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Originally Posted by CaptainKipper
At level 30, I still can't PvP.
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I don't think this is an accurate statement. There are a lot of people sub 30 out there PvPing. I think what you're saying is that you can't PvP the way you want to. I can certainly respect that, and we do want to accommodate different styles of PvP at lower levels, which is why we're adding the Duel and Skirmish systems.
If you want to try Open Sea PvP at low level, I would check out the thread that Handsome linked. And remember:
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Originally Posted by beltpouch
The battle doesn't begin when you are pulled into an instance. The battle begins before you even leave port.
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That said I think your ideas are good, so let's address them:
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Originally Posted by CaptainKipper
NPC escorts/convoys - maybe for a small price a soloist or small group could buy a one-shot 'buff' that gives them a full group of ships comparable to their average level. These ships would only join in red-zone PvP combat, so as to prevent any PvE exploits.
The idea behind this one is that even if you are still outleveled, at least you can have a chance not to be totally outnumbered. Even if NPCs are much more stupid than humans, they can still use their cannons to harry the enemy while you pick a target (or use them as fodder while you leg it).
At least if six level 50's attacked a level 20 then, there'd be six level 20's for them to deal with.... still pretty easy, but nowhere near AS easy. And only give away PvP rewards if the entire encounter is defeated, to prevent them just going after the player anyway.
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I'm not opposed to letting you bring NPC allies into PvP combat, given that there is a high cost and some restrictions associated with it. As you pointed out, players are a lot smarter than AIs, and I think you would find that one or two of those hypothetical 50's will draw off all of your NPC allies while the rest focus on you.
Our ship combat model is more complicated than the combat model for any other MMO I can think of. The way movement works, considering the wind, predicting direction and momentum, is not something that is easy to teach an AI to understand. On top of that, actually getting an AI to understand that is only half the battle, we have to have the spare server CPU cycles to let them do that analysis. Certainly, we're going to continue to work on making our AI smarter and better fighters, but I don't think they're ever going to catch up to even the low end of player skill.
Given all that, I would expect the minimum 'cost' associated with hiring NPC allies to be roughly the cost of one point of durability for a ship of that type. Potentially with a refund of some kind if you managed to bring the NPC ally back in one piece. I think we start to open up a lot of exploits if we don't associate at least that much of a doubloon cost with it. Would this still be an interesting or attractive option to you, given that cost?
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Originally Posted by CaptainKipper
Less attractive ganking
Make a player that sinks a ship thats surrendering take a MASSIVE faction/reputation hit. That was generally not the done thing in those days. There are rules, even to war!
Make a sunken ship offer no cash/cargo reward. Only a ship thats defeated and still afloat should be plunderable for these things.
This might make surrender in the face of unassailable odds an option, as currently, i've never seen a surrender actually get accepted. A vessel that surrenders would lose its cargo (and probably its reason for being in the red zone) and then be ported to a location just outside the zone, to either try again or go somewhere else.
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We are giving people an incentive to accept 100% surrenders in 1.2, we're making it so that if you offer 100% surrender and it is declined, the attacker will get none of your cargo if they sink you. I'm not opposed to adding further incentives to accept surrender, and this would certainly be a reasonable one.
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Originally Posted by CaptainKipper
Fairer fights
Ok, so I might want to actually fight, if I have a chance to win - I may or may not have my escort fleet, and i've been attacked by a ship/group that I think I can fight. The problem here is that its unlikely. Most attackers are still level 50 groups.
An idea here might be to give a battle duration level-reduction to the superior group - they still get their current ships but they get reduced to a comparable level (or lower, if they hopelessly outnumber) of their enemy, their outfitting gets temporarily debuffed to their new level so that the ships are more even. Allow the captain some of his skills, but some get taken out of play if they tip the balance over too much. Allow the captains to keep their swashbuckling level, so that theres an incentive to board.
Make it down to player skill during the fight, rather than being hopelessly out equipped and outnumbered, meaning you can neither run NOR fight.
If you do get the chance to fight, you should get the chance to win. If you get the chance to run, you should be able to - though as I said, you should be prevented from entering the zone, or ported out of it, showing that the 'blockade' worked.
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This is something we're not going to do. Open Sea PvP is inherently and deliberately unfair PvP. It's supposed to be war, and while there are some rules to war, they are followed in a spotty manner at best. Certainly individual captains will choose not to attack vastly inferior forces, but that's their choice. The red circle is a dangerous, violent place, and you will get attacked by superior forces. Be prepared, have a plan, be ready to run away.
That said, we do want to provide an environment for completely fair and evenly balanced PvP battles, and our plan is to do that with the Skirmish and Duel systems.