Hello everyone,
I love theory-crafting about „small“ gameplay systems so what I have here for you is the „Grudge System“, which is an addition to the OPvP they already have in place. I got the initial idea from the streamer PirateSoftware and expanded on it a lot, to hopefully make it as a reasonable „could work“ feature for the game. First you will read a very short explanation, further down I have the system more in detail. Feel free to give your ideas and feedback! Would you use such a system?
Short explanation:
Someone did you dirty? Denounced you in your hometown? Told everyone you died to that level 2 gremlin last week? Pulled enemies on you to kill you? lootet your dead body? Maybe you just don’t like the way someone looked at you? Beware! You can now have a chance to get back at them!
- You can enlist players you see (right clicking their portrait) onto a grudge list (similar to a friends list). This will help you keep track of all the enemies you want to punish.
- At specific locations in every zone or node you find a NPC where you can buy grudge items. With one of those Items, you can select a name from your grudge list to activate a grudge against that player.
- You can only have one active grudge and by holding a grudge against someone you both will see each other on the map.
- You can hunt down your rival and by killing him/ her, you get a bonus to the loot (glint) you get for normally killing a Player.
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What makes this system unique and standalone from the current OPvP System?
- Right now you can flag up for PvP and attack anyone close to you, however you are not able to get back at someone who killed you/ looted your body and runs away. The only way to have a revenge is by randomly finding the player again.
- The Grudge System gives you the option to create a new PvP interaction with someone.
- It gives players who enjoy OPvP more options and hopefully creates interesting cat and mouse situations.
- Also, this system gives players or guilds who want to be bounty hunters more opportunities to play that way, as it makes it easier for them to carry out bounty missions from other players.
How does the system work?„You can enlist players you see (right clicking their portrait) onto a grudge list (similar to a friends list). This will help you keep track of all the enemies you want to punish.“
- The other player has to be near you to prevent spamming the system on players across the worldmap.
„At specific locations in every zone or node you find a NPC where you can buy grudge items. With one of those Items, you can select a name from your grudge list to activate a grudge against that player.“
- The usable grudge items are consumables. Right now I have ideas for two of such items, feel free to suggest more. The first item is used to choose a name from your grudge list and activate the grudge (for example, “death note", write the name of the person you hold a grudge against on the note using your blood, then eat it to activate the grudge). The second Item would be an item to protect yourself from grudges for a certain time (for example, „stinky binky“, eat the stinky binky and if you are able to swallow it without vomiting you will be protected against any grudges for a while). You can only activate the grudge protection when you are not in an active grudge.
- Activating the system via an item makes the system more accessible but still some kind of limiting. For activation, some limitations need to be in place. For example: The player to be targeted must be at least 200 meters, but no more than 4 kilometers away. This way you cannot activate a grudge against someone right next to you and it also prevents you from activating a grudge against someone very far away.
- For the NPC selling the grudge Items you could have a shady vendor (maybe even slightly hidden) in every Zone of the map. Also, there could be a building in every node (e.g. „Smuggler’s cave“) when the node reaches a certain level or the mayor builds it.
„You can only have one active grudge and by holding a grudge against someone you both will see each other on the map.“
- It is important that both players see each other on the map. This way it is prevented that the system is exploited to only track players/ caravans/ guilds. It evens out the playing ground.
- I would also make it so that the map marker only updates every 3-5 minutes; this makes the whole cat and mouse more exciting.
„You can hunt down your rival and by killing him/ her you get a bonus to the loot (glint) you get for normaly killing a Player.“
- After activating the grudge you will automatically be PvP flagged until the grudge hunt is over
- There should be a time limit, for example you only have 20 minutes to kill your enemy, if you cant do it in time your grudge will end without a reward.
- The player holding the grudge should be extra rewarded if he/ she was able to kill the target. This way, the target is more motivated to defend off the hitman to deny them the reward.
- You cannot activate a grudge against the same person twice a day. Also, after successfully killing your target they will be deleted from your grudge list and can not be listed again that day
- After someone killed you as a grudge target you cannot be targeted for a grudge for X amount of Time (1-2 hours) from any player.
How can this system be exploited/ and what solves that?
- Famous people/ streamers could get spammed with grudges to grief their playing experience. For non streaming famous individuals it is a bit easier, since they cannot be tracked regarding online times and position on the map through the stream. They probably have less of a Problem. For streamers it's different. On one side the system is probably beneficial for their stream since it makes things more interesting to watch. On the other side it could get annoying, so here are the things that help with that. There are items which gives you grudge protection and after a grudge against you was successful, you cannot be targeted by the same person twice for some time. Since they are PvP flagged when they activate a grudge on you, you could also hire guild mates or people from your chat to protect you.
- Whole guilds could grudge someone to make their life miserable. After a grudge against you is successful you will be protected for some time against grudges from any player.
- Players trading grudges to get extra rewards. Not possible since players killed will never drop extra items, only their owned ones (as far as I understand the current death system).
