Unlock the Game!! (the solution to your issues)

1. I'm posting this here because I could use some help nailing down the specifics of Section II. A. And, I’ll update this post with helpful feedback.
2. The “spoilers” buttons list out more details about the bulleted points. If you read quickly or are curious about a particular point, expand the "spoiler" sections to read more.

SUMMARY:

The Crew Skill Tree worked well for the launch of the game. However, as the game has evolved, it is no longer functioning as well as intended. In fact, it has become the root cause of many of the game’s issues.

Spoiler: Summary continued

The current Skill Tree provides item and ship stat bonuses at different levels. So, different items and different ships get random increases in power at drastically different points in the game, i.e., early-game vs. late game. Two players, at the same captain level with the same items, may have very different stats depending on their training choices and number of games played.

Thus, a multitude of variables are created, and these constantly changing variables - depending on items and ships selected - make it nearly impossible to assign accurate strength or power numbers to. The result of trying to capture too many variables is poor matchmaking.

However, if the Skill Tree was to be fully redesigned in favor of a lock-step upgrade system – where items would scale in power equally from the early-game to the late-game - this would pave the way for better item balancing, better matchmaking, and more variety.

I. CURRENT ISSUES

A. What are the top issues in the game?

• Event Matchmaking and Seal Clubbing
• Gear and Power Score Issues
• Lack of Item Balancing
• Hitting the Ceiling

Spoiler: Top Issues Explained

Event Matchmaking and Seal Clubbing
The difficulty of matching players (without using infamy) is in finding another rating system that balances the relative strengths of players. In the current system, gear score and power score are used to form a player strength index. However, this same rating system can fail to prevent seal clubbers yet punish legitimate players that trigger an anti-exploitation measure.

Gear and Power Score Issues
Gear Score has been modified a few times, but the issues remain. The issue is there is no easy solution. With different crew selections and bonuses, the same item may vary drastically in power. Those differences are not easy to measure – with differences in cooldowns, damage, range, projectile speed, and so on. Likewise, different items ‘develop’ into powerful at different levels, so there’s a difficulty in properly measuring their strength across the full spectrum of rarities and levels.

Power Score is supposed to even out the gaps between Gear Score and crew training. However, there is still an issue of too many variables. If you use captain level, how to do adjust strength if none of the crew options are selected for the event ship they’re using? How do you numerically measure the strength of having +1 range for weapons, or a cooldown reduction, or increased ship agility? I give the developers credit for doing fairly well considering how complicated the system is they have to work with, but these Power Score adjustments are overestimating the strength of some players while also underestimating the strengths of others – which leads to more unbalanced matches.

Lack of Balancing
Under the current system, item balances are far and few between. Why? Because of how the system is set up. Crew selections drastically change an item’s power and usefulness at different levels. For instance, if a 10% reduction in Tshield HP were made to reduce its dominance at the high end, that adjustment would make lower levels and lower rarities severely underpowered.

Hitting the Ceiling
Once a player has completed all their training, hit captain level 50, and maxed out the 9-10 epics they use on a regular basis, the only thing left to do is push infamy as high as your skill (or the skill of your fleet) will take you. After a few seasons, you’ll find your ceiling and it will not change much after another 10 seasons of pushing higher. This is the end game.

Of course, the most committed and loyal players will seek to grind out enough item pieces to level their legendary items to T3 or T4, but, even with events, the amount of time required for this goal is measured in years, not months (without purchasing a large quantity of epic containers).

Eventually, this is where players will get bored and quit. What do they need? They need more variety or new content. The new event perks have done a good job of keeping players entertained, but, once the 9-10 items they use are full of legendary perks, they’ll have nothing left to do.

B. What is a contributing factor to these issues? Or, what makes these issues so difficult to address?
The Crew Skill Tree … in its current format.

C. What other issues does the current format of the Skill Tree create?
In its current format, the Crew Skill Tree is also a contributing factor in a few more issues:

• Exacerbates issues or makes them more difficult to solve
  
• Limits Variety, Limits the Game
• Encourages the wrong things
• Speeds progression
• Spending pearls to switch training isn’t practical
• Limits YouTubers and Streamers
• Increases difficulty of gauging true item use rates and popularity
• Encourages use of duplicate items
• Designed as a one-off skill tree, rather than allowing room for expansion

Spoiler: More issues - explained

First off - Why is the Skill Tree so important?
The skill tree determines how players approach and play the game.

Currently, the skill tree encourages players to select one ship, one set of items, and scrap everything else. This approach not only limits the variety of playing the game but also speeds a player’s progress towards their ceiling – or end game. The sooner a player hits their ceiling, the sooner they grow bored, and the sooner they quit – without experiencing 80% of the game’s content because switching to other ships/items is too costly or burdensome.

Obviously, a player may use a ship or item without selecting the proper crew training, but in doing so lowers their power and the quality of the matches. On the infamy ladder, the MM system expects players to play at their typical potential in order to balance matches properly. When a player uses a ship or items below that level, the match balance is thrown off. When a player uses items or a ship that is less than half of their typical level, the match balance is thrown way off. In Events, PS is supposed to adjust for these differences, but we know how well that's working.

The Issues:
Limits Variety, Limits the Game; Encourages the wrong things; Speeds progression
See above.

Exacerbates issues or makes them more difficult to solve;
Because of how the Skill Tree is set up, each tier of training varies greatly. Some items become useful at later stages, some are more powerful early-game. While this design may be more interesting than a straight-forward layout, it also makes properly balancing nearly impossible. Items should scale together in power from beginning to end.

Spending pearls to switch training isn’t practical
A player can switch crew training for the benefit of a different set of items or ship, but the time required could easily surpass 24 hours or cost hundreds of pearls to do so instantly. Obviously, this is doable. It is not even that unreasonable if you only play events and have days to switch crew selections. However, if you wish to switch between 3-4 ships and 5-6 different sets of items – with the proper crew selections – you will have to spend thousands of pearls to do so. A night of variety could easily cost you $50 or more.

Limits YouTubers and Streamers
The number of streamers and viewers has dramatically increased the past few years. They generate new users for games, increase community buzz, and act basically as free advertisers. Their content, knowledge of different ships and items, and strategies are drastically limited because of the current format of the skill tree. Likewise, for the player and viewer, playing the same ship with the same items and the same strategies on each map does get boring – and is less likely to inspire large followings.

Increases difficulty of gauging true item use rates and popularity; Encourages use of duplicate items
Since the Skill Tree limits what types of items you can use, it encourages players to use the same items in multiple slots. For instance, sniper selections make other cannons weaker, so players are more likely to use multiple snipers rather than using weakened cannons. Moreover, a sniper user might enjoy using a blast cannon, but its crew selections prevent use of the blast cannon – so gauging true item popularity or true use rates (without conflicts) becomes more difficult. Thus, proper balancing also becomes more difficult.

Players that value variety might be encouraged to use ships that allow for the greatest amount of variety. For example, defenders, enforcers, speeders, and fixers are typically use many of the same items, so this might increase shooter usage rates far higher than they would otherwise be.

Designed as a one-off tree, rather than allowing room for expansion
The current Skill Tree was designed as a one-off. Any expansion of item or ship tiers, additions of new items or effects (e.g., poison/acid/blinding/etc.) would be very difficult.

 

II. PROPOSED SOLUTION
How do Devs solve these issues? By making their lives easier.

Build a solid foundation with a new Skill Tree that scales items at the same rate through each tier. From this foundation, most every other issue becomes more manageable and realistic to fix.

“The genius of a game is found in its simplicity, not its complexity." -Me

A. What is the best solution to these issues (or best step towards solving these issues)?

Redesign and reorganize the Crew Skills Tree:

• Items receive the same bonuses at each training tier.
• Remove confusing and redundant bonuses.
• Remove care package bonuses - discourages variety.
• Remove conflicts from the Skill Tree - apply them elsewhere if needed. See Section II. B.
• Remove the mandatory training steps - allow for any training in any order (in the unlocked tiers).
• Remove Tier training (i.e., Bhurt Level 8 – “Tier II” training)
• Unlock each training section as ship tier upgrades become available.
• Break up “area damage” bonuses by type.
• Organize items with crew members that make more sense.
• Crew Options should list the items they affect in the description box.

*The percentages used are for example purposes. Each item's base stats would need adjustments so their bonuses will scale at the same rate*

For each Crew Member, each successive tier would be the same as the previous tier:

Bhurt:

• Cannon Upgrade (2.5% cooldown reduction, +5% damage), Sniper Upgrade (+5% damage, +2% crit chance, +10% crit damage), Blast Cannon Upgrade (+5% damage), Explosive Cannon (+5% damage), Carronade (Slows enemy turret and speed by 5%, +5% damage, +1 projectile, +1 range), All Cannon-Type Upgrade (+5% burning damage, +2% faster projectiles, +2% range)

Mortimer:

• STD Mortar (-2% cooldown reduction, +5% damage), Balllpark Mortar (+5% damage), Big Berta (+5% damage), Long Range Mortar (+4% projectile speed, +5% damage), All Mortar Upgrade (+5% Frost Damage, +5% Mortar Area Damage, +5% Direct Hit Damage).

Swift:

• Turbo (+5%), Overboost (+10% effectiveness), Nitro (-2% cooldown reduction, +10% effectiveness) --- Either All Ship Speed Increase (+5%) or list each individual ship as a separate training selection.

Brock:

• Big Shield (+5% HP), Small Shield (+5% HP), Bandage (+5% healing), All Ship Armor (+2), --- Either All Ship HP Increase (+5%) or list each individual ship as a separate training selection.

Isak:

• Frost Blaster (Reduction in healing -5%, -2% cooldown reduction, +5% effectiveness), Frost Launcher (+4% Projectile Speed, +5% effectiveness), Gear Lube (+5% effectiveness), All Ship Turret Speed (+5%)

Feelix:

• Repair Pulse, Repair Bolt, Repair Box, Duct Tape (with all their usual bonuses divided equally among the training tiers)

Burnice:

• Flare, Napalm, Fire Bomb, All Weapon Damage (+2%)

Sinklair:

• Swift Torpedo, Triple Torpedo, Big Torpedo, Rudder, Frost Damage (+5%), Torpedo Area Damage (+5%), All Torpedo Speed (+5%), All Ship Agility (+5%)

Blastian:

• Missiles, Mines, Grenades, All Blastian Weapons Area Damage Increase (+5%)

Dr. Buzzkill:

• Railgun, Tshield, Tbolt, All Point Damage Weapons (+2%)

Other Notes:

Spoiler: Notes and thoughts

• I still believe the number of attributes (shorter cooldowns, increased number of projectiles, faster projectiles, and so on) create too many moving parts for straight-forward balancing, and that most of these should be built in to the base stats of an item -- but even this example of lock-step upgrades and scaling would make balancing much, much easier.
• Training could be limited to 5 tiers - as it is now - or could be easily expanded to 7 tiers (for each tier of ship). Yes, this would give each tier of ship a greater advantage, but it would also hopefully result in seeing fewer over-tiered ships in lower infamy matches.
• Capstone Bonus – Each crew member could still have a "completed all crew member training" bonus of 1% more damage to all weapons, +1 range, etc. as a final training without messing with balance too much.
• Carronade needs some love after the Armor/HP legendary perk, so putting it back in with the cannon-types and giving it burn bonuses should be a nice boost.
• Yes, I realize that EC and FB would no longer receive splash area damage bonuses – but that’s not a bad thing. It could also be adjusted in their respective base area damage stats.

Spoiler: Where I could use some help ...

1. Is there a way to organize the skills more even across crew members while still keeping them with the crew that makes the most sense?
2. Based on current bonuses, what is the proper percentages to use for each item at each tier – for 5 and 7 training tiers. Or, would it be better to give each one 5% as an increase to keep the items increasing at the same rate?
3. Shoot me a message if you can photoshop something together -- I think a pic would be really helpful here.

B. Conflicts

• Current Conflicts are either arbitrary, encourage poor play, or limit content
• Built-in Nerfs for certain item/ship combinations is a better solution
• If conflicts are to be used, customization would be a better alternative

Spoiler: Conflicts - explained

The current “conflicts” in the skills tree are either arbitrary (e.g., carronade bonus vs speed – when speed is already capped) or encourage unsportsmanlike behavior (e.g., fire bomb bonuses decrease shield HP – which further encourages fire bomb users to spam multiple firebombs from behind cover). These conflicts do little more than limit variety of setups and items (or content) that players can use.

Alternatively, if a particular weapon was overpowered on a particular ship, that weapon could have a built-in balancing effect when attached to that ship. For instance, if carronades are too powerful on a speeder, attaching a carronade to a speeder could automatically remove one projectile. Similarly, if one wanted to limit the effectiveness of using the same weapons or yellow item multiple times, a built-in reduction of 10% could apply to the 2nd item, 20% reduction to the third, and so on.

Also, a better way of using conflicts would be to allow for customization. For example, at each tier of training, the sniper could give you an option of +5% damage, +5% critical hit chance, +20% critical hit damage. Or, a tesla shield could give you the option of +10% HPs or +10% duration at each level. So, players could better customize their weapons to suit their needs.

 

III. NEW SYSTEM BENEFITS
A. How would this new format solve issues?

• Tournament-Standard for Events
• Better Event Matchmaking
• Better Balancing
• Unlocked Content – More Variation

Spoiler: Solutions - explained

**For everyone complaining about Gear Score, it's impossible to fix with this much variation! Instead, focus your energy on the real issue.**

Tournament-Standard for Events; Better Event Matchmaking
If the Skill Tree was reworked, the item and ship crew bonuses could be limited the ship tier in events.

For example, if a maxed-player decided to use a mk2 ship in an event, neither the ship or items would receive any crew bonuses in higher Skill Tree tiers (T3 to T5-7). This would automatically nullify any Captain level advantage, eliminate the need for Power Score adjustments and reduce the need to make adjustments for differences in item levels (to prevent GS manipulation).

Gear Score alone, under the proposed revisions, would become a much simpler and more effective tool for matchmaking.


[As I said earlier, it is too difficult to assign a strength number to items, crew bonuses for the item’s range, cooldown, projectile speed, range, etc. while also assigning numerical values to ship’s increase agility, turret speed, ship speed, hit points, armor, and so on. There are simply too many moving parts to have an accurate formula. The current Power Score formula is working so hard to compensate for seal clubbers that it is drastically overrating legitimate players (using ships or items that with different rarity levels or unoptimized crew trainings) and giving them terrible matches.]

Better Balancing
Currently, an item may be overpowered in the early-game or late-game (based on when bonuses training bonuses become available). So, any adjustment made to the item (in cooldown, damage, range, etc.) will disproportionately affect the item at different stages of the game. For instance, a 10% nerf in Tshield HP - to account for its late game dominance - would make lower leveled/rarity Tshields virtually useless.

With lock-step upgrades at the Skill Tree, this difficulty in balancing would be greatly reduced. The items, and the relationships between each other, should scale together from early-game to mid-game. Thus, balance changes would affect each stage of the game equally.

Likewise, with unlocked content and the removal of conflicts, the developers should receive better, more accurate information regarding usage rates of particular items (i.e., better information leads to more informed decisions vis-à-vis balancing changes).

Unlocked Content – More Variation
Rather than being encouraged to scrap everything outside of the 9-10 items you'll need for your endgame ship, players will be able to build up and play a variety of different items and ships. This extra content is obviously a good thing for veteran and newer players alike. The veterans now have items to collect and build, while newer players will be encouraged to save other-ship weapons for later use – rather than taking the current best path and immediately scrapping those items.

B. Business Case:

Spoiler: Business Case Explained

Unless I have expert knowledge of an industry, I typically avoid giving business advice to a company that knows their industry far better than I ever will. However, since I am asking for changes that will take time and resources to develop, I'm going to do my best here.

I am assuming that other than advertising fees and VIP subscriptions, revenue is largely measured by pearl expenditures. And, that crew talent switching does bring in a not-insignificant amount of pearls, so this change would eliminate that source of revenue.
Yet …

• Players would be encouraged to spend more pearls on expanding their inventories to keep more duplicates;
• there would be more items in use and more legendary perks required for those items – or more purchases of coins;
• since all items could be used at their full potential under these changes, there should be an increase in desire for these items and an increases in crate purchases to attain them;
• newer players will spend more time before they reach their ceiling and veteran players will have new content without the cost of (much) new content. If players are using more items, this should increase the need for in-game resources (i.e., more ad-watching and vip subscription purchases);
• more YouTube streaming (and free advertising) and better educational/game strategy content:
• and, the ultra-ease of future expansion of ship or item tiers in this lock-step upgrade system.

IV. NEW TREE ISSUES?

• Retraining tokens – if you have 95% of the training completed, you’re granted “free 1-time instant upgrade” crew tokens for 95% of the new Skill Tree
• Adjustments to base ship and item stats would have to be made to maintain current levels.
  
• The training times for the new number of crew trainings would have to be reconfigured, but an increased number of training choices should make it easier to keep training times a little shorter – which keeps players logging in and playing daily.

VI. TO TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE, WHAT ELSE SHOULD BE DONE?

A. In-game economy adjustments

Spoiler: Details ...

[*]Shop revamp (based on league) – more/higher rarity parts and perks as league increases
[*]Epic Powercells will need to be made more available. Cell limits discourage variety and frustrate players. Give them an opportunity to purchase cells in-game or otherwise earn more powercells through raffles or events.
[*]Inventory expansion price reductions should allow players to take advantage of the full slate of content created. At the very LEAST, each inventory upgrade purchased (past and present) should include 6 slots – since it takes 6 duplicates to max an item.

B. Expand Nightmare League
How do you get Nightmare League players to buy-in to all of this new content available to them?

Involve all 5 ships in a new Nightmare League ranking system:

Spoiler: New NML

Once a player arrives in Nightmare League, each of their ships gets its own infamy ranking. At the end of the season, rewards are distributed to those with the highest ranked ships (of any type) and those with the highest cumulative score (including all of their ships).

As an example, if a player pushes their Shooter to 4200 infamy, their Defender to 4300 infamy, their Speeder and Enforcer to 4500 infamy each, and their fixer drops to 3500 infamy, the cumulative total would be 200+300+500+500+(-500) = 1500 infamy (after subtracting the 4000 base infamy from each ship). The leaderboard should list an overall ranking, cumulative ranking, and ranking by ship-type.

As long as one ship is above 4k, they should reset back to 4000 with the rest of NML. (Although, if you are concerned about people never being demoted from NML, you could also take their average infamy score across all 5 ships and demote those that fall below 4k).

This would encourage veteran players to build multiple ships, gives players much needed variety, and breathes new life into the game for a relatively small amount of coding.

As a side note, in the short-term at least, many top players would be using ships they are unaccustomed to with items that are low level epics or rares – so this would be your best (and only) opportunity to see how they perform with weaker items than you (and it may be your opportunity for some revenge as well).

 

I like your suggestions but you somewhat contradicting your own quote.

- Removes care package from training tree and applies them to captain levels or leagues.
- Make all talents unlock at every level.

This allow the game to be more skill based game. 2 players with the same items have the same power when all trainings are completed. This will allow players to upgrade any item they wish. From an economic point of view, this will give players more to aim for and better retention rate due to higher goals.

Not from your suggestion but I like to see the +/- 10% adjustment in battle removes. We already have too many RNG in the game that a little less while battling wouldn't hurt. For example, if 2 speeders with 700hp left and both fire a 730hp (accounted for defense points) snipers at each other and somehow both didn't crit, yet one will win based on just luck. Removing that adjustment removes the overhead and make the game more skill based on who fire first.

Genius by simplicity!

 

I find it baffling that we need to make choices such as Shooter HP +5% when we main speeder or some other ship. If we want to try Shooter, we have to retrain for it. Some of the decisions make sense for one ship, but are useless for others. I find this to be a good decision for balance, such as choosing either cannon projectile speed or ex cannon damage, but it's mostly a limitation on our ability to experiment with other ships and loadouts.

My 2 solutions for this would be either to let us retrain a crew member while another is doing actual training, or to let us have 5 separate talent configurations, 1 for each ship.

 

Nice and very long ideas.

I totally agree that matchmaking should be based on cpt level, and that trainings should be added to gear score.

Yea, we need this in Battle Bay.

I totally disagree with these numbers. I know that it's just an example. Maybe, remove/edit this part.

I totally agree that defense affects "low dmg" weapons more than "high dmg" weapons (per projectile). Defense should have a different system:
• It should be based on percentages. Ex: defense will take 10% dmg of enemy shots.
• Defense should affect crit chances on the target. Ex: 100 defense defender vs 45% crit chances sniper :: (200-100)/200 x 45% = 22.5% crit chances. (This is just an example)

Yea, we absolutely need a larger room to gain infamy. Anyway, this is a temporary solution, because in couple months players will ask for another expansion.

Many in-game things should be balanced (weapons/rewards...)

Keep it up

 

I agree with some of above mentioned.
1. Powercell- why are they limiting us to upgrade other weapons. To upgrade you need to buy more parts which mean you need to play more or pay. They dont want either of those? Why??
2. Skill tree clashes between weapons again why? I could understand clashes like speed or hp. Dmg or projectile speed. But why they making us to dump good weapon for one we want to use. Like if inwant to use blast in my enforcer i cant use sniper in my shooter either which force me not to use shooter at all.
3. How about infamy for each ship and average of active ship will show the on board/public infamy.
Active ship to be selected by player at start of season n cant be changed in between.

 

Devs said they want us to try new ships and loadouts but putting these restriction on us. The game already have too many walls blocking progresses. There should be few parts of the game that can be enjoy with ease. To think that Rovio want to make this game into E-Sport without giving the players much opportunities to enjoy all ships and most loadouts.

 

Amazing thread @xArrogance, thanks a lot for your efforts. Every forum user who wants to make suggestions and stuff should first read this thread. You analyze the problems and the reasons behind them and then provide well-thought, constructive and realistic solutions.

Shortly: one of the best threads ever on this forum

 

I'm thinking it was too long lol ... and I need some pictures.

The bottom line is with this skill tree --

1) It is not humanly possible to fix Event MM so that it is balanced (or fair) for all with 1000 variables to consider and rate numerically, and
2) balancing items is unnecessarily difficult since one adjustment could disproportionately affect a lower level or rarity.

Why? Each item and ship randomly gets bonuses at random times and each one scales at different rates. It's like being on Oprah - you get a bonus, you get a bonus, and you get a bonus ..



Soooooo ...... The only way to fix it is to scratch the old skill tree, adjust item bases as needed, then add the same crew bonus percentages to each item - at each training tier - so they keep the same relationship vs each other throughout the game.

 

So, this is more about setting a good foundation because it affects everything. And, it would make dev lives much easier.

#1 - I had a thought on how to make NML more interesting at the end of my post.

#3 - Buffing items is unnecessarily complicated.
As I mentioned above, the bonuses are too random. Items have different use rates at different levels, so you would have to buff those items at the top end without touching them at the low to mid range. A straight-forward skill tree makes adjustments easier and ... uh, more straight-forward.

#4 - Fix gear scores? I need to rewrite my post..... That's the whole point. Gear Scores mean almost nothing compared to the weight of Power Scores - but you can't fix either with 1000 different factors when each factor has a different value for different players, different ships, different items.

#5 - or unlock content and give maxed VIPs something to do ...

#9 - With a standardized skill tree, adding an addition tier of items or ship is simple. Make a new boat model, expand the Skill Tree, call it a day. Currently, adding crew levels would only further skew the lopsided bonuses.


#1 - Great idea and easy enough to do.
#2 - I've mentioned this (as has Warhawk) - increasing rewards as your progress further into the game, but people threw a fit at the mere mention of it.
#6 - Yup, fixers need love too
#7 - Removing costs would be great, but it's about the only thing maxed players spend pearls on anymore.
#8 - Rocking a 20k hp defender looks fun to me, but I don't have the shields or HP perks to do it - so idk

 

Let me add something:

Maybe it would be possible, when training, to just doe every option when training is complete. You wanted variety, no?

EXAMPLE: old: +5% burn damage OR increase sniper crit chance
New and improved: +5% burn damage AND increase sniper crit chance.

Or maybe there could be a feature where players can select rows of talents that will apply, like a training booster.

Before feature:

+10% BC damage, or +5% burn damage, or +10% EX cannon damage

+10% sniper crit chance, -15% ST cannon cool down, or +5% burn damage

After feature:

+10% BC damage, +5% burn damage, AND +10% ex cannon damage

+10% sniper crit chance, -15% ST cannon cool down, OR +5% burn damage.

I think the slider limit should be 5 or 6, and VIP should get an extra Select All.

IMO I think my second idea would be more balanced.

 

And maybe like Fortnite's save the world mode, maybe there could be something similar for V.I.Ps.

Some kinda story mode, where battles are as normal, but maybe there could be some special mission ( like capture the flag) every few levels, and the battles would get harder as you progress. ( stronger items, stronger ships). There could be some pretty good rewards ( decent amounts of gold, sugar, pearls, [ maybe care packages as rewards for completing levels, getting better as you progress], and maybe even stuff like trophy boosts [you know, guild quest stuff], raffle tokens, and leggy item pieces). Obviously the story mode enemies would be bots, and every battle would be set up with 1 of each ship on each team. maybe cutscenes could be added here as well, for lore purposes ( heck, we might get The Game Theorists up in here!). I think this would make V.I.P a whole lot better for those who pay for it.

 

That was a bit of reading lol, anyways I think you are definitely on the right track. Here are the keypoints that I see in the current system.

1. %based upgrades scale better than fixed point increases. Even trainings based on captain level make no sense compared to just scaling the stats based on item level.
2. Conflicting trainings are a must! As you mentioned things like carronade vs speed exist in the current system to prevent OP combinations... I think that blast/flare should conflict with tesla shield for sure.

The current system definitely needs a makeover, there are many more keypoints, but you noted some as well. This system works but now that more people are at the ceiling, even the smallest of imbalances seem huge.

Edit: oh and you are completely right about players not being able to diversify their items, it takes to long to make a new setup and have the items at a good level, measured nearly in years for f2p.

 

Lol bad habits from law school. I can write a ton in an hour .. the editing down is the part that takes 4-5 hours - and that's the part I skipped. I tried to highlight some of the main points instead.

 

Law school? No wonder you got that expensive tiger mask in your pfp.

 

This is incorrect, it's fairly easy to do this, because the numbers are already on the items, visible to everyone.

The problem is that EventMatchmaker(tm) uses Gear Score as the primary input, but Gear Score numbers are flat numbers ignoring training and such. GS on perks used to be so overrated, that players would remove them for Events. Now that Perks were adjusted, Gear Score is still not accurate enough that EventMatchmaker(tm) now calcualates Power Score, which is a combination of Gear Score and Training and other mystical inputs. Power Score likely doesn't take into account specific trainings relative to the exact items equipped at the time of the match, it uses things like boat MK level, Captain Level, but not enough specifics. Players also have no visibility to Power Score, so you can complain about a match, post the Gear Scores which may or may not be off, but you really have no idea why the boats were in the same match.

So what to do? Gear Score should be based on the item's final stats. That takes into account everything, and it's visible to all players. One T4R Ex Canon may output 600 per shot and another T4R may output 700 per shot. DPS is even more accurate than damage output because it takes into account reduced cool downs and such. Shields have HP. Bandages have HP per second, etc. The numbers are already there, listed on each item, fully visible, and usable. Each item's stat can be translated into a more generic Gear Score for EventMatchmaker(tm), and things are as simple as they should have been from the outset. No more seal clubbing worries, etc.

 

Ummm .. sure, I'll take time out of my day to correct the opinion you're stating as fact ...

It's not like I spent hours going through all the different options to fix these issues (using actual numbers) BEFORE deciding that a Standardized Skill Tree was the only way to truly fix MM and balancing issues ... (and make it easy to do so ).

Anywho.... Since redesigning the entire MM system based on output (or damage or dps) is "fairly easy" .. these few examples shoild be a walk in the park.


Example 1 - Ship Bonuses
Player 1: Captain L12 - Mk2 shooter (0 ship bonuses)
Player 2: Captain L50 - Mk2 shooter (+40% ship hp, +9 ship defense, +20% ship speed, turret speed and ship agility) and (+3 range, +40% cannon projectile speed, +10% cannon range, +25% burning damage, +40% frost mortar damage, +40% frost torpedo damage, +18% area damage, +30% for direct mortar hits)

How much of a GS would you add to Player 2's ship for each individual crew bonus? Use actual numbers for each bonus!

Example 2 - Fire Bonus & Other Item Stats
Player 1: EC (1000 dmg / 69 dps / 21 projectile speed / 26.3 range / 25% chance to freeze / 20% crew burning bonus / 48% fire damage perks)
Player 2: EC (1000 dmg / 69 dps / 15 projectile speed / 22 range / 10% crew burning bonus / 0% fire damage perks)

The "final stats" are the same.
Do you account for fire damage? Do you account for the other stat differences? Do you account for crew burning bonuses? If any were answered "yes," by how much? Using actual numbers!

Example 3 - Bonuses and Perks
a) 2 grenades: Same burn chance but one with a range of 12, one with a range of 20 (from crew bonuses).
b) 2 fire bombs: One with all range perks (70 dmg/18 sec/42 range); One with all duration perks (70 dmg/24 sec/30 range)
c) 2 Snipers: One with 1000 damage, 45% crit; One with 1320 damage, 15% crit
d) Tesla shields: 7 secs, 2000 hp vs 10 secs, 1600 hp
e) Shield & Bandage: Shield with 12 defense and 1000 HPs; Shield with 39 defense and 1000 HPs; Bandage (150 heal every 5 secs or up to 9,000 HPs/match)

Perks and crew bonuses can do things other than increase damage or dps, like extend range - making it easier to hit with. Or, they can increase crit chances or crit damage. How to you assign a numerical value to each of these different options? -one that applies equally to every one.

Example 4 - DPS
Mine: 5000 damage, 10.4 cooldown
Sniper: 800 damage, 45% crit, 11.2 cooldown
Carronade: 250 x 7, 5.6 cooldown, 30% slow speed and 30% slow turret
Flare: 90 dmg over 23 seconds, healing -30%
Blast Cannon: 1000 dmg (4 Fire perks attached)

This should be "fairly easy" using dps .. what GS would you assign to each?

*I have about 15 more examples .. if you need more.*



[BTW, the correct response here is "wow, thank you! I've learned that testing my feelings and opinions before posting them as facts puts me on the road towards becoming a smarter individual."]

 

I appreciate your detail. You are talking edge cases, while I am talking about first establishing a proper baseline for Gear Score. What is mostly missing in the current incarnation is item specific training adjustments and visibility of that number to all players so that they can use Gear Score as a guide.

What is clear from your examples is why the Devs slapped flat numbers on the items, because edge cases are hard. I want to solve Step 1 (baselines) before going to Step 2 (edge cases), and Step 1 is readily available. I'll comment on your first example for now.

Depends what items they each equip. What we do know is the HP, Defense, Speed, Turret, and Agility stats all need GS ratings added. Currently Blue item GS is overrated relative to Red item GS... which is why the meta is to overweight Reds and underweight Blues in events. In other words, in the current situation Player 2 can leave off Shields for 0 GS added and still more HP than Player 1 who equip shields for added GS.

The above is the reason why item specific trainings not being considered is the biggest problem in events.

To be honest it would take too much time to put together numbers that would work across the board, but it's far from impossible. Let's just walk through a few adjustments:

I have a T4E Small Shield with 747 GS and a T4E Ex Canon with 794 GS. The T4 Ex Canon can shred 100%+ of the HP from the Small Shield in a single shot. I can shoot that Ex Canon 20 times in a single match. As such I might consider rating the Shield at maybe 25% it's current value... 180 GS (SWAG).

Assuming weapons are all balanced, I would use a similar Gear Score range of 1-1000, and assign Gear Score on a sliding scale of min/max based on the Min/max (Common L1 -> Legendary T5 + all trainings/perks).

Easy use cases:

Use sliding scale of final equipped values of overall Speed, HP, Defense, Turret, Rudder. Maybe GS range of 1-300?
I noticed DPS is adjusted by training, but not by crit %, Fire, Area, etc.. Rovio should attempt to do this.
Crit % is easy. 5% crit chance means DPS += DPS*2*.05.
Fire: Maybe assume it'll use Fire 30% of the time? DPS += DPS*2*.3
Grenade Fire crit: DPS += fire crit% * fire dps * #seconds
Ex Canon area damage in my experience is a 2% chance of getting that bonus, almost negligible, but worth a few GS.

More difficult adjustments:
Projectile speed adds a little, I wouldn't bump GS up by more than a couple percent.

Range adds more value than speed, but again a minor adjustment, a few percent perhaps.
AOE is important to Mortars and Torps... Rovio likely has stats of how accurate shots are and how many ships are affected in a single hit.


Anyway I could go on, far too much to cover. The situation at this point is the following:

Gear Score needs to be adjusted by training -- Not by a generic Power Rating (not by Captain Level), rather individual item GS should be adjusted by specific trainings. That's largely been calculated for each item. The only real challenge is coming up with the minor adjustments in the "more difficult" section.