Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Corpse looting rules for open PvP

Often 'player corpse looting' is not included on open PvP servers simply because no one likes being ganked and then having their stuff stolen, especially if the gear and other items have taken months worth of grinding to obtain. I think 'player corpse looting' could be a lot of fun, it just needs the proper rules governing it to prevent abuse. The ability to loot another player's corpse would add an additional element of risk to the open PvP dynamic, making it more challenging, rewarding and fun.

Below are the 'player corpse looting' rules for open PvP that I think would make sense:
  • Players must be of the same level or higher - A player's corpse will only be lootable if it was of the same level or higher. This rule does not apply if a lower level player initiated the combat.
  • Player must have been on full health before combat began - If the player was not on full health before combat was initiated, their corpse cannot be looted. This rule does not apply if the player not on full health initiated the combat.
  • Player must have the same group size or greater than you - If you have more people in your group than the victim, you cannot loot their corpse.
  • No external intervention - If the player was attacked unprovoked by an external source (not from their group) , you cannot loot their corpse. If the player that initiated combat receives healing/buffs from an external source, the other player's corpse will not be lootable.
  • Can only loot one item from the player per day - Once you defeat a player in PvP combat and loot their corpse, you cannot do so for another 24 hours. Only one item can be taken per looting, and must be chosen within 20 seconds.
  • Items that are bound to the player cannot be looted - This restricts looting to mostly rings and accessories, unless the player has unbound weapons and armour equipped.
  • Surrender is an option - The player has the option to surrender from combat thus preventing their death and corpse being looted for a small fee. The cost to surrender is the merchant price of all the items you have equipped (or some other value based off their level). If the player cannot pay the amount, surrender is not an option. Once a player has surrendered, they cannot be attacked by the same player in open PvP for 5 hours.
These rules are designed so that a corpse can only be looted if the player was defeated in a 'fair' fight. Assuming these rules are complete and work in practice, I think player corpse looting would be a great addition to any MMO game's open PvP servers.

1 comment:

Thallian said...

not all of those at once but maybe a combination with some tweaking would work well I think. Its interesting to see how so many companies think its all or nothing with a design change when there really is a lot of room for creative application that makes a real difference.