PvPvE. If faction A > B, then let A players take control of NPCs and play as them (like LotRO) till some balance is obtained for that zone. Player A doesn't earn rewards for themselves but earns points to upgrading their NPC and NPCs don't give kill rewards so no points trading. Have a vote kick system to get rid of people controlling NPCs that aren't active. Yes they could be used to spy but so can any player with a character on the other side.

Also change the number of objectives that have to be held by a side based on their current number of players in the zone. If faction B still has to hold 3/5 objectives to get benefits against faction A that outguns them by 200%, then it is pointless even with NPC support. Faction B should only need to hold 1/5 objectives, it forces the larger faction to actually defend a lot more objectives then just zerging the few held by the other faction spread thin.

I really liked WARs' styles of PvPvE where you cap bases in order to progress to the next, and so on, as long as the lag is fixed i would like to see a system like this.

I agree!

Big zones, capture points, hold them for bonuses, get guilds and people to form alliances. Oh wait that's right this is a casual game that came out in 2011, people don't communicate anymore. Silly me.

Still, the only true PVP is the DAOC way. You can reward people with a few commendations for open world kills, but it will never equal the fun of siege and group PVP.

Lightside, Darkside, Neutral..oh would you look at that..3 factions! I'm also willing to bet that Lightside and Darkside are far closer in terms of numbers than Empire and Republic.

I meant more like Empire, Republic and Mandalorians (which technically are their own faction and they are typically for hire meaning they could effectively play for both sides to balance.) or you can have any other faction that is represented in the flashpoints in this game as the 3rd faction.

That's called pking and in this game there are no consequences for pking so doing it is nothing but a waste of time because there is nothing gained, nothing lost, and worst of all nothing risked. It is the definition of boring.

I searched this thread and no one talked about consequences this carebear pvp is boring.

For Ilum pvpve may be best. But the mobs need to be neutral and hostile to all player factions. The computer controlled faction can be pirates or separatist so it doesn't break lore.

The consequence part should come from the reward from controlling Ilum. The reward could be a presence buff to the winning faction and lower fees for gtn sales, lower repair cost, or lower cost for crew skills for the entire faction (things people want to fight for both pve and pvp players).

And every 3 or 4 days Ilum can be sieged by the pve faction and the player faction that doesn't control Ilum where the controlling faction defends.

RFO (rising force online) did this well and it was the best thing about that game. People pved to fuel their pvp during the chipwars where taking over the mine was a boon for the entire faction. This led to server politics between factions, guild politics over who would be voted faction leader, etc.

Swtor has none of that I don't know the name of the largest pvp guild on the republic side of my server because other than in warzones they don't exist as far as I'm concerned because I never see them.

But there is no reason Ilum can't also allow gvg while having pvpve. After a faction takes control of the main base on Ilum let guilds fight over outposts on Ilum that give the guild members some kind of reward. For example a extra valor in warzones, decreased armor and weapon deterioration, higher chance to crit on gathering crew skills.

For this part think castles sieges in Lineage 2 where the outpost act as the castle and to attack it for control you have sign up to do so. If more than one guild signs up then it should be a race between the guilds to see who could cap and hold the outpost control point for 15 minutes uninterrupted.

I could go on but this post is already long.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=234156

Enouth said make this and you will have a really good PvP Game environment, and all the PvPers will finish here ;)P

You need make Wold pvp mean something, WZ should not be the only way to reward PvP unless you want a dead world PvP, no one go PvP just for PvP if there is some other type that will reward you more.

Faction Population Cap seems a little worthless to me. If it's capped then it makes it no different than warzones except the fact you aren't getting WZ comms and (at this point) less valor.

PvPvE seems like the best option, but implementing it in the right way seems like it would be difficult. In my experience the most exciting point of TOR Ilum pvp was when big groups were battling it out against evenly sided groups.

Maybe this could be possible, and anyone feel like correcting/adding on to it. What if there were a way to completely block off one side of the map to each faction (Pub side blocked from Imps, and vice versa) such as a barrier at the Central Assault. Northern Assault and Republic Base are both Pub Controlled by default, and Southern Assault and Imp Base controlled by the Empire by default. Either team can activate the central assault barrier to lower it, but it would take enough time that a group from either base could reach them by the time it finished. Maybe even have a group of 50 Elite/Boss level enemies of each faction at central that need to be defeated before activating it. Whatever side is being attacked would be warned immediately so they would have enough time to make it to CA to fight back.

Now, once the barrier at Central is down, it moves towards the now defending factions next closest position (NA or SA). Not only this but it adds groups of slightly stronger Elite/Boss enemies at the defending Assault. Repeat previous strategy and move to bases.

At bases the elites/boss enemies could be fewer and add in turrets that players would have to mount and fire themselves. I'm unsure if this would be too difficult to get past, but that brings me to my next point. The "death wall" could be removed, and some type of reward can be found inside the opposing enemy's base. Once reached, the entire world pvp area could be reset, transporting people to their faction's base and resetting the shields.

The enemy power would need to be balanced enough to where, say, if there are 2 or 3 republic players on and 8-10 empire players (seeing how at one point this is how it seemed, if not more empire players) and make it to where it wasn't one sided. It should be something to where there needs to be actual plans of action to be taken to get to that reward behind the enemy faction walls. Balancing issues here is the only thing I'm really unsure about

The reward itself could be as simple as a quest objective, the reward for the quest being a PvP Armor Token relative to your character's valor level, and the quest itself could be the world pvp weekly.

I know it's not the most sound of ideas, but if anyone has anything they'd like to add or remove from it, go for it.

True "raw" open world PVP. No balancing or added mechanics, just players fighting. Some of my best experiences in SWTOR have been of that nature - just random world PvP on planets like Tatooine or Voss that ended up turning into impromptu large battles.

It's a shame SWTOR doesn't provide for more world PvP throughout the many planets in the game. While random open world PvP is fun when it happens, it is also somewhat rare. I know it is a consequence of the way the planets were designed, and it's somewhat of a let down for me...

Hard to answer this poll.

'Raw' Open World - faction vs faction, with no faction population restriction mechanics AKA 'true' Open World PvP. Factions claim objectives.

Yes please, throw objectives on different worlds that reduce the cost of GTN items or something, and add enough of them so that if your the underdog, you can bounce planet to planet taking objectives not being defended so that the over populated factions playing cat and mouse and not "center assault camp"

PvPvE balanced - bolstering the underdog faction through NPCs, turrets, etc. Factions claim objectives.

Why not just make each sides bases brutally easy to defend(turrets that do aoe damage against the mmo'ers strategy of choice, the zerg) I would defend a defendable base against a pile of derps on the other side that put too much faith in numbers. I don't even know if you would need npc troops, just give the base a shield, add some brutal turrets, and fall back positions-throw some trenchlines out in front and watch the masses get brutalized by a well coordinated defense. The faction base should be takable, but at extremely heavy costs.

Faction population capped - strict balancing in place between faction populations in objective areas. Factions claim objectives.- I wouldn't mind a place like this either, even if I had to que to be one of the 100 vs 100. If this is what it takes to balance factions, than I will wait in que longer because of my choice to go with the sexier faction.(seriously, empire=sexy, republic, uhm not so much)

Guild based - everyone is your enemy except players in your guild. Guilds claim objectives.- this would be pretty nice, offer some nice crafting nodes and make everyone outside your guild red(I may have to join a zerg guild....)

So hopefully that helps mr. Ohlen, I want all of this lol. And I want starwars walkers to walk! No more munitions, unless I can fire them.

Just give me chaos, anarchy and a place where death costs alot, but the rewards are great, and everything else in your poll:)

Lightside, Darkside, Neutral..oh would you look at that..3 factions! I'm also willing to bet that Lightside and Darkside are far closer in terms of numbers than Empire and Republic.

Doubtful. I'd wager Darkside players outnumber Lightside players by an even greater number than Empire vs Republic.

Feedback request from James Ohlen - Open World PvP

He's a very busy man and has minions who can handle that task (ie, me).

I'm not have minions who can handle that task.

Sorry

I, like many (the vast majority at this time), want PvPvE balanced Open World PVP.

I don't think "Raw Open World PVP" would work in SWTOR, as too many servers are extremely lopsided. It simply isn't fun to be a whipping boy when the enemy has 5 to 1 numerical odds on you. The sheer amount of everything (especially CC) is too much to overcome and have a truly enjoyable experience for most players. Maybe if the populations were better balanced, however that is unlikely to ever occur.

I think that "Faction Population Capped" is probably the second best choice. Again, the numerical advantage of some factions is simply too severe to overcome on many servers and it makes PVP not fun or rewarding.

Guild Based PVP is better kept to Warzones in my opinion. Like Raw Open World PVP this has all kinds of issues with population.

Now, onto my thoughts about PvPvE Balanced Open World PVP.

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There are many Pros and Cons regarding this, a few of these are:

Pros:

This method of Open World PVP allows as many people on each faction to participate as possible.

This method allows for the faction with a lower population a relatively fair chance to defeat the opposing larger populated faction.

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Cons:

It introduces PVE into PVP and some players really don't like Peanut Butter mixing with their Chocolate.

The larger populated faction may feel that it is unfair that the lower populated faction has advantages that they do not.

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This biggest factor in this is simply:

"What kind of advantages does the lower population faction get?"

And that is the "make or break" of this idea. The lower population faction wants to have fun and wants to feel like they are accomplishing something. So I don't think that automated turrets and NPC guards really help as much as other things. Personally I'd rather have guns that I can man, so that I feel like I am accomplishing the task of defending or assaulting my enemies.

So my suggestion would be to give players the tools to use and deploy these things.

Mr. Ohlen, as with all things I urge lore as the basis for anything in this product. There are already explanations in Star Wars explaining how lower population groups defeated higher population groups. I beg and I urge you to please for the love of the Force dip into those.

Heck, one of your own timelines states the following:

"In a surprising gesture, Moff Zelos sent an envoy to Master Allusis with an offer. Surrender and they would be spared. Though their defenses were broken and any chance of victory lost, Allusis and his men refused. Their decision was not base don pride, nor was it an act of foolhardiness. They were guided by the Force; they had passed beyond the fear of death. As the Imperial forces closed in around them, they fought more valiently then they had before. Hundreds of Imperials fell against Allusis's courageous last stand."

So why not, in addition to NPC buffs, give straight up significant buffs to the underpowered defenders. So that it would be possible for 10 Republic characters to have a chance against 50 Sith characters. Sure, they would eventually lose, but at least the 10 should score some kills before they go.

Currently though such a thing is not possible in TOR.

In lieu of that here are other examples of NPC aid PC's could get:

1. Airstrikes or Mortar turrets.

Ways to deal heavy AoE damage to large clusters of enemies. Possibly even scoring some kills outright when delivered. Put these on a long cooldown and make them only usable by a certain defense station at a fort.

2. Allow the underpopulated faction to have access to their companions.

The additional healing companions would come in handy and keep many people alive a lot longer which would give them a chance against foes who outnumber them. This would also give us a reason to gear our companions with PVP gear.

3. Vehicles.

Maybe give the underpopulated faction access to vehicles that they can drive around. Harder to kill, immune to CC, and dealing heavy damage on enemy troops. Yes, they would likely still fall, but again, the point isn't about the underpopulated realm always winning, the point is to let them take a few enemies with them when they go.

'Raw' Open World - faction vs faction, with no faction population restriction mechanics AKA 'true' Open World PvP. Factions claim objectives.

This one sounds the best of the offeriengs but it suffers from 2 problems.

1. The ZERG !

2. Population imbalances.

Both of whcih kill the joy from it rather quickly.

PvPvE balanced - bolstering the underdog faction through NPCs, turrets, etc. Factions claim objectives.

This option is better since it attempts to offset the population imbalance issues. BUT lets face it NPC turrets/combatants are no match for a real player....unless they have some darn good AI.

Still subject to zerging.

This option is also subject to objective swapping. Factions agree to allow the other to take the objectives for reward.

Faction population capped - strict balancing in place between faction populations in objective areas. Factions claim objectives.

This option also attempts to offset the zerging issue by limiting the number of people in the PVP area at any givien point in time. Populaiton imbalances can still be problematic.

The other issue is that now your basically talking about "open world warzones" where instead of queueing for it your running there instead.

AND. Your still subject to objective swapping.

Guild based - everyone is your enemy except players in your guild. Guilds claim objectives.

Not a bad idea but it only favors large guilds that can field X number of players.

Ultimatly open world PVP sounds great on paper but it is an entirely different animal in practice.

My suggestion is this:

The warzones are great but there are ONLY 3.

1. Add in cross server queueing.

2. Add in substantially MORE warzones.

Ideas:

+Team Deathmatch (but not just 2 teams, but with 3 or 4 teams going head to head...to head...to head.) yeah, its a hutt thing. The more carnage the merrier.

+Zone Control. ( players stand in the glowing are and score points. The zone moves periodically to various points on the map in a random order.)

+Double Domination (2 strategic points must be controlled at the same time in order to score)

More assault maps.

More huttball arenas.

+"Super Huttball" where you score 1 point for taking the ball across the line. You score 2 points for kicking the ball through a moving goal.

I'm for the PvPvE.

I'd really like you guys to borrow a page from Planetside and Warhammer Online. Take the current Ilum for example.

Divide the map along the middle with some defensible positions that can be taken over. Use a lattice system, like Planetside, so you have to take 3 middle objectives before you can move to the next objective to capture it. you take the next objective and then you can attack the enemies base. This allows for a front like fight, NPC usage, put in some trenches like you see in Empire Strikes Back at the Hoth battle, and turret/bunker systems. You can bolster the underdog side by giving them more powerful NPC or turrents depending on the population in the zone. This system could also allow for some behind the lines tactics, with small units making surgical strikes to knock out enemy turret, drop enemy shield generators, etcetc to prep it for the incoming main force.

With a system like this you can also take it a step further, like Warhammer, and allow for zone capture. Say the enemy takes the current Ilum battlefield (objectives taken, base taken, etcetc) the zone flips to the winning sides control and the battle moves to the next zone. Take all the zones on the planet, it flips to the winning sides total control. Put in a reset timer, or the losing side has to build resources/run black ops/engage in guerrilla warfare to cause the planet to reset to the middle battle zone.

Give some bonus for the winning side so taking a planet is actually a decent goal, that will give you cause to attack and defend and really fight it out.

My ideas for open PVP system

We need a system where big guilds can make citys, small guilds can roam and cause mayhem even if they lack the numbers. There should be someting other to fight about then gear, pride!

My plan would be too take Ilium and allow guilds from the same side too make alliances with a cap on numbers. This would make zerging impossible. These alliances would then fight each other. Even if they are on the "same" side. This is a must for unbalanced servers.

When an alliance is created, they can build bases that allows a guild to create harvesters that extracts credits or crafting material for smaller stuff like potions and mods. Nothting too big, because we dont want it to make a big impact in PVP balance. These buildings can of course be destroyed. Coming too that now...

The PVP on Ilium would be divided in two phases.

1) The "Caese fire phase": Guild cities and buildings can not be attacked. But you can attack other players, recognize enemy activity/bases and collect recourses for your buildings. This would make the planet active most of the time and allowing people too contribute too your guild whenever they have time.

2) The "War phase": Every day on an exact hour the "War phase" begins for about two hours on prime time. This allows for attacks on enemy bases and cities, but be aware your base could also be attacked, so stay on alert! This is where pride comes too play!

Mercenary alliances

Some mercenary alliances may even run without bases, they would rely completely on the "bounty system". Where guilds can put bountys on players, cities or single buildings of the enemy alliances.

I could go on forever but this pretty much scratches the surface for what I believe is good world PVP that is, balanced, competivite and fun!

Sorry for any bad grammar, english is not my native language.

PvPvE but for the love of god think DOTA and not DAOC.

Make the NPCs constitute a meaningful part of the game objective, then subtly increase or decrease their numbers or spawn times to favor the underpopulated side. DO NOT make brainless uberguard NPCs who warp around mechanically one-shotting players or forcing people to bring PvE tank gear/specs to PvP.

Example: Walker groups deploy from opposing bases and roll across the map. Opposing NPC squads annihilate each other in the center of the map until players intervene. If player population becomes imbalanced, NPC squads on the low-pop side will spawn an extra walker.

In addition to slugging it out with enemy walkers, walkers will attack players with large-area, low-damage blasts that break neither stealth nor CC. This low-grade damage serves as a subtle HP-reducing mechanic for the overpopulated side, which scales with the additional walkers. The higher-population side could choose to attack the walkers rather than players in order to stop the additional damage; if they do so, then the walkers effectively serve as an HP buffer rather than a debuff to enemy HP, which still accomplishes the goal.

Creating multiple "lanes" of walkers allows the zone to scale the number of active encounter zones to match overall high vs. low population at different times of the day. When small numbers of players are present, only one "lane" of opposing walkers will spawn. When numbers are high, addition walker "lanes" activate, allowing more players to participate, while naturally encouraging them to spread out. Walker vs. base mechanics should encourage players to tend all active lanes rather than concentrating into one.

Killing walkers, killing enemy players, or being in the vicinity of a walker group that destroys an enemy base should grant PvP currency.

You can start with this Mr. Ohlen - http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=234156

Thanks for that link!

I'm signing that thread.

I think a World v World pvp system is the way to go forward. Allowing pvp addicts from all servers to join their factions and engage in battles.

Without a need to award coms/gear etc, I believe you guys should take the Guild Wars 2(which is already ageing SWTORs format VERY quickly) and award X-Server boosts for victory.

Victory in world vs. world grants a server-wide bonus called Imperial/Republic Might, which -- depending on your server's WvW score -- provides a number of useful bonuses to health, crafting experience, combat experience, and more to every player on the team's home server. While this may not be exactly world-altering, it certainly does provide a good reason to fight

This way, EVERYONE benefits from the success of pvp, encouraging more players to get involved

They just should learn from DAOC. I mean this game is about pvp and runs over 10years.

Big zone for epic 4vs4 battles. Hotspots for 1vs1 battles and keeps for zerg vs zerg battles.

Give us points for killing people and new abbilities for this points.

I do not want pvpve or something. This is always stupid because people stay in the care baer zone with the npcs

Either raw pvp or pvpve balanced would be good, i dont like the idea of guild v guild pvp, just means big guids dominate.

thing is if you offer a great pen world pvp package, you will NEED to give us a universal faction based chat area, one where everyone can see it, whereever they are. not just on the same planet, that way it will make it easier to recruit people for pvp.