New Game Mode as an Alternative to War?
synergy247
Member Posts: 306 ★
Ok so we need only look at general discussion here to see the number of alliances either recruiting for AQ only or players looking for same.
Is it time we have another game mode introduced as an alternative? In the past the bases module was being developed but seems to have been dropped.
Judging by the fact the top Master level alliances from Season 9 have disbanded and people are dropping Alliance Wars in droves this season it would seem that AW is dead as a game mode unless they do something about these new harder maps that no one really enjoys anymore.
Most of the previous Master or even Plat level alliances if they are still doing it are taking it so easy that they have drifted way down and now in Gold 1 or 2 tiers which again distorts matches and level of enjoyment for those who never intended to push so hard for those top level rewards.
Perhaps revert to the previous one next season if you’re going to introduce defence tactics for Season 11. No amount of rewards increase on this map plus defence tactics would help me reconsider my position and I’ll bet I’m not alone.
There are nodes on first tier of map that are harder than the end bosses and have regularly been getting at least 3 times as many kills due to the interaction of masteries plus the defender and node properties. No one enjoys having your whole team virtually KO’d on the very first or second node on the map and feeling like you’ve let your team down.
Is it time we have another game mode introduced as an alternative? In the past the bases module was being developed but seems to have been dropped.
Judging by the fact the top Master level alliances from Season 9 have disbanded and people are dropping Alliance Wars in droves this season it would seem that AW is dead as a game mode unless they do something about these new harder maps that no one really enjoys anymore.
Most of the previous Master or even Plat level alliances if they are still doing it are taking it so easy that they have drifted way down and now in Gold 1 or 2 tiers which again distorts matches and level of enjoyment for those who never intended to push so hard for those top level rewards.
Perhaps revert to the previous one next season if you’re going to introduce defence tactics for Season 11. No amount of rewards increase on this map plus defence tactics would help me reconsider my position and I’ll bet I’m not alone.
There are nodes on first tier of map that are harder than the end bosses and have regularly been getting at least 3 times as many kills due to the interaction of masteries plus the defender and node properties. No one enjoys having your whole team virtually KO’d on the very first or second node on the map and feeling like you’ve let your team down.
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Comments
But it seems a high percentage of alliances are either sticking together in spite of alliance war by not taking the competition seriously, or taking the competition seriously enough to dissolve alliances. That seems counter-productive to me. Although I'm sure many alliances are perfectly fine with alliance war as it exists now and as it has been existing since 14.0, if my observations do reflect reality I'd say that objectively speaking AW is a failure, in that it does not generate the results it is supposed to generate in terms of being a positive addition to the game.
I don't say this lightly. Dungeons are a thing I don't play much, because they are incompatible with the way I play the game and my on-call professional requirements. But just because they aren't right for me, doesn't mean I think they are bad. I think they are a good addition to the game, in that they add something but they don't hurt the game as a whole. Although there are some parts to it that don't work right in my opinion, I don't think Dungeons are pointless.
Prior to 14.0 and prior to seasons, I would say the point to alliance war was to give players who wanted more of a direct competitive mode of play something to do. It added to the game, but it also added some bad side effects to the game in terms of how wars were prosecuted and how they added stress to alliances. But at the time, I said publicly I thought that trade was worth it, it was worth the added stress to give that segment of the player population a small piece of the game. I wouldn't say that today. Today, I would say alliance war fell into the same trap many PvE games do when they carelessly add PvP retroactively. It ended up being more trouble than it is worth, and I would not mourn its passing.
Alliance war isn't dead. My alliance still participates. But we participate completely for fun, without really thinking about it as an alliance-wide competitive game mode, and I don't see that changing any time soon. So in terms of being what it is supposed to be, alliance war is dead to me.
They certainly won't ditch the map. It's doubtful they'll stop doing it as a whole. They said they plan to rework the reward system for Season 11 and then roll out of Defense Tactics. The addition of such will undoubtedly increase the difficulty. For some, even with the reward boost, DT will bury their desire to push onward in AW. I like Challenge. I do. I also like when the Challenge matches what you get in return for your efforts. As of right now, that's not the case, as many will agree. Just the same, we want to be prepared to take on DT on this map next Season.
Kabam typically brings a bit of balance to the reward/effort output when updating things. So, theoretically, the new Season rewards should be comparable to AQ time/effort wise per tier. If that's indeed going to be the case, you may see more players coming back. I know as it stands many are so disillusioned by the current situation that they don't see it changing enough to justify returning to full swing competition. Which is fair. I get it. It's not like my crew and I aren't upset with putting what we are and getting back what we do. Seriously, the War Victor Crystal is a JOKE these days, and that's putting it nicely.
All in all, it's a bit of a mess. However, there's 2 weeks left in this Season. So in 2 weeks, hopefully we'll be enlightened upon the upcoming rewards. That could be the carrot everyone needs to get back into the swing. If it's not... well... we'll see how everyone responds then now won't we? I will say they made it much more manageable than the 1st iteration of the Map we initially received. So perhaps in time, the majority will adjust, the rewards will be appealing (enough to try anyway), and AW will be less of a pariah.
The problem is you cannot compensate for unpalatable gameplay with more rewards. What you end up doing is taking something players don't want to do and force them to do it because the rewards are too high to pass up.
I think if rewards are increased participation will go up, but unhappiness will also go up: that increased participation won't be a sign of improvement in the system.
I’ve seen a lot of war match ups this season where our opponents had multiple guys with rosters over 1m in team rating, and they’re in Gold 1. Never seen that before at this level and I’ve played since season 1.
If AW is meant to be the highest level of competition and fun then why is it that so many people are talking about not caring or pushing hard? Or dropping the mode entirely in favour of AQ that has never happened before and I’ve never seen so many saying they’re sick of it or not interested in playing wars anymore. From week to week there have been retirements from my alliance for burnout from war having to use so many items just to keep up etc where that glory or resources could be better spent growing their roster eg rank ups materials.
If that small sample is indicative of a wider trend across the community and you can extrapolate it that way by the number of alliances recruiting for AQ only or players looking for same as per the general discussions board then something has to be done to either adjust wars back to a reasonable level of challenge for the time involved or look at alternatives to it.
The beta involved only the top 800 alliances yet the war map affected everyone and everyone still has to wait for a rewards bump.
Maybe delay Season 11 for an entire month this time as a mode and see if we can get the balance right while it gets a proper retooling in the off season, and we get that month to work out how defence tactics is gonna affect things and not just a haphazard one week on the new map like this season, 5 wars instead of 6, a last minute adjustment or correction to difficulty mere hours before kick off etc.
When a new EQ or say 6.2 comes out they rely on feedback to work out whether the content is bugged or requires adjustment to level of difficulty and this normally takes weeks or a month before anything is actioned. A longer lead time to allow for this in war is not only prudent and reasonable but sensible given the disastrous start to Season 10. More so than a whirlwind beta over a few days with wars so short and ineffective with many blank maps of no/few placed defenders after the first day. And while I’m on that for the next beta it needs to be at least a week, with some kind of participation rewards for the people who take the time to do it and help provide feedback for the greater good of the community.
An idea is for example give the new map and defence tactics in war to apply for seasons ie an opt in thing similar to enlistment but for those who just want shards etc without the full on competitive mode can opt out and do the previous version of the map.
The second option could have war rating locked so as not to have any manipulation
I want to say maybe a new game mode would help, but then I start remembering certain aspects of the community and how they responds to things. Pro, it could bring new desire to play. Con, some Alliances would undoubtedly try to run all 3 things and player burn out would likely increase. Pro, new mode, different rewards (theoretically). Con, the fringe players as they're called would likely find way to exploit the new mode. Which then leads to another Con, yet another mode they have to maintain (i.e. more bugs to deal with). I'm sure there's many more bullet points for both sides. Those are the 1st to come to mind.
Even if they did a secondary Map situation as recently mentioned by @synergy247 , it's hard to say whether that would be a plus or a minus. Then again, maybe we take that 1 step further. Imagine if you will, a 3 Map AW situation. The OG Map, the final iteration of the second Map (the last one we dealt with prior to the current), and the new one. For the Season, your Alliance locks into one of them and competes with other Alliances in that Map tier. Each Map tier would have individual Season reward Tiers. This would open the door for lower Alliances to compete for better rewards on an easier Map, or try their luck at a harder Map with top notch rewards. Or allow mid to upper tier Alliances to dial back on an easier map, but still compete for relatively decent rewards.
The original AW Map would be the lowest rewards. The 2nd iteration would keep the current version of the Season rewards. The 3rd get a new, higher tier reward system. Granted this is all hypothetical and has room for growth. Giving players options might be key to bringing some fun back to AW. It would undoubtedly help many Alliances as it being tiered per Map, they're fighting against a smaller group of Alliances vs going against them all. Which would in turn, increase their chances at landing in Gold, Platinum or Master rank in their current Map tier. Maybe this could work... feel free to add on or adjust as this is merely off the hip.
Forcing the top tier to deal with upper echelon nodes AND Defense Tactics next season will likely result in some burnout and retirements. I could be wrong. It might bring the luster back... but I doubt it. I guess we'll see in a couple weeks. On that note, to those that are participating, best of luck this Season in the meantime.
We’ve seen precedents for flexibility which were great improvements and well received, such as for AQ allowing each BG to have a different Map to suit them each day of the week.
On the flip side we’ve also seen the consternation with AW enlistment whereby we’re no longer able to choose our own start time and instead locked in so that international alliances are greatly disadvantaged. As we get closer to season cutoff I would like to see confirmation of the rewards bump for next season also and what start date it will be, and whether the intention is still to implement defence tactics on the current map...