El Perro used the word griefers, I was just replying to him in his own words.
I dont consider pvp griefing, i totally get that its fun and a big part of the game.
My point still stands which is that there is a big difference between pvp over 'reasons' vs random pvp on random people because we didnt get all dressed up for nothing
playing this game in a very small world would result in much more random pvp but do nothing to give any more substance or purpose to why were fighting each other
Yeah, I think for this reason the PvP mechanics as a whole could use a rework. Drop the rep system. Beef up red towns with brokers, books, etc. full amenities... Allow reds to spawn at any priest (if they want to spawn in town and have guards called on them, so be it). Rework the bogus flag system so you can't just hide behind your blue flag to blue-block & gank while remaining blue. Basically make players choose between being a blue player that gets to play in a guard-protected town, or a red player who lives in a guardless town. This way, blues (who are no longer serial RPKers) get to routinely PvP against reds(who are serial RPKers), and reds get to PvP against literally everyone.
The reasons the current flag/MC/rep system is so garbage is that it is arbitrary and doesn't delineate anything. It gives no delineation between anyone, and the only purpose is seemingly so that people can abuse it & remain blue, or have to deal with shitty tedious penalties if they don't abuse it to remain blue.
Another option to delineate & democratize PvP so that it is approachable would be to introduce factions outside of the GvG system. Basically take the concept of GvG & wardecs and detach it from guilds so that anyone can participate (while still allowing GvG & wardecs on top of this, ofc). A much cooler option would be to make it more of a city-state based system, but that's kind of reaching as far as capabilities at SV, imo. Basically, they need something that creates a framework for why and how PvP is occurring. Currently, the game does nothing to create an understandable venue for the vast majority of people to fit in in terms of PvP aside from being prey for people who want to go for a criminal playstyle. If you want to play criminal, that's fine, you should be allowed to without taking serious hits to accessibility, but you should have to deal with being marked out as such.
Big issue MO2 has is PvP is horribly delineated. It feels completely arbitrary. This is the system:
Joe has run a lot of deliveries and has tons of rep to burn through. Jim has not, and before realizing how MO2's convoluted PvP mechanics work has dropped a bit of rep killing the blue bodyguards of someone that attacked him. Consequently, Jim has turned criminal actions off so he doesn't accidentally lose bank access. Joe walks up to Jim, talks to Jim for 30 seconds, waits until Jim turns around, ganks Jim, has a quick wank in front of Jim's loot-bag while his crim. status expires, and suffers absolutely zero consequence before banking Jim's shit in front of him in a blue town... So long as Joe watches MC timers & runs deliveries, it's like it never even happened. This is just one example of why this system is absolute dog-turd. There are many more scenarios, some of which are even more arbitrary than this. People who like to exploit these broken mechanics with flags/rep like to defend this system, but from personal experience I can 100% guarantee you that it is cancer to the new player experience and casts all PvP in MO2 in a terrible light. When I finally looked up how it worked I almost quit the game because it's that fucking bad. This system 100% needs a major overhaul. 99% of the PvP experience is someone acting like Jim, and it's just fucking boring & more or less makes the game feel like it's only designed to appeal to serial killer RPers at the expense of all other PvP.
It's a groundbreakingly stupid PvP system that's never been attempted before. The result is there is no PvP to be had for the vast majority of people who don't get off on being shitters in a persistent online video-game. Don't get me wrong, these people aren't the problem-- they should be free to gank people, the game obviously needs PC villains, but that doesn't mean the ball should perpetually be in their court as it is now and the world should be setup so criminals get the jump in pvp every time as it is now. The problem is not that people want to PK, the problem is the groundwork the game sets for how the PKing takes place.
I've played many MMOs, many feautring PvP, and some even featuring full-loot. I've never seen a game with a PvP dynamic this ill-conceived. To some extent, even those who do nothing and allow everyone to PvP everyone at all times still delineate PvP better than this system, because, however brutal, at least everyone knows what to expect from everyone else in such a system... Basically they tried to make the game less brutal by implementing some rules to PvP, which is fine on paper, but their undercooked mechanics only succeeded in making PvP feel incredibly unjust/arbitrary and easily exploitable.
People say this is a 'PvP game', but the PvP experience at the moment is one of the worst aspects MO2 has to offer. I literally have not once had a meaningful PvP experience that was not a duel. It's always completely one-sided because of the terrible mechanics implemented here. I think the system I described at the beginning of this post here, as well as having some zones (maybe dungeons and jungles, other far flung regions) that everyone is grey (except reds who always play as though they are grey) by default, would be a step in the right direction for the game and create a venue for PvP that doesn't feel like the game is deliberately trying to create an environment where being blue is completely meaningless and all PvP is just a serial-killer simulator gank.
Bottom line, people don't want to play a full-loot PvP game that has a tedious, arbitrary & ill-conceived PvP ruleset. I don't know how this is hard to understand. No full-loot PvP MMO has done PvP as poorly as MO2. In fact, I think PvP mechanics in MO2 feels like an afterthought that they never bothered to complete, which is fucking astounding considering the game features full-loot. You have to toggle a radio-button to even participate, and you have clowns running around blue with 3 blue friends who stand around them while they gank you so that if you successfully defend yourself you can take murdercounts...? If such a thing is even possible, which it is, the system is 100% not acceptable for a full loot PvP MMO. Wake up SV. This needs to be on your plate.