How do you RP PVP?

[Fystrael Abylstyrwyn]

In most of the MMOs I've been in, there's been at least 2 factions smacking each other over the head for reasons known and unknown and my character is a soldier in the ever-lasting war.  This makes it easy for me to slip my natural inclination to PVP without much justification necessary.

 

However, FFXIV has a NPC-opposing faction (in mechanics at least).  While I know there will be arenas for team PVP, I'm still not confident that frontlines will address the reasons why random Gridanian arrows are feathering Ul'dah and Limsa Lominsa backs.

 

Any ideas on how to combine the in-game frontline PVP mechanics with roleplaying?

[doctorgalactic]

In most of the MMOs I've been in, there's been at least 2 factions smacking each other over the head for reasons known and unknown and my character is a soldier in the ever-lasting war.  This makes it easy for me to slip my natural inclination to PVP without much justification necessary.

 

However, FFXIV has a NPC-opposing faction (in mechanics at least).  While I know there will be arenas for team PVP, I'm still not confident that frontlines will address the reasons why random Gridanian arrows are feathering Ul'dah and Limsa Lominsa backs.

 

Any ideas on how to combine the in-game frontline PVP mechanics with roleplaying?

 

This is a great question, I'm interested in hearing what everyone thinks.

[Gideon Aryeh]

I'm honestly curious about this myself as FF has always given off a feel of "we all are in this together". Not to say that individuals can't have their skirmishes, or FC vs FC skirmishes for example but I'd like to know storywise in the grand storyline why would pvp even make sense if we are all fighting against the same evils.

[Aleister]

I'm looking forward to seeing answers as well. I generally stay away from RP PvP cause most the time they done with emotes. Heh

[Levi Druthers]

I don't heh.

 

But I though FF14 wasn't going to have PvP?  /shrugs

[Sophia]

I'm waiting to see how Square Enix deal with frontlines, really.

 

With the overall storyline being the 3 City States coming together, I can't see them having a reason to fight each other out there. I'm thinking maybe it's a huge training exercise between the three Companies to try and encourage friendly competition.

 

"Nothing like a good old spar to build comra- is that a Meteor?"

 

...Yeah. Maybe I'll just wait and see what reason is shown in game when it makes its way in. :blush:

[Gideon Aryeh]

I'm looking forward to seeing answers as well. I generally stay away from RP PvP cause most the time they done with emotes. Heh

 

God I hate /roll fights with a passion. I am pretty much looking to EQN for my rp-pvp fix to be honest. Not saying FF can't do it well but I can't do pvp without rp. It was a major gripe of mine in GW2 with its stupid mists. "Oh go into another dimension and fight other people from other dimensions cause they are eeeevvvvviiiiilll!!!!"

 

-snerk-

 

I kinda wish FF handled the pvp like LOTRO where one side plays the Garleans and the others are from the city states.

[LiadansWhisper]

To be honest, I'm not sure it makes sense at all in the overarching storyline, given what I've read about the setting.

 

I guess you could explain it as alliances "fraying about the edges" now that it's 5 years since the Calamity.

 

I think it would make really good sense if it was an in-character rivalry type thing.  Like, between Free Companies or some such.

[Aleister]

I'm waiting to see how Square Enix deal with frontlines, really.

 

With the overall storyline being the 3 City States coming together, I can't see them having a reason to fight each other out there. I'm thinking maybe it's a huge training exercise between the three Companies to try and encourage friendly competition.

 

"Nothing like a good old spar to build comra- is that a Meteor?"

 

...Yeah. Maybe I'll just wait and see what reason is shown in game when it makes its way in. :blush:

You don't really need a reason.. Just cause the storyline is about the grand companies coming together doesn't have to involve your character. It is your story afterall. You can make your guy a merc, a soldier, etc. He could be a nice guy, a asshole, a two face, etc. which is enough reason why there to want to go bashing your weapon into their face. (Whoever pissed you off or for any other reason.)

[Sophia]

You don't really need a reason.. Just cause the storyline is about the grand companies coming together doesn't have to involve your character. It is your story afterall. You can make your guy a merc, a soldier, etc. He could be a nice guy, a asshole, a two face, etc. which is enough reason why there to want to go bashing your weapon into their face. (Whoever pissed you off or for any other reason.)

Oh! No, no. I know!

 

I more meant that as the overall storyline for PvP when it's introduced.

 

As of right now there's small team based PvP already in the game, but at one point I think SE mentioned they were planning a larger scale zone based PvP thing between the three Companies? I may be mistaken here, though.

 

I was more wondering out loud how SE will approach that in their story. Alexis won't be seen there IC for a while!

[Merri]

Well, one of the PvP areas is an arena. That is likely to function like the bloodsands, only with teams. Sanctioned fights, basically.

 

The frontlines, on the other hands, will most certainly be war games or something similar. They can't have war between the city-states in-game, as it would uproot everything they've established mechanic-wise. It's not going to happen unless they radically change the game all of a sudden to where you don't have to visit the other city-states for quests.

 

Bottom line, it's going to be war games. Like Ballista in XI.

[Gideon Aryeh]

Well, one of the PvP areas is an arena. That is likely to function like the bloodsands, only with teams. Sanctioned fights, basically.

 

The frontlines, on the other hands, will most certainly be war games or something similar. They can't have war between the city-states in-game, as it would uproot everything they've established mechanic-wise. It's not going to happen unless they radically change the game all of a sudden to where you don't have to visit the other city-states for quests.

 

Bottom line, it's going to be war games. Like Ballista in XI.

 

Hmm....thanks, figured as much. I can do that if its practice exercises. Makes a lot of sense too.

[Dravus]

I tend to prefer to focus on role-playing before and after a battle instead of artificially dragging the combat itself out with all sorts of weird and awkward restrictions. I prefer RP-PVP to be fast paced and focused around skirmishes rather than lengthy battles. Such a model allows for more attention to be brought to the build up and aftermath without leading to stagnation.

[Grott]

War games is the only lore explanation that makes sense, but it's kind of a boring cop-out. You might as well say it's a civil war reenactment. My characters, as well as many other characters I've seen in the RPC, are tooth-and-nail badasses because that's the kind of world I see them inhabiting. The idea of them going to battle to play pretend with soldiers of other companies is kind of ridiculous. It's a little lame to say that none of these battles really count and no one gets injured beyond minor cuts and bruises. I think it'd be cooler to just have border disputes between the Grand Companies. Sure, they're united against the Empire, but they're also not exactly best friends. I could see some minor, unsanctioned combat happening over territorial disagreements like the Shroud/Thanalan border. That's just me though. If SE wants to baby it up with war games, they're free to do so.

 

On a side-note, /roll PVP and emote PVP are incredibly boring to me and usually get awkward because of people misreading what exactly the other character is doing. It's like watching two children play the ol' "No, I dodged your bullets!" game.

[Fystrael Abylstyrwyn]

Wow. more interest generated that I'd imagined.

 

Usually when I rp pvp, I don't rp during a fight - I deal strictly with mechanics then cuz I really hate dying, even for pretend!

 

Afterwards, though, I may throw down a realm/faction specific emote or item as a signature, or build in-game feuds with counterparts in other factions (not always RP).

 

I can RP PVP without the mechanics, it's just that the whole idea of frontlines doesn't seem to fit unless it's tied to a major change in the storyline that details friction between the Grand Companies, like a resource war (manufactured by Garleans, naturally).

 

Plus I hate emote PVP.  Leads to way too much uncertainty and I am honest enough to say that I cheat. 

[Grott]

Afterwards, though, I may throw down a realm/faction specific emote or item as a signature,

 

I have a macro I use after really tough boss fights, but it isn't realm/faction specific.

 

/psych motion

/em roars the savage, challenging cry of his people.

 

(Male Miqo'te /psych looks like a roar if you use your imagination...) It's kind of my own signature macro. I plan to use it in pvp as well after winning a close battle.

 

...Patent pending.

[LandStander]

I'm waiting to see how Square Enix deal with frontlines, really.

 

With the overall storyline being the 3 City States coming together, I can't see them having a reason to fight each other out there. I'm thinking maybe it's a huge training exercise between the three Companies to try and encourage friendly competition.

 

"Nothing like a good old spar to build comra- is that a Meteor?"

 

...Yeah. Maybe I'll just wait and see what reason is shown in game when it makes its way in. :blush:

 

I think this is the exact way they are going to do it. Just look at their reasoning behind Ballista in FFXI. 

 

"Ballista is one of the forms of Conflict in Final Fantasy XI. With the recent wave of patriotism sweeping Vana'diel, the decision was made to reintroduce Conflict as a form of friendly rivalry between the three nations. Ballista is based upon San d'Orian military training exercises that involve participants digging up small stones called Petras to toss into goals called Rooks scattered around the battlefield."

[Aduu Avagnar]

Personally I don't think that its that much of a cop out at all. There's going to be a war. That means people with little to experience in large scale combat manouveres (pretty much everyone died last time is my understanding).

 

How do you counter that? Large scale wargames to get people up to speed on how it's done, and as most people know. There is hardly a better motivator than rivalry.

---

Personally I don't think that its that much of a cop out at all. There's going to be a war. That means people with little to experience in large scale combat manouveres (pretty much everyone died last time is my understanding).

 

How do you counter that? Large scale wargames to get people up to speed on how it's done, and as most people know. There is hardly a better motivator than rivalry.

[Fystrael Abylstyrwyn]

Point taken, Nako'li.

 

If I take it that way, my crazy, blood-thirsty Keeper PVP alt turns into a grizzled, morally-bankrupted Miqo'te veteran teaching new soldiers the hard way - at the pointy ends of his arrows.

 

Hrm, I can roll with this...

[Grott]

(pretty much everyone died last time is my understanding).

 

Well, everyone died because the moon fell from orbit and released a Lovecraftian god monster who destroyed a continent in two minutes flat. No amount of healthy rivalry is going to deter that in the future. Even against the Garlean Empire, they have jet propulsion and we're using balloons. 

 

Plus it just makes more sense to me that in a world that's still rebuilding itself, there'd be a lot of skirmishes falling through the cracks that the official city-state military doesn't want to take credit for. The world was just blown up, it's bound to be in a state of civil and military unrest. I don't see everyone holding hands and sharing military tactics with each other in a time like this.

[Azthran]

War games is the most likely explination but I don't think fighting over resources could be too far of a stretch, I mean wasn't it mentioned that we will be fighting over strategic points in the area? If that's true then it seems like it's a bit more than just war games and exercises but that's just how I'm seeing it.

 

Also personally I'd be happy if there was no pvp or even if the arena was the only form of pvp. I understand that pvp is a big thing to a lot of people out there and I am happy to see that SE is working to make it fit in the lore too.

 

Don't get me wrong here I'm pretty excited to see how the Frontlines pvp is going to play out as I'm a fan of the larger scale pvp battles and I will probably find myself in the area often enough but that will mostly be OoC for me I'm thinking.

[Yuria]

I'm honestly curious about this myself as FF has always given off a feel of "we all are in this together". Not to say that individuals can't have their skirmishes, or FC vs FC skirmishes for example but I'd like to know storywise in the grand storyline why would pvp even make sense if we are all fighting against the same evils.

maybe it is somehow sporty? I heard that there is only one place in the game where you can pvp (maybe I'm wrong ).... you know like UFC? lots of blood involve but they are not trying to kill each other maybe it's something like that

[Havoc Snow]

I'm going to put my money on blood sport. We have football, rugby, that sort of thing in the real world, Eorzeans have gladiatorial combat and war games. More than likely it's not real combat, not in the sense that we're actually trying to kill each other. It's just training combined with sport.

[Selsix]

Luckily for you fine people RPPVP happens to be my specialty, I played on these realms exclusively in WoW. The easiest way I see it working out from a lore perspective? The individual, not the nation.

 

Just because I (if I do select it) side with Gridania, doesn't mean I give a damn about the political side of my faction choice. My nation of selection doesn't have to come in to play with who I have beef with. I could start up a fight with someone, and him being a member of Grid's militia and myself being part of Linsa's could be completely irrelevant.

 

There are many other reasons to war, free companies could be a very simple way of putting it. Arguments over territory, objectives, differing views. Things like that. Or it could just be "Me and my group of buddies dislike yours".

 

You guys are just thinking too hard on it, it could range from war games that are mostly for fun/practice, or it could come right down to bitter rivalry between free companies, rather than grand ones.

 

Hell, even linkshell groups could clash. "He said WHAT about my Chocobo? Oh hell no. AMAARE! ROUND UP THE BOYS! IT'S TIME FOR THE FRONTLINES!"

[Aduu Avagnar]

(pretty much everyone died last time is my understanding).

 

Well, everyone died because the moon fell from orbit and released a Lovecraftian god monster who destroyed a continent in two minutes flat. No amount of healthy rivalry is going to deter that in the future. Even against the Garlean Empire, they have jet propulsion and we're using balloons. 

 

Plus it just makes more sense to me that in a world that's still rebuilding itself, there'd be a lot of skirmishes falling through the cracks that the official city-state military doesn't want to take credit for. The world was just blown up, it's bound to be in a state of civil and military unrest. I don't see everyone holding hands and sharing military tactics with each other in a time like this.

As to why everyone would be hand holdy

 

 

In the story missions, you help to reforge the EA. Kind of hard to stay in that sort of group if you're raiding each other.

 

 

 

And wargames do include objectives. CTF, KotH etc are after all military exercises.

 

The rivalry I was meaning as a way to mmotivate troops to do better. Not as away to ensure no one releases bahamut.