Another cut-throat test

Alternatively, and I said this in the chat, what if the kill counter (for unique account kills) didn't acknowledge kills made X levels lower than you? This would discourage ganking, and we've already seen that people aren't really eager to waste time making kills that didn't help them get to the prizes.

I agree that capping levels allowed in instances is easily loopholed, and besides, at least one high level in-game wanted to help some of us lowbies catch up (my apologies for not trust you, Zeno. It was a grand gesture).

My biggest request is still simply close off entry to the limited-time competition CT league after it's been running for, say, 1/8th of its time. That can be sort of handled with a forum password (much less chance of walk-ins who are like 'so what's this? OMG IM DEAD AND NAKED!') but ultimately, I think it's only fair that a race (and once you set a time limit, it is a race, be it to most kills, highest level, farthest distance achieved in-game) deny entry to people who missed the start -- not necessarily the moment of, but some fair window between the gun going off and the fact that most of the runners are simply impossible to catch.

That would be a real pain, if I was to show up late I wouldn't give a damn that I'm at a disadvantage I just wanna play thats the reason I showed up at all, being locked out just because I'm a little behind seems pretty harsh.

One must look at a couple factors here:

Is the current scenario of a short duration cut-throat league combined with it being extremely new cause a much larger than normal amount of low level griefing?

Is there more incentive to kill lowbies than people your own level, or is this just a current issue and a perception based on such a short duration?

Does cut-throat need limitations to be fair... What types of fairness are necessary in such a league?

In the first case, the only way to tell is to get to release and test out a permanent cut-throat league that has run for weeks. I promise you many factors and dynamics will be different... in addition, players have not had time to create friend lists, clans, or devise plans via relationships yet.

In the second case... I don't know.

In the third case, there are certain things that need to be changed to make cut-throat 'fair'.. I believe that there needs to be more entrances and exits that people can pop out of, because bottlenecks in pvp are game-breaking. Aside from that, one could say 'that's life' if a level 60 blasts your level 10 and takes your orbs... but on the flip side, if a group of level 10's cannot defend themselves against a single level 60, then the mode is broken.

I strongly believe that currently a high level player could tank and destroy a full group of lowbies. Therefore I believe that fairness will dictate a modifier based on how many attacks you are taking from pvp sources at a time over time... this should make it much more viable for a party to defend themselves given high level opponents.

Where's the fun in that?

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Altnaharra wrote:

It's like a box of chocolates.

I feel like all it would do is make me kill more lower levels that I would normally just pass up on.

Thing is people generally don't stick to the suggested area level in Cut-throat, some come back to kill newbs at the lower levels and some come back to kill the them while they go for the newbs, so in the end you get a clusterfuck of everyone at the start of the game.

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NotSorry wrote:

That would be a real pain, if I was to show up late I wouldn't give a damn that I'm at a disadvantage I just wanna play thats the reason I showed up at all, being locked out just because I'm a little behind seems pretty harsh.

I DID show up late and never stood a chance, whereas I did very well in the last two from the start. Not ladder-well, but well enough.

Remember, I'm talking leagues that only last 2-3 hours here. These can be run very frequently; if you miss one, you can just catch the next one.

Much longer than that and sure, other measures are required. But I've said before I see no appeal in a longer cut-throat league -- for me, the joy is in the Iron-man style format. We all start from 1, we all start with the same gear.

Give people too much time and more familiar balance issues arise. I think start-from-zero-you-have-two-hours-GO! is a very good test of game skill, possibly more so than the 'I probably have no life' ongoing ladder...

I just don't see the reason to stop someone from playing it just because they are behind tho. You do so knowing full well that you're behind but still it should be your choice to get in there and play if you want to.

Why not have both? A permanent long term cut-throat league and many short term events.

If the long term loses too much interest over time then it could be scraped, whereas I'm sure the events will always attract interest.

As zeto mentioned, some very interesting dynamics would arise in a long term league. The communtiy involved would probably get to know each other very well, alliances would be made and broken often, rivalrys made and blood oaths taken.

There will also be the time between short term leagues where people will want to get their cut-throat fix and turn to long term league

I too think level caps in instances is the wrong way to go beacuse then you will only ever interact with a small percentage of the playing community.

What about suppressing player joining notifications while also implementing the following:

make lower leveled players (say 5 levels or less) invisible on the mini-map?

and notifiy players if a player of level 5 or more(just throwing 5 out there) joins that instance, as well as showing their level in the notification?

comnine that with no rewards for killing way lower levels, and you make it fustrating for people to try and grief


Just a crazy idea I had,

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NotSorry wrote:

I just don't see the reason to stop someone from playing it just because they are behind tho. You do so knowing full well that you're behind but still it should be your choice to get in there and play if you want to.

Because there were people joining who had no idea what was going on. I saw someone literally say 'so what does it mean if I choose cut-throat for the league?'

Like I said, if there are regular short-term leagues, then my idea sticks. You're not really missing out because you can just go play Default until the next Iron Man Cut-Throat starts.

And I agree -- both would be fine. Longer-term for those who want to play that way, and short term for people like me who prefer a level playing field and see it as an event rather than a play-mode.

Congrats on winning though, Tyrinia. I saw you keeping count in GC and wondered, 'wow, who's this badass douche?' It definitely all makes sense now. ^_^ Your advice is sound except every time I had an inventory full of gear to stash in case I died, I was out of portal scrolls...

And I saw someone in chat say 'let's make portal scrolls really rare in Cut-Throat!'...heeeeell no!