Alternate PvE Proposal: Temporary Ceasefire map condition (see caption for details and reasoning)

[u/travhimself]

THE IDEA

Create a Temporary Ceasefire major map condition. Put it in the rotation with other major map events. Keep the loot super limited: no items beyond blue (rare) quality. Increase the arc presence. You can do your quests and hunt arc, but you can't gain a big power advantage.

THE REASONING

Why this, instead of an always-available PvE mode? Low-risk raiding should be a reprieve; a small treat. Not the standard.

If you remove most of the risk, you remove most of the reward. The danger is the whole point in a game like this.

Without danger, we lose lose the serendipity. You don't need to make friends or find out who people are and what they're up to. You don't have the little moments like accidentally shooting someone and then trying to make it up to them. Or the dilemma of deciding whether to defib a stranger who could be an adversary.

PvE also removes a lot of hard and soft gaming skills. I don't have to mind my aim in order to stay friendly. I don't have to say "Hey I'm friendly, what's up dude." There's no more flashlight friend-or-foe indicator. The sound of a powerful weapon no longer gets my hackles up. I don't need to listen for footsteps.

Lastly, open PvE could wreck the economy. You shouldn't be able to free-farm materials.

Adaptive matchmaking works. If you've earned your way deep into the friendly ranks, you can play all evening without getting shot at. This should suffice for most dads and uncles. But the risk is always there in the back of your mind.

And for those that need a boost now and then, we have a rotating Temporary Ceasefire map condition.

[u/Silver_Cauliflower59]

As an Elden Ring/DS3 invader I'm no stranger to forced PvP. Bought this game at launch and played for several weeks before I got tired of the shitty behavior I was constantly running into from one match to the next.

It's one thing to be forced to PvP when the only thing you're really at risk of losing is the in-game currency that you have an opportunity to run back and grab without needing to fight other players on the way back.

It's a completely different situation when literally everything on your person is at risk of being lost the moment you set foot onto the map. Couple that with peoples' capacity to act like assholes in a game that was originally created to be PvE with PvP shoehorned in after the fact and you're not going to have a successful game long term.

Giving players the option to choose was the right call. I hope this game mode stays. If it does I would certainly come back. May have to try it out again this weekend.

[u/Kouropalates → u/Silver_Cauliflower59]

Agreed. Im actually invested in playing thanks to the new PvE mode.

[u/Golden_Cultivation → u/Silver_Cauliflower59]

Yeah this is always weird in games unless done properly. For example, I really loved Mortal Onlines full loot system. There was no in game map, you just went by landmarks and had to hear word from mouth or from experience when to try to make your way to the next town. PvP guilds would harrier you when you got far from town, but the experience was really great overall.

[u/heavysixer77 → u/Silver_Cauliflower59]

“PvP shoehorned in after the fact” is a completely inaccurate representation of Arc Raiders development. They found PvE only was missing something and the switched gears to the current formula, years before release. This game as we know it was never PvE with PVP slapped on it, it’s always been PvPvE.

[u/Silver_Cauliflower59 → u/heavysixer77]

That's a fair take. Then I suppose the issue is that they shouldn't have given up that info in the first place. The idea that players should be able to opt out of pvp would have likely never taken root as strong as it has if it was never made known.

[u/FinallyProperAccount → u/Silver_Cauliflower59]

And that completely different situation defines extraction shooters and makes them feel special.

[u/FreshmeatOW → u/Silver_Cauliflower59]

That's an extraction shooter. You bought this game KNOWING what it is, yet demand it cater to you? Do you understand theres a nuance to balance games like this? And that adding the PvE mode will actively fuck that balance over?

[u/Silver_Cauliflower59 → u/FreshmeatOW]

When did I ever make any demands? Seems more to me like you just automatically disagree with any opinion not remotely in line with your own. I even did what all of you folks like to say and just stopped playing. Now that Embark is offering an alternative, I feel compelled to give the game another shot. Don't like it? Don't play it.

Oh also fuck off with the condescending "do you understand" bullshit. I just stated where I stand as the consumer. Game devs made a decision and I'm behind it. Why is that my fault?

[u/Broad-Dragonfruit615 → u/Silver_Cauliflower59]

Because he is seething with anger and can't think straight. So he doesn't know who to take it out on.