Greetings Travelers!
I wanted to open up a conversation that may hopefully get addressed when it comes to the anti griefing system in development. In order to have a productive conversation, I will first post my understanding of the corruption system, and then I will highlight my concerns with the system, as well as potential fixes.
TLDR:
PVP Dampening is bad for competition and community
Lvl 1's can block doorways with no solution
Corrupted players can get team-killed to circumvent penalties.
Non-damage abilities could flag or avoid flag
The Corruption System
This system was designed as a way to stop players or groups from harassing and griefing other players. By attacking other individuals you mark yourself as a "combatant," allowing you to steal a portion of resources from the target you kill, as well as lose some if you die. I'm not terribly concerned with this mechanic, as risk/reward helps raise the stakes and can make things fun.
If the individual you are fighting attacks back, there is no problem, but if they don't fight back, and they weren't already flagged, your character will gain
corruption. You will also gain
corruption if you attack someone who is much lower level than you.
Once your character accumulates enough
corruption, you will be marked as
corrupted, and then run the risk of 4x the standard amount of resource loss, PVP dampening, global position marked on the map, and the chance to drop your equipped items.
To clear off your
corruption, you can either die or grind exp in the area.
The Issues
1) The first problem with corruption is
PVP dampening.
While there should be a harsh penalty for players looking to kill innocents, dampening should not be part of the equation. Hunting down corrupted players should be a challenge since the reward will be much higher for killing them. If players take the risk of going corrupted, they should at least be given a fair chance to fight off their opponents when they come. Please remember, that this is an RPG style of game, and some people enjoy playing that chaotic evil character. The super high risk and infamy that comes from having your name as a target on the map is an exciting opportunity to create conflict in the world, one that is player-driven, and should be player solved. By dampening an individual who has become corrupted, you are cutting away at the possibility of this system. Aion did this well in it's early stages. Ganking and killing members of the other faction would eventually mark you as a skull on the map, and you would be hunted down. This was fun for players on both sides.
2)
Accumulation of corruption.
This has yet to be flushed out, but what we know is you gain corruption if you kill a player that doesn't fight back, and if they are lower level than you. Keeping in mind that this game has unit collision, this raises a huge issue with how does a player deal with an individual who parks a level 1 character in the doorway to a popular building or crafting location? If you are a high level, attacking a lvl1 would most likely kill them(assuming you would need to use an ability that "moves" them). This could result in your character gaining massive amounts of corruption, and then other players partied with the "body blocking level 1" could simply kill you for 4x your normal drops, and also not receive any penalty for attacking you since you are corrupted. This could be extrapolated to a group of 6, 2 people on level 1 characters who are non-combatants, and 4 players who are waiting nearby to kill anyone who gets frustrated with this trap.
3)
Corruption Clearing.
If a good way to clear corruption is death, then could two players simply go around killing players, stacking corruption right before they reach the threshold they become marked on a map or drop items, and they simply kill one another, looting each other until corruption is cleared and then continue with basically no penalty? If killing a corrupted player as a corrupted player doesn't help clear, could you not involve a 3rd member (with no corruption) every so often who comes into the mix and is in charge of killing the two corrupted players and then looting & trading valuables.
4)
Non-damage abilities.
The last issue could come in the interaction between players and support classes. Since there is no information about this yet, I'll leave it open, but there could be an issue with crowd control griefing (mind-control forcing players to jump to death, stun/pull without damage holding someone from playing, etc...). We will also need to know more about how healing/buffing players will have an effect on players gaining corruption. Could a player kill low levels while getting healed, would both individuals share corruption gain, and if you heal/buff a corrupted player, would you become corrupted? If you are invited to a party with a corrupted player, would you gain corruption, would you share corruption gain while in the party even if you don't participate in the kill?
I think overall the corruption system is a good idea. I love the idea of "becoming a threat" that the community must deal with. I love the idea of risk vs reward. The idea of dropping more resources and even your items is a great tool to stop players from over griefing. I am very much a lover of PVP, and love games with super high death penalties, but I understand how annoying it can be to be run over by zergs or much higher level players.
If we can figure out more about this system, and find a way to avoid using the corruption system as a way to grief other players, I think it will add a wonderful dynamic to the game.
Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear thoughts and opinions.
