10-24-2012, 12:05 PM
I think a living world is largely superior.
I think a living world where the NPC factions are too large for players to truly wipe them out is ideal. Instead of players creating their own nations, you have them create "underground" organizations of sort that operate on the periphery of the larger conflicts occurring between "super power" NPC factions. The players can alter the outcomes of these larger conflicts in their favor, pick off survivors from conflicts, raid, steal, etc. But they won't just obliterate everything on a part of the map and control it without any threat other than somehow a larger number of human players appearing in opposition to them.
This prevents player populations from being able to too largely alter the game world, preventing it from being skewed to the point of breaking. They can alter it plenty, but can't just freely zerg.
This prevents a player guild from being able to monopolize an area of the map ... they can still maintain decent control over an area, but that control is always threatened by the closet NPC "super power" factions. Kill a patrol, 30 minutes later a larger patrol might come along. Kill that, an even larger. Eventually, you're going to need to move or get steamrolled by a small army of NPCs.
This isn't to say players can't hurt those "super power" factions, but it'd take a combined effort of all the players on all sides of PvP to stop killing each other and focus on one "super power" in order to threaten that "super power's" home base of operations. The farther from that home base area the less players required to disrupt that "super power" location (like a remote fort).
I think a living world where the NPC factions are too large for players to truly wipe them out is ideal. Instead of players creating their own nations, you have them create "underground" organizations of sort that operate on the periphery of the larger conflicts occurring between "super power" NPC factions. The players can alter the outcomes of these larger conflicts in their favor, pick off survivors from conflicts, raid, steal, etc. But they won't just obliterate everything on a part of the map and control it without any threat other than somehow a larger number of human players appearing in opposition to them.
This prevents player populations from being able to too largely alter the game world, preventing it from being skewed to the point of breaking. They can alter it plenty, but can't just freely zerg.
This prevents a player guild from being able to monopolize an area of the map ... they can still maintain decent control over an area, but that control is always threatened by the closet NPC "super power" factions. Kill a patrol, 30 minutes later a larger patrol might come along. Kill that, an even larger. Eventually, you're going to need to move or get steamrolled by a small army of NPCs.
This isn't to say players can't hurt those "super power" factions, but it'd take a combined effort of all the players on all sides of PvP to stop killing each other and focus on one "super power" in order to threaten that "super power's" home base of operations. The farther from that home base area the less players required to disrupt that "super power" location (like a remote fort).