I want real PvP

[JontomXire]

Hi, there everyone.

I haven't actually played PlaneShift. I'm shopping around for a good open source and hopefully open to ideas/help game as an alternative to creating my own (I can't do graphics and have very little spare time for such a venture.

I've read a few threads in this sub-forum and it seems that the vast majority of PvP/PK style action comes in pure RP form - which in my experience never really works because no-one wants to lose/die. I've read about PvP areas and would appreciate some honest opinion of how active they are. I've also seen mention of bugs in such areas. Again I'd like to know if they are totally debilitating bugs or infrequent and not too much of a problem. I'd also like opinions on the balance of the combat system.

I also saw mention of wanting ideas, so I thought I'd just mention the Discworld MUD that I used to play (with this character name) many many years ago.

It started with everyone PK, but only actual members of the thieves guild could steal from people and there were limitations on who could kill who and where and when. Then they added the Assassins guild shortly after "Pyramids" came out, and the rules changed. If I remember correctly, people used to have to PK enable their characters. They needed to be PK enabled to have thieves and assassins steal from or kill them, and thieves had to be PK enabled to steal, and assassins had to be PK enabled to "graduate". I seem to remember that there were some massive restrictions on disabling PK mode. This led to there being very few assassins and two types of thieves - those who RPed being a thief and those, like me (who also had an assassin char) who went full on and made my actions match my RP.

I didn't do much stealing after that because the perception skill tended to be quite high in assassins and stealing from other thieves was a no-no, and anyone else who went Pk generally made sure that they had a high perception skill too. But I did have a lot of fun, even if I spent most of my time stealthed and/or running away as soon as I caught a glimpse of someone else stealthed in the same room.


From the threads in this forum it seems there are a few others who would like proper PvP/PK/stealing. Perhaps a similar system as the Discworld MUD would work well here. PK could be turned on at any time and only turned off after you die/visit the death realm. Those who don't want to suffer griefing can keep it off. Those who love the excitement can turn it on, and in the process provide entertainment for others in the same area. If a few "bad" Pkers get too powerful then a bunch of "good guys" can turn on PK and go hunt them down.

Anyway, info on state of PvP please.

[Bonifarzia]

Hi JontomXire

A few years ago, PvP elements have been quite popular in PS, be it pure OoC sparring, rp-fights, a mixture of both, or even large arena tournaments. Much of the interest in PvP was lost during some game rules balance issues when crafted armor and some defensive buffs were first introduced. Thanks to people like Eonwind, these imbalances have been widely resolved, and even many more improvements to combat mechanics are to be expected (either soon or soon^TM). However, I have the impression that players are still a bit hesitant to engage in PvP activity, even though it is well enough balanced for some fighting fun. Another reason may be that people like me are too lazy to host more combat-based events 

Concerning PK, I think the game philosophy is to protect players and prevent grieving. So, everyone is free to accept challenges from other players (or turn auto-accept on via options), but otherwise PvP is restricted to certain zones, guildwars and group challenges. One thing that might be misleading here is that individual challenges are nonlethal (automatic yielding), while attacks during guild or group wars are lethal.

Theft is again another topic, and best explained by some rules dev or gm. As far as i understood, the corresponding skills (or at least lockpicking) have been implemented and released, but they are not functional (trainable) due to ... well, why actually? But I think the game philosophy will be the same, harming other players will only be possible with certain restrictions (like in dangerous places where new players are not expected to show up).

[bilbous]

Lock picking has some serious bugs which is why it is unavailable to players. Any lock that can be picked requires a skill level that cannot be acquired at the moment. The rest of the thief skills are not available.

The pvp areas such as the platinum mine, camp banished, or the one section of the hydlaa arena are available for unlimited pvp, and there are sure to be some people willing to school you. One problem you may find is that combat skills take a long time to train so that you might not win much for some time.
I do not pvp myself so I am unsure of the balance between player skill vs character skill level. If you learn to dance particularly well you might be able to avoid attacks that would surely kill you should it be just a matter of you characters skill level. Still a low level of weapon skill will not do much against a high level of armor skill. Your opponent my agree to forgo armor for this reason.

[cdmoreland]

I tend to avoid PvP myself but you can find others more willing. I have a lot of lag because of poor graphics so I can't dance.

I have maxed stats and all armor, plus a high level in sword and a Crystal Way master. Not someone you would want to fight very soon.

[Eonwind]

hi JontomXire,
pretty much everything has been already said by Bonifarzia and bilbous about the state of PvP in PlaneShift.
About the thief skills lockpiking is so far the only one implemented; like bilbous said there are unfortunately serious bugs which makes it unusable at the moment, however all those bugs have been fixed in testing server and the skill will be fully usable as soon as an update will happen.
We have also a "stealth" mode (the character moves at slow peace with semi-transparency), however game mechanics for it are not yet implemented.
Regarding thieving and stealing to other players our policy for now and the future is to only allow what the user allows. However thievery is something best roleplayed and there are many roleplayers which are willing to let themselves get robbed for the fun or roleplaying the situation.

[Kaerli_Stronwylle]

You'd be surprised at how willing RPers are to lose, especially if you let them play with the definitions of winning and losing (The main problem with most combat RP is that people want straightforward wins and losses; some of the best combat RPs I've had have been the ones with the downright messiest endings possible!)