After numerous delays, it looks like Amazon's New World will finally release this September. Early tests showed that open world PvP without opt-out just attracts toxic griefers who farmed new players, and did not provide any competitive or exciting PvP atmosphere.
Which, honestly, they should have already known based on all the open world PvP games that have come before.
So they made the (correct and ethical) decision to make all PvP opt-in only.
Further, they are applying scaling to characters in an effort to make PvP accessible to all players no matter when they start on a server.
However, in doing so, they have enabled various exploits -- and all the PvP games that have come before should be an indication that PvP players exploiting game systems is a given. Amazon needs to pre-emptively address these issues. (And here we're not even talking about outright cheating with aim-bots or what not, which will likely immediately debut at launch).
Exploit: Opting Out to disengage from PvP
This is a type of exploit that lets PvP players fight only when the conditions are favorable. For example, several players could organize into a large party and run down small or solo PvP players of other Factions. When those Factions start to mobilize and organize a counterattack, these "bully zergs" could conveniently go back to town and just turn off the PvP flag (and then taunt the other Factions in zone chat with their "immunity").
While opting-out of PvP is a way to let a player who is being griefed get some respite, it is also counter to the spirit of open world PvP where the open world is meant to provide unexpected and variable danger, as well as let players group up to counter the enemy. Convenient opt-out means players can choose to fight only when they will win with overwhelming odds, and this does not encourage a competitive or exciting atmosphere at all.
Exploit: Win-Trading to farm Weapon Skill
During the beta tests, it had already been reported that players were organizing to kill each other repeatedly to rapidly increase Weapon Skill.
It is highly unlikely that any scaling applied will also scale Weapon Skill, especially when theoretically there is no necessary link between Weapon Skill and character level since players can advance in every Weapon Skill if they choose.
Further, the ability to opt-out of PvP also means even players who would normally not engage in PvP at all could be tempted to win-trade just to rapidly increase their Weapon Skill.
Solution: Track kills with Bounties
By tracking kills, these Exploits can be mitigated. For example, a player who rapidly gets kills or is killed many times can be flagged for investigation for win-trading.
And a system of tracking kills and placing Bounties on players can be used to fairly limit the ability to opt-out from PvP when "convenient" in order to avoid fights. This in turn encourages an active population of PvP-flagged players of all Factions.
What is a Bounty?
A Bounty is placed on a player whenever they kill another player who does not have a Bounty on them. Any player who participated in that kill, either by doing damage or by healing players who were dealing damage, will get the Bounty. So a single kill can give several players a Bounty.
While a player has a Bounty on them, they cannot opt-out of PvP.
When a player who has a Bounty is killed, one Bounty is removed from the slain player.
When a player who has a Bounty logs out, their Bounty increases by one.
Players with Bounties should have a special indicator on their nameplate (e.g., A target symbol) so that players who are only interested in collecting Bounties can target them and also avoid placing a Bounty on themselves.
Bounties are not placed or removed in instanced PvP matches or PvP-only "militarized zones" such as Forts.
- Players who are not at all interested in PvP and do not flag for it are not affected at all.
- Players who flip back and forth between PvP and PvE could be affected unfairly if their intent is not to evade competition, but to play with friends who are not interested in PvP. A middle-ground could be to allow players to opt-out if their Bounty score is low enough.
- Killing players with a Bounty should not provide a special reward. This can also result in win-trading to get rewards.
- Players who are being griefed by kills would rapidly lose any Bounty they have and be eligible for opting out.
- Players who have a Bounty remain open to counter-offensives from other Factions and cannot simply opt-out.
- Bounties could be made Faction-specific. Therefore killing a Syndicate player gives you a Syndicate bounty that can only be lifted by being killed by another Syndicate player.
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