Potential of Player vs Player Instances (Spring 2004)

Since the instance feature allows to deliver single-player quality scenarios and scripts, I'd love to see this worked into many instances. The basic example is a PvP quest that involves guarding a NPC. You start the quest, travel to meet some NPC near the edge of a zone, and he says he'll lead you to a certian region (you then port to an instance). You then enter by yourself or with your group and simply must guard and escort the NPC. At the same time, enemy PCs must kill the NPC.

Guarding a NPC is just the start. How about an entire caravan? Or perhaps be the ones ambushing the caravan? Use interactive objects in a mountain pass perhaps? Or how about a small group based assassination PvP mission, where a rogue has to assassinate one of 4 NPCs while 2 other PCs try to guard all 4 of them? Perhaps a scouting PvP instance where the PC simply has to get within an enemy camp and watch something for a certain duration and the enemy PCs have to try stop him.

The possibilities are really quite impressive and can offer scripted scenarios that are either too technical or dynamic to generally offer in free reigning and typical PvP zones.

There are a lot of question marks left. Obvious one being match making to set up opposing teams into so many quests. One suggestion is to simply not requiring enemy forces. If the enemy realm doesn't choose to be active in PvP, then you get to more easily finish PvP quests without resistence. Or there could be a one or a just a few NPCs who start all these. A person or group flags interests in certian quests on a list, and when an enemy team also flags interests, they're allowed to start them. Or you could just talk to the NPC and give yourself one and only flag, "interest in serving my faction military", and he automatically picks a quest for you and matches you with enemies in an instance. Perhaps you could flag preferences of quests. Similar to WC3 game rooms.

I'm going to leave it at that, as such specifics are wasted if there's no interest in offering such PvP scenarios, and if there is interest, a group discussing around a table for a serious feature they're actually implementing will brainstorm better than a Nth lone forum suggestion on a board. Simply put though, instancing allows for scripted scenarios and challenges in PvM and I'd love to see PvP support this as well, on top of traditional PvP regions part of the global world that the factions fight to control.