You all know the problems that PVE servers face ATM, so I wont talk about them right now, I’ll just give my two cents in how to solve those problems.
A disclaimer I should make is that I’ll try to approach those solutions in a broad way, what would make them see incomplete, but that’s intentional, since most of the times I encounter some people that read my solutions, and instead in contemplating the idea behind the system I suggested, they attack the specific mechanics described in those solutions. So let’s go to the list.
1 - Implement a “land claim entity”, this is a placeable that you put in the world that will allow you to build in that region, everyone will start with one, The idea is to limit both the size of the area you can build and the number of areas you can own.
( That’s the suggestion, the exact manner on which this system will work, or how it can be expanded, as of increasing the building region or allowing more than one region is irrelevant. I’m mentioning the broad functionality of the system only. )
2 - The Decay mechanic should have different characteristics in a PVE server, a suggestion is to ( kinda of ) rip the tool cabinet from Rust, a container in which you can invest on ( in this case, storage raw materials ) to increase the timer on which you building will start to decay. This kind of system works nicely for this game, because a player that plays the game a lot and have time to dedicate in maintaining his base would be allowed to leave the game for a couple of time ( work, exams period, test, travel or just boredom ) and return after a period and still have a house to call his own. Also, this mechanic would more quickly dispatch from the server a player that started on it, played for one or two hours and just left to never come back again, since they never put the time to invest into maintaining their base.
3 - Something shall be done to players that build on top of resources or block off regions on the map, I have not quite came with a good idea for it, but my suggestion is to make a sort of a reporting system, on which a player can be reported doing this kind of griefing, and the process could be all automatic, the player should just need to receive a certain number of complaints to the appropriate action to be taken. Now, the kind of appropriate action could vary based on Funcom’s posture, they could be harsh by kicking o even banning that player from the server or, soft ( I prefer the soft approach ) on which the player structures would be able to be “ignored” for the players that reported it, in a way that the structure wouldn’t be rendered in ( including the collision, of course ) but the land should still be claimed, this way the griefer wouldn’t be spoiling the fun of the other players, but still have their territory for their own.
4 - PVE Conflict should have a sort of soft raid or minimal raid mechanic. That would consists in allowing players to damage each other specific structures, in this case doors, gates and containers but still restricting the damage that can be dealt to other types of structures, now such a system would require some fundamentals.
1 - A doorway or gateway should be required in order to close a building, otherwise, players would just dismantle the doorframes and put walls in it’s place, creating an impenetrable structure, what would defeat the purpose of the system mentioned above.
2 - Containers should still be indestructible, but instead the lock should be damaged, this way a player could steal a chest content but the chest would still exist, that would put the lock in a timer, and all that the raider player should do to lock the chest again is to lock it again after the timer reaches zero.
3 - Objects that can be returned to inventory should have another option in the interactive wheel to all players: Disable Player Collision. This way, a player can’t block a door by putting a table in front of it ( or any other object ) but still have the freedom to have functional furniture without any more limitation.