DEV REQUEST:DUEL/SPAR system

[KokonoeAiyoko]

ADVENTURER SPAR (1 on 1 battles for fun)
Slight Story Spoilers

Lore wise, a duel/spar occurs with Hoary Boulder and his partner against the Warrior of Light, so it fits perfectly within the lore of the world.

Description:
Spar with your fellow adventurers in a one-on-one match to test your merit and for amusement!

Rules and Regulations:
1. You cannot initiate a Spar during the following conditions:

-You are currently in a Sanctuary.
-You are currently in a Spar.
-You are currently Level-synced, in Dungeon or Treasure Map. (you may duel during FATEs that aren't Level-synced.)
-You are currently Gathering or Crafting.
-The other adventurer has Spar Request disabled.
-Either adventurer is currently Teleporting.

2. You may request a fellow Adventurer to a duel, and after they accept, the match will begin in 5 seconds.
3. After the fight begins, you will be in a one-on-one battle against the other adventurer with the goal to lower their hit points to 0.
4. The battle is not ranked by any scores, and is merely for entertainment.
5. When the match is over, you will receive a "raise" in which you can choose to accept or decline.
6. If someone has Spar Request disabled, you cannot Spar with them.
7. If someone proceeds to a different map, the Spar request or current Spar is cancelled instantly.

[Leogon255]

Duels would be a fun little thing to add. I know two people in my FC are always going on about Paladin versus Warrior and can't really get a fair match going in FL to determine a winner. We have this perfectly good Gold Saucer sadly missing the original's main attraction: Battle Square. If duels were added I could easily see it being something done in a possible Battle Square addition to GS.

[kpxmanifesto]

stuff

Really couldn't agree more. The chief complaint I see here about implementing dueling is that a few people are afraid of possible confrontations. But this confuses me because PVE is full of this.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Calling people children just cause they don't agree with you makes you aggressive for no reason and makes your points look weak

[kpxmanifesto]

As for class balance I have to say, I don't really think there's an MMORPG out there with fully balanced dueling. WoW especially, does not.

[Grimmel]

This type of system could be great in all honesty. People have been asking for a dueling system (Not open world PvP) and myself as an RP'er would love to see this implemented.

Just don't allow duels in Cities and towns and only allow them in open spaces in the world. Also make it so a few meters from the city is a no Dueling zone, that way people aren't zoning out of a city into the middle of a duel. There could also be certain areas in cities set aside for duels like the Ul'dah coliseum could open up as a duel only area inside the city which can be reserved for private duels. Say, make it an instanced area where you can have a 1 on 1 up to an 8 on 8.

Just make it to where we can automatically decline duels if we don't feel up to it and all will be well.

[Orspeth]

With a check box for auto-decline and IF duels were only allowed in instanced areas (like coliseum, good idea) I don't see the harm in it. Duels in open world are annoying to those that don't care for them, myself included - and downright obnoxious in heavily populated areas, cities, crafting guilds, etc.. If the duelers just want to do it "for fun" they don't need an unwilling audience, right?

[Nalien]

I always laugh when people imply PvP isn't popular in Final Fantasy. Sure the series is historically an RPG (rather than an RTS which is vaguely PvP), but this game is also an MMO, and any MMO is going to have a demand for PvP.

Wolves Den and Frontlines were plenty popular at their launches, and matches are still possible if you can stomach the wait. It isn't dead content, just frustrating to get into due to the queues. PvP in ARR is popular enough for the developers to even waste time on it, otherwise we wouldn't have Slaughter (and oh how I wish we didn't, but that's a rant for later) nor the new rules and zone in Heavensward, though that really isn't what they should be doing for PvP at the moment...

The issue with PvP in ARR is one of creating a steady playerbase. The current situation is one where people stop queuing after a while, either to take a break from it or to do other things, and that creates a negative feedback loop on the queues. Less people queue, queues take longer, people see long queues and don't queue, thus queue times get longer. That's the biggest issue with PvP in this game, for some reason SE insists on adding more modes which just splits up the PvP community, making the problem worse. It's mind boggling, made all the more frustrating by their out right refusal to even communicate with the PvP community (at all? I don't recall them ever gracing the concerns of the PvP section with a response).

Kind of hilarious considering they got PvP so right in the Gold Saucer. Say what you will about the Triple Triad Tournaments, at least it gets people playing the game on a regular basis, and Chocobo Racing completely skips the issue by having NPCs fill the ranks. I'm sure nobody wants to PvP to play with NPCs (I certainly don't, the PvE at mid is annoying enough), but it could have a dramatic impact on the queue timers for Wolves Den; You queue, get in instantly with NPC allies enemies and the odd PC, which sucks for PvP but at least it is easy farming, thus more people queue for Wolves Den and as such you end up playing against more PCs than NPCs. Both Wolves Den and Frontlines would also benefit dramatically from server side scheduling, you'd know that the people who are interested would be queuing at a certain time and that would improve queue times. Rather than the ridiculously drawn out Triple Triad Tournament timetable we got (really? A whole week for one Tournament and then a week of nothing? Sigh), PvP would probably benefit more from "You get extra rewards for an hour at this time, and this time, etc. etc.". Split the day into 8 three hour slots, with one of those hours being better rewards and the other two being cooldown? Speaking of rewards, outside Glamour they really could do with something worthwhile, you know, for those of you who can't buy i70 gear and desynth it for a tidy sum. Always figured it would be nice if that Materia Merchant at the pier would sell all the combat materia, fairly ridiculous prices for the IVs to limit the impact on the economy of course but how effective would that be? Spiritbond for materia or PvP? I know what I'd pick, every. single. time.

Are they doing any of that though? Nope. Instead we're getting a new map that's probably as bad as Slaughter... Yay... I wouldn't even call any of that particularly difficult to produce, given much of the framework is already in place. Duels certainly aren't something that should be difficult to implement, and duels would pretty much completely avoid any queue issues so that would be able to satisfy PvPers for a good while, hopefully while someone is slapping people over the head going "Stop work on this new Frontlines mode and do all this instead". Mark my words, that new map is just going to be an exact repeat of Slaughter unless SE actually addresses the real issue with PvP. I wouldn't even mind Slaughter and the new map if we had duels, because I could duel while I wait for them to fix the twisted wreckage that is Wolves Den and Frontlines.

Seriously SE, give us duels at the very least. Same rules as Triple Triad, limit where we can, or just shove a 1v1 mode in Wolves Den that two people can party up and queue for. It would be a very simple addition that would keep people satisfied with PvP while you keep delaying fixing the actual issues to add more Frontlines maps...

[Kikoten]

They could center 1 on 1 duels in the Ul'dah colosseum and make them spectatable events. Instead of health gauges, there'd be bars you slowly fill up called "Favor" or "Favoritism."

Power-ups could spawn around the colosseum to make the fight a little bit spicier.

[Yumi_umi]

Sure y not lol
Ppl can already request card duels in TT which is like a 1v1 in designated zones.