Following up on the previous post on why ROR ranked most likely to fail, I thought that maybe I could attempt to bring some ideas to the table too.
Solo ranked is with random people; so a full sovereign player can be queued up with a full vanquisher player and have a serious disadvantage.
- Limit the gear to be the same for all parties involved. For example all play with invader or vanquisher gear. 2 options since some gears are not best for some specs. Specific rings and weapons as well to keep the levels fair. This should bring some balance. After all it is all about being competitive and not stomping the enemy.
An experienced player can be queued up with a less experienced player and cost them the match.
- If number one suggestion is implemented then this will minimize the power cap.
The two tiers will split the small population and make matches pop even less. In a recent patch (20/05/2021) Top tier players can manually move to the lower tier to increase matchmaking frequency. Mixing skilled players with unskilled players will most likely cause some aggravation disappointment to the lower tier population.
- If the gear limit is implemented to even the playing field a bit then there is no need to have two tiers nor any other mechanisms to mix populations.Regardless there will always be better players than others. But if there is not a gear difference the game experience is better. Other games have this system and it works and it is fun too. I will point out again that it is all about skill and competing. Using Gear to get an advantage over others takes the competing part out.
Rewards are really not that great….
- There are a lot of things that can be given to the players as rewards and not the same every week. There could be rotating weekly rewards for some flavour.
- Medallions / Emblems
- Crafting materials (tali fragments, liniments, cultivating material, seeds etc. )
- Renown potions with higher duration than the one in warfront
- Event slot items with option of RVR / scenario use or Ranked only use.
- Seasonal pet rewards for the top 10 player in both sides
- Special cloak for ranked for every season
- Pocket items like medallions that can be worn to show they play ranked like the ones the military wears in real life.
- Consumables to be used in ranked ONLY with higher stats like 190 AP, 2.8k Heal etc only given as rewards.
- Temporary mounts
- Ranked specific titles
- Ranked specific dyes
These are some suggestions but I am sure the database will have more that can be given as rewards in rotation per week or season permanent or with season duration win on season 1 use during season 2 etc.
The “defenders” of the MMR tend to whisper to people when they don’t perform well and make them feel bad, which will decrease the population. This is a people problem, not a game problem but nevertheless a problem.
- Nevertheless an easier to access reporting system IF possible might help a bit especially if it results in temporary suspension from entering matches.. This will keep the players in the game but not in Ranked… and maybe they will think twice before they rage at others etc.This feature will work for problem number 7 ( see previous post | https://www.patreon.com/posts/51512876)
Not all classes perform well in this setup which also is reducing the possible player population that could queue and the possible group formations to make it more interesting.
- This might have a less impact if the gear is limited as mentioned and power cap is less.
Some people also create unfair fights, where they use the small population to queue with friends which could potentially be in discord over others that are true randoms gaining an unfair advantage, since this is called solo queue ranked.
- This should be solved on its own if people feel they have a fair shot at this game mode.
Group queue could be expanded in different modes too, like.. 1vs1 / 3vs3 with limited class combos that can give unfair advantage as we know due to the uniqueness of the classes this is possible and people will exploit it. Every mode with unique titles and some rewards are different from other modes.
The matches can be extremely boring. In all three possible outcomes. (Win / Loss / Tie)
- Add objectives that need to be completed / captured / picked up along with the killing or items that can be picked up that give bonuses so people might create more strategies than bush each other in the head until one dies or one makes a mistake.
I believe that ranked as in many games will remain for a certain number of players. This does not mean that it has to be feared from others due to lack of gear or experience. This game mode should be more enticing, fun, and interesting to watch with the introduction of objectives in modes that don’t exist in the game as well, such as .. murder ball with no damage but need to pick up the ball with 5 sec capture time so u fight for it .. then after holding the ball for 60 sec u cna capture 1 flag out of three that opens up randomly. giving u a point boost for 60 sec then resets. Once that has happened a second ball can appear with damage buff / or heal buff / or protection closer to the losing team wc to provide a fighting chance.
Capture the flag but from players not from objectives. A random player is selected to carry the flag, kill him and capture.. random is good, giving different difficulty per game. A tank is easier to win but while a dps is carrying the flag is easier to lose.
These mechanics can be expanded later on in normal scenarios / remade and pug and with a 6vs6 mode might even be a chance to get more balanced scenarios too.
The game does not have a lot of expansions coming due to its nature and being a private server. IF we want fresh we need to mix and match what we have to create new and interesting mechanics to have some fun. New can be seen very negatively by some that rip the benefits of gear power cap, overpowering class combo, ex-realming and more. BUT new is what will keep the people trying, playing and having fun.
I hope that the development team will have the tools, time and appetite to do some new stuff. They have in the past and am sure they will in the future too. This is my attempt to address some issues and hopefully provide some ideas for them to work on if deemed worthy.