I was in the first batch of people who joined Ultima Online, in the
days before PVP servers. I was PKd a thousand times on my way to
Great Lord, and I've been trying to figure out a way to compensate for
the some of the inherent weaknesses in this genre.
I've got a wacky idea and I'm curious to see if you guys (who have
played way more than me by now) think it will work.
I want to combine the thrill of PVP with some of the lessons learned
from DAOC and UO.
These games suffer from several major challenges:
1. Griefers who crowd out legitimate PVP enthusiasts by abusing the
system.
2. Newbies who create thowaway Player Killers to combat boredom.
3. The servers are always crowded.
4. Players can never find enough monsters.
My biggest problem with PVP was not the combat itself, but the fact
that I had no real chance to survive against a surprise attack.
Griefers would fine-tune their characters for first strike capability,
jacking up stats and abusing the system so by the time you knew you
were getting hit, you were already dead.
I loved dueling with my guildmates, in an environment where I knew I
wasn't going to lose my stuff.
So here's the pitch. What if we let people play monsters?
1. Monster selection would be random, so you couldn't pick your
strengths and weaknesses beforehand.
2. The power level of the monster would be determined by the average
level of all your characters.
3. People playing monsters can not speak to player characters,
although they can coordinate with each other.
4. Monsters cannot loot corpses or acquire treasure.
5. Experience gained by the monsters would be divded equally among
all your characters.
6. When the monster you are playing dies, you can respawn with a
different monster and take your chances on what you get and where you
start.
7. Monsters cannot hurt each other, and are not attacked by other
monsters.
I see a couple advantages to this. This way, instead of players
standing around waiting for a limited number of spawns, they can play
as monsters and provide their own entertainment.
You can enjoy PVP without risking your own character.
Players can enjoy the thrill of fighting against intelligent opponents
without worrying about lopsided conflicts and instant death.
Suicidal goobers who want to fight can do it within the context of the
game.
People with limited play time can play a monster during their lunch
hour without worrying about the fate of their primary character.
Gangs of monsters could still ambush newbies, but their stats would be
determined by the system, making them approximately as dangerous as a
normally spawned group.
The start locations would be random each time, so even if you wanted
to stalk a particular person or feed encounters to a particular
friend, you would have to cross the world to do so.
I welcome comments from all interested parties. Would this work?
--
On Larry King Live, Marlon Brando made the shocking statement that
Hollywood is "run by Jews." In response, outraged Jewish groups made it
snow in New York in April.
http://www.michaelduff.net
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