The State of PvP

[Chosen Son]

I will premise this by acknowledging that this is only my own opinion and may not speak to the experiences of others.


I get involved in a lot of pvp and there has definitely been a change over the past 2? years. I cant speak to what has caused this, if this exists outside of my own sphere of experiences, but hope discussion might help people arrive at some kind of consensus, and discuss how to move forward.

There is alot less OOC courtesy offered, which in turn has led to a change in my own behavior, where I have to weigh to what extent I offer ooc courtesy, and allow things to continue to boil into escalation, or do so myself. For example I no longer emote drawing a weapon, and mouthing off a divine prayer to coat a weapon in a blessing, as that is open invitation to many seemingly to attack without further rp. Being the one to escalate offers such an incredible advantage in a fight (It creates momentum, and can panic the opponent ooc if they are not infact prepared), that there are huge IC costs to showing OOC courtesy.

To branch from the previous observation, I have also noticed that pre pvp rp is often not an end in of itself, enjoyed as a tense bit of rp, but a bit to brute force yourself through, before you can pvp, or bash someone. Again, I understand to an extent. People put themselves at great risk by rping, instead of escalating fast on your own terms into pvp, but this leaves a sour taste in my mouth. And if others experience it, in theirs as well.

There are also behavior that while possibly legal, is extremely cheesy. Such as walking up close to someone, before they can rp anything, so they are at a huge disadvantage when the fight happens. Being approached by someone does not satisfy the requirment to attack someone, so there are few ways to defend against this, other then creating a pre-written bit of text saying "Stay back, or I will attack." Also are cases where people start buffing infront of you, without hostiling, and forcing you to type out to stop casting buffs. Again, a pre-written bit of text to "Cast another spell, and I will end you." helps prevent others from exploiting the time it takes to type things out, and start rping.

There are plenty more examples of a strong "win" attitude having crept into Arelith, as well likely other ways that this behavior is incentivised now.

I also want to add that I am not opposed to necromancers, infernalists, or raiders being ruthlessly put to the sword, or vice versa. Conflict and in built "sworn enemies" is an important part of the FR, and Arelith for me. I am just saddened by something that has real potential as a story builder becoming something that so often leaves a bad taste in someones mouth.

[D4wN]

I've had the priviledge to be exposed to some amazing PVP (I've never once won, but still loved it). The reason I've loved it is because these were the occasions I've had very deep and very interesting RP with the people beforehand and afterwards as well. PVP should be done as a last resort. Something that will ADD to RP, not take away from it.

Unfortunately I've also had many bad experiences with PVP where the absolute minimum RP is exercised to ensure "no rules are broken". Which has not contributed to any character or story development on either side. It has left me feel disasstisfied and even angry at times having my enjoyment ruined, followed up by loss of gold and several hours of waiting for rez sickness to disappear.

I've also had fantastic tense conflict RP several times without any PVP. And many I still think of fondly even months later. Yes, PVP is possible on this server. Yes, there are those who have much stronger builds than others and can easily one smack kill bash someone. But the one question I believe should always be asked before engaging in PVP is: "Will this be fun for the other person". Because it can be fun.

So it's a fair question to ask in my opinion. If you're only doing it to showcase your build is superior to someone else's or using it as a means to demotivate other players or simply because you feel they are wrong and you are right then I believe the wrong reasons are used to PVP.

[Drowble Oh Seven]

For sure. Bad - In the sense of 'assuming bad faith from other players - PvP's a bit of a rub, and I'm inclined to view it the same way I'd view someone relentlessly jumping on someone else's typos in a sadistic, ever-deepening game of no-backsies. I've seen it happen, here and there. The strangest part to me was that it's not even likely to win you any meaningful conflict. Actual consequences go way beyond the death penalty and only happen with the defeated party's consent.

That said, my personal PvP experiences on the server have always been very positive, with RP build up and tells to go 'Hey, I'd like to put an arrow in your PC's knee to drive home this point, do you mind?'. It might be that I'm in a less active timezone and large group engagements are much, much rarer. It's my impression that hasty PvP seems to happen more often once big groups show up - Not necessarily out of malice, but because herding players is like herding dice-obsessed cats, and it's hard to know when everyone's on the same page.

[In Sorrow We Trust]

I'm glad you took the time to bring this up.

My issue has also been the fact that a lot of the PvP I end up in does not add anything at all to the RP. Often times it seems more like it is done to prove a point? Doesn't sit well with me that there's very rare occasions where followup happens and where there's very little buildup, at least my experience. I've also been frequently stuck in situations where it has seemed like the conflict would end up in PvP and killbash no matter what. I once surrendered to someone and was killed and bashed anyway, for example.

[Chosen Son]

Something I myself do is almost always offer a realistic IC way out of potential pvp that is not character crippling, or otherwise a "false" way out that you cant expect them to accept realistically. Its not always possible, but most of the time it is. Very few people seem willing to back down and rather force a fight, or run. The latter of which I dont mind. If someone wants to run, and it is not IC mandatory for my pc to kill them, I dont mind giving them an out like that.

[Orian_666]

I'd say my own experiences, though I get involved in PvP very rarely, match up to your own.
There's a lot of "must win" attitudes and it really sours what could be a fun experience for all involved, win or lose, and legal but still cheesy and kind of annoying things like squaring up to someone, right up in their face, especially when a melee does it to a known caster or ranged character knowing it gains them the advantage, before engaging in conflict RP to begin PvP. Just as one example anyway.

I get wanting to win and come out on top, that's fine, but disregarding what would easily be considered "normal" behavior in such situations simply because you know you can get away with it on account of the rules is really poor behavior. Like if I knew I was going to get into a fight with a person I wouldn't get into stabbing distance of them while I was threatening them and making it clear I was going to try kill them, in reality that's a real easy way to get a knife in the belly, but in the game knowing you can get away with it shouldn't trump playing cautious of what's still a tense and dangerous situation. And again this is just one example of cheesy behavior.

I used to play, years ago, on another RP server for a little while which to this day I believe had the best PvP rules in place, they were almost identical to Arelith in what you were allowed to do but had 1 very specific difference; The instigator had to first hostile someone THEN give 3 good clear "warnings" of hostility/attack/conflict/etcetc before you actually attacked them, once the third "warning" is offered then they can engage.

So an example scenario would be:
A couple Radiant Heart members are travelling through Banite lands, right down the road from the Banite temple, and the two factions are currently in conflict with each other. Some Banite members spot them and approach;

All the Banites hostile all the Radiant Heart members.
Banite: "Hey, get off the lands of the Black Hand or suffer the consequences!" *Draws their weapons* (This is warning 1)
Radiant Heart: "We're just passing through to get to Guldorands lands, across the coastal bridge, we do not come with hostility."
Banite: "We said go back, or you will be removed from our lands" *Presses forward a bit and casts a couple wards* (This is warning 2)
RH: "Look, we're only passing through, we will defend ourselves from you if needs be but this doesn't need to come to blows, just let us pass and we'll be off your lands in but a few moments." *Draws their own weapons and casts a protective spell or two* (Not a directly hostile action, but the rule allows them a little bit of time to at least react and get some prep in)
Banite: "That's it, you've been warned, time to die! GET THEM!" (This was the final warning and so now the requirements are met and they attack)

There were certain allowances that were given so that the rule could be "bypassed", for example if you give 1 warning and the other person then responds, with an emote, that they aren't going to back down and instead fight back or charge or something, then you can engage right away, like:
RH: "Fine, if that's how it's going to be then prepare yourself, I will not take such threats lightly!" *Draws their sword and rushes the Banites*
In this situation both sides are at least still prepared for PvP, have both interactively RP'd this, and made their intentions to attack clear before it happens.

Another great benefit is that it usually, though not always, offers an out. If the RH members accepted the terms of the Banites then there's a good chance the Banites would have let them go back peacefully. Though they don't /have/ to, they could have then continued along the lines of:
Banite: "You know what, I think we'll kill you anyway just to teach you a lesson!".
Which honestly is fine, PvP happens and every player should be prepared for it, but with the 3 warning system in many cases there is at least usually an out; turn back, give yourself in peacefully, hand over some coin and be on your way, try to run (which if an "out" wasn't offered, and taken, then like Arelith did allow the instigators to give chase and attack regardless of how many warnings, which is also fine)

Anyhow, that's a run down of how it worked and to this day is the best server I've ever been on in terms of PvP (Arelith beats it out in every other category though, mostly)

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the 3 warnings don't have to be directly one after the other with no RP in between, but they do have to come from the same individual, so that group PvP didn't become just 3 people 1 lining and then everyone attacks lol.
You can have a full blown conversation but so long as there's 3 warnings of attack, clear warnings, within it then the requirements are met. So in that example above there could have been plenty of RP and conversation between the 3 example warnings, but once the third one was offered then that means the requirements were met and the Banites (and RH) were cleared to attack!

[ReverentBlade]

The problem is a setting where Good and Evil are tangible metaphysical concepts, and many faiths have zero-tolerance approach to creatures of those energies.

The flaw, tragically, is just a badly written world that makes this behavior inevitable.

[Petrifictus]

I feel some in the community have become too trigger-happy for PvP these days, picking it as first option and its often used to keep defeated players away due to 24h rule, like Andunor Hub.

PvP Rules need little rework and I like the idea of 3 warnings.

[Frailman]

The problem is a setting where Good and Evil are tangible metaphysical concepts, and many faiths have zero-tolerance approach to creatures of those energies.

The flaw, tragically, is just a badly written world that makes this behavior inevitable.

That only explains why the conflicts are initiated. I think most people like a bit of tense Good Vs. Evil roleplay going on. The issue being discussed stems mostly from how player attitude towards PvP has shifted over the last few years (seemingly). How the bare minimum RP before PvP is utilized more often, seemingly only to satisfy the RP before PvP constraint rather than the Pre-PVP RP naturally leading to a PvP encounter. That is to say, certain parties have decided "it's PvP-time baby" before the interaction even starts and tries to push the situation in that direction, and many times you'll be attacked while still typing leaving you greatly disappointed and badly disadvantaged in the fight.

Pretty sure this has been a thing forever around here, but maybe it has gotten worse lately?

[D4wN]

The problem is a setting where Good and Evil are tangible metaphysical concepts, and many faiths have zero-tolerance approach to creatures of those energies.

The flaw, tragically, is just a badly written world that makes this behavior inevitable.

This I also strongly agree with. There is no middle ground. No grey. There is only good or evil and nothing in between and must be dealt with. People are quick to use the smallest reasons as substantial grounds for PVP.

[Chosen Son]

At least on my own part, there is an impression of fairly strict expectations from DMs, and if I am playing a paladin, or cleric, I am hesitant to behave in ways that might risk character deletion if my offending class is the first one I took.

[BaRKyy]

Well written post and quite interesting to read. As someone who's pvp'd fairly regularly over my time on Arelith I can easily say that the best way to ensure it goes well for everyone is to have an attitude that it's okay to lose OOCly. I usually message people after just to double check things and all that. I think the biggest issue in all of this is just the merging of FR with a persistent server like this. Paladins seeing a Drow, there'd probably (generally speaking) not be much to say between them. In game that'd be boring. I'd say I disagree with you about this being the way the server is currently, I actually think it's a lot better than it was before, but still a way to go.

I think that Inf's done an amazing job with subdual and the changes stemming from that, I think PVP would be a lot more courteous and RP building if subdual penalties were harsher and perhaps enabled by default (that's a pipe dream). The whole point of PVP is that it's meant to add to the RP of the situation and raise the stakes, it shouldn't be a way to finish any conflict constantly. I hope subdual continues to get expanded to allow this sort of thing.

To those that RP the build up to add tension to a fight I usually find are the best experiences. The ones who aren't overly worried about getting every single last ward they can up, but instead RP themselves preparing to do so. I've had plenty of experiences where people use darkness/improved invisibility and run off into another area to ward fully, then run back to fight after doing so even if the RP was minimal at best, and although that's fair to them to do so it's still a bit boring at the end of the day as it's come down to them probably doing what their character would do in this setting, at the cost of the RP behind it.

It almost comes down to needing to bend your characters' RP a bit where if you're playing a paladin you do give the incredibly evil Drow the time of day or vice versa to build tension behind it. As long as people are giving outs to the fights then I think it's just a matter of time. The biggest thing that leaves people upset is basically just being killed while you're typing, or expanding the RP before a fight because someone is keen to PVP regardless.

Anyways, just my thoughts. I think things are fine right now but I'm probably biased.

[NPC Logger Number 2]

I probably PVP a lot more than the average Arelith player so I guess I'll give some input. I've tried to show courtesy and make good RP out of a PVP situation before and got bashed for it. So of course I'm more wary now and will just killbash someone once they initiate any kind of PVP. If someone makes the effort to RP and shows courtesy on an OOC level I will do the same. None of the characters I play have a death wish though so if they see an army of drow or zombies or what have you it is either fight or flight. Overall most of my experience with PVP has been positive so I can't complain too much.

[Nobs]

People love pvp...when 'they' win.
When they lose not so mutch.

Personaly i think its just that people dont know how to take a 'loss'

[Shadowy Reality]

I feel the same way most people here. I feel like PvP or tense situations should be enjoyable, and many are. But nowadays I am also wary of giving the other side any advantage, because too often I have had that come to bite me back.

I also personally feel like there are very few consequences for people who initiate PvP with the bare minimum, or with the wrong spirit. I will be forever scarred by a certain paladin who attacked and killed a character of mine after she had shown no inclination to fight and surrendering, only to have her resurrected 20 seconds later in a cell for interrogation.

With that said, I have also had some absolutely stellar roleplay come from PvP. And I immensely respect people who have the guts to stop attacking when they are clearly winning, usually awesome RP follows. I often try to do this myself, with only moderate levels of success.

[Morgy]

I have seen poor PvP roleplay from both allies and enemies. I make a point of challenging it OOC with allies when appropriate, because I think sometimes people forget that obvious ooc thirst/desire to win at the expense of good RP just ends up meaning the excellently played RPers of the opposing side will just avoid you.. And I hate that idea.

Winning a battle that is fairly evenly matched (similar levels, not sneaking up to them warded or warding in their face whilst they are trying to RP with you) is far, far more satisfying than just smiting your flat-footed opponent.

[Apothys]

Im not sure complicating RP before PvP with extra lines of warnings is the way forward. Its simple for a reason, imagine having to scroll through the text too see if the third warning was about to pop. Then imagine too groups are all drawing weapons and casting wards and shouting at one another to lay down there arms, be chaos trying to work out when to hostile, it would cause a lot of OOC arguments and more headaches for the DMs im sure.

We just need to be more lenient and give a RP out for the other player or group, always give an out... even if its capture through subdual, an apology, handing over gold, whatever it is make it clear. If they are not comfortable with the situation they can run. Or back off with hands up. In fact the only time you really need to run someone down is if your actively hunting them with say a specific bounty or contract on that toons head. Yet its always going to be complicated.

[Lexx]

I think the rules around PVP are fine. Mercifully in my PVP people have been good sports in general regardless the outcome of them. It's a minority of the communities members that need to play them in better faith in PVP. Letting people never have an out/way to de-escalate where viable and always bashing corpses just leads to a cycle of bitterness and normalizes such behavior.

[msterswrdsmn]

Its kinda funny. I was just talking about this with another old arelith player the other day.

PVP now is MUCH better than it used to be. I lost count of how many times the entire street in front of the nomad would get slaughtered by a Wail of the Banshee, Hellball, Storm of Venance, or whatever mass AoE spell was being dropped on a pickpocket that "accidentally" killed like 8 to 14 people.

There are rules against settlement raids. We can no longer do "Stonehold Occupies Bendir!" or "Cordor Occupies Udos/Grond!"
There are rules against mass-bashing fixtures
There are rules against camping in an enemy factions territory and just ganking everyone that walks by (aka, camping war parties)
There is no longer a need for muderously strong npc guards (Sterigo, Giant flesh golems, Mords-bolts guards, etc) because people are dropping fully buffed fire giants in Cordor. In fact, most NPC guards these days are pretty weak (tower golems, hawkin npcs, etc)
Killbashing people no longer makes you loose 2 RL months worth of xp
Guard chains are no longer a thing. Cordor guards can no longer forcefully delevel you by killing themselves while you're chained to them, then repeatedly forcing you to follow them through the respawn portal for a forced level drop.

I hate to be that guy that shakes his old-man stick at people and goes "well, back in my day!" But....seriously. The aforementioned examples happened -daily-. I can't even get mad about corpse bashing these days, as the penalty is trivial compared to what it used to be. What, a rl hour or two where I have reduced stats and 500 xp to force me to have some RL cool-down time? Sure, i'll take that over the old 20K xp any day.

Does that mean everything is fine and dandy now? No, especially since PVP has always been a somewhat soreish issue for some players. Nothing is ever going to be perfect with pvp.

[The1Kobra]

The main thing I find with PvP on arelith is that getting the jump on your potential hostiles is huge. WIth generally weak gear, buffs count for a lot. If you compare a fully buffed PC to a non-buffed PC, it's no contest. Even getting the first strike with how fast paced PvP is means a lot.

However, what does this mean in providing meaningful RP before PvP?

It means it's mechanically advantageous to engage immediately when you have an advantage. If someone wants another PC dead, they can buff up out of sight, exchange one line, and then engage immediately, and give little to no chance to whom they're attacking. Bonus if they do it in a group. It's legal according to the PvP rules, they don't even have to make the line of RP even remotely reasonably hostile, they can go full out after just exchanging a 'Hi' with their target. It can only take 5 seconds and boom, sudden PvP out of nowhere.
Needless to say however, going for a win this way does not provide much in the way of meaningful RP. I've seen this happen a lot. Allowing for a more meaningful encounter also takes more time, in which buffs could wane, or gives their target more opportunities to escape the encounter alive, for their allies to show up, or at least provide a more fair fight. And there will always be people who are not going to give themselves mechanical disadvantages to provide for good RP.
(The biggest mechanical advantages can come out of attacking without ANY RP or without hostiling, and I've been the victim to this behavior plenty of times, but that's a reportable offense)

To the above, please, please don't do that. It may be legal in the barest sense but it's not being a good sport or good RPer. I've always, even on aggressive characters, tried to give satisfactory RP to my characters targets, even putting myself at mechanical disadvantages to do so. I certainly don't have as good a PvP win record because of it, but I think it made a more enjoyable experience for everyone when I've attempted to be courteous and treat my fellow players with respect, and it certainly doesn't create as much toxicity when people on both sides are a good sport.
(And then I get called a whimp loser PvPer by some because of it. Blegh)

[-XXX-]

We need PvP ('member Pit Town?), but it should serve as a tool to enhance RP instead of killing it.

The cases in which a PvP encounter is used as a plot device are very rare.

Instead I mostly see it being used as an enabler for territorial bahvior (that can be a rather futile, pointless and highly counterproductive endeavor).

[let it trip]

About a decade ago, it was not unheard of for people to be raised OOC as to avoid a harsh penalty (nowadays the penalty is much more fair) and there were also opportunities to be raised in a jail cell - not everyone liked this idea because it can lead to being jailed for IRL days or weeks without RP nor chance of freedom. So I don't know if that's related to the penalty change or just general server culture regarding inprisonment.

But to summarise... as long as we can work it out tastefully, I would LOVE to see more inprisonment and ransom/hostage RP. At the moment, death just means the end of that chapter which isn't necessarily a bad thing but you're missing out on what could be so much bigger. My current character has only had this happen to them once, but previous characters of mine it happened to fairly often. It may be related to how the character is played, of course.

It isn't often that a paladin can interact with a drow, but when one of them is safely behind bars you can interact more - and you could even cross your paladin boundaries and be really mean to the drow, bringing yet more character development to the both of them.

Not to say we should do this all the time but it would be cool to see more of.

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

Good stuff in this thread, reading it makes me feel I am not as alone in my belief of what could make Arelith better when it comes to pvp. Thanks for starting it.

As to the good stuff, my opinions-

There is a gaping flaw in the rule "RP before pvp", most of which has been outlined in this thread already but while I could go on about with examples in my experiences I want to keep this short so people read it. That flaw leads to a massive advantage for long time arelith players, because they know what they can and can't get away with. Slow rolling a response until you or your group can wordlessly (you hope, team speak/discord chat/whatever are all things) get into position seems to be by far the most popular culprit. Now when that happened to me I was told I should have just started fighting when it was clear that is what they were doing, but I'm sure I'm not the first player to be overly concerned with doing things the right and fair way that they ended up loosing as a result. Me personally, I get over things fast (after punching a few walls that is) but I would not be surprised to find out quite a few players left after an experience like this happened to them.

I also get the sense that this sort of thing plus how important winning in pvp is to some people's ego (I have joked quite often lately about how arelith is a samurai game, and we are all just walking the world looking for opposing samurais to smash and show our superiority) leads to some very odd in game behavior. People want to play with people they can count on to help them win pvp, whether it makes ic sense or not. I don't want to get into examples here because I actually don't blame the players for this, and I don't want them to feel called out. Its the casual nature of the server that allows this sort of ooc dominance over the server, and just like I am not going to hate someone for playing the best deck by a long shot in magic the gathering or someone using a cheese play in madden (my other two hobbies!), I am not going to blame them for using every advantage they are allowed here. If you listened to rap in the mid 90's (or even if you didn't, its such a cliche these days) you know the rule: Don't hate the player hate the game.

The last thing I wanted to touch upon is that pvp death means nothing. Now, before someone says "If someone isn't roleplaying the effects of death thats bad form" I get that, but that's not what I mean. Let me give a fictional example using Guldorand since i have no idea whats going on up there these days. If a strong group of pvpers moved into that town, and started imposing their will, eventually its bound to turn into a rp rut. Here's why; First, you have to find a group that has the will to oppose the would be tyrants, which is hard in its own right. But lets say you accomplish that, you scheme and plot under the radar for a month and finally in a big pvp event you beat off the would be tyrants. 24 hours later, they are still going to be there in the town. They are going to be angry, and they are going to be looking for revenge. They likely will start picking your group of dissenters off one by one over the next few days. That group that busted their Snuggybear to pull this off over the last few months is going to start feeling dejected about the game, and either move on to another character or to another server completely. So, basically as long as you are willing to keep respawning and going at it, eventually you win because you will wear everyone else down. No amount of flowery roleplay about how your recent death effected you even more then the last 3 deaths is going to change that outcome.

Now, before I wrap this up, I just want to say I love Arelith. I enjoy playing here a lot or I just wouldn't. So I don't want anyone to think that these opinions are any more then what they are, just things I think that could be improved upon. And I realize that this is just my opinion, and the server caters to thousands of people (even if in my estimation I am the most important!). But this thread made me feel a little less alone to the point where I felt comfortable sharing in a public setting. Thanks for reading.

[Barkoneus]

However, what does this mean in providing meaningful RP before PvP?

It means it's mechanically advantageous to engage immediately when you have an advantage. If someone wants another PC dead, they can buff up out of sight, exchange one line, and then engage immediately, and give little to no chance to whom they're attacking. Bonus if they do it in a group. It's legal according to the PvP rules, they don't even have to make the line of RP even remotely reasonably hostile, they can go full out after just exchanging a 'Hi' with their target. It can only take 5 seconds and boom, sudden PvP out of nowhere.

I think it's worth pointing out that the behavior you describe is not in fact legal. The PVP rules state:

"Combat actions and political actions (using our Citizenship System) against other PC's (PvP) MUST BE INTERACTIVELY ROLE PLAYED. That means you interact, they interact, etc: BEFORE any action occurs. No exceptions."

Clearly the extent of the interactive role play is subject to interpretation, but it must be there, and the ALL CAPS nature of the rule suggests it is important. Simply saying "hi" does not constitute interactive role-play. The big problem with this rule is that it's extremely vague. I suspect this is why the other server mentioned had a "3 warning" system. It's something that is much more concrete and quantifiable than "interactive role-play". In any case, it hardly matters. Rules are only as good as enforcement, and my personal experience is that they are not enforced and so meaningless.

This post is timely because I have had exactly one PVP encounter on Arelith that happened a couple days ago, and it has left a bad taste in my mouth. My PC happened on a couple of PCs just south of Guldorand. We exchanged pleasantries, then they suddenly insulted me and demanded all my gold. While I was about to attempt a reply, they attacked and killed my PC. I wasn't even given an opportunity to hand over my gold. I'd even taken off my helmet and put away my weapon to chat (because who likes to chat through a helmet?!). I honestly have no idea why they killed me for either IC or OOC reasons (enjoy your 130 gold?).

[White_935]

However, what does this mean in providing meaningful RP before PvP?

It means it's mechanically advantageous to engage immediately when you have an advantage. If someone wants another PC dead, they can buff up out of sight, exchange one line, and then engage immediately, and give little to no chance to whom they're attacking. Bonus if they do it in a group. It's legal according to the PvP rules, they don't even have to make the line of RP even remotely reasonably hostile, they can go full out after just exchanging a 'Hi' with their target. It can only take 5 seconds and boom, sudden PvP out of nowhere.

I think it's worth pointing out that the behavior you describe is not in fact legal. The PVP rules state:

"Combat actions and political actions (using our Citizenship System) against other PC's (PvP) MUST BE INTERACTIVELY ROLE PLAYED. That means you interact, they interact, etc: BEFORE any action occurs. No exceptions."

Clearly the extent of the interactive role play is subject to interpretation, but it must be there, and the ALL CAPS nature of the rule suggests it is important. Simply saying "hi" does not constitute interactive role-play. The big problem with this rule is that it's extremely vague. I suspect this is why the other server mentioned had a "3 warning" system. It's something that is much more concrete and quantifiable than "interactive role-play". In any case, it hardly matters. Rules are only as good as enforcement, and my personal experience is that they are not enforced and so meaningless.

This post is timely because I have had exactly one PVP encounter on Arelith that happened a couple days ago, and it has left a bad taste in my mouth. My PC happened on a couple of PCs just south of Guldorand. We exchanged pleasantries, then they suddenly insulted me and demanded all my gold. While I was about to attempt a reply, they attacked and killed my PC. I wasn't even given an opportunity to hand over my gold. I'd even taken off my helmet and put away my weapon to chat (because who likes to chat through a helmet?!). I honestly have no idea why they killed me for either IC or OOC reasons (enjoy your 130 gold?).

Alas poor sportmanship indeed, i try to turn bad events into constructive storyline for my own character.. but that aside

I highly recommend trying out the "-helm" command it hides your helmet, but you still wear it, simply type it again to get the helmet back on.