On-demand scrimmage/emquests/etc

[prophnoran]

PvP is one of the rich parts of the game at high level, but is hard to get into. Perhaps allow nonpk characters to scrimmage with each other (maybe limited to an arena) whenever they want, at lower risk.

Edit to add: Qethia suggested that rather than be implemented as a scrimmage, you could have a certain area where non-pkers can fight. She also rightly points out, that if there is an on-demand low-risk PvP option of any kind, it shouldn't come with reward aqpts/scrimpts/etc (as Emily scrimmages do now), as that's quite abusable for two players to just kill each other over and over.

[prophnoran]

Actually after talking about this more with Qethia, I think being able to start an emily quest whenever the players want is good too. Broadly: PvP (whether in combat, or racing in find-the-imm, or whatever) is a rich source of ever-changing content whose challenge adapts (because humans are smart), i.e., the best thing to have in a game! Why limit that in any way? So I would expand this to include all of those, not just scrimmages.

However, I'd offer these caveats:

1) Scheduled Emily quests should still occur: they encourage people to all log on at the same time, which is good for building community 2) Unscheduled Emily quests should be devoid of rewards (though perhaps allow players to wager, to make it interesting), for the same reason as in the original post.

[anhegofcherek]

I definitely broadly agree with the direction and principles, but I'm wary of some of the proposed implementation and/or consequences.

If you want more PVP-fighting, there's going PK.

Scrimmages exist, and they serve as a good form of introduction, a way for people to to pit their qeq against others, and more - and that's all great. But I feel like if you want "PVP-fighting on tap", then that's what PK's for.

Other forms of PVP - absolutely! Whether it's quests, or emily quests, or forms of status ("I know how to get $item" / "My shortest aq time is X" / "My qeq is better" etc.), I think the more the better - I guess you touch on some of the last there in #18

[prophnoran]

Here's the big thing:

But I feel like if you want "PVP-fighting on tap", then that's what PK's for.

I think it's important to tease out where this comes from from first principles. In my mind: our overarching goal is to make the game more fun; PVP is fun; therefore, let's get more PVP! If people want to enjoy the game in different ways (i.e., some people enjoy higher risk pk, others lower risk), then there is no downside. I.e., there is no intrinsic telos to PK; it's not "for" anything except what we want it to be for. Me eating strawberry ice cream doesn't mean you can't have tacos.

The only exception, which I suspect is what you're driving at (but I don't want to put words in your mouth, natch) is if the implicit zero-sumness I've said in the last paragraph isn't really true, to wit, if the availability of low-risk PVP makes people somehow less likely to PKSet. If this is really true (and I point out that we don't have much empirical evidence either way, but it certainly has verisimilitude) then we shouldn't allow it, sure. But there are also ways to mitigate this:

• on-tap low-risk PVP can only occur in an arena (so, you don't get the full richness of PKing)
• on-tap low-risk PVP has a nominal entry fee (I think like 50 aqps is reasonable)

And of course none of this applies to other Emily quests. It'd be cool if today I can be like "who wants to have a quick competition of find-the-imm" and we can just, like, do it.

[anhegofcherek]

Fair points, thanks

While I don't think it's precisely zero-sum, I think there's a certain amount of negative correlation generally, but I suspect there's a difference between what this looks like in a functioning population as a whole, vs what it's worth doing to bootstrap a functioning population again(!)

Fundamentally though:

It'd be cool if today I can be like "who wants to have a quick competition of find-the-imm" and we can just, like, do it.

Agreed!

[Ranfir]

What if we make the Emily quests and scrims purchasable for gold / aqps?

[anhegofcherek]

I've done scrimmages because that was easy to do without rewards - Emily quests are trickier but I'm looking at it, cheers