I post rarely, so this may be a read for some. After having played the game a good bit, I came up with a few suggestions to how some of the common issues that have been causing issues for members of the community could be fixed.

1. REVENGE

Revenge, to the best of my understanding, was placed into the game to assist a player when being outnumbered and attacked from multiple opponents. The ability for a character to go into revenge mode creates an extreme challenge and a difficult situation for some to deal with. Many individuals would blame the gear, especially purple gear when maxed all the way up. The gear does add to the revenge gain a player may experience. When 'Revenge gained by injury' and 'Revenge gained by defense' are combined together, a single character can gain revenge very quickly, especially when one is outnumbered. Personally, I do not find the gear to be an issue; although any examination from the perspective of a developer to ensure the correct values (we only see a bar, no numerical value) are in place wouldn't hurt.

Instead, I find the mechanic of revenge itself to be the issue. Revenge gain, as it exists in the game currently, is always active. Basically, every character that performs any action of defense, or being hit, gains revenge. The problem is this includes 1v1 situations. I decided to test this simply by having a friend in a custom match use an overhead heavy attack on me, which I would block. All gear was disabled for the test, and done away from any other source of attack to my character. After 10-20 blocked hits, my character, in a 1v1 situation, was able to pop revenge. Obviously if I used a character with any gear that is spec'd for revenge gain by defense, the revenge would occur quicker.

My first suggestion would be to place a x0 multiplier to each character that is only being attacked by a single other source. So long as the situation remained purely 1v1, no revenge gain would be possible by either person fighting one another. Basically, the situation would read in a 1v1 situation:

(normal amount of revenge gain) X (revenge gain from gear) X (0 multiplier for 1v1 situation)=0 Revenge gained from defense action or getting hit.

Revenge gain from gear would become ineffective, and a 'more' balanced 1v1 situation would be able to exist where a players skill would have the greater impact on the outcome. A lesser geared player would be able to out skill his or her opponent, especially when faced with a max gear level score player. Obviously there are other gear choices that enhance defense and attack that would factor in unless one was playing duel or brawl. With a x0 multiplier added to the equation though, no fighter would have to worry about his or her opponent using revenge in any game mode so long as the situation remained 1v1.

In situation where multiple individuals are attacking one person, the revenge gain multiplier could be adjusted however the developers see fit. The game already recognizes the moment 2 individuals target 1 person, and revenge gain is changed based on that I presume.

A 1v2 situation could look like this.

(normal amount of revenge gain) X (revenge gained from gear) X (1 multiplier for 1v2 situation) = ?

This value could be enhanced more for 1v3 or 1v4 situations. Combined with a slight reduction in gear values that pertain to 'revenge gain by etc', one could also enable lesser geared players to be able to fend themselves effectively while outnumbered. I have rarely found revenge to be anything outrageous when an individual is being attacked by multiple other individuals. If one team tries to attack 4v1, they should be forced to do so intelligently, and not chaotically. A player in revenge can be shut down easily if everyone performs the correct tasks correctly, but should they choose to encounter poorly, revenge should give one the ability to fight his or her way out effectively.

A multiplier such as I have suggested would allow 1v1 fights to become revenge free, while at the same time ensuring individuals being attacked by many opponents to have a fair chance at using revenge as it was intended.


My second suggestion in regards to revenge would be to look at the "cool-off" timers. After a fight has concluded (or an opponent has run off), the revenge gained by an individual does not go away that instant. Instead, after a few seconds the revenge gained will begin to decrease, and will decrease to reset itself to the value of 0 revenge gained. This process can take roughly 10secs+ (I have not tested if characters lose their revenge gained but not used at different rates) Note the bar at the bottom left of your screen with the small fist icon after you finish your opponent if you did not use revenge.

Any player can actually hold their revenge gain bar at the amount it is included for some time, so long as they maintain a 'lock' on a target. I have not tested to see if one could hold revenge while locked onto an enemy chief in skirmish, but this could be used to hold the revenge gained so far until another opponent approaches to attack and give one a head start (allowing them to pop revenge immediately or after 1 or 2 hits). With revenge able to be gained in 1v1 situations, one should consider staying out of range of lock for roughly 10 seconds or so to allow one's opponent's revenge bar to fully deflate.

Increasing the rate at which the revenge bar decreases while out of combat should reduce some of the excess revenge being stored on a character and cut down on the amount of revenge being pulled by various characters. This will affect 4v4 modes, especially on highly contested points. One could question should revenge gained in that bar on one's character start to decrease even while locked onto a target if no attack has been made on one's character after a given time.


2.MATCHMAKING

Two simple suggestion for matchmaking, which has seen many issues with teams seemingly heavy stacked one way or another.

I would suggest first, a change to how matchmaking uses rep score. Instead of a players overall rep score (the number you see at the top left of your screen), the matchmaking process should use the rep of the highest level character. For example, a player has a rep level 5 Kensei, a rep level 3 Orochi, and 2 other characters at rep level 1. Total for that individual would be 10. Matchmaking would use 10 currently, but with my suggestion it would be 5.

The purpose of this would be to help those individuals starting out, or haven't found the character that fits them perfectly more time before being thrown against those who have truly mastered one character. If one chose to level 5 characters to rep level 1, they would not be matched against the level 5 Kensei player mentioned before, but would be matched with players who fall into that rep level 1, maybe 2 for their highest character, and would thus create a more "even" fight. For modes like dominion and elimination that add all individuals together, hopefully this would keep the playing field a bit more balanced.


My second suggestion for matchmaking is to give the player more hands on control of the matchmaking process. For example, allow a player or leader of a party to only search under the 'strict' requirement for longer, before the process moves onto 'extended' and 'anyone will do' options. Other posts have been made in regards to this, and many have proposed ideas such as this as well. Please find them for more detailed suggestions on how to find matchmaking.


3. MAP DESIGN / ENVIRONMENTALS

I will say the excessive amount of ways on each map (especially duel and brawl maps) to throw one's opponent off the map or into an obstacle is a bit much, especially for a game that revolves around skill based fighting. While most can be avoided by proper situational awareness and positioning, sometimes it can be hard to avoid when a few characters can carry one 1/2 way across the map to perform a kill with such, but I'm sure there are plenty of other posts regarding this.

My suggestion, is not to remove these entirely, but rather to look at ways to enhance them. Take for example the Cathedral map. Personally, I hate all those geysers as they detract from the beautiful environment that surrounds my opponent and myself. My friend would have really loved to see me execute that viking, but poor guy couldn't see because of all the water spraying up in the air. Don't detract from some great looking maps by tossing an environmental kill opportunity in every 2 feet.

I would suggest finding ways to implement more interactive environmental kill options. The spike cage traps on sanctuary bridge are really cool options for killing people. Maps should have more creative options for performing an environment kill rather than just being shoved off a cliff. I'm bored with being thrown off a cliff. Try putting a ballista on map that can fire a single huge bolt that pierces a character. Maybe a piece of the shard fortress comes crashing down when a certain part of the wall is interacted with. A little cutscene for the few involved and now we have some more action in the game. Cut the boring cliffs/bridges/geysers out and add more of these, especially to newer maps. Give the community to give the developers ideas on some fun (or gruesome) ways to kill each other.


4. COMMUNICATION

To the Developers;
For Honor has so far been a very good game from my perspective and has exceeded my expectatons. I expect every game to have issues, and I have not played a game that doesn't have something that can be fixed or improved or balanced. No game ever maintains a the population it had immediately after launch (though some would like to think so). The true gamers, the faithful will always remain and continue to play (or try to play) even with issues such as connections failing and bugs/glitches to the system. Don't forget that we experience these issues on a daily basis, an hourly basis for some, so anger may pour out some times. But we keep playing.

I suggest communicating with us as frequently as possible, and here on your forums or game pages. Tell us what your focus is, not in detail, but overall and when we can expect change or balance or something good to come. Do this, and we will all keep playing.

I suggest for you