Search and Rescue - New PvP Scenario

[Archived Post]

Posted this a while back in Suggestion box and it was picked up by devs.. let me know what you guys think:

Rules: Place Hero teams at ends against each other, red base versus blue base. NPCs are lost in the middle ground. 4 total NPC pickups waving their arms to be rescued - 2 for each team. As one dies there is reset time before a new NPC is avaulable. The "pick-up" spot that is active isn't shown on map but is one of 9 preselected spots that are randomized. Once you find the soldier from your squad you will press the interact button to begin escorting them back to base.

Objective: Whoever gets the most civilians back safely wins (These NPC's will have to be willing to keep walking during the fight instead of joining in nor cowering while not out of combat; was thinking of interact being "fixing a jeep" animation then Vehicle carries NPC to base). NPC's only become attackable once they are "activated". Recon will be neccesary in order to spot them.

There are some special considerations that I'd like to see specifically for this PvP.

1) Take the UI into account - Set HUD Setting when entering the zone. Half the fun is "finding" the action. Its not as fun if you just have the life bars set to "always" and it shows you what direction to run in.

2) Bigger Area than any other PvP Zone - Travel powers and speed are gonna be HUGE in this (taking away from the might is right campaigners). So make sure that the time it takes from Battle zone to battle zone is large enough. I'm thinking around the same size as the Adventure Pack Zones. **See reasoning in the notes**

3) Pickup Placement - Please dont make all of the NPC's walk in the same direction. All Red NPCs shouldn't go South while all Blue NPC's go North. Put some West Some East.. really make us look to see which spot they're at. And please truly make them randomized.

4) Look into Non-Friendly NPCs that can/will tie you up in battle. Could be a boon could be a bad Idea. I was thinking lace the stage with travel removing NPCs to help out.. but i'm not sure about it yet.

5) Make the rewards favor the other types out there besides DPS/Bricks. Like awesome Perception gear, Controller power cost decreasers, Hold Boosters, etc. Not just items for the stat lovers or luchador lovers.

6) Give NPC's the amount of HP as a Supervillain. I was thinking put them in a vehicle (tank, submarine, etc) and the Vehicle HP is what you have to break to stop the civilian. However this should be healable as well.

-------Notes------
This scenario could reward quite a few extra skills:
Stealth - for those who want to "sniper" off the NPC's from a distance. and One Shot Enemies
Healing - BIG plus to have healers on your team in this scenario.
Rez- I dunno if this is currently functional but if you could rez the NPC's health that'd be amazing (timed after death after 15 seconds NPC would reset).
Traps - Because the NPC pickup places would be known it's possible to set traps (items, bombs, etc) for them as they make their way back.
Crowd Control - Stopping the NPC should still be possible with a Hold (maybe they have weaker hold breaking powers to truly make this effective).
Speed - Not loved by many Min/Maxers to spend Adv Points in speed, but this scenario will favor the swift.

Team fight Mechanics - to be most successful your squad would likely assign roles: Searcher, Healer, Protector, Predator. IF the space is vast enough, the toons won't be able to run quickly from one battle to the other without having the consequence of "being too late". If everyone runs to do their own thing it's almost assuredly going to fail.



Thoughts? ((What if it was underwater.. that'd be nuts.))

[Archived Post]

I like it simply because 1: It's original in this game and I haven't seen it in any other MMO I've played with PvP, and 2: it looks like PvE specialists will have more then just Zombie Apocalypse to PvP in.

[Archived Post]

oooh, this scenario sounds really hard and fun.

/signed.

[Archived Post]

Great idea.
/signed.

[Archived Post]

Hey, a game mode where superheroes can be superheroes!

/signed.

[Archived Post]

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I like this type of map, but if it's going to be a combined PvE/PvP map ala ZA, there needs to be some basic guards ala Stronghold. However, I'd like to make one possible idea. There's no "assault the objective" type map where one team is simply there to press the attack, and the other to defend. I'd love to see this as a take on that, with team roles switching after the first round and defenders then going on offense and attackers going on defense and trying to be the team that defends the longest. Make a time limit of say, 10 mins per round, and you could achieve a fairly fast-playing map that has a lot of strategic flexibility.

[Archived Post]

I'll say whatever everyone else won't. No. This isn't PvP. Even a map like SH is not PvP, but rather a PvE goal oriented objective map with the player interaction tacked on. As long as the goal of the map has nothing to do with other players, then the objective isn't PvP.

You know what maps like this and SH are. It's the equivalent of a troll going around ganking and farming noobs while they try to complete quests. So sometihng has gone very wrong when you need to introduce PvE elements which exists everywhere else in the game already into the one part that isn't.

To sum up your idea, you want a boring clone of SH in which players compete over menial PvE tasks while trying to kill each other. Remember that. It's not about fighting other players, it;s about who can rescue the most dudes. Since your idea is about one of the worst kinds of missions (escort) this basically means that supports toons would dominate everything. Where for once killing something be it player or mob is not the primary goal.

In conclusion you want a PvE Escort mission map, that players can attack each other on. No thanks.

[Archived Post]

I'd be up for this. Getting PvE in my PvP is fun! I LOVE Stronghold, and I'm confident this would be awesome too.

[Archived Post]

I'll say whatever everyone else won't. No. This isn't PvP. Even a map like SH is not PvP, but rather a PvE goal oriented objective map with the player interaction tacked on. As long as the goal of the map has nothing to do with other players, then the objective isn't PvP.

You know what maps like this and SH are. It's the equivalent of a troll going around ganking and farming noobs while they try to complete quests. So sometihng has gone very wrong when you need to introduce PvE elements which exists everywhere else in the game already into the one part that isn't.

To sum up your idea, you want a boring clone of SH in which players compete over menial PvE tasks while trying to kill each other. Remember that. It's not about fighting other players, it;s about who can rescue the most dudes. Since your idea is about one of the worst kinds of missions (escort) this basically means that supports toons would dominate everything. Where for once killing something be it player or mob is not the primary goal.

In conclusion you want a PvE Escort mission map, that players can attack each other on. No thanks.

Completely fair. I personally think that amongst new PvP players (the kind that make PvP programming economically viable) these PvE hybrids are most popular.

This kind of programming may also lead to a competitive PvE aspect (much sought after by many players).

But your critique is valid. It is not traditional Player vs Player.. but in Champions Online, Player vs Player is wildly unpopular.

(Can't believe it was almost a year ago since I've had this up and it's only getting attn after i put up a new Scenario)