Post by Lady Shylah on Jun 23, 2005 9:06:52 GMT -7
For the full story, click here
Exert From Letter RE: PvP
Coming from Lineage 2, there is a wrong way and a right way to PvP. Personally, I wouldn't mind it in the game as long as it's done the RIGHT way. Dueling is fine. Someone challenges you and you either accept or decline. I do NOT like chaotic PvP... this is where anyone can come up and smack you without provocation.
I really, really hope SoE doesn't screw this up...
Exert From Letter RE: PvP
What's up with PvP?
With the inclusion of Arena Champions in Desert of Flames, there's been a lot of talk lately about what our plans are for PvP in EverQuest II.
Lots of people remember that before we launched, we had always referred to PvP as "something that won't be in EQ2 for launch," but it's always been something that we wanted to include, just not unless we were able to take the time and do it "right."
That begs the question, "what does 'right' mean for PvP in EQ2?"
We have a lot of spells and abilities in EQ2, and they were all designed to be used in Player vs. NPC interactions.
For starters, 'right' means that we need to make sure that every profession has a role to play in PvP, while at the same time ensuring that no profession has the ability to completely shut down others players' usefulness (and, by extension, fun) in PvP.
There's no question that EQ2 is predominantly a PvE game and that there are people who do not ever wish to take part in PvP, and those people then naturally become concerned that their PvE abilities might be nerfed because of PvP concerns.
Given that, 'right' also means that we needed to make sure that we had a system in place that would let us change any individual ability's PvP effect without changing its PvE effect, which is definitely how we plan to balance PvP abilities.
Further, putting PvP into a PvE game also complicates the issue of what people's expectations are for their roles are in PvP. A person who is a support class in PvE will likely also be primarily support in PvP. Our goal in this is to make PvP fit into the world of EQ2 in a smart way, which means PvE roles will carry across into PvP. We're not aiming for a world where everyone can compete one-on-one or completely redefine classes based solely on which type of combat they're participating in.
With that in mind, our plan for PvP looks something like this:
Step 1: Dueling. We've made it available on Test Server with the current state of the PvE abilities for those who wish to give it a shot.
Step 2: Balance larger scale PvP fights. Do casters dominate? Do melee dominate? Is there something fun and useful for everyone? What do we do with power regen on casters vs. the autoattack power of melee? We've been testing these kinds of fights internally for quite awhile now, and we need to make sure that we have the ability scaling and effectiveness (using the system I described above) in a place we think is solid. This is the step we're on right now.
Step 3: Release Dueling to the live servers once the first round of PvP settings have been fleshed out.
Step 4: Beta for Desert of Flames and Arena Champions, in which we'll be getting a wealth of valuable information on our progress so far, since Arena Champions exercises different kinds of group PvP combat.
Step 5: Launch of Desert of Flames and Arena Champions.
Step 6: This is when we'll begin discussing our longer term plans for servers based on a PvP ruleset, and will be able to get into more details.
For now, know that it's something that we know people are interested in, and we're looking forward to being able to bring it to you in a way that doesn't adversely impact your PvE abilities.
With the inclusion of Arena Champions in Desert of Flames, there's been a lot of talk lately about what our plans are for PvP in EverQuest II.
Lots of people remember that before we launched, we had always referred to PvP as "something that won't be in EQ2 for launch," but it's always been something that we wanted to include, just not unless we were able to take the time and do it "right."
That begs the question, "what does 'right' mean for PvP in EQ2?"
We have a lot of spells and abilities in EQ2, and they were all designed to be used in Player vs. NPC interactions.
For starters, 'right' means that we need to make sure that every profession has a role to play in PvP, while at the same time ensuring that no profession has the ability to completely shut down others players' usefulness (and, by extension, fun) in PvP.
There's no question that EQ2 is predominantly a PvE game and that there are people who do not ever wish to take part in PvP, and those people then naturally become concerned that their PvE abilities might be nerfed because of PvP concerns.
Given that, 'right' also means that we needed to make sure that we had a system in place that would let us change any individual ability's PvP effect without changing its PvE effect, which is definitely how we plan to balance PvP abilities.
Further, putting PvP into a PvE game also complicates the issue of what people's expectations are for their roles are in PvP. A person who is a support class in PvE will likely also be primarily support in PvP. Our goal in this is to make PvP fit into the world of EQ2 in a smart way, which means PvE roles will carry across into PvP. We're not aiming for a world where everyone can compete one-on-one or completely redefine classes based solely on which type of combat they're participating in.
With that in mind, our plan for PvP looks something like this:
Step 1: Dueling. We've made it available on Test Server with the current state of the PvE abilities for those who wish to give it a shot.
Step 2: Balance larger scale PvP fights. Do casters dominate? Do melee dominate? Is there something fun and useful for everyone? What do we do with power regen on casters vs. the autoattack power of melee? We've been testing these kinds of fights internally for quite awhile now, and we need to make sure that we have the ability scaling and effectiveness (using the system I described above) in a place we think is solid. This is the step we're on right now.
Step 3: Release Dueling to the live servers once the first round of PvP settings have been fleshed out.
Step 4: Beta for Desert of Flames and Arena Champions, in which we'll be getting a wealth of valuable information on our progress so far, since Arena Champions exercises different kinds of group PvP combat.
Step 5: Launch of Desert of Flames and Arena Champions.
Step 6: This is when we'll begin discussing our longer term plans for servers based on a PvP ruleset, and will be able to get into more details.
For now, know that it's something that we know people are interested in, and we're looking forward to being able to bring it to you in a way that doesn't adversely impact your PvE abilities.
Coming from Lineage 2, there is a wrong way and a right way to PvP. Personally, I wouldn't mind it in the game as long as it's done the RIGHT way. Dueling is fine. Someone challenges you and you either accept or decline. I do NOT like chaotic PvP... this is where anyone can come up and smack you without provocation.
I really, really hope SoE doesn't screw this up...
