wars and warfare.

[Becka]

I think Kiara makes a few good points up above. I think something that everybody should keep in mind is the fact that not every PvP encounter have to end in anyones character getting a visit by Lars. There is plenty of opportunity for all kinds of scenarios to happen and of course excellent opportunities for roleplay.

Sometimes getting caught doing something do not need to end in death (Hi Kiara!)

For someone like Becka who is by FAR the smallest character in the realms considering how long she been around, it is difficult to "back" up any veiled threats and such, so thus she has to rely on charm, guile and (hopefully!) back-up from her superiors. If you get into a PvP situation with someone, maybe think twice about actually killing them if you have the upper hand, maybe it could lead to more roleplaying scenarios that occur down the road so to speak.

For instance:

1. I am out out patrolling Ithilien by orders of the Nine, mymission is to survey the bridge in Osgiliath and whip the orcs into shape. I find a spy from the West (a player who is passing through , cloaked ranger probably herbing some, I know who this is, it is Joe, a legend size Ranger) setting up camp neat the Anduin, weighs my options and decide to attack. Now, Do I attack Joe becuase I know I can win the fight? No, I can not win, not a chance seeing how vast the difference in mortal size is. I attack becuase I am hoping that Joe recognizes this and sees an opportunity for a skirmish followed by some roleplay. My main reason as such is not a fight to the death, but more a chance to interact. A brief skirmish ensues, later on another encounter happens and this time no fighting takes place, but instead a roleplay session etc etc..

2. Becka is travelling from the Mountains of Mist towards the Morannon. I decide to stop by the Haradrim to see what news I can pass on to the Nine. There I encounter a dwarf killing all the Haradrim. I see that it is George, George is a Myth, likes his stats a lot and his precious gear perhaps even more. I see an opportunity for some fun rp, I try and talk to George, he aint replying and more talking and this is going nowhere, I attack and smack bam I wimpy in three hits, I leave but I get hunted and I die close to Harad road.

Two scenarios, they both start the same but they have vastly different outcome. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you make an effort to have a bit of roleplay sometimes others will catch on and while it might not end in glorious death of your opponents or yourself, you still might find it to be enjoyable. My two pennies on the whole pvp thing.

[Zhar]

Zhar: I must disagree with you on goodies and evils. If I wanted to PVP and have an edge would without doubt pick an evil guild.

A BDA/Blademaster is a great combo. Perhaps the deadliest there is in the game in terms of melee damage. Possibly a Calian/Milita or Calian/Blademaster can compete, but in solo fighting the BDA is obviously superior.

More or less any guild with AA layman will also be really good. Mercenary + AA layman for instance. Or Ogre + AA. Or monk + AA.

Both AA layman, Necros and pirates are great to boost your tanking capabilities. And for damage there's Blademasters and Minotaurs. If you want supportive spells you can become a worshipper or minstrel as they are both neutral. I dont know much about the templars so I cant really have an opinion there.

And lets not forget you can grind anywhere you like! And that you can choose from two occupational spellcaster guilds, instead of... well basically none. As Scops are in the process of changing and arent exactly true goodies either, just anti-undeads.

Oh and if you wanna pfight, the ogres and mages holds the best keys to crowd control currently. So there's a huge edge if you're evil. Yes, yes technically ogres are neutral I know. But an "army of darkness" with a mission to slaughter anyone they see is bound to attract more of an evil crowd though...

So nah. I'd say if anything evils have the edge in PVP currently.

I specifically left out the neutral guilds as you can't consider them something that's restricted to a certain side. Sure, AA layman is strong but most guilds that can fully utilise this layman are neutral (we're talking OCC guilds here, which truly define your character), with the exception of BDA. Now, imagine the power level you could get out of militia as a member of the RDA (used to be a subject of many of a wet dream for me in the past after I saw what calian militiamen could do with it).

But, back on topic. I too agree that size differences are quite an issue when it comes to PvP (and not one that is easily solvable with everyone being happy, I don't think that all the myths would take it kindly if they were to be suddenly down-scaled a lot) but perhaps even a bigger issue is the attitude people have towards it like Becka nicely pointed out.

Edit: I think that to achieve perfect balance we would have to decouple affiliation and training. You would choose your affiliation (as in BDA, KoS etc.) but could train somewhere else entirely (BDA with Calian or Ranger skillset/specials for example). Not sure if it would work, but at least it'd make people affiliate with the guilds based on their RP preference rather than sheer power.

[Kvator]

the only issue is the playerbase tbh

[Kiara]

the only issue is the playerbase tbh

Yup, a larger playerbase, and a playerbase who wants to PVP is really what's mainly missing in my opinion. Yes perfect balance between guilds, less stat differences, fancy war areas and stuff is probably helpful and fun, but it's also very complex to create and I think, as I always have, that the game is good enough as it is, it only lacks people.

A doubled (or more) playerbase would probably solve a lot of issues, and I suspect it would require less effort to double the playerbase with promotional efforts, than design and code solutions for guild inactivity, PVP, stat differences, etc.

[Kvator]

and make the FULL quest solutions available via genesis web page or something, rly dunno why it wasn't implemented yet - without the quest files I've received from certain ppl i would probably quit genesis after few days of playin (and to be clear - i am against all these anti-quest views - even with solutions they're fun and can help one to understand this game better)