Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Concept: the player enrolls in a "PvP league" that allows access to PvP agents and on-demand PvP matches

PvP agents: they provide the player with a single-use key to a deadspace arena. At the deadspace lays another player with her ship, ready to PvP. The deadspace is severely guarded from outside interference (CONCORD spawn 24/7)

Cost: accepting a PvP match requires paying a entry fee, class-based. Half of it is used to pay the winner and the other half is added to the winner's jackpot. Whoever defeats a player, gets the entry fee reimbursed, plus half the loser's entry fee, plus half of the loser's stacked jackpot for that ship class (so defeating a player with a row of victories provides a juicy reward -this is why we call that a "League")

PvP agent mechanics: they match players based on ship class, stacked jackpot & distance from arena. The player is offered 3 matches to pick, if she refuses all, then the player can't talk to that agent for 4 hours. Also must stay into the matches pool for 15 minutes at least; logging off carries a penalty of 24 hours without talking to any PvP agent. Once accepted, the match expires in 15 minutes unless combat has started, and if one of the players is missing from the arena, will lose half the entry fee but the other half won't be added to her jackpot.

Victory: the last ship standing wins. If a player leaves the area within 150 km of the arena's centre beacon for more than 30 seconds, she loses. If a player doesn't shows at the arena, she loses. If both players are at the arena and don't open fire in 15 minutes, both lose. If a non authorised ship enters the arena, it's conkordokken.

The purpose would be to allow an easy entry to PvP and a way to get PvP on demand supplied by other causals looking for PvP, plus the potential to reach legendary matches betweeen high level players owning huge jackpots.

Pricing for matches should be roughly that the entry fee was around 50% the hull cost for that class (say some 50,000 ISK for a T1 frig on T1 frig match).

Call me carebear, that doesn't hurt me because in essence, I am. So why am I posting in a thread dealing with PvP?

Though the "fight club" idea has some merit, I'm thinking about another class of agents as well, more of the kind of "mission agents" where the mission objective puts players of different factions directly against each other.

Before you say "factional warfare"... Yes, it exists. But it's sole purpose is to put fleets against each other for dominance over a certain set of regions.

What I'm thinking are the well-known "capture the flag", "king of the hill" and other scenarios, like the "flag" being some artifact (or fragment of a game-changing superweapon) and the different factions have gotten wind of it and need single capsuleers or small gangs for a "quick in-and-out" mission.

I think that would even put some depth to the gameplay by giving the current engagement some other objective apart from "just shoot them out their ships".

No.

What CTF and king of the hill matches have to do with world of Eve?
If you want that you have other games. Eve is supposed to be a serious and dark game, and CTF battlegrounds are completely against the lore and it's spirit. And Eve must remain serious, dark and dystopian, or most of it's playerbase will simply leave (maybe not to WoW maybe to Rift or SWTOR).

And before you say 'WoW has battlegrounds!', bear in mind WoW is completely different game, designed _not to be serious_. And it's in other mmos because they simply copy WoW - that's why they fail at the end.

Does it make sense allies and horde in wow to fight in battlegrounds over some flags? Same too for other mmos (like SWTOR - imagine Yoda and Palpatine fighting in CTF because Jabba the Hutt made a tournament).

Silly? It is. And you'll find in this game, as much pvp as you want. You just have to get out of hisec.

BTW I never played CTF - not even in Quake III. I played FFA only because CTF is silly. It's mechanics is silly. You capture the flag to return it to home base? Ridiculous.

I like CTF in FPSes.

@Mederik

In any game with sound game mechanics numbers will give you an advantage. If that's not the case, game is broken like WoW is broken. Have you tried to gank someone ten or fifteen levels above you in WoW with your guild mates? Impossible, you'll be owned, unless your victim is AFK. Any such mechanics in Eve would kill PvP.

@Tyme

You like CTF? Great! However, CTF and battlegrounds aren't for this game, so you'll have to play to that other game.

And I'll now add, battlegrounds were invented because that other MMO couldn't handle large open world pvp, like 100 vs 100, in Tarren Mill. That's why they decided to kill open world pvp with battlegrounds, to make it easier on the servers. But Eve is designed with open world pvp in mind!

fit out a few brutixes and gank ice miners, that's some quality PvP

The day instanced or arena PvP is introduced is the day we can declare the original Eve-crew powerless / fired / dead.
Arena PvP is a step in a direction direct opposite to what makes Eve great.

Faction warfare buttons/bunkers. They be CTF.

Fail you do. There is no try.

You can keep hunting your moose with your 250 buddies if you want to. PvP agents are intended for people who doesn't haves the time to look for mooses or feel weird about being a moose getting shot at by 250 rednecks.

Alot of people fly solo / in small gangs exclusively, me included. Arena PvP turns the dynamic PvP environment of Eve into a more static state. Your lazyness is not a reason to implement gamemechanics that are directly contradicting the underlying values of this game.