So I've briefly mentioned this before in other posts, but one of the biggest problems with the game, in my opinion, is that there is no player incentive to protect beginner players.
Instead, the developers tend to opt into adding more guards or guard towers. This is a mistake and you're missing out on a huge opportunity to have your players deal with this problem and promote more PVP and player events.
So what is the solution? A guard duty system where the players take on a role of being a guard.
How Guard Duty Would Work?
This would be similar to bounty hunter, however, there would be NO tracking. Instead of having a specific target, your target will instead just be anyone who has engaged in criminality recently.
How would this work?
Two criminal timers
-One timer for the NPC guards (the normal criminal timer).
-One that allows players engaged in guard duty to see that someone has engaged in crime recently; how long would this last? Maybe 10 minutes? 15 minutes? 20 minutes?
This second timer would allow those on guard duty to attack those that have engaged in crime recently. Killing one of these criminals would act towards their task, which is "Kill twenty criminals" or something.
This is only ONE part of the system however.
How do we get the player guards to the right location where the criminal behavior is occurring?
You put in an item that acts as a kind of visual alert.. Think like, a flare that can be seen from a distance; now, i'm not saying actually a flare, but something akin to that, which acts as a visual marker that someone being attacked can throw up.
Why is this a fun idea? Two reasons...
It adds a dilemma, which is what this game excels at.. You see, criminals could also get access to these flares, they could set up an ambush point for people on guard duty. Why this is great is, regardless of whether the flare is honest or not, it brings the guards to the criminals. You could also have it so that if one releases a flare and no criminals are nearby, it turns the user into a criminal.. Kind of like how if someone wastes police time. This would prevent people using it as a way to troll the guards, and the guards would still get a criminal to kill.
Finally, you could add limitations to this system... For example, maybe these "flares" are only visible within a certain range of towns, that way, the further someone goes out into the wilderness, they don't work, and so it becomes more of an advantage for criminals to target people away from town.
This system provides a way to protect your beginners by giving your players incentive to do so, and it also promotes PVP. What really annoys people about guards and guard towers is fundamentally that it is not players doing the guarding. I think most criminals would enjoy the PVP (I say this as a criminal also).
Also, again, i'm not saying use actual flares; but just some way to make a visual marker for the guard players to see. It could be a magic flare.. Maybe you throw food on the floor and birds gather over where you are.. Who knows. Whatever fits best for this kind of setting.
And yes, maybe the guards will arrive too late sometimes, fine.. But at least the beginner may have their revenge in the form of a pack of guards descending on the criminal; and maybe that criminal will think twice before attacking the beginner, especially if they're on their own.
Finally, it addresses one of the main issues with bounty hunting: most red players do not play alone, but in large groups. This system would naturally group blues up who go to these flares, from there, they can make friends, decide to team up etc.
Instead, the developers tend to opt into adding more guards or guard towers. This is a mistake and you're missing out on a huge opportunity to have your players deal with this problem and promote more PVP and player events.
So what is the solution? A guard duty system where the players take on a role of being a guard.
How Guard Duty Would Work?
This would be similar to bounty hunter, however, there would be NO tracking. Instead of having a specific target, your target will instead just be anyone who has engaged in criminality recently.
How would this work?
Two criminal timers
-One timer for the NPC guards (the normal criminal timer).
-One that allows players engaged in guard duty to see that someone has engaged in crime recently; how long would this last? Maybe 10 minutes? 15 minutes? 20 minutes?
This second timer would allow those on guard duty to attack those that have engaged in crime recently. Killing one of these criminals would act towards their task, which is "Kill twenty criminals" or something.
This is only ONE part of the system however.
How do we get the player guards to the right location where the criminal behavior is occurring?
You put in an item that acts as a kind of visual alert.. Think like, a flare that can be seen from a distance; now, i'm not saying actually a flare, but something akin to that, which acts as a visual marker that someone being attacked can throw up.
Why is this a fun idea? Two reasons...
It adds a dilemma, which is what this game excels at.. You see, criminals could also get access to these flares, they could set up an ambush point for people on guard duty. Why this is great is, regardless of whether the flare is honest or not, it brings the guards to the criminals. You could also have it so that if one releases a flare and no criminals are nearby, it turns the user into a criminal.. Kind of like how if someone wastes police time. This would prevent people using it as a way to troll the guards, and the guards would still get a criminal to kill.
Finally, you could add limitations to this system... For example, maybe these "flares" are only visible within a certain range of towns, that way, the further someone goes out into the wilderness, they don't work, and so it becomes more of an advantage for criminals to target people away from town.
This system provides a way to protect your beginners by giving your players incentive to do so, and it also promotes PVP. What really annoys people about guards and guard towers is fundamentally that it is not players doing the guarding. I think most criminals would enjoy the PVP (I say this as a criminal also).
Also, again, i'm not saying use actual flares; but just some way to make a visual marker for the guard players to see. It could be a magic flare.. Maybe you throw food on the floor and birds gather over where you are.. Who knows. Whatever fits best for this kind of setting.
And yes, maybe the guards will arrive too late sometimes, fine.. But at least the beginner may have their revenge in the form of a pack of guards descending on the criminal; and maybe that criminal will think twice before attacking the beginner, especially if they're on their own.
Finally, it addresses one of the main issues with bounty hunting: most red players do not play alone, but in large groups. This system would naturally group blues up who go to these flares, from there, they can make friends, decide to team up etc.
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