Hello friends! I do not believe that this game can retain PVE players because as we know from many lvl 60 posts, the PVE end game is mindless, boring, uninspiring and downright dull. There is nothing new or exciting in any of the PVE content. This can of course be temporarily remedied with some DLC or PVE Expansion love, however we cannot expect AGS to reinvent the wheel enough to retain this playerbase for any extended period of time.
The other issue affecting PVE players is of course the inflationary destruction of the economy due to gold and item duping. From reports, it appears that only a small minority of dupers were banned, smart dupers were able to launder and stash. The money supply has been blown up and it is waiting in the shadows and to trickle in slowly over time.
Even if NW’s economy has been bloated by duping, it does not affect PVP players as much, since the difference between Voidbent and Faction gear is rather small. And a complete set of lvl 60 faction gear can be obtained in around 4 to 5 hours. We are pretty much on a level playing field in this regard.
But what NW does not offer in PVE content, it offers in spades for small scale PVP with it’s Lumberyard engine. The game feels like a first person shooter, combat is quick, lag is almost non-existent in small scale engagements, aside from obvious weapon balancing issues, all the weapons do feel unique and offer something for everyone. Balancing will come in time. The main draw for PVP players is the feeling of playing an FPS, the quick action where your reflexes matter and different combinations of weapons that can potentially offer a lot of variability.
Small scale PVP offers infinite replayability, variability and excitement. Good, balanced small scale PVP will retain players for years, making NW a niche PVP game. We can already see this happening because community PVP servers are the most populated. Over time, more servers will die out and people will migrate to the most populated ones. This will happen long before server mergers will be implemented (nasty can of worms that will be).
AGS has stated that they do not want to split the developers time between PVP and non PVP and would prefer to have 1 cohesive world. We are truly witnessing an experiment here where a main stream game has PVP running down it’s core with the wars, settlements and taxes system. However, as we all know, flagging is nonexistent and we know that AGS has this on their minds with their latest dev blog post. I applaud the devs for streering in the direction of small scale PVP incentives, since this will be by far the biggest player retainer.
But do note that the hybrid PVP toggle system currently in place tries to mix Trammel and Feluca in a single world, and I believe that this is bound to fail eventually. We already see it failing in that nobody is flagged, with devs having to roll out additional incentives for flagging. UO solved this issue by segreating the worlds into PVE with casual PVP and hardcore PVP worlds and games have been doing it ever since. NW is a hybrid in this regard and it is not yet clear if this hybrid model will be a success.
But what will definitely be a success is a PVP themed expansion. This would allow AGS to justify having their developers spend manhours on PVP aspects that would lead to a new branch of code/game. And PVP expansions don’t have to be limited to just 1 such expansion, they can go on forever just like PVE expansions.
I can assure you that PVP players will gladly pay for this expansion, even if it costs 50% of the initial cost of the game. The reality is that there aren’t many MMOs with good, balanced, fast paced, variety PVP. While NW is not there yet, it is damn close and I believe a few weapon balancing adjustments (and bug fixes) can bring the game to a level where the game can be worthy for niche PVP players.
The PVP expansion should be bold, it should be dangerous and it should be disruptive to the gaming industry. One suggestion is to look back to the initial design of the game and try to incorporate some of that. Was it really such a bad thing that NW was kind of a copy of Rust? Rust is a highly successful game, with a devoted community and played base, while being the worst type of full loot PVP where you can have a castle one day and spawn naked on the beach the next.
Some suggestions for the PVP expansion would be to focus on small scale PVP engagements and make battles between companies meaningful. You could introduce a new area of the map where companies could build their own forts, settlements, etc. The key here is to avoid reigning players into any structured content but give them the tools to create their own environments and worlds. Players will create their own meaning in these enviroments and it will be something special to them.
PVP servers can also be created for those with the PVP expansion with perma flagging. Having players pay for this would justify the devs attention and manhours towards this.
In summary, go bold with a PVP expansion that does not limit player’s freedom. Go back and look at the roots of the game. I personally believe that the game lead who was fired for making a Rust clone had some interesting ideas and they should be revisited, but not in a way that affects the entire game but only a small subset of hardcore PVP types that know what they’re getting into.