PvP Improvements for Public PvP Tab & Trade Boxes // Dual PvE & PvP Skill Trees (visuals included)

As of 4/18/2014, I changed the Player Limit to 12 for Teams and Free for All PvP modes to reflect 6v6 as currently available in PoE's PvP System.

This now allows players to do 2v2, 4v4, 6v6, or have 12 players at once face each other.

As you can see, anyone in a party playing the Teams modes can be on what team they want. You can even do 5v1, or 10v2 if you really wanted to.

However, if the Host of the PvP set PvP mode to Free for All, and the Player Limit to 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12, then the ability to team with who you want would not be available. Instead, everyone will battle each other at the same time against x amount of players.

Now while some players may complain about lag or graphical issues due to too many players at once, that's OK since those players can easily join a hosted PvP match without so many players playing at once.

OR, if players who suffer lag or graphical issues host their own PvP battles, they can set the Player Limit to what they want, and as a result, this is what makes this system so flexible.

EDIT: These UI images have now been updated with Tab Arrows.

I don't see why this cannot be implemented into PoE. It is not impossible.

PvP Battleground Areas are not mentioned here: PvP Areas players are taken to when clicking the 'Begin' Button shown in the second Screenshot down is up to GGG's Team for Art & Areas to create and figure out. What you see here is all the setup stuff.

HOST PVP TAB (level range changes)

Let's talk about what's going on between these two images:

The overall idea is to have the PvP be truly Global in that anyone across all servers within a particular League can access the PvP UI and face each other.

"Why is the 'Host PvP' Button gray?"

Because the information for the required fields is not complete. When it is, the 'Host PvP' Button will light up for the creator of the PvP Battle. The text, "All fields complete" would also turn into a green "YES."

Everything else is self-explanatory in the image.



PUBLIC PVP TAB (scroll down to see the UI Image)

"First, why is the 'Begin' Button gray?"

Because one player is not yet ready and has not put a check-mark in the 'Ready' Box yet.

Just like when you make a regular Party, you will be able to KICK people from your hosted PvP battle.

Also, hitting the Update Button brings you back to the 'Host PvP' Tab.

Anyway . . .

When players complete the 'Host PvP Form,' in the Public PvP Tab the PvP Mode, Player Limit and Levels allowed will be displayed to everyone in that Tab. Therefore, the title of your PvP Battle is made for you.

This approach makes it so players cannot troll the Public PvP Tab by naming their PvP Battles trade-related, off-topic things. The relevancy will always be consistent.

In the edited Screenshot, the current PvP Mode shown is Teams.

"Why?"

Because the Teams PvP Mode is the most intricate, and also gives an idea how the other PvP modes would look when hosted. The Teams PvP Mode would be the only one to have all the features shown in the Screenshot.

All other hosted PvP modes will be much simpler in that only the 'Begin' Button and 'Ready' Check-Mark Boxes would be shown.

The FREE FOR ALL and 2-MAN DUEL modes are quite self-explanatory. I will therefore not go into explaining the obvious.

Here is what really needs to happen to further improve PvP in Path of Exile:

Other than altering certain Skill Gems for balancing reasons in PvP, players should be given a second Skill Tree dedicated to PvP only while playing PvE so they can easily switch between their PvP Skill Tree and PvE Skill Tree with a click of a button placed within the Skill Tree Header.

Furthermore, as players level up and gain Skill Points for their PvE Skill Tree, they will also gain an equal amount of Skill Points for their PvP Skill Tree.

So if a player is following a specific build type, the difference with following their build in both the PvE and PvP Skill Tree, or two separate builds, is the PvP Skill Tree will be more balanced in its numerical values while the PvE Skill Tree remains the same.

(The scenario for disabling the PvP Skill Tree)

Note: IF players are not in a PvE environment, a message in red text will say, "If you are in PvE, you can allocate PvP nodes, but your PvP Skill Tree is not active."
Players who are not currently in a PvE environment will then have their PvP Skill Tree disabled, yet players can still allocate nodes on their PvP Skill Tree as they level.

(The scenario for disabling the PvE Skill Tree)

Note: IF players are not in a PvP environment, a message in red text will say, "If you are in PvP, you can allocate PvE nodes, but your PvE Skill Tree is not active."
Players who are currently in a PvP environment, arena, or the like will then have their PvE Skill Tree disabled, yet players can still allocate nodes on their PvE Skill Tree as they level.

Do you see how the two Skill Trees combine? If you're in the PvP Skill Tree the Your PvE Skill Tree button appears. If you're in the PvE Skill Tree the Your PvP Skill Tree button appears.

On a bigger note: Skill Tree nodes allocated in whichever Skill Tree is disabled whether it's the PvE or PvP Skill Tree will be highlighted yet more transparent, which indicates those nodes on that Skill Tree are not active until players enter the right conditions, environment, arena, and the like.

CONCLUSIVELY, this makes it easier for developers to actually update & tweak the PvP Skill Tree without having to touch the PvE Skill Tree, and without having to make a separate league!

This will probably never happen, but as an additional improvement to PvP, IF certain gear is going to be an issue in PvP, think of an airport that checks people for things they're not allowed to bring on a plane.

For example, GGG's developers can make it where when players talk to a PvP NPC to play PvP, the NPC will check the player's gear. If the NPC sees OP gear on players not allowed in PvP, a list of their OP gear and a message will come up saying, "Due to PvP balancing, you must first un-equip the following gear before entering PvP:"

The NPC would check for certain unique names (not mods,) and only the DPS values on certain rare/yellow gear.

Why? Because having the NPC go through all mods on uniques and rare/yellow gear would require a ridiculous amount of code and is why I wouldn't recommend something complex of that magnitude.