Star Vault’s Genius: Players Are Not Only Content, but They Also Balance Gameplay Quality!

[WeAreAllMortal]

Behold, the unintended (or not) genius of Mortal Online 2: The Auto-Balance™ System!

The Premise:​

The game runs smoothly and remains reasonably enjoyable as long as the player count remains low. However, for those of a more predatory disposition (a.k.a. gankers), the opposite is true—the higher the population, the higher the enjoyment! Why? Because a high player count means a fresh buffet of victims.

The system is simple: pop out of town, harvest some victims, stroll back in, and cash out. Thanks to Star Vault’s ingenious trader mechanics, looted goods—whether stolen or “legitimately acquired” through creative flagging exploits—can be conveniently offloaded for profit.

Max enjoyment for gankers, but minimal enjoyment for everyone else. This presents a game design challenge: How to balance this blatant conflict of gaming interests without implementing meaningful PvP deterrents or justice mechanics?

The Unique SV Solution:​

From the same visionary studio that brought you “Let the players create the content,” now comes:

“Let the players balance the game!”

The Mechanic:

• As more players join, griefing escalates exponentially, making the game progressively less enjoyable for the 90% of players who don’t appreciate hourly corpse runs.
• These 90% of players quit, leaving behind the Stockholm Syndrome crowd—about 9% of the original population—who have adapted to the suffering.
• With fewer easy targets available, half of the gankers also quit, because what’s the point of being a wolf if the sheep have all fled?

The Revolutionary Population Management System™​

• Step 1: 1,000 players log in. The world is alive! The servers begin to struggle.
• Step 2: Chaos erupts. Roaming gank squads form. Newbies get harvested like wheat.
• Step 3: 750 players rage-quit. Balance restored! The world stabilizes.
• Step 4: The remaining 250 enjoy a brief period of stability.
• Step 5: More players trickle in. The cycle begins anew.

The Result:​

A plummeting player population which self-corrects to maintain a balance where:

• PvP “enthusiasts” still have just enough prey to keep them entertained.
• Victims are spread thin enough to avoid an immediate mass exodus, but not so scarce that gankers have to work for their kills.
• The game stabilizes at a perfect level of misery, ensuring just enough players remain to keep the servers running, but never enough to cause actual congestion, or a positive end-of-year balance for SV Studios.

The Innovation:​

• No need for developer intervention! The game balances itself!
• No need for tedious justice mechanics! Crime rates naturally drop when there’s no one left to rob.
• An organic, player-driven feedback loop! Those who can’t handle the brutality leave, while those who thrive in suffering remain to perpetuate it.

Final Thoughts:​

Truly, MO2 is the first MMO where the griefing problem solves itself. Other games waste time implementing balance patches, moderation tools, or in-game justice systems. Star Vault has done away with all that nonsense—instead, they have entrusted the natural attrition of their player base to achieve the perfect murder-to-survival ratio.

And the best part? Henrik can proudly claim this is working as intended because it’s player-driven.

“We believe in a true sandbox where players create their own balance, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”

Unlike lesser studios, SV understands that true game balance doesn’t come from patch notes—it comes from an organic, self-regulating cycle of suffering and abandonment! A true visionary approach!

A triumph in game design!

Bravo, Star Vault. Bravo.

 

[Amelia]

Lightyears ahead !

 

[Emdash]

Nah more people = less grief. The more people, the more every moment is important and every fight is important, thus people fight each other. There will constantly be some griefers griefing cities, but the percentage of grief goes down. The griefers are the ones who get bored if they cannot grief cities. I really feel like all this could be fixed.

Having a dead game and still having grief is sad life, yet that's what SV has right now. I was playing when there were thousands of people logging in and it was engaging. I met people, said hi, mostly didn't even pvp randoms unless they were in shitter guilds or I had dec'd their guild. Sometimes, people would try to fight me but... ehhh.

I was primarily mounted and running stacks to and fro, if I wasn't just patrolling for luls, so I mean I was looking for people. There might have been stuff going on around GK or deep in one of the few dungeons that used to exist, but places like the jungle pre-open pvp, it was mostly chill until some people would try to take over JC. Shout out to SLAUGHTER haha.

As much as it sucks to be farmed, you don't balance the game for weak players. Players who are semi-competent like myself always will band together to create order. In a dead game, the banding is guild leaders and the order they create is being able to farm everyone else and get all the resources, super fun!

 

[WeAreAllMortal]

Clarifying the Relationship Between Population and Griefing in Mortal Online 2

The Illusion of Population and Griefing in Low-Pop Servers​

A common misconception is that low server population increases griefing. However, while the game may feel more dangerous, this is an illusion, caused by the concentration of players in and around towns, and the proximity of griefing activities to the latter. In reality, the opposite is true—low population actually makes the open world safer, while simultaneously creating the illusion of higher griefing and more player activity around towns.

Why Low Population Makes the Open World Safer​

• Less Competition for Resources – With fewer players farming, high-value resource nodes are less in demand. This means it's more viable for top players and guilds to farm these nodes directly than to farm the players who are doing so. They may of course still do so opportunistically, but in a low population world, this is not a viable resource acquisition strategy.
• Roaming Gank Squads Become Inefficient – In a high-population game, gankers can reliably find prey. In a low-population game, they waste too much time searching for targets. As a result, the open world becomes relatively safe since random PvP encounters are rarer.
• Griefers Cluster Around Towns – Instead of roaming the wilds looking for fights, opportunistic griefers gather where players are guaranteed to be—namely, around unguarded town areas like cemeteries and sewers.

The Town Cluster Effect: Why the Game Looks Busier Than It Is​

When player numbers drop, people naturally congregate in towns, not because the game is thriving, but because those are the only places where social interaction is guaranteed.

• In a healthy, high-population game, players are spread across dungeons, trade routes, farming locations, and PvP zones.
• In a low-population game, these areas become deserted, and the few remaining players instinctively stick to populated hubs to avoid feeling isolated.
• Result: The game appears more alive in towns, but the world itself is actually emptier than ever.

How This Creates the Illusion of More Griefing​

• Because all activity is funneled into town-adjacent areas, griefing appears concentrated and more frequent.
• In reality, griefing is happening less overall, but because it’s all in one place, it’s more visible and feels more oppressive.
• In contrast, a high-population game spreads out PvP, making it feel more natural and less predatory.

What Happens When Population Increases?​

• More players mean more competition for resources. With high population, strong guilds have more incentive to farm weaker players for materials rather than farming themselves.
• Roaming PvP and ganking become more viable. When there are plenty of people to hunt, griefers don’t need to sit outside towns—they can actively stalk high-traffic farming spots.
• Farming the farmers becomes the dominant strategy. Instead of gathering their own resources, powerful groups take control of key locations and extract wealth from weaker players.
• Town griefing actually decreases because gankers have better options in the wild. But this doesn’t mean griefing stops—it just moves to less visible locations.

The Misconception That “More Players = Less Grief”​

Some argue that more players reduce griefing because “griefers have more people to fight.” This ignores the fundamental reality of player behavior:

• Calling open-world ganking 'PvP encounters' does not make them so. PvP where one side actively wants to be left alone is not true PvP—it is ganking.
• All non-consensual PvP is, by definition, ganking. Just because the game allows it does not mean it is an equal engagement between two willing participants.
• Griefers don’t want fair fights—they want easy kills. A high population gives them more targets, not fewer.
• The higher the population, the more efficient ganking becomes. Instead of running into a few scattered players, gankers have a near-constant stream of victims.
• As competition increases, monopolization strategies emerge. Guilds seize key locations and enforce dominance through force.

The Reality Check: Why Server Population Declined​

If the argument that 'more players = less griefing' were true, then the game's population should have continuously grown after launch, as conditions would have become more enjoyable for all. Instead, we saw the opposite—server population declined to the point where Star Vault shut down extra servers/game instances. If a higher population truly prevented griefing and made the game more engaging for the average player, then why did players leave rather than return?

Conclusion: Population Density Dictates Perceived Balance, Not Actual Balance​

• Low Population = Open world is safer, but griefing looks worse due to clustering.
• High Population = Open world is more dangerous, but town griefing appears lower due to spread-out activity.
• Griefing does not disappear—it simply moves. As population rises, griefing shifts from town-adjacent areas to the broader world.

Final Thought​

The appearance of balance does not equal actual balance. The game may look more alive in towns when the population is low, but this is a symptom of decline, not a sign of health. Similarly, griefing may seem more frequent in a low-population world, but in reality, it’s just more concentrated. A high-population game doesn’t reduce griefing—it merely distributes it across a wider area.

 

[Emdash]

You may have written that with AI, but more people forces people into order, or it becomes chaos and then the people willing to organize take over, until the 'griefers' organize as well.

If people are alone, they are easier to grief. Just because you can find an out of the way spot to farm doesn't mean if you run into someone you are more or less likely to be griefed. Think about it.