This is a good time to complete this section, as we are due for the release of R9. This is an extension of Part IV of the 5 part series about my thoughts and opinions on Tree of Savior, with 2 sub-sections left untouched. With the previous post being locked, I can only create a new thread for it.
- PVP/TBL/GVG thoughts and suggestions
- Guild thoughts and suggestions
Link to the previous thread is available below:
Supplement 1 will touch on the PVP/TBL aspects of ToS. Heads up first, I have little experience in ToS’s TBL, with combined matches across all my characters for TBL at probably less than 50 matches. Hence the approach for this post is mainly from a casual’s viewpoint. (I do have some experience in other player vs player type games though, like WoW pvp, but most are mainly fighting games like SF, KOF, MvC etc, give or take around 10k hours combined. )
Disclaimer
These are just my personal observations and opinions, do feel free to disagree, suggest and discuss XD.
[Balance in interplayer content - PVP/TBL]
Most of us know what PVP is, content in which pits a player or a team of players against another or team, in a setting where one side will win. In a game where the outcome determines a winning side and losing side, participants will want the settings of the game to be balanced and fair. But what exactly is balance for PVP? In my opinion it is split into the following 2 categories:
- Balance between character avatars and in game environments
In this category we include things which are within the game which are classes, builds, character gears. Format of PVP is also included here as some pvp format favor certain builds while other formats favor another group of builds and classes. Items which are within this category as usually easier to plan for and control since everything is within the design scope of the game’s designers and developers.
- Balance in external conditions for fair play
This next category contains external factors which too, affect the PVP balance. Network latency, geographical distances between players and game server, technical specs of computer used for the game and peripherals (mouse/keyboard/gamepad) to action delay are factors which will affect fair play in PVP content. Usually these aspects are often out of the control for game developers as players hail from various locations and use different machines to connect to the game.
For a game to be ideally balanced for PVP content, developers often try their utmost to balance items within the 1st category, as it is one which they can directly control and influence. In traditional PVP, as long as the classes and builds are balanced, players will get a sense of fair game. Sometimes when external factors such as latency problems (lag, intentional or not), they are just written off as something in which can’t really be changed. Most games deal with this by punishing the player who got disconnected or lagged out of the game, like Street Fighter V where they reward the winner with rank points should another player lag/disconnect.
Team Battle League (TBL) one of the 3 formats of PVP in ToS, the other 2 are 1v1 duels and the upcoming Guild Territory Wars. Players deem the PVP side of ToS as a joke, due to the following problems:
- Imbalances between classes, gap between the top tier classes and the other tiers are too wide
- No standardisation for gearing between character avatars, everything is based off how geared an avatar is
- Little to no counter measures for external factors such as latency issues (which causes desyncs), disconnects on losing matches.
There are other minor issues too such as fixed pvp timing and poor character “match up” by server but the main 3 are as above. IMC is currently doing rebalances in both PVE and PVP for the classes, but given the number of classes and build combinations for ToS, this will take quite a fair bit of time before we can get to see a balanced PVP where classes/builds/gears are so close with each other that skill in using the avatar takes up a significant portion of determining the game.
We need some other kind of PVP which players can still engage in while the classes are still in midst of being balanced, in a manner which is much fairer.
Suggestion: Revisiting and changing the nature of PVP
If we split a PVP event (or any sort of event) into its individual sections, it will look like the following. I’ll take TBL as an example.
- Premise: 3 player vs 3 player. Enclosed Arena
- Objective: Reduce the hp of opposing team to 0 in three rounds.
- Outcome: Award the team with 3 round win the overall game win.
TBL pits players against each other, and have them reducing each other’s HP to 0 in order to secure the win. Like traditional PVP styles, this emphasises a lot on the individuals character builds and gear, and is also affected by external factors such as character desyncs and client to server latencies.
What if, we introduce a different type of PVP which can lessen the impact of character builds and also lower the problem of frustration due to external factors?
Does the objective of the event really need to be “reduce opposing team’s hp to 0” to qualify as PVP?
If we look at the history of player vs player games, most of them often require direct interaction between players. Take the example of the game Pong, where players control a bar where they bounce back a ball and win when they get the ball past opponent’s bar/line of defence. It is a balanced game yep, but it becomes frustrating and hard to play when there are desyncs around.
What about another type of player vs player, Tetris, which is almost as old as Pong? In PVP styled Tetris, players attempt to clear rows on their side. The more rows they clear, the more random rows they inflict on their opponent’s side. This is a type of PVP which still has elements of PVE in it. As we change the objective in the pvp event, the pros and cons changes.
How do we map this PVE styled PVP into ToS?
Imagine a 3v3, teams each on 1 half of the screen playing a mini version of Uphill event. Each team will have to protect its own orb and the first team gather 100 points will win. Monsters will continually spawn and certain monsters will drop items (which convert to points). Whenever a monster hits the orb the number of points gathered will drop. The game will end when either
- 1 side reaches 100 points and wins, or
- Time limit of 3 mins reached and the side with the most points wins.
The catch here is, there are available tactics and skills in which teams can employ to hinder their opponents from reaching 100 points first. To use such skills, they will have to spend some of their points, to trade own’s progression to hinder others.
Available skills as follows (a rough draft, which each skill using 5-15 points), each with a cooldown to make them balanced:
- 10 hp totems (3-4x) which reduce opponents’ damage
- 5 hp totems (3-4x) which prevents opponents from using skills (silence)
- 10 hp totems (3-4x) which slows opponents’ movement
- AOE wipe which clears all skill/magic circles (besides totems inflicted) on opposing team’s side of the screen and stops magic circles for 5 secs. (counterspell)
- Create a mini boss monster on opponent’s side which has KB skills
- Barrier which protects own side from totems and aoes for 10 secs.
What this style of PVP does is it lessens the problem of desyncs affecting the outcome of the game. Positioning of other players doesn’t make as big of an impact compared to traditional pvp matches as what the event essentially does is, to use PVE styled combat as an intermediary to compete.
With monsters spawned lowered to a level where mid gear characters can still fight against easily, it also lowers the impact of overgeared characters having too much of an advantage. Totems such as aoe clears and silence helps to fight against characters who have advantages in AOE monster clearing.
This also creates a bigger emphasis on teamwork and communication as compared to traditional PVP where an overgeared, tier 1 pvp build end up carrying the whole team.
