06-11-2004, 02:48 AM
Interesting idea that they have. I have the same reservations as you, but I can see how this could work out, depending on several factors:
1. What's the respawn rate on quest-giving NPC's and vendors?
2. Are quest-giving NPC's and vendors going to get a level boost and/or get boosted to "elite" status?
3. What are the levels of town guards who might respond to an attack on a vendor or quest-giver?
4. Will everyone in the entire faction receive the system message indicating that a spcific town is under attack no matter where they are?
I'm purely speculating here, but I think that Blizzard is imagining this situation for the one you mentioned: You, an evil lvl 60 horde mage enters Goldshire and start destroying vendors and quest-givers, while mocking all the newbies who can't do anything to stop you. Meanwhile, a system message gets sent to all Alliance players that Goldshire is under attack. A small posse of Alliance players stream out of Stormwind (on mounts) to come to Goldshire's rescue. Outnumbered, you run out of mana and die. The posse now turns the tables on the griefer by guarding your corpse *and* the cemetary where you'd respawn at if you decided to take the exp hit. Bored after failing to retrieve your corpse too many times, you log off for a while, hoping that eventually the guard gets let down. Meanwhile, after five minutes, all of the vendors and quest-giving NPC's will have respawned and life returns to normal in Goldshire.
What's more, I imagine that whole guilds will spring up with their first duty being to defend faction towns. They could set up scouts in certain towns, and when a town get attacked, the scout can determine how big the invasion is. If it's just a lone mid-level guy that the scout can handle himself, he can send a message to the posse channel that he has everything under control. If he needs more fire-power, however, he can send a message, saying, that he could use a posse, and whoever has volunteered to protect that village can instantly hearthstone back to that village and clear the invasion. However, if the invasion turns out to be a massive raid, then the scout can call all availalable faction members to help.
All-in-all, I think this can work. Can griefing occur? Sure. But no more than, say, Helcular's Revenge. And, the newbies being griefed won't be dying themselves. They'd just have to wait for a respawn to get what they need -- or go to Stormwind or something if the respawn is taking too long. I think this could actually be fun. It certainly would give high level characters something interesting and fun to do.
Yes, yes, there will likely be found a hundred ways that will be found to abuse and grief with this system. But I think with the right tweeking, it could be a fun element added to the game.
1. What's the respawn rate on quest-giving NPC's and vendors?
2. Are quest-giving NPC's and vendors going to get a level boost and/or get boosted to "elite" status?
3. What are the levels of town guards who might respond to an attack on a vendor or quest-giver?
4. Will everyone in the entire faction receive the system message indicating that a spcific town is under attack no matter where they are?
I'm purely speculating here, but I think that Blizzard is imagining this situation for the one you mentioned: You, an evil lvl 60 horde mage enters Goldshire and start destroying vendors and quest-givers, while mocking all the newbies who can't do anything to stop you. Meanwhile, a system message gets sent to all Alliance players that Goldshire is under attack. A small posse of Alliance players stream out of Stormwind (on mounts) to come to Goldshire's rescue. Outnumbered, you run out of mana and die. The posse now turns the tables on the griefer by guarding your corpse *and* the cemetary where you'd respawn at if you decided to take the exp hit. Bored after failing to retrieve your corpse too many times, you log off for a while, hoping that eventually the guard gets let down. Meanwhile, after five minutes, all of the vendors and quest-giving NPC's will have respawned and life returns to normal in Goldshire.
What's more, I imagine that whole guilds will spring up with their first duty being to defend faction towns. They could set up scouts in certain towns, and when a town get attacked, the scout can determine how big the invasion is. If it's just a lone mid-level guy that the scout can handle himself, he can send a message to the posse channel that he has everything under control. If he needs more fire-power, however, he can send a message, saying, that he could use a posse, and whoever has volunteered to protect that village can instantly hearthstone back to that village and clear the invasion. However, if the invasion turns out to be a massive raid, then the scout can call all availalable faction members to help.
All-in-all, I think this can work. Can griefing occur? Sure. But no more than, say, Helcular's Revenge. And, the newbies being griefed won't be dying themselves. They'd just have to wait for a respawn to get what they need -- or go to Stormwind or something if the respawn is taking too long. I think this could actually be fun. It certainly would give high level characters something interesting and fun to do.
Yes, yes, there will likely be found a hundred ways that will be found to abuse and grief with this system. But I think with the right tweeking, it could be a fun element added to the game.