Open world PvP:
One of the main features of both EVE and Age of Conan is an open world PvP scheme that allows players to attack each other anywhere within reason. Age of Conan achieves this scheme by designating certain zones as PvP areas. These areas contain the monsters and quest targets required to level up, making players to put themselves at risk to reap the rewards of levelling up quickly. Towns and the areas around them are designated safe areas where PvP is physically impossible.
Read on as I discuss important PvP issues ranging from death penalty and group gameplay to equipment types and game server model.
EVE Online uses a similar risk versus reward system but the way it's implemented is quite different. Rather than designating certain areas where PvP is possible, EVE starts with the assumption that it's possible everywhere and works from there. PvP will never be physically impossible but punishments are levied for doing so in areas that are meant to be safer. For example, in systems with a high security level (from 0.5 to 1.0), a CONCORD police task force will destroy your ship for attacking someone without cause.The basis of a general open world PvP scheme is one of risk versus reward. Designated safe areas where PvP is impossible or severely limited exist but they have limited rewards. Areas with higher rewards such as good harvestable resources or better enemies to kill tend to carry a higher risk of being attacked. This scheme encourages players to put themselves at risk of PvP in search of higher rewards, which encourages PvP as a whole. While EVE and Conan both implement the risk versus reward scheme differently, it's definitely present in both games.
Death penalty and risk:
Death penalty is possibly one of the biggest factors influencing the quality of PvP in an MMO. There are two different schools of thought when dealing with it, both with their own advantages and disadvantages. Age of Conan follows the light penalty school of thought and currently applies no penalty to death in PvP. In stark contrast, death in EVE Online has always been a very harsh affair. Your ship is completely destroyed when you're killed and you'll need to buy a new one. The huge difference between these two approaches to death penalty has a significant impact on both the quality and the quantity of PvP.
A harsh death penalty ensures that victories are meaningful, that killing an enemy inflicts significant loss or lasting damage on him. The quality of PvP is arguably enhanced by the knowledge that with each fight, something is on the line. This risk of loss is what causes the very real adrenaline rush associated with EVE PvP. Unfortunately, significant loss also turns a lot of players off the idea of PvP and increases the downtime between fights. This decreases the quantity of PvP and the number of players that will be interested in getting involved.
A light death penalty has the opposite effect, increasing the quantity of PvP dramatically. With no risk of loss, players are encouraged to engage in PvP as much as possible for fun. This casual approach makes finding fights easy but makes each individual fight less meaningful. The inability to do lasting damage to your enemies means concepts such as world-changing wars simply won't work. Because of the lack of death penalty, PvP in Age of Conan feels more like a deathmatch than players of other PvP-based MMOs may be used to. I'll be damned if it's not fun, though.
Item systems that support PvP:
Despite what the hardcore players amongst us might want, a system of losing your character or items on death won't work well with every MMO. If gear makes a significant impact on gameplay and replacement gear is not easily available, PvP could become a rich-man's game where only people who can afford to replace their expensive gear stand a chance. EVE Online bypasses this problem using a generic item system that actively supports replacement of lost gear.
Every Dominix class battleship is the same as every other Dominix and every Heavy Neutron Blaster II is exactly the same. This system works extremely well as it allows players to easily create a complete replica of their lost ship. The large number of players in EVE's single server also means that supplies of replacement ships and modules on the market are always high.
Rather than using a generic item system, Age of Conan follows the standard fantasy MMO approach to gear. Basic versions of weapons and armour with no special abilities exist but higher quality items are very varied in ability. You could get a helmet that grants electricity resistance or another that offers increased constitution stat.
Finding a replacement that's identical to the one you lost wouldn't always be possible in Conan. Additionally, unique items and quest rewards would not be easily replaceable. For those reasons, item loss on death would never really work well in Age of Conan PvP. Fantasy MMOs in the past that have included item loss on death such as Ultima Online and Runescape have always used generic item systems to support it.
Server Models:
When comparing EVE to any other MMO, the topic of the server model always comes up. The fact that EVE has one single, massive server to play in with no instancing or sharding has a huge impact on the goals and purpose of PvP. Having only one server means that all the players are thrown in together under a single set of rules. You can't choose to sign up to a non-PvP server or transfer to another server when you've made a few enemies on your current one.
With so many players living in a finite number of star systems, competition over resources is a very strong motivator for people to kill each other. The lack of instancing in EVE encourages competition over resources and space. If all the asteroid belts in your favourite system are mined out, you can't just spawn a new copy of the system to mine in. More importantly, you can't switch to Rancer Instance 2 and avoid the death trap that's usually there.
Age of Conan's approach mirrors the fantasy MMO norm, using a large number of servers with different PvP rulesets. Players have the option of signing up to a server that has open world PvP or to a regular PvE server that doesn't. Making PvP an opt-in system ensures that everyone on a PvP server is interested In bashing in people's skulls, making it easier to find a fight when you want one.
Group PvP:
One thing that both EVE Online and Age of Conan share with regard to PvP is the effectiveness of groups. The abilities of a group of players scales linearly with the number of players in it. Two players will kill someone twice as quickly as one player on his own, giving larger groups a decisive PvP advantage over smaller ones. In EVE Online gangs can get as large as several hundred players and issues of game balance exist as a result.
Alliance level PvP in EVE with hundreds of players on either side takes the form of territorial control over the resource-rich lawless areas of space. At present, Age of Conan does not have support for large groups and its guild based "city sieging" is not currently enabled.
In summary:
EVE Online and Age of Conan are both heavily PvP-oriented MMOs and while they take vastly different approaches to PvP, both approaches are successful in their own way. The high-consequence PvP in EVE leads to infrequent but meaningful conflicts with adrenaline pumping and guns blazing. In contrast, PvP in Conan is a fast-paced fantasy deathmatch where it's as fun to have your head chopped off as to burn someone alive. Where EVE Online would have me biting my nails nervously when attacked, Age of Conan has me laughing as a maniac smashes my head in with two clubs.
Age of Conan is still new and there are a lot of broken spells, feats and abilities but the core PvP gameplay is definitely a lot of fun. Large guilds are currently building up cities in preparation for the time when city sieging is implemented. With sieges on the horizon and talk of added consequence for PvP, the game promises to evolve its PvP in the coming months. There could be good times ahead for Age of Conan and I for one will be watching the game's development closely.
