Musco unexpectantly posted some changes slated for the following Warzones.
- Voidstar
- Ancient Hypergates
- Alderaan Civil War
- Yavin Ruins
These changes will likely be implemented starting in July and hopefully be on the PTS (that hopefully, everyone will have access to if they wish).
Overall Aim of the Changes
- To shorten the average time of our Warzones to be around 12 minutes. We have a few WZs that are taking quite a bit longer than that currently.
- We have some WZs that are exploitable due to environment hacking, we want to fix that.
Commentary – I think these are beneficial goals. Shorter matches should theoretically equal more matches but, will they be fun?
Voidstar Changes
We want to give the offence a much better chance of completing the objectives. We want to make Voidstar more about a race to complete the objectives as opposed to a map which often ends in a stalemate. Fewer stalemates will shorten the overall time of the map.
- The door now take 6 seconds to arm (down from 8)
- Defenders now have 15 seconds to disarm door bombs (down from 20)
- Extending the bridges and lowering the shields now takes 6 seconds to channel (down from 8)
- Forcefields are now blocking the reactor room doors until the bridges are extended
- Characters who hack their way into the last two rooms of the Warzone before the bridge has been extended or the forcefield is down will be killed
Commentary – I don’t have any issues with these changes. Sure solo defending will be tighter but still doable and could (theoretically haha) encourage better quality defensive play. I mean standing 30m away from the door isn’t that hard and is a simple way to (help) counter Stealthers. I am a little confused by the final point though.
Ancient Hypergates
We want running orbs to be more impactful to the WZs gameplay, with the goal of shortening each map.
- Orbs now score more points (up from 6, review below)
- Orbs scores ramp up each round of the game:
- Round 1 = 12 points per orb delivered
- Round 2 = 15 points per orb delivered
- Round 3 = 18 points per orb delivered
- Round 4 = 21 points per orb delivered
- Round 5 = 24 points per orb delivered
- Round 6+ = 27 points per orb delivered
- Player corral forcefields have had their up-time reduced, the forcefield is now down for 10 seconds and up for 15 seconds (previously 30 seconds)
Commentary – I like that they’re making the Orbs more important beyond just close games. I also like that they’re reducing the time the forcefields stay up. Will be interesting to (hopefully) test. Could be problematic for games where fighting is at Pylons though.
Alderaan Civil War
Shortening the match time.
- Turrets now damage ships for 12 damage per tick (up from 10)
- Characters exploiting by hacking inside of the capture terminals will now die when they do so
Commentary – Probably won’t be that noticeable so meh.
Yavin Ruins
Further, differentiate the map from Alderaan Civil War along with shortening the match time.
- Teams now start with 500 points (down from 600)
- When players die they reduce their teams score by 2 (up from 0)
- Characters exploiting by hacking inside of the capture terminals will now die when they do so
Commentary – I find it interesting that they want to differentiate Yavin from Alderaan. These rules will certainly make it a much shorter match though (assuming it’s not a mid farm with 1000 healers).
What do you think of the changes? Are you looking forward to hopefully testing them out?
