[Poruku]

I think the only way for the large-scale conflict to make sense would be to fragment it, not focusing on pvp.

For instance, the outcome of a war could be decided by how many active people are fighting on a certain side, doing skirmishes where you kill npc soldiers on a regular basis, until a certain side gains victory. Basically basing the result of a conflict not on mechanical skill but on how numerous and dedicated one side is. PVP could have a place as a way for people who like pvp to basically duke it out to tip the scales, while people who don't like pvp could focus on aiding the war effort through PvE or even other things like alchemists supplying potions, doctors healing wounded, craftsmen making weapons, etc, or even unskilled labor that takes all your physical stamina and adds it to the pool.

This is all very theoretical but, in other words, if there is a war, winning the war could simply involve a mix of pve, pvp, and miscellaneous activities. The idea would be to make the war have a larger scale than simply the visible playerbase, involving NPC armies to make it not something you can simply autowin even if your build does 99999 damage and is immortal. In concrete terms, this would mean a conflict could have a sort of "war effort" and "war exhaustion" bar of some sort, forcing a side to yield to demands or lose territory when certain values are reached.

So for instance if a castle is attacked enough to where its forces are depleted, it can be taken. Not to mention having assassinations or interesting rp scenarios influence things. The final taking of a city could be some cinematic situation ran by an eventmin where there could be some optional pvp, or pve, etc.

All that to say: it is possible to make a system complex enough to please everyone. Whether that's rule based or mechanical. I'm personally very much against limiting builds (pvp nerd bias here) because yeah, I want to make a really strong build I've never made before, and feel powerful, but I don't want that to take away from the narrative either. As always this is an issue of satisfying people with different expectations and things they want out of conflict. To me, the solution is simple: give everyone a chance to compete in their preferred way.