Stick to the basics

[strife]

It's not that skill based is better than class based. They both can suck just as much as each other if the time isn't put into thinking them through properly.

Any system can be poorly designed like UO. Their are however many examples of skill based games that have worked in a PVP enviroment. I don't know of any example of a class based game that works well for PVP. Maybe POBS?

Shadowbane. Had other issues(overall gameplay, zergs etc), but it did a lot of things right when it came to PvP.

I am not saying one can't or won't be developed but why would you? Classes exist for PVE reasons not PVP.

I disagree with this. Name a skill based game where every character you fought wasn't basically the exact same thing? Like Veraphim said above, in skill based games, most everyone turns into the exact same class. If I wanted a PvP game like that, I'd play CS2. I went into Darkfall with the mindset that I was going to be an archer only. I tried it for months and months and months... I ended up a magic using, 2h axe wielding archer just like everyone else. I spent over 70% of my in game time macroing to get my skills up. I much prefer the class based game when it comes to PvP. I even enjoy the more complex class based games where they are complex to the point where it is hard to balance. I wish that Rift had more classes(or at least souls to choose from with the 4 current classes).

You can't have PVP games that rely on cooperation which is the primary reason classes exist.

Just skip the headaches and move on to more proven methods that work.

Again back to my original title. Stick to the basics. Spend your developement time making a better game not constantly fixing what you have already done.


Vllad

Why cant you have both? Rift for example has developers just for their classes... they also have developers dealing with other things.. There's no reason that you can't have both a complex class based game with good fundamentals. It's not like because Rift has balance issues with the classes that they are spending all of their time fixing balance issues and not enough time working on making the game a better PvP game. There's more to it than that. Maybe the issue with Rift is that they spend too much time working on new PvE encounters and that kind of thing(which honestly is their issue IMO) and pushing out new PvE content to keep that playerbase happy that they haven't successfully been able to keep the PvP base.

The game wasn't initially created as a great PvP game which was a failure from the beginning... had nothing to do with a lack of balance between the classes.

The reason there isn't a great PvP, class based game is because of a lack of vision from those with enough money to actually produce a game. Shadowbane tried, small company. Darkfall tried, small company. UO was too ahead of it's time and is more of a revolutionary game than a good pvp game.

if you could get a company like blizzard(or hell even trion + some $$$) to make a game based on the vision of Shadowbane with the gameplay FPS style aspects of Darkfall with the refinement, PvE and class structure of Rift, you could have a hell of a game IMO.