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[Genesis]

Please continue to use Pegasus Session 1 - Feedback Thread for feedback related to the PvP/PvM equipment bonuses, battle mechanic changes and UI tooltip changes. This thread focuses on testing of the Game Arena queueing system and Crystal Defenders game mode.

Game Arena

User Interface

• Displays a list of games that the player can sign up for.
• Keeps the player informed of their sign up status.
• Enables game sign ups from anywhere in the game.
• Features an on-demand game queuing system.
• Players enter a lobby area to prepare for battle before the game begins when enough players have signed up for a game.
• Arena Group function to enable large groups of friends or clan members to sign up for the same game and play together in the same team.
• Can be accessed through the main menu or by pressing Alt + G.

Games List






Group Manager / Group HUD

• Allows up to 15 players to form a group to queue for games.
• Seperate group from party system, allowing uninterupted party play while waiting for queues.
• Tracks HP, MP and buffs for all members from any location.
• Provides toggle button to show or hide Group HUD.
• Group management options can be accessed through Game Arena window, or by pressing Alt + H.
• Group HUD can toggled with Alt + J or by pressing Group button located to left hand side of screen.

Group Chat

• Allows group members to communicate from anywhere.
• Replaces existing Alliance chat.
• All, Shout and Trade chat are disabled while in an active game.

Scoreboard

• Displays results of the all players at the end of a game.

Edited by Genesis, 12 April 2012 - 05:03 AM.

[Genesis]

Please continue to use Pegasus Session 1 - Feedback Thread for feedback related to the PvP/PvM equipment bonuses, battle mechanic changes and UI tooltip changes. This thread focuses on testing of the Game Arena queueing system and Crystal Defenders game mode.

Crystal Defenders

• 4 Level Tiers
• On-Demand (Games will start as soon as enough players sign up)
• No Time Slot Limit
• Assigns players into random teams (unless in an Arena Group)
• Attacker/Defender roles are randomized between each game
• Designed for smaller sized teams (10v10 ~ 15v15)

Game Description

Crystal Defenders is an attack/defend style game mode, with one team attacking, and the other team defending a series of crystals. A crystal will spawn randomly in one of three locations, which the defenders must protect for the duration of the battle, while the attackers must destroy the crystal to remain in the game. When a crystal has been destroyed, the attackers will extend the remaining game time, and a new crystal will spawn randomly in one of three locations. Once the attackers destroy the final crystal, they will win the game. If the defenders successfully prevent the attackers from destroying all of the crystals within the time limit, they will win the game.

The number of crystals which must be assaulted/defended is determined by the level bracket.

Objectives

Attacker - Destroy each crystal before the time runs out to win.
Defender - Prevent the attackers from destroying all of the crystals before the time runs out to win.

Reward Mechanics

• Defenders
  
  • Heal Damage On An Ally
    
    • Gain Honor per healing inflicted threshold
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Inflict Damage On An Enemy
    
    • Gain Honor per damage inflicted threshold
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Kill Attacker Inside Crystal Proximity (Defend)
    
    • Gain Honor per player kill
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Kill Attacker Outside Crystal Proximity (General)
    
    • Gain Honor per player kill
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Crystal Defended
    
    • Gain Honor per Crystal Defended
    • Points Awarded To Group Only
  • Win Game
    
    • Rewarded to all winning team members
    • Points Awarded To Group Only
• Attackers
  
  • Heal Damage On An Ally
    
    • Gain Honor per healing inflicted threshold
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Inflict Damage On An Enemy
    
    • Gain Honor per damage inflicted threshold
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Kill Defender Inside Crystal Proximity (Assault)
    
    • Gain Honor per player kill
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Kill Defender Outside Crystal Proximity (General)
    
    • Gain Honor per player kill
    • Points Awarded To Player & Group
  • Destroy Crystal Inside Crystal Proximity
    
    • Gain Honor for being Crystal killer
    • Points Awarded To Player Only
  • Crystal Destroyed Inside Crystal Proximity
    
    • Gain Honor for being near Crystal killer
    • Points Awarded To Player Only
  • Crystal Destroyed
    
    • Gain Honor per Crystal Destroyed
    • Points Awarded To Group Only
  • Win Game
    
    • Rewarded to all winning team members
    • Points Awarded To Group Only

Level Brackets

• Level 100 - 140 (Currently Disabled)
  
  • Teams: 10 v 10 (20 Players, 1 Cleric Minimum Per Team)
  • Difficulty: 2 Crystals To Defend/Destroy
• Level 141 - 180 (Currently Disabled)
  
  • Teams: 10 v 10 (20 Players, 1 Cleric Minimum Per Team)
  • Difficulty: 2 Crystals To Defend/Destroy
• Level 181 - 200 (Currently Disabled)
  
  • Teams: 15 v 15 (30 Players, 1 Cleric Minimum Per Team)
  • Difficulty: 3 Crystals To Defend/Destroy
• Level 201 - 220
  
  • Teams: 15 v 15 (30 Players, 1 Cleric Minimum Per Team)
  • Difficulty: 3 Crystals To Defend/Destroy

Edited by Genesis, 10 March 2012 - 09:23 PM.

[Genesis]

Please continue to use Pegasus Session 1 - Feedback Thread for feedback related to the PvP/PvM equipment bonuses, battle mechanic changes and UI tooltip changes. This thread focuses on testing of the Game Arena queueing system and Crystal Defenders game mode.

Testing

Game Arena

• General System Stability/Functionality
  
  • Does the Game Arena function correctly?
  • Are you successfully able to join a queue as an individual?
  • Are you successfully able to join a queue as a group?
  • Are you successfully able to join as a Cleric without a group?
  • Are you successfully able to join as a Cleric with a group?
  • Any other issues that may not have been addressed?
• Group
  
  • Does Group Chat function correctly? (Verified)
  • Does the Group HUD function correctly?
  • Do the Group leader functions work correctly? (i.e. enabled outside game, disabled inside game)
• Game Lobby
  
  • Are you removed from your cart upon entering the lobby? (Verified)
  • Are you resurrected upon entering the lobby (if character was dead)?
  • Are you removed from your vendor store upon entering the lobby?
  • Are your buffs/debuffs and other status effects removed upon entering the lobby? (Verified)
  • Are you given enough time to prepare within the lobby before being teleported into the game?
  • Any other issues that may not have been addressed?

Crystal Defenders

• Point Rewards
  
  • Do you feel rewarded for participating and performing well compared to others who do very little or nothing at all?
  • Are the rewards too high or low?
  • Did you receive your points at the end of the game?
  • Are there any bugs? (e.g. not being rewarded for an action in the list above that should have been rewarded)
• Crystal Difficulty
  
  • As a defender, are the crystals too easy/difficult to defend?
  • As an attacker, are the crystals too easy/difficult to destroy?
  • Are taunt skills ineffective against the crystals?
• Consumable Item Restrictions
  
  • Are there any items overlooked which should be restricted within PvP games?
• End Game
  
  • Are you resurrected upon leaving the game (if character was dead)?
  • Are you teleported back to your original location upon leaving the game? (Verified)

Notes

I will do my best to post the results of each game for everyone to view and comment on, and from the feedback adjustments can be made to the game's point rewards and thresholds.

At this stage, I am not looking for feedback on the crystal's spawning behavior, positioning or map layout, as these are due to be changed within the coming weeks. More information will be provided about this as testing moves forward.

Edited by Genesis, 12 April 2012 - 05:05 AM.

[Genesis]

Please continue to use Pegasus Session 1 - Feedback Thread for feedback related to the PvP/PvM equipment bonuses, battle mechanic changes and UI tooltip changes. This thread focuses on testing of the Game Arena queueing system and Crystal Defenders game mode.

Game Results

Results from Crystal Defender games played are displayed here:

Spoiler

Edited by Genesis, 10 March 2012 - 02:30 PM.

[Genesis]

Thank you for the feedback which has been provided so far. Based on your initial feedback, I have made several adjustments and provided notes below detailing the more significant changes. While I am not able to create a patch over the weekend to correct some of the visual aspects, I will apply a client and server update later today with the majority of the changes for you to continue testing.

Updates

• Added ability to target a player to invite them into a Group more conveniently. Press Alt+H, click Invite Member, target the player you wish to invite, and click the Invite button. (Will be applied on Monday)
• Updated the Games list to open with the PvP tab active by default. (Will be applied on Monday)

Bug Fixes

• Corrected issue which prevented buffs from being cleared correctly at the end of a game. (Will be applied on Monday)
• Corrected issue which prevented players from joining an active game immediately.

Testing Changes

• Multi-Clienting
  
  • For the purposes of testing on Pegasus, the number of game clients which can join Crystal Defenders at the same time has been increased from 1 to 3.
• Crystal Defenders Team Size
  
  • To allow testing of more varied group sizes and compositions, the team size for Crystal Defenders has been increased to 15 v 15. Please note that it will continue to display 5 v 5 over the weekend, however this is a visual error and will be updated in a patch on Monday.
• The queuing rule which requires each team to have at least one support cleric is now being enforced. Feedback on this mechanic after testing would be appreciated (see Cleric Role Feedback section below for more information).

Known Issues / Upcoming Changes

• Crystal Stats
  
  • From the feedback given based on the 5v5 game played (thanks DestinyDeoxys and others), the HP and Defense of the crystals will be reduced by 30%. (Will be applied on Monday)
• Crystal Spawning Behavior & Map Layout
  
  • These are currently under review and are likely to change in the next couple of weeks. At present, we are focusing our testing on the stability of the Game Arena and ensuring that the queuing and matchmaking mechanics are working as intended.
• Server Stability
  
  • I am currently reviewing our crash logs to locate the source of the server stability issues caused by the Game Arena update. More information (and hopefully fixes) will be provided as soon as I find out more information.

Cleric Role Feedback
In order to refine the queuing system's detection of support clerics over battle clerics, I am interested in how players typically build their cleric characters for support, battle or hybrid. With that, I also have two specific questions for the community:

• In your opinion, what are the core traits that make each build fall into their respective categories (i.e. what makes a cleric build designed for support, battle or hybrid)?
• If a "full support" cleric was not available, what is the minimum build requirement that you would accept as a support cleric in your team?

Edited by Genesis, 10 March 2012 - 09:23 PM.

[jerremy]

Since this topic is made, i'll copy what i said on pegasus feedback thread 1:

So i have tried the game arena one time, and i'm afraid i must say i was quite disappointed in the result.
Our cleric had left so we had to fight without buffs or heals, and we got beaten up quite badly. We wanted to warn the other side of this but unfortunately the normal and trade chat did not work, so we couldn't explain the situation.
In the end one found out you could still whisper, but this is a rather uncomfortable way of communicating.
Another thing i'd like to point out is that in such a small war, the classes with a more supportive role such as knight or scout (cleric not, cause of the heals that are useful in small groups as well), or classes with less tanking capability such as artisan, bourg, mage, aren't very useful. In a 5v5 (and later 15v15) such a class can't do much (in supportive class case) or will get spotted and focus fired immediately (classes with less defence).
I suggest for the first problem, that either the general or trade chat should be made available, so teams can warn eachother in case something happens, or that you get a notification if a person in either of the teams leaves or gets disconnected/logs out.
For the second problem, well it isn't very easy to fix, maybe with the upcoming class balancing it'll be better, but we could try make crystal wars for more players. Yes i know the queue will take longer to be filled, but now supportive roles that are more feasible for group battles can do much better than when it's a small war. Also in larger groups ones with less ability to tank aren't as visible as in a small group, and don't get ganged and die immediately.

[Genesis]

Our cleric had left so we had to fight without buffs or heals, and we got beaten up quite badly.

This was a rather annoying issue from our tests yesterday, and as a result it has only reinforced the need to enable the support cleric queuing rule, which will be applied in today's game update. This will enforce that each team must have at least one support cleric. I am looking for more information to improve the detection of support clerics who attempt to join and would appreciate your feedback (see above posts for information). Additionally, an issue which prevented players from joining active games has been corrected, so even if one or more of your clerics disconnects or leaves, another will be able to take their place (more beneficial on the live servers, players are limited on Pegasus which is something we have to work around for the time being).

We wanted to warn the other side of this but unfortunately the normal and trade chat did not work, so we couldn't explain the situation.
In the end one found out you could still whisper, but this is a rather uncomfortable way of communicating.
...
I suggest for the first problem, that either the general or trade chat should be made available, so teams can warn eachother in case something happens, or that you get a notification if a person in either of the teams leaves or gets disconnected/logs out.

All, Shout and Trade chat have been disabled in Game Arena game zones to prevent opposing teams from talking to each other. As you pointed out, Whisper chat is still available as it is considered a form of private chat. For your other suggestion, why would the opposing team need to know that a player on your team has disconnected? I can understand the need to inform players on your own team, which is already a part of the system - you are notified when a player leaves the group/team).

Another thing i'd like to point out is that in such a small war, the classes with a more supportive role such as knight or scout (cleric not, cause of the heals that are useful in small groups as well), or classes with less tanking capability such as artisan, bourg, mage, aren't very useful. In a 5v5 (and later 15v15) such a class can't do much (in supportive class case) or will get spotted and focus fired immediately (classes with less defence).
...
For the second problem, well it isn't very easy to fix, maybe with the upcoming class balancing it'll be better, but we could try make crystal wars for more players. Yes i know the queue will take longer to be filled, but now supportive roles that are more feasible for group battles can do much better than when it's a small war. Also in larger groups ones with less ability to tank aren't as visible as in a small group, and don't get ganged and die immediately.

Unfortunately these are class balancing issues and are not addressed in this part of Pegasus testing. As you're aware, Leonis is spearheading the class and skill tree updates which will come in the near future.

Edited by Genesis, 10 March 2012 - 03:02 PM.

[jerremy]

Well, the problem with rose is, (not a generalization though and i'm not pointing names) but there are a lot of scumbags out there. Calling the losing side losers or noobs is something you see daily.
These people will use anything as a reason to say bad things about another, so if something happens such as that they will certainly start trashing. If they get noted something happens they don't have a reason to say such things, knowing there is another reason the other faction has lost.

[Phish]

When will the next testing session take place?

[twingod]

i wasnt able to make it into the fight because of getting on the server late and for the first time however i did notice that the HP bar jumped wildly even when running around dropping as low as 80-85% for no reason and with no monsters around... i do look forward to the next testing session to beable to fight and check out the new area of fighting

[Niluje]

All, Shout and Trade chat have been disabled in Game Arena game zones to prevent opposing teams from talking to each other.

Err... why? You know people like drama

[Bendersmom]

Sorry I missed all the fun. Will try to get on to test soon.
First, does it matter if you have a battle cleric or full support or hybrid? A lot of battle clerics have the IM party buffs and some heals. If you have 2 battle clerics in the party they will do ok with heals and buffs I think. Whey distiguish between the two types?

As a hybrid/full support cleric I have IM buffs and single buffs but some full support builds have only IM buffs so they can get the def and stuff. But if people want to be in the arena I think most would be ok with a battle cleric as opposed to no fight at all. Why distiguish between the different types of clerics? See if it turns into a problem before you go to the work of trying to detect which type of cleric it is. Also, once (if) they do the class balance who knows how people will build their clerics.

Maybe allowing a cleric that is single and signed up to the queue be allowed to join the game in progress if the cleric gets dc or something would work.

And we don't need trade chat and shouts enabled in the arena. Those are mostly used in UW to trash talk to the other team or for buy and sell while war is going on. If you want to talk to the other group talk when you are fighting them.

[jerremy]

Just saying you need to get some easy way of making the enemy side know you're fked. (in case of a member leaving group, disconnecting or going afk).
Like this (in case of the notification) you can prove something is wrong and there will be a less likeliness the opposing side will talk trash.
And well.. let's face it, if they don't trash in the war itself cause it's disabled they will after the war. Disabling it won't stop people from doing what they do.

Edited by jerremy, 10 March 2012 - 05:57 PM.

[KzDiaN]

how long time pegasus server maintanance ?

[kwayan19]

so a a dream team of 15 clerics (battle and Fs) in a party willl never come true . clerics are sooo left out

[jerremy]

15 clerics isn't a dream team, since you don't do that much dmg with a cleric on some classes either.

[Cloudius]

I think a scoreboard in-war (by pressing a certain key and a window will appear) would be nice to be able to know the current status of the other players which will display, Kills, Deaths, Status etc, and also I think the shout chat should be also enabled as a means to communicate to other teams as compared to trade chat which can be spammed alot.

Edited by Cloudius, 10 March 2012 - 07:47 PM.

[Genesis]

Pegasus is now Online with a few of the changes in place, and will be available throughout Sunday.

I think a scoreboard in-war (by pressing a certain key and a window will appear) would be nice to be able to know the current status of the other players which will display, Kills, Deaths, Status etc

This is on the to-do list, however won't be available until after the initial launch of the Game Arena on the live servers.

Edited by Genesis, 10 March 2012 - 11:49 PM.

[SirSlayer]

Just saying you need to get some easy way of making the enemy side know you're fked. (in case of a member leaving group, disconnecting or going afk).
Like this (in case of the notification) you can prove something is wrong and there will be a less likeliness the opposing side will talk trash.
And well.. let's face it, if they don't trash in the war itself cause it's disabled they will after the war. Disabling it won't stop people from doing what they do.

But you won't be "-_-ed" if a member leaves whether it be cleric or not, because another cleric can just jump into your team mid game. << Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is how I took what Genesis said.

[jerremy]

Guess i missed that one, but there's still a problem regarding if a member would go afk.

[Zurn]

Guess i missed that one, but there's still a problem regarding if a member would go afk.

if that happens thats not the fault of the game design thats the fault of that player or players and you should plan accordingly for such absences, i think with 15v15 at least two clerics should be required if not more.

[Zurn]

It did kick me off a Castle Gear, second crystal defenders i left the game with buffs apparently only on my screen, if i was to try to use boosters while in this state it does not allow it.

Spoiler

Edited by Zurn, 11 March 2012 - 08:24 PM.

[Phish]

It's hard to deliver much feedback from the test that happened but here goes.

The Game arena interface is layed out well, after the bugs are straightened out it'll take a little getting used to but I think it will work out. Being able to see your allies hp even when you are not in view range, and heal/buff them outside of party is a huge plus.

The timer popups during the war are useful and much more noticeable.

• Consumable Item Restrictions
  
• Are there any items overlooked which should be restricted within PvP games?

Removing buffs while entering is a good idea and this will greatly help balance union wars. I don't know if they are disabled here but on the main servers, but Arua's Blessing, Sigil of Acceleration, and Item mall Easter eggs (the instant 1k hp ones) are useable within union war and these items are even more overpowered than the standard boosters and jellybeans, and these should be disabled inside as well.



Honor potions are only useable within Crystal Defenders (maybe tg too?) but they heal less than what crafted red potions heal. I have mixed feelings about increasing the amount healed. If they are going to exist they should have a use, but I don't want them to heal too much because pvp with food/pots can take long as it is. I think they should be slightly more than red potions (maybe a level 200 honor potion that heals 7.5k hp).

Edited by Phish, 11 March 2012 - 08:46 PM.

[INTRUSOR]

In a very famous mmorpg, when you leave a battle ground, you are banned and can't join another one for 15 min (if I remember correctly). It could be cool, in my opinion.

Edited by INTRUSOR, 12 March 2012 - 02:49 AM.

[Fishnet]

My clerics are full support, i use just for buffs and no fighting. for mine It means I max out int, I have all int gear with t7. I have max buffs, both skill buffs and IM buffs. I have max heals, max fires, etc.