Toreth

Trying to get some Coding time to make implementation easier now and for the future.

~ Grim

For over a year and some change nearly the whole community has awaited for the changes coming for "GVG".  With the release of a 'minor update' such as  level ranges and the hour wait for "preparing", I gotta admit, its a massive let down. The upcoming buff packages seems cool and all but isn't  really worth it for the amount of conflicts needed to be done, work doesn't equal the reward. Founders who do GVGs know that asking or paying your members for the work isn't worth it nor the time it takes for their commitment.  In the past only a few guilds have maintained the rank of being number one. I say everyone should get a chance for glory and add an incentive to it. Some have asked for a new epic, a medal or even an achievement. I can compel with a minor award such as a new rp item for maybe an exclusive epic. The items of RP have gone down massively even after the "double item epic upgrade" in which players barely use, just the collectors, they have now become worthless.

Take your time, listen to the community. Be better, do better.

Why was it decided that some buffs like treasure hunter, merchant, teleport would not be increased by buff enhancer as they would be too powerful, yet now its decided that they can be increased in rp packs to as much as level 400? Level 400 Merchant and Treasure Hunter seems way too excessive. This just widens the gap of big guilds vs smaller guilds who are already disadvantaged by the rules currently in place which does not allow them to enter gvgs or take relics.

Why cant small guilds be entitled to the same level of participation as larger guilds.

As others have said - there also needs to be more to bring value to RP. As much as I dislike having a multitude of different currencies across the same aspect, maybe look at adding something extra to GvG so that way when the introduction of new gear (what's really needed) comes around, people can't just buy immediately with stored RP.

+8 GvG epics, have the new currency be heavily throttled so only very few of them can be generated. Probably something that would be rewarded based on a theoretical GvG Ladder reset system.

With nothing of substance in this update, I have to say I am utterly disappointed. It wouldn't have been that difficult to add some sort of ladder reset to GvG. Don't get it twisted by the number of posts on this thread, many people have lost even the motivation to express their dissatisfaction, I'm surprised I'm even here myself. I can say this with certainty being in two of the largest non HCS discord's where there is nothing but negativity.

Expanding Range and notifications were supposed to compliment a bigger feature update not be the entire "update".

As a long time player I can safely say there is nothing more for me to do in the game. The reason people stop logging in is because there is nothing new for them to do. Without UFSG being fixed I cannot be certain, but based off the supply I've experienced in game it was surely a light xmas, even lighter next year without any substance.

Please consider working on an "Update 2" for GvG that includes a new competitive system.

Hey,

First off, thanks for the update. It will make it easier to find targets in GvG at the higher-level-but-not-quite-EOC-level ranges. A daunting task.

At the same time, I feel like I am as likely to GvG as I was before the update as I am after it. I believed there was... more to come with the Update itself in terms of things changing. Do you have anything else planned in terms of rewards, mechanics, or additional adjustments?

Hello Fellow FSers. As we've seen, for the month of August, there's a "titan competition" for the roadmap. Here's some ideas on how I believe this competition could be handled to maximize participation and ensure a level playing field:

The competition can be one of two styles, either of which would be more ideal than the traditional Global Events:

1. All current titans killed would count, each kill equals points. For example: Kantec titan is roughly 4k kills to clear it so each kill is a point, so its a total of 4k points up for grab.

2. The competition should be titan based HP which would measure any titan kill and kills with titan doubler should count correctly.

• As a cherry on top, quest titans would count as well.

This method would encourage players to hunt from day 1 to the last day of the competition. This would also force players to clean (finish off) any remaining titans that are active. Overall, this competition would also benefit for the next upcoming roadmap update "New Epic Recipes."

Hello Fellow Sword Players, I see that many people are upset with rewards about achievements from the previous 5 to these NEW 10 .
Before suggestions changes to the old achievements my proposition to the NEW ones which are Reign of Fire, Open Season, Rock Bottom, Ain't Easy Being Green & Gone Fishing ( Current Reward 10 plus based stats)
 is this: 
A based tier reward towards the ultimate achievement. For example, everyone wants tier achievements so how about this:
100k kills= 1%, 200k kills =2%, 300k= 3% & so on. At the end the guild will have 10% % have unlocked the achievement. This way players can work on this passively and still feel the bonuses without the out of proportion cost to reward.
If the HCS staff can get an idea of this & implemented to all achievements, I would be certain more guilds would work towards attempting to getting all these achievements done. 

Hello! There are a few small relic change requests that I have that were promised to us 11 months ago. Please see below for the relic change 11 months ago that I am referencing:

Secondly, there is now an option for the Guild Leader to disband unwanted Relics. Once disbanding a Relic, the same guild cannot recapture the Relic for 24 hours. Permissions for capturing Relics will be added at a later date when the app is in a more stable state.

1. Please add a permission to abandon relics. Only the Guild Founder still has this ability.

2. If you abandon a relic, add a guild log message as to who abandoned the relic and what relic was abandoned. As of right now, there are no log messages about this happening.

3. Add a cooldown on the relic that the guild has abandoned so the guild knows when it can be captured again.

I do appreciate and welcome any feedback on this topic!

Short and simple feedback: aka the "TLDR"

The part that excites me the most is the pitch to revamp the GvG ladder into a 'War League' style competition with prizes!

GvG has been in desperate need of a revamp for a long time and I hope this gets attention and 'official' feedback from a member of staff sooner rather than later.

Overall I believe the suggestions made in the OP provide a good baseline to work from in order to remedy the issues facing the format currently.

WARNING! LENGTHY POST AHEAD!

Detailed feedback:

Details on the issues I see with GvG and the ways to mitigate them can be found below.

Issue #1

Competitive play is not adequately rewarded

The amount of RP awarded is the same regardless of how 'difficult' each conflict is.

The GvG scoring system essentially doesn't care if you if you shoot 50 dead fish in a barrel or hit 50 moving targets and that is a serious problem!

We can't address RP without a discussion on the Expected Value (EV) of RP itself.

Currently, the use cases are relatively niche.

Some of the RP packs see play today but their utility is fairly conditional.

RP Epics are essentially 'trophy' items which are costly to produce and have low EV per Opportunity Cost (note this can change with the upcoming epic rebalances)

Issue #2

One sided games are too common

Related to issue #1 Lopsided conflicts are actively encouraged by the system mechanics as the win percentage or rating of the opposition is irrelevant in calculating the rewards, meaning the 'optimal' play to get the highest EV per opportunity cost is the line up as many 'soft targets' as humanly possible and mercilessly beat them repeatedly.

One sided games are not just confined to 'RP Farming' however, using the Initiator's Advantage it's actually very easy for the Initiator to put the opposing team in an unwinnable scenario. If you're not misplaying you are guaranteed to complete your hits netting you a draw at worst. 

Now that I've covered the most prominent problems I see with GvG as of right now, let's cover how these suggestions remedy them and some ways they can be expanded!

• Updated RP Packs

Adding value to the RP buff packs without making them overpowered, looking good!

• Notification System + Prep Time for Incoming Conflicts

Something like this would help mitigate the Initiator's Advantage, potentially enabling a defensive scramble which would prevent some those one sided games. All for it!

I'd even just take an automated mass message when conflicts start, honestly.

• Offline Time for AFK Targets Reduced 7 Days -> 2 Days

Seems reasonable, again it would create fewer openings for one sided games, all for it!

• Level Ranges Expanded; +25 Levels Every 1,000 Levels Gained

I don't really know how much of an impact this would have but hey, it could end up giving more guilds more options and more options means more play lines, in theory.

• GvG “Seasons;” 3 Month Intervals with Achievement

I think this is what GvG has needed since RP was made into a dynamic commodity.

Offering practical incentives for people to play competitively is really important for sustaining success. Just look at well, any game people play competitively for reference. 

Rank 1 on the ladder being purely a 'bragging rights reward' is a huge reason the field is pretty much dead. Offering 'Prize support' such as guild upgrades (or equivalent bonuses), bonus RP or exclusive items is what this aspect of the game needs in order to have both a practical reason to play for rank 1 and have rank 1 be a status symbol.

Shout out to you if you read this whole thing!

Hopefully you got some valuable insight from it and hopefully it took you less time to read it than it took me to write!

I spent way too much time writing this....LOL

1. The first proposed change to combat this would be a notification system; the game could send an “Admin Guild Mass” PM to all members notifying them of the incoming conflict. A separate idea could potentially be to enable notifications for incoming conflicts the way they are now for when opposing guilds take relics. Anything that helps notify individuals of incoming conflicts would be better than the way it currently functions. “The Guild ‘Minions of Mirkwood’ has initiated a conflict against you! You have X hours to prepare for incoming hits!” of which the “X” hours COULD count towards the 24 hour conflict timer, or it could be its own separate timer prior to the 24 hour window.

Agreed. Been asking for that since Conix told me notifications were being added to the app.
 

2. Another issue that was a general consensus is that if there’s a target who’s offline for a few days, then they were likely one of the prime targets. The idea here would be to decrease the inactivity timer for targets. It’s currently a seven day timer, however, most have said to decrease it to 48 hours and under.

I can see this.
 

3. The last general consensus idea was to have some GvG level ranges expanded more. Similar to how the PvP ladder scales and works now based on level, the idea would be to do something more in line with that as well. While leaving the lower brackets as they are (50-300, 301-699), the idea would be to have scalar level ranges to provide more activity. 700-1000 (+/- 100), 1001-2000 (+/- 125), 2001-3000 (+/- 150), 3001-4000 (+/- 175), 4001-5000 (+/- 200), 5001-6000 (+/- 225), etc. The minor change in level scaling would provide a boost in activity in the middling ranges that are barren at the moment provided the compression at the bottom at the “race to EoC” at the top.

Again, I can see this.
 

4. The RP packs need to be updated, and there are other ideas that could inject more life than Epics currently do. Crystalline gear across all the levels available in FS, perhaps some niche potions that are distributed to each guild member at the time of purchase, etc. Having the items available as consumables that aren’t just a “one time purchase” here also helps with the demand of gaining RP as well.

Been needing to update the RP packs again for a while. As for the potion idea, I've wanted that exact feature for years.
 

5. The below are the RP Packs that have been brought up in discussion:

• Enchant Pack - 100 RP
• Move Levels to 200; Change to Contain ALL Enchant Buffs (No Cursed)

• Fortune Pack = Stays Same

 

• Mastersmith Pack - 5 RP = Mastersmith 200

• Titan Pack - 300 RP
• Titan Doubler 200
• Light Foot 600
• Avert Gaze 200
• Teleport 200

• Leveling Pack - 300 RP
• Stalker 400
• Sacrifice 350
• Overkill 350
• Animal Magnetism 400

• Defense Pack - 300 RP
• Avenger 300
• Stalwart Heart 300
• Healer 300
• Fortitude 300

• Bounty Pack - 300 RP
• Anti Deflect 400
• Spell Breaker 300
• Retaliate 300
• Undermine 300

• Buff Provider Pack - 20 RP
• Buff Master 250
• Guild Buffer 250
• Extend 250
• Buff Enhancer 300

• Fighter Pack - 200 RP
• Fist Fight 250
• Critical Strike 250
• Side Step 250
• Riposte 250
• Sharpen 250

Seems cool. Can be discussed.

In addition to the minor quality of life type changes mentioned above, another change mentioned would be the resetting of the GvG rating every three months or so akin to the PvP ladder with the reward being a simple guild achievement displaying “1st Place in a GvG Season” with the reward potentially being an additional relic slot, or base stamina gain so as to incentivize actively pursuing 1st place repeatedly to keep others from achieving the same.

The ability to provide individuals a competitive aspect to partake in while being rewarded for doing well, coupled with multiple opportunities, over time, to climb and attempt to make the most of a “fresh start” at the start of the three months will also help inject that liveliness into an otherwise humdrum aspect. We already have the resetting of rating present in the game, as mentioned, so transitioning that into the GvG area seems like a relatively easy and feasible way to go about helping bolster individuals’ pride in their ability to conduct themselves at the pinnacle of guild activities.

I have no problem bringing this to the guys to discuss the possibility of these reasonably straightforward changes.

~ Grim

Here are the patch notes for the highly anticipated Game Update 3.8.2, which includes the Daily Quest Reroll as well as new player skills!


 

• Composing costs have been added to the Composing Multi Brew panel
• Daily Quest Re-roll has been added to the Questbook
• Log in freeze fixed
• New skills have been added to Player Skill Tree
• New skill cast levels have been added to Settings
• PvP Stamina hit value now set to Player Preference
• Filters added to Available Quests panel in app
   

Excuse me, i was wondering if you answered the "3 D's" question, I'm curious myself what your answer will be

This is the real question that needs to be answered.

referring to this btw 

While I think the idea behind VR is great and all, might I suggest conferring with "The Three D's" before spending too much more time on this project?