Junior Member
Unlike some of the other posts, I like the difficulty and challenge presented so far, I find the AI harder than other players, and I'm okay with that. Of course I'm also that player who decides to play through Dark Souls without leveling up, using X weapon only, No shield, etc, so I may be a bit biased.
However, it's clear the combat system is designed for and thrives in the 1v1 Game-play. It does work in 1v2 scenarios when you can utilize the "Revenge System", you're playing both cautious and smart, or you're up against specific combinations of classes but anything after that gets pretty chaotic, and the game does not seem to punish the "Gank Game-play".
The "Gank Game-play" I'm referring to is essentially, getting ganged up on by multiple people. The game almost seems to reward this Gameplay style because of how it's designed and I've played against players who only do that; They run around as groups to each objective and just madly swing away at opponents, obviously with no respect for the game mechanics as they are only concerned with getting the "Win".
Since there isnt a deterrent or punishment for it, 4v4 Dominion, 4v4 Brawl, 2v2 Brawl and the like only encourage "Gank Game-play", and take away any sense of challenge that might have existed when respecting the "Art of Battle" system. I understand that you're not going to typically win a 1v3 or 1v4, but it is kinda silly when you're backed into a corner and the 3 or 4 people on the opposing team are just swinging away madly until you're dead, all while hitting each-other/etc.
IMO, these suggestions arent too hard to implement and may help Mitigate the "Ganking":
Fixing Dominion:
Include larger more spaced out maps with additional objectives (6 objectives and 4 players would cause some splitting up. "Gank Game-play" could still be done, but it may cost you in overall points if others were back-capping while you and your friends continue to cheese. However, I know that it's too late in the development cycle to go back and redesign all the current maps. So maybe a concept to keep in mind for future map designs?
Another factor would be to make "Friendly fire" severely punishing. If you do 1X damage to an enemy on hit, and 4X damage when hitting a friendly, you and your team may rethink swinging wildly when there's 2-3 of you against a single enemy. If you dont, well, you've essentially given the enemy the advantage by killing your allies. It might sound unfair, but I believe it does encourage smarter more precise game play tactics.
Fixing Brawls:
For the "Brawl" style game-play, implement "Timed Gates". The "Fighting" Players would still start in their areas and must utilize a lever or crank and open the gate to get to where their allies are. This way, people who just sprint off at the start to help their allies attempt a quick 2v1, would be forced to "Use a lever to open the way" for 4-5 seconds and potentially be killed in the process from behind for ignoring their opponent; essentially a deserved punishment for trying to cheese.
Static Colors:
This one is more trivial, but it gets confusing when you're sometimes blue, and other times orange. Usually you associate the Red/Orange colors with enemies. Maybe change it so you always see yourself/teammates as blue, and enemy players as orange?
Matchmaking Tweaks:
"Leave as a Party" doesnt seem to work.If you join a Brawl or Duel and someone leaves when it's over, you're forced to vs AI unless you exit to menu and restart the match. Allow this auto-search to refill slots, it is set as the "PvP" option afterall, not "PvAI".
When you're in a party, and have to leave, this makes it much more tedious when you also have to recreate the party each time.
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Again these are just my opinions, and the game seems like it has the potential to be tons of fun, but it could also just be lobby after lobby of ganking if it's equates to an easy win with no deterrents or consequences...
Junior Member
It might even be worth considering that the "Friendly Fire damage" be limited to only self-inflicted, so that it only punishes those aimlessly hitting friendlies...I've seen quite a few people pick the "Biggest 2Her class" and then run in when you're doing a 1v1 and start swinging wildly, no concern for you, as they mindlessly swing away at both you and the enemy, just to get a kill.
