Seasonal Shard
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So it seems the 2 big complaints from players both new and old are tick rates and the power bloc/veteran player being so far ahead in ramparts/boosts(even more so with the changes) that the newer player is alive only because the veteran lets them be.
I propose a shard that is not connected to the 3 we have now. This shard is smaller (for faster ticks, goal should be ~1s ticks), and everyone starts at GCL1. This shard will also reset entirely every 1-3 months back to a bare state (same map/regen map?).
Seasonal mode exists in many popular mmo's and it works great as it keeps players new and old engaged and on a level playing field. You still have the current shards for your grand conquest long term goals of eradicating the 100's of afk players.
TLDR
Seasonal Shard
- Not attached to the current shards
- Resets every 1-3 months
- Everyone's GCL resets along with the map
- Smaller
- Tick rates ~1s
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Similar to Leagues in Path of Exile \o/ I like it
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Love the idea, but I still think it will be dominated by experienced/vet players. The code is where the strength really is.
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Love the idea, but I still think it will be dominated by experienced/vet players. The code is where the strength really is.
If that werent true then it would mean that there was no skill involved.
I think this would be great, but am concerned the additional cost will mean it never happens.
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This would get me to resub if it had <=1 sec ticks.
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Amazing idea. Would be amazing to play seasonal shards!
Maybe GCL can raise the main account GCL? So newbies like me have a chance to raise GCL without beeing destroyed by veterans on old shards?
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The concept of seasons will be used in the Screeps Arena standalone game.
https://screeps.com/forum/topic/2104/how-will-battle-arena-work
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@artch said in Seasonal Shard:
The concept of seasons will be used in the Screeps Arena standalone game.
https://screeps.com/forum/topic/2104/how-will-battle-arena-work
Why can't we get a seasonal shard here? Or are you effectively saying that the base game is no longer a priority. Which is fine, focus on making the arena version of the game something new and exciting. But if it comes out as nothing more than screeps with a new game mode on top of it and a new price tag you're going to have a bunch of disgruntled original game players.
The answer to making the original game fun isn't power creeps or contracts. It's a concept like this. More and more your responses to good feature ideas being "it's coming in arena" is effectively telling your long term players that all the good ideas we have are coming, they'll just be behind a paywall.
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But if it comes out as nothing more than screeps with a new game mode on top of it and a new price tag
This is definitely not the case, it'll be another well-thought concept with a lot of game content developed with this specific season gameplay in mind, and will be much more suitable implementation of this idea than just resetting valuable assets in the persistent world.
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I think you're missing what we're asking for. Yes develop arena, but give us seasonal shards here. We're not asking for neat new features and gimicks right now. We want the small things that improve the game we have. We don't want to be sold concept when we have a platform in front of us that is a UI tweak and cron job away from being a thing.
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Well, I'm not going to start an argument here. We've heard and considered your request. Just please be assured that this quite straightforward idea has been thoroughly considered many times during past 3 years of Screeps development, and has always been rejected, since it has much more cons than pros. And it's not exactly about development costs, many other factors are involved. Projects that add every feature which is just easy to add, often lose focus and fail. We strongly believe that this thing is not small, and not an improvement.
P.S. It's always better to speak for yourself while asking for new features. Simply saying "we" instead of "I" doesn't add weight to your request, since we have no idea who are these "we". Instead, if you want some other players to join you, ask them to add reactions on particular posts.
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@artch The reactions on the original post should lend some weight, and @o4kapuk can speak for the slack conversations.
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@davaned Exactly, the reactions on the top post, some other discussions, SWC and Botarena - all these things show that the season idea has a lot of interest and potential. We totally agree with this, it is the reason why we're starting a major new project on top of it rather than introducing as a hidden side feature that is hard to advertise. It is @Shibdib's statement "I think you're missing what we're asking for" that contains the unclear "we". I strongly believe we're not missing what the majority of players ask for.
However, we're sure that everyone (even @Shibdib!) will be happy with how the Arena will leverage seasonal gameplay, and it will become quite clear then, that the "seasonal shard" thing is just a crutch, an incorrect solution to an important problem.
Anyway, I propose to not chase our tails and drop this topic until some Arena design document is released.
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@artch Do we have an approximate time frame for this Arena design document, or is it still just a fantasy somewhere in the distant future?
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@gankdalf I don't like setting time frames, but it's definitely our focus now, and will become our primary development project as early as this summer.
