An IN DEPTH PK System alongside the Corruption system [[SUPER LONG POST]]
Disclaimer - I came from UO / Darkfall / Mortal and I am used to a full loot, perma-red system. I know I am in a niche category and minority and I am aware of the griefing issues people have. So here are some suggestions that perhaps, as a community we can refine and perhaps see it implemented alongside their current corruption system.
GRIEF POINTS
Grief points is completely seperated from the corruption system. I assume the corruption has a point system in of itself. The grief points however is different and HIDDEN. The grief points system affects the account.
The main issues people have with PVP is mostly high level players ganking low level players. It's not fun seeing a level 50 killing a lvl 1, 5, 10, 20, etc.
So how can we discourage that?
Currently - AoC wants to add a Stats dampen & reducing pvp effectiveness- which I am not in favor of. The game is about risk and rewards. This should also include for PKers (more on that later).
So I'd like to suggest removing that aspect of the corruption system and add this system I will propose. Feel free to tweak.
Killing players level below you
grief point added to your account
0 (aka of equal level) = .01
1 level below you = .03
2 = 0.5
3 = 0.7
4 = 0.8
5 = 0.9
6 = 1
7 = 3
8 = 5
9 = 7
10 = 10
11 = 11
12 = 12
13 = 13
14 = 14
15 = 15
16 = 16
17 = 17
18 = 18
19 = 19
20 = 30
21 = 31
22 = 32
23 = 33
24 = 34
25 = 35
26 = 36
27 = 37
28 = 38
29 = 39
30 = 50
31 = 51
32 = 52
33 = 53
34 = 54
35 = 55
36 = 56
37 = 57
38 = 58
39 = 59
40 = 75
41 = 77
42 = 79
43 = 81
44 = 83
45 = 85
46 = 87
47 = 89
48 = 93
49 = 97
50 = 100
*NOTE - Consistently killing the same target within X time will DOUBLE your grief points (Example: 1,2,4,8,16,32,64)- Corpse Gank at your own risk!!!!!
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Grief Points consequences
0-49 --- nothing
50-99 --- Corruption & bounty system enabled (reduction in XP, increase in loss of XP upon Death, Loss of gather-able upon death)
100-250 --- Upon Death - 1 random weapon or armor is also dropped upon death
251-500 --- Town Kill on Sight Enabled
501-750 --- Account is flagged for minor consequence on other toons (see A) -
751-999 --- Jail System enabled (See C) - Account is flagged for major consequence (see A2) - "Open Loot" (See B )
1000+ -- Perma Red
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A -- Account is flagged for minor consequences. So one of the way we can discourage griefer is to put some penalities on their alts. Nothing too big but still annoying. Some ideas are:
- Reduce XP gain from quests / mobs
- Increase Cost of goods from NPC
- decrease cost of goods when selling to NPC
- Alts becomes Purple if PKer has over 501 grief points(See A2 & A3)
- Anyone who helped a Red player who has over 501 grief points becomes purple (See A2 & A3)
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A2 - Account is flagged for major consequences - So the player continues to grief hard and often. What else can we do to discourage them? Some suggestion
- All Alts on that shares the same server with the PKer character will be flagged Purple. This is a visual indicator to the public and they can choose if they wish to deal with said player. Reputation matters and you can't hide behind an alt.
- Because the player is Purple - that indicates that he/she has helped a player who has over 751 grief points OR has a character that has over 751 grief points. They are an accomplice to a well known criminal of Verra. Thus they are also thrown into the bounty system, only they can not lose items upon being killed by a bounty hunter. To prevent any loopholes - helping a griefer (See A3) will give your character 10 grief points.
So let me explain my reasoning for why they should be open to free kills by bounty hunter. If you are purple, you intentionally knew you helped someone who has accumulated a ton of grief points. You knew this person has killed many many people, most likely low level ganking and camping. You consented and approved his action of griefing, so with that said, let's say you are a lvl 10 alt or friend who helped the PKer. Now you are purple and a lvl 50 bounty hunter can kill you w/o consequences.
Actions has consequences. Now the duration of a purple status is up to the AoC Staff. Perhaps is based on how much grief points the player you helped will determine the duration of your purple status and if it's an ALT or a guildie/friend will have a different timer.
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A3 - So to prevent loopholes of alts/friends/guildies helping Pkers w/o getting tagged themselves - we solved that issue with the purple system. What is considered helping?
-- Buffing A red player out of combat (remember, if you heal during combat, you get flagged as a combatant already)
-- Healing A red player out of combat
-- TRADING ANYTHING (Weapon/Armor/potion/Money) to a red player
Just to re-iterate Purple Status is on a timer based on Alt or non-alt and the amount of grief points the PKer had. It can last for an hour or couple of days. Alts are auto flagged purple at 500/600/700/800/900 grief points and Last 3 days on 500, 6 days on 600, 9 days on 700, 12 days on 800, 15 days on 900 and 1 month at 1000 grief points. ONCE AGAIN THIS ONLY APPLIES TO ALTS ON THAT ACCOUNT AND ON THAT SAME SERVER - not to guildies/friends - they are on a different timer.
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B - "Open Loot"
Very simple - instead of a Random Weapon or Armor or item dropping - the individual who slained us gets to pick 1 item from our inventory.
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Perma Red
Now for my favorite part - let's be real - I worked real hard to become perma-red. Let me get some achievement and unlock something unique for us Perma Red. We put a lot of negative weight to this scale and I don't intent to balance it - but I do gotta put some weight on the other side. 80/20 on the justice scale.
There should be some "rewards" if we choose to take this hard knock life path.
0-100 - we get nothing
101-250 - we get nothing
251-500 - maybe a pet or some unlock-able cosmetics / outfits??
501-750 - Specific Quest-line opens up for us - with unique pvp reward.
So remember at the beginning - I said I disagree with reducing pvp effectiveness. At this point, with 500+ - we are basically fully committed to pvp and being hunted down - throw us a little bone. A unique PK potion(s) - the cool-down is longer than standard type of potions tho. or perhaps an increase in our HP pool now. We are blood thirsty.
751-999 - Special PK gear BUT these gear is complete trash on PVE - gives us no XP on PVE content. Unable to tag/deal damage to World bosses. reduce weight capacity - lots of things you can do to hamper the PvE aspect of things. but it decreases CD and/or major increase in PVP related Stats, HP pool perhaps. Doesnt have to be offensive stats but more of a survival stats for a PKer. Maybe it's an item that Copies our current gear and just adds HP/Def to them. These are dailies repeatable quest - so it always puts us out in the world to be hunted - but the quest is RNG so bounty hunter cant camp the spot.
1000+ special PKer mount?????? Maybe, and this one is controversial - we get 10% of gold from players. Let's be real - there isnt going to be that many perma Red - this isnt an easy path for a player. But we are already severely hurting our income from 1-999 and on our alts - we worked our butt off to become a perma-red. You can throw this bone.
Also a Title and more unique PKer-esque cosmetics???
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C - Jail System
At 751 points of Grief - perhaps the player had a change of mind and learned he/she can't handle the PK lifestyle in AOC - or doesnt enjoy the punishments on Alts, as this can hurt the alt and the alt's guild or raiding or making money for a duration of time. Basically when you grief enough, this system will try to grief you in return in other fashion. Unless you're dedicated to the PK craft - this isnt gonna be fun for many wanna be PKers. So perhaps they want to redeem themselves. Thus the Jail System. The Jail System is a time process tho - it's gonna be annoying, it's intended to be annoying and intended to discourage griefing. With that said let's go into details.
1) Bounty Hunters will have an option to arrest you instead of murdering you in the open world.
2) you can turn yourself in - In Doing so - the time it takes to complete will be reduced by half.
The Jail System is - an instance. It's a Copy of the World basically but you're unable to roam the entire world and there is no PvE contents outside of the quest lines PvE mobs. How big the area is based on the region / Node you are in. It will only compromise the Zone of Influence you are currently adhered to. Basically you are under the order of the King/Queen/Mayor to help the city grow. You are with other criminals (if any) to quest with. These quests are carbon copies of the real quests outside of the jail system. You are practically removed from other players. You're gonna need to complete a lot of mindless repetative tasks - kill X critter, Gather Y resources. It's a grind, A VERY FUCKING BORING GRIND! You are a prisoner on the side of the road, collecting trash, like the trash you are! It will last either a week or 24 in-game hours - or whatever the DEV decides. But at the same time - you actually DO CONTRIBUTE to the node tho - but no XP gain, no money gain during this time period.
A little bit passed the half way points (60% aka 15 hours or 4th day) you will have a unique quest called Jail Break (More on that later).
If you complete your Jail Sentence - your corruption points has been reduce per the corruption system and your grief points has been reduced back to 100. Your Corruption and Grief points are different, so you can still be RED via Corruption system but only have 100 grief points now on your account.
-- JAIL BREAK --
If you have choosen to give up and jail break out - your corruption is reduced normally by AOC corruption system and you're grief points has been reduced by 20% only.
FOR PERMA-RED - you only have 1 CHANCE to do the jail system to full completion. After that - you're unable to go to Jail ever again. This is to prevent any loopholes by going perma red to 0 grief point and working your way back up to perma red status again. You may request a GM for a 2nd chance - in doing so - I would recommend it should be allowed but if the player abused it and goes back to perma red - i'd rather see a perma BAN.
EDIT - For non Perma-Red you can do the Jail instance up to 3 times. So technically a meta loophole if for some reason someone wants to do it is to get 999 grief points then reset to 100 and do that 2 more times.... idk why - but 3 strike rules
Also going perma-red to 100 grief points removes ALL PK cosmetics / potions / title etc - they do not get to keep that.
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Wrote this on a whim - and did not proof read - this took a couple of hours and I am tired and gotta go to sleep. I am happy to answer any questions/concern. Nothing here is concrete - I may have missed certain stuff or left potential dangerous loopholes. This is just a concept that, we as a community can refine. I know many wont like the idea of a reward for a PKer but the game revolves around risks vs reward and if we gonna dedicated ourself to being a PKer, we should get something out of it and it shouldnt be that easy to attain either (like being a lvl 50 and quickly killing a lvl 1 ten times. - these rewards should be locked behind an annoying, long, tedious quest too)
