Down but not out, here is all of the suggestions for CivWars that I can think of at the moment.
Some of these I know are being added, and others have been talked about. This is merely so the administration and development team can have an easier time implementing changes and fixes to better the server. Feel free to talk about them below, and I encourage Management to come into this thread and say what is being worked on/added to help ease some of the worries that the playerbase has been floating around lately.
WAR CHANGES
There is a flag war patch that is coming soon, and I can confirm that it will revolutionize war and fix many of the ongoing concerns. Here are a few more things that I think will help make PVP more enjoyable for everyone.
- Disable Turtle Master Potions
This was actually suggested before the server launched, and almost everyone voted for it (I think only one or two people voted against it, if I remember correctly). The reason for this is that it gives resistance 3, which makes you unkillable. It's basically a god-mode potion that you can pop when you get into a sticky situation. I recently uploaded a video in which turtle master potions were used against us and we could not win 2v1s, 3v1s, and even greater ratios. Turtle master potions take away the possibility of dying for whoever carries one, which basically removes the entire function of PVP.
- Disable Resistance 2 on Beacons
This has a similar reasoning to disabling turtle master potions, in that someone who has resistance two is effectively invulnerable. The current strategy for defenders is two enable resistance two on the beacon, pearl on the flag, and then run out. The defender can break the flag with no danger to themselves because they have resistance two. Furthermore, in teamfights, one can simply run back into the resistance two beacon area if they believe they are going to die.
- Add a cooldown to tridents
This one is pretty straightforward and I know it's being added.
- More moderation of TNT cannons
I know staff is stretched pretty thin as it is, so this could be asking for a lot. But as it stands right now people can cannon anything they want, even if its just a pretty build, and turn it into a wasteland. Grief is not moderated. The rule does not need to be changed at all, it just needs to be better enforced.
- Enable pearls in claims
I know that staff tried to make this work, but I also know that it can easily be done, I believe that it just needs to be looked into again. Defenders have more than enough of an advantage in war right now, and with pearls only working if it's your claims it makes it nearly impossible to kill defenders if they have pearls, since attackers can't chase them. This would also allow for an easing of the no ganks rule (not a removal, since I think the rule is good.)
- Allow looser interpretation of flag blocking rule
For those of you who do not know, the flag blocking rule essentially means that you cannot make it impossible to flag a certain area by placing a roof over it. However, the way staff moderates this currently is that, if it is even slightly possible (ie, one block is not covered by a roof), then it is not flag blocking. This means that defenders can essentially manipulate the attackers into flagging only in one spot where they want them to, and they can build spleefers underneath that area, and TNT dispensers to blow up the flag without any risk of danger to themselves (which is my next point).
- Disable TNTing flags/make it illegal
The reason I have this split up is because I do not know if it's possible to make it so that TNT does not affect flags. On 1.8 CivWars, it was not disabled nor was it illegal, but people didn't abuse it; they actually fought over the flag. That is not the current situation, and it makes warring pointless (especially coupled with the above point). There is no effort in placing TNT and lighting it to blow up a flag, especially when you can do it without having to worry about being hit by any enemies, and when there is no counter to the falling TNT, once it's lit it will blow up the flag no matter what. Not to mention the damage it does to the landscape.
- Fix hitstacking
There are various combat bugs, including hitstacking, that increase damage variably and can ruin PVP entirely. For example, Heqrtstrings got killed in 2 hits at KOTH on Tuesday, and another took 7 hearts in one hit. I would be happy to work with development and management to help them find what exactly causes this, I am open to being a guinea pig for this sort of thing.
- Dogs.
I know this is being fixed, but it deserves an honorable mention here anyways.
- Digging under the flag
This is currently illegal, but few people seem to know this, and it also goes unpunished a lot of the time.
- Harsher punishments for breaking war-rules
I do not want anyone banned. However, we are reaching a point where everyone knows many of the basic rules about war, and breaks them anyways, knowing that they will just get a warning. A warning is nothing on CivWars, all of us just see it as a slap on the wrist.
- Remove temporary protection when tp'ing
When you teleport, you have a few seconds where you're invincible and cannot take any damage. This has been abused in war to stay out of combat, to troll players, and to the ridiculous extent of even breaking flags.
I know many people complain about CivWars disabling more and more things, so I will make a case for my suggestions that insist on disabling certain parts of the game. CivWars is not a vanilla 1.16 server, as the PVP is entirely custom, and every version that it updates to is increasingly custom. This means that every version adds more and more new features, and these features affect PVP. As CivWars PVP attempts to prolong 1.8 PVP, it has to contend with these new features - features that are not meant to be balanced against 1.8 PVP. Mojang does not add features with 1.8 PVP in mind, they add them with 1.9 PVP in mind. This means that anything and everything they add is going to be inherently unbalanced when it comes to PVP, which requires lots of balancing, testing, and unfortunately, disabling of certain things entirely. This is the price we pay for a 1.8 PVP server, and since we all are playing this war server, we all are paying that price willingly. The only other option to fix PVP would be to make it 1.9, and that would drive away a considerable amount of the playerbase, and I know for a fact it is not being considered at this moment (maybe in the future).
Some of these I know are being added, and others have been talked about. This is merely so the administration and development team can have an easier time implementing changes and fixes to better the server. Feel free to talk about them below, and I encourage Management to come into this thread and say what is being worked on/added to help ease some of the worries that the playerbase has been floating around lately.
WAR CHANGES
There is a flag war patch that is coming soon, and I can confirm that it will revolutionize war and fix many of the ongoing concerns. Here are a few more things that I think will help make PVP more enjoyable for everyone.
- Disable Turtle Master Potions
This was actually suggested before the server launched, and almost everyone voted for it (I think only one or two people voted against it, if I remember correctly). The reason for this is that it gives resistance 3, which makes you unkillable. It's basically a god-mode potion that you can pop when you get into a sticky situation. I recently uploaded a video in which turtle master potions were used against us and we could not win 2v1s, 3v1s, and even greater ratios. Turtle master potions take away the possibility of dying for whoever carries one, which basically removes the entire function of PVP.
- Disable Resistance 2 on Beacons
This has a similar reasoning to disabling turtle master potions, in that someone who has resistance two is effectively invulnerable. The current strategy for defenders is two enable resistance two on the beacon, pearl on the flag, and then run out. The defender can break the flag with no danger to themselves because they have resistance two. Furthermore, in teamfights, one can simply run back into the resistance two beacon area if they believe they are going to die.
- Add a cooldown to tridents
This one is pretty straightforward and I know it's being added.
- More moderation of TNT cannons
I know staff is stretched pretty thin as it is, so this could be asking for a lot. But as it stands right now people can cannon anything they want, even if its just a pretty build, and turn it into a wasteland. Grief is not moderated. The rule does not need to be changed at all, it just needs to be better enforced.
- Enable pearls in claims
I know that staff tried to make this work, but I also know that it can easily be done, I believe that it just needs to be looked into again. Defenders have more than enough of an advantage in war right now, and with pearls only working if it's your claims it makes it nearly impossible to kill defenders if they have pearls, since attackers can't chase them. This would also allow for an easing of the no ganks rule (not a removal, since I think the rule is good.)
- Allow looser interpretation of flag blocking rule
For those of you who do not know, the flag blocking rule essentially means that you cannot make it impossible to flag a certain area by placing a roof over it. However, the way staff moderates this currently is that, if it is even slightly possible (ie, one block is not covered by a roof), then it is not flag blocking. This means that defenders can essentially manipulate the attackers into flagging only in one spot where they want them to, and they can build spleefers underneath that area, and TNT dispensers to blow up the flag without any risk of danger to themselves (which is my next point).
- Disable TNTing flags/make it illegal
The reason I have this split up is because I do not know if it's possible to make it so that TNT does not affect flags. On 1.8 CivWars, it was not disabled nor was it illegal, but people didn't abuse it; they actually fought over the flag. That is not the current situation, and it makes warring pointless (especially coupled with the above point). There is no effort in placing TNT and lighting it to blow up a flag, especially when you can do it without having to worry about being hit by any enemies, and when there is no counter to the falling TNT, once it's lit it will blow up the flag no matter what. Not to mention the damage it does to the landscape.
- Fix hitstacking
There are various combat bugs, including hitstacking, that increase damage variably and can ruin PVP entirely. For example, Heqrtstrings got killed in 2 hits at KOTH on Tuesday, and another took 7 hearts in one hit. I would be happy to work with development and management to help them find what exactly causes this, I am open to being a guinea pig for this sort of thing.
- Dogs.
I know this is being fixed, but it deserves an honorable mention here anyways.
- Digging under the flag
This is currently illegal, but few people seem to know this, and it also goes unpunished a lot of the time.
- Harsher punishments for breaking war-rules
I do not want anyone banned. However, we are reaching a point where everyone knows many of the basic rules about war, and breaks them anyways, knowing that they will just get a warning. A warning is nothing on CivWars, all of us just see it as a slap on the wrist.
- Remove temporary protection when tp'ing
When you teleport, you have a few seconds where you're invincible and cannot take any damage. This has been abused in war to stay out of combat, to troll players, and to the ridiculous extent of even breaking flags.
I know many people complain about CivWars disabling more and more things, so I will make a case for my suggestions that insist on disabling certain parts of the game. CivWars is not a vanilla 1.16 server, as the PVP is entirely custom, and every version that it updates to is increasingly custom. This means that every version adds more and more new features, and these features affect PVP. As CivWars PVP attempts to prolong 1.8 PVP, it has to contend with these new features - features that are not meant to be balanced against 1.8 PVP. Mojang does not add features with 1.8 PVP in mind, they add them with 1.9 PVP in mind. This means that anything and everything they add is going to be inherently unbalanced when it comes to PVP, which requires lots of balancing, testing, and unfortunately, disabling of certain things entirely. This is the price we pay for a 1.8 PVP server, and since we all are playing this war server, we all are paying that price willingly. The only other option to fix PVP would be to make it 1.9, and that would drive away a considerable amount of the playerbase, and I know for a fact it is not being considered at this moment (maybe in the future).