i have pvp in my game, but i have 2 ways of doing it,
1.
each character has a pvp setting, which is set to off by default, and it decides whether the player can be attacked or not. also the player can change this setting any time they want.(provided its outside of a challenge)
2.
each player has the ability to challenge another player within the game. if the other accepts it, then both players pvp settings are taken away, and their pvp is set to 1(which means they can be attacked), when its over, its restored to normal.

I like the basic, simple approach. Appoint a few moderators and let them take care of troublemakers, after making a few simple rules, such as:

* No profanity.
* No harassing players.
* No disrupting gameplay.
* Etc...

Anyone breaking these rules gets banned. Period.

Of course, a few logical steps would be necessary too, such as disabling HTML and \-stuff in the chat area, and preventing messages from being too long.

Well, that's how I'd do it anyway.


As for PvP, I don't like it. People tend to kill each other just because they can, and ruin the fun for others. I say don't let players kill each other, period, unless you have an arena or something especially designed for that. However, if it were enabled, I'd say the "No harassing players" rule pretty much covers everything.

Crispy wrote:

I found myself thinking along these lines: What's the problem? Well, that's easy; some people ruining the game for others. How do they do that? By flaming them and provoking them over chat, and annoying them via the game; for example, attacking them constantly for no reason. In other words, interacting with people. Unfortunately, interacting with other people is the entire point of making the games multiplayer!

I don't think the problem is how as much as why. A lot of people start ruining the game when they get bored. When there's nothing left to do, so they resort to badgering others, and such. Solution? Stuff to do! =)

- As Kunark said in his recent thread, chat should be strictly controlled; there need to be ways to talk to the host/admin/whatever, send messages to specific players (perhaps even private chatrooms within the game; the chatroom doesn't even need to be BYOND-based. Using Java in the browser comes to mind), and talk to nearby players, but an OOC/shout channel isn't needed. If people want to talk to a large group of people at once, they can go find a chatroom or a forum.

My MUD uses a system of channels, and the standard "tell"/"say"/"reply". The channels can be dynamically created at will, by anyone. You can invite others to your channel, moderate it, and password it.
You can join and leave channels at will, providing you have access to join in the first place.

Additionally, for requests, there is a system of 'bugreport' and 'petition'. The first handles any bugs the player wants to report, by having them fill out a bug report form. The second allows them to send a petition to an online staff member. Only one petition can be sent at a time. It might be something like: 'petition The tailor NPC in GrumpyVille isn't respawning.' or 'petition I just saw player X abuse bug Y, please investigate'.

- Disabling PVP combat, except in special situations where everyone involved has agreed to fight. Heavily penalising players for PVP sometimes works, but if someone is really determined that won't deter them. To allow players to fight if they want to, there could be an arena where PVP is allowed. Or perhaps players could challenge each other to duels, which would then enable PVP between those players until one of them was killed. Refusing a challenge should carry no penalty.

I think this is way too game specific. On my MUD, PVP is completely open, to anyone. The difference is, there are consequences. If you kill someone in a city, you WILL get spotted by guards (Unless you happen to kill them almost instantly, and are high enough level to access complex camouflage spells/skills), and outlawed. As for killing outside controlled routes and cities, thats up to the individual. Highway robbers do exist.

For another game, that might be totally unpractical. I dont think PVP enters the subject. Except mayby again a why: Why do people PVP? Because there's no risk associated with it, usually.

As for my own, it boils down to a few basic elements for me:

* Stuff to do
The #1 reason people annoy others, is because they have
nothing better to do. Give them something to do, and
you have that much less to worry about

* Controlled environment
Log everything. Allow people to report anything, within
reason. Make sure its possible to report abuse, in an
easily available means.

* High gain / Annoyance ? High risk
This ties into gameplay as well. See my above point on
PVP.

* Channels system
See above on spam / etc. They can create any way of
chatting they want. This allows people freedom, and
removes the problem of 1 channel being spammed.

* Flow control.
I have a certain quirk on my MUD borrowed from MUD's
past. A single command repeated 20 times, causes you to
attempt to quit. Additionally, for channels there is a
small delay between each message you can send

Crispy wrote:

Work on my multiplayer RPG recently came to a grinding halt, to allow myself time to think up ways to avoid the typical internet idiots. You know who I mean ... yeah, that type of player. The ones that try their hardest to ruin MMO-style games for everyone else.

Hah! Good luck. These type of people are like zombies. They attack in hordes and are slow in more ways than one, but despite that they seem to always be behind you no matter how quickly you avoid them.

This is why I don't like MMO games too many people like this. I like multiplayer games but the type you play with a small group of people so you can set it up over a LAN or with some people you know over the Internet. It's especially nice with a LAN since if someone acts up you can throw something at them :).

I found myself thinking along these lines: What's the problem? Well, that's easy; some people ruining the game for others.

Here's a big problem. People like different things everyone is going to have a different vision of what's ruining the game. Putting massive amounts of restrictions on players like limiting who you can attack, what you can cast spells on, what you can grab, ect is something I don't like which happins frequently on MMORPG games.

How do they do that? By flaming them and provoking them over chat, and annoying them via the game; for example, attacking them constantly for no reason. In other words, interacting with people. Unfortunately, interacting with other people is the entire point of making the games multiplayer!

Not really some times its just to get away from predictable AI and its always more gratifing to know that the character you just blew up with a rocket launcher is another person. I'd rather avoid interaction with most people on the Internet since they tend to just be obnoxious.

So there has to be some kind of balance, making it possible to interact with other players while still letting everyone have fun playing the game.

I find that usually these things to "balance" the game either make the game bland or help out the people who want to disrupt your game.

- As Kunark said in his recent thread, chat should be strictly controlled; there need to be ways to talk to the host/admin/whatever, send messages to specific players (perhaps even private chatrooms within the game; the chatroom doesn't even need to be BYOND-based. Using Java in the browser comes to mind), and talk to nearby players, but an OOC/shout channel isn't needed. If people want to talk to a large group of people at once, they can go find a chatroom or a forum.

In most text MUDs I've played there are a large numer of global channels with various themes you can turn on and off. This works well since if you don't want to hear any global chatter you can turn it off and if you do you can have it on.

- Disabling PVP combat, except in special situations where everyone involved has agreed to fight. Heavily penalising players for PVP sometimes works, but if someone is really determined that won't deter them. To allow players to fight if they want to, there could be an arena where PVP is allowed. Or perhaps players could challenge each other to duels, which would then enable PVP between those players until one of them was killed. Refusing a challenge should carry no penalty.

Disabling PVP is one of the big things I can't stand. Limiting it makes it even worse since then the PVPers can hide behind the protections and exploit the problems. In full PVP those that are being asses will problably be known and higher level characters can distribute a little vigilanty justice.

- Remember that there are often other ways to annoy players; by blocking them in, surrounding them with traps, and so on. Make sure there are ways to avoid these situations. For example, perhaps you can walk through other players and perhaps players aren't affected by player-laid traps. Ideally these methods would be available to all players, even complete newbies, rather than requiring the player to buy the Gauntlet Of Walking Through People or complete a quest for the Shroud Of Not Being Affected By Traps.

If you can't PVP or do anything clever against the type of person then of course you'll have to resort to doing stuff like this to make the game more playable but more bland. In Tome.Net there was someone terrorizing the town killing players and summoning monsters. A clever player managed to fool the loser into drinking a potion of detonation which was quite lethal. Since death is permanent in Tome.Net that character won't be able to annoy and terrorize people for a while. Justice was served without the need of admin assistance or stupid restrictions.

Feel free to comment on these ideas, and add your own!

As long as high level characters aren't invincible and there are many various ways to handle a situation a clever player will usually end up comming up with a solution of thier own. The type of players that can fend for themselves and handle thier own problems are the ones you want. The type that whine that your game isn't completly fair and that someone has a slight advantage over them will only turn your game into a bland mush if you listen to them.