by Kaios » Wed May 08, 2019 3:44 am Everyone can buy Rage and choose to toggle it on or off, toggling Rage on activates a cooldown of one week (could be more, could be less) before it can be toggled off again. Killing a player while Rage is toggled on extends the time of the cooldown to turn it off again based on the overall value of the character killed. Siege machinery (other than wrecking ball) can't be used while Rage is toggled off. Characters with summonable scents out always have Rage activated until their scents expire, those with Theft scents out but no Rage could be killed but would still not be able to aggro without having bought the Rage skill too or Theft could simply be locked behind Rage like Vandalism.
Pros
- Any players that did not want to buy Rage but wanted to unlock the skills behind it can now safely do so.
- Removes the scenario of "my non-Rage friend got attacked and I couldn't help them because I don't have Rage either."
- Provides the opportunity to participate in riskier PvE content with your friends while maintaining the ability to attack another player when the time comes.
- Allows for each player to make the choice when they feel that risk is necessary or outweighed by the reward.
- Increases the motivation for all players to participate in PvP content while also improving the chances of player retention.
- Reduces the incentive to create a rage character and non-rage character.
Cons
- Any players that did not want to buy Rage but wanted to unlock the skills behind it can now safely do so (yes I put this in pros too but I realize some will look at this as a con).
- Someone that killed you or a friend/ally might not be kill-able when you find them a week later, this could certainly annoy some players.
- Most players would likely utilize this mechanic by only activating Rage when they intend to actually kill someone, the downside for the aggressor being that if they lose the fight the permanent choice of buying Rage for them to be finished off instead becomes a temporary activation.
- Could lead to players doing things like finishing someone off with an alt to reduce their own time to deactivate Rage.
The reason I suggest this is that while I realize it may not be the best solution regarding the issue of Rage versus Non-Rage players, wanting to take part in risky PvE content, deaths without Rage, and players in larger fights not having Rage at all; it might be a decent compromise until something better can be figured out.
The devs have to focus on two things with respect to this issue and that is enticing players in to PvP but also retaining the players that would not have otherwise been playing without the removal of "real permadeath" in the first place and so in this regard I think my suggestion does address some of this. Overall though I don't think this would change much in comparison to how the mechanic works now, some players might still die either way, those who like to roam around and PvP randomly will probably have it on all the time anyways, and nothing really changes for the players who don't care for PvP except now they can open up more skills to help defend themselves and at least have that option to attack when they need it but still maintain their style of play. The purpose, I hope, is to allow players greater opportunity to be involved in all types of content the game has to offer.
Also you could kill thieves which means players that loot in combat but don't have Rage would be killable and I don't really mind that because looting in the middle of combat is dumb anyways. Perhaps there could be some incentive to having Rage activated as well, like players giving some LP on death which would also discourage the use of an alt character for finishing blows.
If it is the intention of the devs to increase player retention by decreasing the chance of death then it only seems fair to me that the mechanics work the same way for everyone.
