Now that the the storm’s died down I wanna share something that’s been on my mind since Vetex’s PVP rant.
I’ve seen the idea thrown around a lot, even from Vetex himself that if he were to add a PVP toggle it would “kill the game,” but quite frankly I’ve never understood this.
A PvP toggle not tacked into the game super carelessly would have exceptions for high renowns and high infamy players since those features are built around random overworld PvP, meaning they’d probably be mostly unaffected. Duels would be unaffected since those were already consentual, leaving the most affected facet of PvP being unprovoked overworld ganking, which is by far the least liked and most controversial. Is there something I’m missing here? It doesn’t seem like it’d affect most people who don’t kill noobs for fun.
Additionally, for every little Timmy who happens to get attacked by a ganker, isn’t there a good chance that he’s going to quit the game and never come back after losing charts, galleons, time, boat health, sealed chests, and most importantly, pride? If every ganker’s enjoyment comes at the cost of many more casuals, it doesn’t seem healthy for the game as an ecosystem.
And yet, to all the casual players throughout most of their playtime this is advertised as a story-based RPG. The gameplay has you follow the story and go around an fight enemies and such, the only time the existence of the unpredictable threat that is PvP is disclosed is when someone finally decides to jump you, which tends to be a complete and unwelcome change of pace from the rest of the gameplay.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen games handle overworld PvP extremely well. For example, Verdant Moon:
- Has random overworld PvP encounters incorporated into the lore amazingly, using the players as a large part of the game’s unforgiving worldbuilding
- Lets you know from the very beginning what kind of game it is by spawning you into what is virtually a warzone
- Has powerups that aren’t super overtuned, so with enough skill it is possible to beat someone with endgame gear just by playing better than them
If you compare that to Arcane Odyssey’s ganking:
- Isn’t mentioned, part of the lore, nor an intentional part of the gameplay at all
- Literally disabled until level 50
- Power gap is insane, level cap alone is enough to kill anyone below you without using any amount of skill, and that’s not even mentioning Armor which can straight up double your damage with minimal EP investment.
I think a PvP Toggle would be nice because it would introduce players to the PvP scene at a slower pace better suited to it’s high learning curve, insane powerscaling, and long grind/preparation time. Instead of being opened up to very one-sided matchups the second you hit level 50, you have the option not to participate until you get a notification saying “You can no longer disable PvP due to your high renown.” This introduces it much more smoothly and deflects a lot of hate off the PvP community.