PVP with Summons

kenawyn

Hi all!

I'm following the development of the game with great interest - I'm particularly excited about the upcoming Summoner class.

In light of the recent PVP griefing incident in the alpha - I have some questions about how flagging and griefing prevention will work in regards to pet classes or players using combat pets, NPC hirelings or any entities that have some AI autonomy and are allied with and/or controllable by the player.

Disclaimer:
I am mainly a solo focused PVE player - who might occasionally engage in duels and honorable PVP with friends; and also the defensive war to protect the settlement where I will have my in-game home.

These are scenarios where a solo PVE Summoner player becomes target of PVP or griefing:

(scenario 1) Let's say I am doing PVE content with my summoner having my active pet(s) by my side and another player attacks my character. What happens?

(scenario 2) Let's say I am doing PVE content with my summoner having my active pet(s) by my side and another player attacks my pet. What happens?

(scenario 3) Let's say I am doing PVE content with my summoner having my active pet(s) by my side and another player uses an AoE attack that affects both my character and my pet. What happens?

(scenario 4) Let's say I am doing PVE content with my summoner having my active pet(s) by my side and another player uses an ability to taunt my pet to fight them. What happens?

(scenario 5) Let's say I am doing PVE content with my summoner having my active pet(s) by my side and another player trains some deadly mobs towards me and uses some vanish or other aggro reset skill that forces the mobs to retarget me and my pets. What happens? Is this "training" considered griefing?

Pet stance:
In most games that have pets there is usually a pet stance that informs the AI on how the pet should behave.

• Usually the default is that the pet will follow it's "master" and will engage the "enemy" based on its AI stance
• Having the pet on Aggressive stance means that it will engage and attack nearby enemies
• Having the pet on Defensive stance means that it will protect its "master" when they are attacked
• Having the pet on Passive stance means that it will simply follow the player and does not fight

Let's assume that the game will have a similar stance system.

Focused Questions:

• In what case will my summoner be flagged for PVP/Chaotic?
• How will my pet(s) react in these situations?
• If my goal is to escape the encounter or if killed - flagging the attacker as Chaotic by not fighting back - will my pet AI mess this up?
• Will a pet set to Aggressive stance engage other players flagged as enemy on sight? If so, will that flag the summoner for PVP? Note: I don't like this option because the pets might force confrontation instead of letting the player decide
• Will a pet set to Aggressive stance engage only mobs?
• Should the summoner have to give a direct order to the summon to attack other players? Note: Giving an attack order like this should flag the summoner for PVP, since this is a deliberate hostile action
• Will a pet set to Defensive (or Aggressive) stance engage another player if that player is attacking the summoner? Note: This is a problematic scenario, because if the summoner gets flagged for PVP then they cannot make a decision not to fight and if the pet does nothing and must be forced to fight back that will add a lot of extra work for the summoner, but if it defends on its own and the summoner is not flagged then the attacker could be defeated without risk
• If the summoner (attacked player) doesn't fight back but has an active pet will they be flagged for PVP if it's pet engages the attacking player (maybe they taunted it or something - which forced them to attack)?
• If a pet has an AoE attack and the attacking player draws the pet close to another weak low-HP player (who is not in combat) and the AoE attack kills this player, will my summoner get flagged as chaotic?

Thanks for reading so far.
Please feel free to include your own questions or scenarios if you have any.

Cheers!

daveywavey

I don't think they've designed much of the Summoner, yet, so we don't really have much info on how they'll work.

Andi

I hope we'll learn more about this topic. My main will be Summoner, too

kenawyn

daveywavey wrote: »

I don't think they've designed much of the Summoner, yet, so we don't really have much info on how they'll work.

Well, my line of thinking was that since the devs are trying to improve the PVP system after the griefing incident - it might be useful to also list some summoner related questions and concerns so these could also be considered.