macskull

Too many potential problems with such a system, not the least of which is it essentially becomes "everyone is exactly the same" which defeats the point of a team-based MMO in the first place. One of the biggest complaints from non-PvPers about PvP pre-I13 was "I can't do this" or "I keep getting killed by this," when the simplest solution to such issues was often to find teammates who could allow you to do those things or counter those tactics. A well-coordinated and balanced small team used to be able to wreak havoc upon a larger, uncoordinated number of players, who would've been able to clean the floor with the smaller team if they'd only grouped up and coordinated. The apparent aversion to looking for the "invite to team" button is part of what brought I13 crashing down onto PvPers heads.

I don't think any PvPer doesn't want a level playing field (to be fair there are a lot of zone PvPers post-I13 who are absolutely terrible but insist they're gods because they play builds which are heavily favored by the current ruleset). The playing field prior to I13 was fairly balanced both between team and solo PvP (barring player skill, of course, at it should be), but in an effort to make everything the same, lots of stuff became unbalanced and there now exist several mechanics which can't be overcome no matter how good you are or what kind of teammates you bring. To put it another way, it's as if someone decided the zigzag pieces in Tetris weren't as good as the T pieces and you couldn't complete a line using only zigzag pieces (true, but a combination of Ts and zigzags could), so they replaced everything with round pieces. Sure, everything's the same, but it's stupid because you can't complete a line no matter how hard you try.

PvPers had been asking for a PvP-only server since well before I13, and still ask for it, but it's incredibly unlikely because setting up a new server is expensive and there's no way an existing server could be converted to a PvP-only server. The unfortunate reality is that if the PvP population wasn't big enough to make such a move worthwhile before I13, it certainly isn't now (I estimate that the PvP population is about 1/10 the size it was two years ago).

Insert standard "you need to build your character for PvP" and "if you want to get better at PvP you need to put effort into doing so" comments here (not being snarky, but that's how these things go). It's really really sad that the I13 changes, which were supposed to help people like yourself (the particular "I can't PvP because..." mindset), more or less ended up doing the exact opposite. All the changes mean that now more than ever you do need a specialized build and particular powersets to perform well in PvP, and you need to learn an entirely new ruleset. Instead, the changes drove a good portion of the PvP playerbase away from the game, created resentment among those that remained, and didn't bring in significant numbers. I know I'm ranting here, but I wasn't even heavily invested in PvP at the time and I absolutely hate what it did to the community.

PvP in MMOs rarely is, unless that game is designed for PvP, like Global Agenda is. You'll hear a lot of people say "if I want PvP I'll go play Call of Duty" or something similar, and that's because that game is almost entirely based around combat where you don't need to balance classes because everyone's on roughly the same footing (minus reflexes and such). It used to be that you could step into a PvP zone in this game and, provided you had at least some understanding of what was going on around you, stay alive and sometimes even pull off a few kills. These days, that's a lot more difficult.

PvP was "fine" for 9 issues. EM was "fine" for 10 (changed between I9 and I10) issues. Psychic Shockwave was "fine" for 9 issues. No AoE caps, taunt caps, or aggro limits was "fine" for 5 and 6 issues respectively. The ability to slot more than 100% worth of a particular enhancement value was "fine" for 6 issues. The BotZ set bonuses were "fine" for 4 issues. Being able to buff pet recharge time was "fine" for 14 issues.

See what I'm getting at here?

(EDIT, on topic: you can completely negate the -def from the Rage crash by stacking Rage just before it wears off. In other words, the -def is only a worry before you get enhancements into the power.)

They've proven time and time again that they're willing to do this, so I wouldn't be surprised if it happens.

1. Before I13, most servers had at least semi-active populations in RV at the very least. Freedom and a few other servers had active PvP in every zone except BB (BB was never all that popular, simply because of the low level limits).

2. The reason there are different-level PvP zones is because the PvP dynamic is entirely different from one zone to the next. Players don't have patron/epic powers in Siren's, nor do they have their secondary tier 9 (prior to I16 they didn't have their primary tier 9 or their secondary tier 8 either). If another PvP zone were to be added, it would be great to have it as a level 50 co-op FFA zone - think Warburg, but level 50 instead of 38, with the ability to team with members of either faction and attack anyone not on your team.

3. PvP zones have always operated under the "anyone who is at least the minimum level to enter is bumped up to the max level of the zone" mechanic (i.e. your level 40 will act as a 50 in RV, and so on). The problem with making only one zone, capped at 50, is that a level 15 who might fare at least decently against 20s or 25s in Bloody Bay will now have to go up against IOd level 50s with all of their powers, which would make it incredibly unbalanced even not considering the retarded zone ruleset in place since I13.

The real solution here is to make PvP (hell, even PvE) zones and the arena cross-server (and revert the I13 changes, but that's a different discussion entirely).

One of the assumptions you are making here is that in order for PvP to be popular with a large number of players, it needs rewards. It should be noted that participation in PvP across all servers was significantly higher before I13 when PvP gave no rewards (no inf, no prestige, no inspirations, no salvage, no chance at a recipe drop). The people who really are interested in PvP will PvP regardless of the rewards, simply because they find competition (or interaction with an opponent that isn't a dumb AI) interesting or fun. Unfortunately this assumption was also one of the bases of the I13 changes (i.e. assuming that the underlying mechanics were unbalanced and needed to be readjusted so a rewards system could be implemented). Unless an MMO decides to cater specifically to PvPers, PvP will be a niche in that game, just like RP or badging or base building or any number of such things, and overhauling the system in an attempt to draw more people in (with no guarantee it will work) but pissing off the people who already do use the system is a sure way to fail, as has been demonstrated with this game..

Nothing quite like going from an empty tray to a full tray with the activation of one power. >.>

And despite multiple people filing bug reports on this during beta, is still unfixed.

rofl

If a hypothetical PvP merit system were to be introduced (similar to the bounty system in Siren's Call, perhaps; or maybe simply turn in earned rep for rewards) based on kills, it should only be used to purchase PvP IOs, whether they be random rolls or specific recipes. Shivans and Warburg nukes should be made available via reward merits, not PvP merits, but they should either be a weaker version of the ones found in PvP zones (in the case of the nukes) or only have one use (in the case of the Shivan Shard power). As a PvPer, I wouldn't mind if those rewards were removed from PvP zones entirely (and weakened appropriately) - generally when I go searching for those rewards I'm not looking for PvP in the first place as I want those rewards on my PvE characters, who aren't usually built for PvP.

As far as specific days or time of day, that's really up to the teams involved (after the seeding tournament, which I'd try to schedule on a date/time that worked for everyone, with at least a few weeks' notice). This is to hopefully avoid the "we can't get everyone online at this time or on this day, so we can't participate" issues which caused problems for the league when we ran that last year. The seeding tournament would probably be on a Friday or Saturday evening to allow Australian time players to participate (Sunday nights wouldn't work for them), and would probably take 2-4 hours depending on the number of teams involved.

Again, I'm hoping for 5-6 teams to start: if everyone who had viewed this thread registered we'd have enough for 20 teams >.>