Originally Posted by
Sequel
Hey, finally, a post I can actually chime in on! I think the Complex is so underrated even if it's a focal point of the competitive part of Era. It's gone so long without a revamp, without an upgrade -- it's long overdue. Here's my thoughts. Junz, you know my qualifications: they're nonexistent, I've just been playing forever. I also worked on the PC Era complex update. We got some cool tiles if you want 'em. (I'm not staff there, but they can pry my tiles from my cold, dead hands. They're sick.)
First things first: tileset.
I feel like the Spar Complex is by far one of the most dated-looking buildings in the game, which doesn't make sense, as it's one of the more popular and has been for years. I know there are some supremely gifted designers and LATs on the roster who could update it. Even just making new wood tiles/wall tiles over the existing ones would be a huge quality of life update. Not only that, but just adding a staircase instead of that clunky *** elevator would do wonders for the feeling.
Second: rooms.
There's five right now, 2 of which I don't think I've ever legitimately seen anyone use (1 and Ping). I'd suggest making Big Spar (1) a little smaller, as most matches just end in people across the arena. I also think that introducing the "Floor" command from PC to switch the floor's tiles to all-black would be such a good addition. Add a focus NPC in every room, running to Dusk at the entrance is tiresome. Either that or add the /f command from the Multiplex. Also, that whole underbelly with the Practice Spar is wildly useless. I think the only reason they're still active is because of the Butterfly Knife NPC.
Third: a second measure of skill.
Right now, you can get a few guns through simply grinding out wins -- but I think it'd be really dope if you could get rewards for also having a good ratio. PC Era did the spar score thing well.
(The formula is Win = +3, Loss = -2)
For example: Requill Irion has a 17,021 spar score. He has 13,413 wins and 11,609 losses. Right next door to him is Rush Divine, with a 17,695 spar score, but 9,019 wins and 4,681 losses. Rush didn't have to grind the extra 4,000 wins to get a score as good as him because he loses far less. It rewards players who improve and don't just trade wins and losses. It encourages people to legitimately improve. I'd also make the case that it also encourages people to boost, but there's more on that later.
Now fourth: Rewards piggybacking off of that.
There's a Vector, an M4A3 and an MP5 right now. That's tight, but I feel like there should be a little more going on there. Add an HK417 at 7,500 wins that has an M4-like feel with unique sparrer skins per spar score. If you got to 7,500 wins and you're in the negative, you get the regular gunmetal skin. If you're at 7,500 wins and you're at like 3,000 losses, make it a shiny gold. Regardless, I feel the entire path to M4A3 Diamond should be lined with more weapons for players to purchase. Sparring is in a pretty good place right now balance-wise (ignoring egregious offenders like the BAR, which can't be fixed) and throwing new things into the meta to shake up the scene would be welcomed by all.
Fifth: recognition!
Add a statue for the person doing the best that week! Most wins, most score and most spars played. Give people reason to grind above and beyond. Right now, the recognition for being the best on any given week is hidden behind like 3 menus and a really, really buggy leaderboard. (More on that: why does it only pull your stats if you've sparred recently? Like 8 of the 10 top sparrers of all-time have completely quit and they're not on the history books, man. That's wack.) Also, the statues in the second floor showing "#1 through #5 PKers" are probably still wildly inaccurate? You should make them auto-update off a leaderboard. Those are such a cool idea done really poorly.
Sixth: Gang Spar!
Boy, if you pull this one off, it'll be a miracle. This is basically a glorified "let's see who can shoot more bullets" room and I don't see how you could fix that. The only way to even make it slightly competitive would be to require both teams to have the same amount of players. Also, maybe change the room so not everyone is stuffed into a 4-tile-tall corridor talking over each other. Make a big ol' reception area. Iunno. This one's always been a gimmick, I wouldn't even bother changing it.
And lastly, of course, the "M4 Only" room.
I think this one's a great idea in theory, but it forces people to pay $20 to play in it. ($10 = $27,500 ingame = $55,000 M4)
I'm not sure how developmentally feasible it is, but I've always thought of a "Spar VIP" subscription that allows weapons to be maxed and speed to be maxed for $5,000, not $7,500 a month. No item like a Tzek or a Bunny Mount, but it would allow you to have a temporary spar-only copy of the Weapon of the Month. You use it in that room. Everyone gets the same gun, it changes dynamically to allow for players to have a more level playing field, etc.
Alternatively, maybe introduce challenges for sparring sort-of like that Metal Storm PK challenge from a couple weeks ago. Get 500 spar wins using the M4 and get a free skin over a week. Just things to incentivize people to play differently, because right now, nothing other than the $80 paywall stops you from going into Spar 3 with a BAR and just running it. There's been such a powercreep in terms of spar-viable weapons that just giving people a level playing field--whether that be with a Tachi Scorpion or an M4-- would be such a breath of fresh air.
oh and minor edit yeah give people skins for non-reward weapons: the M4 is an obvious one, ghost M4's another good one a lot of people use, you know better than me etc