I'll be honest, I've stayed quiet on this because I knew how much of a **** storm the thread would end up being since i saw the poll put up. Personally for me I'm only slightly swayed towards non drops maybe 60/40 and i absolutely love to fight. Whether I win or not is another matter but i've highlighted a few key points that you said Piff to make a point. None of your examples were done, or rarely done, for PK drops. I was always in and around BW storage fights even as a spectator and half of your examples are in designated fight zones. We were never fighting there or at bookshop to gain an item...it was almost always for bragging rights or to settle a difference. Talk **** Get Hit etc and they happened there because the contest room was either too far to go "step outside sz" kind of talk or to broad allowing people to run for days (unlike the tight storage/shop). The OKS fights were never about items, they were about the boss.
I understand to a degree what both camps are saying but correct me if i'm wrong. It was a rare occurrence to see players target specific players in the hope of getting an item and even then it was only really vs the top tier half of which almost always hunted in packs. The fighting as i recall it mostly happened in KRs/Upper floors, Levelling spots, Designated fight zones (bw storage on m2 or bookshop on m3 for example). This body drop "reward" was only a secondary motive, if something dropped then it was a cherry on top but realistically you never went out for that.
You geared for war in boss rooms because you knew the spawn time and that "x" guild was on its way I remember some awesome fights on both Mirs specifically for the boss and the chance of that dropping an item, your reward was the boss. ZT fights because you needed the relic, your reward is a shot at the grandest stage of them all, the biggest E-penis boost on mir ... who controls SW (& DMW on M3) which themselves offered their own private caves/bonuses. You foght in town with the mouthy idiot your reward was the bragging rights and the customary screenshot that went with the kill. You fought at the best levelling spots simply because you wanted to level there, your reward was the cave/spot until they inevitably came back to regain it. You activated guild wars and formed alliances if one guild was hogging the subs you needed and you went to attack them without fear of punishment purely because you could.
Not a single one of them as i remember it were primarily motivated about what anyone had on them. In this server Jamie has made it that effectively you can see where guilds are in what cave, if they are heading to your boss so you can mobilise to go there or avoid it and hit another. No longer will stacking behind doors be an effective tactic and the sheer range of spells and other content that m3 offers i really dont understand why all this fuss over something that was never REALLY that important to begin with. Not having body drops doesnt mean you cant get what is in people's bags ie items that dropped from the sub en route to the boss, only now you will know who is holding the items thanks to observer. It also means that some of the lower levels/cowards that previously would have abandoned the fight are now more inclined to fight back.
Think BW storage on a mass scale. We were happy to fight anyone, any level in there because we wouldnt drop our best gear...except now on this server it is back to the good days of mir3 where a level 30 tao will try and take on a level 45 warrior and hope they can avoid beckon, or a level 38 warrior will fancy themselves against a 50 wiz because of his chance to land that bladestorm when a shield drops irrespective of a plethora of spells ie geo/tempest/MS that never misses. People can manage losing dura and exp and end up feeling like Leeroy Jenkins going into fights for bosses/areas because you no longer care that its 10v5, you're gonna give it a good ****ing go anyway.
Just my rather large 10p worth. I'm all in favor of keeping it how it is planned but i would encourage Jamie to add in some Battleground style caves where literally anything goes, entry via NPC that asks are you sure (maybe even make Mystery Ship an all drop zone?) like you see in a lot of games and monthly/weekly PvP competitions that can be easily automated as seen on a few servers previous. 1v1, 3v3, class based, LMS etc I don't buy the whole first 2 floors safezone thing, not sure why that would make a difference when you can fight for the boss as it is.
Fair points some of them but some you are talking fully out of your arse hole, unless you was a leader of a big guild and was first in line for items there's 0% chance you made more off killing OKS than killing people outside ( unless you sucked bad ) Me and JerryTheBerry used to go to OKS to literally just item snipe on the floor in big fights...
Can agree about Bw bookshop / storage was sorta bragging right's, still doesn't take away the fact i made majority of my rare items jumping / pking just up from book shop.
The drops will not be noticed, I can assure you.