Captain Jack
Elite
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2010
- Posts
- 3,733
- Society
- Endgame
Today's land grab at Tukuta Plateau was the most active land grab I have ever seen. Dozens of combatants from both sides showed up in full force, even going so far as to kill a Sandking simply to pre-buff the HP of the entire team. I would call it an event of historic proportions.
Clearly PvP is something that is alive and well, and that many players are passionate about. That being said, there are a number of issues which need to be addressed. While we may disagree on how they should be addressed, I believe members of all sides of recent land grabs will agree that these are primary issues which need attention. I will list my top three as follows:
#1: Claim Timer ambiguity.
I think this drives everyone nuts.
Problem 1: When the defending society loses control of the claim, the timer ticks backward from 30 seconds to 0. At 0 it flashes for several seconds (at least 5 it seems) before allowing someone from the opposing society to claim it.
- Recommended action: Make the timer completely unambiguous. As soon as it hits 0, it can be claimed by an opposing society.
Problem 2: When the defending society has nobody on the claim, the timer starts to run down. When a member of the defending society then enters the claim area, the timer continues to count down for an unspecified period of time (3-10 seconds, it almost seems to vary) before control is regained.
Recommended action: Make this completely unambiguous. Either have a specific "control period" countdown (3 or 5 seconds) and have that control period countdown have a timer of it's own, or make it reset immediately as soon as a defending member sets foot in the claim area. There should be no ambiguity here.
#2: Identify friend or foe.
This is another big problem on all sides. When more than 10 people are in combat, the server lag is bad enough but it becomes nearly impossible to determine who is who without visually recognizing the armor of individual players. This should be corrected and it should be easier to identify friend from foe.
- Recommended action #1: All participants in land grab have their names permanently fixed over their heads for the duration of the land grab. This way you don't have to hover your mouse over a person to identify them, you can simply read their name and shoot. This will result in faster action and less downtime.
- Recommended action #2: As previously suggested in other threads, allow teams to be significantly larger (50 people seems reasonable based on recent turnouts) and make all team members appear as green dots (NOT yellow, unless you change the color of pets on the radar).
#3: Trigger assisting software.
This is a topic which has caused accusations to fly in all directions at virtually any PvP event, and there is significant evidence that it is once again a problem. I believe this is an issue which all sides of recent land grabs agree is a problem which needs to be addressed (a very select few specific offenders notwithstanding). Trigger assisting software is a software which initiates a trigger press when certain parameters are met. Historically it has been able to be done by health bars being lit, by targeting colors on armors, or more recently by the transition of color on the reticle when the cursor hovers over a target (including another player).
Why is it done? The most obvious reason is the cost. By using trigger assisting software there are no wasted shots, meaning you can use a high tier gun and never waste any PED by doing it. The second obvious reason is to improve the efficacy of combat, giving one player a distinct edge over another which would not otherwise be humanly possible.
- Recommended action #1: Remove the cost of missed shots in PvP. This would allow players to use guns more freely without having to worry about waste on missed shots. This is already the case with all melee weapons, and thus I believe would be reasonable to implement with ranged as well. While this does not eliminate the inhuman edge vs other players, it does level the playing field financially.
- Recommended action #2: Take reports of trigger assisting software abuse seriously. Conduct investigations to include careful observation of those avatars in future PvP events. No human should be able to achieve a 100% hit rate, and therefor this should be relatively easy to spot.
- Recommended action #3: (Last resort) Bring back the the "interact" function which previously allowed players to fire only when a valid target was under the reticle. This is not ideal, as it takes away a great deal of the sport of PvP, but it would level the playing field making everyone have access to the same "feature".
Clearly PvP is something that is alive and well, and that many players are passionate about. That being said, there are a number of issues which need to be addressed. While we may disagree on how they should be addressed, I believe members of all sides of recent land grabs will agree that these are primary issues which need attention. I will list my top three as follows:
#1: Claim Timer ambiguity.
I think this drives everyone nuts.
Problem 1: When the defending society loses control of the claim, the timer ticks backward from 30 seconds to 0. At 0 it flashes for several seconds (at least 5 it seems) before allowing someone from the opposing society to claim it.
- Recommended action: Make the timer completely unambiguous. As soon as it hits 0, it can be claimed by an opposing society.
Problem 2: When the defending society has nobody on the claim, the timer starts to run down. When a member of the defending society then enters the claim area, the timer continues to count down for an unspecified period of time (3-10 seconds, it almost seems to vary) before control is regained.
Recommended action: Make this completely unambiguous. Either have a specific "control period" countdown (3 or 5 seconds) and have that control period countdown have a timer of it's own, or make it reset immediately as soon as a defending member sets foot in the claim area. There should be no ambiguity here.
#2: Identify friend or foe.
This is another big problem on all sides. When more than 10 people are in combat, the server lag is bad enough but it becomes nearly impossible to determine who is who without visually recognizing the armor of individual players. This should be corrected and it should be easier to identify friend from foe.
- Recommended action #1: All participants in land grab have their names permanently fixed over their heads for the duration of the land grab. This way you don't have to hover your mouse over a person to identify them, you can simply read their name and shoot. This will result in faster action and less downtime.
- Recommended action #2: As previously suggested in other threads, allow teams to be significantly larger (50 people seems reasonable based on recent turnouts) and make all team members appear as green dots (NOT yellow, unless you change the color of pets on the radar).
#3: Trigger assisting software.
This is a topic which has caused accusations to fly in all directions at virtually any PvP event, and there is significant evidence that it is once again a problem. I believe this is an issue which all sides of recent land grabs agree is a problem which needs to be addressed (a very select few specific offenders notwithstanding). Trigger assisting software is a software which initiates a trigger press when certain parameters are met. Historically it has been able to be done by health bars being lit, by targeting colors on armors, or more recently by the transition of color on the reticle when the cursor hovers over a target (including another player).
Why is it done? The most obvious reason is the cost. By using trigger assisting software there are no wasted shots, meaning you can use a high tier gun and never waste any PED by doing it. The second obvious reason is to improve the efficacy of combat, giving one player a distinct edge over another which would not otherwise be humanly possible.
- Recommended action #1: Remove the cost of missed shots in PvP. This would allow players to use guns more freely without having to worry about waste on missed shots. This is already the case with all melee weapons, and thus I believe would be reasonable to implement with ranged as well. While this does not eliminate the inhuman edge vs other players, it does level the playing field financially.
- Recommended action #2: Take reports of trigger assisting software abuse seriously. Conduct investigations to include careful observation of those avatars in future PvP events. No human should be able to achieve a 100% hit rate, and therefor this should be relatively easy to spot.
- Recommended action #3: (Last resort) Bring back the the "interact" function which previously allowed players to fire only when a valid target was under the reticle. This is not ideal, as it takes away a great deal of the sport of PvP, but it would level the playing field making everyone have access to the same "feature".
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