Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
Overall I think Intrepid has a workable balance going. You can duel without penalty all you want. It's the killing of people which will have consequences.
There is nothing preventing you from being a sociopath in a game, but in this one there would be consequences.
In medieval Ire before the brits, if you wandered into a village alone and killed someone, even if it might of been justified (self defense), because you were unknown you would be facing off against the entire rest of the village. Men, women, wolf hounds and sometimes even children would be doing their best to take you out. At that point it didn't matter how good you were skill wise. You got swarmed under and you died.
Intrepid's flagging system seems to just be a variation of that sort of old school justice.
I think the whole point is to bring some level of realism into the game. Having the ability to switch off the ability for others to be able to attack you would go against the whole thing they are trying to do with the PVX a mixture of PVP and PVE.
I will tell you I am more a PVE person but do like PVP on occasion. I had my concerns of people that just want to PVE possibly being harassed. But honestly after review the system thoroughly. The system is pretty well balanced. Just don't attack back and odds are they will leave you alone or risk corruption.
Besides the fact this game is meant to have PVP as a good part of the game so it would go against what they are trying to create. A little risk might be just what we need to have that exhilaration and fun
If you give worthwhile rewards for staying flagged, wpvpers will have a better time.
You seem to be worried about them being sucked dry from under your feet and PKing being the only method to procure a share at all. It isn't so.
Small buffs from being flagged incentivize you while not being problematic if you don't like a small crit buff on gathering, or maybe rest xp deteriorates a bit slower. Incentive to flag is super important to make sure wpvp doesn't devolve into "I only flag when it's convenient" mindset. And this will 100% happen.
Edit: If we assume what Steven said in the last stream is accurate.
So let's use this example. HumbleP is grinding away on some corrupted birdmen. HP is using aoe to burn them down. Elder wanders by and says "Aha...I will make him flag by running into his aoe effect!" while twirling his villain mustachios. He runs into the aoe and......nothing happens, other than the birdmen continue taking damage. HP is still green at this point. Elder says "You must die for attacking these innocent twisted creatures." and fires off an attack at HP. Elder is now flagged purple but HP is green unless he pauses his aoe on the birdmen, click targets Elder and fires off an attack. In that scenario it's on.
All in all getting bent about it is pointless, in another two days those of us with keys will be getting the details and confirmation on the flagging system as it stands now.
Someone earlier said they don't understand why someone like me would play an open world PvP game. I'll tell you exactly why. Because there's much, much more to the game than just PvP. I enjoy exploration, PvE, crafting, and look forward to the unique aspects of this game - especially the nodes. PvP is just an annoying side thing for me. It's there, and if I get bored I might give it a try now and then. Honestly, in past games I have become quite good at PvP. But fighting and killing other players has no appeal to me. I like to work together to create something or accomplish some grand goal - and this game has opportunity for that more than any other game I have seen.
The depth of how PVP will work in this game is more than just killing each other which I am very curious to see how it unfolds.
I think people who would not normally like PVP may find enjoyment in this game.
Do not see the value of toons attacking people in their own node. Nodes are a kind of like a faction.
Really Do not see the value of having the ability to attack someone x amount lower levels than yourself. Depending on how it scales. So Do not think toons should be allowed to to attack lets say someone ten levels lower than yourself.
What is the point of being punished for ganking a low level when you could prevent it entirely. I will go up against other max level toons all day make a list get a group hunt them down. Make rivals. That is pvp. I do not see any positives to ganking low level toons just upsets low level toon cause they have no chance to win. No risk or reward just getting ganked.
As far as ganking low levels, a lot of games have a system in place where you can only be attacked once you hit a certain threshold (BDO being a prime example where you can't be attacked below level 50). Perhaps they will put in some sort of system like that.
Also... if my King/City/ etc is in need to get hands dirty... who am I to not follow orders for the greater good?
As they told way back in the kickstarter video: It's hard to talk about ONE designelement of AoC without talking about ALL THE OTHERS at the same time.
Just think about the tavern social hubs... You are sitting there playing games with your friends and suddenly some strangers from another node arrive and tell you about a group that terrorizes their node and abush all of their caravans. People are leaving their node, as they did to find another place... Or they are hiring help. People to guard their ressources. They will pay for that service of your (mightier) node and maybe politically be something like a subnode of yours.
I think its very good to be able to be attacked and attack EVERYWHERE. I think its very important for everything else. And I also think that it should be punished to do so, by engine and other players. But it should be possible everywhere, anytime and to everybody. It should be somthing that is somehow motivated or else just doesnt pay off. Hard punishments for PKers! But the possiblity to be one!
There are games that have pvp servers and PVE servers so let say we put all the PVErs and drop them into a pvp server. Not a good idea.
Better just to go with a flagging system.
Going with a pve flagging system would just do the opposite of what you said and put all the pvpers on a pve server. They are trying to create a balance between pvp and pve with their flagging system. Steven has based his flagging system off the one in lineage 2 and he has said that he liked the effect it had in the game.
I think it makes things much more interesting than beeing able to say:
"No I dont want to be able to be attacked, when Im just spying at your base, my dear enemies. There ist no caravan and no siege, so you cant harm me! We will go into "your" territory and take "your" ressources and you can do nothing about that. I have a lower level and Im stealing all your stuff! Look at me, as Im doing it!"
Dont get me wrong! Most time in MMOs I play PVE but I like PVP too and I dont want to see PVP content beeing cut of for... no good reason (in MY eyes!).
Ganking is pointless with that system. Especially + the bounty hunter system. Of course there will be always some... well ganking people, but lets say that guy killed 3 people already, that didnt fight back = he is much weaker than before = 3 other PvXers come and kill him right away = he is dropping a lot of his stuff = justice has spoken, problem solved. The more the ganking player ganks, the weaker he will get + the more items he will loose = he gets even weaker and looses money (itemvalue) aswell. Cant think of someone who will do something like ganking... Just to loose stuff and get weaker.
On the other hand I can imagine two groups of guilds/nodes at war that are fighting each other somewhere on the field. Not just at a siege or caravan. And they will be flagged as combatants. And if there is one guy not fighting... Well maybe the others will leave him alone or some of them accept getting corruption and all the negative effects that come eith it and kill him.
Most PVP will be around caravans and sieges because there is meant to be PVP and a PVPer is not punished for doing PVP there. There PVPers get the challenge they are looking for. There is something to get and to achive. Not something personal to loose... Like items... And stats...