PVP in LOTR Online

Looking at PvP for LOTRO is different than any other MMORPG to me. LOTR has been around for over half a century and has a large and loyal following. Locations, events, races and all other sorts of information like this are well known to many people. So this means you have to decide to either try to remain true to the “Lore” or not.



Now there are two extremes; the first is the “strictly by the book” extreme which is almost impossible to do in an MMORPG and keep the game enjoyable for a large number of people. The other extreme is the one that just wants the LOTR images and does not care about the books or story. Now the argument can be made that having thousands of elves running around Gondor is immersion breaking and that would be correct to a point. The developers have to decide where between those two extremes to draw the line. Anything that deviates from the “lore” is technically immersion breaking. So it appears they are trying to stay as close to the lore as possible while bending some to make the game enjoyable to as many as possible.



I am going to try to look for ideas that fit in between these two extremes. With the development team saying that there will be no PvP and alternatives are required I am also going to try to address that as well as addressing some of the “cons” of PvP.



So at launch we know that PvP is out. And since in Eriador there were no major skirmishes during this time period I can understand this from a “Lore” perspective. Now once we get to Mordor expansions we can look at playable evil races but I’ll save that for last. The first thing I think they could add in to the Eriador section as a patch would be Playable NPC’s. Here is an example:

PLAYABLE NPC’S



You go to Helm's Deep and you see the opening cut scene and arrive and help out the good guys defend the walls, etc... Do some quests/missions. But then you leave... when you come back, as they've said, the area won't look the same (like Archet changes from burned to being fixed up in the beginner human quests).



So if you return to Helm's Deep you are given the option to go in and do more quests like a normal PC, or you can leave your character at a wayside stop and "log in" to the other side of the battle.





If you choose to do this, you basically enter a mini-game where they could have a system where as you "level up" your NPC you can get better items/characters. Now for the example at Helm's Deep... you would now be back at the beginning part, as if you had just arrived there, but this time you'd be fighting NPC’s and PC’s who might be there.





There is the "danger" for the Player Characters: Sometimes when you go somewhere, the NPCs might not be so mindless... sometimes someone might have worked pretty hard to become that Uruk-hai.





Also, the playable NPC’s would have no “chat” box, just pre-selected phrases they can say. Why?? This cuts down on the people “leet” speak and such and helps to keep the NPC in character. Now this system can be added easily and with little resources taken away from other content areas as the NPC’s are already there. Now there are a ton of other options that can be done with this. It would allow players to take part in “epic” battles as well you could allow kinships to fight each other as NPC’s even which orcs tended to do frequently.



So is this PvP?? Sadly no it is not. And now I move on to some other ideas on PvP in the game.





I think that PvP could be introduced into LOTRO using the Evil races of Orcs and Humans with the Mordor expansion. However, by adding evil races you cut the content in half and you run into the “balance/nerf” issues as well as having to zone them to keep them out of inappropriate and immersion breaking areas. So I will give an idea that could work with or without evil races.

PVP

All players will have a PvP on/off toggle (default set to off) which only works after they enter a large instanced area for PvP. Now once you’re in the PvP instanced area your able to toggle it on or off. As you enter the PvP instance you get a cut screen and an option screen appears asking if you want the public or group/kinship PvP instance.



If you chose the public PvP instance than you will be directed to a large instanced area where you can now toggle your PvP on or wait and watch the action by leaving it off. This also allows you to move around or go to areas in the instance and not get “ganked” constantly. Now there would need to be a timer on the on/off switch so it would not be abused.





If you chose the group/kinship area than you and everyone you are grouped with appear as a group and you can see a list of other groups that may be there as well. You can chose to go to a private instance where your group and one other group can have a private fight without others interfering or you can chose the public PvP instance and it would transport your entire group en masse to the public server. On either of the choices you would still need to toggle on your PvP switch to be able to attack others and be attacked back.



That would be the basic PvP ideas and if they wanted to they could add options to allow the choice of fighting in castles or historic battlegrounds and things like that.



Is this idea perfect?? No. Will this idea appeal to all the players who enjoy PvP?? No. But as is often the case in life a compromise is needed and no idea would make everyone happy. I think that by adding these ideas I have listed it would provide at least some form of PvP, stay true to the lore as much as possible and not be immersion breaking for those that are not into PvP and do not want to see it in the main game. Both sides of the continuum give a little and get a little and it’s a win-win situation.