All Posts by Impulse47

First off, I would like to say thank you, MMORPG.com staff, for finally adding a column for PvP in the game list. I am glad that the community is evolving to better realize PvP's importance in games of this nature. However, I am not sure that this column is being used as effeciently as it could be.

What I would like to see is more options describing the nature of the PvP within the game. For example, Asheron's Call 1: Darktide and Guild Wars are both currently labeled as "Has PvP". However, the PvP in each game is significantly different - enough so to justify breaking it into different sub categories.

My suggestions would be  to expand the options for the PvP column to include:

- Open / unrestricted PvP (such as the chaos found in AC1:Darktide and Shadowbane)

- Organized / structured PvP which is an integral part of the game (such as Guild Wars, Planetside, and DAoC RVR)

- Organized / structured PvP which is more of an afterthought or option (not important)

- No PvP at all

I'm at work posting during my break so I havn't had a ton of time to develop my thoughts here, but you get the idea. The reason I post this is because I have spent the past 5 years searching for a game to replace my Darktide addiction (currently waiting patiently for Darkfall), and it would make things easier on me and others like myself to have the list a little more differentiated in this respect.

Thank you,

Impulse

Nevermind... Upon further inspection it appears this game is complete trash. Shame on Turbine... They got it so right with AC1.

My votes go towards:

Past: Asheron's Call - Darktide

Present: Guild Wars

Future: Darkfall

Anyone want to give a quick synopsis of the PVP in this game?

Owned, I think.

I think that a lot can be learned from the Asheron's Call 1: Darktide server.

For the first couple years of its existance (before housing), Darktide was completely open pvp. You had 5 minutes of invulnerability from other players every time you died, but after that was up, it was open season on your ass.

Yes, there were griefers, and there were plenty. Especially around the starting areas. It was EXTREMELY difficult to start on this server (in fact, it took me almost a year of frustrating, hardcore play before I was comfortable with my character), but if you had the balls of steel required to make it, you eventually had a hit list of names memorized that you would beat the living hell out of later. At least, that is my story.

The neat thing that happened on this server, however, was that since there was no built-in way to deter griefers, a large community of the players themselves formed an alliance of what was known as the anti-pks (antis, for short), whose pledge was to protect the low-levels until they could strengthen their characters. This created a debt of gratitude among those who would have otherwise had zero chance at even hitting level 2, in such an anarchistic world, and the antis found themselves with quite a bit of loyalty from those who they helped. This movement was pretty much the only reason I was able to start... since I joined the game 8 or so months late.

Of course, many people would choose the path of darkness after leveling up and be griefers themselves to the next generation, but that was necessary to keep the conflict fresh in the game.

The net effect was a magical political system that did not need to be hard-coded into the game at all. Good vs Bad had manifested itself out of necessesity, and the feeling of immersion that this created will never be replicated in any MMOG. This game was our lives. We bought and sold suits of armor on eBay for upwards of $5,000. We never slept. We had to protect our territory and keep the enemy from leveling in theirs. And most of all, the allies that you made in this game, you trusted with your life.

Something I should mention, however, is that the game mechanics of Asheron's Call are largely what made this possible. The game relyed heavily on character control and the player's movement capabilities. It was essentially possible for a level 10 to avoid death from a level 100 if he could use the terrain well enough. So, it therefore wasn't the total gank-fest that you might expect if you tried to impliment this system in a different, existing MMOG. I cannot even begin to explain how right the AC devs did the combat system in this game.

So, essentially, what I am saying is that it is possible to make pure open pvp work, but you need two conditions: The playerbase must take responsibility for grief control (and they almost always do... people love to be heroes just as much as they love to be villains), and also, the game needs to have a very gradual character progression curve, along with enough character control such that individual player skill plays the largest factor in a fight, although levels and items will of course give advantages.

I miss the good old days.

... for those of us who value PvP gameplay over graphics, sound, and the like. Every time a new MMOG comes out that is hyped to hell I always make the exact same post: 'How is the PvP?'. I am almost always dissapointed by the responses, although there have been exceptions such as Shadowbane, Planetside, and AC:Darktide. It would be nice to have a PvP forum in the general section so that people like me (and there are a lot) can have discussions about what the current best games are to fill our collective need for blood and grief.

Thank you.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Shadowbane yet. It's free now, FYI, and the pvp is quite fun.

http://chronicle.ubi.com/newspost.php?id=15088

It's almost 100% open PK though, and you lose your inventory when someone kills you, so it definately isn't for whiny carebears. Keep that in mind.

If anyone is thinking about starting, I reccomend starting on the server: Wrath.

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Originally posted by rschaefer_1
I read in the press releases from Arenanet that the way that WoW is updating their PvP is by allowing them access to the Guild Wars PvP Arenas.

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I mean, compared to Shadowbane and AC:Darktide... I dont want to hear from anyone who plays carebear pvp games such as DAoC, WoW, and the like. Thanks.

This thread is both the most amazing and sadly sickening thing I think I've ever read... I thought -I- was bad for playing AC for 2 hours a day back when I was 'addicted'... as far as I'm concerned there are no good MMORPGS out right now... so I've been stuck playing UT:2k4 in my free time (and it doesn't take up a lot of it) and all I can say is my life is 100% better now that I've started working out again, earned a girlfriend, and just in general spending time outside my dorm room. I honestly hope for my own sake that no other MMORPG gets released thats as good as Darktide once was... cause I don't know if I would be able to fight the dormant addiction that sleeps inside of me either.

But seriously, you guys arn't going to play this game your entire life, and all that's left over in the end is a feeling of emptyness and wasted time. Although, I will admit that there are a few memories of myself soloing 5 or 6 mages at once as a melee on DT that I wouldn't trade the world for... lol.

Whatever, take it or leave it, I'm out.

There's really nothing wrong with shoushi campers. They give new players something to hate, and, provided they arn't total wimps about it and quit, a reason to continue playing in order to someday best their antagonists. Believe me, nothing feels better than killing some guy who used to rape you over and over again when you were low leveled. Every newb griefer has their place... we just arn't looking for any.

A group of about 4 friends, including myself, are planning on starting new accounts once the new pvp server opens. We all used to play Darktide intensively back in the glory days (beta - 2 years ago) and quit due to RL strains/frustration with the way the game was headed. Seems lately like the game is shaping up, and with the new expansion on the way, we decided to give it another whirl... hopefully it can live up to the old memories it gave us back in the day.

Anyways, we will be called Shadows of the Past (dedicated lovingly to our favorite patch... also kinda fits our situation) and our doors are open to anyone in a similar situation as us. The monarchy will be honor PK, so those who like to camp shoushi west day in day out need not apply, we are looking for skilled, mature, and intelligent people only.

If interested in joining, send an e-mail to c.g@charter.net. No rush though... server wont be here till February at the soonest...

- Impulse

Here's some paraphrasing for you

Xira basically said:

Hi, I r a total newbie to mmorpgs and liek to kill monsters all day long so i can show off my ubar itams in town and other ppl will respect me and want to add me to friends list. PLZ DONT TAKE AWAY MY MOB KILLING! THEY ALL MUST DIE! I...... NEED THIS!

I'm sorry, but for a game to hold my interest long-term... it has to have meaningful pvp... simple as that. Any word on if this game will have pvp?

It would be great if it could go from where Shadowbane left off and let us raze other people's cities... huge guild wars etc. However, if it is just going to be a huge carebear populate the world fest, count me out.

100% Darktide veteran right here.

Played Darktide since beta... I still play a little bit but nothing like the days of old. The game is too overrun by 3rd party apps/macroers/xp chains for it to be really any fun for me. I'll get on and 'gank a few noobs lol' every now and again though =).

Turbine needs to open up a new pvp server.

- NO MACROS
- NO 3RD PARTY APPS
- NO XP CHAINS
- NO HOUSING (or if housing, no barriers)
- MAKE LEVELING TWICE AS FAST AS NORMAL

This would be the ultimate game ever created. Period. Unfortunately, I can only dream. =(

Anyone who doesn't like non-consentual pvp is a pussy. Simple as that.

IMO, the bugs and crappy coding/design do not make up for Shadowbane's decent pvp system. I detailed my resoning in my other thread.

And about Shadowbane:

Yes, there were a TON of confirmed dupe methods at launch. How else do you think that one guy (can't remember name) on the War server had over 20 eBay auctions for 100 million gold going at once at any given time (within the first month of release no less)? A lot of dupers made a lot of money off of Shadowbane by selling their goods to people like you who refuse to believe that there are actual dupe methods. Shadowbane was a good concept, but it was pretty easy to see that the developers were newbies. Framerate during large seiges was HORRID due to their crappy programming (like I said, who the hell codes a game in java?), and if you could play for an hour and not get a sb.exe error crash you were lucky.

I did have a lot of fun on my confessor (Inspiration of the Zealots = most overpowered skill in the game) for a little while though, until I realized all of this.

Before I quit, I had a level 50 skald on MLF, so it's not like I'm a total newbie to DAoC or the way that RVR works. You basically said whoever gets the mez first is the victor... okay, so instead of rock paper scissors, it's a coin toss. And don't try to say that casting that mez takes skill, because it doesn't. Therefore, as I stated above, DAoC PVP is carebear. I mean - the best level 50 thane could never dream of killing two other level 50 thanes (if that fight were possible), no matter how much he outskilled the other two, because DAoC is purely numerical. 50 + 50 > 50. Plus, the limitations on what each character can do basically make every single fight the same. On my skald for instance. Run around, see an enemy, cast snare, run up to him, switch to damage song, cast my two shouts, stun, wait for timer, cast my shouts again, then pound with my hammer and hope I can finish the deal. There is no other way to handle fights as a skald, and to illustrate my point about rock paper scissors a bit more: If I'm on my skald, will I be able to kill an armsman with this method? Probably not. Will I be able to kill an Elementalist? Hell yea. So instead of rock paper scissors, its something like skald armsman elementalist. (of course there are plenty more scenarios that you could think of than this).

In Asheron's Call: Darktide, it is a common sight to see one mage take on 2 or 3 other mages of similar level and kick their asses if he outskills them in the fight. This is how PVP should be, and DAoC is far from it.

God I wish they didn't screw over AC:DT... that was so much fun.