Feedback request from James Ohlen - Open World PvP

Hello everyone. James Ohlen, Game Director for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is asking for feedback once again - getting into more detail regarding PvP.

Once again, he's going to be taking feedback directly via his Twitter account, but if you're not on Twitter, we're going to reproduce his question here and would love to get your feedback here too. This week we also have a poll for you to vote in.

Please limit your feedback to the question James wants discussed. Feel free to link to other threads and please keep your feedback constructive and on-topic!

Here is James' question for this week. As Open World PvP was the most asked-for feature last week:

What kind of Open World PVP excites you most?

You can vote in the attached poll. Here are some more details on each type of objective:

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

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

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

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

Remember, you can follow James on Twitter @JamesOhlen; you can follow our main account @SWTOR.

Are you doing anything about SWTOR at Pax East?

PVP factions is an old style pvp no longer works.
Especially if there is only 2 factions, the unbalance is inevitable.

So the best style of PVP is guild oriented and open to everyone who is least of your guild or alliance.

I would prefer 'raw' version of the pvp given the choices. However, if the factions are terribly imbalanced, open pvp suffers, so if things are terribly bad the PvPvE would be a good second choice.

Your factions working together for objectives will have to be meaningful though. If its simply hold these objectives for a minor valor gain or something, there is no real point in it.

edit: Also think that there should not be simply 1 planet with a pvp set of objectives. There should probably be at least 3 different planets, each that gives its own boost, that way players will have to decide which bonus is more important to them. Kinda like the relics of DAOC, but would prefer turnover to be a bit easier than the same side holding the same relics throughout much of the games life.

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

Is there any particular reason that James can't post himself? It seems a bit odd....

If it's going to be Faction vs Faction, I think a population cap is the best way to handle it. AI is rarely ever a good replacement for a live person, and I've yet to see where fights can relatively be balanced with NPCs or buffs as replacements.

True population caps would be good, but then it is like a large WZ, so PvPvE is more interesting because of that, however, it does lead to problems with NPC balancing, and NPC-hugging, which is really annoying. Faction balance or guild balance would probably be really good, if they could pull it off correctly, but unbalanced "raw" open world PvP is NOT a good idea with the faction imbalances, as we have seen on Ilum. Probably a compromise between raw and balanced would be good.

Not really on topic - but yes, we'll be at PAX East.

Quote: Originally Posted by davebushe

Is there any particular reason that James can't post himself? It seems a bit odd....

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

I really like the PvPvE option. Raw PvP is very, very bad idea. I'm on Legions of Lettow server, and in any circumstance, Imperium just massively outnumbers the Republic.

PvPvE fortress-style combat area is what I always loved and will always love. Of course, it should be that the more fortresses/whatever the faction has, the easier it is for it to lose them. Thus, a balance would find itself easily :P

Population capped PvP is... interesting... it still doesn't promise balance, and people may not be always able to join because of the cap.

Guild-based makes no sense in Star-wars universe, but that's not the point. I really like it, because it's the source of all epicness. However, it gives less chance for casual players to prove themselves, and be effective.