Making PvP Better

Buret0

These ideas would make a huge difference to the PvP experience in this game:

(1) PvP Class System; and
(2) Alliance vs. Alliance battles.

The first deals with making PvP accessible for anyone and does away with the current ladder system. The second gives a new way to fight, a team based alliance vs. alliance war.

1. PvP Class System

You will be assigned a class for each event you join. There will be five classes. A high degree of success in the current event will expose you to combatants one level higher and move you into the next class. At all times, you will only see and be seen by players in your current class.

Initial class will be based on your roster strength, including mandatory characters + average best two side-kicks from boosted and unboosted. Generally you will start each event in the class you ended the last one in.



Points System

Instead of basing points on the ladder ranks, your points will be based on your ability to field a strong team versus the strength of the team you are facing (not the roster of the player, an actual numerical value of the strength of the enemy team on D).

Character strength will be a factor based on:

(a) star rarity;
(b) level;
(c) # of covers;
(d) win/loss record of enemy teams of expected similar strength when this character is in;
(e) damage done to enemies in battles where this character is in on D;
(f) use of this character by teams that exhibited high degrees of success over the last season;

...and any other factors the developers may consider relevant in determining team strength, such as team composition (support and battery roles), rainbowing colors, etc.

So a team of Mandatory 166 boosted 3* + 270 JeanBusters might differ depending on who is boosted and who is featured.

Point Values

All points are based on awarding 30 points for fighting a team of equal strength.

So if your roster has an expected strength of 305 and you are facing a roster with an assigned strength of 270, that battle would be worth 27 points if you win and cost you 34 points for losing, the reverse being true for the other team, but divided by 3 (the defending team would get 11 points for a successful victory on D and would lose 9 points for that loss). Points are more valuable on O than on D, which is acceptable in a system where points won and lost are not based on a ladder system, but rather on comparable roster strength.

This system encourages people to play more, since defensive victories and defeats are less valuable. It also prevents people with the best rosters from waiting until the last five hours of the competition and beating up on everyone for 75 points a pop, despite the difference in quality of the two teams fighting favoring the 5* late arrival to the event.

Preventing exploits

In order to prevent retreat boosting, teams will start every event at 150 points. If a team reaches 0 points, they are eliminated from the event.

Losing on Offense is three times more punishing than winning on D is rewarding. This protects D teams from

You are only fighting teams within your class. If you send a weak team out to boost other teams, they won't get many points from beating you due to the difference in strength. If they intentionally retreat against your **** team, they will lose up to 75 points and you will only win up to 25 points (D team strength of 122, your team strength 305). To be honest, the ratio system isn't perfect, because a team that is three times weaker than you should never be worth more than a single point, but 122/305 = 0.4 * 30 = 12 points, which is way too many points for picking on a clearly weaker team. Ideally, you would have the attacking winner gain a single point and the losing defender would lose a single point, while the attacking loser (who should never lose this battle unless on purpose) would lose 75 points and the winning defender would gain 25 points.

In order to prevent ISO/reward feeding, there would need to be a cooldown. You cannot fight the same player more than twice in an hour and you cannot fight the same player more than four times over the course of an event.

After losing seven battles or 100 points on D you would automatically generate a 3 hour shield. That way you can't just intentionally send out the worst team you have.

Rewards

When you are playing at the top levels of the game, your rewards need to be different than the rewards you get to start the game. This is an incentive to play at the highest levels rather than to intentionally exploit roster analysis weaknesses to place well in lower classes.

1st Class - PvP battle rewards = 1 CP(5%)/25 HP(5%)/500 ISO(5%)/250 ISO(15%)/140 ISO(10%)/Event Token(5%)/Heroic Token(10%)/Standard Token(20%)/3* Cover(5%)/2* Cover(20%)
2nd Class - PvP battle rewards = 500 ISO(3%)/250 ISO(20%)/140 ISO(20%)/70 ISO(5%)/Event Token(2%)/Heroic Token(10%)/Standard Token(20%)/2* Cover(20%)
3rd Class - PvP battle rewards = 500 ISO(1%)/250 ISO(25%)/140 ISO(20%)/70 ISO(10%)/Event Token(1%)/Heroic Token(10%)/Standard Token(10%)/2* Cover(25%)
4th Class - PvP battle rewards = 250 ISO(5%)/140 ISO(25%)/70 ISO(20%)/Heroic Token(5%)/Standard Token(20%)/2* Cover(5%)/1* Cover(20%)
5th Class - PvP battle rewards = 250 ISO(5%)/140 ISO(5%)/70 ISO(30%)/Heroic Token(5%)/Standard Token(25%)/2* Cover(5%)/1* Cover(25%)

Similarly, the rewards for placement and progression will differ.

If you enter the event as a 5th class player, your roster is probably all level 40 or less, almost no 3*s and some development into 2* land. Your top progression prize is going to be the featured 3* from this PvP and your top placement is going to be a set of covers from a 2* and one cover from the next required 3* and an event token, some ISO, some HP.

A 4th Class player is going to be somewhere beyond that level, probably an average level of top builds between 50 and 90. Probably has a few 3*s with multiple covers, but certainly isn't able to field the RC in DPD 70% of the time, maybe a maxed out 2* or 2. What this player needs to advance is going to be lots of opportunities for covers and HP to acquire roster slots to put those covers in. Progression rewards are focused on getting covers and HP. Placement rewards will still not include any LTs or 4* covers.

A 3rd class player has all or nearly all of the 3*s in various stages of development. Average level of top 10 builds anywhere from 90 to 140. A couple of 4* covers have started to appear. Top 2*s are championed. Able to complete the DPD pretty much every day. Rewards focus less on HP and more on ISO and opportunities to obtain 3*s and 4*s. Top progression rewards are now 4* covers. Placement rewards are starting to give 4* covers, and CP.

A 2nd class player has all of the 3*s they want covered, the best of them are maxed out, the rest are at least at 120. A few 4*s are starting to get well developed, between one and five 5* covers have dropped for this player. At the upper levels of this class, there are 1-2 4* characters at level 250 to 270 with many other 4* characters floating between 170 and 220 for competing in the 1 v 1 DPD. Top progression rewards are 10 CPs. Top placement rewards grant more ISO, CP, LTs, and 4* covers. ISO shortages require players to make hard decisions about championing.

A 1st class player likely has 6 or more maxed out 4*s, some with a few champion levels. Might be missing levels and covers on the newest 4*, but has the classics all very well covered and leveled. 5* characters are starting to be the only thing you use, though sometimes paired with your favorite boosted 4*s. At the top end, you have championed multiple 5*s and don't hesitate to attack anyone in the game. Progression rewards are event tokens, CP, HP, ISO, and LTs. Placement rewards give CP, HP, ISO, and LTs.

2. Alliance PvP Mode

This mode brings on all out alliance warfare.

I have never played Clash of Clans, but I understand from friends who clan all the time that there are actual values to be seen in being part of alliance.

The top five members of your alliance (by roster strength) will be teamed up to fight the top five members of another closely ranked alliance.
Then the next five members against their next five members.
Then the next five, etc. until all members have been assigned.

Wars will take place over the course of 2 days.

Alliance ISO Bank

Each day your alliance ISO Bank gets 100 ISO for every active member of your alliance. Individual members can contribute ISO to the bank, maximum 5,000 ISO per day. Each day, each active member (instead of the current bonus) receives 1% interest on the current ISO balance, up to a maximum of 1,500 ISO and a minimum of 50 ISO.

Any member of the alliance may withdraw up to 2,000 ISO per day, unless a commander turns off ISO withdrawls. When an alliance member leaves an alliance, he receives 1/20th of the growth in ISO from the time he joined to the time he left, regardless of whether there are 3 or 20 members in the alliance.

Going to war costs the team ISO bank 10,000 to 100,000 ISO, depending on the rank of the alliance.
Entering the end of season championship costs the team ISO bank 100,000 ISO.

Day 1: Planning.

At noon EST on the first day of war, your roster will be saved and locked. Any covers you add, ISO spent, etc. will still affect your PvP and PvE roster, but your roster is locked for the purposes of war. This is to prevent cheats who might drastically change the quality of their roster after an equal powered war target has been selected. Using a character in an alliance war does not affect health, downed status of your characters outside the alliance war and vice versa.

At noon EST on the first day you will be told which alliance you will be fighting, which grouping you will be a part of and which grouping you will fight. You have until 9:00 EST on the following day to form your two teams or two random teams will be formed for you using your top 10 characters (by roster strength). From 9:00 EST until noon EST (or any time after your group has locked in their team selections) you will be able to choose your third team from the remaining players in the rosters of your teammates. You may not choose a duplicate of a character you already selected. If you haven't made a selection, a random team will be assigned to you from the top ten remaining characters.

Day 2: Fighting

Starting at noon EST you may select any unfought team from your five opponents. You may attack this team using any unused A,B, or C team you have. In this way, all teams will have the chance to attack three times and be attacked three times. Each character you down is worth a single point in a loss, for a maximum of three points per win.

Because you will be going into these battles at full health, you would expect the O to win an evenly fought match 95% of the time (the AI's disadvantages over a human player need not be listed here). In order to make these three alliance battles have meaning and to prevent every team from scoring 3 points nearly every time, the AI will do double match damage, double normal max health, and produce 1 AP in three random colors each turn.

If you don't attack during the 24 hour window, you don't get any points (but the other team can still attack you). The damage dealt to your teams from enemy attacks does not affect their health when attacking (first to launch the attack does not get to wipe out the other team).

Rewards

You get tokens or ISO after each victory.
If your group of five collected more points than the other team's group of five, you get ISO, HP, CP, and Tokens.
If your alliance as a whole scored more points than the other alliance, your whole alliance gets an ISO reward equal to 1/2 the team ISO bank entrance cost and your team ISO bank gains double the entrance cost.

Championship

The 64 top rated alliances will participate in the end of season competition (assuming their ISO bank has at least 100,000 ISO...). Single elimination, seeded by alliance record going into the championship (rather than current roster strength, to help prevent mercs). The winner of each round is the alliance with the most points. Tie-breaker goes to the team with the best ranking going into the championships.

All top 100 alliances who express interest in participation in the end of season tournament will have their alliance members locked one week before the end of season and will continue to be locked until they have been eliminated from the tournament. Rosters for the tournament will be locked at noon EST on the first day of the tournament and will continue to be locked for the purposes of the tournament. Support will screen for cheaters and any member caught cheating will be sandboxed. Sandboxed players are booted from the alliance. The alliance will not be permitted to replace the cheating player.

Consolation Bowls

Every alliance who did not get into the championships will get a "bowl game" against the next highest ranked team. These will be free to enter, with the quality of the victory prizes scaled based on the alliance's rank.

Strategy and Misc.

One strategy might be to send your weakest player's weakest roster against the other team's best player.

It might make sense to leave a couple of stronger players for teams to for their C teams.

You must have at least 10 alliance members who have been members of your alliance for over 30 days to play this mode.

An alliance commander may pay from the alliance bank to join a war once a day, up until 11:00 AM EST. Entry is locked from 11 to noon in order for alliances to be matched.

slidecage

very good idea. sadly i doubt the game is coded to ever work this way