I think that one of the largest issues plaguing smp's has been balancing those who are pvp oriented and those that aren't. You cater too much towards the pvpers and the rest feel like they can't strive for anything without it being taken away easily. You cater too much to the non-pvpers and nothing exciting happens with people in their pillow-maze-forts and convoluted locks. You have to somehow create an environment that allows pvpers to fight and reap rewards without the more passive players getting frustrated and quitting. With that in mind, here's two suggestion for future smps.
It's been mentioned, but arenas would be a great way to start. Weekly arena tournaments with competitors putting in currency/gear to join and winners getting their choice of the loot from could be easy an enough start. Even changing the arena a little bit each week could be enough to keep it interesting, or maybe offer a unique reward every once in awhile.
This one is a little more complicated but what if each 'clan' had a loot chest that was easily accessible and passively guarded by mobs? The more people the clan had the more the loot chest would contain and the more money the clan members invested in their 'guards', the stronger they would become. It would work best if the clan's loot chest was not accessible by the clan members themselves and only from opposing clans. The chests would only be allowed to be raided every so often (Hourly? Daily? Not sure on this part) and everytime they were raided, it would deduct money from the clan's bank to refill it. If there were to be a set number of clans like LoP, then each clan could have it's own unique theme with it's loot chest area and mob guards. If there aren't a set number of clans, then the leader of each clan would need to create a 'loot chest area' and have it be approved by a staff members before officially creating the clan. I understand that this second option would be incredibly hard to code/put together, but I think that the general idea should be put out there to be discussed or changed to whatever we think would work best.
It's been mentioned, but arenas would be a great way to start. Weekly arena tournaments with competitors putting in currency/gear to join and winners getting their choice of the loot from could be easy an enough start. Even changing the arena a little bit each week could be enough to keep it interesting, or maybe offer a unique reward every once in awhile.
This one is a little more complicated but what if each 'clan' had a loot chest that was easily accessible and passively guarded by mobs? The more people the clan had the more the loot chest would contain and the more money the clan members invested in their 'guards', the stronger they would become. It would work best if the clan's loot chest was not accessible by the clan members themselves and only from opposing clans. The chests would only be allowed to be raided every so often (Hourly? Daily? Not sure on this part) and everytime they were raided, it would deduct money from the clan's bank to refill it. If there were to be a set number of clans like LoP, then each clan could have it's own unique theme with it's loot chest area and mob guards. If there aren't a set number of clans, then the leader of each clan would need to create a 'loot chest area' and have it be approved by a staff members before officially creating the clan. I understand that this second option would be incredibly hard to code/put together, but I think that the general idea should be put out there to be discussed or changed to whatever we think would work best.