A Possible Roadmap for PvP

[seekeronos]

1) Bringing back the Arena Concept

Probably the simplest to re-implement. This was the original idea for a limited PvP in EnB-Live, if not derided at times... The entry points for these arenas in Beta Hydri (and were originally keyed to certain overall levels for the sake of balance). These arenas are more or less a matter of decoding the appropriate OpCodes and figuring out how to set up the instances for the Arena itself.

2) Open Sector Conquest Concept

I touched upon this idea several weeks ago, where the Devs could set up several (at least three) more or less empty "deep space" sectors that were easily accessible from one of the three homeworlds (Earth, Mars, and Kailaasa*) as well as having another gate into that particular sector located at some significant travel distance from those homeworlds (for example, the one sector strategic to Earth could have a gate directly to Earth, but the other gate leading to that sector might be located quite far from Earth, perhaps in Slayton or Glory's Orbit or some other harder-to-get-to sector.

These "Conquest" sectors would not be directly PvP, but would allows player factions to fight for "control" over the sector by tracking how many mobs (NPC or monsters) were killed by a specific faction, how many resources were mined, and how many trade goods were handled to faction NPCs in that sector.

These sectors would be in "deep space" to the extent that there would be no other nearby planets or stars; their only value would be for the resource pockets and control of a gate that would in the storyline serve as a "strategic backdoor" to various homeworlds. In other words, these gates could be introduced as "black budget" projects in a sort of a cold war between the three main factions (where there is an implicit threat to each of the homeworlds by an opposing faction's attempts to control the "backdoor gates" ).

Somewhere toward the center of the sector could be a battlegroup (a L66 ECS warship, PAX class dreadnought, or Jenquai Shadowstriker class battlestation -- we could reuse the Mordana Shrine model in Kitara's Veil for this) surrounded by several (about 15-30) CL50+ minions.

This battlegroup would patrol a random path within a 20km radius around the static starport (using a generic station model such as the one used by Mercury station in Glory's Orbit or Venera Highport) and the starport would be landable to only those players belonging to the controlling faction. On the station, a player would find faction-unique L7+ gear and trade goods for sale, as well as a faction-specific NPC (an NPC Ken'Shao/Proconsul/Admiral) who would register players wanting to participate in the Conquest mini-game, as well as grant specific missions for credits, faction standing, and most importantly, Conquest points that count in the week's tally for sector control.

The exact composition of the Battlegroup would depend upon which faction has "control" of the sector for the week. If a condition arises where *no* faction has control, then the battlegroup would not spawn at all, and the starport becomes landable to everyone. However, a random spawn of moderately strong (L40-55 mobs, no L66 super-mob) pirates (RDs, Chavez, or Talons) might occur in place of the Battlegroup: after all, nature abhors a vacuum, even in the cold vacuum of deep space...

Elsewhere in that same sector one will find another base, a very small landable (use the Orsini Mining Platform model) outpost with only the docking bay available, and two NPCs - a registrar and a trade goods vendor. The registrar allows you to register to assist any of the three main factions (except for the controlling faction, when the sector is under control) through her mission talk tree, and the trade goods vendor will sell reports to be taken back to the homeworlds. Trade Good Vendor NPCs on the respective homeworlds would sell weapons crates or recruit pods to be taken back for a profit.

This non-controlling faction outpost would NOT be visible to players registered to the controlling faction, and would be protected by a L66 station gun (aligned against the controlling faction, or otherwise unaligned) and two spawns of L40-55 mobs, one each loyal to the opposing factions - or with no spawns at all if the sector is uncontrolled.

The overriding object of the mini-game is to gain control of the sector; the most effective way to do this is to destroy the Battlegroup (respawn time of 24 hours; minions at two hours).

Alternatively, the controlling factioned players could take out the outpost's station gun and ALL defender mobs, which spawns a replacement set of spawns that are pro-controlling faction (thus making access to that outpost extremely difficult until the pro-controlling faction spawns are killed, to be replaced again by the normal anti-controlling faction mobs)

To add another wrinkle to all of this: players could use healing abilities (hull patch, shield recharge, reactor buffs, etc) to buff friendly mobs.

3) Limited Open PvP Sector concept --

Call this the "Arena with no holds barred". It would be geared toward end-game (CL50) players, though any player at any level could access it (at their own risk!)

Players would need to buy a gate access key for a token amount (250,000 credits) for each time they want to access the PvP sector. The sector itself would open for 45-minute intervals, separated by 15 minutes of downtime (to allow for larger-scale organization of guilds or parties for combat).

The PvP sector itself would be an instanced duplicate of whatever sector the gate is located in, excluding any mobs, starbases or other functional gates - the only functional gate would be the exit gate back to the barker NPC.

There *could* be L8 resource clouds with a much higher than normal count of L9 roids... but you might not have time or ability to mine them with roving packs of players looking for you...

The gate access keys can be bought from a "barker" NPC talk tree (like the arena nav points in Live) that would announce the start and stop times for the PvP sector, and would be good only for the next round of PvP in that arena. Once you gate away from the PvP sector, the gate key is taken out of your inventory. CTD or D/C while a your PvP session is still engaged will return you to the starting point when you log in, or if your session is expired, you'll be teleported back to the the NPC barker nav point upon re-login.

Maximum of 36 players in the sector, 18 per side. Bring your Zets, biles, or EOtFF's or whatever your best DPS, debuffing, or buffing gear is, and commence the smacking-down of the other team.

The winning team is determined at the end of the 45 minute session when everyone is ejected back to the barker NPC, and is a result of a tally of most kills. The player with the most kills gets a prize worth 20% of the total purse, while the remaining winners split the 80% amongst themselves.

Conceivably, level-capped events for lower level players (limited to players at CL35 and below, and CL20 and below) with smaller registration costs (proposed 100,000 credits and 25,000 credits respectively) could be doable in other PvP sector instances.

Notes:

*Kailaasa is more accurately the Jenquai "homeworld"; it is home to the ruling Jenquai body, the Jenquarum. Though the training sectors of Io, Europa and Ganymede gate into Jupiter, Jove City over Jupiter is maintained (spoiler alert!) only for historic value.

[irrelevant]

i like idea #2, but that might be close to whats in the works for Moto

Edited April 1, 2010 by irrelevant

[Davidr99 [Admin]]

Hey,

We will in time be looking into some PvP. We have talked about having sectors that are contested and that will alow PvP in the sectors only. Currently our system is set up for non PvP only, but with some modifications we can get some PvP working.

Thanks,

David

[seekeronos]

I just enjoy feeding the idea mill wherever I can.

Here is a map based largely upon my second idea in my post, just to give the old "1000 words" adage some visualization:

Lots of grav wells, lots of resources... and although not marked on the map, various roving patrols for factioned mobs (or pirates of the sector is uncontrolled that week).

And heavily defended bases. *evil grin*

This map would be from the POV of someone factioned with EarthCorps (TE), InfinitiCorps (TT) or Hyperia (TS) and assumes that the Terrans (specifically EarthCorps) has control of the sector.

Players registered to the opposing factions would see the Earth gate as red (unusable) and the Grissom gate as green, and they would see the nav markers in reverse manner (the navs leading to the Blockade Runner's Outpost would be mappable, the navs going to Fort Sedna would be hidden).

When uncontrolled, both gates appear green, but the navs where faction mobs normally patrol -- these will be mappable, but likely to be patrolled by dangerous pirates or other outlaws.

As a bonus, whenever the sector changes hands (or goes uncontrolled) - the navs become mappable again (repeat explore XP!)

The yellow markers reflect orefields and obviously would not be part of the in-game navigational map; the red grids show places where one might find a gravity well.

Edited April 2, 2010 by -Seeker-

[tbohner]

Originally EnB was supposed to have 10% of its sectors PvP. As the number of sectors was reduced, so was the amount of PvP sectors.

The modified idea was to have PvP based on the storyline.

An Example: The Progens attack 61 Cygni. Players can register with a side and go full PvP in that sector only. Have it for a few patch cycles and then the PvP event ends.

An interesting concept. It makes PvP special and gets players involved in the storyline. Will this happen? Who knows

To Seeker: Arenas will be back eventually.

Another idea we have floated around is to make one or two of the pirate sectors PvP.

Somewhere I have a list of PvP ideas. I will add your flavors of PvP to it with credit.

[siadrinkswater]

Arenas will be back eventually.

I want them nowwww lol

Edited April 2, 2010 by siadrinkswater

[jockpants]

As long as there is an opt out option I've no real problem with PvP in E&B.

If you do bring any PvP in though it must be consented to by all parties involved otherwise it doesn't go ahead. None-consentual PvP would, imo, would go totally against the flavour of the overall game environment. Like many others I played in Live because E&B was seen as a PvE only MMO and bringing in any kind of PvP that is forced on the player base would drive me and, I suspect, a lot of others away.

[Basileus]

One problem with bringing PvP to the game is that PvP requires a different kind of class balance than pure PvE. I also feel that the game mechanics in EnB are a bit too "simple" to make PvP very interesting; in the end gear will be the major factor to decide the outcome of a fight (PvP should in my opinion be based on skill).

//Wex

[seekeronos]

@Jeroica and @Basileus:

Conquest Concept #2 (outlined in greater detail than the other two options, and with the sample map) kind of bridges PvP and PvE together. There wouldn't be direct PvP i.e. no worries about getting mowed down by a pack of PWs camping the gate - but rather, competitive PvE, or to hopefully coin a newer term, "Player versus Player via Environment" or PvPvE.

Players would compete against one another by how many conquest points they tally for a given week, and thus gain access to the station protected by that terrifyingly beweaponed battlefleet.

The station could even sell unusually race-specific and/or rare items currently available only on the dev server (Sulani Highport, etc). as incentive to "control the zone".

[Mimir[IS]]

@Jeroica and @Basileus:

Conquest Concept #2 (outlined in greater detail than the other two options, and with the sample map) kind of bridges PvP and PvE together. There wouldn't be direct PvP i.e. no worries about getting mowed down by a pack of PWs camping the gate - but rather, competitive PvE, or to hopefully coin a newer term, "Player versus Player via Environment" or PvPvE.

Players would compete against one another by how many conquest points they tally for a given week, and thus gain access to the station protected by that terrifyingly beweaponed battlefleet.

The station could even sell unusually race-specific and/or rare items currently available only on the dev server (Sulani Highport, etc). as incentive to "control the zone".

I like this idea except guild A (100+ members) gets control, outfits all the members with xyz equipment and does:

a.) move on (now what syndrome)

b.) give/sell said equipment to select few not in guild (have and have not)

c.) use said equipment to monopolize on non PvP (or whatever) zones (could be very bad for non PvP players)

I like the capture the flag idea but needs something more...no clue what.

[fuulishone]

Tying physical (i.e. gear) rewards to PvP is a very slippery slope that one must navigate carefully. Introducing gear into a PvP setting tends to cause headaches for everyone if the gear is anything but cosmetic. IMHO, it's best to keep PvP fun and rewarding in some kind of "beat your chest loudly" type of way, but without the need to introduce alternative gear. Things that are purely cosmetic would probably be acceptable to most folks since they don't affect the normal game.

Aside from gear, something like a temporary buff for all like aligned members in the zone (say a +deflect buff, or wep energy conservation or +reactor/shield cap) on a limited timer would be a nice reward for winning. This would reward those that want to engage in PvP, would be temporary so would require them to run off and use the buff for something (thus preventing some amount of monopolizing), and overall be useful for anyone regardless of level.