by Cypress_z » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:41 am jorb wrote:Cajoes wrote:This did not work for Ultima Online.
Odds are it won't suddenly work here.
Might be because the idea is terribad. Removing PvP removes conflict resolution from the game. I believe that a viable means of conflict resolution is essential if the central premise of free-form building is to work.
Did i mention that losing is fun? <- Lost my character today.
My suggestion was not that it was removed entirely, only that murder is removed. Rage could remain. Murder could potentially remain as a means of dealing with criminals, but basically no one but rangers could use it.
As a note on critique of the game: This IS critique, namely what this forum is for. Whether the devs read it and go with it or not is obviously up to them. As independent not-for-profit game makers, they have no incentive to do anything other than what they want to do.
Likewise, as a player I have the option to play a game or not play it. Commercial gain or not, most game developers still want as many people to like their game as they can get. I really do think this game has a decent core and lots of potential. However, as it currently stands I have no desire to play it any longer than I have.
I think what it comes down to for me is that the intense difficulty of the game isn't about the environment. In games like dwarf fortress, you're given a complete range of freedom to do whatever until something in the environment eventually kills you. It doesn't necessarily feel fair, but it's something you can deal with in your next game. If you accidentally flooded your fortress with lava, you know not to make that mistake this time.
The difficulty in this game is fine in regards to the environment. It's difficult and has no win condition but that's perfectly alright. It's mostly the other players that make the game unpleasant to play. Losing IS fun if you're learning while you're doing it and having a blast doing something cool. It isn't if you just barely start the game and someone randomly comes up and murders you just for fun.
Now some people will disagree, and that's why I think having separate servers is a good thing. There's nothing wrong with PvP. Some people enjoy it and see being killed in the beginning of the game by a high level character wandering by as just one simple aspect of the fun. That's okay. I, and I know many other players who play the game, however, prefer to build and socialize more or less peacefully. Both kinds of gameplay are equally valid. That's why I suggest separating them.
If you don't want it to go the way of Ultima Online, there simply needs to be more added to the construction angles and more peaceful end-game content added. If you have a bunch of bored max-level characters with nothing to do but kill people, that's exactly what they'll do.
Honestly I think I'd enjoy the game ten times more if I could just create my own world with a few friends in it, and no one else. Maybe some bot-controlled NPC humans that will trade or attack. As it is, however, it's just not the game for me or a lot of other people.
If the devs are alright with that, then that's their decision. No game will appeal to everyone, and they have their own vision for how it should go. I simply feel obligated to point out simple methods that would allow the game to appeal to a much broader player base.
