Ducati style overhaul

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An SQUERRILz
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Ducati style overhaul

Post by An SQUERRILz »

What makes ducati ducati?

Ducati has 2 shots, no jumping
=>Shots are sparse
=>Excessively large map unless 4v4 or more
=>A dying and aging player base :P
=>Bacterial clustering experiment - the gameplay is all about grouping and spawns
=>Most random maps are either too boring or too one-sided for the stronger team or too luck-based but the wrong kind of luck
=>Not chaotic enough; the element of chance happens early and little can be done to resist fate
=>Kills do not make up for poor teamwork; many players are painful as teammates because they don't do any teamwork. "Closest flag algorithm" is the most common movement pattern, but a 1 K/D ratio player who is smarter is way more effective than a 2 K/D ratio player using "closest flag". The problem is few people do that, implying that a high skill cap is meaningless since what little strategy to study is already too difficult or undesirable. So things should be simpler, more chaotic, where strategy and teamwork makes less of a difference - we are here just to kill tanks right?
=>Statistically, the game is too one-sided and predictable. This possibly extends to 10vs10 Chesval cup, NA supporters might argue. The big example is 'advantage of being first to reach enemy flag, even by just 5 seconds' (e.g. how many of these turn out to be draw caps?). When two teams are evenly matched, "short term luck has long term effects". "Long term luck has long term effects" might be more playable, where winning requires extended luck because there are even opportunities to hinder flag progress (whereas with all teams even and odd the defender of the weaker team has a major disadvantage chasing back their flag while not even having an advantage defending their flag).
=>Spawns are painful; they are made for the flag-defending team to suffer. Also painful when there are no flag holders.
=>Assignment of attackers and defenders in 2v2 can make a big difference, although dying and spawns counteracts this somewhat.
=>Getting anywhere is hard. Especially to enemy base to defend under a deadline. Relatively infrequently can you expect to do so in one life, because you have to race the flag stealer.
=>Tank is slow. Chasing someone feels real dumb because you're both travelling at the same speed.
=>No uncontested passages. You can't get to the prime fighting spots with relative safety, which is a major contributor to grouping and spawn control. When there are too many buildings, in 3v3 or less a flag stealer can walk all the way from enemy corner to home base with just a single conflict.

What if we could have action at a distance? Long term luck, long term effects i.e. a lot of short term retaliation opportunities rather than painful spawns that put you as far from the action as possible? What if you could have a wider influence on the map far away, and more often rather than only getting kills/deaths close up? Less need for teamwork?

To take it to the extreme, what if:
-you could save the good maps and load them?
-you could choose a suitable map size for the number of players?
-a plugin purposely spawned you somewhere near the action or defense?
-evasive flag running was eliminated in favour of kill-based progress and unprogress?
-there was only one shot?
-bullets were faster?
-there were NPC defenders such as turrets could spawn and make the game more turbulent?
-matches had a large luck factor and everyone knew that and no one would feel bad about it because there is no teamwork to blame (except brad)?
-setting mines or long distance shots that cause delaying shockwaves if they hit special objects

BZMatchBall was successful example of new ideas within league arrangement.

PS yes I know ducati should not implement any of this and they won't ducati won't change I know it would cause massive disharmony it's not going to happen anyway so stop I get it I don't mean a literal "overhaul" of ducati league but an "overhaul" in thinking in terms of style of play I just put this here to promote discussion and the opportunity for new ideas, yes OpenLeague might be the place to try anything out not that I will because I'm retiring but it's interesting anyhow and it may affect for the new league I'm thinking of setting up.

PSS if you weren't aware, ducati and GU leagues aren't really open to any changes large or small. I was never actually suggesting this and I won't suggest it cos thats zero chance.

PSSS It's been suggested that I just implement some of these changes and see if anyone likes it. The only change that is not a technical change to the league is map saving. Yet still I wouldn't do it because I doubt council would approve something that only affects FMs nowadays. Also I used to do these experiments all the time, I know exactly how it works and that it's not worth the effort and I'm retiring from that kind of efforts.

PSSSS Also if you're curious I am thinking of an underground FFA league.
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slime
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Re: Ducati style overhaul

Post by slime »

Keep in mind that both leagues have actually taken some good ideas players had and incorporated them into the leagues (timelimit change to both leagues, seasons for ducati).

That being said, I think a smaller map size for ducati matches would be interesting to try. Since the majority of ducati matches are 15 minutes nowadays anyway, the current map size is simply too large for a standard 2v2 match.

Players could decide before playing a match to go to either a standard sized ducati map server, or a server with a smaller map. While I believe a smaller map would improve the gameplay of 2v2, I think it could also make larger matches (3v3, 4v4, etc.) even more spontaneous and exciting as well.
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