Some Tweaks to Crystalline Conflict I'd Like to See (not balance related)

[Gserpent]

I think class balance is in a pretty good place overall right now, so I'm not worrying about it. But I think Crystalline Conflict, as a mode itself, has some pretty rough edges that need to be sanded down. Given that Yoshida has said he's a fan of MMOPvP games in the past, I'm kind of surprised that some of these edges exist at all. In no particular order:

- Targeting in CC does not obey the tab-targeting method you select in character options. This needs to be remedied. Maybe add an option to character options that lets you bypass the usual restrictions or limitations to tab-targeting in CC or something?

- Add a sound effect to the last 10 seconds of a match. I've seen a surprising number of games won and lost because no one was on the point when the timer ran out. It's such a simple thing, but there's a reason games going all the way back to UT and beyond had the final ten sounds audibly counted down.

- Limit Overtime to 3 minutes. This is enough time to push the crystal back across the field and into the enemy base, and allow for a good fight, but will prevent those odd games that go on for 10+ minutes. An alternative might be to double or triple the death penalty to respawn timers during overtime - instead of having a 13 second respawn for 3 deaths, it's now 16 or 19 seconds. Achieves the same results by a different route; reducing the amount of time the game can spend in overtime.

- Rework the tracker/scoreboard. Right now, it's essentially backwards. It shows your team's progress on the enemy team's side. Your team's progress should be listed on your team's side of the map; I don't think there's even a need for a graphical representation of the path, either. Just an emblem of the crystal with how many players from each side are in the zone, and maybe a colored outline for the team that currently has ownership of it.

- Increase the number of risers per tier to 5 for all tiers, including unranked, and require 5 rising stars per rank. Remove streak bonuses entirely. Helps mitigate the lucky streak aspect of the current ranked system and makes moving through tiers slightly more challenging, which is how it ought to be.

- Add Casual (Team) queue options. "Team" is defined as "at least 2 players queuing together as a party," not the rigidly defined PvP Teams from Feast. Honestly, I'd prefer they scrap Ranked (Solo) entirely and make it only for organized PvP Teams, but I understand that they probably need to gather data on CC's long-term popularity before taking that kind of step.

[Kisshu]

- Add a way to pre-mark opponents during the wait time instead of when they get into range.

- Add a count-down quick-chat to inform team-mates to burst. Think Feast had something like that.

[Stormfur]

Let me mark opponents on the opposite team BEFORE a match begins (if there's a way to do this on console or some kind of macro, please tell me because I have no idea how to do it).

Make purify actually have resistance.

Auto mute people who spam the same quick chat more than 3 times in a row.

[Gserpent]

Purify *does* have resistance.

[Sarevok_Thordin]

What I want to see: The removal of the volcanic map.

[Gserpent]

What I want to see: The removal of the volcanic map.

Volcano map is the best map in the current rotation. The unique feature is persistent instead of a simple one and done, and the pillars allow for effective LOSing and require people to alter their playstyles accordingly. The weakest map is probably Cloud Nine, since its middle is basically just two rooms connected to each other. I feel like the size of the "rooms" should be reduced and a longer corridor connecting them should be added.

[Caddo]

Volcano map is the best map in the current rotation. The unique feature is persistent instead of a simple one and done, and the pillars allow for effective LOSing and require people to alter their playstyles accordingly. The weakest map is probably Cloud Nine, since its middle is basically just two rooms connected to each other. I feel like the size of the "rooms" should be reduced and a longer corridor connecting them should be added.

I only do Casual but I like the Palaistra and only queue during that map since it's what I want in PVP. PVP. No shenanigans. Honestly, Cloud Nine is the worst and I don't mind the Volcano one, but I'm not a huge fan of it either (all the LoS walls... seriously..). If it was only Palaistra, I'd run strictly that mode 24/7 when I want to PVP. I just want to PVP.

[Gserpent]

I only do Casual but I like the Palaistra and only queue during that map since it's what I want in PVP. PVP. No shenanigans. Honestly, Cloud Nine is the worst and I don't mind the Volcano one, but I'm not a huge fan of it either (all the LoS walls... seriously..). If it was only Palaistra, I'd run strictly that mode 24/7 when I want to PVP. I just want to PVP.

I dunno, I feel like things get very boring if there's nothing to react to. It's a large part of why Feast was pretty much dead once the top 100 got locked in each season during week 1-2. One map, it's always the same... even if you varied the layout a little and the scenery, it would still get boring quickly.

I *would* like to see Z positioning looked into, as WoW did with its many arena maps... but then again, with how terribly the servers handle anything related to movement, that could be a bad idea (think of how glitchy things get in any of the ramps or overhanging areas in the FL maps.)

I like that the Volcano map is very different from the other two. The environmental effect lasts longer and isn't binary like Cloud Nine, and in an organized setting, it being in rotation would require people to adjust their compositions and strategies. I do think that some abilities and effects should receive alterations in light of how substantially the map's greater LOS ability impacts things, though. Making it hard for ranged and casters to turret damage into people is fine; making it hard to use important buffs on allies (Limit Breaks, specifically) is not.