Players on opposite factions could only engage with each other if the resulting kill would be considered honorable, so if they are close in level and PvP flagged they could be ganked and die a permanent death. Like other Classic PvP Realms, this realm type would still force PvP flag you if you enter a contested zone.
The Honor system?
It could remain turned off or enabled with a multiplier because PvP kills would perhaps be rare?
Alliance and Horde Officer’s Hall and PvP Gear?
These could remained turned off or enabled. Personally I think it would be fine to keep them off.
Battlegrounds?
Battleground could remain disabled all together to encourage world pvp.
If they were enabled, all bonus honor would be disabled to discourage hiding in a corner. Victory and honorable kills within the battleground could reward multiplied honor. Spirit healers could continue to not rez anyone. Body rez would be disabled as well. Although temporary rez within the BG may be required to keep the match fair. On the other hand.
HC PvP: you think you do but you don’t
An honorable kill encompasses what, an 8 level difference? Some team of sweaties is just gonna figure out the ideal level to camp Southshore/STV and do that 24/7. A team of level 38s when you are 30 might as well be a bunch of 60s.
Counterpoint, dishonerable pvp realm. You can only kill people grey to you. In fact, once you hit 30 you have to kill at least one grey every 6 hours of play time or your character dies.
WoW PvP sounds great in theory, but what you get is horrible. It would be awesome if I’m out questing, and i run into a Horde player +/-2-3 levels from my own also farming the same area for their quest. We duke it out. Instead what you get is level 60’s who get some decent gear and go straight to the lowest level PvP zone to camp people. Or “I’m bored, anyone want to get in a 5 man and go and find some solo player?”
Even if a hardcore PvP server had strict rules around grouping, they would just meet up and hunt people.
Players ruin PvP realms faster than any ruleset ever can.
Nice try. If you think I’m going to relinquish control over Redridge that easily you got another thing coming buddy. No alliance player shall ever complete Solomon’s Laws while I’m logged in.
I think a separate pvp oriented hardcore mode would be well-suited to experimentation. Some ideas might be an execution system (you could be downed but the enemy may spare you perma-death), or a recovery timer (once you’ve been downed), as a way to encourage cautious engagements. Increasing the speed to level or just make pvp kills/faction NPCs grant XP.
I think if the execution system was a thing there would need to be a system for tracking players who execute others to add a risk factor, such as bounties, hit squads, dishonorable kills etc). Maybe anyone 3 levels lower can’t be executed.
I think it would be a good compromise if the dying player loses a level instead of their character in open pvp combat. Make it so equal level characters within yellow range lose 1 level on death depending on victor, if the opponent is orange -1 to -2 levels for the victor and if they are vastly over leveled -5 for the victor.
That way it encourages players to fight equally and punish players that try to grief. Apply the same ruleset if a player engages another player while fighting mobs so player death isn’t caused by proxy of npc.
Obviously this idea has flaws but I can’t really see any other way to make pvp work in HC.
I think even losing 1 level would be incredibly punishing, tbf.
That’s always the issue with hardcore pvp: how do you prevent griefing; what can we do to punish the griefer? Punishing always goes too far imo.
I think the better approach would be adding mechanics to increase survivability for those not looking for a fight or those who aren’t consistently PK’ing. There’s a lot of ways that could be implemented to dynamically affect every fight, or every time you leave town. Even having some invisibility potions easily accessible (vendors) could achieve that, added on top of say an item that could disorient enemies when your health drops to 1, giving you a chance to pop the invis and run, or instead of disorient, a shield. And maybe attacking a player will remove the potions effects/prevent its use.
Stuff like that would be much better than punishing PK’s which, in my experience, just ends up overdoing it to the point where no one wants to play anymore.
I think it might be cool to have BGs in HC, but have three lives or something. After you die twice, you should leave the game. It would at least give some semblance of a hardcore dynamic, and allow battlegrounds to take place with gear progression.
I think the strategies would be interesting to see. It might actually end up being more fun than standard BGs.
Of course this would have to be pug only. Erase factions and organize teams by average rank. Which would also eliminate advantages of simultaneously queuing. Fun!
Perhaps the Spirit Guides temporarily rez players for the duration of the BG, however once the BG is over, all the losers are permanently dead and all the winners live.
Unless you have a pre-established sweat guild that’s prepared to play 18+ hours a day with like 100+ players and compete you aren’t going to have fun in a HC PVP realm. Don’t delude yourself. It’s not going to be random people encountering each other 1v1 in the wild and having honorable duels, it’s going to be raid groups of sweaties and/or streamer communities ganking newbs (you) and posting youtube videos of you being humiliated while laughing at you on twitch.
