easy_lee
01-13-2016, 07:09 PM
I believe the pvp server is too small to support the Velious expansion. Furthermore, I believe it was too small to adequately support Kunark. There are other reasons why I believe the original, vanilla EQ had the best PvP on p1999.
PvP Premises
1) For PvP to happen, people have to be in the same area at the same time. This isn't a kiddie game like WoW where people can just join battlegrounds. PvP in EQ is over individual mobs, camps, and zones. Every zone added, especially the huge zones of Velious, spreads players out and makes PvP less common. Our population is too small for Velious PvP.
2) For PvP to happen, players need to be close in level. During the classic timeline, where there were only 50 levels, this was much more often the case than it is now. Starting with Kunark, finding PvP at certain level ranges was difficult. Level 60 characters had nothing to do much of the time. This continues to be the case.
3) The gear barrier to entry for PvP has grown with every expansion. Kunark brought us Fungi Tunics, epics, and ridiculous weapons that made PvP without those things near impossible and brought on hoards of twinks. Velious is making this worse. Powerful gear also decreases the effectiveness of casters due to casters having no gear to increase spell damage or decrease target resistances. We saw this during Kunark, with resists making many casters useless. Many changes to the resist code were made to address this, but none were successful.
4) The larger zones make it difficult to plug, which is good, but Velious is really a PvE expansion. A significant chunk of the player base only logs in to zerg raids and then quit. The widening gear discrepancies and decreased effectiveness of casters as a result makes it even more difficult for a smaller raid to contest mobs than it was in Kunark.
In short, the current game world is too big for the server population. The ten extra levels since classic have made it difficult to find players to PvP with who are of your own level range. Stronger Velious and Kunark gear have made many casters ineffective and have made it difficult to contest zerg raids with a smaller force. People are running around getting pixels rather than engaging in PvP.
I could discuss teams, too, but it's been done to death. In short, having teams not only helps discourage zergs, but also prevents players from grouping and then stabbing each other in the back. Thus, it would help our community.
As others have said, we have always had a team server in effect; the zerg team vs everyone else. That might still happen with a teams server, with one team having a majority. But at least players would know what they were getting into, could form sub-communities based on team, and could not just switch teams on the same character. And a classic timeline would enable those smaller teams to still compete.
A classic-only teams server would be much better for PvP and server community than what we have now. This wouldn't need to affect the blue server, which has always been about progression. Thus, development efforts in Kunark and Velious wouldn't be wasted.
PvP Premises
1) For PvP to happen, people have to be in the same area at the same time. This isn't a kiddie game like WoW where people can just join battlegrounds. PvP in EQ is over individual mobs, camps, and zones. Every zone added, especially the huge zones of Velious, spreads players out and makes PvP less common. Our population is too small for Velious PvP.
2) For PvP to happen, players need to be close in level. During the classic timeline, where there were only 50 levels, this was much more often the case than it is now. Starting with Kunark, finding PvP at certain level ranges was difficult. Level 60 characters had nothing to do much of the time. This continues to be the case.
3) The gear barrier to entry for PvP has grown with every expansion. Kunark brought us Fungi Tunics, epics, and ridiculous weapons that made PvP without those things near impossible and brought on hoards of twinks. Velious is making this worse. Powerful gear also decreases the effectiveness of casters due to casters having no gear to increase spell damage or decrease target resistances. We saw this during Kunark, with resists making many casters useless. Many changes to the resist code were made to address this, but none were successful.
4) The larger zones make it difficult to plug, which is good, but Velious is really a PvE expansion. A significant chunk of the player base only logs in to zerg raids and then quit. The widening gear discrepancies and decreased effectiveness of casters as a result makes it even more difficult for a smaller raid to contest mobs than it was in Kunark.
In short, the current game world is too big for the server population. The ten extra levels since classic have made it difficult to find players to PvP with who are of your own level range. Stronger Velious and Kunark gear have made many casters ineffective and have made it difficult to contest zerg raids with a smaller force. People are running around getting pixels rather than engaging in PvP.
I could discuss teams, too, but it's been done to death. In short, having teams not only helps discourage zergs, but also prevents players from grouping and then stabbing each other in the back. Thus, it would help our community.
As others have said, we have always had a team server in effect; the zerg team vs everyone else. That might still happen with a teams server, with one team having a majority. But at least players would know what they were getting into, could form sub-communities based on team, and could not just switch teams on the same character. And a classic timeline would enable those smaller teams to still compete.
A classic-only teams server would be much better for PvP and server community than what we have now. This wouldn't need to affect the blue server, which has always been about progression. Thus, development efforts in Kunark and Velious wouldn't be wasted.