Good Afternoon Friends and Avatars!  Happy Thursday to you all. I am pleased to bring to you a Shroud of the Avatar Update!  Today Starr Long, aka “DarkStarr”, posted in the public section of the forums a mega post about their current thinking on PVP and Death.

Please check it out. Below you will find sections I really want to highlight as information I found important to both backers and non-backers.

Some games have segregated PVP from PVE worlds (Such as UO’s Trammel and Felucca). But we feel this complete segregation makes both sides less interesting. Yet, an open “free for all” which only serves one half is exactly what the other half fears. We feel we can successfully blend these two extremes into a world where PVE players can experience the FULL game (other than the PVP they are trying to avoid), while PVP players can shift the dynamics of the game environment thus; encouraging others to contest them in PVP.

Most importantly, the proposals below are just that; proposals. They have neither been coded nor tested by you, our players. Trust that we will find a way to successfully blend these play styles. We just feel the blended answer provides a unified world with the most safety and excitement combined, and is thus worthy in our minds of exploration. The solution for this goal will involve compromise on both sides, but we are confident those compromises will be worth it. We ARE going to find a solution, and we are going to do it together

This bit alone helps clarify their goals, hopes, fears, etc.  Knowing where a developer is coming from only helps you more understand what they are envisioning and thus allows you to give better feedback on the product and issues you see before, during, and after development. Knowing that they are open to changes and tweaks, etc is good, but it also is a good reminder that those ppl on the extreme ends of PVP vs PVE gameplay need to keep an open mind because compromises will need to be made.

Our current thinking is that PVP would happen in the following circumstances (note that there are multiple ways to participate in constant open PVP with other PVP folks):

• Blessings of the Oracle (Open PVP): We are intrigued by the idea of weaving PVP into the lore, so a current idea is that players can complete a task / quest for the Oracle that will flag them as open PVP. Likewise they can have this flag removed by completing a task / quest for the Oracle. The Oracle is neutral (but judgmental) so this is a great way for us to provide a neutral way to get to Open PVP vs. having to set up factions, track blue reds, etc. Players who are in Open PVP (Blessed and Guilds flagged Open PVP) will be able to PVP with each other whenever they encounter each other, even in towns (but guards can, and will, react). Blessed Avatars may also gain access to PVP specific skills and the ability to craft PVP enchantments/enhancements.
• Guilds (Warfare and Open PVP): Guilds can flag themselves as Open PVP which makes all members flagged as open PVP at all times (note there will be a time delay for changing this flag to prevent exploits). Players who are in Open PVP (Blessed and Guilds flagged Open PVP) will be able to PVP with each other whenever they encounter each other, even in towns (but guards can, and will, react!). They may also gain access to PVP specific skills, and the ability to craft PVP specific items. There will be time constraints on joining and leaving Guilds to control exploits. Guilds can declare war on each other which tracks guild vs guild kills for a set time period (24 hours, 1 week, etc.). At the end of that time period the Guild with the most kills gets a trophy. For Episode 1 warfare will be confined to 1 guild vs. 1 guild. Guild Warfare can include attacking / defending structures (think of a Castle Defense map for guilds). All warfare declarations are consensual, and once both guilds agree, the war starts in 24 hours with all guild members being notified. For later episodes, we may add the ability to set winning conditions as well as prizes/bets on the outcome.
• PVP Zones: Volcanic eruptions and meteoric strikes on the map will create a mix of predefined areas and random areas that will be flagged as open PVP, meaning anyone entering that zone is flagged as PVP. These zones will have the following characteristics:
  • The rarest resources and rarest creatures will be more abundant in PVP Zones. (IMPORTANT NOTE: These resources and creatures also appear in PVE zones)
  • PVP specific resources for making PVP specific items.
  • PVP specific trainers, although there are issues we anticipate with quest givers getting camped, so we will work on solutions for this.
  • PVP specific quests, including the quest from the Oracle which flags the player as open PVP.
  • PVP Zones are currently planned to only be accessible in Open Multiplayer since playing them in Friend Only or Single Player Online modes would be an easy way to circumvent PVP.  A confirmation dialogue appears before entry into any and all PVP maps. This confirmation is also triggered during login if you logged out in a zone that has temporarily become PVP, at which time you can opt to login to the overworld map.
• Duels: This will be one on one combat between two players that can be initiated at any time in safe areas and does not flag the user as PVP to other players. Both parties have to accept the challenge (glove slaps to the face optional). Fights would be to 1 hit point and would only be allowed in safe areas like towns. For later episodes, we may add the ability to set winning conditions as well as prizes/bets on the outcome.

Basically after all this info, what I liked is there is a large variety of options and there will be confirmation dialogues and methods for ppl to find the gameplay style balance they want for themselves.

When a player dies in SotA, they immediately become a ghost at the location of their corpse. As a ghost, players can no longer speak normally, but instead can only speak in ghost speak (or possibly runic). We are also considering a “speak with dead” type skill in the life or moon magic tree to expand on communication with ghosts. Ghosts will be able to see and speak with each other however. Ghosts appear to players as a shimmering point of light, and ghosts can not interact with any physical items in the world.

As soon as a player becomes a ghost, the player’s view of the game becomes monochrome, slowly starts to become blurred and darken, and other players and creatures appear as shimmering points of light to limit spying. After several minutes of darkening, if the player has not been revived, their spirit and corpse will both be ripped back to the nearest point of connection to the other side and rebound together as one. Most scenes have one or more of these “weak spots” in reality that let the player’s outlander spirit reconnect with the world of New Britannia. This might be a graveyard, a church, or a traveling spirit. Leaving the scene will always force the spirit to reconnect, as will disconnecting.

I can see why this method is what they are focusing on for now. Ease of implementation, ability to control penalties like loss of item or experience or gold.  I also like that it is a different approach to something that has ties to the past as well as other games.  One thing that Starr goes into more depth on was the confirmation and explanation on why Full Loot WILL NOT be implemented.  To read up on the details of that, read the mega post.

As always, feel free to post here as well as on the SotA forums.  All of us appreciate your support and ideas as they help the Portalarium team do the best job they can.  Have a great day!