Jedi Al said something I wanted to build on in a different thread about Juggs and PVP. Instead of carrying on that convo and derailing that thread even more I figured I'd add a new thread on this topic.

His statement was this:

I've also said before that I play solo ranked for fun. I quite enjoy arenas, and ranked has a competitiveness that regs doesn't.

The topic is 8v8 maps, and how to reward players to play objectively again, or CARE again about winning the match and not just numbers farming. For anyone unaware or confused, the fact of the matter is there are many players old and new who simply do not care to play 8v8s objectively anymore.

It's so bad that sometimes in HuttBall matches, a player can find themselves the ONLY player actually trying to stop the other team's ball carrier or to get the ball themselves. During these kinds of matches, you can find 8-10 players in a big glob at middle ignoring the ball just randomly attacking/healing anything they can for maximum numbers to see just how high of numbers they can get.

I believe if BW added incentives like special PVP WZ titles rewarded for objective gameplay they could cultivate more objective gameplay but as long as there's nothing to gain for playing objectively except for the possibility of winning the match it seems for some this isn't enough to curb their numbers farming.

I recommend adding rewards like titles, and perhaps even rare or hard to get weapons and gears for objective gameplay. These would be called "Lesser Objective Rewards."

For instance:

Planting 500 bombs on doors in VoidStar - Title ,The Saboteur

Removing 250 planted bombs from doors in VoidStar - Title, The Protector

To continue rewarding this behavior, players could then have even harder to get titles for these actions! These next tier rewards would be considered Greater Objective Rewards.

Planting 1,000 bombs on doors in VoidStar: A new title plus a special moddable weapon that is only available via this reward for objective gameplay.

Removing 500 planted bombs from doors in VoidStar: A new title plus a piece of armor from a VoidStar gear set.

They could actually add new gear sets into the game this way! For every Greater Objective accomplished in VoidStar a different set piece could be rewarded to the player. In this case, they'd have to have 7 Greater Objective goals to accomplish to reward a player a full suit of the VoidStar gear set for objectives accomplished.

Obviously they would have to make these sets very hard to get, so the number needed would have to be high to keep the players interested in playing objectively for these rewards.

This is just one way I think they could encourage objective gameplay in the 8v8 maps.

Another way would to be simply to reward WZ commendation medals (tokens) for objective gameplay... For instance every time you plant a bomb in VoidStar, you get tokens which then could be spent with a special WZ Vendor that sells titles, gear sets, weapons that can only be bought with WZ Objective Tokens.

This might actually be a better way because players could monitor and keep track of how many tokens they need to get specific rewards for the different map objectives. Each map could have specific tokens they give for objective gameplay and these tokens could only be spent for items from that map the Objective Tokens come from.

These "Objective Tokens" could be given a better name, too of course... Perhaps War Strategy Tokens would sound better than "Objective" tokens. Also, the numbers I provided are just off the top of my head, maybe 500, 1000 times aren't enough to be considered for Greater Objective rewards, I don't know.

My point here is 8v8s can be competitive, but for that to happen you need the majority of players to be competing for the same thing and I believe adding incentives to play objectively would encourage many players to actually try to play them objectively versus just numbers farming.

You really expect me to care about Hutball when it pops sometimes like 3 times in a row ? Also, the maps being very bugged on top of that, certain classes just rolling straight to the goal line(getting worse in 6.0) ?

No man, Hutball is just number farming for myself and a lot of people because unlike 3.0 4.0 times when we had arenas in rotation we could enjoy occasional Hutball pops.

Now it's Vandin, Vandin, Quesh, some other map, then The pit, Voidstar, Vandin.... This was my great Hutball night yesterday.

I cannot express in words how much I detest that game mode and sometimes even leaving before the match doesn't help because I get back filled on another Huttball map for the next pop.

For the other Maps that are not Hutball, yes, I agree. We need to reward those who care about winning, but how do you prove some dude went for the win ? High objective score is not enough as many times people just farm numbers at a turret they own.

Jedi Al said something I wanted to build on in a different thread about Juggs and PVP. Instead of carrying on that convo and derailing that thread even more I figured I'd add a new thread on this topic.

 

 

The topic is 8v8 maps, and how to reward players to play objectively again, or CARE again about winning the match and not just numbers farming. For anyone unaware or confused, the fact of the matter is there are many players old and new who simply do not care to play 8v8s objectively anymore.

 

It's so bad that sometimes in HuttBall matches, a player can find themselves the ONLY player actually trying to stop the other team's ball carrier or to get the ball themselves. During these kinds of matches, you can find 8-10 players in a big glob at middle ignoring the ball just randomly attacking/healing anything they can for maximum numbers to see just how high of numbers they can get.

 

I believe if BW added incentives like special PVP WZ titles rewarded for objective gameplay they could cultivate more objective gameplay but as long as there's nothing to gain for playing objectively except for the possibility of winning the match it seems for some this isn't enough to curb their numbers farming.

 

I recommend adding rewards like titles, and perhaps even rare or hard to get weapons and gears for objective gameplay. These would be called "Lesser Objective Rewards."

 

 

For instance:

 

Planting 500 bombs on doors in VoidStar - Title ,The Saboteur

Removing 250 planted bombs from doors in VoidStar - Title, The Protector

 

 

 

To continue rewarding this behavior, players could then have even harder to get titles for these actions! These next tier rewards would be considered Greater Objective Rewards.

 

 

Planting 1,000 bombs on doors in VoidStar: A new title plus a special moddable weapon that is only available via this reward for objective gameplay.

 

Removing 500 planted bombs from doors in VoidStar: A new title plus a piece of armor from a VoidStar gear set.

 

 

They could actually add new gear sets into the game this way! For every Greater Objective accomplished in VoidStar a different set piece could be rewarded to the player. In this case, they'd have to have 7 Greater Objective goals to accomplish to reward a player a full suit of the VoidStar gear set for objectives accomplished.

 

Obviously they would have to make these sets very hard to get, so the number needed would have to be high to keep the players interested in playing objectively for these rewards.

 

This is just one way I think they could encourage objective gameplay in the 8v8 maps.

 

Another way would to be simply to reward WZ commendation medals (tokens) for objective gameplay... For instance every time you plant a bomb in VoidStar, you get tokens which then could be spent with a special WZ Vendor that sells titles, gear sets, weapons that can only be bought with WZ Objective Tokens.

 

This might actually be a better way because players could monitor and keep track of how many tokens they need to get specific rewards for the different map objectives. Each map could have specific tokens they give for objective gameplay and these tokens could only be spent for items from that map the Objective Tokens come from.

 

These "Objective Tokens" could be given a better name, too of course... Perhaps War Strategy Tokens would sound better than "Objective" tokens. Also, the numbers I provided are just off the top of my head, maybe 500, 1000 times aren't enough to be considered for Greater Objective rewards, I don't know.

 

My point here is 8v8s can be competitive, but for that to happen you need the majority of players to be competing for the same thing and I believe adding incentives to play objectively would encourage many players to actually try to play them objectively versus just numbers farming.

Agreed. We need a real incentive to make people care again and also a disincentive to losing. Incentives are never enough in this game (because Bioware don’t make them good enough). So a reasonable disincentive + a reasonable incentive = people playing to win and not number farming.

I’d also like to see a real incentive to playing lowbie pvp as you lvl up. Thus giving us another “play your way” option in lvling. Ever since they removed pvp comms for gearing, lowbie pvp has died off.