07-19-2004, 07:59 PM
Cryptic, the PvP system you propose is pretty close to the current PvE server. Certainly all of those things could be allowed on the PvE (adding party-based or guild based duels or even an arena would be trivial), most of them are already allowed, and several things you wouldn't allow are even allowed there. So I guess if we bother to have an FvF server, it has to be something way beyond this. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to play there.
Trying to implement a real faction war in this game has so many problems, I don't even know where to start. Perhaps the best starting point would be to ask "What is the goal of the faction war?" We have two opposing sides, so that is a better starting point than Diablo PvP. Are we trying to defend our citizens from enemy raiders? Trying to conquer enemy towns? Trying to take over the enemy capitols and literally win the war? You can't actually do any of it. You can only kill enemy PCs thereby delaying them for the time it takes to retrieve their corpse. And since most enemy PCs are either way above or way below you in power, it will usually either be considered a suicide mission or "grief play".
We've taken a very static, completely unwinnable, cooperative game, and turned it into a completely static, completely unwinnable, competitive game. And then to make things more confusing and ensure that PvP balance has no relationship to player skills or teamwork, we combine the two games into one. Now, this might actually turn out to be fun (maybe, maybe not). But I think people are certainly going to have to take some things for granted, like the idea that every now and then you are going to get shredded by higher level foes that you have no interest in fighting.
Trying to implement a real faction war in this game has so many problems, I don't even know where to start. Perhaps the best starting point would be to ask "What is the goal of the faction war?" We have two opposing sides, so that is a better starting point than Diablo PvP. Are we trying to defend our citizens from enemy raiders? Trying to conquer enemy towns? Trying to take over the enemy capitols and literally win the war? You can't actually do any of it. You can only kill enemy PCs thereby delaying them for the time it takes to retrieve their corpse. And since most enemy PCs are either way above or way below you in power, it will usually either be considered a suicide mission or "grief play".
We've taken a very static, completely unwinnable, cooperative game, and turned it into a completely static, completely unwinnable, competitive game. And then to make things more confusing and ensure that PvP balance has no relationship to player skills or teamwork, we combine the two games into one. Now, this might actually turn out to be fun (maybe, maybe not). But I think people are certainly going to have to take some things for granted, like the idea that every now and then you are going to get shredded by higher level foes that you have no interest in fighting.