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Thread: Seasons Change?

  1. #1
    The Overlord Nate's Avatar
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    Question Seasons Change?

    I'm currently designing a new idea for Seasons that will effectively turn it into a true team based competition. The details need to be worked out, however, this would add a lot more depth to the top bracket as team composition would now be an important meta game choice and it would help newly promoted gladiators as they won't be alone and naked vs the big bad wolfs atop the mountain. It would also take on a Blood Games feel (or old school feel for those of you who have played for long enough and remember) where fight tokens will no longer be used and the game will instead run the fights at a preset time. You'll know what team you are fighting in advance so you can plan ahead. Whether or not gladiators from the same stable have to be on the same team or players are able to create a team and populate it with their own and invite others is up in the air. There is the possibility a team will need a replacement gladiator or doesn't have enough to meet the number of gladiators needed and in this case I'm thinking to have the Arena provide the team with "champions" to make up the difference. Those champions could be NPCs or maybe inactive gladiators or retired, etc.

    For starters it would be 5v5 teams and after working out the kinks we may introduce 2v2 and 3v3 which would all run simultaneously during the season. Whether or not gladiators can be on more than one team (i.e. a 5v5 and a 3v3) hasn't been decided. For players who really enjoy the 1v1 battles, the Blood Games will still be around and I have plans to overhaul that into a much larger spectacle of tournaments for all sizes, shapes and levels.

    Some of my main reasons for this is I think a team dynamic will be much more interesting with a lot more depth for the end game. It would also lessen the difficulty for newly promoted gladiators as they would have teammates to help them out. The devil is in the details so figuring out how it would work regarding season length, promotions, creating teams, etc will take some thought. I was hoping to have it in place in time for the next season, but that may not be possible. If not, i may cut the next season short instead of waiting two months to bring this online assuming it is a go.

    I'd love to hear your input and ideas.

    -Nate-

  2. #2
    Elite Master Kreegan's Avatar
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    First idea that comes to mind is that you should fix the knockdowns.

    Making the next season short will eat some BGP and make the necessary rating accumulation a problem for most gladiators who are not the usual top dogs so I'm not really a fan of the idea. No problem for me to wait 2 more months.

    The team fights have always been around as a concept as far as I remember but the issue is with the balance. If there will be a way to balance the teams, then I'm all for it. It it will be a semi-random grouping where one team can clearly dominate the other like it is now, then I'd rather skip it. Balance = competition = fun, at least for me.

    The removal of the tokens for the end game and returning to the "scheduled fights" would be a really, I mean REALLY great thing... if done right. Personally, I would prefer the old fight each 12 hours but I suppose most people here would find that too slow, so 6 or 8 hours between the fights sounds OK (there will probably be at least one fight for which you can't prepare in this configuration but then again, at the moment you can't prepare at all).

    The Blood Games part sounds intriguing. Details coming soon I guess?

    In general, I think this is the right direction. And let me finish by reminding you to fix the knockdowns.

  3. #3
    Elite Master Adoede's Avatar
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    I'm down with you experimenting since you have a good track record of fixing things when they're unbalanced.

    That said, personally, I don't really enjoy the 5v5 type fights we see in conquests and gauntlets much (or even the everyone-for-themselves TOP 10 fights). Waaay too random for me. I've always been most drawn to the PvP strategic aspect of the game myself. I'd prefer to just tweak seasons to optimize the PvP experience and add team play for a side-tournament format or something.

    How to optimize 1v1 PvP in blood gods?
    1) No more arena tokens
    2) Everyone fights everyone else in blood gods exactly once per week (no more missed fights because someone is dead)
    * - You can say a perk of moving up to blood gods is that your glads are now immortal. OR you can just have Jimmy the Squid revive dead glads before each fight at the stable-master's cost.
    ** - The weekly revision of the fight queue also allows a window for glads to retire out of blood gods once each week and new glads to come up from Primus.

    This will result in an arena where glads are ordered in their "true rank" compared to the other glads in blood gods.

    From this base PvP arena game, lots of special team tournaments can be added for fun and variety. But to me, the meat and potatoes of games like "Pit of War" is the 1v1 PvP strategy play.
    Adoede | Tevrosin

  4. #4
    Master Sotc's Avatar
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    Teams would be interesting if we could set team-play strats. Without team-play strats each glad kinda just does their own thing and fights are a mess (see Battle Royales)

  5. #5
    Pit Master Apoca1ypse's Avatar
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    I love the idea of going back to the old school system!

    5v5 worries me, especially because I only have 2 top tier gladiators, but depending on the mechanics/balance, I could have a lot of fun and not feel like I'm being whipped around by complete stables like SOTC's and Oedi's. If it takes 4 months to dial in (like when seasons first became a thing) I'm ok with that. You've always delivered with an awesome product and the wait has always been worth it

    The idea of old school 1v1 really excites me, and I look forward to seeing what transpires on that front.


    As for knockdowns, this thread isnt meant to be about them.... but Kreegan, play around with your knockdown triggers/strats. You'll be surprised how fast you can get back up, even with a non-HoL in full plate.
    Do you want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women? Then follow the link below!

    >>Player Guide Compendium<<

    Stable: Team Win
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    P.S. Apoc is still a ninja!

  6. #6
    The Overlord Nate's Avatar
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    When putting on your game designers hat for these kinds of games, something you have to keep in mind when coming up with ideas is you have to think of two things: Fun and monetization. All fun and no monetization means a game goes out of business because it doesn't keep the lights on and feed its creators. No fun and all monetization means the game goes out of business because nobody plays it. Keep these two things in mind when adding and removing features.

    All negative comments should be accompanied with a solution and solutions should be accompanied with details. This is a pretty good tenant to follow for game design. For example, if you are not happy with 5v5 fights, why not? What would make you happy? You want team-play strats? What do you mean? What kinds? How would they work?

    I'm actually quite surprised at the somewhat low interest in this sort of idea thus far. Personally, I think it would leaps and bounds more interesting then the same 1v1 fights over and over again. If it turns out everyone is mostly happy with the status quo though, that's cool. Perhaps I'll leave things be and focus on something else. I'll give everyone time to chime in before making any final decision.

    Good luck in the Pit!

    -Nate-

  7. #7
    The Overlord Nate's Avatar
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    First idea that comes to mind is that you should fix the knockdowns.
    I don't see any issue with knockdowns and don't have plans to make any changes to how it works.

    Good luck in the Pit!

    -Nate-

  8. #8
    The Overlord Nate's Avatar
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    5v5 worries me, especially because I only have 2 top tier gladiators, but depending on the mechanics/balance, I could have a lot of fun and not feel like I'm being whipped around by complete stables like SOTC's and Oedi's. If it takes 4 months to dial in (like when seasons first became a thing) I'm ok with that. You've always delivered with an awesome product and the wait has always been worth it
    There are two possibilities for team construction:

    1) Force teams to only be from one stable. This is fine and makes sense but what to do when a stable doesn't have 5 gladiators in Blood Gods?

    2) Allow players to create teams and fill them with anyone's gladiators based on communication with other players. So, you could create a team, put your two BG gladiators on it and then maybe talk with other players with less than five gladiators, or maybe another player doesn't mind breaking his or her stable up into a couple of teams.

    In both cases a mechanism needs to be in place to fill in empty slots. My idea here is to have the Arena supply gladiators in this case and these gladiators would be top shelf and equipped to match. This would also allow a new player with just one gladiator to make his own team and be able to compete with the best of the best.

    This is just one idea of many I'm sure.

    Good luck in the Pit!

    -Nate-

  9. #9
    The Overlord Nate's Avatar
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    The team fights have always been around as a concept as far as I remember but the issue is with the balance. If there will be a way to balance the teams, then I'm all for it. It it will be a semi-random grouping where one team can clearly dominate the other like it is now, then I'd rather skip it. Balance = competition = fun, at least for me.
    See previous post.

    The removal of the tokens for the end game and returning to the "scheduled fights" would be a really, I mean REALLY great thing... if done right. Personally, I would prefer the old fight each 12 hours but I suppose most people here would find that too slow, so 6 or 8 hours between the fights sounds OK (there will probably be at least one fight for which you can't prepare in this configuration but then again, at the moment you can't prepare at all).
    I'm actually thinking one fight per day (maybe two). Players who want more fights and things to do have access to other areas of the game, can start more stables (as many did in the early days) or if gladiators are allowed to be on any team they would get more fights if they split their gladiators across multiple teams. In addition if 2v2 and 3v3 are introduced that would up the fight count. The game is what it is right now for various reasons that are beyond the scope of this thread, however, a few important fights each day where a player must stew and wait for redemption or bask in glory for awhile may be a very good thing.

    Good luck in the Pit!

    -Nate-

  10. #10
    Elite Master Adoede's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nate View Post
    I'm actually quite surprised at the somewhat low interest in this sort of idea thus far. Personally, I think it would leaps and bounds more interesting then the same 1v1 fights over and over again. -Nate-
    I'll think about some more viable suggestions later. But I just wanted to say, Nate, if you really think it would be more fun, I think we're all willing to give it a go - especially if you've already put in much of the work for it. We trust you with your baby - sure it will be beyond what any of us expect...
    Adoede | Tevrosin

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