New Quesh Huttball: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

[MrGoldsilver]

After playing a couple games in the new Huttball, i wanted to write my opinion on it.

Disclaimer: Everything here is my opinion. You disagree? Great for you.

 

The Good:

 

-Well first off, it's a new 8v8, something we have wanted for a long time. It isn't perfect, but nothing in life is.

-Plenty of traps, and it's the first mostly vertical map, which gives some unique strategies that i see people come up with.

-Teamwork is a must. If your team is good, you can win easily, and if both teams are evenly matched, it can lead to a lot of fun.

 

The Bad:

 

-Teamwork is a must. Not that i hate Premades or teamwork or anything, but i play Imp side on The Harbinger, and a lot of us don't know what we are doing. I have had games where we lost 6-0 fairly quickly, yet on the flipside, on lowbies, i've scored 6 goals in a row on my AP powertech, with a healer who was following me because everyone else was Deathmatching it. Possible fixes: Add a training area, or a tutorial for the warzone, that tells new and old players alike how to play.

 

-Ranged seems a tad strong: On the pipes as my 55 Eng. Sniper, i can wreck anyone who is in the middle area. I played a game where we had 4 snipers, and no healers, (full pugs both sides) and we won by a long shot, since us snipers kept the upper area clear.

 

The Ugly:

 

Acid pipes. They are somewhat confusing, as to where the damage boundary is. Also, it takes a few seconds to start taking damage, which gets annoying.

 

Intercede/rescue: They give a HUGE advantage if your teams knows what they are doing. A jugg can jump from the lower area, to right next to the pipe near the endzone. And a sorc can pull anyone also. Not really sure how this could be fixed, besides making the layers higher, which would cause other problems...

 

Resolution:

 

Overall, I love the new map. At the very least It's better than not having any new map at all, and i hope that Bioware continues to put resources into making more 8v8 warzones.

 

The Frequently Posted Responses, so i don't have to type this later:

 

Why did you make another thread?

-I want to, because my ego is so big.

 

BUT THE NEW HUTTBALL MAP SUXXX!!!

-In your opinion. Personally, i believe everyone can learn to adapt to the new strategies in this map.

 

I respectfully disagree with everything you say, you are a noob bla bla bla

-Whatever

 

Let the Hate Festival to sacrifice me to the god of QQ for suggesting i like something new begin!!!

Edited April 17, 2014 by MrGoldsilver

[MCaliban]

I scored three goals last night by leaping to some sorcerer just hanging out by his spawn point.

 

It's the first time I felt useful in a WZ.

 

I also wish the horizontal distance was about 1.5 times its current size.

[MrGoldsilver]

I also wish the horizontal distance was about 1.5 times its current size.

 

That would be nice. i can basicly spawn camp the enemy from the center pipe, while having an easy escape route (roll away!! )

[Feztonio]

i like the idea of vertical.. but it doesn't seem to be high enough. it's really just one level with the spawn areas the goals on floor 2. yes the ball spawns in the basement but 90% of gameplay is deathmatch in the first floor and on ramps. it should be higher and bigger for vertical to work. the original huttball works because the map is large enough so that you have to really work at it. 2 lucky leaps/intercedes shouldn't take you from ball spawn to goalline in 12 seconds flat.

[Kerensk]

I played one match where a team of snipers camped out of the pipe, talk about over before it started.

 

Ranged DPS campers are just leap fodder except for snipers.

[MrGoldsilver]

I played one match where a team of snipers camped out of the pipe, talk about over before it started.

 

Ranged DPS campers are just leap fodder except for snipers.

 

I have to admit, it is fun to have 4 snipers spawn camp the enemy

[tanerb]

imho, worst design ever

[kennethbell]

imho, worst design ever

 

Have to agree here. All though I will take Quesh Huttball over a arena anyday.

 

Honestly if they let you choose what WZ to que for.... I would be quesing for the original Huttball the most...

[Prototypemind]

Really needs to be taller or have more real estate to cover laterally. Most of the games I've been in on it my team has won, and 90% of those have been a stomp. There's just not a lot going on with it as is. Sage/Sorc pulls then Hold the Line, etc into the end zone, or quick friendly or hostile leap and that's all she wrote.

[Ravenschild]

Here is the thing I dont get about the map:

We just trashed the Hutt Cartel,so now we are fighting for their amusement? This should have comne out with Makeb and then we should have gotten a new map for this storyline. That would have made sense. Every update there is a new FP or OP (at least...to date there are 30 FP's and OPs when you combine them..23 and 7 respectively),yet we have 6 warzones and 4 arenas. You cannot tell me it is easier to make a FP or OP than it is to make a WZ and I get they need to update the content for PVE players. That said however its far past time ground PVP got some serious love and have it start binding into the storyline like they did originally (Civ,Voidstar and even huttball could all be tied into planetary missions or the cold war overall).

[t-darko]

Think it great you posted this thread; got me thinking, and by the way, most of the constructive replys and your own view, I feel is most valid in their argument. I just want to add the following;

 

The severe competition between objective points and medal earned and the fact that medals earned not correlates with objective points gained, creates and nourish the ever ongoing debate about - who's Bad! If your medal count is high and your objective point is low it tells me one thing and one thing only; You're a good damage dealer/healer/taunt-guard, BUT you haven't got a a clue as to what to do in a WZ. The problem is that these well managed medal hunters become non-contributors. The new QueshBall map address this problem to it's point.

Edited April 17, 2014 by t-darko

[IInox]

I like it.

 

if you have good ops you win easy and fast

if you have bad ops/deathmatch mind ops you will lose and fast.

[Juithtin]

I neither like or dislike it... Although I do feel sorry for the other team when I keep leaping to the same derp sitting on their goal line to score 3-4 times in a row. Not to mention the ability to leap from the very bottom up to the top seems a little poorly designed imo.

 

The only issue I have is a graphical one... my frame rate goes to pot on this map, not to mention other bugs. (like falling THROUGH the middle tier and getting stuck in the floor at the bottom) It needs some tweaking, otherwise it's not all bad (I'll take it over AHG any day).

[Drudenfusz]

Sure, the new map is not as good as the original huttball map, but I prefer it far more to Novare or Hypergates. The only thing that makes me sad about this map is that it buries my hope to get one day a spectator mode, this map is clearly not designed to be ever watched from the outside.

[ProKsnNwk]

Score lines and spawn are to close to the top platforms edges, and the top platform edges are to close to the middle platform.

The acid thing is bugged to, you get damage not in its area, or its just giving out damage late.

 

You can basically take the ball from the bottom and just go behind on the bottom on the side where enemy spawn is and you can leap to anybody on the enemy top platform (if they are standing on the left side or right side of the platform where the acid is on top level) or pass the ball from bottom to the utmost top platform to an ally.

 

Like I wrote, just make more space from middle level to the edges of top platform and from edges of top platform to the spawn and score lines.

Edited April 17, 2014 by ProKsnNwk

[Enoce]

Coming from a Sniper's aspect of it(main is a sniper), I love the new Hutball map! Like OP said, plant your butt on the pipe in the middle and when you hit trouble just roll away. As much as I love it I can definitely see how this is beyond frustrating to the other team. I could be breaking over a million damage easy if the other team lets me sit on the pipe while other ranged dps don't have the pleasure of not getting pulled or leaped to.

 

Perks to me:

- Sniper friendly

- Action packed

- can be a quick win if organized

 

Realistic downfalls to everyone else:

- Too sniper friendly (pipe in mid OP)

- Teams love the death match mid

- Vertical could be a bit taller (make force leap not so effective)

 

Taking the pipe out of mid would definitely take the spawn camping ability of a Sniper right out of the question. We would still be able to shoot safely from our own spawn and help hold mid for the most part. This would totally eliminate our ability to just drop the enemy team while they're leaving the spawn. Just an idea and my experience with it

[Trevor_the_Bruce]

I neither like or dislike it... Although I do feel sorry for the other team when I keep leaping to the same derp sitting on their goal line to score 3-4 times in a row. Not to mention the ability to leap from the very bottom up to the top seems a little poorly designed imo.

.

 

The same issue exists in the original huttball WZ when people stood to close to the edge near the endzone in that one. Juggs would jump right to them and we had to tell the people to stay way from the edges, otherwsie the opponent would score to easily. You had a little bit more room there to get the score, but people could score in 10 seconds on that map to if they were well coordinated.

[AMulls]

Coming from a Sniper's aspect of it(main is a sniper), I love the new Hutball map! Like OP said, plant your butt on the pipe in the middle and when you hit trouble just roll away. As much as I love it I can definitely see how this is beyond frustrating to the other team. I could be breaking over a million damage easy if the other team lets me sit on the pipe while other ranged dps don't have the pleasure of not getting pulled or leaped to.

 

Perks to me:

- Sniper friendly

- Action packed

- can be a quick win if organized

 

Realistic downfalls to everyone else:

- Too sniper friendly (pipe in mid OP)

- Teams love the death match mid

- Vertical could be a bit taller (make force leap not so effective)

 

Taking the pipe out of mid would definitely take the spawn camping ability of a Sniper right out of the question. We would still be able to shoot safely from our own spawn and help hold mid for the most part. This would totally eliminate our ability to just drop the enemy team while they're leaving the spawn. Just an idea and my experience with it

 

Shhhhh! Don't give away the Sniper secret!

 

But, yes, it's crazy what a Sniper can do on this board. The other day, I hit over 900K on my lethality sniper. While, yes, a bunch of that damage was from my dots, I also had 9 solo kills, so, it' wasn't all fluff damage. That board just makes it too easy to destroy folks as a Sniper.

[AGSThomas]

There needs to be a clear indication of which endzone is which. I personally learned to lookwhat team I am on and then look above the endzones to which one I need to go to, but its certainly not intuitive and in the last week I've scored 5 goals that I can think of by following a ball carrier up to his endzone,killing him and then walking in. People are really confused abut which end to go into (that's what she said.)

[Ottoattack]

The good:

 

It is a HB, so if you like HB you may like this one. I am not a big fan of HB, and certainly did not like QB.

 

The bad:

 

The whole vertical theory does not work when there is a level in the middle that everyone stands on. The whole area in the middle is silly. It just forces unnecessary combat and eliminate the entire bottom floor, which currently serves no purpose what so ever aside from someone grabbing the ball. 95% of the game is death match in the middle area. Why do not we just remove the ball and call it Quesh Death Match.

 

Traps are terrible in QB, from design to implementation. In HB they served strategic purposes, here they just an additional pain in the butt to deal with no real value, but tedium.

 

Who though that dying with ball should put the enemies within 3-4 secs of scoring? Whoever thought this is a good idea should not be working in designing WZs anymore.

 

The ugly:

 

It lacks originality and is much worse than the original. It is a loss-loss on all ends. If you like HB, the original is so much better, if you do not, well you are stuck cuz you can't choose WZs, so you will do what I do; leave the game.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Ottoattack

[Trevor_the_Bruce]

There needs to be a clear indication of which endzone is which. I personally learned to lookwhat team I am on and then look above the endzones to which one I need to go to, but its certainly not intuitive and in the last week I've scored 5 goals that I can think of by following a ball carrier up to his endzone,killing him and then walking in. People are really confused abut which end to go into (that's what she said.)

 

There is a very clear indication of which way to go. On the mini map, there are arrows pointing towards to the endzone which you need to apporach.

[Sounders_Fan]

The more I play this new Hutt ball; the more I grow from disliking it to flat out hating it.

 

the only reason I haven't already gotten to the point of flat out leaving it every time I get it is because I usually queue with guild mates and I don't want to leave them solo.

 

Doesn't really matter what toon I play, could be a stealthier, a sentinel or a sniper. the only class that makes this even tolerable is sniper.

[UltimateKrucible]

Well, I've played it a few times and I'm growing to hate it too. Sorry, BW, because I really appreciate the fact we got a new map, but I'm kinda wishing that this one gets taken down and revamped.

 

My biggest problem is that its just not a huttball map. Passing is pointless, and the winning strategy is just to huddle the ball over the line.

 

Too many games I've played where the winning team simply grabs the balls en masse and walks up the four flights of stairs - often running through the acid - to score. Rinse and repeat.

 

A ball carrier, lets say a tank, cannot be killed in the space of time it takes to reach the endzone if they are being shielded and healed ... and neither is there enough time, or opportunity, to separate this trinity. So basically teams just mob the ball over the line. No thought, no play, just blob to win....

 

Changes need to be made - starting with:

 

1) Remove the guard rails on the stairs so that people can be pushed off them.

 

2) Buff the acid damage. Its being ignored right now so needs a redesign. Make it ignore healing, or something. Anything. Just make it work.

 

3) Change the pipes to walkways so people actually use them. At the moment they are sniper nests, nothing more.

[Caid_Baraka]

The ball should have a DoT, carrying the ball should cause the DoT to stack periodically. The DoT should be able to kill you before you can walk it from the bottom spawn to the top goal, this would force more people to pass. Add cleaning stations for the DoT, they don't work if you're carrying the ball.

[t-darko]

... The only thing that makes me sad about this map is that it buries my hope to get one day a spectator mode, this map is clearly not designed to be ever watched from the outside.

 

I share your fear in that regard, Huttball in its original design has the potential to be something more, it's my firm belief that a league with play offs, broadcasting on Twitch is something to be talked about enough to revitalize the interest of swtor pvp. . . and to remove it from the wall of crazy and to make it a actual fact only need a progressive mind and a daring game director . . . feels like we're rapidly moves toward the point, in regard to pvp, that just doing something can't make things worse but might sparkle a hope to get things turned around . . .

Edited April 19, 2014 by t-darko