EQ Classic and the Dreamer

Honos

The QUESTION:  How do you keep people interested in EQ Classic after all content has been throughly explored?

 

The ANSWER: Player versus Player (PvP).  Now before you cast down your judgement please read the explaination and implementation.  

 

The REASON: PvP adds a human element that is unpredictable and unstable.  This is why many people love MMORPG's and Multiplayer first person shooters. 

 

The IMPLEMENTATION: Since EQ is not really a PvP game we should not pretend it is.  Instead, we should give players the freedom that EQ is famed for, but with consequences.  A player should be able to kill any other player, but the killing blow rewards a negative faction hit.  The amount of the faction hit is based off the level of the victim to the attacker.  The attacker of a equal level victim would only receive a small faction hit (ie. -10 faction hit to Ranger's guild).  The attacker of a victim with a great level difference would receive a huge negitive faction hit. (ie. lvl 50 player kills lvl 5 player, thus receives -450 faction hit to Ranger's guild.)  In this instance, I based the negitive faction hits off the equation (player level X 10).  Of course a designer would change the number to suit what is needed for the server. 

The faction is based off the class note a player turns into his guildmaster when his character is created in the old world.  Any positive faction gains from that class note would indicate the negitive faction hit a player would receive.  For example, Human Rogue in Qeynos gains +corruptguardsofqeynos, +unseenhandofcircle, etc when turning in his class note.  Any player who kills this Human Rogue from Qeynos would then see a faction loss of -corruptguardsofqeynos, -unseenhandofcircle, etc.  This gives designers just a few factions to work with and ties the player to his class guild/city. 

The only hits that matter in this design are the initial blow and killing blow.  The initial PvP blow flags someone as PVP Aggressive for 5 minutes.  The initial blows would include, but not limited to melee strikes/misses, spells/resists, etc.  During this time the attacker can be killed without a negative faction hit.  However, if the player flagged as PVP Aggressive is not engaged in PvP combat for 5 minutes, then he returns normal state.  Two people flagged as PVP Aggressive would neither receive a faction hit upon the killing blow.  The PvP Aggressive flag would persist through death, but if you stay dead for 5 minutes then you'd return to a normal state.  You'd be able to know someone was flagged as PVP Aggressive because their name would be red instead of normal color.  In order to help simplify a already complex code, only the killing blows (either through melee, spells, dots) would receive negative faction hits.      

When in a group/raid you cannot be attacked/harmed by members of your group/raid. 

There is no reward for killing other players.  Rewards only further enhance griefing.  The system I propose is not to support PvP, but to allow freedom of PvP if a player chooses.  There is no faction gain for killing players as this would make coding easier.

If you are in a Arena there is no negative faction hit or PVP Aggressive flag. 

 

The PROBLEMS: This of course is my vision of a EQ World, and it has since release in 1999.  I know that such a coding would be beyond complex and something that SOE would not invest in.  However, I can dream can't I?  I'm sure there is all sorts of flaws in my idea beyond difficult coding/bugs.  I would be willing to take any helpful thoughts, but there is no need to point out that it isn't going to happen.  I already know, but I wish to sleep and dream awhile longer. 

 

Honos the Dreamer

 PS. You can also join in the dream of just a EQ Classic server at the offical forum located here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?start=1335&topic_id=30225&#1542346