PvP is coming to EQ2 soon....

[Urgon]

From the Producer's Letter this week:

Player vs Player
PvP has been a topic we've been discussing quite a bit on the team for the past few months, and it's time we start talking about it openly.

While it's true that we wanted to focus purely on PvE for the launch of EverQuest II, PvP has always been a direction that we've wanted to expand into when the time was right.

We've had a number of ideas for ways we could introduce PvP. Some weeks ago, we ran a poll on the boards asking what kind of action would interest people the most. The majority indicated they'd first want to see us bring PvP to separate servers containing a distinct ruleset.

One of the potential plans that we were fond of fit well with that sentiment, and we've been expanding on it for the past few weeks.

We think it's the best choice for EverQuest II, and we're glad to see that most everyone agreed. After all, EverQuest II has the perfect setting for it. A post-cataclysmic world with factions bitterly divided. Qeynos vs Freeport . Good vs Evil. We couldn't ask for a better setting for this kind of gameplay.

Expect more details to surface soon in the PvP Forums. For now, here are some of the concepts we've been developing:

There will be two new, separate PvP Ruleset servers to begin with. One will most likely be Exchange-Enabled, the other will not. We will have the ability to add more of either kind when the need arises.
One huge concern is that no one wants PvP balance to ever impact PvE balance. There will not be PvE combat nerfs because of PvP. We have separate controls for what goes on in PvP. Since this is a piece that we knew we'd need no matter which direction we went, this is something we've already implemented.
This is strict good vs. evil. You're only grouping with others of your alignment, and opposing aligned PCs highlight to you the same way that NPC encounters would. If you're betraying or don't have a city to call home, you're an Exile, and a target for everyone.
PvP will not be restricted to specific zones. It will take place all across the world of EverQuest II. Fight in dungeons, fight out in the wilds, defend your town, or attack the opposing side.
EQ2 will be introducing the concept of Honorable, Neutral, and Dishonorable victories. Honorable victories are where the rewards lie.
The first of the rewards for defeating your city's enemies include: Status and Standing with your PvP faction.
Additionally, we would like to include adventure experience rewards. While exceptionally difficult, it would be theoretically possible to level up purely by defeating other players in combat. This is a concept that we are working hard to be able to include, and hope that we are able to prevent friend-farming enough to where it is a concept that can see the light of day.
Once you earn PvP standing, you can buy valuable and useful items from your faction's merchants. This is real, desirable equipment, not just tokens, trophies, and trinkets, though we will be trying to include these as well for flavor. You wouldn't be able to dress yourself head to toe in them, though, as Adventuring and Crafting still play an important role in this ruleset.
Stay tuned to the forums in the coming weeks for more information on both the ruleset and how you can help playtest it on the PvP beta server.

It's time to heat up the cold war.

[Lilae]

[WUNBadassTHANE]

[McManus]

Ah yes the old PvP days in EQ. Squads of shadow knights harm touching people to death then commiting suicide to rest thier timer and doing it again. Droves of invisible necromancers de cloaking and gang banging all the poor melee classes till the cows came home. Ahhh the sillyness...

[farf]

truely there is nothing comparable to 40 lvl 1 shadow knights harm's touching their way through qeynos.

[Spehonfyr]

I do miss EQ at times.....

[farf]

i miss old EQ...after kunark, before luclin....right after the velios expansion....

i miss blackburrow and it's gnolls swarming newbies all day every day....nothing compares to hearing "TRAIN!!" in that place.

i miss the spam in eastern commons...well, no i don't, but i do remember running across the zone, dodging the corrupt guards....or maybe they just didn't like me.

i miss the forest....i can't remember the name of it, off hand, but you DID NOT want to be there at night....and i remember going there one day to do my ranger epic...when lo and behold, nightfall. and here i thought the npc ranger trainer would help me out...

i do not miss killing 297 gnolls to get some stupid gnoll teeth to get faction in halas to do the langesax of the wolves quest for jorm's warrior

i absolutely do not miss pyzjinn....the glowing black stone can kiss my happy ass. to anyone, and i mean ANYONE who ever thought any other game in the history of the world had a camping problem, you never tried to get this god forsaken rock....

i miss training goblins to rann flamespinner..."that wasn't a very intelligent thing to do"

lol, and lastly, i miss the elven start town...it was the sole reason my first character was a half elven ranger who started in surefall glade...i would rather have to deal with the occasional appearance of that ranger npc lady who would beat you down if she caught you killing a wolf or bear, than have to join the elven paratroopers legion..

"which way's the bank..aaaaaaaaaaaaaah" splat.

oh and tarbull earthstrider can go to hell..

[Urgon]

I miss old EQ..after Kunark, before Luclin ... righ tafter the Velious expansion...

I miss..
+ the heart palpatations upon hearing 'TRAIN!!' in Blackburrow.... happy times!
+ the immobilizing panic upon hearing 'TRAIN!!' in Mistmoore.. I must have lost 5 full levels in there
+ knowing the tree city of Kelethin like the back of my wood-elf hand and hearing the noobs cry out 'Where is the bank?'..
+ speed pulling for pick-up groups on the outside wall of Karnor's castle.
+ crafting bows & arrows to my Ranger could pull mobs through insane hell spawns.
+ all the cool little items in every corner of the world, always some upgrade to go quest/hunt for.
+ finally documenting all the re-pop timers in a camp area, and working the room like Carnigie zealot.


I do NOT miss:
+ having insane mob walk into my pull shot and aggro the zone on me.
+ be hit by a train in either Blackburrow or Mistmoore, because some noob never programed a 'Train to Zone' key, or had the guts to eat one for the team... or just to assuage his guilt over his own stupidity..
+ dying and losing a level
+ dying and losing all your gear in the bottom of Befallen
+ Trying to solo low-greens at level 45 and making painfully slow leveling progress.
+ Camping a suck placeholder spawn for dozens of hours, just to get piece#8 of a quest for an item that you'll only want to replace in 3 levels anyway.
+ Looking for groups... no ranger love..
+ pain ... lots of pain .. grief... I can't remember it all... I think I finally killed all those brain cells with beer that might have remembered why I felt so tortured in that game... :/

[Spehonfyr]

[farf]

[Spehonfyr]

Well, lets see what they come up with.

[WUNBadassTHANE]

[WUNBadassTHANE]

[farf]

[WUNBadassTHANE]