Dear Players (OP related)

[dbritt]

Other issues that I've seen on these forums vary wildly from someone not liking the way the mechanic works as it's not in their style of play to stuff that maybe a bit unfair on smaller guilds. But I'm listening - this is your space. Let's hear it...

Thank you.

[soulsnatcher]

it's not the game mechanic that is really the problem here.

polite enough?

It's a start.

Limited number of declerations possible.

Penalties for declaring falsely

Require minimum attendance at OP declarations or the declaration is cancelled.

Have defenders allow "time zone limitations" so as not to make it impossible to defend due to real life commitments (EG Weekend only OP battles?). Perhaps a longer attack/defense available period (1 week available to pick your 2 hour slot, attack and defense cannot clash).

Ooh, here's a good one... if you have an OP, declaring on another splits your available NPC guards between the 2... The more ops you declare on/possess the less individual NPC guards you get at each. Kinda like the Spires having HP split.

Non PvP OPs for (according to the Poll by Final) the vast majority of the players that prefer PvE to PvP.

See? Ideas. So much better than slugfests. Some of these ideas presented so far have been out forward - the new ones will be added to the list.

Souls

[3421514]

Strip it right back. OPs being battled over isn't such a bad thing. The issue of false/malicious/griefing declarations is known - the best way to deal with it is a hot topic in my world right now.

Other issues that I've seen on these forums vary wildly from someone not liking the way the mechanic works as it's not in their style of play to stuff that maybe a bit unfair on smaller guilds. But I'm listening - this is your space. Let's hear it...

It seems that a big problem is alliances that are so big that noone else can possibly defend against them. If OP's were purly GvG(i know theres things to be worked out with this as well such as players joining only for attacks), and there was a standard of attacks relating to the power of a guild and the level of the OP they want to attack( eg...a guild with 30+ members all with 250 skills not being able to attack a sub 200 OP) it could solve a lot of the problems. If a guild was so powerful that they could hold and defend their limit of 10 OP then they deserve those 10 OPs, because eventually someone would come along and break through their defenses on at least some of those. But with the current state of things, a group of guilds can now overpower anyone they want, without the chance of a guild building their skills sufficiently to challenge them, and that is where the imbalance is and all the bad feelings people are getting come from...the ones not in the big alliance cry not fair, and the ones in the big alliance cry stop crying..its really hard for either side to see the others points, and that is what is tearing the community apart

[oldmess]

To me the root problem is this: You've given us one major bit of new content in a very long time (outposts) and they are primarily pvp content. A lot of folks like that and a lot don't. Those that don't didn't want to be left out, so they took them but want them treated by the community as pve content when they aren't. I don't blame them for wanting more pve content or for trying to use what little we're given.

When you combine people using pvp content in a way it wasn't intended (like it shouldn't be challenged) and people that want to pvp for it, you're gonna get conflict in an OOC way. And it's getting ugly. We're human; we turn on each other easily. (yes, that's cynical, but if you crack open a newspaper, you'll see what I mean)

The bottom line is that you folks need to start activating some sort of new pve content sooner than later. While it's unfortunate that some of the community is turning inward and blaming the rest of the community, I feel the real cause is that people are frustrated with the lack of content and doing what they can with what they have.

What about R2? Could you activate the underlying structure early so that the devs could open up a few new lands/scenarios? Not enough to give us the tools yet; finish testing them. But what about the underlying changes? Are they nearer to ready such that you could use them to give us some quick pve content sooner than the final R2 release?

(Edit: I'm not blaming those of you that want OP's to be non-pvp content; it's a natural reaction to not getting any pve content in this much time. So please don't flame me for blaming you; I'm not.)

[lathan]

Good post Oud. While I don't think we (and yeah, let's face it, all of us arguing here have a part to play) can be absolved of all blame for these ongoing problems, I just can't imagine them being anything like as bad if there were PvE titbits to occupy the time of those who aren't so interested in PvP.

[forever]

An idea I had to keep outposts from being so static and to keep the fun going.

Outposts are not a home or a permanent structure for a guild to own. The outposts are temporary resource points that guilds have till another guild takes it.
I think the threshold on outposts should drop to 0 and you lose the outpost to the NPCs, at this point your guild needs to take the outpost back. If the NPCs win the outpost, any guild is now free to try and take the outpost back. This would fix the problem we have now where guilds sit on an outpost and get mad if someone tries to take it. This would also put some PvE back into the outposts.

[oldmess]

... PvE tidbits ....

Thank you, Lath.

Just to be clear to Souls and anyone else at Nev that's reading this. IMO, tidbits ain't gonna fix the problem. We need pve content that is just as important to the world as outposts are and just as enjoyable to those that don't want pvp.

No, I don't mean to absolve the players that behave badly. But I don't like to treat symptoms if we can find the root cause and fix that instead.

[soulsnatcher]

I prefer to treat the cause rather than the symptom - but nothing wrong with a painkiller to ease things along.

[lathan]

tidbits ain't gonna fix the problem

Bad wording on my part hehe. But yeah, obviously major PvE content isn't going to arrive overnight, but if it is going to come along, it needs to be mentioned in advance, so that people will know it's coming and, rather than try to make the PvP content as PvE as possible, will prepare for that. Maybe I'm being optimistic but surely that would help. As well as having some bits and pieces to keep PvE types entertained in the meantime.

I think the above is all that could reasonably be expected of Nevrax. Let's be honest, it took a long time to implement the PvP changes, and that is relatively simple compared to new PvE content (although admittedly the OPs were obviously a huge development).

I don't want to go too much into this because it's been gone over many times already.. it's sufficient to say that it would be nice to have that for a lot of people and leave it there

[aardnebb]

See? Ideas. So much better than slugfests. Some of these ideas presented so far have been out forward - the new ones will be added to the list.
Souls

Furthermore:

Non-PvP Outposts: make em incompatible with PvP outposts. You can have one type or the other. I don't think I need to explain my reasoning on this.

If the current player population will support it split into 2 english servers (RP and PvP). I dont think this is likely, but...

Alternate methods for aquiring currently "PvP only" content such as OP mats, Crystals (assuming they aren't removed entirely, which would be nice) and flowers.

In the case of events such as Episode 2 allow a non-PvP alternative (a safe digging zone for each side partitioned off from the other?).

Neutral faction chat (I really enjoyed Kami Chat during Ep 2, plus as all new players are neutral this would provide them an easier way of getting support in underpopulated regions such as Cities of Intuition or the newbie islands. Alternatively an optional channel like "newbiehelp" that is always on on the starter islands, but toggleable once off them, this way helpful players can make themselves available).

Limits on PvP interaction to prevent unbalance (max players in an OP battle, etc).

Neutral PvP tag. On the other side of things, allow neutrals to tag up. If they attack, heal someone who is currently involved in faction PvP or are attacked then it sets their "allegiance" for 10 minutes to the relevant side.

Allow official alliances as an in-game mechanic for Guild vs Guild zones. Make em public as well (the guild clerk could perhaps inform you of current guilds and alliances, listed by faction, civ, even RP stance, as well as listing the guild leader or designated recruitment officer).

More as I get em. Some of these may be difficult or impossible, others impractical. There may be better solutions than those I have proposed. Just ideas here, it can't hurt.