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Well, Fyrosfreddy's remarks were interesting, and I agree to much of it.

Only: The proposals of changing game mechanics are not realistic. Not only the manpower is lacking, but moreover, I fail to see that PvE gameplay has any urgent need to be strengthened by additional rewards. On the other hand, PvP seems to be in urgent need to receive new incentives.

I already wrote that the devaluation especially of rubbarn, armilo, greslin, and egiros OPs below q250 by the post-merge scheme of tool classes is crippling motivation to fight for such OPs.

The overly complicated and partially self-contradictory system of FvF grouping to get PvP points does not help to make PvP more attractive either. I think that best would be to allow to win PvP points equally from any kind of PvP activity, be it OP wars, duels, arena fights, fights in LoU and Nexus, or FvF fights.

Additional challenges like PvP missions might help as well. There was a proposal to shape part of the NPC boss missions in PvP style which I contradicted, not for the reason that I find the idea of winning NPC armors, plans, and craft crystals by PvP a bad one, on contrary. Only I do not see that the existing multi-team challenges could sensibly be used for.

Designing and implementing a PvP mission is not an easy task. There are balance considerations as well as the question how to grant access only to more or less equivalent teams and numbers of opponents. Otherwise the situation like in OP wars may arise again that mainly sheer numbers do count. Freddy finely described the vicious cycle and downward spiral created by such a situation.

Ideas for new PvP challenges and missions, individual, team, and multi-team, might be proposed and developed in the Ryzom forge process. Frankly, due to rare participation and not so much interest in PvP, I lack ideas how to do it. I only see that balance issues will be tricky.

What astonished me in the discussion, was Tumbleweed's point that everything challenging in PvP in Ryzom would be exhausted within a year at most. So far, I frequently heard from PvP interested players that this kind of gameplay would offer more variability and challenge than PvE (including harvesting and crafting), which would be exhausted after short time. Personally, I am playing Ryzom the sixth year, with insane accumulated playtime, widely without PvP, and still haven't the feeling that I have "finished the game".

We can't think about this from our own PoV, but start thinking of the PoV of those who are no longer here. You may not see the need but the people who have left the game do. Ari was made more tolerable for those folks and they came back en masse because the community ignored game mechanics and addressed many of thes issues on their own.

We lost sbout 50% of our player base on arispotle when PvP was introduced. As for the mechanics, they are already theree... we have additional OPs, we have the ranger (Tryton) faction(s) we have kitin mounds. As for the lower end OPs, that mechanism could simply be solved ... every OP has a mechanism whereby it produces a tool of a level +50 over its designation... major work required to bump that ?

Apparently there's time to spend on fishing which will something new and exciting for a week, but we don't have time to address the major precept of the game which is the kitin invasion ?

Occs were introduced in a time of light manpower, so were the advanced Occs .... an Occ that makes cats could easily be changed to take x number of lower level tools and craft higher a level one.

I have been here for over 12 years ("vacations" aside) with my major activity being chatting That's one of the reasons (not using alts ... and cats in their day, other than crafting ... being another) that I still have plenty to do. I have paid close attention to players when saying their goodbyes on why they are leaving. Looking thru glasses, colored by our own worldview, will not address "their" reasons for leaving.

And as indicated previously, there are things which the community controls and things whhich the devs control. Speaking again for those that are no longer here.... both PvP and PvE, there's just as many things in the 1st category as the 2nd..

The fishing is being worked on by one single person, because that person wants to implement fishing... and who knows what other things could evolve out from the fishing?

Maybe there are bigger issues out there. But maybe that person doesn't want to work on the bigger issue. At least that person does work on something, and i would say that every addition is a good sign.

That's fine ... if someone has the desire to do something any number of people might be interested in, that's great and, like the in game apps, every addition is a plus.... but I think the subject of the thread here is what will improve the game for the most amount of people.

The list of official projects seems to include a wide range of proposed changes, some of which will have narrow interest and some which will have wider and even unanimous interest:

* Apartment items
* Equipable (but useless other than show) items - like plush dolls
* Tribal Weapons - the interest here obviously will be much greater than the above two.
* New Area - Again, obvioudsly of great interest

While I very much welcome any the monor additions .... they add some color and nuance to the game .... but they are not "game chnagers". I don't see a conversation between a group of former players going ... Yeah i think I am going to resub to ryzom because NOW they have fishing, plush dolls or more apartment items.

The point of mentioning what is being worked on was in reference to the idea that limited manpower will make certain things impossible. Those last two items, would seem to require much more effort than many of the ideas suggested in this thread.... and many of the ides require no effoirt from the devs ata all but be accomplished by the community itself.

can i use fish for launcher ammo? :D

After reading this part right here, I cannot help but think of a parallel that is happening in another game; a tank-shooter that offers both PvE and PvP. They have two servers, EU and NA, and the PvP population on the NA server is low enough that they tried to boost it with a month-long event that rewards PvP victories. The event has so far backfired pretty spectacularly as some only play PvP halfheartedly, ruining that part of the game for serious PvP-ers, while others resent being forced into PvP and just quit the game entirely.

As a matter of personal taste, I find PvP rather boring so it's definitely not something I would do for fun. I'm not so competitive that I feel the need to compete just for the sake of competing. I fight only when victory gives rewards I actually care about; Sup/OP mats for my fellow Rift Walkers, XP for grinding, or something other than just bragging rights.

Sadly, I have yet to see any game where PvP enthusiasts are respectful of PvE players; Ryzom is as close as I've seen and even it has a bit of elitism from some of the PvP enthusiasts. I think that for PvP to even be viable, you have to fix that. If you can stop PvP from being abused by griefers and keep the PvP-lovers from sneering at those who do not share their love of interpersonal competition, then we can all get along. But like many people, I find it very hard to respect those who don't respect me, and it's a bit hard to respect those that are associated with those who disrespect me, so PvP-ers face an uphill battle.

Just my two dappers worth...

Respect is a two way street.

If anything, there is disrespect toward pvp players.

Atys has two environmental conflicts (Kitins and Goo), four nations, many tribes, two official religions, and two organizations. There is plenty of room for cooperation and conflict -and sometimes conflict progresses into fighting.

I beg not to dramaticize. In general, there is mutual respect between PvP and PvE players. I met many friendly and polite PvP players, even in case we had strong controversies in the forums (hello Virg :)).

I was somewhat astonished about Gidget's statement about PvP players' elitism. I cannot say that I ever experienced it. I met a few braggards, brutes, and cowards practising PvP, but I met unpleasant PvE players, too. I guess they were frequently nice in other situations, all of them, and sometimes it clearly may have been my fault, as I tend to act in a catty and polemic way, at least sometimes - nemo me impune lacessit.

I think it is important that we maintain, and where it is lacking, establish coexistance and cooperation among all playstyles possible and offered by the game. We cannot afford divisive habits.

While I agree that the elitism exists in a minority of players across the board, I don't think that is what Gidget is referring to is "empathy" ... the absence of "being able to put yourself in the other persons shoes" so to speak. When PvE players ask about "equal opportunities" (points, special mats, equal access) the answer immediately tossed out is "well no one is stopping you from going there" ... "or no one is stopping you from taking an OP" or "no one is stopping you from earng PvP points".

That's like telling someone who adheres to kosher dietary restrictions that "no one is stopping you from eating a cheeseburger".

The 2nd respponse in this vein is thet a person spends their Time and Effort doing things for their faction and that this T & E desrves rewards .... And while I have not seen any PvEers object to that reward system, many PvP'ers have openly campaigned against against PvEers being able to get equivalent rewards for equivalent T & E investments.

How about giving Rangers access to fame limited (50 all races or 50 kami / kara) mission that one could take from NPCs whereby say .... "Visit every OP on the planet and earn a Rubbarn / Armillo Craft Tool". The objections that I have heard seem unrelated to the T&E portion but more related to the value of the PvP ony reward beung perceived a shaving been diminiushed in some way. If it makes peeps nervous, I wonder how hard it would be to have that "buff" gained from the tool disappear in PvP scenarios.

As mentioned before, on Ari ... the community ignored game mechnics and the players themselves decided to provide equal opportunity access to all rewards to all, something i just don't see happening here. The games viability would i think be improved if the population wasn't divided into haves and have nots.

Why would a person who adheres to Kosher dietary restrictions want a cheeseburger? And what would they do if they had one, stare at it?

The outpost materials and pvp skirts are the product of pvp fighting; why would PvE players want these bloodstained rewards if PvP is such a bad thing?

I'm sure the Rangers will have their own rites and rewards at some point. I'm not against that as long as it makes sense- Rangers can't give out OP mats since Rangers are not involved in OPs at all. If anyone says, "Hey, I want that Ranger weapon which does 10% more damage to kitins," then the response should be "Then become a Ranger."

Placio --

According to the last meeting of the Rangers, Ranger Aspirants can belong to guilds that take OPs.

The Rangers are not against PvP per se, but against PvP actions that would hurt their neutrality. OP wars and PR areas are guild vs. guild. The Rangers don't get involved in guild affairs. That's what Wuaoi said.

I could easily see a group of Rangers getting allies and taking a useful OP and handing out the mats equably to all.

I wouldn't participate, because I don't do PvP, but I am not all Rangers.

P.S. There is already one such mission, Pathfinding:Beginnings that can only be undertaken by high level neutrals.

If Ranger guilds want to take, buy, or negotiate for an OP thats fine. I might even have a q50 Greslin OP that might be for sale :P They would eventually need to defend or hire someone to defend the OP though if it is attacked.

What I understood of Freddy's hypothetical mission was that it would just reward OP mats, without actually obtaining an OP. This wouldn't make sense to me; how would a ranger mission/rite give out q250 egrios, for example, if that OP is already owned by another guild/faction. Did they sneak into someone's GH and steal it? Do the Rangers impose a tax on outposts?

I think the most logical stance on OPs for PvE players, Trytonists, and Marauders would be to destroy the OP system completely. The Kami and Kara created those drills just to incite division amongst homins and to reward conflict. If you are opposed to the religions and conflicts you should take the OPs and refuse to build a drill on them, not say you should have access to the materials without owning the OP.

Let's see... Let's make the game fair to everyone...

So how about occ for maras? Or how about making it so a mara doesn't have to use an alt for everything?

It seems the one and only thing a mara has is four more tp points in PR than any other faction. So now we have kamis becoming maras and staying in a kami guild to get the PR tps.

I just wonder how fair that is....

Also I have personally experienced from complete noob up every underhanded, dirty trick non-pvpers can think of playing against a pvper who is a noob.

Somehow I don't think the system is quite equal.

This is a discussion on PvP not a discussion on how to give PvE players more when they already have it all or so it seems.

Just a thought; it would be nice to be able to tell what faction a pvper is by looking at their name tag.