Background
I am a professional software designer. I have over 24 years of experience, and am currently a Product Manager for a mission-critical B2B software company. I have been playing MMORPGs since Asheron's Call in 1999 (only Ultima Online and Everquest pre-date it).
Introduction
Update 1.6 information has been shared with players via the latest ESO Live. I will discuss two pieces of Update 1.6, Initial Champion Points and new Ultimate generation. The purpose of this thread is to expose the flaws in the design of these two features as proposed during ESO Live, so that
@ZOS can consider changes to both of these implementations before Update 1.6 goes live. I will include the most effective changes in this thread, however
@ZOS is, of course, free to come up with their own solutions to both problems.
Part 1: Initial Champion Points
As already discussed, debated, and confirmed by
@ZOS_GinaBruno,
@ZOS decided to break their promise that earned EXP now, prior to 1.6, will give proper credit to players post-1.6. Their reasoning boils down to really only one factor: game balance. Specifically,
@ZOS indicated that for 1.6, since VR levels still exist for now, and also that the Champion System's overall "power" was increased by a factor of 4 (from 400 points per "star" to 100 points per "star"), that allowing players to start off in 1.6 with vastly differing amounts of CPs would make for very unbalanced gameplay until Update 1.7 when VR levels disappear.
The problem with that is that granting either 0 (no vet characters on your account at all) or a flat 30 (for 1 or more vet characters) is overkill, and a very temporary balance measure, and thus is highly flawed.
Flaws:
1. The moment 1.6 is live, those who grind, level quickly, or just plain play the game more, will quickly gain CPs over those that do not. So, the "flat" 30 point award will only have a meaningful effect for a day or two, and then will be completely moot.
2. Giving everyone a flat 30 points breaks your promise that XP gained will count towards the Champion System.
3. It also arbitrarily punishes (or at least insults) players who either took your word and leveled up characters to make use of the added CPs they would get, or already put that effort into your game (while paying you).
Fix:
As proposed in an earlier thread of mine, you can quite easily tweak your idea of "flat 30 CPs" for a slightly graded amount of CPs based on effort players have put into your game, and it will not affect game balance in the slightest.
Since the overall Champion System has 3600 points, and 30 points is a mere 0.8% of that total, you still have some leeway in granting more points, up to 50 (1.3% of total CPs) or so CPs. That idea is as follows:
- You gain the greater of the following two numbers of CPs when the Champion System goes live, with a CAP of 50 CPs:
A. You gain 1 Champion point for every 1 million XP you've earned on all your VR characters.
B. You gain 30 CPs.
Examples:
- You have only 1 VR1 character. You gain 30 CPs. (due to B )
- You have 1 VR 14 and 1 VR 5. You gain 30 CPs. (due to B )
- You have 2 VR14s, and a VR5, all of which are exactly those levels (no extra XP earned). You gain 14+14+5 = 33 CPs.
- You have 1 VR14 but gained 20 million EXP on it since ZoS announced the Champion System and promised the XP earned would count: You gain 34 CPs.
- You have 8 VR14s (regardless of XP). You gain 50 CPs (you hit cap)
Difference between the lowest possible account and highest possible account is 20 CPs (30 vs 50).
The details of what you actually implement aren't really all that important, since the problem is not truly a power issue as you claim (as I said earlier, after 2 days post-1.6, the CP difference will be far more than 20 points between the power-gamers and the casuals anyway.)
The "win" here for
@ZOS is that you solve your image/reputation problem (broken promise, punishing players who earned the extra points). If I can say that a 20 point difference is a token, a gesture, and not a real balance issue, then you can say that because I am right, granting those (up to) 20 points to those that earned it to fix your reputation is a no-brainer.
Part 2: broken Ultimate generation
Ultimate will change so that a Light or Heavy attack will give you a buff for 8 seconds which grants you a flat amount of Ultimate per second. Also, healing someone with this buff who has at least attacked recently will grant the healer the same buff.
Flaw:
1. PvP: Sieging in PvP will no longer occur. Why? Because using Siege is not a light or heavy attack, and therefore will not generate any Ultimate. Players will "let the other guys siege, I will stand near the wall and fire off light/heavy attacks to build Ultimate so that when the wall falls, I can rush in (or defend the breach) with my Ultimate ready."
2. PvE: Tanks or other agro-generating players can no longer effectively serve in their role if they have to weave in attacks that involve dropping Block. It will lead to more wipes and high-end content becoming harder for all but the really elite players to complete.
Fixes:
PvP: Change the buff from being granted only by Light/Heavy attacks, to instead being granted on "any attack which damages a player or structure."
This means Ultimate will NOT be generated by buffs, random heals (ones that don't qualify to obtain the buff via healing), random AoEs or Siege in an empty field against no one, or by killing Monsters or NPC Guards (<-- this is big). You only gain ultimate if any attack (which includes firing a Siege or Oil) damages a PLAYER or Structure. And of course, change the healing qualification to "heal someone with that buff who recently damaged a player or structure."
This allows players to continue to PvP naturally, either dealing damage, sieging or healing without having to arbitrarily hop off siege weapons to run moronically up to the wall to light/heavy attack someone, then run back to their siege, etc. I.E. it will not disrupt normal PvP gameplay.
PvE: Change the buff from being granted only by Light/Heavy attacks, to instead being granted on "any attack which damages a monster."
This means Ultimate will NOT be generated by buffs, random heals (ones that don't qualify to obtain the buff via healing), or random AoEs against nothing. You only gain ultimate if any attack damages a Monster. And of course, change the healing qualification to "heal someone with that buff who recently damaged a monster."
This means tanks can continue to drop damaging AoEs and other taunting attacks while blocking to stay alive (since they are gaining the agro and getting pounded.)
Conclusion:
I really enjoy the game and do not mind lending my much greater experience in software design to try to improve it and make it more enjoyable for both newcomers and loyal players who were here from the very start who helped make it successful in the first place.