This is a topic that was brought up at a recent LCR meeting and we wanted to share it with the wider community to get feedback on the subject.
We've had a couple of people who stream Loka come to us with the problem of stream sniping. Now, this is not a new thing, many streamers who play many games have to contend with this. However, the way Loka works makes it more vulnerable to this behaviour than most games. Loka has a limited world with very distinctive landmarks/landmasses. This means it's very easy to locate those streaming, and cover the large distances to them very quickly using Elytras. As a result, whenever a streamer is out exploring the wilds, they are more often than not killed very quickly. Even using a stream delay does not solve this problem because as soon as they stop to explore a ruin or vanquish a shrine, the stream will catch up at least enough to know the rough area the streamer is in. This basically means that the only activities on Loka that can effectively be streamed are conquest fights and building in their town. This is a particular shame considering all the future content we have planned involving PvE. Streamers directly benefit the server, providing free advertisement for Loka, and it's to our benefit that they can show off as many features/gameplay as possible.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this. Traditional MMO's can get around the problem by having numerous servers the streamer can hop between, or servers that straight up don't have PvP. One idea that was brought forward was a 'streamer mode' that prevented them from being damaged by other players and PvPing. This could only be used while streaming. Now, this obviously comes with numerous issues and doesn't prevent other kinds of 'trolling' such as pouring lava on the streamer. Perhaps Loka as a whole needs more areas where you cannot PvP that are dedicated to PvE activities.
We are curious if you guys have any ideas to improve the streaming experience on Loka, or if you have seen another server or game solve the problem. Do you think the tradeoff of giving streamer a special PvP immunity is worth the extra exposure and advertising Loka would get? Perhaps this is just an unsolvable problem. Let us know what you think.
We've had a couple of people who stream Loka come to us with the problem of stream sniping. Now, this is not a new thing, many streamers who play many games have to contend with this. However, the way Loka works makes it more vulnerable to this behaviour than most games. Loka has a limited world with very distinctive landmarks/landmasses. This means it's very easy to locate those streaming, and cover the large distances to them very quickly using Elytras. As a result, whenever a streamer is out exploring the wilds, they are more often than not killed very quickly. Even using a stream delay does not solve this problem because as soon as they stop to explore a ruin or vanquish a shrine, the stream will catch up at least enough to know the rough area the streamer is in. This basically means that the only activities on Loka that can effectively be streamed are conquest fights and building in their town. This is a particular shame considering all the future content we have planned involving PvE. Streamers directly benefit the server, providing free advertisement for Loka, and it's to our benefit that they can show off as many features/gameplay as possible.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this. Traditional MMO's can get around the problem by having numerous servers the streamer can hop between, or servers that straight up don't have PvP. One idea that was brought forward was a 'streamer mode' that prevented them from being damaged by other players and PvPing. This could only be used while streaming. Now, this obviously comes with numerous issues and doesn't prevent other kinds of 'trolling' such as pouring lava on the streamer. Perhaps Loka as a whole needs more areas where you cannot PvP that are dedicated to PvE activities.
We are curious if you guys have any ideas to improve the streaming experience on Loka, or if you have seen another server or game solve the problem. Do you think the tradeoff of giving streamer a special PvP immunity is worth the extra exposure and advertising Loka would get? Perhaps this is just an unsolvable problem. Let us know what you think.