IMPORTANT:
- I encourage constructive criticism from the community to help me refine these ideas.
- All numbers presented in this thread are arbitrary, and serve only to present a concept.
- Spread the word about this thread, I would love to see this become a central hub for ideas and improvements of the Sengolia Battleground. (also with a high enough view/reply count a GM just might be inclined to have a peak, or even reply ~gasp~.
Sengolia is unbalanced, and as a result it is largely unenjoyable. A recent development is the Rogue who can tear down a crystal before the battle has even started through use of stealth and over the top DPS. This is by and far unacceptable in a PvP event. Added to this are the older, but still very debilitating problems, such as each team almost always having no balance in power between them due to a weak sorting system. If the unbalance is severe enough the weaker team can easily fall victim to spawn camping. Lower level players are vaporized by the majority of Scions and Eidolons. Crystal respawn is used to push a win that wasn't deserved. Alts are brought in to sit around and farm honor and badges. This adds to the power unbalance.
Sengolia is not a battleground, it's a 3 minute excuse to get some exp, honour, and some badges.
There are many ways to improve Sengolia so that it is balanced, fair and most important of all, fun.
These are my thoughts:
a. Flat Rate Damage
It's my belief that the Towers/Crystal should take damage at a flat rate, like snowmen bosses. If the Towers/Crystal took "x" amount of hits to destroy, the effectiveness of a massively cashed player will be significantly decreased, and the effectiveness of a lower level player will be significantly increased. This would add to the balance of Sengolia in a noticeable way.
I'm going to do some hypothetical math to approximate what needs to be done with this system in order to make a high lvl game last 30 minutes.
variables:
- each tower should last 5 minutes assuming 5 people with 150% attack speed are always on it (5/30 isn't an unreasonable number to expect imo)
- the crystal should last 10 minutes assuming 5 people with 150% attack are always on it.
- defenders should mitigate 50% of incoming attacks (really I'd say it's 25% - 75%, but I'll just say 50% for the sake of brevity)
therefore:
((5 people)(5 minutes)(60 seconds)) / 1.5 attacks per second = 1000 hits to destroy a tower / 50% defence mitigation = 500 hits to destroy a tower
((5 people)(10 minutes)(60 seconds)) / 1.5 attacks per second = 2000 hits to destroy the crystal/ 50% defence mitigation = 1000 hits to destroy a tower
These numbers will fluctuate based on other variable such as varying attack speeds, Rogues, and amount of effective defenders but the majority of it should stay relatively constant assuming I've introduced the proper base variables.
b. Crystal Shielding and Towers
In order to lengthen the time spent in Sengolia, as well as increase the amount of effort needed to win, I'd say that the crystal should be immune to all forms of damage until it's respective towers are destroyed.
This would have a great effect on the longevity of Sengolia, as well as adding a whole new dynamic onto how Sengolia is played.
Being able to focus your forces on keeping towers alive for protection instead of turtling the crystal will broaden out the battlefield. The majority of conflicts are focused on the crystal and front line, with this system there will be new conflict hot spots at the tower locations.
c. Balanced Team Assignment (Toggle)
An easily implemented fix to the current system would be a toggle system.
Each successive person to join would be placed on each team in an alternating pattern. Spirit, Demon, Spirit, Demon etc. Balance is key.
d. Disabling Crystal Revive
Highly developed crystal spending players have the ability to push a win by using crystal revives at the crystal.
Even when severely outnumbered these undying characters force a win throughout sheer force of disposable income.
Events should be immune to situations such as this one.
That is why I propose that crystal reviving be disabled during Sengolia.
On a side note, this would solve the issue with reviving when you would really rather not have spent the crystal on it. (there should really be a confirmation screen for revival, but that's another topic)
e. Respawn Invincibility Buff
Spawn camping takes all the competition out of a PvP event.
The healing period during respawn lasts 10 seconds, and during this time players are still able to take damage. Because of this spawn camping is possible.
I propose a 12 second invincibility buff to accompany the healing buffs. The 2 second extension is to allow players to deal people that will still try to pick players off when the buffs end. (Any longer and this buff will start to aid defenders in my opinion)
f. Kill Assists
Having kills stolen is a frustrating experience.
My suggestion is to allow points to be awarded to players in an assisted kill. This would ease the frustration greatly.
More detail included in "h. Improved Competition / Alts And AFK"
g. Improved Competition / Alts And AFK
Competition in Seng has all but ceased. The best fix I can think of to this would be to reward the active and not the inactive. A great side effect of this system is that it takes away the incentive to use alts by taking away mandatory rewards.
I propose a point based reward system that would be organized similarly to this:
assisted kill = 2 points
kill............ = 5 points
tower........ = 10 points
(points cap at 200)
Every 40 points gained will yield rewards:
40, 80, 120, 160, 200 points = 5 bronze, 1 silver, 30 honour
(total 5 silver, 25 bronze, 150 honour)
The winning team will have their individual rewards doubled, the losing team gains normal rewards. This will encourage competition.
I also believe honour rewarded by killing people should have a cap of 200.
h. Team Chat
For Sengolia to become truly competitive I believe that a proper means of private, team based communication is necessary.
I suggest that each team have a dedicated chat enabled for the duration of Sengolia.
The ability to organize strategies would change the dynamic of Sengolia, adding an entirely new layer of complexity and potential enjoyment to the event.
Note:
- You can pick more than one suggestion on the poll
- I encourage constructive criticism from the community to help me refine these ideas.
- All numbers presented in this thread are arbitrary, and serve only to present a concept.
- Spread the word about this thread, I would love to see this become a central hub for ideas and improvements of the Sengolia Battleground. (also with a high enough view/reply count a GM just might be inclined to have a peak, or even reply ~gasp~.
Sengolia is unbalanced, and as a result it is largely unenjoyable. A recent development is the Rogue who can tear down a crystal before the battle has even started through use of stealth and over the top DPS. This is by and far unacceptable in a PvP event. Added to this are the older, but still very debilitating problems, such as each team almost always having no balance in power between them due to a weak sorting system. If the unbalance is severe enough the weaker team can easily fall victim to spawn camping. Lower level players are vaporized by the majority of Scions and Eidolons. Crystal respawn is used to push a win that wasn't deserved. Alts are brought in to sit around and farm honor and badges. This adds to the power unbalance.
Sengolia is not a battleground, it's a 3 minute excuse to get some exp, honour, and some badges.
There are many ways to improve Sengolia so that it is balanced, fair and most important of all, fun.
These are my thoughts:
a. Flat Rate Damage
It's my belief that the Towers/Crystal should take damage at a flat rate, like snowmen bosses. If the Towers/Crystal took "x" amount of hits to destroy, the effectiveness of a massively cashed player will be significantly decreased, and the effectiveness of a lower level player will be significantly increased. This would add to the balance of Sengolia in a noticeable way.
I'm going to do some hypothetical math to approximate what needs to be done with this system in order to make a high lvl game last 30 minutes.
variables:
- each tower should last 5 minutes assuming 5 people with 150% attack speed are always on it (5/30 isn't an unreasonable number to expect imo)
- the crystal should last 10 minutes assuming 5 people with 150% attack are always on it.
- defenders should mitigate 50% of incoming attacks (really I'd say it's 25% - 75%, but I'll just say 50% for the sake of brevity)
therefore:
((5 people)(5 minutes)(60 seconds)) / 1.5 attacks per second = 1000 hits to destroy a tower / 50% defence mitigation = 500 hits to destroy a tower
((5 people)(10 minutes)(60 seconds)) / 1.5 attacks per second = 2000 hits to destroy the crystal/ 50% defence mitigation = 1000 hits to destroy a tower
These numbers will fluctuate based on other variable such as varying attack speeds, Rogues, and amount of effective defenders but the majority of it should stay relatively constant assuming I've introduced the proper base variables.
b. Crystal Shielding and Towers
In order to lengthen the time spent in Sengolia, as well as increase the amount of effort needed to win, I'd say that the crystal should be immune to all forms of damage until it's respective towers are destroyed.
This would have a great effect on the longevity of Sengolia, as well as adding a whole new dynamic onto how Sengolia is played.
Being able to focus your forces on keeping towers alive for protection instead of turtling the crystal will broaden out the battlefield. The majority of conflicts are focused on the crystal and front line, with this system there will be new conflict hot spots at the tower locations.
c. Balanced Team Assignment (Toggle)
An easily implemented fix to the current system would be a toggle system.
Each successive person to join would be placed on each team in an alternating pattern. Spirit, Demon, Spirit, Demon etc. Balance is key.
d. Disabling Crystal Revive
Highly developed crystal spending players have the ability to push a win by using crystal revives at the crystal.
Even when severely outnumbered these undying characters force a win throughout sheer force of disposable income.
Events should be immune to situations such as this one.
That is why I propose that crystal reviving be disabled during Sengolia.
On a side note, this would solve the issue with reviving when you would really rather not have spent the crystal on it. (there should really be a confirmation screen for revival, but that's another topic)
e. Respawn Invincibility Buff
Spawn camping takes all the competition out of a PvP event.
The healing period during respawn lasts 10 seconds, and during this time players are still able to take damage. Because of this spawn camping is possible.
I propose a 12 second invincibility buff to accompany the healing buffs. The 2 second extension is to allow players to deal people that will still try to pick players off when the buffs end. (Any longer and this buff will start to aid defenders in my opinion)
f. Kill Assists
Having kills stolen is a frustrating experience.
My suggestion is to allow points to be awarded to players in an assisted kill. This would ease the frustration greatly.
More detail included in "h. Improved Competition / Alts And AFK"
g. Improved Competition / Alts And AFK
Competition in Seng has all but ceased. The best fix I can think of to this would be to reward the active and not the inactive. A great side effect of this system is that it takes away the incentive to use alts by taking away mandatory rewards.
I propose a point based reward system that would be organized similarly to this:
assisted kill = 2 points
kill............ = 5 points
tower........ = 10 points
(points cap at 200)
Every 40 points gained will yield rewards:
40, 80, 120, 160, 200 points = 5 bronze, 1 silver, 30 honour
(total 5 silver, 25 bronze, 150 honour)
The winning team will have their individual rewards doubled, the losing team gains normal rewards. This will encourage competition.
I also believe honour rewarded by killing people should have a cap of 200.
h. Team Chat
For Sengolia to become truly competitive I believe that a proper means of private, team based communication is necessary.
I suggest that each team have a dedicated chat enabled for the duration of Sengolia.
The ability to organize strategies would change the dynamic of Sengolia, adding an entirely new layer of complexity and potential enjoyment to the event.
Note:
- You can pick more than one suggestion on the poll
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