There are now two different realms, and the creator has mentioned the possibility of hardcore and casual realms someday. Here is my opinion:
Casual realms must be done cautiously. The reason open PvP makes an interesting world is that you have a lot of different characters in the same place. Some are really bad dudes, other people are just there to get XP, occasional saints, roleplayers, backstabbers, noobs, people who specialize in strange magic, and maybe someday people doing tradeskills like chopping wood or picking berries.
If you make an area or realm which doesn't allow PvP, or is for some other reason much easier with no drawback, then you get these various people being split up. The PvP world will be purely for people wanting to attack eachother, because any other player will train in the safe world. This ruins it for everyone, since people who want to experience a proper open-pvp world (with a mixture of character types) still end up training in the safe world, because the PvP world no longer contains a mixture of good and bad characters, since bad and good are no longer forced to be together. It becomes a giant game of Prisoner's Dilemma, where it is in everyone's interest to defect even though it would be in the group interest to co-operate (in this case, to play in the same world).
That said I still think casual areas or casual realms are not to be dismissed. They just need drawbacks. Perhaps weak loot for instance, or less experience, or bosses blocked off. That way you still get lots of different types of people in the dangerous areas, because they have an incentive to go there and try to survive.
In general, realms are really cool from a creative perspective. There could be heaven and hell realms, weird realms, realms that are really complicated or difficult to get to (such as for powerful mages), realms where everyone has large heads or mustaches. Possibilities are endless, and minor changes in color or design will still feel like exploring somewhere new. So overall it is a lot more fun then just choosing "server 1" or "server 2", and like many updates I am very impressed by the unique approach to an old problem.
Splitting up the different characters that we encounter would change the game up, but this isn't as big of an issue as some other possible scenarios which wouldn't be solved in a passive (no pk) realm.
ReplyDeleteIn a world where anyone can pickup loot from an enemy when it drops, how would this be dealt with in the case of theft?
No player killing inside of a realm would create a very sinful, untrustworthy environment, where you cannot farm with anyone unless you trust them not to run off with loot that should be shared or flipped for.
I fully agree with your points Wiz, this is simply my addition to why there should be no rule changes amongst different realms.
Maybe different difficulties would be nice? Realms with more XP and less loot? Realms with less loot and more XP? Realms where everything is just bloody hard to kill for no apparent reason? Or a realm where you cant gain XP or items, but you can die and lose items - but as soon as you make it back to another realm your prior self is restored (like a realm for fun pk'ing with no loss).
So many possibilities.
My first few days here were great. The community was really nice and willing to help me with any questions I needed answered or any tasks I needed completed; I even met another player who gave me some good starter gear and helped me farm rogues. But today, I found out Aberoth was open, unrestricted PvP, and I found out the hard way.
ReplyDeleteI was killing some rogues while waiting for the blue bee to respawn when I saw another player. I asked him if he had a spare blue bee shell or shield of the bee, and he said no. When I was about to walk away, he told me to wait, and that he was coming on another account. I assumed he meant that he had a spare shell or shield on his other account, so I waited. Then he came (or his friend; not sure) on his other account and asked me to get into the corner. I did, as I didn't know that it was open PVP, and they cornered and killed me, resulting in the loss of my only mace, rope, thief's key and about 200 gold coins; about half of my net worth. I wasn't too discouraged by this; like I said, only half of my worth. But what happened next REALLY discouraged me from playing any further.
I went back about 5-10 minutes later to farm rogues, only to find the two people who cornered and killed me attacking every player who entered the rogues' hideout. When they saw me, they chased me all the way back to the town, into the bank, and finally into my vault, where I hid for a good 5 minutes. After the small interval, I left my vault to try, once again, to get to rogues so I can make some money. But of course, they're still there, and they chase me all the way back to my vault again. I finally said fuck it and logged off.
I log back in an hour and a half later. I withdraw 1000 gold (almost all the money I have) to go buy and engrave a new mace, so I can FINALLY get back to farming rogues for cash. I buy the mace without any problems, but when I enter the tavern to engrave it, I'm immediately attacked by another much higher-leveled player, and then chased out of the tavern. I'm done playing Aberoth for today.
There needs to be some drawbacks to playing a murderous scumbag, who goes around swinging a mace at every player he sees. Perhaps being flagged as a murderer, and having lots of restrictions imposed on you because of that status? People will think twice before killing a newbie for a quick laugh if it means they can't use their bank, trade any of the NPCs in the town, or any other similar restrictions.