CTF: Suggestions for buffs?

[Sir_Didymus]

Hey guys,

 

I’m looking to gather some opinions on which buff effects we should have for the CTF. I’m asking here, in PMC, because I believe your choices may be affected by the ‘space’ gameplay style this time around (which players don’t know about yet).

 

The main feedback I read from the last CTF was that Strength II and Regen were overpowered and made it difficult for the other team to fight back.

 

Please could you suggest three buffs that you think would work well together? These will hopefully be the buffs we set up for a staff test event.

 

Thanks!

 

~Didy

[Guest]

What are the options? Just the beacon buffs, or is there other possibilities?

[Sir_Didymus]

I believe it is any of the 1.8 potion effects.

[Guest]

Hm. 3 buffs? 

 

I'd suggest haste and night vision then for two of them. People still want them, but don't give stupid advantage in combat.

[redwall_hp]

The combat advantage can be an important balance tool, though. Because a team that's behind can have their parkour-oriented players capture the buff, which makes it easier to catch up in score from a disadvantageous point.

[buzzie71]

Resistance (1/2?) and Speed (1?) might be good mild buffs that are directly applicable to PvP - though I am hard-pressed to find a third that also fits the bill (strength 1 is still a 2.4x attack strength buff, which might still be overkill; fire resistance might be redundant if not many weapons can ignite their victims and/or may be unbalancing if buffs contain it as an obstacle, regen was deemed too OP...and it probably is).  

 

Possible cons with those: if pearls are scarce, speed will make it easier to flee a fight on the ground (though different speed jetpacks might mitigate this if the player tries to flee by air).  I haven't tested Resistance 1/2 rigorously but 3 will allow players to shrug off attacks if they're moving fast and with no armor.

 

For buffs not directly applicable to PvP - Haste is good for block breaking, health boost increases survivability by adding some extra hearts, absorption does the same thing except the extra health buffer granted can't be regenerated (without re-applying the effect? not sure).  Night vision I think is going to be valuable considering how dark the map is in general (if it can be used to spot incoming opponents coming by air, it would be a good defense buff, though I haven't actually tried to spot flying players with it yet) - it might make things annoyingly bright in well-lit areas though.

 

Possible cons with these: they don't translate directly into PvP benefits (in the case of Haste, not at all; it's really only a buff for block destroyers), and may not be perceived as valuable enough to go after and/or defend them.

 

Also as a side note - one thing that made the buffs feel pretty overpowered was that the losing team didn't have access to nether warts; the only potion that could be brewed was weakness, which is a moderately useful debuff, but potion options were still much more limited than what the other team was able to brew - I thought this made countering the buffs harder.

As a reference I've grouped the buffs from the list of status effects into categories based on applicability to PvP, insanely OP, and everything else:
 
PvP buffs:
Speed
Strength
regeneration
fire resistance*
resistance
 
Other:
Haste
jump boost
water breathing
nightvision
health boost
absorption
invisibility
 
Wtf:
inst. health (gives a bit of health every tick...like regeneration but much more much faster)
saturation (gives a bit of hunger/saturation every tick; have this and you never need to eat again until the buff wears off)

*Fire resistance is more applicable to S/PvP-type servers where fire aspect is anticipated in high-end combat. From my experience in the last CTF, there were no guarantees...but it would depend on how easy it is to get that I guess (eg. availability of XP, lapis, swords, and/or whether or not Enchantism is online)

Edited April 3, 2016 by buzzie71

[Guest]

The combat advantage can be an important balance tool, though. Because a team that's behind can have their parkour-oriented players capture the buff, which makes it easier to catch up in score from a disadvantageous point.

 

Good point. I was thinking it from the side that the team behind might have it harder to go do the buffs if they're overrun.

[buzzie71]

The combat advantage can be an important balance tool, though. Because a team that's behind can have their parkour-oriented players capture the buff, which makes it easier to catch up in score from a disadvantageous point.

 

It's possible to suppress this if the leading team that has the buffs stations players there to defend them (make the defending players harder to kill...though if it really is a jump across blocks over environmental hazards a knockback should mitigate that), and buffs are easier to reach than the enemy team flag is.  I don't remember if that is a widely used tactic in previous CTFs though - closest I can think of was someone parking a logged off account close to a buff and logging in to recapture it.  If it is common practice, the combat advantage given by the buff should still be surmountable by the lagging team in some way or another.

Edited April 3, 2016 by buzzie71

[Narissis]

As a corollary, I think the buff strength should scale to the difficulty of the buff tower.

 

Bluue's buff tower is the easiest to achieve (especially for repeat visitors since it's a treasure hunt), so should have the weaker of the three buffs.

 

Mine and Zom's are probably pretty close in terms of initial time-to-solve, though I'd say Zom's will be a little more time-consuming to repeat except for players who are masters of parkour and can finish it faster than it takes a player to slog through my doors.

[redwall_hp]

 Zom's will be a little more time-consuming to repeat except for players who are masters of parkour and can finish it faster than it takes a player to slog through my doors.

 

Oh damn. I guess I'd better stick to pvping. 

 

I think buzzie's assessment of buffs is reasonable. A mild strength one would be another option.

 

Also, with Minecraft's regular flight mechanics...speed applies to flight as well, so it would buff your jetpacking.

[Guest]

The parkour isn't that hard though - I purposefully made it so that everyone should be able to finish it. It's not deadly either, so only other players will be your problem there.

 

If someone who's average in parkour would like to test jump it, please do so. Jumps can still be altered if needed.

[Narissis]

The parkour isn't that hard though - I purposefully made it so that everyone should be able to finish it. It's not deadly either, so only other players will be your problem there.

 

If someone who's average in parkour would like to test jump it, please do so. Jumps can still be altered if needed.

 

Not deadly, she says... with around-the-corner jumps over lava... :P

[Guest]

Not deadly, she says... with around-the-corner jumps over lava... :P

 

I've changed it since then. There's no lava. :)

[Narissis]

Oh, I see.

 

Wellp, maybe mine is the most tedious for sure, then. XD Even when you know your way through, it's an ordeal. And I've yet to try it in Survival mode having to actually fight through the creeper room...

[Sir_Didymus]

Thanks for the feedback guys - I think we will try resistance, speed and haste during testing, and change later if we find any gameplay issues.

 

Closing this topic for now.