the problem is, everyone is trying to reinvent the wheel. most of what you all want in a pvp game has already been mechanically applied, tested and well balanced for years.
Think back to a mud called Dragonrealms. while its not 3d, it has all of the gaming mechanics (well most of, wasnt able to ferret out all of them from these previous 2 pages)
you are looking for in an RPG, it just needs to be made graphic to work.
armor: in DR high grade armor was virtually no use to anyone who did not have the appropriate skill to utilize it.
you could put top tier armor on a newbie and they would die just as fast as if they had newbie armor on. once you worked your skill up in that armor type, it became more useful. and if you worked up light chain mail up quite respectfully, then found a nice piece of platemail, your chainmail skill wouldnt help a bit, you would then need to work up plate etc.
aiming: in DR alot of damage magics require aiming, this is brought into play by a skill called targeted magic. Your primary magic skill would control how much mana you could use/vs damage output, but if your targeted magic was low, you would miss virtually every time, regardless of your level or primary magic skill. think the check was caster PM skill (for mana/damage) + caster TM skill+agility vs target evasion skill(evasion would also reflect burden/ability to move in current armor::armor skill::+hinderance of armor + reflex.
a target in leather would have a better chance of evading then one in platemail
aiming-range weapons:, this went off of skill with ranged weapon and time.
something like, rangeweaponskill+agility+time vs target evasion skill+reflex, on a hit, armor modifier would kick in etc. merely snap shooting a target required much more skill in primary-range weapon, to hit target then when you aimed and waited for optimal time to elapse. while im not positive if this "optimal time" ever decreased based on any skill set, i do know that some targets which were nearly impossible to hit just snap shooting, could be hit using aim/wait for optimal time.
Spells: in DR, spells which didnt require a targeting element, were based solely on primary magic, however the target got a resist check called discipline(on some) one spell called "icepatch" would make you trip, break a leg etc, it checked against agility, high agility would virtually nulify the spell.
ranger spell "swarm" it was a dot, that if too much mana was used and killed the target too fast, the swarm of insects would seek out the next target, and that sometimes was the caster if he and target were only ones in room, kinda cool spell, not one to use lightly.
Multitarget: in DR having two foes at melee range cut your defenses down, each additional one cut them down even more. where as someone with 100 evasion skill could dodge a person attacking them with 10 attack skill virtually all day, barring the possible lucky critical. with 10 people of same skill on the 100 evasion, it was cut down so far, all had very good chances of hitting person.
the pvp mechanics in DR can make it where one person can take out an army, not by merely standing there in plain open taking shot after shot, but more by "rambo" type finesse. by hiding, sneaking after each attack, separating your enemys, striking hard, rehiding and resneaking etc. see invis was not an item or spell in DR, it was a skill. it was perception vs hiders "hiding skill" or "stalking skill" if he were moving while hidden. You could train perception up high enough to see people slip into hiding, but never to see them immediately upon entering an area unless you took the time to "search"
Targeting: again, in DR, you didnt just click on a mouse to get your target. you had to use first few letters of targets name, sometimes their entire name if two or more people had similiar ones or it was close in name to a monster or item etc.
overall the pvp mechanics were very complex, for an attack to hit you it had to get past
shield skill-if equipped
parry skill-if applicable
evasion skill-if above two failed or werent applicable
then it moved to armor
you had 180points to divert into shield/parry and evasion on defense. you could have shield at 160, parry 10, evasion 10 etc, but had to have something allocated in each category. say you were using your bow, and still had shield skill set at 60, parry at 60, and evasion at 60. since you dont have your parry weapon or shield equipped, any incoming attack will only have 1/3 of your evasion skill to go through.
Balance: some weapon attacks would put your opponent off balance, thus limiting their chances of evading or landing 100percent chance to hit attacks. balance was key, you could end up so imbalanced you fell to the ground thus negating any evasion/parry/shield skill, leaving only your armor to protect you.
Healing: DR's classes that could fight, could not heal at all. their healers were a non combat class that would become paralyzed if they even swung a weapon at a monster/PC etc. herbs could be used to heal to an extinct, they worked slowly and never could repair major damage.
reading back through these pages, i see that alot of stuff some of you would like to see implement, has already been done so in that MuD, too bad they havent been able to carry it into a 3d graphic engine. if it werent for the fact it was JUST a text based game, wanting more montly fees then most graphic RPGS, and add the fact they completely frown on unprovoked pvp to the point where your char would get banned even though they created arguably one of the best pvp mechanic systems yet to be seen. IMO its a shame that so much work went into a very workable pvp system but people arent allowed to use it freely. its akin to owning a ferrari and never being able to get it out of second gear cause of the cops...
go to the DR homepage, not promoting their game to play persay, because will their anti pvp rules, their game is a joke, but their game mechanics IMO are awesome, too bad they arent integrated into a MMORPG, heard they were trying but doubt it will ever get off the ground.
read through some of the magic/combat sections etc if you arent familiar with the MUD, i barely even touched on the combat system.
http://www.play.net/dr/
