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There are many consensual PvP systems in AoC, from epic castle sieges with guild prestige and ownership benefits, to small caravan raids with player profit and material loss at stake. All these PvP systems have clear rulesets with obvious risks and rewards. Outside of these systems there is only one system to control PvP - corruption.
The corruption system allows open-world PvP to happen at any time and place, albeit with ill defined risk and reward conditions in some scenarios (IMO). The affects of corruption will need to be balanced, probably in Alpha 2, so that the amount of PvP is at a desirable level. Heavy corruption effects will deter open-world PvP completely, light corruption effects will allow for rampant ganking.
The premise of this thread is that balancing corruption will be very difficult, and may even be impossible as player attitudes and objectives change, requiring corruption effects to be increased or decreased dynamically to maintain the desired levels and quality of open-world PvP. Whether AoC will balance the effects of corruption remains to be seen, but I would like to suggest a way of increasing the likelihood of corruption being effective...
Add more PvP systems in order to reduce the number of PvP encounters that must rely solely on corruption to balance the risk and reward.
As an example, I imagine that a large part of open-world PvP will involve players running around gathering. Perhaps an individual is going about their business on a perfect rotation hogging all the nodes. Perhaps a number of individuals are deliberately stripping resources to damage the land management around a node. Perhaps many citizens of a node are actively levelling their node by gathering everything and other players want to impede that. Instead of having to rely on just corruption to manage all that PvP, and hoping the effects of corruption are balanced just right to allow for meaningful PvP without mindless ganking, I believe that a PvP system should be added to manage and control this particular type of PvP effectively. The new PvP system will help maximise fun, meaningfulness, impact, risks and rewards.
For example, and this is just a quick idea to illustrate my point, what if the more resources a gatherer carries, and/or the more harmful effect they have on the environment, and/or the overall weekly greed/load of the gatherer, what if all this caused a 'greed meter' to rise. At a certain level the gatherer would cease to be green and become open to PvP without the attacker risking corruption. Or perhaps the higher the 'greed meter' the lower the corruption. The 'greed meter' will lower over time, or when materials are handed in or gifted to a temple for example. The 'greed meter' would completely reset if the gatherer dies and the attacker loots the materials. This 'greed meter' would lead to more gameplay options and emergent behaviours and tactics. For example, a gatherer would have increasing risk of being attacked the more 'efficiently' they gathered. A perfect example of risk versus reward.
In the examples above, I have chosen just one area of potential open-world PvP and devised a system that may not actually work or be enjoyable. But the point I am trying to make is that we should add more PvP systems in order to reduce the number of PvP encounters that must rely solely on corruption to balance the risk and reward.
In conclusion, reduce the number of PvP encounters that must rely on corruption, by creating a few more PvP systems.
Whadyafink?
The corruption system allows open-world PvP to happen at any time and place, albeit with ill defined risk and reward conditions in some scenarios (IMO). The affects of corruption will need to be balanced, probably in Alpha 2, so that the amount of PvP is at a desirable level. Heavy corruption effects will deter open-world PvP completely, light corruption effects will allow for rampant ganking.
The premise of this thread is that balancing corruption will be very difficult, and may even be impossible as player attitudes and objectives change, requiring corruption effects to be increased or decreased dynamically to maintain the desired levels and quality of open-world PvP. Whether AoC will balance the effects of corruption remains to be seen, but I would like to suggest a way of increasing the likelihood of corruption being effective...
Add more PvP systems in order to reduce the number of PvP encounters that must rely solely on corruption to balance the risk and reward.
As an example, I imagine that a large part of open-world PvP will involve players running around gathering. Perhaps an individual is going about their business on a perfect rotation hogging all the nodes. Perhaps a number of individuals are deliberately stripping resources to damage the land management around a node. Perhaps many citizens of a node are actively levelling their node by gathering everything and other players want to impede that. Instead of having to rely on just corruption to manage all that PvP, and hoping the effects of corruption are balanced just right to allow for meaningful PvP without mindless ganking, I believe that a PvP system should be added to manage and control this particular type of PvP effectively. The new PvP system will help maximise fun, meaningfulness, impact, risks and rewards.
For example, and this is just a quick idea to illustrate my point, what if the more resources a gatherer carries, and/or the more harmful effect they have on the environment, and/or the overall weekly greed/load of the gatherer, what if all this caused a 'greed meter' to rise. At a certain level the gatherer would cease to be green and become open to PvP without the attacker risking corruption. Or perhaps the higher the 'greed meter' the lower the corruption. The 'greed meter' will lower over time, or when materials are handed in or gifted to a temple for example. The 'greed meter' would completely reset if the gatherer dies and the attacker loots the materials. This 'greed meter' would lead to more gameplay options and emergent behaviours and tactics. For example, a gatherer would have increasing risk of being attacked the more 'efficiently' they gathered. A perfect example of risk versus reward.
In the examples above, I have chosen just one area of potential open-world PvP and devised a system that may not actually work or be enjoyable. But the point I am trying to make is that we should add more PvP systems in order to reduce the number of PvP encounters that must rely solely on corruption to balance the risk and reward.
In conclusion, reduce the number of PvP encounters that must rely on corruption, by creating a few more PvP systems.
Whadyafink?