Howdy All,

I'd really like to see some form of PvP training structure implemented. It's form and function could take many shapes. One idea is a game of Tag.

The Tag game I envision, would allow players to join or leave the game at any time. (similar to how /group works) When a fellow tag player is targeted, your weapons, fire at the same velocity and battery drain as whatever you are using, however, they cause no damage. (perhaps they are a different color and/or make a different sound) As soon as you target someone/something not in your tag group (or target nothing), your weapons fire returns to normal.

Also, to make things interesting... I think that playing tag around a station should not trigger the wrath of the station guard... However, it should be discouraged by, if someone happens to fire a live round resulting in a hit, near a station, while engaged in a Tag game... _Everyone_ in that Tag group should be marked as KOS by the station guard.

The game will start when the first person is hit. That person becomes "It". When whomever is "It" hits another in the tag group, that person becomes "it", and so on...

Being "It" should have no other significance than the shame associated with it, and everyone (non "It") in the Tag group could fire on each other, (when targeted appropriately) at any time, without causing damage.

There should also be radar indication of your Tag Group, and a highlight of who is "It".

Players should only be able to join one tag group at a time, and the group size should be unlimited. Tag groups should be persistent, until manually disabled. ...And a private tag group only chat channel would be nice..

I think this type of addition would encourage group activity, squadron alliances, and would inherently provide a form of PvP mentoring. I think it would also provide a friendly and fun environment for PvP action, and at the same time, provide the training and instill the confidence needed for the real PvP action that is inevitable in this game.

Thanks for reading...

Comments very appreciated....

Not a bad idea, i like it, especially if some rewards are involved to make it worth the players time.

I agree with this idea completely, as it is many players never get into PvP because of the fear of dying and making playing "tag" worthwhile would give new players the chance to become confident with thier ability to fight.

Thanks for the feedback all...

I'm kinda embarassed, but confused too... I recently found out that under certain conditions in the game, folks _CAN_ actually shoot and hit eachother and take no damage! (players in same faction with positive standing) A few of us had a great time mock PvPing this way!

So, it almost makes my suggestion moot... Almost... but not really..

See, now I'm really confused. In the idea that I posted, I was trying to keep reality in play. Like, having the targeting computer detect that a "tag partner" was targeted and change weapons fire to 'nerf' weapons. I think that's plausable, and realistic.

However, I just don't understand the reality distortion in the games current form. How do my bullets, plasma charges, missles, etc. decide to NOT cause damage to certain players and not others.

Or is there a story line explaination that I'm missing?

Also, I still like the idea of a Tag game, if for nothing else but the healty, competitive, fun, shame factor of being "It". ;-)

B

It's like in Star Trek, only backwards. In Star Trek, if you know the frequency of the shields of your target, you can shoot right through the shields, so it's important not to let your enemy know what shield frequency your ship is using. In VO, it's the other way around, you tell all your faction members in positive standing what shield frequency you are using, and then they shoot & hit your shields of invulnerability. Yeah, that's it.

I agree with sentiment about training players for PVP.

But my suggestion is simply :

/duel training PLAYERNAME

Which will

(a) allow 2 players to duke it out until 20% hull, the player with 20% hull lose.

(b) The duel will remain, with both players invulnerable to the other player's fire for 10 seconds before the duel ends.

Good idea b-m. A buddy did it with serco/serco no damage and said it was great fun. Perhaps in one sector reserved for just that.

I think that this is an excelent idea. I really need to work on my PvP stuff, and I can imagine that it would be very fun too.

As for the training duel thing, just make it so both players go down to 0%, but when that happens you return to your home station WITHOUT losing your ship, it gets counted as a death, but does not get counted as a player kill to the winning party since that is most obviously abusable.

EDIT:
You could also just make them lose thier ship but what they payed for it gets refunded

you could also offer a draw on the duel. both parties then leave with thier ships

>As for the training duel thing, just make it so both players go down to 0%, but when that happens you return to your home station WITHOUT losing your ship, it gets counted as a death, but does not get counted as a player kill to the winning party since that is most obviously abusable.

Great this is even better.

See tram, we do agree on somethings other than just blowing each other up.

I do like the /duel ideas.. (Softy and Tram)

Any way I could turn you guys onto the idea of expanding that to be closer to /group ?? ;-)

/duel is a-ok for one on one... although my original tag game idea tried to accommodate group battle training.

And (although I still like the being "it" factor) I do see significant value in a fight to 0% with limited repercussions. Primarily, it would be a more realistic simulation.

So how about a /GroupDuelJoin something or other??? same idea as the training duel, just more than two can play as well...

The only thing that bugs me a bit, is the lack of believable story explaining how your ship was destroyed, but no one has to pay for the replacement. However, I'd bet that some creative type can pen something together that works. ;-)