Dev Spotlight: Olympiad System Changes.

[San0]

For a very long time since Olympiads was introduced back on Talking Island we have been detecting MANY problems in this system.

First of all, the balance, and just to clear this one out right from the start, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO BALANCE, a 1v1 pvp system in a game that is built around mass group play, with over 30 different classes, specific class roles, different class kits and play styles, different class functions... It cannot be balanced for a 1v1 format. There will always be stronger classes and weaker classes, and most of the changes that can be made to counter this, will have impact on the rest of the game leading to changes that are done to make a class stronger in Olympiads end up making the class too strong in other situations, changes that are done to make the class less powerful in Olympiads end up making the class less desirable in open world activities and so on. 

Also have in mind, Lineage is a game with a lot of different type of content, and one class cannot be the best on everything. Some are better for AOE farm, others are the best for raid boss, others have really strong support skills for mass pvp, and others are good on small pvp/1v1.
 
Now that the rabbit is out of the hat... 
We will keep trying, and make targeted changes to classes or abilities or items to try to keep the stronger classes from being overwhelming while making the weaker ones at least viable. Now... players need to understand this is an evolving process and not a "one change fix all" kind of thing, so there will be moments where one class is the strongest, and then some other class will be the strongest after some changes, and then other class will be the strongest, etc. because every change made might change the meta. The idea its to keep fine tuning until there isn't ONE strong class but multiple classes who are good, strong and can win games but also lose games, without disturbing the balance of the game on everything else around the world.

Also, if you play a class who was the main Olympiad farmer for 3 months winning 30 - 0, and then some changes come and your class isn't the god of the Olympiads anymore and you go 22 - 8, please try to understand, this is not done because we don't like a specific class or a specific player, but because we want more classes to be able to play and go 15 - 15, instead of having one class go 30 - 0 and every other class go 0 - 30.

 

OTHER PROBLEMS AND COMPLAINS

"Missing a day."

One of the problems people has complained about it for long time, is the importance of missing one day. Because so much is condensed in few days, players who want to compete for hero, find the issue with the situation of, if for some reason you cant make it one day, unless the other competitors really mess up, you are done for the month. 
We have a couple of ideas to try to deal with this, being so that on new files we will have the system working differently.

- Olympiad will run from Monday to Saturday, for 1 hour. (22:00 - 23:00 server time)
- Players will be able to do up to a max of 5 matches per day. 

To compensate for the small time frame.
- Olympiad timers to join match is 1 minute.
- Olympiad pre match buff time is 30 seconds.

 

With these changes, if a player cannot make it for one day of the Olympiad he is not losing hope, he just gets a 5 match set back.
At the same time, because time is so much more limited it might stop people from making feed waves on alt chars to not risk not having time to make the matches on their main chars.

 

"Nothing happens during rest of month, only 2 last weeks people play Olympiad active."

Another problem we have found is the lack of interest on the first weeks of every reset, due to the fact points are low at this time, most of people either just make minimal matches or move minimal points around.
For this reason and others I will talk about later in more detail, we have changed the Olympiad periods duration.

- Olympiad periods will be weekly and not monthly.
- Olympiad periods reset every Monday at 12:00 server time.
- Every week reset all characters who are eligible will receive 1000 points.
 

 

 

With these changes to the system we aim that every Olympiad day is a fun and active Olympiad day where everyone will want to make their matches on their MAIN characters to not waste games.
At the same time, it also makes the HERO scene more dynamic as it gives room to be constantly changing every week, instead of having the heroes stuck on same characters for a full month. This not only might make it more fun dynamic on server politics itself, as it might give opportunity for more people to be HERO.
At the same time it also helps dealing with first complain... if you cant make it this week, you can try to get HERO again next one instead of having to wait for a full month.

 

 

"They have 24 HEROES we have only 7"

One of the main problems with Olympiad system besides the balance of itself, is the unbalance created by the HERO power impact in the rest of the game.
We do not want for the decisive factor of a mass pvp to be the number of heroes each side has. And yes, while is not a sure science, the fact is if in a fight 50vs50 one of the sides has 30 heroes, and the other side has 2, assuming all skills are available to be used, that fight will most likely be very one sided.
For this reason we are cutting down on HERO power. Players will still get the recognition, all the 'shinny shinny' to show off, but some changes have been done on this department.

- HERO weapons do not exist.
- HERO skills as we know them have been removed. (Heroic grandeur, heroic dread, heroic miracle, etc)
- HERO characters will get no stats bonus from their HERO circlets/cloaks.
- HERO characters will have wings effect on equipped cloaks.
- HERO characters will gain a passive skill that can trigger for some bonus speeds attack/cast/movement.
- HERO characters will receive a weapon glow on equipped weapons to emulate old HERO weapons feeling.

 

With these changes we aim to make the HERO status still be something relevant and wanted, but making it to have less impact on a mass pvp situation. Heroes will still have some boost without having the potential to cause such a snowball on a mass pvp situation.

 

 

"Everyone is feeding with boxes"

This one is more complicated to deal with, tho we expect the crunch on the time available for Olympiad will already have some impact on it due to the fact if people spend much time on boxes they might not have enough time to make the matches on main character.
Main problem still persists on this situation. 
We cannot IP limit people due to players who play together from same house or gamming hubs. And if we would decide to do it, it would only harm LEGIT players, because due to various amount of third party options that can be used to bypass this type of limitations that are totally out of our control, whoever would be willing to do it would still do it. They could eventually end up being caught and banned but the damage would already been done. 
The account limitations were one of the barriers to help with it and that is one of the reasons why we always start the servers with a 1+1 politic, but as the population decreases with time, this limitations end up having to be lighter and lighter to accommodate the remaining population and provide options for their gameplay.

 

TLDR: Be patient about the balancing, is not an easy task and affects many different cog wheels in the machine.
- Olympiad will run from Monday to Saturday, for 1 hour. (22:00 - 23:00 server time)
- Players will be able to do up to a max of 5 matches per day.
- Olympiad timers to join match is 1 minute.
- Olympiad pre match buff time is 30 seconds.
- Olympiad periods will be weekly and not monthly.
- Olympiad periods reset every Monday at 12:00 server time.
- Every week reset all characters who are eligible will receive 1000 points.
- Characters must be level 70+ and have second class to be eligible for Olympiads.
- HERO weapons do not exist.
- HERO skills as we know them have been removed. (Heroic grandeur, heroic dread, heroic miracle, etc)
- HERO characters will get no stats bonus from their HERO circlets/cloaks.
- HERO characters will have wings effect on equipped cloaks.
- HERO characters will gain a passive skill that can trigger for some bonus speeds attack/cast/movement.
- HERO characters will receive a weapon glow on equipped weapons to emulate old HERO weapons feeling.

 

 

HOW IT ALL WORKS NOW?

 

Every monday at 12:00 server time cycle starts.

Every character that is of level 70 or higher and has the second class transfer done will receive 1000 points. This ammount of points works as a starting base for everyone.

Battles take place every Monday to Saturday from 22:00 to 23:00 server time.

When the time starts this button will appear.

On that button you have the information with the remaining time for olympiads and by clicking on it you can open the olympiad interface menu.

Can also access this window by using the good old /olympiadstat

 

From this window you can register for fights, check rankings, and all the important and relevant information.

After you register for a match, you will be wating for opponent and when one is found you will get a 1 minute timer.

After teleporting to the arena you will have 30 seconds to finish your preparations with buffs etc.

 

 

NOTE: Same penalties also apply when joining a match, player cant be full inventory, fishing, dead, in special zones like clan arena etc.

In case of server disconnect or restart mid fight, match will be canceled and no points will be gained or loss and match will not count for the 5 limit.

 

 

STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFOS!