General Discussion

Recently, Managing Editor Jon Wood had the opportunity to sit down and ask a few questions of the folks over at Spellborn International, the Netherlands based company that's making The Chronicles of Spellborn. Community Manager Pierre-Yves *Mirage* Deslandes took the time to provide the answers.

MMORPG.com

Well, I suppose we should probably start at the beginning. Will The Chronicles of Spellborn have PvP, and what kind of system do you plan on using (ie: arena only, open PvP, zone PvP, consentual, duels, etc.)

Pierre-Yves *Mirage* Deslandes:

Yes, The Chronicles of Spellborn will feature PvP for it plays an important role in the game. Although all the landmass is not “PvP-flagged” there are many “world-PvP” zones scattered around the Shards of the Enclave. These zones are the large and complex underground caves and mines network (known for being the places where ore and different ingredients needed for the players’ crafting needs can be gathered) as well as the outdoor Green District, like mentioned in the MMORPG.com video preview from GC.

In addition to these mines there are also numerous fighting pits in the open-air, for the claustrophobic readers. These PvP zones are accessible throughout the leveling of the characters without any restrictions. As far as the end-level PvP is concerned the main feature is the Arena, located in the Quarterstone Shard. Providing you leveled your way up to 40 and talk to Arena Master NPCs, you’ll be granted access to this end-game feature.

Read the full article here.

Mirage, I don't hear the wishes of "the players" on mmorpg.com boards regarding the Open PvP. It is mostly acknowledged that those areas which give additional benefits like ingredients should be Open PvP but that there should be one exception to Open PVP, and thats doing most of the quests (up to level 50). Because alot of players want to log on just for an hour to do a single quest - and you can't do that if you are constantly attacked by gankers.

Those gamers that like to attack and be attacked on their quest from level 9 to 10 visit Darkfall-forum and aren't all the bored WoW-players hopefully sweeping game-stores out of spellborn copies. That are somewhat elite players without any economic relevance, many posts, few people.

I'm still all for the original gamedesign with the mostly pve-only questzones in the more or less linear gameplay up to level 50 and the Open PVP on the additional shards to explore in an Open PvP environment when the game has left its linearity after the first 5 shards. You can be sure that you have level 50s against level 50s there and no latecomers to the game complaining about high-level gankers in the starting area - which at least messes up the board.

very right.

Lets not confuse a noisy minority of open world full on PvPers with 'the wishes of the forums' plz.

TCoS seems to have the balance right with it's mixture of competition matches and high risk harvesting/ questing in specific zones right now, so lets not create a false reality where 'the player base' is calling for it to be something else. At least not until we see how the game works in reality anyhow. If open full PvP is popular enough to get it's own server later on, fine, but please preserve the choice for us that prefer mainly a cooperative social game.

If I wanted to play Fury, I would buy fury ;)

Anyhow, really looking forward to this title, it is looking awesome :)

hmm

tcos seems much more PVP oriented than what i had gathered previously

where's that to do list

ahh - scratch out TCOS

man, that list is getting pretty frikkin short

I am going to disagree with the pve minority and I really like how they give some focus to pvp. The biggest complaint is that this end game arena stuff sounds like guild wars/wow bung.   End game pvp should be like high end content being in pvp zones.

Most non anti social, below the age of 40 gamers want the added element of pvp. 

Bad carebears :(

This game had some potential: very good world (no elves/dwarves high fantasy crap) and gearless, twitch-based combat. Unfortunately, it was trolled by whining kids with unicorns for their forum avatars (I'm serious). All the PvP dreams were crushed by people whose opinion on PvP is that "there should no pvp at all, it doesn't belong to MMORPG, if I wanted to PvP I'd play UT". Not to mention that half, if not most of the original dev team left the game. So now we have Arena for end-game PvP. That's rich.

You think PvPers are the vocal ones on the forums? So whose whining ruined UO? Whose whining makes pirating in EVE more and more like a torture every patch? Whose whining ruined original world pvp in WoW?

Needless to say, I won't be touching Spellborn with a 10-foot pole - even WoW or any of the upcoming MMOs have more PvP.

I don't mind pvp.. I actually like it.  However, finding that right mix of pve and pvp can be tough.   I also know that I am not sure I like where this pvp idea is headed with spellborn.    I am trying to go into it openminded and see how it goes since many other aspects of this game seem good to me.

Wumptrooper, you definitely don't know what you are talking about. Spellborn features PvP everywhere, even in the most rewarding starting area. In the endgame you have a free world to explore, the unknown shards uncontrolled by the High Houses. The arena is for those that want tournaments and ladders, you can't incorporate that in the open field.

So it's Open PVP it's just not FFA, it's not free for questing chars in the main quest areas which are controlled by something like a government - it's just 5 shards with both pve and pvp zones. What or whom do you want to pvp there? It's no place for decent pvp, you can't "hold" quest areas and it's no use looting people of their fashion clothes without stats and you can't collect there.

You got it wrong. There was never talk about FFA PvP everywhere and so there was never anyone to complain about it. Besides, PvEers didn't give a damn about WoW world competition, most even played pve servers. It's always PvPers that whine about PvP, like you in your post, PvEers have other issues. For me for example it was a gamebreaker that as a druid I couldn't talk with my brother druids, the tauren, and weren't able to learn their language.

This game is really starting to garner attention, and its well deserved, can't wait for this one.

pure PVE types are a serious minority like it or not. Warhammer Online has #1 hype. I'm no WAR fan but that is testiment how much the community here loves PVP

where we all differ though is how PVP should be treated

But #1 I want to be able to "level" via PVP. Spellborn doesnt have that. I am forced to do PVE all the way to level cap. grrrr, that might take Forever+++ before I can PVP. Hello, even World OF Warcraft on PVP servers I can see some PVP action while I level up to cap. hell those servers used to overflow at launch too. I know my old server, Mal'Ganis, is still full to the rim.

pushing PVPers into a 'zone' you know that aint so bad. but not seeing PVP til I hit level cap? I am a bit doubtful

But I like the other features like realtime dodging and such. I hope you guys please consider a PVP Server. That way I can see a little PVP Action while I level. Cause all PVE can get a bit mind numbing. Plus, would be nice if I could get some XP from PVP. surely this can be worked in somehow? why not have some PVP scenarios or something this awesome game is neglecting PVP rewards fully that is not good. Can I get best items from PVP?

Originally posted by wumptrooper

Bad carebears :(

This game had some potential: very good world (no elves/dwarves high fantasy crap) and gearless, twitch-based combat. Unfortunately, it was trolled by whining kids with unicorns for their forum avatars