You're my man, michielb, you really are. True to the last word, sadly.michielb wrote:After reading through the information about the upcoming global FvF several times I have to say it looks interesting. However after over two year of FvF(ish) in Anarchy Online Ive had quite enough of endless simulated war. Further more after seeing the implementation of FvF in E3 I have grave doubts about E3 .
My biggest concern is what the effect of the (Ill say it again) strong focus on PvP will have on the community. Episode 2 already chased off many good players and the recent publication of the global FvF-details will probably cause even more people to unsubscribe.
When I signed up for beta it was the feature list that made me do so. More than a year after release non (!) of those features is in the game, even worse; it looks like they wont be in the game for long, long time (if ever!) Despite that I kept on playing and paying and it was the community that made me do so. It was the community that made SoR worth while despite the total lack of progress
A lot of the people that made this community so great have now left, are thinking about leaving or will unsubscribe in the very near future. Some (like me) have shortened the subscription period to one month and probably will unsubscribe if this havent improved by then. They left for three reasons one, they didnt like the how PvP was forced down their throats two, the utter lack of responsiveness to player concerns who have been opposing PvP since it was first introduced, three the fact that not only were the concerns of non-PvP players not addressed properly their call for some non-PvP content was blatantly ignored!
While I may find the concept behind the Global FvF interesting and would like to see how it works out in practice I have no need for the excesses PvP always causes. Avid PvPers are for the most part not my kind of animals and I do not want them around. So if what is left of what used to be a great community leaves over the FvF issue I will do the same. I will not pay for a game that is populated by dimwitted badmouthing gank kids, there are cheaper ways of making myself feel bad.
As I said I find the concept of the global FvF interesting, it does however have some serious flaws. (I could try to find a way to put it more kindly but Ive been kind to you for a long time and you repay me with a kick in the pants so I wont bother) The most obvious one of course is that it splits up the game community into 3 factions that can only interact with each other through combat, that is if the neutrals have a way of capturing and defending territory which isnt something neutrals tend to do and have the inclination to do so.
Making traveling harder by denying access to TPs in enemy territories will mean people new to the game may never see whats outside their own lands and will most likely not have access to other races spells and craft plans.
Unless some serious rebalancing is done the current dominance of Avatars of Destruction in PvP means anyone who isnt level 250 in both magic and fight will be of little use in the FvF battles excluding a lot of lower level players from a lot of game content. Believing those players will stay with the game for very long would be, I think, foolish. This FvF concept will not only drive veterans away it will also prevent new players form staying, this is bad business.
While the TP restrictions make sense from a story perspective they provide bad game play and game play, like it or not, is what it all boils down to at the end of the day
The current PvP system is, as said, a high level sport and seems to focus largely on the combatants leaving harvesters and crafters to fuel the war machine they appear to get very little out of both Episode 2 and Episode 3. If this is not the case then you should provide more info on this subject ASAP as youve already given people more then enough reasons to, heres that nasty word again, UNSUBSCRIBE.
I dont know how the spire guard NPCs will work out in practice but they, again, seem to be focused mainly on the high level players which is not a good idea as it means that lower levels cannot participate in the storyline and are essentially left with less content than the was in the game at launch, this is a bad thing.
The fact that an Avatar of Destruction can kill a Refugee fresh from the newbie islands means it will happen and probably more often as we would like, this is not a good thing.
With 250 level in 2 combat trees theres a huge difference in strength between players either forcing people into an unfair fight, power level to hit the cap or stay away from PvP altogether, this is not a good thing.
Speaking of the refugee islands their isolation has already been discussed sufficiently and nevrax has promised the address the issue yet; nothing further on that so far and with the current, here goes, strong focus on PvP it seems unlikely that any work on a more compelling newbie area will get done leaving it up to the players to instruct the newbies to leave islands as soon as possible. Unfortunately the players who are most inclined to so are, once more, UNSUBSCRIBING.
Currently the neutrals, or rather those that are not flagged for PvP cannot heal those that are regardless of faction. I dont know if this is a bug or a feature but it is not good.
While on the subject of healing, explain to the newbie why you cant ress him but have no trouble ressing the guy lying next to him. Some may understand and appreciate the rich and compelling (rich and compelling, bullocks. Nothing rich and compelling about being a WoW clone with better graphics) storyline that caused this others will not extend their subscription past their 7 day trial, this is not a good thing.
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The current, here we go again, strong focus on PvP means there probably wont be much (I any) non-PvP content added to the game leaving all those who do not like PvP with (most likely) less content than there was at launch, this it not a good thing.
I understand that it is hard to make drastic changes when you are already this far in the development process but you have been forewarned and warned again, and again and decided to ignore it on and blindly move ahead as planned alienating more and more veteran players as you went leaving you at a point where it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to win back those youve lost and those you are about to lose but if you dont at least make an effort I fear this game is doomed.
Im sure there is much more to say on the subject but Ive already wasted far too much time on this as I dont expect to get any decent answers out of you lot let alone any concrete steps for improvement so Ill just sit and wait till all goes to hell in a handbag.
I was thinking of writing a similarly epic post, but couldn't find the energy.
*goes back to packing his bags*
running around 'in context' as a points bag.
) has proven to behave as a noble player, and so many others - PvP makes perfect sense within the game. Till the ganking pops. The teleport camping. The "less than honorable" behavior. The lack of closed-loop balance control (at time H, Faction F is outnumbering, it happens, nothing to worry about. Player P is autralian, faction G, plays at that time. He cannot even get out of camp. 12 'enemies' wait for him. He doesn't mind healthy pvp, but that's a slaughter. The personal feelings, translated into some special hatred towards a particular guild or player ("he's a ner, I'm soooo camping him till he ports out of here") behind the excuse of FvF lore. Tell me it won't happen. Tell me there are no players/guilds more worried in being Uber and "Kicking ass" than in 'ooc' doing something not to spoil the fun too much for others. Tell me we, all, as players, will 'ooc' keep a fragile balance. I enjoy it much more when we do the ping pong, alternating who 'owns' the hill, than when faction F owns. 
