World PVP Viability

[Hotbox]

Let’s face it, in most MMO’s the development staff doesn’t like or encourage world pvp because it has the potential to damage subscriptions due to farming or grieving. Therefore it’s natural for them to put it on a low priority.

 

However, anyone that has been to Ilum, or plays on a PVP server in particular, knows that PVP has become boring and of limited entertainment value. A few minor changes could make a significant difference though on PVP servers, and of some value even on a PVE server.

 

Currently there is no value to world PVP other than ganking. Ilum is merely a valor farm as players huddle around turrets at the bases depending on what faction is dominant on the server. Here’s what I would do.

 

1. World PVP kills should drop Mercenary commendations or PVP loot on a random basis just as it does on NPC’s – on an extremely rare basis. As now with NPC’s every now and then you get a planetary commendation. Why not make PVP kills drop a merc commendation at a slightly lower rate. With such a low rate, farming would not be viable, and it certainly would be no worse than what is going on in Ilum on a daily basis. Also, it would work like Ilum; kill a player a few times during a period of hours, no valor or loot.

 

2. Turrets in Ilum still would instant kill, but would not generate any Valor for anyone that gets a hit in. This would discourage turtling under the cover of the turrets. The same could also apply to world PVP guards—if you tap a player and then the NPC kills or damages the player tapped no valor or commendations would be generated , thus discouraging ‘training’ of town NPC’s

 

3. Elimination of Expertise in stats would also help. There should be no separation of gear based on a player’s route to success. Although you could make differences both in style and stats in gear, a player that raids constantly should not be at a disadvantage to a player that VP’s constantly and a PVP player should not be excluded from raids simply because they chose to PVP to gear up. Thus, a player could choose what route to take to gear their toon up and open up more possibilities for all players to be competitive in either aspect of the game.

 

4. World PVP bosses might be fun. You could add a ‘factional’ boss to a world that would auto flag anyone that attacks it. This opens up significant RP possibilities as well as players might defend a world boss looking for some PVP action, or they might try and ‘save’ the factional boss through healing it (which also would auto flag). Placing this boss inside well defended towns would also discourage camping.

 

5. Factional vendors that would offer factional looking gear, such as imperial trooper armor or trench coats in exchange for Merc commendations. These would be orange customizable items too, so they could be used in endgame.

 

I think these changes would not be too difficult to program and would encourage more players to get off the fleet barge and out into the world with more interaction, particularly on a PVP server. It would also discourage farming and grieving since the goal would encourage PVP without the likelihood of camping.

[Hotbox]

I think I hear crickets.