PVP/ Frontline Problems

[Nasku]

Although there are moments in which i enjoy the current pvp systems in frontline, i strongly feel that 3 factions are just too overwhelming and unbalanced. For achievement purposes trying to get 100 wins with any given faction atm is impossible given the change to mandatory freelancing. In Onsal Hakair at times the best chances to win in my experiences, are when our team focuses objectives while the to other factions battle it out. I understand that objectives are important for game modes and it helps drive the main progression of the match, however not pvping to win a pvp match just seems ludicrous and supremely unfun. I cannot think of much sports where more than two teams fend off each other. There is world vs world in guild wars 2 with actual defendable objectives an i feel as though that style of pvp is vastly different and way better suited to larger scaled combat than the frontline battles. What are everyone elses thoughts? Have any of the staff adressed any acknowledgements on the issues on the current pvp state?

[Esmoire]

I don't think there is inherently anything wrong with the idea of Frontline. I can look at problems with the UI, the UX, the way the game teaches things to the player, and some issues with PvP at large, but when it comes to Frontline the fundamental idea is good.

It is tempting to draw analogies of other competition, but I think that's unfair. Frontline is inherently volatile because it has random nodes and 72 players with almost no control over who your team mates are or any attempt to fairly distribute skill; it hopes on randomness taking care of that, but randomness and some components of human psychology will always be a huge determining factor. I think 24v24v24 is unique, and exciting, and suits the maps well. Not everything has to be one team versus another; some games have 4 teams going at it, or free-for-alls with a hundred players. The medium is young and we have barely explored what is possible.

Statistically speaking, if you are completely average, and player skill is evenly distributed, you will place first 33%~ of the time. This means you'll need about 300 games to get a specific mount for a GC, or a mount from a particular duty, and if it takes longer you are either not good at the game or really unlucky. That said, if you are good at the game, good at communicating, good at teaching, you can get it sooner. As an example:

Looking at my own stats, I was able to get them sooner than 300 games. Of course this means consistently performing as top DPS and shotcalling, so it requires mastery. That said... isn't this what people want? A place where your individual skill increases the likelihood of success? Of course, sometimes, no matter what you do or what you say, people will not listen, or they will listen but you can just not have enough strong players on your alliance. This is kind of just inevitable with almost completely random distribution, and it's fine.

I think Frontline is more or less fine, though I think for future patches they should focus more on their other offerings in PvP. As it is right now, there is effectively nothing in-between The Feast and Frontline. I 100% respect that Rival Wings has a community doing their best to keep it active, but it's effectively dead. To address this, they should make some revisions to streamline RW a little bit and make it more fun for people besides the diehard fans. Then they should bring back 8v8 Feast, but repackage it as a new mode. Then from there, they can make it so the daily challenge for PvP dynamically places people into the three modes based on participation numbers.

[Moonlite]

snip

Any real sport where three teams compete? You play enough matches and get random groupings wins can be snatched from defeat. Random matches when I am queing 3-4 times a night see me winning over 10 which means that if you want mount now you should be getting desperate because with other maps being added it could random out to years.


SE doesn't like to talk about three team PvP it might make them question why they keep it.


I was not on the win chasing Maelstrom bandwagon and generally never do more then 30 matches a week and I am over 140 wins. Casual queing will balance out to some degree the unbalance three team system. Also ques are pretty decent right now on crystal if you get a day here or there to put in some real time.

[Waaltar]

For achievement purposes trying to get 100 wins with any given faction atm is impossible given the change to mandatory freelancing.

You accumulate a faction win total based on which Grand Company your character is a member of. If your character belongs to Flames than whichever team they play for in a PVP frontline match, they accumulate wins towards the 100 win and other achievements for Flames.

For 100 wins, you can casually get it in 1-2 hours a day for 3-5 months (i.e. aim for about 1 win a day while playing 2-5 matches).

[Shinklet]

Babe it's 4pm, time for another attempt at balancing 72 man pvp..