It seems the PVP-change train has rolled back into the station again. I was actually going to make this post the last time it was here, but I missed my opportunity.

What we need to keep in mind when trying to fix the PVP shitstorm that civcraft has turned into is that none of us are professional game designers. Sure, some of us may know game design principles, and some of us may dabble in it as a hobby, but none of us really know what we are doing.

Trying to go in and make our own system is a terrible idea because, if professionals have a hard time with it, we are going to have an even worse time with it. The people that get payed to do this as a living, and spend months working full time to create these balanced systems have a hard time. They know things we do not, have experience that we do not, and have a freedom to change anything in game that we do not.

I would not like to take a moment to illustrate exactly what I mean. I am going to use SOE and their game planetside2 as my example because I know a good bit about it and they are very public about the development process. For anyone that does not know, planetside is a F2P FPSMMO, meaning it is a shooter with several hundred people, divided into three empires, fighting in massive battles on a persistent map.

Now, when SOE introduced a new weapon many months ago, they set in motion a chain of events that would have a huge impact on the balance of the game. This weapon, a rocket launcher available to only one empire called the TR, was able to lock on to both tanks and planes. It was increadibly effective, and was quickly picked up by everyone in the TR. This weapon was so OP in large numbers that it locked down the skies and gave the TR almost permanent airsuperiority. Because of this, the TR specific fighter plane began looking OP. Because TR planes had the freedom to tear apart the other empires tanks, the TR tank began looking OP. Both of these were eventually hit with every large nerfs in an effort to counter what seemed to be superior tanks and planes. It want until later that everyone really realized it was the rocket launcher that was the problem, and it too got quite a large nerf. The effects are still felt to this day, the TR tank, and plane are generally considered weaker than the others, and the launcher is generally considered unusable because it was nerfed so hard.

So what is my point? My point is, the professionals have a hard time trying to balance PVP, so we are going to have a damn near impossible time doing it. It also shows that changing one small thing can have massive unintended consequences. That is why I am opposed to any changes to PVP. We need to chance the emphasis on PVP, not PVP itself. We need to add betterbeacons and bastion and give people a major advantage on their home turf.

Thank you all for your time.