SUGGESTIONS: Boat Switching, Crew skill sets, and more...

Hi Rovio / fellow battlers,

After a few exchanges with a fellow Battlebay addict, i've thought of some things that i'd like to share with you in the hopes that these ideas may help make the bay a happier place to be...

1) Boat Switching improvements: Rarely do you see players having all 5 boats upgraded properly, the average is probably 3 boats updated regularly (just speculating). anyways, with the advent of Guild Quests, there has been lots of negative chatter about players using underpowered/underdeveloped (relative to their league standing and infamy level) boats in an attempt to complete quests. One can't blame the person for trying to help his/her guild complete quests, however, such acts have led to a watered down quality of matches. Earlier, i saw several players in nightmare matches using mk5/mk6 fixers with T1E or T1R repair pulses/boxes, so you can imagine how much or less of a help they are. Scenarios like this can be frustrating for many players and will just lead to further overall dissatisfaction. So here's my take on how we can improve overall match quality throughout the bay.

• Boat Infamy level
  • Each boat a player owns, has its own corresponding infamy. The boat with the highest infamy will also be the player's current infamy level (for determining league standings and other ranking measures) OR maybe you can use an aggregate of all boat infamies to stand as the player's overall infamy rank. This will allow players that have already unlocked MK6 to be able to go back down to lower leagues when using a different lower level boat, MK3 perhaps. This way, that player won't be forced to play in nightmare or ace matches while building up or learning his/her alternate boats of choice. This will also have a positive effect on boat specific guild quests. Thus each boat will have its own league level and ranking for that player.
  • Maybe allow players to name each of their boats as well (this would be so cool)
• Item Caps/Restrictions based on league placement
  • Now Wait? high level players going down to lower league using low level boats? can't they just put their max epics and legendaries and blast everyone away? yes, it can happen so here's my next idea. Each item will have will have damage/duration/effect caps depending on league level. (Example. sniper cannon has damage cap of challenger: 200, warrior: 400, master: 600, ace: 800, Nightmare: no cap [of course critical damage can make you go over the cap] ; same principle applies for yellow items, like frost blaster: C - 60%, W - 65%, M - 70%, A - 75%, N - no cap). This way, high level players can use their weaker boats and not bully the lower leagues through sheer superior firepower. The caps can also potentially balance out matches in the lower leagues and improve overall quality of play. This will also counter MK5s and MK6s carrying massive firepower hovering in 1,500-3000 infamy. The cap will also not penalize the spenders for buying legendaries ahead of everyone else, they can still use and upgrade them and unleash their full potential in nightmare (at least they don't have to build rares and epics if they don't want to).
  • This Cap/Restriction system will also provide further motivation for all players to get up the infamy ladder faster to maximize their items, minimize bully tactics, and eliminate seal clubbing entirely.
  • in the case of infamy crossovers in matches (ACE players getting matched up against Nightmare players for example) the higher league cap parameters will apply.
  • an alternative would be to base the cap/restriction on a Player's captain level but i haven't thought this out thoroughly so it might be worse.
• Crew Skill presets per boat:
  • Each boat has a corresponding preset of all crew skills that you can set independently tweak to your specifications per boat. This way, players who like to switch boats will be more confident in doing so knowing they have maximized the skills they need for that specific boat. (for example: Brock has lots of shield skills and defender HP skills, if you're primarily a shooter, then most likely you would have selected the shield skills while if you're primarily a defender you would have picked the defender HP skills, having presets per boat allows players to freely switch between boats while always at their preferred optimal crew skill settings. This feature will definitely improve match quality, overall gameplay as well as allow players to experience all the boats more freely. Providing better overall enjoyment (possibly) for majority of the players.

CONS:

• Players now will now be restricted or compelled to use their best boat in pushing for infamy rankings, unless all their boats have similar infamy levels.
• More numbers to watch out for like whats my damage in warrior league
• Probably longer learning curve for players to get hold of the system, a detailed guide / tutorial would be needed for this specially on the cap system.
• this might be tricky to execute on the devs side (i don't know, have no idea on programming)

PROS:

• in my opinion, matchmaking will organically improve with these features
• matches will be more competitive, skill will be an even more prominent factor in determining the victor, item superiority will be softened.
• Boat switching flexibility will lead to a better gaming experience and keep players interested and engaged in the game.

So what do you think guys? hope you guys like this one. Feel free to add some points that i might have missed or subtract some of my ideas hehehe. (let's talk)

Cheers!!!

 

I think each boat having its own crew skillset would be a vast improvement - Alternately give us the option to safe two different skillsets (and an option to spend x pearls to unlock a 3rd, 4th & 5th).
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Caps on items is a great idea, it would also limit the sealclubbing. Aslong as its set high enough for progress to still be possible, i.e. something that players leveling up wont notice under normal circumstances.
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Each boat having its own infamy would be fun, will probably be tricky to implement in a smooth way though.
The specific boat quests seems like less of a problem than specific weapon quests. I think its ok to expect guilds to be able to cover all 5 classes (in particular after a month where people adjust and level boats that might be lacking within their guilds). Its alot easier to level a boat to mk6 than to bring Standard Mortar to Nightmare standard from scratch.

Thumbs up for a good post!

 

Support. Each boat with its own infamy is a very interesting idea.

But one thing I disagree with is the item cap. There’s no need to set caps since the boats overall impact to the game will reflect upon its infamy level eventually. Your infamy will simply rise up to a point where you have a low tier boat (compared against others) with great gear.

A cap will make the players with less skill but great items suffer since they are stuck in a low league due to how they play the game. Do they deserve a nerf to their weapons that they just spent a fortune on just because they suck at the game?

 

that's exactly the point, my suggestion prioritizes skill and tighter match ups, players with legendaries early on will still have a big advantage since they will mostly likely be maxed out versus the cap. Look at it also as a training ground, players will be forced to learn tactics and strategies because strength alone wont be enough. ideally, if that happens, players who eventually reach Ace and nightmare will be seasoned and well versed in good teamwork. - hence, potentially more awesome matches for everyone. On the contrary the players who you think will suffer, with the right attitude, can actually benefit from this system because it will force them to learn the basics and everything in between. That's my take... i appreciate the comments, let's keep the ball rolling

 

Each ship having its own Infamy!!! WHAT A GRAND IDEA! I LOVE IT!

 

@yellowocean I have seen this idea a couple of times, but it was never formulated this well. I like that idea, but I like it even more how well formulated this is.

I'm not really good at formulating myself, so maybe whenever I get a new idea I'll ask you to formulate it for me

 

hahaha thank you, sir... what league are you in? i haven't seen you in matches yet... hope to meet you at the bay soon

 

Great idea - I don't think it'll happen. Probably down the line.. maybe

 

I don't know the name of my league, all I know is that it's the highest league right before nightmare. I'm currently hovering around 3600-3800, so compared to you I'm still a noob lol. But chances are that sooner or later we will encounter each other either as allies or enemies because of the flawless matchmaking. (Chances are that I may drag you down as ally because of my mk5 ship with tier 4 rare peanut weapons)

(Btw, my ingame name is Dinoguardian, I think I already have a player named yellowocean or something in my list, currently around 5k infamy, is that you?)

 

AI y3ll0w0c3@n

 

Haha, yup, I already got you as friend

 

Ah we wished that would be the case, but devs need to make money, and this will begin the transition to play to win. Devs are looking for pay to win. I agree that it is unfair for players that spent a lot of money but dont have skill to be stuck at low levels. Also it will discourage spending in the beginning because there is no point if cap is maxed but you are stuck in a league.

I really really wish different ships could have different infamy though. Just very difficult while considering items. Honestly, imo, even if they do bring leg/epic weapons to battle at low infamy, they will gain infamy and balance out soon enough. At this point its up to devs to decide if they make a tough enough infamy tanking policy to prevent high lvl players abusing it.

 

Maybe you can do both with a multi-profile strategy like every FPS game everywhere uses. Everyone gets 1 profile to start for free. 2nd costs 250 pearls, 3rd costs 500, etc. up to 5 (whales). Each profile can host a ship, specific crew training selections, and infamy. Starting a new profile starts you at half of your current infamy, or at the beginning, whatever makes sense. Not only could you make profiles to have different ships as the focus, but you could even use the same ship but with different strategies. Like a distance shooter class, or close-quarters shooter, etc. I would love to select my profile in the warm up screen once I see what board I am on, but that is maybe too much to ask for. I hate it when I have mortar setup on a torpedo map. I digress.

You can simplify it because perhaps we don't need a weapon cap if the infamy is halved. Yes you would have powerful weapons at a lower level but you would not be there for very long, unless you were a clubber. Also you can see powerful weapons from new whales on occasion anyway.

Presenting any solution that helps the devs as much as the players is a win-win!

 

Of course, like any good idea, once implemented, people going to exploit the flaws of this. Leveling up all ships shouldn't be that difficult for Nightmare players. I have all ships at MK5. The advantage is now I can help my guild on the quests. Big disadvantage is it's taking so damn long to build loadouts for each on them. My captain level is 34 and I am only in ACE III. Most ships around 2000-2500 have better loadouts than me because they can max out (up to certain levels) their weapons and training for just 1 or 2 ships.

Anyway, it's fun learning all 5 ships and that's what playing a game for. I think the current system is fine. Guild rivalry is a great idea. Now they just need to refine it.

 

Do u know how long a update like this will take as for each indvidual person u have to go through and change stats of each boat. Good idea but will take too long.

 

just about the same time as it is now... what i proposed allows you to take your time levelling up and learning to use your other boats outside of your primary boat. i found that out the hard way because i only started experimenting with defender and fixer when i was already at MK5 for my shooter/speeder. the only difference is your boats have independent infamy ratings and you have to work each one to the top. This, in effect, organically reduces the occurence of underpowered or underdeveloped boats from higher league match ups.

 

you need the cap system in place to prevent or soften the impact of seal clubbers (i can tell you with confidence that quite a lot of players in the lower leagues have quit the game because of seal clubbers, a dad actually posted about it here in the forum about his sons not wanting to play anymore 'cause they get constantly beaten up by overpowered boats hanging around in low level leagues - picture Mk5s going against Mk3s constantly). yes, if you have max weapons, even with a cap system in place, you still have huge advantage over most of the players in the lower leagues, the cap just reduces your advantage a bit giving the other players better chances to even the playing field.

 

Boats having their own infamy would be abused.

For example:

Defender is my infamy push boat and speeder is my seal clubbing boat. I'll always push on my defender and I'll use speeder to tank infamy and do easier quests since it doesn't affect my higher infamy ship.

Interesting idea but wouldn't work out as good as you'd think