Change 5151
Originally Posted : Thu Oct 25 04:03:18 2012
Posted by : Misery
Title : PK update
I've rolled the ongoing changes that have currently been in the 'pksim'
command into the live version of the PK system. The details will follow
further down the post, but I want to make a few related points abundantly
clear, instead of leaving these for the end:
1. I see this update as a step in the evolution of the current PK system,
not as a fixed/finished product. The goal is to end up with a system that
is comfortable both for those who don't really care about PK, and those
who enjoy pking. If you have feedback about how well it achieves that
goal, hit me up.
2. The fine poins of both the formulas and mechanics are highly liable to
change, so let me know what you think about them. I will do my best to
involve myself in PVP as well, so I'm more aware of how it works out on
the ground.
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With that said, I want to explain the reasoning behind the changes at
greater length to give you some context for the specific changes. Over the
time I've been on Tsunami myself, one of the primary concerns and refrains
of each iteration of the PK system has been that losses/gains need to
balance (i.e., the system should be more or less a zero-sum game). In my
experience as a player, however, pk and war were engines that encourage
player activity--social interaction, PvP interaction, and PvM activity to
enable better performance in the PvP interaction part. As such, one of my
guiding lights is the idea that encouraging more player activity in
aggregate is the primary goal of the PK sstem.
Over these years there have been primarily three competing
viewpoints--that of the abstainer, that of the casual PKer, and that of
the dedicated PKer. The current system has done a good job of allowing
abstainers to more or less ignore PK activity, and while I have in some
ways augmented that ability, I've also structured the system to encourage
players to enter into the fray, and to provide a deep reward/challenge
curve for more dedicated PKers to progress along.
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Now for the nuts and bolts:
1. 'Rank' is now only a product of the quantity of blood points you have.
Previously, players directly traded 'rank' and calculations were all based
on relative player ranks. While this system was elegant in some respects,
it was predicated on 'rank' being a scarce, desirable commodity--a reality
that never developed.
2. Blood points are awarded/lost for kills based on the level of your
taget, and your level relative to that of your target.
There are two entirely new concepts, 'risk', and 'tier'. I'll explain them
in points 3 and 4 here:
3. 'risk' is a direct measure of how much EXP you stand to lose if you are
killed. It is also a measure of how much you stand to gain for killing a
player (if you, too, have a tangible risk.) The primary caveat here is
that risk is partially filtered for heros.
4. 'tier' is a flexible measure based both on the total activity in the
system, and on your own level. There are 3 tiers. The third tier is the
default tier, and those who abstain from or only infrequently PK will
spend all or most of their time in this tier. Players in this tier will
not lose EXP in PK, nor will they (generally) gain it. All players in the
second tier have some amount of 'risk' based on their level, and their
position between the bottom and the top of the tier. Players in the first
tier have significantly moe risk, which scales up as their blood-point
total continues to grow. As players progress from tier 2 to 1, they will
also begin to earn bonus exp from each PK, as well as a bonus based on
their rank.
5. Formerly, players lost 1 blood point a day, and regained some if the
loss caused them to rank down. Now, players lose blood points based on
their total number of blood points. The daily decay is more aggressive for
higher ranked pkers--staying in the upper tiers will take regular pking.
6. Victims who lose no exp will have their corpse (minus any stolen
items!) retrieved for them by Torgoch and kept safe until they have been
resurrected.
7. If EXP is exchanged, the death will have a chance to spawn an equipment
drop (with higher chances of something nice dropping than in a PvM drop.
8. If EXP is exchanged, the value of the exp lost will be tithed to the
killer's faction.
9. Victims who lose no exp will also receive a shield' which will save
them from *1* death to their assailant, restoring them to a moderate hp/sp
(more or less how a resurrect amulet behaves in war, with the exception
that it *only* works against their killer) to encourage them to fight
back.
10. If eligible for a miracle, the killer's faction will receive one. The
same applies for vengeance against the victim's faction.
11. All PKs increase a global per-boot modifier. EXP-loss PKs do so at a
higher rate than non-exp loss pks. The global modifier currently has the
following effects: it provides a global exp bonus, it globally reduces the
cost of death, and it globally increases the chance of favorable loot
drops. This benefit is for all players for the duration of the boot.
12. Torgoch will occasionally assign a 'bounty' to logged in players who
are valid targets of each other. The reward for these bounties is
significant, and will be granted regardless of the tiers of eithr player.
Players will *not* go aggressive when attempting to kill a bounty
assignment. Should the bounty's victim die, they will receive a free rez
from Torgoch. Should the hunter die, they will receive a fraction of the
bounty exp for trying. You may want to use 'color bounty' to color these
messages.
I'll close with some final notes: this isn't the end of my change list,
and that there will inevitably be some bugs to work out--let me know if
you see anything that doesn't look right.
