[MUD-Dev] A Question on PvP and PK

[Daniel James]

On Wed, 31 Jul 2002, Dave Rickey wrote:
> From: "Matt Mihaly" <the_logos at achaea.com>

>> In Go and Chess and other games like that, you usually aren't
>> playing against other masters, but when you play CS or PK in many
>> games, you end up stuck against people with FAR more experience
>> than you. If you had to play a Master every time you started
>> playing chess, I bet it'd become unentertaining. Challenge is
>> good. Feeling as if you are screwed from the start is not fun.

> This is a core problem that is going to have to be solved before
> any MMFPS game is going to succeed: Setting up fights between
> equal opponents...

We face a similar problem in our mmpoarrrrpg, Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates --
the gameplay is based on skill-based Puzzle games (e.g Tetris).

> I call it the "Testosterone Trap", the best team with the best and
> play against the best when they can, and the rest of the time they
> drop into matches against vastly inferior opponents and use them
> for target practice.  A player in the top 1% could join an
> ordinary pickup game and, all by himself, determine the outcome.
> Frequently it was a humiliating walkover.

> In an ordinary FPS, this isn't a problem, there are thousands of
> servers and you can keep trying until you find one that is more
> even.  The past doesn't matter because each match and each server
> is a separate thing, with only the most tenuous of relationships
> to any other.  In a persistent world, this is no longer true, and
> even if what is persistant is no more than a win/loss ratio, such
> games quickly turn into small clicques of extremely skilled
> players who absolutely destroy any newcomers, and drive them away
> just by being too *good*.

We intend to solve this problem in a few ways: firstly, all players
have a competitive win/loss rating, calculated as per a chess
rating, for all the competitive Puzzles.  Before you accept a
challenge from a player you can see their rating, and there's no
shame in refusing. Also, it's very risky for a highly rated player
to go up against a low-rated player: nothing to gain from a win, and
plenty to lose from a defeat.

Sea Battles are trickier, as we intend for the Seas to be dangerous,
i.e.  open to non-consensual PVP. However, Crews also have a
chess-style rating ('Notoriety') based on their success battling
other Crews at Sea. The above risk/reward applies for the Crew's
rating. Additionally we intend to (unrealistically, but we don't
care much for realism) penalise Crews that have a record of
attacking low-ranked ships -- cruel Pirates, beware the Black Ship!

Finally, though, and I suspect that this might work out well in
MMPFPS games, too, we will start new players at the edges of the
world and encourage stronger Crews & Flags to gravitate towards the
most contested, high-prestige, wealthy Seas at the heart of the
Ocean. Whether this carrot (and the above stick) will overcome the
inclination of cruel skilled Crews to vacation in (or stick around
in) the easy-pickings Seas of more pedestrian Pirates remains to be
seen.

a tip of the hat to yer

Daniel


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