I personally like the ability to drop in and out of PVP. Sometimes I want to just chill, explore and build… but sometimes (evil laugh)… pew…pew!
I really wouldn’t like to be fixed to one way or another.
2 Likes
TL:DR-
Flag for pvp from beacons or portals in safe zones.
Non-pvp players are intangible observers while in pvp zones.
Pvp beacons/plots can go on safe public worlds, non pvp beacons/plots can go on hostile pvp worlds. You can only enter a pvp space from a non-pvp space as a combatant by interacting with a physical pvp beacon.
I’ve wanted Boundless pvp for years, so I’ve had pleanty of time to consider just about every question and concern here.
Because boundless is a sandbox game with very few toys to play with in that sandbox. I don’t think anyone is asking for Boundless to become the next fortnight,
but Pvp is a great way to introduce new toys and give new ways to enjoy the toys we have in new and meaningful ways. Say for example, you prefer to play Boundless as a builder, how does pvp benefit you? Arenas, stadiums, colosseums, castles, bases, etc all have functional purpose and present the unique challenges of level design that comes when designing a pvp space. Merchants can benefit from supplying the consumables and items that pvp gameplay tends to burn.
I think Boundless could do a couple of different things with entering and leaving a pvp state. I personally am not the biggest fan of clicking a toggle and alternating between flagged and unflagged for pvp- it’s not really been mentioned here, but I find that pvp flags are just as easily manipulated for engaging and evading combat unfairly, and it hampers immersion. Furthermore, requiring flagging for pvp to enter pvp areas creates an exclusion zone that locks out peaceful players. I would like to make flaging oneself for pvp be a physical action done in game, such as interacting with a combat beacon. The way I see this working is that these beacons would be placed by players in a non-pvp plot or on a non-pvp planet. A player first interacts with this combat beacon to engage pvp, and in doing so is presented with all the combat settings associated with the linked pvp area. Options like respawn timers and locations, team options, health modifiers, etc could be set by the beacon owner and reviewed by players prior to entering the pvp area.
Non-pvpers needn’t be prevented from entering a pvp area either. In pvp beacons, non-combatants may pass through as an invisible observer, untargetable and intangible. On worlds with pvp on, you can still peacefully build within traditional beacons, but gathering resources from the wilds requires them to exit the planet and return via a pvp portal with pvp active prior to entering. This allows players to build peaceful sanctuary cities on pvp worlds, explore the world freely without risk of player induced harm, or seek the thrill of life in the wilderness as an outlaw. One could even have a pvp planet with a sanctuary city with pvp beacons in that city. Its pvp inception!
Edit: pvp beacons could be designed to look like a war banner. You would then literally “flag” for pvp 
3 Likes
This … exactly. Keep PVP out of the main game. Specific worlds where players that have zero interest in pvp know to stay away from. There are literally TONS of games out there with straight up PVP. Boundless is a building game. It’s been advertised as such. “Be creative, be boundless”. Not “Start a build and have to defend it from bloodthirsty players that aren’t interested in building but want to KILL you and take your STUFF.”
NO
Thank
You
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PVP planets… easy and best answer.
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I think there needs to be a way to allow observers to attend PvP events/planets without having to participate. This would allow for judges, streamers, people to record YT video, etc.
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I’m all for pvp planets and pvp beacons and like mentioned above if people want nothing to do with pvp they can simply pick that option during character creation. They just wouldn’t be allowed on pvp worlds or beacons which is no different than private planets now.
Can always give them spectator mode can’t see them but they can see us
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There is more to PVP than just being a part of it… you have to deal with those that play it and how they will apply their mindset to other parts of the game. We are on a shared public planet – we have enough wars of prestige, shop costs, land, settlements, etc. PVP mindset people will no be sated by just killing players and instead will apply that mindset to other areas. We need to lower the friction in the game and not raise it. PVP is a bad way to go unless it is segmented away from the main part of the game. MC has PVP if people want it. Why does every game have to have people killing people.
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It doesn’t need to be an all or nothing thing. Just because I don’t want to participate doesn’t mean that my friend won’t let me know they’re in a match and want me to come watch them try to cream another player.
"majorvex
I think there needs to be a way to allow observers to attend PvP events/planets without having to participate. This would allow for judges, streamers, people to record YT video, etc."
Exactly this. Have pvp. Keep it separate but functional to all players.
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That is exactly what I was going for, yes.
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The way Albion doses PvP flagging I think is decently fair, it makes it very obvious when someone is flagging next to you, They also can not move while trying to flag or it gets canceled, This gives you ample time to run away or prepare for the situation, Also in Albion once flagged, it puts a debuff on you that lasts for 15mins that will prevent you from unflagging, attacking another player will refresh this debuff.
I disagree to be frank, My Immersion in Albion and EVE online was never broken from clicking on the buttons to change the flag, But this is subjective.
Furthermore, I feel Immersion is a weak argument when we have things like 3rd party websites that are almost a requirement to look at if you want to deal with the markets in an effective manor. Having to tab out to look at a website is far more Immersion breaking then an in game button or two.
For Intel related reasons, I disagree with invisible people inside of PvP zones.
no pvp was one reason for me to buy this game.
if i want to play pvp than i can play quake or similar games.
so pls, no pvp in boundless!
3 Likes
How would this sort of limitation prevent beacon owners from simply expanding their beacons to encompass the resource the player wants to get while remaining safe from pvp? Also, how would this prevent players from simply dropping temporary beacons to temp-plot something to harvest said resource then move along after reclaiming said beacon?
I do not agree with this sort of limitation for the sake of limiting gameplay because one decides to build on someone else’s sovereign, when that someone else could easily change the settings for the planet and turn pvp on.
Nope, PvP not being in the game is one of the reasons I enjoy this game. JMO
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With the suggested ideas above, PvP would not technically not even be in the game for people that don’t want it.
How about flagging out of PVP having a timer, similar to the sanctum one and could only be done if the player wasn’t fighting (either damaging or being damaged by) another player in the last minute? That should fix the evading combat issue, while allowing players to fight wherever they want without hurting anyone who doesn’t want to engage in this activity.
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I wasn’t designing for high stakes competitive pvp where this sort of cheating might be incentivized. If non-pvp observer players were visible to each other, then I suppose you could potentially get some degree of accountability in this regard, but preventing it entirely will either create an exclusion of non-pve players that further separates the community into two groups or requires pvp systems that may go way beyond the scope of what I believe we are looking for here, which is phasing a la warmode in WoW. I don’t even think thats feasible in a voxel setting.
As an intangible observer, you would still need to leave the planet or enter an existing sanctuary and toggle pvp before you could place new beacons or campfires. A more complex but fool-proof solution would be to simply make those resources invisible.
That makes the assumption that pvp could be toggled on a planetary basis. Is it currently possible to toggle, say, creative mode on a planetary basis on sovereigns? I genuinely don’t remember. Seems to me the obvious solution would be to not allow sovereign worlds to toggle pvp after the world is created.
I feel like this would allow people to return to sanctum right next to a valuable mineral node, enable pvp, gather said node, and then return to sanctum to turn it off with little or no risk… Requiring a person to return to a safe beacon at least requires them to make that trip too and from safety.
I apologize, I should have split this into a new thread. I feel like I’m commandeering this thread. @majorvex would you mind moving this to a new thread?
PvP brings the absolute worst out of a lot of people. I see people cheating in causal, no-stakes game modes all of the time. Many people will do anything they can to get an edge over another player, unfair or otherwise.
Including using 3rd party tools and mods, and quite frankly we are going to be seeing 3rd party tools being made for boundless if we allow people to PvP against each other (In fact we already have one that could be used to give a bit of an upper hand for PvP situation awareness), something that PS4 players can’t do even if they wanted to cheat. I have already witnessed 1st hand what such things has done to FF14 Casual PvP and that wasn’t nice
You give players the ability to be douche canoes to each other in PvP, they will. I don’t see why we need to give people in game functions that make it easier to give someone or a group a unfair upper hand over another player, like invisible scouts. Especially in a game that was designed and originally intended to be an PvE game. Invisible scouts is a design more for EVE Online level of PvP.
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Totally fair and I dont really have a solution to that that would not overwrite other design goals I have in mind. Perhaps that’s an inevitable downside to pvp over all, you can’t really design out all possible methods of cheating. Do you perhaps have an alternative suggestion?
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where a player would get a message at portal to planet (similar to the how many days left message) saying they need to choose spectator or pvp to access this planet?
2 Likes