More great replies here, thank you everyone. I used a notebook while reading every single one of them.
Here are some things that I noted:
- For every solution proposed, we need to find the weak side of it. Using ships count is just wrong as merely ship count means nothing and no one stops from working around the count.
- The thought of ship value does not seem a good idea either as it limits players who wants to play with few ships. Why take this from them.
- Risk should be proportional or else it cannot be a risk for all. For example, charging gold bars per cast cannot change anything to a well established player but means a lot to a newcomer.
I feel that the key part is to
define the problem. We obviously want to
limit toxic gameplay.
If we are to increase the risk, we need to
define risk.
A witch doctor is different than the toxic witch doctor. It's the
toxic Witch Doctor that we do not want. Still, such a player, may have reasons to become toxic and reasons to do it with voodoo. Therefore we return back in a general need to
limit any toxic gameplay, in general. This is our objective here. Since you can currently become toxic only with voodoo, this is why we target witch doctors.
I can hardly find a solution with currents mechanics. We need to add new content to solve it;
-We are against limits
-We are against nerfing (making something weaker).
We only use those two above for quick solutions, till we come up with a better plan. I do not think that this issue is so urgent to go with limits or nerfing. The best way to go, is to create new content.
New IdeasI really liked the
backfire chance. This idea, as Slindur mentioned can be used elsewhere as well and we could do well to add it as a concept. We can implement it based on various dependable factors. This will not only give us more strategy immediately but it will also allow us more room for development. I can already think of possible uses in Ship Abilities. Generally, the concept of becoming stronger at one point with the drawback of getting vulnerable at another works well and we could add more things like this in the game.
The side affects as proposed by SHM sound like good path to explore further.
The special flag for Witch Doctors sounds promising but in the same time it sounds real hard to define all the needed metrics. Still it worths exploring. Like with the idea of having layers/levels to achieve as a Witch Doctor to probably unlock all kind of targets.
We could also use a "toxic" rating ( ie Karma/whatever name seems suitable ) and use it specifically to flag toxic players. This rating will be earned and lost by a)player votes (major importance), b)specific in game deeds (medium importance) and c)time (small importance). Rating could play a role in target ability (we can use total asset power index) so players that have a huge gap will not be able to attack each other, if one of them has a high toxic rating. Admins will be able to intervene and clear this rating or part of the rating, in case it appears to be illegitimate. Something along these lines, just early idea.
). The only difference will be the recording of their death, by whom it happened and when. It could come with a multi-month voodoo casting prevention between the two while the victim will also not be able to target anyone else for a few days.
