This is an idea I came up with 2 weeks ago and didn't post as the XP scaling & Duel rating need more work before release. I had lots of real life issues pop up and do not have the time to fix these issues for the foreseeable future. I'm posting as I hope it's still of some use and that the idea's can be used as I fully believe they will be a massive benefit to the state of the game.
Since we're updating PVP, lets not forget the oldest & once most popular... DUELLING!
Suggested Changes:
- Duel level is now completely uncapped
- Everyone preferred the big numbers... 450 sucks.
- Duel level is based on experience, total
- Duel level, like your actual level, is NOT a reflection of skill and should be treated the same as normal experience ranking, a competitive leader board rank and nothing more. The level should be based on your TOTAL XP as shown in the leader board.
- Duel level does not determine who you can duel, your ACTUAL level does
- You can only duel within 10 levels of your own until level 140 at which point you can duel and be duelled up to level 250, that sounds bad but considering how few people will ever make it past level 190, this is the only way of them ever having ANYONE to duel. (as it stands now, if you're level 150 you can be duelled by a level 210, so no one will even feel this change for years until people level past 210. And of course no one is close) Currently you can be as low as level 120 can be duelled by a 168 which I do not think is fair. This should keep pressure & bullying off the noobs, it'll change nothing for anyone in the 140-210 range until someone eventually breaks 210, I doubt even in a years time there will be more than 1 per world (if that).
- XP Calculated by Level and Level Difference
- Up until level 140 the XP calculations can stay as they are, after 140 the following is true: (15 * Loser’s level) - (8 * Winner’s level) * (0.9 / level)
- Couldn't think of a formula that is balanced below 140, yet scales to the new level cap. This should also be easier to code in. (this should not be the final formula, I do not have time to test for a better one though this is still leagues better than the current outdated formula)
- Duel Rating.
- Experience and Duel level was never a good measure of skill, introducing a competitive duel rating will give duellers that duel for fun or competitiveness reason to compete against those that are skilled, rather than bully farmers and workers for stats & achievements while still having an impact on duel level & XP since there will no longer be duel motivation. Duel rating will be uncapped, but will give bonus Duel, and normal level XP. the XP bonus will give a bonus of 1% XP per 0.1 duel rating, capping out at 100% bonus XP. (this rating would go under Duelling Level on your profile)
- For Example, everyone stats with a duel rating of 1. if you beat those lower than your rating by 0.6 you only gain 0.1. If they are lower than your rating by 5 you gain nothing. If they have a rating of 0 you gain nothing (and no bonus XP). Meaning each world will have a naturally occurring cap based on the amount of active & skilled duellers
- From 0.5 below, to 1.4 above your own rating you gain 0.2. 1.5 and above you gain 0.3, being the highest you can gain. (to avoid ratings being too volatile)
- KO's giving 0.2 bonus to those 0.5 below you and up, to reward dominant victories. You will gain nothing if they are 0.6 below you, or 0 rated.
- Losses take as much rating as a victory would've given.
- Over a long period of time, rating will SLOWLY regenerate to 1... This is to avoid rating stagnation, it must be very slow so that non duellers will not be targeted again, yet it must exist so non duellers are allowed a fresh start if it's needed.
- If this is not feasible, it can also simply reset everyone to 1 at the start of every season (or simply raise those that are below 1, to 1).
- I believe this will be a massive mindset change to all duellers drawing attention away from those that do not duel or are not very good and focusing on skilled full time duellers and create a massive amount of practically endless gameplay (as proven by many other online multiplayer games with similar ranking model)
Pros:
- Uncapped Duel level to properly reflect experience gained
- Less low level bullying
- No motivation = Incentive to duel for XP and once again chase leader board
- More accurate & active duel leader board
- Incentivised competitive duelling between duellers
- Less focus on non / part time duellers
- Those that only duel for quests will not be punished with a high duel level
- Bigger Duel Pool
- More player interaction & endless gameplay mechanic
- XP rewards that reflect level cap increase
Cons:
- Achievement hunters / bullies will have a bigger duel pool
- I see this as a good thing, though I added it as I can see people wishing those that repetitively duel them for would eventually be unable to. This rarely happens as people will just maintain a duel motivation of 10, and once it goes to high will keep it at 100 and loss enough duels to be in range again.
Reasoning:
Duelling needs help... It's a massive part of the game but perhaps the most poorly coded and least enjoyable these days, for all parties involved.
Duel level is a good idea in theory but with so few duellers left and so few players in general it leads to them being massively ostracized, no players at that duel level = no duelling.
Whether chasing achievements, leader board ranking, XP duelling or just for quests it always leads to less players to engage with (this is the reason you could now count the amount of duellers & those that "enjoy" duelling on the fingers of one hand on most worlds). Duel level has never stopped bullying effectively, only forces it onto a select few, while also being very unsatisfying and frustrating for both parties, If you chase achievements you will end up with a duel level so high you will have less than a page of players to duel, with thousands of duels or hundreds of levels to go
If your duel level didn't determine who you could duel it'd also remove the need for motivation which as this point would only serve as a positive, duelling will give respectable XP that scales in line with the new levels. It should remain balanced at a lower level as defined by the formula up until those later levels though I have not tested this too much and think this should be open to discussion.
Duel Rating further improves the rewards for competitive mutual duelling, which in turn will draw many would be duellers attention away from those that do not want to duel, in favour of improving rating / XP bonus.
As stated... Duel rating & the XP scaling is WIP... I just want this to be seen. Please give feedback to build upon this rather than pick it apart.