Changes to PvP - suggestions

vordayn

Just wondering when PvP is going to get some changes to attract a wider population base. I know that there is change pending, and thought I would throw some ideas out there which could make the game more attractive -and equitable- to newer players especially.

1) Solo queue
This is good as it discourages premades. Premades are fun (participated in a few especially in gauntlgrym), but it's only really fun if against other premades. Only problem is that it may remove the casual players from being eaten by pugstompers, and if this analysis is anything to go by, then you need a mix of solo and premades in an F2P setting.

2) Stat caps and/or diminishing returns
We already have healing depression in PvP, so it is possible to tweak the function of player abilities in a PvP setting without affecting PvE. Allowing players to stack stats, but reducing the return, might allow it so that new players are not such at a huge disadvantage from established players, but still allow marginal benefits to acquiring better items/gear. And let's face it, established players have probably finetuned their playstyle and so would still often come out on top, but would present more of a challenge to them when face-tanking 3-4 newer players. Have it so that instead of giving 1% of stat per every 400 points, increase the points needed per percentage gain. This should also affect stamina regeneration and the HP pool. This could prevent overstacking power to prevent one-shots, but also limit the amount immunity frames classes receive from the shift function. If power is reduced though, there should be a corresponding reduction in HP and defense otherwise matches may go on ad infinitem. This would require a lot of tweaking, but may be the most likely change to balance PvP for newer players.

3) Bring back NCL
The Neverwinter Combat League preseason was 2 years ago now and it was heaps of fun. It drew in a lot of players that didn't really play PvP much. It gave rewards for playing (enchantment stones, fashion gear, PvP gear etc) which were actually worthwhile to play PvP for, and also rewarded players who came out on top which was good incentive to play well. Furthermore, since so many players were involved, it got the Elo system working, and I did notice the difficulty of players as I progressed up the leaderboard.

4) Fix the leaderboard
I don't know if this is broken because of a lack of players, but something really needs to be done about it. Even if it uses statistics such the number of matches Won:Lost as a primary ranking (above 10 matches at least, or you could have characters that have Win:Loss 1:0 on the first page!), with Kill:Death ratio and Assist being the secondary and tertiary ranking modifiers respectively, it would be better than the randomness we have now.

5) Give us a new map, objectives, or 2vs2 or 1v1 options etc
This could be fun. It could be trialled like the solo queue option to see if it would be feasible in the long term.

Ideas for different objectives could be:
Gladiator Ball - Aim to cross the other line to score a goal. Player carrying the Ball is weakened.
Protect the King (or Queen) - Each team has to protect an NPC or item in a mini-fort from being captured.
Competing Adventuring Party - Fight against an environment against the opposite team to reach an objective (more like PvE, but against another party).
Last man (team) standing aka 'Hunger Games' - 2 vs 2 vs 2, or 1 vs 1 vs 1 (will require class balance first).
Defend the Fort - Teams take turns defending a fort. The team which breaches the fort quicker (if at all) wins.
King of the Flag - The player (or team) which holds the flag/banner for longest wins. Timed battle. The flag bearer(s) are weakened (i.e. limited dodge, shield, healing, dailies or stealth) and drop the flag when killed.

The new PvP objectives could be on a rotating or 'Rare' timer, so that the playerbase isn't spread out, but Domination should still be present at all times. Each objective type should have different or unique rewards / titles (which could be defended) in order to attract interest.

There should also be a 'Queue for All' option in PvP mode selection, as I really just want to play PvP sometimes and don't care which map it is. (Still have the specific queue options though for those who want it).

6) Class Balance and Better Matchmaking
See the PVP forum for suggestions - which are many!



Anyway, those are my suggestions, any others? Hope that the PvP changes coming up are worthwhile.

plavia

1) each guild can create one 3x3 PVP map (1-3 nodes). all players can play it.
guild will make bit of resources from it (depend on the amount of non guild palyers playing it)

2) once a month make a solo Q event. reset the leaderbord. and add rewards for the event (NCL)

3) create an internal guild leaderbord. each month player with the highest amount of wins in a guild get nice temp boon reward (10% run speed, 10% mount speed...)

4) make a 5x5 event. durring the time of event each node will spawn random monsters when capture. the type of monsters will depend on the total amount of damage taken to capture the nod (those monsters will attack everyone)

5) delete the PVP campaign. give players one coal ward for every 10 points as compensation.
and create a new campaign. without triple kills etc. something like all other campaigns so all players can advance(DC and OP as well).
boons of the PVP campaign need to work outside PVP if you want ppl to do it

6) either make a premade option or delete it (if parties not balanced, 2 players from the strongt team will move to the weaker team)

7) PVP depend alot on guilds now, empower it.
make guild leaderboard with monthly rewards

8) make some PVP events, there is event allmost every week but none are PVP

wintersmoke

xsayajinx1 said:

1.) Solo queue does nothing in the long run. One BiS player can still kill the whole enemy team if they are undergeared. Matchmaking is not working at all.



2.) That's a good idea I support as it's a real solution in the end.



3.) Yes! What makes people play PvP? REWARDS!!!



5.) I prefer to use resources first for fixing gear gap, matchmaking etc.



6.) They are all in the wrong subforum, mods/devs dont visit or reply in the PvP section. Need to post in "Player's Feedback".

@xsayajinx1 said "1.) Solo queue does nothing in the long run. One BiS player can still kill the whole enemy team if they are undergeared. Matchmaking is not working at all."

First of all, I apologize to xsayajinx for using him as an example, but I have seen this idea posted several times in different posts, this is just the most recent. The idea is that solo queue does nothing to fix PvP, therefore it should not be supported. And players that hold this idea are not wrong. Soloqueue does nothing to fix the QoL issues (& there are many) that plague PvP today. Solo queue does, however, fix one problem PvP faces: low player population. There are too few players willing to put themselves through the grinder in the current PvP setup. Until that changes, there is little reason for the devs to take resources away from 15 million players, to make 1,500 happy. If solo queue will bring more "butts in the seats" then in the end it will benefit PvP, as a whole, in the long run. I know it will do nothing to make the lives of the players that have stuck wth PvP through it's current decline, & I'm sorry about that. But in the end, I think increasing the player population in PvP has to be the first step towards long lasting improvements for PvP as a whole. Is soloqueue a magic pill that will make PvP all better, no. It's a pressure bandage that stops the dying patient from bleeding to death long enough to treat the real problem.