Archeage with spaceships... minus the P2W stuff. I'll need to explain that a bit.
When I played AA, it was an interesting experience. You had different types of players. You had PVE minded, PVP minded, and those that liked a little bit of both. You had those who went out of their way to help others, even opposing factions, many that did their own thing, and some that would even gank their own faction.
The method that struck me right away was that your actions, your attitude, and your connections mattered. Every choice you made, had a consequence. Right down to the mobs you pulled (you might have made someone's quest harder and thus making an enemy.. or saved someone's life and made a friend), the guild you chose to join, the people you hung out with, and so on.
Consequences being of course PVP. I can recall having a rival guild become bitter enemies. They decided they simply did not wish to share the server with the guild I was in. The reason could have been envy, jealousy, a small slight, or maybe even a legit reason. At the end of the day, the reason didn't matter so much, but they lacked the power to back up their words and declarations. Big mistake on their part. Eventually we declared a state of hostility and considered them Kill on Sight.
It ended badly for said guild. We targeted their ships during trade runs and cost them thousands of gold in damages and theft. We targeted them in the high level areas when they were farming materials for weapons. We caused them to wipe on raid bosses during their attempts, then downed the bosses ourselves so they couldn't have them. We even targeted their lowbies and prevented them from leveling up. Anyone with the guild tag was targeted, but they were also told each time they were killed that they would be left alone if they left that guild.
The guild fell apart.
Ironically, many joined us. Some stopped playing entirely. Some went to other low key guilds. Some hated us and vowed a feeble revenge never satisfied. But all of that was because their leadership made a bad choice.
I thought that was remarkable about AA. You could tell an entire guild that they will pay for their crimes against you... and back it up. Have a means to do it. You could extort, you could demand reparations, you could demand tribute, and for those that didn't play by your rules, you could ruin them. Griefers could be punished and harshly. We did alot of that. Our guild, despite having a ruthless stance, was actually quite benevolent to our faction. We worked with guilds, even rivals, within our faction to win battles against the opposing faction and pirates.
When I found Elite Dangerous, I thought perhaps I might see this, just as a Space Sim. I was disappointed to see Solo and Group play as options. But I was also let down that you could take your character and switch between them freely. This meant griefers and pirates are harder to curb. Sure you can blow up their ship, but they can simply log over to single player, get some money and be back in the space lanes. Blockades are ineffective as a person can log over to solo and bypass it.
This ability in ED to switch gamemodes is frustrating as it takes all the bite out of reputation, consequences, and just doesn't promote the struggle between heros and villains. So if I had to answer what is missing from ED, I'd have to say its the consequences to our actions. I have a dozen suggestions on how to fix that. But obviously there is already a thread on that, numbering what? 190 pages? So I don't need to derail this one with it.
Archeage had its issues. It was plagued by nasty server infrastructure at times, it had some imbalances between classes at different gear levels, and most of all, it was a bit too much in the P2W territory. But I have to say, the PVP was good. The consequences and interactions with other players... the politicking, the propaganda, the charisma and leadership, and most of all the competition was great. I want to see that in ED.. or at least another game again.
, because I share almost none of them.
