[ville]

Hey everyone.

There have been many, many discussions in the past few months about how the gamemode could be better, how it could work in a cup format and how it would be good for both casual and competitive players. This is where we'll hopefully reach a mutual understanding of what needs to be done. Just to warn you - my post will be long.

I've played a lot of SB myself as most of you know, and also analysed replays, players and maps by spectating games and brainstorming tactics. I hope you all consider what other people suggest, as there might be some potential in every thought. My suggestions will generally be tied to the competitive scene, as it's my interest with the mode. However I'll also try to think about the casual players by not making the mode sound too hardcore.

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First, I'm going to list what I think is "wrong" with the mode right now. It's functional, but I think these things could be improved. Let's begin!




This is the root of the problem I have in the competitive games. Whether this is a big deal or not depends also on the map design, as some maps are much easier to get on the pole (for example Microwave) than others (CastleMania old version). In Reduction phase, the time to capture the pole gradually reduces down from 1.6 seconds until it's 0 seconds, when the phase changes to Instant. In other words, during these phases it gets easier to attack and harder to defend as you only need to touch the pole to win a round.

While these phases can make a match very intense and reward you from making great individual plays, I don't think they suit the strategic nature of SpeedBall. Reducing the capture time rewards you from individual plays rather than teamplay. It also does not punish you from trying to rush the pole and potentially having your whole team killed. In most maps, after a failed attack you can just bring the pressure back to the middle of the map before the other team can capitalize on the successful defense. Another problem is that if a team leads in capture %, they can just keep the ball in the middle area during the instant phase, possibly without getting punished at all (for example in Klymaxx). They can even reset the ball by jumping to water without it being a big deal at all. In other words - reduction and instant phases are often less intense than they should be, because they only punish you from mistakes in defense or middle area, and not in attack. It's often the best tactic to just try to rush the pole, even on your own, rather than try to build a good attack by focusing on positioning and passes. On some maps it's of course easier to do than others.

What I feel we need to fix this, is to bring some pressure on the attacker during the two phases. Not only "what if I fail my moves and don't score here"-pressure, but also "what happens afterwards if I fail here"-pressure. I'm going to suggest a drastic change that can be great, or an absolute disaster. But I suggest that instead of reducing the capture time, we increase the spawn time during the second phase.

Now, a normal spawn time from the moment you die is 5 seconds. That means, after receiving a killing rocket, you are able to move after 5 seconds. It takes another two seconds to be able to shoot rockets after that. During the second phase - let's call it spawn increase phase for now - the 5 second time would gradually increase to 8-9 seconds. 3 seconds might not sound like a lot, but I think it would make a huge difference in the game. One death in the middle area would make you instantly reconsider what you want to do, as pressuring without a third player for 10 seconds (including the 2 seconds of not being able to shoot) could be disasterous. It would give good positioning much more impact, and passing would be vital to keep the ball on your own team. Having your whole team killed at the enemy's pole would instantly switch the momentum to the enemy team (unless they also lost two players or so). Lives would actually mean something, no matter where you died. The spawn increase phase would obviously lead to the third phase, which would have the max spawn time (which would be 8-9 seconds or so).

Alright, so what about timers? I'd like to keep the same times for Normal and the 2nd phase as we have in the league matches (5 minutes - 3 minutes). But here comes the second part of my idea. The final phase would be endless - or at least another 5 minutes long. I'd actually prefer an endless phase, but that of course would need to be tested.

"But Ville! What about having a higher capture % than the opposing team? With an endless round it would be pointless!"

Yep, it would. But that brings me to...............




Alright. The second part of my idea is something that kind of brings the reduction/instant phases back, but in a different way. Basically, what I mean by the title is that for every, say, 100% you spent as total capture time on the enemy pole, your capture time would reduce by 0.2 seconds during that round (numbers are just placeholders). I'll try to make it simple:

Team A gets on the enemy pole two times: Once with 57%, and once with 64% (121% in total). As they got 100% or more, their capture time is now reduced by 0.2 seconds (1.4s total).

They get on the pole later, getting 79%. Now their total cap% is 200%, and because of that they get another 0.2s reduction (1.2s total).

This will go on for as long as they get on pole. Of course you'd always rather capture than get reduction for future tries, so the system isn't abusable by stepping on and off the pole to get as low capture time as possible. This feature would reward teams for getting the ball on the pole, and thus it would make it less likely for the more passive team to win, and as the round progresses, combined with the spawn time increase the team with the better round would have the advantage, rather than the game being practically even (like it is with the instant phase currently - the capture % is often not a very big factor). I think the mode would also become a better for spectators, as there would be more strategic elements to it.

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There are a few other things I have in mind, such as map design and what would be a good mappack, but this post is long enough as it is I think. Feel free to bash these ideas, praise them, suggest other ones and in general discuss!!!!!!