Pro-Tips for PvP
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When you expect to enter PvP, and you're group is elsewhere, drop group. This is so your group doesn't OOCly wonder why your healthbar just dropped to zero, or will metagame your position on the map.
When you expect to enter PvP, enter OOC silence. No tells. No party banter. Log off IRC if you can.
When you expect to PvP, in no way divulge you are about to enter it with anyone else on the server. Even if there is a possibility of it, OOCly tipping off someone to your location is metagaming to the worst degree. Don't do it.
Seriously, don't in any way, shape, or form, let people know you are about to PvP beyond hitting .hostile all
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This is something that will have to be forced mechanically. Sometimes people don't even know they should even hostile someone they are attacking.
But good luck.
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Is there a way OOC to say (No i don't feel comfortable pvping and would like to avoid pvp at all possible? or just give a permission that one of you won the conflict without any IC pvp?
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Ask Rav.
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Nope.
Only way to avoid potential PvP is to annoy no one
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Is there a way OOC to say (No i don't feel comfortable pvping and would like to avoid pvp at all possible? or just give a permission that one of you won the conflict without any IC pvp?
Nope.
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Ask Rav.
ah..the good old days..i remember on many occasions when major events were happening, both sides would set me to dislike (this was in the days before the tool that would turn all not on your team to dislike), some with apologetic tells "we are not sure who's side you are on, no offense"
many times when those events were on….. i would simply....smile :)
as far as pvp, i would try to avoid it, and aside for some RP related PVP where terse words and tense emotions were visible, i did a decent job of avoid it in the past, now? not so sure..i have no real clue who is who and what faction is which, but i have come to the determination that anything in the old part of the city is best avoided...or agreed with if you find yourself amongst them...if it gets too bad..drop a bag of gold..while they are gathering it up...run away, but be cautious of the transition camping bandits (still smarting from a well placed arrow earlier today i took at a transition in the old section, i survived of course, but i had let my guard down..once....that will be the last time)
to make them not want to pvp you? it is a balancing act, it cannot be done with all characters/players, that is where you have to use your best judgement, i can relate this one incident now, many had heard of it via tells, but during the civil war..the first one, i had a apprentice who was a member of house bhaliir, in time the apprentice out grew the master, as they rose to a position of some prominence in the house (the highest ranking PC if i am not mistaken) i wandered boldly into the bars inn, but it was calculated, i knew there was a good chance they would be in the inn, i was promptly surrounded by PC thugs who seen me rightfully so as a outsider during a time of war. they asked their leader if they could kill me now....but that leader was my old apprentice, they walked up to me and asked something to the effect of "what is you will master" not those exact words, but similar, the room went silent as we conversed.
another time....i wanted to talk to my "near sister" who happened to be in charge of the Cabal, Raslyn (one of my many favorite characters in old arabel) i wandered in as a new potential recruit was being interviewed (in the slums bar), i was not aware of the process and being i almost always whispered, i had to get close to Raslyn, as i walked up and whispered a hello, this new potential recruit took it upon himself to "protect" his potential employer from this mere elven interloper and loudly asked if he could teach me a lesson, he was severely beaten for his indiscretion, and to make matters worse, he decided to use a poison bomb of some kind to make a escape...bad choice, all the NPCs went nuts and killed him before he could reach the door, and he should really have known better..Raslyn was a vampire she made no secret of it at that time..vampires cannot be poisoned....and neither could i (note: i was not a vampire, i may have had a item that made me immune, or something atactched to my character from my vhoor or bresk days)
Bottom line? know where you are and who you are with..i tried to never walk into a situation where i was at a severe disadvantage (it did happen occasionally, but that is unavoidable)
how many people have done the "ladies challenge?" a couple of those villians were Rav's friends, and some of them went out of their way to protect her, Durdyn comes to mind...another of my favorite characters, one whos background could have led him to being arabels greatest hero had circumstances not conspired against him, and Pyatt Pree saved Rav's life on numerous occasions. i made friends on both side of the street, the bresks were protecting me on one side, and caston nefzen and urebrin and rose on the other side
the cast of protectors always changed, and aside from a few brief periods where i had no protectors on either side, i simply adapted to the situation, it was a lot easier to make new friends because the layout of arabel, and i knew where the dark and the light were, and used that to advantage. when aiding a new character and they were easy to spot, i would give them gold i could spare, items i had found and spells to aid them when i showed them the tasks one could do (especially for newer players) and i would talk to them..become what they needed to hear....a follower of lathander? easy..i sent them to those of the light and aided them and many times had a friend, even if the ones i sent them to did not trust me..if they were from a more free thinking god..i would send them to those of the dark, all the while helping both, and occasionally....i would take on apprentices if they showed promise at the start...new ones become friends....friends can become protectors (note: the ones i mentioned by name as protectors were not aided by me in such a manner, they were on their feet..so to speak before i was, i was still learning the server back then)
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sometimes, if you want to fight or someone wants to fight you, you can talk about making it like a sparring match, whether in a bar or a ring…
i think there is a thing about sort of respecting someone's power, and the weird expectation that we're all going to be really polite and never use our power to smack someone around who thinks its funny to disrespect your uber pc in team evil in front of everyone, and ignore the kind of deep and long amounts of time you've been maybe trying to build that reputation... so I could see that as frustrating too.
but for instance, sexual situations and rape on the server, when i was here last, were consensual only, regardless of how evil your character was, and / or restricted out right, for various reasons, including legally you don't necessarily know how old the person you are rp'ing with is, etc.
so I don't think it is unreasonably to try and be sensitive to different people's needs, like if someone is in a pvp situation, and they ask to not continue. Different people have different kinds of life experiences and/or trauma, and just because you want to prove you are uber badass doesn't give you the right to retraumatize people, and then say 'its their fault for playing here'. the point of the game is fun; if your rp and pvp isn't fun, or adding something to the server, then it will drive people away. maybe some of this has changed, with the darker direction coa is going now, i don't know, but i respected that decision of the game admins to do this when i played years ago.
when we say 'fun', we are talking about inclusive, communal fun, as opposed to picking on one person, and everyone laughing at/ making that person feel like crap.
tragedy, sad stories, being 'beat down', can all paradoxically, be fun and engaging, when they really push forward the story... and are part of what makes becoming stronger or gaining allies feel good, too... or improving your reputation, etc.
that's my 2c anyways.
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but for instance, sexual situations and rape on the server, when i was here last, were consensual only, regardless of how evil your character was, and / or restricted out right, for various reasons, including legally you don't necessarily know how old the person you are rp'ing with is, etc
Sure we're talking about the same sever? I've been here on and off for ten years and that's never been the case.
It doesn't matter if it's consensual or not. It's not welcome on CoA.
PvP is not consensual, though we keep track of it and chase up people acting in a wholly inappropriate manner to, as you say, make people feel like crap. Generally you should give people who are not chasing PvP with you the opportunity to get out of it in some way, e.g. by paying you some bribe, providing some information, whatever.
Graphic torture is consensual, because not everyone is comfortable around such things.
Original post: metagaming is cheating, and again, if a particular incident happens then report it and we'll look into it. The advice is not bad, but - and I'm sure I've said this before elsewhere - not everyone is a PvP wizz. If you're engaging in PvP without a DM you need to be ready to take less than perfect PvP practice into account.
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If you really wish to avoid pvp, say so ig and do what is asked of you etc
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i know some people want to defend pvp, and that's fine, but there have always been griefers, or drama sometimes from pvp, and that's the point i'm trying to make. if someone is using pvp in a way that is making the server really not fun to play on for lots of people, that's not cool…
and it makes sense for people to want to try and do something about it. -
Is there a way OOC to say (No i don't feel comfortable pvping and would like to avoid pvp at all possible? or just give a permission that one of you won the conflict without any IC pvp?
This can't really happen, Delanish, especially on a server that's high on IC conflict between players. It is not possible to live inside your own bubble untouched by outside events unless:-
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You actively work not to be involved in anything and only interact with players for questing and the like
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Your playtime is very low, so there just isn't time to develop relationships (positive and negative) with other PCs in the game.
DMs don't really have a problem if you try to avoid PvP like the plague, but we will not build a bubble around any PC that says "Off limits, no PvP". Even if you try really hard, you may still get dragged into it, because that's the nature of the game. However, I will confirm that you don't have to enter PvP to have a good time. A good storyline is much more involving than random combat, and we have always demanded high quality storylines and organic PvP that originated from IC events in a natural way, not forced for the sake of it.
Also, I'd suggest talking to players and DMs to get over this hump. PvP is not really some monstrous, scary thing. If you're afraid of it because you aren't good at it, I promise you that anyone can get reasonably good at it.
Ultimately, just have fun, involve people in fun, and you'll do fine.
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This is something that will have to be forced mechanically. Sometimes people don't even know they should even hostile someone they are attacking.
But good luck.
Not 100% possible due to the way bioware code works, but we do keep a close watch on people who just "happen to turn up" when PvP's happening. DMs know exactly where all PCs are at all times, it's really easy to discover when someone's metagaming a PvP happening 3 screens away.
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yes it is.
'Lets go find a white stag'
'Wait… no, lets make a b-line for Old Town because...... spidy sense'
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I rly understand those concerns coming from thomas. One might think it's a selected few or newbies who do that kind of metagaming but in fact it's a lot of ppl.
I remember once ganking 4 pcs.. They were lying on the ground (near death). 1 min had passed and there were suddenly two more entering asking what was happening in the midst of the bleeding pcs without having been in party with the ganked pcs and threatening mine.
I was rp'ing to give plot hooks and fun for those who were ganked/near death but those other two pcs just interrupted it in a very bad way. They weren't newbies, quite the contrary. The place was at least 3 zones away from where they had been running from.
It rly spoiled a lot for both the ganked and myself that they came, even had they not threatened my pc it was beyond lame and immersion breaking. -
@SpiffyHas:
When you expect to enter PvP, and you're group is elsewhere, drop group. This is so your group doesn't OOCly wonder why your healthbar just dropped to zero, or will metagame your position on the map.
When you expect to enter PvP, enter OOC silence. No tells. No party banter. Log off IRC if you can.
When you expect to PvP, in no way divulge you are about to enter it with anyone else on the server. Even if there is a possibility of it, OOCly tipping off someone to your location is metagaming to the worst degree. Don't do it.
Seriously, don't in any way, shape, or form, let people know you are about to PvP beyond hitting .hostile all
I've been guilty of this before, and I'll admit I've erred in the past. I was fortunate that someone told me the stuff Spiff just pointed out, and very firmly refused to act on the information I'd erred in leaking.
Lesson learned. I think it was HellzYeah who thumped my nose about this. At the time I'd simply panicked, as all people tend to do when random PvP happens. Since then I've discovered that the above can save a lot of heartache, accusations, etc. and it's good advice even if it's hard to follow. But. Being hard to follow doesn't mean it's not extremely useful for your sanity and everyone else's. I try to stick as close to this as possible, though occasionally I admit that I get bored waiting for someone and randomly banter with some friends in the background via tells or something similar. Shouldn't do it. Know I shouldn't do it.
I can't just sit still for that long without anything happening sometimes, lol.
Point is, please read and understand the above, quoted post, because it's important to avoid griefing, and a lot of heartache.
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@SpiffyHas:
When you expect to enter PvP, enter OOC silence. No tells. No party banter. Log off IRC if you can.
Probably not what you mean, but I have to say that I appriciated when someone asked the other day if I'm okay with handling the situation by fighting, and mentioned he may have to kill me. Despite the fact it was practically our first encounter, I'd probably have feel okay about dieing that day.
I agree that giving away my position is the worst level of metagaming, and I agree without any pvp practice.
It's probably hard to pay attention for all these, so the advice is useful, thanks. Never thought about IRC, for example. -
This is all good advice. But I will add that you should very much tip off a dm before pvp goes down, even if its in a zone where you dont need one, because it saves everyone a lot of trouble down the road to always have a dm around to monitor pvp if at all possible.
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This is all good advice. But I will add that you should very much tip off a dm before pvp goes down, even if its in a zone where you dont need one, because it saves everyone a lot of trouble down the road to always have a dm around to monitor pvp if at all possible.
I'll just add that it's always good to have one, because we can arbitrate and give a ruling on the spot incase players are not happy, but it's by no means a mandate. Just drop a note in the DM channel when PvP is going down, you don't need to wait for one to arrive. If we're online, we usually will be there when PvP is happening, as we get system alerts every time someone is ready to engage in PvP.
In order to beat the horse to death and keep beating it, the above is not applicable in the Citadel or where NPCs would logically react to your scuffles. This will need a DM on the spot, watching, or it will be retconned. Exceptions on a case by case basis, the DM decides what the exceptions are.
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_Zaviron, I wouldn't be so quick to assume they communicated OOCly myself, especially since the first thing they did was talk to your character and not immediately attack him.
People passing by is a very real possibility when PvPing folks, and folks naturally tend to get interested when they see someone subdued. It's a good thing though. Adds an extra mix of unpredictability to conflict, which makes things more interesting.
Rarely did I ever start a mechanical PvP encounter and have it turn out exactly as I planned it to, which I think is one of the beauties of player versus player conflict._
As for what Delanish said… I give you Citizen_Bane's answer +1. 95% of the time a character has no reason to attack someone that is compliant. Random muggings, monster PCs attacking you, etc, are sometimes part of the game though.