After reading most of the thread, I have some things to say and some ideas.
I am not an avid PvP-er but I did my humble share of it back in the day. In general, the most fun I had was in BGs or big open-world arranged battles, where teamwork was essential. The least fun I had was in world PvP. To get jumped by a lvl 60, when I'm only like 25 is really not fun, especially zone like STV aka Vietnam.
This is how I see it: PvP IS part of the game as much as PVE but some things need to be addressed.
The Good:
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Leveraging Teamwork to Success I believe holds greater value than individual gains.
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The Double Edged Sword: The Excitement Factor: "I am not in a safe zone, I have to be vigilant, ready for anything".
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The Sense of Accomplishment that you have reached a high Rank through diligence, skill or effort.
- PvP servers = high population, always.
The Bad:
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Class and Faction (Population) Imbalance often makes the server PvP one-sided. People will not switch to losing side...
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The Double Edged Sword: The Fear Factor "Oh no, I want to lvl but I can get killed at any time... *shivers* ".
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High Toxicity: Let's face it. Most toxic players are attracted by PvP because they can live out the power fantasy of crushing noobs and taking names. Has always been like that, in any game. Now it is one thing to beat someone in a BG who has less skill or less gear. But to take your lvl 60 to a lvl 25+ zone and kill everyone on sight, repeatedly, corpse-camping or going into the city, killing the flight master/banker/quest givers etc. that is just doing evil.
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The Slow Grind: Grinding is not fun unless it is for a cause like AQ event.
- Level based "Matchmaking" does not account for skill or gear. Newer players will suffer.
- Losing in a BG makes feels like a waste of time.
What we know:
- Cross-faction BG could solve the low-pop/ faction imbalance issue BUT the Turtle Devs don't know how to do it and I think the factions are hard-coded so it probably can't be done.
- Honor Decay is an uphill battle.
- Community cannot deal with toxicity very well.
- Classes could be tweaked for better balance but that would be what Blizzard has not managed in 15 years...
Now for some ideas:
Already mentioned:
- I agree that there should be some Honor Gain/Decay stopping Glyph if it is possible, which would take the stress off.
- Pirate Island with choosable treasure loot, tough mobs and exploration rewards is a neat idea. There could be more areas like that.
- Open World battle events are always welcome. Gives the game more life.
My ideas:
- Skill Based BGs: Once I played Neverwinter Online and there they had a BG system where everyone in the BG had increased HP and lowered damage % based on your lvl. So me as a lvl 12 could fight 4x higher lvl players for an extended time. This works great with a capture the flag/occupy zone game.
So, I propose to have a tabard, with stats according to your class + damage, high stamina/hp and mitigation. If possible, this tabard should nullify other gear stats and only be usable in BGs. For classes who use weapons, either give an alternative weapon with tweaked damage or reduce that to a small amount where the stats and skill bonuses would matter.
IMO this would make some of the Good Aspects shine: Teamwork, Sense of Accomplishment and elevate the class uniqueness. no more gear stomps!
Keep in Mind: Need to balance melee to casters with the weapon damage and spell damage.
That is my 2 cents, I hope I helped
Now I sleep...
zzZZ