Curse

Winterclaw · Sep 11, 2007, 04:46 AM // 04:46

Hey all, I have a few thoughts on how to improve the game, mostly PvP, but 1idea for PvE as well that is a necessity to discuss. These thoughts probably aren't going to help the more skilled (or hard core) PvPers but might help to make it easier for PvEers to get into the game. My background is someone who dabbles in PvP from time to time, but not very much either because I don't feel like it or the fact that I don't have any slots for a PvP only character and I don't have UAS on any of my PvE chars.

1. Every account should have 5 slots for their first campaign, with one of those being a dedicated PvP slot and one being a dedicated PvE. Rationale: if you really want to get into PvP you either need a ton of money/time to cap and get junk or you need a PvP char. This would make sure everyone who wants to PvP can start on the same page and that people like me who wouldn't reserve or shell out for a PvP slot would have one.

2a. Make elite skills buyable from skill trainers, even if you limit it to the last trainer in the game (like ember light camp). This way if your team requires you to have an elite, you can always run and buy it if you've gotten that far in PvE. If you are new to PvP you might not have gotten that one skill you need for FOTM and you shouldn't waste your team's time running all over 3chapters trying to buy it.

2b. Make a skill trainer who carries all the skills you have unlocked in all the major PvP areas like RA, HA, Guild Hall. etc. This way you as a PvE char can buy a skill in a PvP area. An alt would be letting PoBs teach skills to PvE chars.

2c. To preserve capping, give bosses cappable PvE skills that you can only get from capping a boss. Also some bosses could have elite skills that could be capped before you can buy them. For example that FoC wurm in proph could also have a PvE hex of some sort added to his list of skills. Likewise there could be a "Blue Mage" title track added.

3. Disable /all in RA. There's not enough respect in general there and a ton of elitism... ie if the other guy has a build that exposes your build's weakness, even if it is a good build, you are a n00b.

4. Allow an option for entering RA with a longer timer so a team can have say 90-120 seconds to come up with a plan and talk things over. Hopefully only people who are actually thoughtful and planning would use this. Ideally there'd also be a slightly longer time between matches if you've won so you can adjust if needed.

5. For RA, allow a stick with the same group if you lose button. Maybe you found 3 others and got an 8 win run going before you dropped. It might encourage people to make friends more, to stick with it, etc. if they could auto rejoin/regroup with any others that wanted to.

6. Ban for life anyone who reorders a group in HA or GvG more than twice. I know it isn't a biggie and no one will /sign it, but I can't stand constant reordering of a party bar.

7. Since there are PvE only skills, add some PvP only skills to each campaign. That'll spice things up a little bit if they are balanced.

8. Add some more skills for non-core classes. Since paragons and dervishes are the newest ones, we see the least variety in them.

9. Go back and rebalance some of the Proph and Factions skills with NF and GWEN in mind. It's hard to stay competitive with only one game if you've got none and can't get any of the FOTM skills. I think more than a few PvPers QQed when they could no longer get a group because that old campaign's skills weren't as "good" as the new ones.

10. On a small handful of maps, allow players to start with a few exploitable corpses or a minion for every minion skill on his bar.

11. Add more randomness in maps. Have TA, RA, and GvG maps where up to 4 different parties can go at it. Also allow some (more) HA maps with 3, 4, 6, and 8 party free for all maps. Give some maps inherent global effects and some maps random global effects so people have to keep on their toes or adapt.

12. Get rid of HB. I'm all for allowing some heroes in PvP, but HB don't work and there is too much copycatting. Rotate the HB maps and their unique features and win conditions into the RA and TA lineup.

13. If possible, try to speed up party forming in GvG and HA. There have been times when once I've gotten 8 people from my guild/alliance willing to PvP that it's taken 15-30 minutes just getting skills in order. And that's after all the time it took to get the entire group to say yes. I know not everyone has this problem, and it's good to spend time to plan, however sometimes the inertia for getting things started is a killer as well.

One example that could speed things up is have a party skill window that has 8 rows and 2 columns. The first column shows what everyone has for their skill bar. The second one is for people to make suggestions. This would at least cut down on the number of times I have to ping what I have and allow everyone to see what the look of the party is real time... and to comment on it. As it is, I ping, someone comments, I ping again, this repeats, the leader moves on to the next person, 10 minutes later I have to ping again a few times because something changes or he can't be bothered to scroll up to find my last ping, etc.

So if you want to do a FOTM or whatever the leader can just put all the templates real quick and if you don't have some of the skills, there could be a quick buy feature (if you have money and skill points or balth faction) because of suggestion 2b.

14. Disable the ability to show titles and rank emotes in HA to cut down on elitism some. People can show off at the temple or their guildhall. This way people are going to actually have to interact with one another more.

15. Maybe add a hall of learning where some of the best can leave tips for people ingame to look at since not everyone reads the boards or all the fansites.