@Tumbleweed:
You make some good points and I agree with many things you said.
I think there's a general consensus that 80% or more of the OPs are pretty much useless at end game level. But one thing the OP system has nailed down pretty well is giving meaningful unique rewards that give even folks who never PVP otherwise the motivation to go and do OP wars because that's the only place where they can get those materials (maga, vedice, rubbarn, etc.). I guess it'd be a matter of implementing a system in which the lower level OPs would still be meaningful.
What I don't entirely agree is about PVP victory being soleley focused on gear. To an extent, yes. Anyone who wants to pvp in an even remotely competitive way needs pvp jewels. And as Mjol pointed out, they kinda break any sort of game balance between melee and magic because it makes magic dps almost useless in small scale pvp.
There's the cheesy tactic of running with nuke enchants hoping you kill your opponent before he can get within melee range of you, but that usually only works against inexperienced meleers. But otherwise pvp jewels kinda kills magic dps.
But other than pvp jewels, what determines victory is countering your opponent's build, not having the best gear. If the guy has a supreme rubbarn boosted vedice 2h axe + marauder NPC armor, he can still be _easily_ defeated by someone going on a fast dodge build using only regular weapons who knows how to optimize their stanzas (spear+buckler in this case).
I completely disagree that combining stanzas doesn't matter much, in fact I'd say that choosing the right gear (note: the right counter, not necessarily the best gear) vs your opponent + making the right stanzas is pretty much the most important thing. In fact, many fights are determined before the beginning, just by looking at which build each player is using and knowing which one is going to win because it's a direct counter to his opponent.
So I suppose player skill comes in knowing this system, using stanzas effectively (it's not as easy as it looks to make the most optimized stanzas for each situation) and which enchants to use to counter your opponent. Now there's room for debate on whether that's boring or not, it's definitely not twitch based combat.
I don't mind the very long grind you need to master the right skills, acquire mats for pvp jewels and gear, etc. That's the nature of MMO's. And tbh, that's what makes Ryzom's gameplay so much more organic than most games. You pvp for in game resources, which then are used to craft the gear that you need to gain an edge in pvp, but the gear is not permanent and will degrade over time, which means you need to pvp more. Clever design if you ask me.
Much better than endless dungeon raids for randomly generated loot, or even "pvp vendors" who sell gear for some sort of a pvp currency. It feels more organic this way.
You make some good points and I agree with many things you said.
I think there's a general consensus that 80% or more of the OPs are pretty much useless at end game level. But one thing the OP system has nailed down pretty well is giving meaningful unique rewards that give even folks who never PVP otherwise the motivation to go and do OP wars because that's the only place where they can get those materials (maga, vedice, rubbarn, etc.). I guess it'd be a matter of implementing a system in which the lower level OPs would still be meaningful.
What I don't entirely agree is about PVP victory being soleley focused on gear. To an extent, yes. Anyone who wants to pvp in an even remotely competitive way needs pvp jewels. And as Mjol pointed out, they kinda break any sort of game balance between melee and magic because it makes magic dps almost useless in small scale pvp.
There's the cheesy tactic of running with nuke enchants hoping you kill your opponent before he can get within melee range of you, but that usually only works against inexperienced meleers. But otherwise pvp jewels kinda kills magic dps.
But other than pvp jewels, what determines victory is countering your opponent's build, not having the best gear. If the guy has a supreme rubbarn boosted vedice 2h axe + marauder NPC armor, he can still be _easily_ defeated by someone going on a fast dodge build using only regular weapons who knows how to optimize their stanzas (spear+buckler in this case).
I completely disagree that combining stanzas doesn't matter much, in fact I'd say that choosing the right gear (note: the right counter, not necessarily the best gear) vs your opponent + making the right stanzas is pretty much the most important thing. In fact, many fights are determined before the beginning, just by looking at which build each player is using and knowing which one is going to win because it's a direct counter to his opponent.
So I suppose player skill comes in knowing this system, using stanzas effectively (it's not as easy as it looks to make the most optimized stanzas for each situation) and which enchants to use to counter your opponent. Now there's room for debate on whether that's boring or not, it's definitely not twitch based combat.
I don't mind the very long grind you need to master the right skills, acquire mats for pvp jewels and gear, etc. That's the nature of MMO's. And tbh, that's what makes Ryzom's gameplay so much more organic than most games. You pvp for in game resources, which then are used to craft the gear that you need to gain an edge in pvp, but the gear is not permanent and will degrade over time, which means you need to pvp more. Clever design if you ask me.
Much better than endless dungeon raids for randomly generated loot, or even "pvp vendors" who sell gear for some sort of a pvp currency. It feels more organic this way.
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"We are Kami. We are here to be you. We are many as you are of many minds. We are one as you are one in Ma-Duk."