Upcoming PvP server - Info & Issues

While I understand the frustrations on both sides, the players for lack of communication and the reds for having to not only listen to but repeatedly answer, I think its important to note there either was or currently is a miscommunication. Kander had responded to a personal email giving us the information of "possibly Q1" but you are telling us there is nothing to share. I don't mean to call you out but I do believe there is a way of addressing the situation rather than Soon(tm). I think, due to no fault of your own, the player base is not operating off of the same good faith they once were. As the other poster had mentioned this has been a repeated occurrence for years and years. While I dont expect you to disclose unnecessary information or even state a potential release date I think giving us a rough idea of where the server is on the priority list. For example, the devs could have their hands busy with the recent expansion which is a completely just and logical reason or maybe it just hasn't been approved by upper management or what not. Regretfully as our community manager you've inherited a lot of bad faith and even if you are unable to inform us on anything I think now is a great opportunity to take a step forward and begin garnering not only good faith with the playerbase but great feedback.

Botting and teleport hacking needs to be addressed, given the same group of klowns that always roll on my pvp server. I am against FFA faction server, because it just devolves to the lowest form of pvp... where everyone joins up in a raid to instagib the one poor sucker in zone that didn't join the raid.

Good/Evil factions should remain, and exiles can free for all. The pvp fights were just more even that way. Personally I think season 1 battlegrounds is the way to go, but if they want to launch another pvp server I'm in.

no to battlegrounds no to warfields no to any of that stuff, thanks.

Botting is an interesting thing. Ideally they have no place in PvP however bot groups are so incredibly ingrained within the game at this point its difficult to stop them now. With that being said, botting on a PvP server is a whole new beast. All it takes is a single CC and you'll be able to wipe most bot groups. There were a few on Deathtoll and if you're smart about it bot groups are a free fame hits.

FFA v faction is tough only because the population might not be able to support factions.

Battlegrounds and WFs are an absolute no go for me. Artificial PvP is terrible for the health of the server. WFs were slightly better than BGs as people were still in the world rather than instanced PvP but it still feels far too artificial.

How would you feel if rather than creating artificial PvP within the game you were driven towards an aspect already in game and already being fought over. My idea is a server wide announcement for contested mobs. This gives players a reason to congregate while not disrupting the server. Players can use this opportunity to fight over the x2s/x4s or use this time as free time to jump into content normally swarmed with players. It wouldnt feel as repetitive as battlegrounds and Warfields which I believe gives the server longevity and the system would transfer easily xpac to xpac. Gives a better sense of community and doesn't exclude casual players. Easy to form a group/raid with those nearby. Would love some more feedback from people on this.

I am so excited. This used to be my favorite pvp in all games ever. I played Darkshadow on Vox. Can't wait for fighting in KoS again and stopping guilds from killing open world content.

FFA was a great success. A lot of the bastardry people were worried about just didn't happen. I'm going to take a very small amount of credit for it since I spent a year pushing it. It's important in this implementation though that cross faction healing works (arch heals worked but not wards and some class specific heals). This probably applied to other things too but I never really tested it fully.

I think in terms of tokens and writs, just have open world mob kill objectives like on the early Kaladim Xpacs. I know it's tempting to make tokens PVP orientated, but that just leads to exploiting, get people out in to the open world and then they'll fight.

Honestly people may smoke me for this, but my personal bug bears are around gearing on lower level raids (for example the x4 raids in shattered lands like Angler, Spirits of the Lost and Echoes of Time) and then raid flagged open world mobs in later expansions. Make the easy content drop something at level to reduce the gear advantage and create fights that are more interesting.

I'd also love it if crafters were involved in making PVP items rather than vendors. This would return some balance back to armorsmithing, weaponsmithing and tailoring. Maybe a recipe that drops off contested mobs with items craftable that use gems earned from doing writs.

I also think it's important that the developers are responsive to people who use external programs. It's been the same 5 people every server, a number of them are actually just trying to deliberately wreck things. Can we please just ban them up front when they inevitably pop up.

Kazz, DBG has demonstrated they are able to lock the main program out, and have done so on other event servers. The problems are cheat-engine and less sophisticated macro-based products. There are also some plugins that I imagine are impossible to trace, the Russians have a little program that displays all people and mobs in a zone. People who use those are limited though, and it's always the same people.

))))). Imagine being a country with cities like Yakutsk and Omsk and Americans just randomly decide you're the world's final boss. Such cases.

Some of this has already been mentioned, but if you want any chance of a pvp server surviving, I think the first step is to unban all of the veteran pvpers who have been banned from the EQ2 discord for little to nothing so that feedback and dialog between players who know pvp in and out and devs can exist.

The second largest factor would be to start going after people who speed hack, DDoS, and use ISX and other such programs which gives them a radar far superior to track as well as many other massive advantages. All TLEs have been infested by players using ISX openly without any fear of action being taken against their account since it is widely believed that DBG would prefer the revenue that these cheaters bring in over the integrity of their game.

I'm not sure I'd return for another pvp server given the history of EQ2 developers and pvp, but these two issues being addressed would be a step in the right direction.

So much as opening EQ2 with ISX on got you insta-banned on the seasonals. Seriously. There were the usual five or so people running other things and causing trouble.

Yea, I'm out if that's the case. Zero desire to play with cheaters.

Glad to hear it man! Got any friends that might make a return?

I do think they should buff MC gear for sure, should be better than most treasured pieces but I believe last server was not.

Not a terrible idea to involve crafters but we need to pick our battles. Realistically they wont be making an entire new gear system just for a TLE. It is possible, and I imagine much easier, to revamp systems that have already existed. Would you still be against PvP gear if it wasn't BiS and only 2-3 pieces per player? Seems like it could be abused sure but the effort wouldn't outweigh the reward. Seems like a reasonable system to me that benefit the more casual players and not hurt them.

Obviously no one likes cheaters, I'm sure we all know who they are. Just have to hope DBG believes in competitive integrity, even more so on a PvP server where it directly effects players on the server.

Oh yeah, I know when I'm just fantasising . I don't have a problem with gear to equalise players, I just think obtaining it should revolve around non-PVP open world objectives because that fills zones and generates PVP. As an example, in Shattered Lands on Kaladim a number of the heroic named mobs in Sol Eye were objectives. That means that people have to camp the zone, people get called in to push them out, and more people come to fight over those objectives. It's not artificial, just good, clean, open world PVP. I think this is easily achievable for the developers too - because the gear and objectives already exist (though would need to be tweaked in later tiers for open world rather than instanced objectives i.e. in KoS have people farm sanctum, heroic open world nameds and palace).

As an aside, I think it would be cool to offer appearance gear to people following say, a thousand deaths. The EQ2 community is interesting because people really hate dying, to the point where you will have level 1 toons running around contested zones harvesting, cliff diving etc. I realise people would farm alts for it, but who cares, it's appearance gear, what it does is create less of an incentive to try and avoid PVP - though I'm open to hearing other easy to implement solutions.

Lots of good points already mentioned here. Yes, the XP disco exploit must be fixed and levelling should not be too fast! (I never understood why people would want to rush to end game rather than just take their time and enjoy PvP in the different zones along the way).

I’m conflicted about the idea of FFA PVP and I’m sympathetic to both sides of the argument. I do agree with Siren in the respect that factions help to create a sense of community and that can help to maintain longevity for a server, but on the other hand, if population is likely going to be too low to facilitate this then FFA is an attractive option - it does seem to overcome the problem of population imbalances when it comes to factions.

I do agree that it is important for the devs to get a handle on cc. There are classes which are defined by their ability to cc and if this is nerfed too much the devs risk undermining the identity of certain classes and their entire play style.

We’re all familiar with class defining abilities (awarded at lvl 20 or 25?) such as the SK’s infamous Harm’s Touch. When I played a troub during the last temporary PVP server, I was looking forward to my lvl 20 charm. This class defining special ability (the one you’re supposed to look forward to) was nerfed beyond recognition by the devs. If I recall correctly, it was a four second mez (so not even a charm) on a 20min recast timer which was largely resisted anyway. It was a complete disappointment.

In keeping with the spirit of class identity, I think it is important that the devs take care not to lose the essence of class defining abilities during attempts to balance. For example, I would prefer that a troubadours charm had a super long reuse timer, say 30 mins - 1 hour, but actually worked as the powerful special ability originally intended. Say, an unresistable (but curable) 7-14 second charm depending on lvl/spell grade.

Another issue that I have raised in the past concerns the mount speed of marketplace mounts. I do not have a problem with purchasable mounts but their speed must scale in line with the players level. This is especially a problem at lower levels e.g. level 10 to 19 where the speed of mounts are equal to (or surpass) the degree of snare that classes can utilise. It also undermines the speed buffs provided by certain classes making them effectively redundant. These speed buffs should always have an advantage over a purchasable mount and provide a meaningful benefit to the group.

In terms of gear, this is a complex problem. PVP gear enabled players to be competitive without having to resort to raid gear. But PVP gear raised its own issues with regards to farming and zerging for writs / tokens. I honestly think the answer is to place the significance on gear acquired in the normal PVE fashion – questing / killing named mobs in (preferably) open world zones. This stops people from clustering around certain areas in the hope that they can leach tokens/writt updates and promotes natural open world PVP. To prevent the need for PVP gear, I think the answer is to make sure that any advantages which come from raid gear are minimal and not enough to significantly affect the outcome of PvP fights. Perhaps raid gear could be almost identical in terms of stats but incorporate existing procs under the proviso that they are not OP and trigger rarely.

I don't have high expectations for another TLE PvP server, just another Cash Grab, last one I was on taunts didn't even work lol, they would of only lasted 2.5secs when they should of lasted 3secs as well as rescue should of been 5sec target lock onto the tank.
I like the idea of FFA but isn't that what exile was for? is exile faction even going to be on this server?
Should be able to attack people in cities without them hitting you imo, was fun to do and kept you on your toes.
Honestly the only PvP gear I liked was from that merchant in TG with the few odd items which also had that sexy PvP taunting shield, but I can understand why people would want PvP gear as they might not have the time to raid, me I prefer to raid for my PvP gear.
P.s Fix Adrenaline back to 50% damage reduction instead of that stupid 50% heal damage received kthx.

A PVP server would be amazing. I played EQII off and on since inception. PVP was my favorite part of the game. However, Sony killed PVP with the changes they made to it. I would like to see it restored as it was originally conceived.

1. PVP on at all times and everywhere, including in the cities. (I remember getting killed in Qeynos while talking to a banker once.) There should not be an option to ever turn PVP off if you are on the PVP server. If people want that option, they should have that option on another server.

2. Bring back the Rank system:
a. Gain Fame/Infamy for killing a player whose rank is same as or one level up or down from your own.
b. Lose Fame/Infamy when dying to a player whose rank is same as or one level up or down from your own. (Sony removed the loss of fame/infamy at some point after instituting battlegrounds. This removed the risk of PvPing. No penalty for dying. Ruined the system. Being a Dreadnaught meant nothing anymore.)

3. I read on here that some races have the ability to track. Track as a racial ability should be disabled on PVP servers. I feel like this is something that you would do anyway, but just in case it slips your mind, yes, please disable that. Tracking should be for scouts, and scouts only.

This is it. This is the ground floor building block. If you build it, they will come.

That being said, I'd like to mention a couple other details I'd love to see:
1. Being able to zone out of an area while engaged in PVP combat. Originally this was allowed. It was later changed so that players could not do this. I would like to see it turned back on. It added to the excitement. I had the option of trying a fight and if I got in trouble I could still try to escape. On the other side of that coin, I knew when hunting that I had to get them before they got to the bell or the door or whatever to zone out. It was fun. Wish they never changed it.

2. Being able to jump off a griffon. Please don't turn that off for the PVP server. I mention it because it has been disabled before.

3. Being able to lock xp at a certain level and gain only AA for "twinks." This was frowned upon and disabled eventually to where you could not convert all xp to AA because level 12s and 14s were running around killing 10s. It was viewed as an exploit, but there are so many areas to level up in, you can avoid the twinks. Or you can fight them. Or make one of your own. I'd rather have the option. It was fun. And it allowed you to get into pvp very early.

4. Gear - I agree with Durzo on gear. It was better before they instituted special gear for PVP. Then you have to farm that too. IMO, it would be better just to use the regular gear and not have a separate line for PVP. As a matter of fact, a lot of PVPers were farming fabled pieces from named creatures all across Norrath. This is incentive for PVP. Vs just buying the stuff at a PVP vendor.

I have always said PVP in EQII was the best anywhere. And it was. I've never seen another system in any game other than Eve Online that had as good of a PVP system. But that's flying space ships. I want to run around in a Fantasy world. EQII was the best. Sony killed it. Please, for the love of piracy, honor, and glory, BRING IT BACK!!!

It's all about risk vs reward.
The risk is where the fun is.

I literally agree with everything here, took the words right out of my mouth.

Quick update. In the new Kander's Candor podcast, at the 20 min mark he mentions that pvp is currently being worked on and it will be here sooner rather than later. At the 21 min mark he roasts all the people who complain about a pvp server's existence.

There is no plan for a new pve tle this year, which means the pvp server is getting a stand alone release and a better population start.

also, it was mentioned to look for specifics during the next Kander's Candor, so there's something to look forward to.

Absolutely the best news ever! Thanks for that fantastic info, everyone!

I can't get that thing to play right: Is anyone who can listen to it through to the end going to do a transcript at any point, please?