THE POLITICS OF PVP [Author: wirehead]
Here’s my answer to Sunsword:
PvP is based on the guild system. If PvP is to be revamped, the guild system needs to be revised as well.
What do people fight for in real life? Geography and ideology. Let’s establish a base for both of those.
Establish factions – basically, types of guilds. Here’s my suggested guild types:
FELLOWSHIP
What all guilds currently are. A group of players, without political affiliation. Not inherently attackable without penalty by anyone save specifically declared enemies. No special benefits or penalties. May loot anyone. Subject to stat loss.
ORDER OF THE SILVER SERPENT
Pledged to defend Britannia and the virtues, and to save Britannia from its current chaos. May only attack REDS (no grays) or hostile factions. May only loot members of hostile factions. All members of the Royal Militia recieve 10% discount from all merchants in Britain, Trinsic, Minoc, Jhelom and Serpent’s Hold. If a member of the Royal Militia goes RED they are removed from their guild (which is theoretically impossible).
FREE PEOPLE’S ARMY
Pledged to overthrow the tyrannical rule of Lord British. May only attack hostile factions. May only loot members of hostile factions. All members of the Free People’s Army recieve a 10% discount from all merchants in Occlo, Nu’Jhelom and Buccaneer’s Hold. Members of the FPA are KOS by guards in other cities. Members of the FPA automatically have 5 murder counts added when joining (in other words, they are all red). Does not suffer stat loss.
SAGES
Neutral guild that seeks knowledge and wisdom (and some rumor, power over the world). A guild may only join the Sages if ALL members have a Magery skill over 70. If a member of the Sages drops below 70 Magery due to skill loss, they are removed from their guild. May only attack hostile factions. May only loot members of hostile factions. All members of the Sages recieve a 10% discount from all merchants in Moonglow, Cove, and Wind. Does not suffer stat loss.
MERCANTILE CONSORTIUM OF BRITANNIA
Neutral guild that seeks only to make a profit. A guild may only join the MCB if ALL members have one or more of the following skills above 70: Blacksmithing, Carpentry, Bowcrafting, Tailoring, Fishing, Alchemy. If a member of the MCB at any time does not have greater than 70 skill in any of these, they are booted from the guild. Members of the MCB may not attack or loot any BLUE player. All members of the MCB recieve a 10% BONUS when selling items to any merchant. Does not suffer stat loss.
BARDIC COLLEGIUM
Neutral fellowship of bards. A guild may only join the Collegium if ALL members have over 70 in Musicianship. If a member of the Collegium drops below 70 Musicianship due to skill loss, they are booted from their guild. Members of the Collegium may not attack or loot anyone save members of hostile factions. All members of the Collegium recieve a 10% discount from all merchants in Yew, Skara Brae, and Vesper.
Now, we have four different factions (five, if merchants are counted) and a presumed geographical base for each of these. What are we to do with this?
Vendor control/discounts. How many times have you said, “I wish my vendor wouldn’t sell to X guild”. Well, set that up. Each public house can declare itself allied to a faction. (Its sign would change to the faction’s flag). Hostile factions would be automatically banned from that house and from transacting with its merchants. Members of that faction would get a 20% discount from those vendors. (Another reason to join the faction system).
Integration into ingame events. People would be quite a bit more interested in the ingame fiction if it directly affected their character/guild. Say, an invasion by the OSS of Occlo. If it succeeded, the FPA would no longer have Occlo as a safe haven. I think that would attract some attention among the players.
Ranking of guilds within each faction. The most successful ones would have a say in how the faction was run. A ruling council for each faction. The nicer ones would be democratic, with elected officers. The not as nice ones would be dictatorships, ruled by the most powerful guilds.
How would this affect the non-faction player? Only that they are excluded from this part of the game; a guild could continue on as before, PKing freely if they so choose. They still get stat loss of course, and factions could possibly declare their vendors open only to members and allied factions, which would lock them out of concievable resupply.
Thoughts?