pvp-flagging
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Warlords of Draenor: PvP now requires active flagging on PvE realms
Have you ever been quietly minding your own business on the Timeless Isle, or attacking a world raid boss like Ordos, only to find yourself accidentally flagged for PvP due to a misclick or tab target gone horribly wrong? Earlier this year, Bashiok mentioned that one of the goals for PvE realms was to keep players from accidentally flagging themselves -- and in a tweet by Ion Hazzikostas, it's been confirmed that this has now been implemented on the beta. @holinka @swirlyball @Bashiok You must manually /pvp flag if you want to attack a player on a PvE server. No more misclicks or baiting. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) August 28, 2014 This means no more accidental flagging for players that are simply trying to DPS or quest out in the open world on PvE realms. And this also applies to healers as well -- healers will simply not be able to heal flagged players unless they choose to actively flag for PvP. Naturally this issue isn't a problem on PvP realms, but for players on PvE realms, the change in Warlords should be a welcome relief. When players make the choice to roll on a PvE realm, that choice is usually a deliberate one that's made to avoid the hassle of unwanted world PvP situations. It's nice to see that steps are finally being taken to keep PvP on PvE realms what it was meant to be -- an optional experience that you can choose to participate in, rather than be tricked into whether you're willing or not.
The Daily Grind: Do alternative server rulesets wreck PvP?
A commenter conversation a while back got me thinking about how server rulesets can make or break the PvP in a game, and not in the way you might expect. I've found that when a game offers separate PvE and PvP servers (be those PvP servers factional or open), the middle-ground players are left without a home. My World of Warcraft guild, for example, was opposed to the idea of a PvE-only server where people could flag but rarely would do so, and so we ended up on a PvP server, where smallfry ganking, rather than the Dark Age of Camelot-esque RvR we'd hoped for, is tediously and irritatingly commonplace. Neither choice is ideal because the populations are split along too sharp a line. In Star Wars Galaxies, by contrast, the servers were PvE with factional-flagging consensual PvP, but because there were no full-PvP servers to bleed away the more hardcore PvPers, the population was mixed, and the PvP situation wound up being far more interesting for more players. PvE gamers who wouldn't dream of flagging for PvP in a game like World of Warcraft would see the Galactic Civil War being waged by PvPers all around them in SWG, and even though they could have stayed safely civillian and free from risk, that visible PvP made them much more likely to jump into PvP themselves willingly -- and isn't that exactly what MMOs should strive for? What do you think -- do alternative rulesets divide playerbases and wreck PvP? Are mixed-use servers a viable way to involve more players consensually in side activities like PvP? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Strategic resources for everyone!
The past four EVE Online expansions have mostly focused on adding small features and overhauling old game mechanics and content that were beginning to show their age. Crucible delivered dozens of small but highly-requested features and gameplay improvements, and Inferno and Retribution continued with overhauls of several aging PvP systems. Even Odyssey contained mostly small features and revamps, its biggest gameplay features being a new hacking minigame and a streamlined scanning interface. It's been several years since EVE has received a truly massive and game-changing feature like wormholes or a sovereignty revamp, but that may all be about to change! CCP recently announced its intention to start reaching for big ideas again, but this time set over a more realistic timeframe. If everything goes according to plan, the next five years could see the introduction of player-built stargates and true deep space colonisation. I wrote about the potential of this concept last week and looked at some of the big features we'd need to make it a reality, but I didn't really delve into my personal favourite idea for a potential future expansion: New strategic resources and player-created deadspace complexes. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how strategic resources could be used to get even individual players invested in something worth fighting for, and how player-created deadspace dungeons could be a great way to introduce them.
EVE Evolved: Player justice in Retribution
This week CCP released a new devblog on upcoming piracy and PvP changes heading to EVE Online with this winter's Retribution expansion. In addition to new ships and an as-yet unrevealed bounty hunter revamp, Retribution completely redesigns the Crimewatch system that decides whom you can legally shoot and stops players from docking or jumping out of the system in the middle of combat. EVE's aggression mechanics are notoriously complicated and buggy, but Retribution aims to simplify the system and put players in the driving seat of criminal justice. The new Crimewatch system not only gets rid of old, undocumented code that was written when dinosaurs roamed the earth but also has far-reaching consequences for pirates, people engaging in PvE and the upcoming bounty hunting revamp. Pirates will now be able to escape into high-security space without police intervention, loot thieves will be subjected to mob justice, nullsec ratters won't be as safe as they think, and neutral remote repairing will be a thing of the past. In this week's EVE Evolved, I delve into Crimewatch 2.0 and how the Retribution expansion will change the game for pirates, ratters, and people engaging in PvP across New Eden.
Wasteland Diaries: The Nerfpocalypse
I don't know about you, but when I think about a post-apocalyptic future, I think about bands of merciless raiders, anarchy and danger along every roadway. Does Fallen Earth have all of these things? Yes, but it is hardly the lawless, danger-ridden place (once you get acclimated to it) that you would expect to find when civilization has collapsed and there are mutants running amok. Fallen Earth is hardly the quintessential post-apocalyptic future. Games like Gamma World (a pen-and-paper RPG from days of yore) and Wasteland captured the bleakness of a destroyed world much more convincingly. But who knows. Maybe the folks at Icarus got it right. We'll never know until the earth is destroyed. And games won't be such a matter of import when almost everyone is gone. Anyway, what I am getting at is the setting. The setting looks fantastic; the art department has certainly captured a desolate wasteland. The writing is great, and the towns and encounters are well-designed. Fallen Earth has the ambiance nailed. But the wasteland just doesn't have that sense of danger about it. Not for me, at least. After the cut, I'll discuss what I thought FE was going to be like, what it is, and what I think it should be.
Wasteland Diaries: Flag up
Since the addition of the open world PvP flag to Fallen Earth, I haven't seen it being used often enough. There are only a handful of players, including me, who stay flagged for PvP 24/7. For a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Fallen Earth is a pretty safe and cozy place for most. The majority of the game takes place in relatively civilized areas where clones can't harm one another. PvP zones are optional, and many players simply avoid them. With the well-guarded towns, sporadic and weak mobs that are always right where you left them, and the resilience of player characters, there isn't a huge element of danger out there. I know a lot of these issues are being addressed with the combat changes, but today's wasteland isn't too frightening. I drive into PvP zones and almost breathe a sigh of relief, because everyone around me is on an even keel. When I roll into a crowded town, that is when I'm really on my guard. I appear to go about my business normally, but I'm looking over both shoulders. You never know who in the crowd might have it in for you or might just attack you on a whim. Truth be told, it's not so bad. Most people won't pay you any mind. After the cut, I'll take a look at the past month I've spent PvP-flagged and try to explain why I think it's the only way to play.
Wasteland Diaries: New paint job
The Fallen Earth 1.6 patch is a couple days old now, and I've had a chance to check out some of its features. I've painted more vehicles than Earl Scheib this week. I was able to test the respec injectors on the Public Test Server (PTS). I haven't tried them on the live server yet, but I have a few misallocated points that aren't serving much of a purpose. I was able to run through the new, extended tutorial with a brand-new clone. And the Fallen Earth team has given us the ability to flag ourselves for PvP anywhere, anytime. This should prove interesting. If you have been waiting on the sidelines for the next patch or are wondering what new things are in store for us, I will give you a breakdown of the new stuff I have been able to check out myself after the cut. The patch is only a few days old, but I have been trying to experience the new features to the fullest in that short time.
