No real value in killing players in RW

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Aside from working the push/pull of Soaring buffs, there really is no benefit to a player KO, nor a penalty for being KOed besides losing Soaring stacks.

I was in an Oppressor firing the last shot on the enemy's north tower once while a single BRD was just going to town on me. Soon as the missile was out, I ejected, sat down, and let them take me out, purely for the faster way back (and partially to say "everything you just did doesn't matter, I got your tower anyways").

Unfortunately, this seems to be the direction SE wants to take PvP in, especially when they get rid of the one Frontline mode that was effectively Team Deathmatch. I've got no problem with objective-based PvP, but rendering defeating other players pointless kinda makes the whole concept of player vs player kinda pointless, no?

[GrumbleBeard]

I agree completely and have had my share of similar experiences. I really think it would be interesting to see a mechanic where killing a player takes a portion of that persons ceruleum or something, anything, to make killing someone worthwhile.

[Zojha]

I've got no problem with objective-based PvP, but rendering defeating other players pointless kinda makes the whole concept of player vs player kinda pointless, no?

Implying that the point of PvP is to defeat other players. We have a dedicated role whose entire point and purpose is to prevent the defeat of players and thus go against that very point. And it does it exceedingly well. Does SE have to make themselves any clearer on what they think of the point of PvP?

Truth be told, Soaring is already more than some other objective based modes offer. If you boot up a shooter and play some capture the flag, you'll usually get nothing for killing players at all, killing players is merely a means to get the objective done, to pave the way for your flag carrier, get your flag back or kill the enemy carrier so yours can score. It's looking similar in King of the Hill, where kills outside the hill usually don't matter, and even though I haven't played WoW in a while, their battlegrounds used to not have a big emphasis on kills either. The main benefit of killing people in objective based PvP generally is that you can actually claim the objective (for a while) and score some points through that.

And Rival Wings isn't too bad in that regard. Mammets, mid and CE tanks are all worth contesting and even the mechs, i.e. the prize for winning the objectives can be fought on foot to some degree. There is ample point in fighting other players in most places of the map, whether on foot or especially inside mechs. The main issue is just that contesting objectives tends to be a pretty meh experience overall and sometimes downright impossible for no reason other than job "balance".

[GrumbleBeard]

Implying that the point of PvP is to defeat other players.

It is.

We have a dedicated role whose entire point and purpose is to prevent the defeat of players and thus go against that very point. And it does it exceedingly well.

In previous modes kills awarded points and took points away from the enemy team. Healers being a little too strong after the large 4.0 change doesn't invalidate kills.

you'll usually get nothing for killing players at all

CoD gives kill streaks, even in objective modes. Overwatch gives points towards your ult. Regardless, this game isn't a shooter and it's not really relevant.

I don't disagree that RW is kind of ok in terms of objectives to do on foot, but nearly all of them are best done while stacking as many healers as possible because there is little reason to be anything else right now.