mumbles's page

Couple of things to remember here. Firstly is the fundamental issue griefing or non consensual pvp? It is clear that serious consideration is being given to how to prevent griefing.

Secondly, griefing is not just about pvp - rogue carpenters in UO and people being trapped by tables? Jita being overrun by sheer numbers in EVE? People just jumping where you are fishing in WOW? People tapping nodes and not harvesting them, there is a huge list.

I personally dislike pvp, but I dislike a player base and a developer that is accepting of griefing more. I think that whilst there will be elements that may prove annoying, looking at the community right now I have high hopes for this working with or without pve specific servers.

Griefing is as much a function of the playerbase as the mechanics and right now whilst the mechanics may not be ideal the playerbase looks pretty damn encouraging.

Finally, my personal thought is that as I don't like non consensual pvp then there are approaches that can be taken, safety can be usually found in numbers. Now if I ride out into the wilderness alone then I expect to be set upon by bandits. However, I would be really surprised if I were to run into many unwanted fights riding out as a company. Pretty excited at the thought of it to be honest.

I love the idea of mines run by zombie workers. Not sure how the resource gathering is going to work if it will be an Everquest / WoW type model of clicking on resource nodes and looting everything. A more Eve type mining over time from respawning areas, or a SWG surveying and mining approach with a huge variety of resources.

If it is one of the two latter approaches then this will create a whole new role for pets / minions / golems which could work really well.

Personally I am not sure that all powerful pets are be all and end all here. There is the opportunity for a pet handling class not to necessarily be strong but fun and useful. I am not sure how many people remember the creature handlers in SWG, they were tough to play but a lot of fun. The pet and character together had the effect of a single combat focused class.

There is the opportunity for pet handling classes to train guard dog pets to defend settlements, beasts of burden to help transport goods quickly, vanity pets such as a dancing bear (probably not as its politically incorrect now so a dancing griffin instead?) its not just about combat or undead minions

Sounds like a decent solution and brings another layer of tactics into the game. One question is what would be the range of interdictors. Would it be a case of strategically positioning yourself on a trade route to interdict or able to interdict from anywhere in the general locality?

If its along traderoutes, it could be interesting to see groups of bandits fighting for the optimum interdiction spots and having people teleport past them whilst they fight!

but its a suggested solution

For me one of the attractions of the game is the freedom to do what you want, so many games try to handhold the reality is that the world is a big scary place. However, it is also true that there are consequences for actions.

Personally I would like to see safe zones, towns, villages or player built settlements that are designated your home area. All the time you are in your home area if you are killed then you can only lose a limited amount of items say one or two. This should protect crafters and individuals who want to stay in their home area for safety. However, if you are outside your home territory, then you are fair game.

World player kills carry risks and rewards, deliberately attacking towns gives you limited awards and high risks. You can still do it but there are greater consequences if you are killed. Whilst you cannot stop griefing you can change the risk / reward balance

I do think there would also be room for war declarations with mutual agreement. If you are at war then hey your fair game.

It not a perfect solution

Been doing my reading on PFO and have now signed up and pledged $125 for early access.

Have to say that whilst I recognise that there are no guarantees this is the first MMO that I have been excited about for a very long time.

It has made me smile reading the comments about charging for beta, I for one appreciate the honesty that is being demonstrated here. Games like SWG were to all intents and purposes paid beta, Warhammer online was terrible for the first few months and whilst these were not labelled beta they had all the characteristics of one.

IF they can build a committed community early on to develop the infrastructure within the sandbox and realise the potential here, then I will be very happy indeed