A (hopefully) New Take on Unfair PvP

[Aeruleus]

This was originally posted in the Surrender Guide Thread, which was only semi-appropriate. It's better here. I am simply copying and pasting. This suggestion deals with using the broken and un-used surrender system to help fix PvP.

First post:

You know, PvP is always a tense subject. Namecalling on both sides and various accusations and even complete garbage flying around. However, the fact remains that this game needs players to survive. And a lot of people having very negative experiences with PvP encounters means fewer and fewer players. And regardless of how often the uber-cool, uber-kill you and laugh PvPers say, "quit crying, carebear" or "get over it", the fact is, people won't get over it. They'll quit. And that hurts everyone.

The "just stay out of the red" defense does NOT hold water either. So please stop using it. Yes, a person can usually avoid PvP water. But when you make every effort to keep certain ports red (Port Royal, for example), you lose that defense. Guess what? We have to go places. The new cool-down period helps, but we still have to get places sometimes, believe it or not. So give that a rest. Please.

So, now that that's out of the way, everyone needs to accept that if nothing is done, we will lose players. Regardless of how you feel philosophically about PvP (yes, I do enjoy good, fair PvP), we need to address the problem.

I think the surrender thing is a great idea, just poorly executed. It's hard to make the mechanic work and still be realistic and true. I think we're limiting ourselves in how we're looking at it.

For instance, should a level 50 be able to attack a lvl 1? Yes. There was nothing stopping it from happening in 1720. Should they be praised and heralded as a hero of their country and paraded around and presented to the crown (i.e. Mark of Victory)? I don't think so. I think a mark should not be a foregone conclusion. There should either be a scaling CHANCE of getting a mark, or you should only get one if your enemy would actually present a challenge. That holds for if 6 lvl 50s attack a lvl 1. The higher the attacker to defender ratio is, the lower the challenge, and the lower the chance of a mark should be.

If too many people are too lazy to actually earn a mark rather than gang up on little people, then perhaps there should be other penalties for turning down a surrender. Sure, we can dump our cargo in defiance, but consider this:

In real life, no one HAS to accept a surrender. But in real life, there ARE consequences. Think about this in the context of 1720: As already stated, official vessels would always accept surrender. Even pirates would accept surrender, usually. That's why they designed scary pirate flags with skulls and what not. They HOPED for a quick win. But, if they showed no mercy, they also became more hated and HUNTED. A pirate was just a pirate, but a sadistic person who enjoyed killing for the sake of killing and torturing their victims, etc (some of you bloodthirsty PvPers should take note), gained a reputation. And a higher bounty, more chance that official ships would spend their time in its entirety hunting them down, and a guarantee of no quarter when they were found.

Therefore, I suggest this: find a way to make life harder on those who turn down 100% surrenders. Do you have to accept it? No. Do you face the consequences? Yes, you should. And it could be conceivably anywhere in the game, not just a combat thing. Maybe trouble with merchants. Maybe reputation point losses (even with your home faction, which is perfectly reasonable, since you make them look bad). There are a million things you can do. Make them vulnerable to losing actual money from their wallets in PvP, even, though that's harder to explain... (maybe bribes?). Anyway. Let them have the silly mark, as long as they pay for their dishonorableness in some way.

All that said, it boils down to this: Can I, age 28, 200 lbs, go beat up a 10 year old to watch him bleed and take his lunch money for my collection? Yes. Should I pay for it if I do? Absolutely.