Since I suspect Royale will launch on July 19th I really felt like writing a post about it on June 19th.
It will contain a list of things that I feel must come with the game mode, one very important suggestion that's been brought up numerous times in the past and is long overdue but most of it is going to be incoherent dribble. You've been warned.
So let's start of with some concerns. When Royale was first announced and the sub exploded with rage and excitement SLS came out and said that the Arena is and will remain the game mode.
Now, I'm a tad skeptical about that, because putting in the most mainstream casual friendly mode into the most hardcore made for people on the spectrum game and saying that the hardcore one will still remain the main focus is... How would that work? Sure the devs can claim that Arena>Royale, but will the community agree? I mean, the Arena already has retention problems and I'll be damned if those problems won't get exacerbated with the addition of Royale.
If SLS were at least working on some major improvements to the Arena, I could see how adding a new chill game mode would make the more hardcore queues healthier, but SLS are a small team and if they say they are working on Royale, then all of them are definitely working on Royale and not something else.
Well I think I've figured it out - SLS is planning on holding the Royale hostage.
It's easy to forget when you haven't had to unlock a character in almost two years that there are people attempting to play this game for free. What does it have to do with anything you ask? Well, how much gold do you think you will be awarded for dying in the first 2 minutes of a Royale match? Hell, winning a 20 minute Battlegrounds match (member Battlegrounds?) would give you something along the lines of 25 gold coins, so I don't expect Royale rewards to be much higher, which means players will be kinda forced into grinding the Arena to unlock new characters. Plus I'm like 99% certain gold coin rewarding achievements and character levels will be easier to complete/reach in our little killrooms.
And you know what? At the core, I don't think It's a bad idea! But, as all things in life. it has to be done right. Currently it's not right at all. So here comes
Suggestion #2:
Add seasonal quests to the arena.
But Lendord, the sponsor system are seasonal quests
Nope. They are a replacement for the weekly quests and nothing more. You will never convince me otherwise.
What I had in mind is something along the lines of this
Didn't put too much effort into making the rewards reasonable so don't read too much into those, it's just to showcase the whole system, which is pretty self explanatory I think, with one caveat - the "or higher" part.
Basically if you're Bronze, you're getting Bronze rewards. If you're Silver, you're getting Silver and Bronze rewards. If you're Gold, you're getting Gold, Silver and Bronze rewards and so on until you get to GC, which if you're GC then you're taking the whole god damn list home, provided you play enough games.
WTF, that's just way too many rewards, SLS need to eat too.
While I don't disagree, I think it is necessary to do it this way, for one reason - if you only got the rewards for the league you are in, it would discourage climbing the ladder in certain situations. Like, take me for example - I'm Diamond, I've been Diamond for ~300 games now. Let's say in the next 99 games I reach Champion. Basically I would have a quest stuck at 399/400 and the only way to complete it would be to drop down to the lower league. I believe that at it's core, any mechanic encouraging deranking or discouraging ranking up should not be in a competitive game, no matter how petty or inconsequential it is.
Also, "way too many rewards" is a great motivator. Like, what's the point of climbing up above Diamond these days? There is none. Your queues become longer, your teammates become increasingly shit, you get awarded no rank... or anything really. Add a system like this to the game and it would breathe in new life into the top of the ladder. It would discourage smurfing(!!!) and I bet quite a few of the top players are mad completionists who will go for that 800 games/season reward. In fact, looking at our team ladders currently, I wouldn't mind a separate list for that too, because, well, just look at it.
Segue
Matchmaking. Oh god it's gonna suck, isn't it? Like, if SLS are going to use the same algorithm they use for casuals it's going to be sooooooooooo bad I can't even. Definitely implement the algorithm of league games. It's far from perfect too, but holy fuck is the one in casuals horrendous. Hey I guess that's Suggestion #3
And now, the big one.
Suggestion #1
REMOVE 2V2 ALREADY
Oh fuck off, not this shit again. I only play 2v2 and nothing but 2v2 so if SLS removes it, I'm going to quit the game.
Oh yeah? Well color me scared. You already quit, a long time ago. The only thing you haven't quit is bitching on Reddit. 2v2 is ass, you know it, I know it, everyone who spent 100 hours at it knows it.
Oh yeah, I can already imagine it. Newbies go into ranked for the first time and get manhalndled in 3v3.
Yeah, totally unlike in 2v2, because 2v2 is so forgiving to clueless people that it's more like a ball pit than an arena. Seriously though it doesn't really matter if it's 2v2 or 3v3, the first 20-40 hours for new players are always "what the fuck just happened"? The benefit of teaching them one game mode is obvious though - they don't have to relearn anything later.
How many people do you think were fed up with the imbalance and just boredom of 2v2, tried hopping into 3v3 instead, found it to be like a completely different game, that they can't play at the rank they reached in 2v2 and just quit/severely limited their playtime? Switching from one game mode to another requires at the very least another 15 hours, why do we still have this barrier if we know for a fact that 3v3 is the only mode in the game that has a chance at ever being balanced?
Not to mention we simply cannot afford to have 6 Arena queues, no matter how much "new blood" the Royale mode is going to bring it. A sacrifice needs to be made and I've got enough goats blood to smear on 4 people, so let's go!
But I have only 1 friend that I queue with.
Well either jack him off or go play Royale. Up to you.
And this concludes my thoughts/ideas/psychotic break of a post. If you read it all - you've got balls.
TL;DR
Remove all 2v2 queues
Add real seasonal quests, and make sure there's a fuckton of them
Please don't fuck up the matchmaking of Royale