New Update 3/7/2014: Balancing Pass

[Nate]

Greetings Pit Masters!

A new balancing pass went live today. For the most part the changes are minor but required to balance things out a little and help some of the ailing builds. Please see below for more details:


A new weapon length mechanic has been put in place whereby shorter weapons vs longer weapons matchups yields less attacks for the shorter weapon due to this fact that it is harder to get within striking distance as the gladiator with the longer weapon will actively be trying to keep their opponent at bay. This will mainly be noticeable in 2H/Pole Arm vs non-2H/Pole Arm matchups but could show up in something like bastard sword vs gladius but it wouldn't be as pronounced.



Increased the role strength plays in the check to stand up from the ground after being knocked down.



Slightly increased the effectiveness of heavy armour.



Small increase in the effectiveness of shields.



Minor reduction in the amount of bleeding defensive oriented gladiators receive.


Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-

[Cynaidh]

Increased the role strength plays in the check to stand up from the ground after being knocked down.


Guess i still need more strength....

THE BEHEMOTH screams as he gets knocked to the ground by the massive shot!
R O U N D 20
THE BEHEMOTH can't find an opening to stand!

......

R O U N D 46
THE BEHEMOTH yells in frustration as he looks for an opening to stand!

26 rounds of trying to get up... nineteen of them with a 7 activity trying to stand.

[Kreegan]

Same here, knockdowns still keep my tin cans on the ground for many rounds. Can't see any difference really.

[Sotc]

My war gets up much faster. Though he is in much lighter armor. Its nice to not roll around in the dirt for the whole fight while having 20% encumbrance for once.

[Prinny]

I've barely ever really had much difficulty with knockdowns made against me exept on some rare occasions my glads tend to get up in 1-3 rounds at most. Than again I like my dunder speciality so that might be the reason :p

[Kreegan]

Yes, Prinny, we all know that the Dunders don't have the knockdown problems of the other races. For non-Dunders the situation looks like this:

R O U N D 3
TY REX seeks to slash his enemy.
TY REX tries to knock STEEL CURTAIN down with the force of the blow! (-Barreling Attack-)
STEEL CURTAIN screams as he gets knocked to the ground by the massive shot!

..........................

R O U N D 11
STEEL CURTAIN yells in frustration as he looks for an opening to stand!

Round 11 is the last one, he would have probably spent even more on the ground but 8 rounds of crawling were more than enough to lose. That's with 29% encumbrance and 9 activity...

[Pit Lord]

The point of the knockdown is that it is a threat for gladiators who have not taken measures to prevent it or get up quick (ignored it).

[Kreegan]

So apart from picking Dunder as a race, what are the other measures? To save you some time, Armour Movement and Light as a Feather are certainly not among those that qualify, nor does high Activity.

[Pit Lord]

You still can't deny the fact some had found these measures. Probably you have to ask them not me :).

[Kreegan]

Sure I can. The only gladiators which get back up quickly consistently (and are not Dunders) are those that spam Agility, I thought that the last update was supposed to give the Strength guys some better chances but apparently that's not the case. Or maybe something was not implemented properly.

[Sotc]

I'm not sure that's the case. I've observed that my war and power rage get up much more consistently (str) and now my theatrics (agil) tends to stay down if he get's knocked down. I have also observed power rages getting up much more consistently on the opposing end of a knockdown.

[Kreegan]

OK, from the last several fights today when a knockdown happened, my Strength fighters either stayed on the ground for many rounds or jumped back up right after they got knocked down. No middle ground. Could be just bad luck on my part (or good) so I guess I'll give it some longer observation before drawing conclusions...

[Apoca1ypse]

Just revisiting this to give Nate some direct feedback.

I'm really liking the changes :)

Agility based weapons dont feel like they are the total be all and end all anymore, which is nice.

Defensive war is now strong (really strong) but I dont feel like it is OP, as the metagame still needs to adjust to having such a radically different strategy now being competitive.

2H war feels a bit better, but I've retired Willis, so I havent got much more testing in. With the right gear it should be really competitive :)

2H rage feels miles better and Ahhnold is loving it. Fights feel close for the most part now, which is great. The disparity in swing rate also is much lower now too, which feels good and the 2H rager is getting more swings in during a fight. I have noticed that damage has gone down somewhat (maybe I'm imagining it) but like I said, it feels good now. There is still the odd fight where the 2H rage swings twice and the fight is over, and other fights where the 2H swings once and then dies to a flurry of swings, but they are the minority now.


As for standing back up when prone, I've not paid much attention to that, so I cant comment.

[Kreegan]

Knockdowns are slightly - just slightly - less problematic after the change but if your fighter is sent to the ground early in the fight, he almost certainly loses, just like before. Crawling for 10+ rounds is still something very common for Strength gladiators, although a minor improvement can be felt. I hoped for more to be honest and I still think that some universal knockdown resistance should be introduced.

The rest of the changes are quite nice and bring extra spice to the game. I like how gladiators with long but slow weapons are not just punch bags for super-fast fighters any more but in general the weapons seem to be balanced. And yeah, the buff on the Wars is quite welcome.

[Kreegan]

OK, a few weeks later I can certainly say that the knockdowns haven't lost almost any power and are as imbalanced as ever. The issue is both with the multiple rounds spent on the ground after you get hit - even after the changes, although not as severely as before - and with the ridiculous frequency of the knockdown criticals which are spammed by all gladiators with skills in the Rage tree like no tomorrow. Round 1 knockdowns are a certain loss against everyone who's not a total wimp, early knockdowns from Rages can't be dealt with in any way except some godlike luck and even mid-battle knockdowns can turn the fight upside-down easily. Add several gladiators with Barrelling Attack (always succeeds at level 10, unlike the impotent War Cry) and Sweep and you may see your fighter crawling and getting a beating a dozen of battles in a row and you can't do anything about it. Really, it's not fun.