Originally Posted by
Bridger
I suppose I'm what the uber-warriors would call a stone carebear. As I've already said elsewhere, personally I have no interest in PvP. I'm not good at it. I don't get much enjoyment out of it. I'd rather build than destroy.
But that being said...
I don't want to see a PvP-less Xsyon. I don't want to see that because building without risk of destruction will quickly become an empty, boring pursuit. Perfect safety would drain all the purpose out of construction and creation.
As I see it, the trick is to balance the risk against the reward. If I can build a beautiful sandcastle only to have the first mindless bully to come along kick it down, what's my motivation to build another? (Assuming I'm not a masochist, which I'm not.) But if I can build a beautiful sandcastle that is safe from destruction, and then use it as a base from which to move down the beach to try and build another... and if some bully does kick that one down... Well, then I have a choice don't I? I can go back to my safe, beautiful creation and hide in the shadows and eventually get bored to the point that I risk another attempt at building that second castle down the beach. Or maybe I can content myself with making buckets and shovels (and swords and spears) and supplying them to the more adventurous types who get enjoyment out of building sandcastles further down the beach and then defending them.
Now I realize there would have to be some details worked out. But I don't see why this wouldn't be a workable core model for Xsyon. It works pretty well for EVE Online, anyway.
And speaking of workable mechanics and borrowing from EVE, that could be a solution for the question of how siege warfare would work in Xsyon. Make besieging a fortified position a protracted affair, just like it is in the real world. You don't destroy a fortified position in a matter of minutes. At the very least - and perhaps depending on the level of fortification present - you'd be talking a matter of hours.
Perhaps even days.