the pvp portion less frustrating.
To Anofalye: They had a Co-Op server where all 3 realms worked together. Funny thing is, it was barely ever populated.
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