TheRealJewyy
Active Member
With the new introduction of the witch boss and my personal comeback to loka, I feel like I have been able to pinpoint and cohesively communicate a core part of lokas soul that is missing from the time I started playing. Similar to an issue I've recognized in real life, it feels like the idea of "third places" is missing. Similar to a lot of U.S. cities in real life lacking spaces for people to just relax and hangout without being home or working, loka has a similar issue
When I first started playing, there were a multitude of zones for natural pvp. These zones consisted of: End, Nether, Dreadfort, RI, creeper cave / radar ganks, town ganks, and docks ganks, (sometimes the last 2 overlapped). I feel as this variety allowed one to go pvp in different areas and did not force people to simply fight in one designated contained area, alliances could spread could gank in different areas and allow for spontaneous pvp as well raising the chance the fight would be somewhat even. On top of this, when one went grinding there was a sense of tension and possible gank resulting in your hard work gone, but there was also a sense of reward when having a successful grind sesh. To add on, ganks were not inevitable and there were, and still are, many times you could grind unharmed; as well, this risk would often lead to group grind seshes among groups of alliance, or simply friends.
Now I completely understand why these areas were changed to yellow tag and zyre/cove was added. I for one agree with the edition of zyre/cove and believe it was necessary to allow these grind spaces to be mainly for grinding and not ganking. I understand this was in the pursuit of making these spaces more friendly for the little guy and allow those who are not in large domineering alliances to still succeed. However, in doing so, I fear a complete part of loka which made it engaging to be on all weekend long was lost.
Due to the neutermant of natural ganks, loka feels like a job in a city with underdeveloped public transportation. You fall into 1 of 4 roles: gank, grind, conquest, town. I am willing to accept the idea that there are niche exceptions to this notion such as hunting achievements, exploring the world, seeing ruins. But it feels the thing that made loka oh so special has been streamlined to a point of numbness. There is no longer an excitement to gank, nor is there to grind; there is no uncertainty or unknown to dive into, what you want to do is what you'll get with little, true and natural variety. Similar to a city with underdeveloped public transportation, when you go somewhere, you know what you're getting out of it; There's no excitement, no uncertainty, no variety. You know what you get and you get what you know, it's just boredom.
I feel like the last bastion of this "natural gank" feeling is radar ganks. It could be any radar you gank or have ganked, it could be anytime within your vuln, it can be any amount of players, it can be any variety of terrain your contient. Even just typing it out now the thought of radar ganks is so exciting in comparison to zyre or yellow tag ganks. There's so much variety and uncertainty while having the proper risk that you could lose your entire inventory, it's the perfect combination for an enticing pvp experience.
Again, I understand why these changes were made, but I feel like new editions to loka should try to incorporate and embrace the pvp side of loka into its grinding and pve aspects. I feel a well made example of this is red infested. It's a common zone on all 3 continents where anyone at any time can grind, when you get there you must deal with the mobs and allocate proper inventory and buff space to maximize grinding while also making sure you have the ability to keep yourself safe in the case of pvp. Now this isn't perfect as one can just elytra at the sight of the person and there are also 3 of them. However, what it does do well is incorporate a grinding focused edition into the pvp soul of loka WITHOUT letting the pvp aspect take control.
What I propose for future and current editions is it follows a model similar to red infested. Have the core main purpose be the grinding and make sure that focus can not be distorted by the player, then add red tage to either all, or some of it. Have the feature be enticing for its PVE focus and then sprinkle some PVP action on top. I feel like a nice example of this which could use a rework is dreadfort. At its core dread allows you to get a nether star, and farm increased rate of blaze rods, wither skeleton skulls, and gold; This comes with the increase in mob spawn and damage, cramped rooms, a maze like structure, minimal mob cheese spots, and red tag. If infested was not so OP and dread was actually an active major way of getting a high amount of these resources; This would have the perfect ingredients to be a spot actually useful for grind and have naturally occuring ganks with real risk, a good combination for an enjoyable pvp experience. Again, these types of areas can be alongside the more noobie, small alliance, friendly features such as yellow tag shrines and infested. However, I think there is a need and void of these more "high risk" grinding areas.
In conclusion, I want to bring to light an issue I feel is at the core of lokas heart, natural ganking areas which serve as a multipurpose pve/gank spot for more natural and diverse fighting experiences. I'm not arguing for the removal of the less intensive grinding areas, nor am I arguing for the removal of a core ganking area such as zyre/cove. What I am arguing for is the addition of a third space, a combination of serious PVP and serious Grinding to bring back an experience coveted and missed by the players of old, and beneficial and interesting for the players of new.
When I first started playing, there were a multitude of zones for natural pvp. These zones consisted of: End, Nether, Dreadfort, RI, creeper cave / radar ganks, town ganks, and docks ganks, (sometimes the last 2 overlapped). I feel as this variety allowed one to go pvp in different areas and did not force people to simply fight in one designated contained area, alliances could spread could gank in different areas and allow for spontaneous pvp as well raising the chance the fight would be somewhat even. On top of this, when one went grinding there was a sense of tension and possible gank resulting in your hard work gone, but there was also a sense of reward when having a successful grind sesh. To add on, ganks were not inevitable and there were, and still are, many times you could grind unharmed; as well, this risk would often lead to group grind seshes among groups of alliance, or simply friends.
Now I completely understand why these areas were changed to yellow tag and zyre/cove was added. I for one agree with the edition of zyre/cove and believe it was necessary to allow these grind spaces to be mainly for grinding and not ganking. I understand this was in the pursuit of making these spaces more friendly for the little guy and allow those who are not in large domineering alliances to still succeed. However, in doing so, I fear a complete part of loka which made it engaging to be on all weekend long was lost.
Due to the neutermant of natural ganks, loka feels like a job in a city with underdeveloped public transportation. You fall into 1 of 4 roles: gank, grind, conquest, town. I am willing to accept the idea that there are niche exceptions to this notion such as hunting achievements, exploring the world, seeing ruins. But it feels the thing that made loka oh so special has been streamlined to a point of numbness. There is no longer an excitement to gank, nor is there to grind; there is no uncertainty or unknown to dive into, what you want to do is what you'll get with little, true and natural variety. Similar to a city with underdeveloped public transportation, when you go somewhere, you know what you're getting out of it; There's no excitement, no uncertainty, no variety. You know what you get and you get what you know, it's just boredom.
I feel like the last bastion of this "natural gank" feeling is radar ganks. It could be any radar you gank or have ganked, it could be anytime within your vuln, it can be any amount of players, it can be any variety of terrain your contient. Even just typing it out now the thought of radar ganks is so exciting in comparison to zyre or yellow tag ganks. There's so much variety and uncertainty while having the proper risk that you could lose your entire inventory, it's the perfect combination for an enticing pvp experience.
Again, I understand why these changes were made, but I feel like new editions to loka should try to incorporate and embrace the pvp side of loka into its grinding and pve aspects. I feel a well made example of this is red infested. It's a common zone on all 3 continents where anyone at any time can grind, when you get there you must deal with the mobs and allocate proper inventory and buff space to maximize grinding while also making sure you have the ability to keep yourself safe in the case of pvp. Now this isn't perfect as one can just elytra at the sight of the person and there are also 3 of them. However, what it does do well is incorporate a grinding focused edition into the pvp soul of loka WITHOUT letting the pvp aspect take control.
What I propose for future and current editions is it follows a model similar to red infested. Have the core main purpose be the grinding and make sure that focus can not be distorted by the player, then add red tage to either all, or some of it. Have the feature be enticing for its PVE focus and then sprinkle some PVP action on top. I feel like a nice example of this which could use a rework is dreadfort. At its core dread allows you to get a nether star, and farm increased rate of blaze rods, wither skeleton skulls, and gold; This comes with the increase in mob spawn and damage, cramped rooms, a maze like structure, minimal mob cheese spots, and red tag. If infested was not so OP and dread was actually an active major way of getting a high amount of these resources; This would have the perfect ingredients to be a spot actually useful for grind and have naturally occuring ganks with real risk, a good combination for an enjoyable pvp experience. Again, these types of areas can be alongside the more noobie, small alliance, friendly features such as yellow tag shrines and infested. However, I think there is a need and void of these more "high risk" grinding areas.
In conclusion, I want to bring to light an issue I feel is at the core of lokas heart, natural ganking areas which serve as a multipurpose pve/gank spot for more natural and diverse fighting experiences. I'm not arguing for the removal of the less intensive grinding areas, nor am I arguing for the removal of a core ganking area such as zyre/cove. What I am arguing for is the addition of a third space, a combination of serious PVP and serious Grinding to bring back an experience coveted and missed by the players of old, and beneficial and interesting for the players of new.
