SNAKES
On a plane
Forum Discussion
I used to feel the same way as the OP. I was like "I just wanna be the best at beating people and don't need all this collusion to make it happen". But, the complexity of this issue is more nuanced, and it I have since conformed - and I'll explain why.
Payout times - we've identified 7 different payout slots for those in our shard chat, which means that in the hour preceding these payouts, PVP happens, and the rest of the time, it's fairly quiet. If you start battling someone who is working towards their own payout time, and it's hours away from your own, you're harming the progression of other players with little or no gain to yourself. You might be OK with this on the purist premise of "this is PVP", but then, don't complain when people begin to collude against you.
Blocking mechanics - if you opt to not colllude, and work your way up to first place or say top five knowing your payout is shared by one or more other players, it becomes less of a game of skill (to the degree that beating an AI requires skill) and more of a game of who's best at timing blocks. I've played that game. It's a pretty miserable game. I've gotten myself into first place then sweated out picking the optimal moment to start a pointless battle purely to block out an opponent from sniping me. Equally, I've dropped myself into 4th or 5th place and picked my moment to pounce. I've won some and I've lost some this way. My conculsion is it's very little fun playing under this type of system
I sought out my shard chat after a prolonged war with another player who as it goes quit the game before I found them. And it's been far less stressful ever since - I now know who's on the climb at a given time of day, and to leave them be, but if I want to enjoy PVP for what it is.
But like I say it's not like I don't have sympathy for your position.
For me, the best change they could make to the game which I genuinely think would end the need for shard chats (and make the PVP forum actually useful for once) would be to remove the need to be in 1st place at your payout time.
My suggestion would be to count any moment you were in first place for the 12 hours preceding your payout.
That's a really wide berth during which most people should be able to get a good run of PVP done and see where they land. It mightn't work for everyone but for the bulk of all players, I think it'd mean they can do their PVP in their own time and as frequently as they so choose to.
There would be a number of consequences
I daresay there are consequences I've yet to think of too. I suspect it's all a pipe dream anyway though :(
Blocking mechanics - if you opt to not colllude, and work your way up to first place or say top five knowing your payout is shared by one or more other players, it becomes less of a game of skill (to the degree that beating an AI requires skill) and more of a game of who's best at timing blocks. I've played that game. It's a pretty miserable game. I've gotten myself into first place then sweated out picking the optimal moment to start a pointless battle purely to block out an opponent from sniping me. Equally, I've dropped myself into 4th or 5th place and picked my moment to pounce. I've won some and I've lost some this way. My conculsion is it's very little fun playing under this type of system
I sought out my shard chat after a prolonged war with another player who as it goes quit the game before I found them. And it's been far less stressful ever since - I now know who's on the climb at a given time of day, and to leave them be, but if I want to enjoy PVP for what it is.
But like I say it's not like I don't have sympathy for your position.
For me, the best change they could make to the game which I genuinely think would end the need for shard chats (and make the PVP forum actually useful for once) would be to remove the need to be in 1st place at your payout time.
My suggestion would be to count any moment you were in first place for the 12 hours preceding your payout.
That's a really wide berth during which most people should be able to get a good run of PVP done and see where they land. It mightn't work for everyone but for the bulk of all players, I think it'd mean they can do their PVP in their own time and as frequently as they so choose to.
There would be a number of consequences
- CG would end up payout out many, many more crystal rewards... I daresay anyone from our top 50 might fancy their chances at a run on first place. That could mean we're going from 7 payouts a day on our shard to maybe 50. That's a lot more crystals being given away!
- In spite of the above I do believe they'd see more expenditure on refreshes. The first time I made it into 1st place, it was nowhere near my payout time, and as you can well imagine, it didn't hold. For a while I was happy with top 20 because I figured, I'd never have the power or time to maintain 1st place when it counted. But if I were frequently in the top 20 now, but never finishing 1st, I'd be well up for it, and I'd make sure one way or another I'd get myself to 1st in the 12-hour run up to payout
- Generally I think this would increase PVP competition, reduce player stress, and make the game more fun
I daresay there are consequences I've yet to think of too. I suspect it's all a pipe dream anyway though :(
