Archived Post
09-08-2009, 11:09 AM
This seems like a somewhat fundamental change request to come in after release; maybe it's too late for this to really be fixable. That'd be a shame, since PvP was one of the main reasons I picked up this game, and the current systems creates powerful incentives for shallow, uninteresting and chaotic play.
Am I right in assuming that the current scoring system awards acclaim (and maybe XP) based on which team wins, the number of kills to which you contribute, and the number of defeats you received? If the current system is already more sophisticated than that, it'd be great to hear about some details!
Anyway, the problem with this approach is that it creates an incentive for each individual player to win, but win by inflicting significant damage on as many players as possible; the goal is to win with the highest kill total you can manage. Put bluntly, that's not a particularly interesting strategy. It strongly encourages everyone to specialize in a few specific kinds of damage dealing roles, and specifically discourages strategic choices about how to manage opposing characters. For example, I was hoping for a scenario where my team would need to coordinate to figure out questions like which member of the other team poses the most immediate threat, and based on their abilities and the abilities available on my team how should that person be controlled (say by focusing fire to burn them down, or keeping them cc'd). We should also have to worry about how to counter the other teams healing, support and control abilities. Currently, when these questions come up, they're personal and they're defensive; the only reason I care about CC is that someone has me in a hold, and I need to get out of it (or figure out a way to avoid it).
Are there plans in the works for changing PvP scoring? If so, a sneak peek would be really encouraging! If not, is it constructive to talk about it? For example, a couple of ideas that seem pretty straight forward would be to reward people for the amount of damage or healing done, rather than the number of kills to which they contributed. This removes the powerfully boring incentive to tag as many people as possible. Perhaps more importantly, it also rewards healing. If that's too involved a change (I'm sure it raises issues about how to handle over-healing, negated damage, etc.) would something like rewarding a kill to a healer when a character they healed for a significant amount scores a kill, or when an opponent they CC'd for a significant amount of time is killed? I suppose that has some issues of it's own too.
I don't want to sound hyperbolic, but how would you rate the defect severity for an issue like "characters in one of our three roles receive almost no reward for PvP." I don't think that's overstating the issue. Strongly incentivising spreading damage out is probably more complicated, but is also severely limiting.
Anyway, CO seems like it has the potential to be a really great game. I'm excited to see how it pans out!
Am I right in assuming that the current scoring system awards acclaim (and maybe XP) based on which team wins, the number of kills to which you contribute, and the number of defeats you received? If the current system is already more sophisticated than that, it'd be great to hear about some details!
Anyway, the problem with this approach is that it creates an incentive for each individual player to win, but win by inflicting significant damage on as many players as possible; the goal is to win with the highest kill total you can manage. Put bluntly, that's not a particularly interesting strategy. It strongly encourages everyone to specialize in a few specific kinds of damage dealing roles, and specifically discourages strategic choices about how to manage opposing characters. For example, I was hoping for a scenario where my team would need to coordinate to figure out questions like which member of the other team poses the most immediate threat, and based on their abilities and the abilities available on my team how should that person be controlled (say by focusing fire to burn them down, or keeping them cc'd). We should also have to worry about how to counter the other teams healing, support and control abilities. Currently, when these questions come up, they're personal and they're defensive; the only reason I care about CC is that someone has me in a hold, and I need to get out of it (or figure out a way to avoid it).
Are there plans in the works for changing PvP scoring? If so, a sneak peek would be really encouraging! If not, is it constructive to talk about it? For example, a couple of ideas that seem pretty straight forward would be to reward people for the amount of damage or healing done, rather than the number of kills to which they contributed. This removes the powerfully boring incentive to tag as many people as possible. Perhaps more importantly, it also rewards healing. If that's too involved a change (I'm sure it raises issues about how to handle over-healing, negated damage, etc.) would something like rewarding a kill to a healer when a character they healed for a significant amount scores a kill, or when an opponent they CC'd for a significant amount of time is killed? I suppose that has some issues of it's own too.
I don't want to sound hyperbolic, but how would you rate the defect severity for an issue like "characters in one of our three roles receive almost no reward for PvP." I don't think that's overstating the issue. Strongly incentivising spreading damage out is probably more complicated, but is also severely limiting.
Anyway, CO seems like it has the potential to be a really great game. I'm excited to see how it pans out!