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Solo unranked PvP arenas : how to make PvP great again.


apprentihugo

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After having played the game for more than two years as a PvP unranked and ranked player, solo unranked arenas (4 vs 4) seem to be the key to all the evils concerning PvP.

 

Toxicity, pro-players farming the new players, people not playing the objectives, extremely inexperienced players playing in ranked, lack of PvP players, lower interest in PvP : those are many of the major problems this game has concerning PvP. Although the developers have tried to fix them (I've seen more interest from the devs to improve PvP with better rewards), no solution was able to have a significant impact and some were counterproductive. Today, I suggest you a new PvP queue : the best way to fully enjoy PvP.

 

How it works?

 

Players are going to have a new PvP queue named "Solo Unranked PvP arenas", next to the original unranked queue, the solo/group ranked queue and the galactic starfighter. In this PvP mode, players are going to play in 4v4 arenas only, the exact same maps as we can play in "solo/group ranked PvP." The only difference will be that it's an unranked game mode, made in the same way as solo ranked. This option would only be available for lvl 75 players, the same as for the ranked queue.

 

Advantages

 

1. Reduce the toxicity in ranked.

Ranked players are tired of playing with newbies. The best players of the game can play agains't players that have played since two weeks. With solo unranked arenas, new players are going to have somewhere to improve and get better to the specific 4v4 maps, and be ready when it'll be the time for them to get into ranked PvP. Playing 8v8 maps is not a good place to learn how to play in 4v4 arenas. The way to play is significantly different. If a new player wants to improve, and buy a subscription to play ranked PvP one day, he firstly needs to gain confidence in him by practicing this game mode into an unranked queue. We must say that practicing for ranked in 8v8 maps is the worst way to improve because the goal of the current unranked game mode is all about the objectives (running the ball, guarding a pylon and more).

 

2. Reduce toxicity in unranked.

Unranked players are also tired to play with damage farmers who only want to improve their "killing skills." I am myself a player that plays in unranked only to practice my killing talents when I'm not playing ranked. Because the only deathmatch game mode is ranked, people that want to improve their fighting skills and play casually have no choice to play in the unranked queue, which greatly harms the PvP experience of all the objective players. This issue is one of the biggest source of toxicity in unranked PvP. Solo unranked 4v4s would remove a majority of the "damage farmers" from the queue (who just want to improve their fighting gameplay) and allow 8v8s to get more objective players.

 

3. Bring more new players to the game.

New players are going to have somewhere to practice and get tips & tricks from the more experienced players. Too often those players are getting destroyed by premades in 8v8s and by the best players of the game in 4v4s. With this new PvP unranked game mode, players will be able to improve casually, with fair teams (without premades from 8v8s) and without the extreme ranked pressure from the old ranked players. The new players are simply going to better enjoy their experience in a place they can practice their fighting skills, and eventually, buy a subscription when they'll be good enough for ranked.

 

Potential objections

 

--> Adding a new PvP queue would recude the amount of PvP players in 8v8 game modes.

Of course, it's a possibility, at the beginning at least. However, many players play in the current unranked queue for the wrong reasons. If deathmatchers play in an unranked deathmatch game mode, more players (who only want to improve their "killing skills") will want to join them and play the game. Objective players are going to stay in the classic 8v8 game mode and more objective players will want to join them because most of the "damage farmers" are gone. At the end, more players are going to play PvP : more players are going to subscribe to the game.

 

--> A new unranked PvP queue with only 4v4 arenas would reduce the amount of PvP players in ranked PvP game mode.

Yes, it may be the case, but only for a short time. Players who weren't supposed to play in the ranked PvP game mode will be playing in the new unranked queue, removing most of the inexperienced/inskilled players from PvP ranked. Slowly, more and more people are going to improve their skills in solo unranked 4v4 arenas and significantly increase the number of PvP players paying a subscription for ranked PvP.

 

To conclude, Bioware and all the SWTOR PvP players, you have everything to win with this new "Solo Unranked PvP Arena" game mode. You finally have the chance to reduce the growing toxicity and greatly improve the quality of the PvP experience for ALL the PvP players in this game. The question is : will you dare to do it? Do you have the courage to make the PvP great again in a nontoxic and better environnement?

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Your idea only works if you remove valor gained from the 8v8 modes and make it so that you can ONLY gain Valor in the unranked 4v4 queue.

 

Yes, that could be a good idea. Valor is only useful because at valor lvl 25 you can access to ranked PvP. If we add solo unranked arenas to the game, as the only source of valor rewards, it would definitely help the players to improve in the 4v4 game modes, and by the same way, ameliorate greatly the PvP experience for all players paying a subscription for ranked PvP. At the moment, players gain valor from playing huttball ; it's the worst way to be good at 4v4 arenas. The huge majority of the new players trying ranked game modes hate it and complain how toxic and hard it is. It's simply because they've never practiced it in the past. Even with an hundred of games played, unranked 8v8 game modes never teach you how to improve in 4v4 arenas. Solo unranked 4v4 arenas are the only way to change this game enough to increase the number of PvP players and encourage everyone to get better at 4v4 arenas : to pay a subscription and play ranked.

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Yes, that could be a good idea. Valor is only useful because at valor lvl 25 you can access to ranked PvP. If we add solo unranked arenas to the game, as the only source of valor rewards, it would definitely help the players to improve in the 4v4 game modes, and by the same way, ameliorate greatly the PvP experience for all players paying a subscription for ranked PvP. At the moment, players gain valor from playing huttball ; it's the worst way to be good at 4v4 arenas. The huge majority of the new players trying ranked game modes hate it and complain how toxic and hard it is. It's simply because they've never practiced it in the past. Even with an hundred of games played, unranked 8v8 game modes never teach you how to improve in 4v4 arenas. Solo unranked 4v4 arenas are the only way to change this game enough to increase the number of PvP players and encourage everyone to get better at 4v4 arenas : to pay a subscription and play ranked.

 

I like it...a lot. Hopefully it will get traction.

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This is a great idea to make the ranked pvp community more active. If more of the general playerbase is trained and familiar with arenas, more people will be able to participate and compete for ranking without being yelled at by toxic players hopefully). Overall a solid idea.
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I've seen many posts on the forums of people asking to improve rewards or medals if they play objectives. Devs have tried to make victory a necessity in order to have more rewards/credits/exp.

 

I think we are tackling the wrong problem.

 

I don't mind trying to encourage players to play the objectives, but the real problem is that there is no unranked deathmatch game mode players can play. Even valuing all objective points a lot and rewarding players enormously if they win, they are only going to change the way they play very little. We should not try to reform or change the players, we should separate them.

 

There are no "objective" problem in 8v8 unranked warzone if people queue there because they WANT to play huttball and other obj maps. At the moment, people queue for 8v8 unranked because they have no choice. Those people want to improve at fighting and for ranked : the only way to do it in 8v8 is by not playing the objectives. This is why 8v8 unranked warzones are the worst place where to improve at the game for ranked PvP.

 

Solo unranked PvP arenas fix this "objective" problem in 8v8 unranked PvP. No need to add additional medals around objectives or more restrictions like the devs have done those last months.

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All this would do is further split the pvp queues. Solo ranked is empty because most people simply don't like arenas. 8v8 consistently pops despite this games massive decline in pvp population because most people prefer objective based pvp.
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I have been asking this since Season One launched, when was it the fall of 2013?.

Why? Because like that people can practise before jumping into the Ranked-Arena que.

Normal Warzones are different to Arenas.

Like this people can actually practise and have better idea how Arenas work before jumping into it.

Another good way to make it would also be that that when we have Pre-season the ques are merged.

In reality Solo-Arena (no premade) que would be like a never stopping friendly Arena play, if you can call it that way.

I think it would help players not little entering into the Arena and eventually ranked que.

 

Valor has nothing to do with it. People think to much of its importance today, it was a stat for 2012 not today.

Bioware left it for achievement purposes because people eat that stuff. Me included, that's about it.

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