PvP suggestion

[Tathais]

TL;DR / Executive Summary

DPS to healing ratio is too high and people are dying too quickly. Tweak the numbers so they're closer, but keep DPS rates close to how they are. Then increase health pools considerably so that players live longer, but coordinated damage will still outpace healing. Give people time to react and time to play the game.

 

Full Post

Like it or not, you have to admit that this game is kind of a gib fest right now. A single DPS outmatches a single healer without a guard plain and simple. Throw in 2 DPS and any one target that doesn't have a high amount of defensive abilities tends to die fairly quickly. People who die quickly and spend most of their time in the respawn area aren't having fun and frankly, leaving this game in droves.

 

Now you've got two sides of the coin here:

 

1) Healers who don't enjoy being unable to use their abilities effectively because they or their targets die so quickly. This group also includes classes without a lot of defense... dying inside a stun isn't very fun at all.

 

2) DPS who are afraid that if healing is too powerful, it will be impossible to kill them or the targets they heal. Skirmishes that never end because a healer can't be killed and is able to keep up their whole team at the same time is not fun.

 

I'd like to propose an alternative solution. Make damage and healing match each other nearly one for one so we have almost the same damage versus healing output we have now (though a little toned down on the damage -- come on folks, you know it's a bit skewed). Next, increase player health pools drastically... as much as four times even. This will allow players to live through stuns and give resolve time to come into effect. Coordinated DPS will still outpace healing, but healing will also come into effect to delay the dealth of a player. Additionally, players will be able to make use of their abilities and play the game. Again, spending your time either stunned or sitting in the respawn area is NOT fun. Playing the game IS fun.

 

Aim to have people live, under focused DPS (lets say 2 DPS) without support, for maybe 25 - 30 seconds. This gives you time to get stunned to full resolve, but then come out and actually contribute. Right now you live for maybe 5-8 seconds under focus which means you may get to use one ability when the stuns wear off, at which point you die and go back to the spawn.

 

I realize that if players live longer, maps may need to be adjusted so that players have time to kill defenders before reinforcements arrive.

[ShadowOfVey]

TL;DR / Executive Summary

DPS to healing ratio is too high and people are dying too quickly. Tweak the numbers so they're closer, but keep DPS rates close to how they are. Then increase health pools considerably so that players live longer, but coordinated damage will still outpace healing. Give people time to react and time to play the game.

 

Full Post

Like it or not, you have to admit that this game is kind of a gib fest right now. A single DPS outmatches a single healer without a guard plain and simple. Throw in 2 DPS and any one target that doesn't have a high amount of defensive abilities tends to die fairly quickly. People who die quickly and spend most of their time in the respawn area aren't having fun and frankly, leaving this game in droves.

 

Now you've got two sides of the coin here:

 

1) Healers who don't enjoy being unable to use their abilities effectively because they or their targets die so quickly. This group also includes classes without a lot of defense... dying inside a stun isn't very fun at all.

 

2) DPS who are afraid that if healing is too powerful, it will be impossible to kill them or the targets they heal. Skirmishes that never end because a healer can't be killed and is able to keep up their whole team at the same time is not fun.

 

I'd like to propose an alternative solution. Make damage and healing match each other nearly one for one so we have almost the same damage versus healing output we have now (though a little toned down on the damage -- come on folks, you know it's a bit skewed). Next, increase player health pools drastically... as much as four times even. This will allow players to live through stuns and give resolve time to come into effect. Coordinated DPS will still outpace healing, but healing will also come into effect to delay the dealth of a player. Additionally, players will be able to make use of their abilities and play the game. Again, spending your time either stunned or sitting in the respawn area is NOT fun. Playing the game IS fun.

 

Aim to have people live, under focused DPS (lets say 2 DPS) without support, for maybe 25 - 30 seconds. This gives you time to get stunned to full resolve, but then come out and actually contribute. Right now you live for maybe 5-8 seconds under focus which means you may get to use one ability when the stuns wear off, at which point you die and go back to the spawn.

 

I realize that if players live longer, maps may need to be adjusted so that players have time to kill defenders before reinforcements arrive.

 

This would make maps INCREDIBLY frustrating and boring to play.

 

Lets say they did as you say. It takes 3-4x as long to kill someone and in exchange, you have to wait at the spawn point if you die for a much longer time.

 

1. Sucks if you die period. Happen to be the one that dies early? You get to sit in time out long enough that I bet people alt tab to look at things and forget to even click back in time.

 

2. Any sense of urgency to be in the right place at the right time is lost. If it takes that long to kill people, enemy defenders can be horribly misplaced and still make it to where they need to be to defend in time. Unless one team massively outgeared the other, you might never see a node change hands in civil war again.

 

3. Window of opportunity for attackers would be miserable. Did you fall a few seconds short of clearing out the area before reinforcements came? Well, time for another several minute brawl before you maybe have a few second window of opportunity to take that node again. How bout if the enemy team is healer heavy? You may not see that window at all. This is already frustrating enough in voidstar where it occurs every 30 seconds or so undoing your work. If the fights took so much longer...and then after all that you find you weren't quick enough and have to start over 2-3 minutes later? That'd probably be enough to make me unsub actually.

Edited May 15, 2012 by ShadowOfVey