PDA

View Full Version : New Server Concept - PVE/P


Old_PVP
11-04-2022, 08:02 PM
New Server Concept - PVE/P


Gather round fellow adventurers and pull up a chair. We currently have 3 servers on Project99, some with different rulesets. Surely there must be 1 ruleset to rule them all? One server where different playstyles can coexist in the same environment. Now hear me out...it could be possible.

One thing is for certain, PVP needs some love. However, the MOST important thing to a PVP server is numbers. Healthy server population numbers to be exact. But how you ask? NOBODY likes murdering others in EverQuest, surely!! But that isn't exactly the case now is it? I am continually perplexed when I see so many blues & greens get excited over Best of the Best tournaments. This was also the case in EQ live days...bluebie servers were loving the chance to kill their fellows in The Arena. You Blue & Green players do have an inner killer waiting to be unleashed... you just need the proper motivation. So, Red players actually need you Blue & Green players in order to create a healthy population. To create that PK / Anti-PK dynamic which worked so well on Rallos Zek. How do we get players that don't like PVP into PVP situations? I'm glad you asked! PIXELS baby!

Ok, hold on to your pants and picture this. Disable Legacy items from dropping off their traditional mobs, forever...thus disabling the legacy rat race. Instead, give Legacy items, Pre-nerfed items, items that no longer drop & even some raid items as rewards for PVP tournaments/events. Even rewards like firepot binding.

LEGACY ITEMS / EVENTS - Host PVP events regularly, they don't have to be huge, even small events will yield some lesser rewards. There can be many forms of PVP events. Best of the Best per class, group matches, guild matches stretching across a designated zone. The events don't always have to take place in The Arena either, the staff could "turn on" the PVP for a certain zone and hold an all out bloodbath event with great rewards. The idea is planned PVP would always be happening and players that want to participate can be richly rewarded. Those that don't want to participate can go on their merry way. Legacy items would never "stop dropping" or ever become a fixed & ever dwindling amount, as new items would be rewarded over time, via events. Some of these items would still be purchaseable for insane amounts of platinum if people ever wanted to sell them.

BUT WAIT...There's more! Before all this talk of PVP scares you blues off...let's be clear: this server would be primarily PVE. In fact, most of the zones would be your traditional PVE zones. Some zones however, would be FFA (free for all) PVP. These zones would not be necessary connecting zones or banking zones and could be avoided entirely if one chooses! However, with risk comes great rewards...

HOT ZONES - For the brave adventurers that chose to level in these handful of FFA zones (most likely some dungeons) - the ZEM bonus would be insane, similar if not better to Red's current group exp bonus (290%) - staff discretion to increase that to attract even more people. Also the drops would be greatly increased in terms of raw plat / gems. These specially designated zones could even be on a rotating schedule much like hot zones back on live. This accomplishes a few things: It gives life to an underutilized corner of the world by incentivizing people with huge ZEM bonus / loot. It helps to keep world PVP relevant and satiate the random PKer's desire for bloodlust and grief. It keeps the world interesting and always changing by regularly revolving the massive ZEM bonus zones. Now, there does need to be incentive for the PKs to show up to these zones and actually attempt to kill people, or they might just group up and join in on the riches! That incentive is COIN. If you die, (remember there are only a handful of zones this can happen in) you will lose the coins that you are carrying. Risk vs. Reward. On the flip side, you can attempt to kill the PK and steal his coins! If that is not your cup of tea though, you can always choose to level at a more leisurely pace (without the massive ZEM bonus) in the PVE zones.

RAIDING - At least 1 of the high end raid zones needs to be FFA to encourage high end guild warfare. We could possibly even utilize the "Guild War" command to allow guilds that want more PVP to have that option. Other raid zones could still be PVE, utilizing some player agreed upon rotation schedule. However, to incentivize guilds into resolving their disputes through bloodshed, the staff could make it so that guilds that are currently at war with 3 or more other guilds, (certain parameters would need to be in place to avoid exploitation) would have a higher frequency on rotation schedules. Once again, Risk vs. Reward...the concept that is foundational to many great games. A guild that chooses to live a little riskier and be at war with multiple targets could potentially reap the benefits.

Most of you people want PVP, you just want it on your terms. When you feel like it, when you are buffed & prepared, and most of all just for the fun of it. On this server, you can avoid PVP entirely if you don't want it at all! You can craft, tunnelquest, level with friends and PVP be damned! Hot FFA zones will eventually rotate, and turn back into PVE zones, so you won't forever be shut out from your favorite dungeon. For those that want their chance at Legacy items, they can join in on fun tournaments & events. PKers can still get their fix by hunting players or groups that dare to venture into the super profitable zones, or if nobody enters, they can profit off those zones themselves! Guild warfare and politics could become the norm in the high end scene, with players governing themselves... which would help free up staff to run more & more cool events. (and not just PVP events)


I am curious to hear the Green & Blue community's thoughts on this proposal. Would this be something that anyone is interested in?

Tunabros
11-04-2022, 09:41 PM
sounds cringe

Ripqozko
11-04-2022, 10:16 PM
Pvp sucks, hope that helps.

Toxigen
11-05-2022, 07:06 AM
no

Old_PVP
11-06-2022, 12:25 PM
Well at least the usual forum toxics responded. What about the rest of you bluebie nerds? Ask yourself, would a tiny bit of PVP really be that bad?

TL: DR crowd. (understandable) - Primarily PVE server. End to Legacy camps / Lists. More events - legacy earned from events. Normal hot zones & super HOT zones (rotating). Super HOT zones are FFA pvp. Guild war command for raid scene. Totally optional PVP. Huge population all under 1 roof, 1 server, 1 ruleset.



@Toxigen - I know you aren't totally adverse to PVP, so care to elaborate your stance? Is there anything you would change about this server to make it better? You seem to like the the idea of PVP in list areas...

just FFA no CSR /pvp flagged once you're in the vicinity of any legacy item drop location

let it rain blood


Also, some fun facts:


Official "Best of the Best" threads have been viewed ~500,000 times, across all servers, with the majority of them being on Blue server, showing that even bluebies enjoy occasional PVP.
Ripqozko has posted the phrase "hope that helps" 346 times and counting since 2018 - demonstrating his willingness to lend a helping hand in 1 out of 3 total posts. Keep being a swell guy Ripqozko!

Ripqozko
11-06-2022, 12:37 PM
I can't wait for your next post begging for pvp. Oh wait you just copy and pasted this one.

Old_PVP
11-06-2022, 12:41 PM
I can't wait for your next post begging for pvp. Oh wait you just copy and pasted this one.

No "hope that helps"? Come on Rip... you are better than that.

Gustoo
11-07-2022, 01:55 AM
As a pvp person I read the title and thought “sounds like pve trash”

But tonight I actually read it and it sounds like a server that would be better for all blue players and at least give interesting and dynamic people something worth doing in the game. So I’d heartily vote in favor of this hybrid setup. Sounds great and well conceived

Vexenu
11-08-2022, 06:18 PM
I think you need to offer Blue players something really compelling if you're going to get them on a PvP-enabled server in sizable numbers. There are some decent ideas presented here, but I don't think they are enough, even in sum, to generate much interest.

What would interest Blue players? A completely different system of raiding and acquiring loot than they've experienced (suffered, more accurately) on P1999 for the past decade. My idea, in brief:


Classic Firiona Vie server-style loot rules: EVERY item in the game is tradeable, including epics. NO-DROP does not exist on the server, period.
Raid mobs do not have spawn timers, they are spawned manually by turning in tokens to a placeholder mob. Tokens are acquired after being randomly dropped by mobs that grant XP to the person who killed them.
PvP is teams-based, with no level range.


The second item on the list needs more clarification, but would essentially work like this: let's say your guild wants to kill Lady Vox. In order to spawn her, you have to hand her placeholder mob a "Greater Token of Lady Vox". This token could be dropped randomly itself, probably very rarely, or more commonly it could be crafted by combining ten "Tokens of Lady Vox", which themselves could be dropped, or more commonly crafted by combining ten "Lesser Tokens of Lady Vox". The less powerful tokens would drop more frequently and from lower level mobs.

The important thing here is that tokens have a chance of dropping ONLY from mobs that grant XP, meaning a high level player cannot AOE a low level zone to farm tokens. Rather, he would be better off helping a lower level group of players in exchange for any tokens they discover. This does several things:

1) Encourages teams to work together, and for high level players to provide protection and assistance to their lower level teammates
2) Completely changes the dynamic of what "raiding" is on the server
3) Ensures that content from all level ranges is actively used
4) Provides serious players incentive to gear up level-locked twinks to better farm low-level content for tokens

With this ruleset, teams end up naturally and constantly fighting for zone control all over Norrath and at every level range, in order to maximize their access to raid tokens. There's no need for item loot to incentivize PvP. This just scares away Bluebies. The draw of this server is that it presents Bluebies an intriguing new way to acquire raid gear without participating in the toxic Blue/Green raid scene, and that FV-style loot without NO-DROP items opens up all sorts of interesting new possibilities that P1999 has not yet explored.

In short, this server would be very intriguing to both Blue and Red players, which is exactly what you want to ensure a high population.

mirabilis
11-11-2022, 02:49 PM
I want two systems, side by side. Go PVP on blue, and start a new guild with me. Before long, there will be enough alts from the coward guilds that join us, and then we can organically grow as many events as we want.

Skarne
11-11-2022, 03:24 PM
I like the idea