I'm not really sure I follow this.
The ladder ranges could be expanded - but would that increase participation if the new ranges include major gear watersheds where folk at the lower end of the ladder could be at a significant disadvantage?
The ladder is poorly populated - but that is a result of people choosing to opt in or not. As Bill said earlier - INCENTIVES to play might work better than expanding ranges and saying "have at you!"
Saying lets have open PvP and if you want you can buy the existing protection, and lets increase the PvP ranges - this is a bad idea as it opens up folk to be easily farmed for rating (and gold and whatever else) by people at the upper end of the new bigger ranges. I do not see how that would encourage participation in PvP from those who have previously avoided it.
The OP has great faith in the BB. It is not shared by many others who view it as a failed deterrent. Many many threads have covered that tired piece of ground.
I repeat my observation that the BB was going great guns when people were allowed to de-level. People who had never cleared bounties were trying it, there were pages of bounties. Gold and FSP were flowing on BB activity. I know there were problems, I know people were bountying because 10 stams were not enough, and foolish verbal exchanges were had, but the players had evolved an aspect of the game, and it was finding life. It got complained about and killed. I think that was a mistake as I saw no real community wide harm being created by that activity, it did not adversely effect me, or my guild or my guild mates as far as I could tell or was told. I stand to be corrected if my perspective was wrong - do it in PM to me as it would derail this thread if we got into rehashing that argument - and yes, I know I just started it again - sorry! Chazz - that happened possibly during the time you were not here.
All institutions created by HCS get taken by players and their intended purpose altered - the BB, the AH, the ladder bands, to name but 3. Composing, the buff marketplace now, doubtless. Players find a way to extract maximum benefit from a game mechanic, it is the way of things. When something is highly unbalanced, and the developers agree that it is unbalanced, it gets changed. Like the BB during the delevelling craze/competition. A change was made to a mechanic and that activity was made mostly irrelevant by the change to GXP gain. No need to use the BB mechanic anymore, it got dropped, and BB activity rapidly fell off the charts again.
My point is - how often do we want to mess with in game equilibriums - which are created by patterns of player play and participation? It is when they get messed with that people get upset and stop playing.
PvP/Ladder Suggestions.
Widening the bands seems a decent idea at the upper end where we know the top gear options are pretty static for hundreds of levels. From 1000 they could go to 200 levels/band possibly.
Stopping bountying on the ladders is in the works and will prevent people using the BB to win their ladder battles for them. If you want to fight on the ladder, don't join, hit someone, get hit back and then bounty every hit when you opted to join a PvP conflict. However it must be remembered that the people that do that now are just using an allowable game mechanic, it may be against the spirit of the ladder, but currently it is fair per the rules. Let us see how behaviour changes once that ability is gone.
Ladder rewards need to be revamped.
1) New sets only last so long as the latest greatest item. Ladder regulars have hundreds of PvP tokens saved up, so any new items could easily be manufactured and the markets swamped if only one or two useful new sets happened along. I'm not saying no to new sets, but a commitment to regular sets would be needed. This might also be an area to experiment with arm/def sets and other less universally desirable sets as they could in time find new uses and so not be immediately outdated. Set design, as we recently learned, is harder than it looks, and folk are quick to complain, slow to thank.
2) PvP potions from tokens as a reward may be a good idea as it rewards participants with stuff they can use in future ladder or non-ladder PvP /GvG activity. But with the Chests getting new potions, and composing etc., we are rapidly approaching potion overload - there just aren't that many open slots in which to put potions without adversely effecting the traditional inventable potion market or the buff market. I do think that PvP potions from the ladder tokens would be a good idea though.
3) Gaining PvP prestige from tokens may be an idea - cash in tokens for % of XP gain - as an incentive to get non-pvp players in who might like the idea of earning XP % bonuses for future events. The idea would be to use the ladder to get people to try PvP who otherwise would not do it - if the chance to gain extra XP was there, I think you'd see players at least trying it, and if not - well it will allow PvP players to regain their lost levels faster still. EDIT - Make it faster to get to 10% XP gain for an hour via ladder tokens than it is by doing baby hits for prestige - it might work, and is an extension of an existing mechanic so may not be too hard to implement - X number of tokens = 1% XP gain. Static or sliding scale up to 10%, maybe further (to make it more desirable say 15% max), or tokens to be used to increase the DURATION of the XP bonus - that hour does fly by after all!! I could see folk wanting to be able to extend prestige duration via token bonus big time. That might draw fresh blood onto the ladder.
4) Crystal items from PvP tokens would be good. Both for frag purposes, and as top sets that would be desirable to wider populations, but with low durability - say 30, so they get cycled through fast and keep up demand. The downside here is I think many people have grown used to avoiding using crystal gear as a general rule.
I do not think increasing PvP will increase community activity. It is not a magic bullet for the game. I think the community needs to get bigger. Bigger community means more activity in all aspects of the game. I have no idea how that could be accomplished. There is less overall activity simply because less people are regularly playing. I recall the introduction of globals reversed the drop in online numbers for a while, so getting people back, or keeping the newbies that happen along can be done, but it is hard. HCS has tried, is trying, and has explained ,many times why they market the game as they do. Increasing PvP ranges and open PvP may be a bit of a kill or cure approach to the community and the game as a whole, it might work to stimulate the game, but do we take the chance that it could conversely kill the patient?
HCS have more skin in this game than any PvP player or leveller. This game pays their bills. They make alterations based on calculations as to how it will effect their bottom line, their cashflow. We are talking about jobs and mortgages folks. I think they may have made missteps in the past, and have seen the effect on their bottom line, as a result changes now are carefully considered. Changes to PvP are probably the most toxic in the game as they have caused the greatest distress in the past to both PvP afficionados, and those who do not care for it in the slightest. It is that legacy that colours decision making now with regards to PvP, I humbly imagine. If their phone games and Eldevin take off to the extent that FS can become a luxury game they can spoil without regard to its profitability... in what universe would any business do that? FS will get attention as long as it makes money and pays the staff that work on it - we should be grateful it is obviously still doing that otherwise we would be Sigma'd. IMO.
With that in mind, let's see how the no bountying on the ladder change goes.
Oh - final plug. Watagashi had a great idea to increase PvP ladder participation - a medal for time spent on the ladder. The dominance medal is for time at #1, but I think a medal for participating would increase participation, and once people have tried it and found it is not so bad, positive ripples could flow. I think a ladder participation medal is a simple, free idea that could really help that part of the game. I'd like a medal for my time spent on the ladder, and once folk have medals, ob/comp kicks in, and you need the next tier. If we get a medal for breaking items down, we should get a medal for participating in a more active and interactive player environment. make the durations involved longer than the dominance medal, but do it - it would be a great idea.
Sorry this is so long. Really.
Edited by Belaric, 11 February 2014 - 06:00.
many will people will take more interest in the bb.
. I do.
