The Fields of Glory (Shatter)

[ToniRomo]

I don't get why they don't remove GC restrictions. I don't think any players like them.
I'd rather face a premade then sit in a queue for an hour without it popping and then log off.

[Cynric]

Well, technically the second season of Feast should start up sometime in the future, assuming SE hasn't completely done away with the entire concept of PvP by then; so, maybe we'll have that to play instead ...

I know a lot of people like to hate on Feast for one reason or another, but I'd much rather queue up for the second season of that, then keep going with the Shatter snooze-fest. Call me crazy, but I prefer my PvP to have actual PvP in it; so, I'm hoping that the players who feel the same way start to queue for Feast again once the second season starts up. The occasional match of Front Lines is nice and all, but having this as the only option for "PvP" is just plain demoralizing ...

Feast was somewhat fun but we'll have to see how they do it. I have a feeling s2 will be Doa

[Kai_Lee]

I don't understand why people say shatter has no pvp in it? Everytime shatter match I been in rather its 72 or 24 there is a lot of fighting all over the place.

[Cynric]

I don't understand why people say shatter has no pvp in it? Everytime shatter match I been in rather its 72 or 24 there is a lot of fighting all over the place.

Everytime I get it everyone focuses on ice and hardly engages aside from a few ranged picking off people and sometimes after an ice dies.

[Kai_Lee]

Everytime I get it everyone focuses on ice and hardly engages aside from a few ranged picking off people and sometimes after an ice dies.

It could be your data center maybe?

[Eorzean_username]

I don't understand why people say shatter has no pvp in it? Everytime shatter match I been in rather its 72 or 24 there is a lot of fighting all over the place.

Sometimes I get matches like that, and Shatter is fun in those matches. Really — I have a great time in intense Shatters with a lot of smart competition between teams.

An increasing majority of the time, though, I end up in matches where everyone seems exhausted and just wants to be left alone to kill Ice and get it over with.

I see it not as a problem of Shatter not supporting (even rewarding) direct player conflict, but instead providing too many legitimate ways to avoid it and still score high points. Often, teams that avoid conflict don't necessarily even win by the end, but the mob mentality sees points going up by a huge chunk each crystal and decides that's good enough.

If your team (or especially 2 or all 3 teams) has overall passive or unconfident players, it then turns in to a lot of awkward waiting, standing around, map travel, half-hearted base captures, half-hearted skirmishes that go nowhere, etc. It's tedious and feels more like FATE farming than the Frontline PvP I experienced in Seize.

Queuing up for PvP is already a gamble on my NA datacenter because even after deliberately choosing a minority GC, sometimes the queue is just low and it's a long wait. Shatter adds double RNG to the "Will I get a PvP match?" question — first, I need to achieve a queue pop. Then, I need to get a match where players actually want to fight and take objectives or zone out nodes, instead of just standing around watching the Ice spawn timer.

Gambling on the Shatter queue for PvP is increasingly not feeling worth it for me, and I don't like feeling this way because I really enjoyed Seal Rock and looked forward to every queue pop.

[Kai_Lee]

But seal rock was the same thing, there are matches with just endless fighting all over and then there was matches im won doing not much but watch the other alliance fight while we steal their nodes. I enjoyed them all regardless of what kind of matches im in.

[Thekk]

But seal rock was the same thing, there are matches with just endless fighting all over and then there was matches im won doing not much but watch the other alliance fight while we steal their nodes. I enjoyed them all regardless of what kind of matches im in.

I'd argue the biggest difference is that Shatter feels way more static than Seal Rock. In Shatter, crystals are always in the same spots and spawns are somewhat predictable. Small crystals die way too fast too, so you don't even bother going for them when they spawn at the other end. It leads you to defending the same position over and over. In Seal Rock, you can't know where the next tomelith will spawn, and you also have the A/S ranks to keep you on your toes. Going after tomeliths in other areas of the map is also possible. Overall, that leads to less standing around.

[KayVonTrarx]

I end up in matches where everyone seems exhausted and just wants to be left alone to kill Ice and get it over with.

I think that the map design of Shatter is just not conducive to good fights. Firstly, in the middle, you can fight one team for a bit but the 3rd will always pincer & cause a retreat on all sides. I have never had interesting or long fights in the middle but the map makes you go there.

Secondly, every objective's zone in Shatter is flat. This helps everyone PVE ice but makes 3-way pvp tedious without any tactical advantages.

IMO, Seal Rock had good fights because of its map design. There were multiple routes that didn't cause 3-way traffic jams BEFORE the objective. Furthermore, pincers weren't an instant retreat because there were actual defensive positions with the ramps/cliffs.

Shatter makes 3-way PVP tiring. Along with the overly PVE game mode, it's obvious PVPers are frustrated.

[Cynric]

The only reason seal rock had even a chance of standing around was because sometimes 2gc would tunnel vision leaving the third alone. Which is an issue with having a 3 way system. Username and thekk I believe covered shatter issues pretty well. The best times I've had in shatter are in 24 where as 72 is a crapshoot