This is another answer to a comment that Heartless wrote here. And an occasion for me to underline a few concepts that are dear to me.
He says that my system could be interesting but it cannot really be judged since it’s not fully developed and explained. Well, as I wrote in my reply, that’s not something that I can do. Simply because I miss the data I need and designing a system in all the minimal details just based on pure assumptions is actually silly and goes far beyond the purpose of my “design” ravings.
But even if I cannot snap my fingers and make appear a complete design document in all its parts, I can still take an existing game and apply my ideas to it to imagine (and share) what could be the possible result. Of course it cannot be perfect because my ideas were supposed to make sense together, but I think it’s still possible to make my goals more understandable if I take a current game and explain how it would change with some of my rules applied. Instead of having to force people to follow and tune to my ideas for a long and not trivial journey, using a concrete example everyone knows can be useful to make clear at least some of the concepts.
Of course to do this I’ll take the most fucked up PvP system out there: World of Warcraft.
We know that it works with equal mechanics for both factions (Horde, Alliance) with 14 different ranks that offer access to superior PvP loot. So we have a rather simple and straightforward system, different ranks and a reward: the shiny loot. Of course this structure is already broken on a number of points but again my purpose is to explan a few ideas and what they bring to the plate and not magically heal all of WoW’s flaws. So we take this basic system with all its issues and see which effect some of my rules can have on it.
As you can see by reading the brochure, one of the main goals is to have a system that is equally accessible for everyone. So the first thing to go is how the honor points will be achieved. There won’t be anymore an inner competition in the same realm, nor a functional competition over the greed for points against the other realm. Instead we can still have a variable threshold of points to move between the ranks from server to server, but once the amount is set, it won’t change anymore dynamically. We can also retain a mild decay rate considering that the progress isn’t freeform as in DAoC (the points to spend) and so the progression is bound to a cap (rank 14) that could be even too easy to reach if you don’t lose anymore the points from week to week.
So you kill enemy players and achieve goals in the BGs and you gain regularly honor points. These honor points don’t need anymore to be compared to the points of every other character. So they are added clearly and immediately like it happens to the normal experience. The UI will clearly show in real time your constant progression. What will change from week to week, instead (and since we retain some rules from the current game), is the amount of points you need to reach a precise rank. This doesn’t mean that these numbers are supposed to skyrocket. They just oscillate around a constant value to mimic the different activity on the different servers, but you’ll need more or less the same points to reach rank 10 today as you’d need five years later.
This means that, thanks to the constant progression, everyone will be able to reach the last rank with some dedication. The catasses will do that in three months while the casual players will need more time. But everyone will be able to get there eventually and at their own pace. Without a forced competition over time that is just inaccessible for most of the players.
At this point the system is similar to DAoC’s Realm Points and Ranks. You gain honor points and progressively move up the ranks to acquire the proper reward (loot in this case).
Now lets move to the heart of my system. Lets say that 20 players enter Arathi Basin. To make things simple I’ll say that 15 of them are still rank 1, while five of them are rank 14. If you read how my system is designed you know that your possible rank is set on the amount of players active at that moment and directly organized in squads. This means that if twenty rank 14 players join a BG, they CANNOT go around and use their rank 14 equipment. The rule would be that in a BG like Arathi Basin with 20 players for each factions, only ONE of them would be able to fill the last rank.
Ungrouped the ranks do not exist. In my original system you couldn’t use any of your advanced skills and, in this example about WoW, you just cannot access the PvP loot you achieved from the ranks, if you are alone. So there’s a definite difference between a rank you unblocked because you have the right amount of honor points and a rank you currently hold and use. To do this you must be organized in groups and be designated as leader. When this happens the leader will finally have access to the powers granted by its rank (just loot in this case).
In this example only one every twenty players can be set at rank 14. As decided above we have 15 players at rank 1 that just cannot move from there since they don’t have enough honor points, while there are five of them with rank 14 unblocked. So all five of them could cover that rank but only ONE will be able to. How does the system decide who between them will be choosed? Well.. it’s based on democracy. There will be a specific window showing the organization of the squads and ranks, not dissimilar to the current raid UI. The -position- on the diagram will define the current rank of the player, while next to the name of the player it will display the “possible” rank.
The five rank 14-enabled characters in our example can now propose themeselves to be designated to use their max rank. Lets say that three of them porpose themselves, while two of them just don’t bother and accept to remain rank 1 for the length of this BG. At this point all the players in the BG can make their choice and vote for one of them. Who will have the 51% of the preferences will be choosed, set leader and will be able to finally use his uber rank 14 loot. The same for the opposite faction.
It’s not rare to hear that “Level-based PvP doesn’t work unless everyone on the same level” but we often forget the problem of the loot, which is just another type of treadmill, equally disruptive for the PvP. In fact in WoW the level 60 BGs happen just between same-level players and, still, they are horribly unbalanced (as Heartless writes in the last paragraphs of this comment). If twenty rank 14 players in uber purple loot enter a BG, the other faction would have no chance and the gameplay would just suck. The variance in possibilities is what defines a good fight from one that just doesn’t hold any fun. Till the variance is within manageable margins the fight is fun, but when the difference in level or loot has too much of an impact, the purpose of the PvP goes to hell and the game just becomes a paractice of confrontation to decide who has grown the biggest e-peen. Which I don’t really feel all that interesting.
This is why the system I just described would help to retain the balance. Only one player every twenty can be rank 14. In order to fill a rank you’ll have to be organize in squads so it won’t be possible to just randomly zerg in without even forming a group. This system would encourage the players to organize themselves, set their leaders, build up good or bad reputation among the players and so on. I consider all these “side-effects” as good and positive. They make the community and help to structure the PvP so that it makes sense and is enjoyable for everyone instead of a chaotic mess where everyone competes against everyone else. It’s a system that brings players together instead of making them fight agaist each other. That encourages them to fight together for a shared goal instead of a selfish interest.
The example here is just to explain one part of the system. Specifically how the ranks are unblocked and designated. How the system is kept accessible and how the balance is retained. But there are then other goals that complete it and that would differ from WoW. For example the ranks are not supposed to be linear, nor one as a more powerful version of the other. Each rank should define a *role*, similarly to what happens with the classes. A role isn’t directly more powerful than another. It just gives you different tools to use in the proper way and contribute to the battle through that specific role.
And, finally, the reward and purpose of the ranks isn’t about better loot. But about advanced skills that have an impact on the large scale of the battle and that add dynamism, tactics and coherence to it. All elements that are missing and have been completely dismissed in the current design of these games.
