Outfit Wars, Alpha 1 - Scoring Fixes and Fairness

[PSNews]

We'll be bringing the PC servers offline at 6am PT, April 1st to bring in the changes detailed in the article below. The downtime is expected to last up to 2 hours.

Hey there, folks. We're on the cusp of completing the Outfit Wars Alpha 1 cycle now, with loads of Outfits per server currently participating in the Qualifiers.

With this being somewhat of a landmark for Outfit Wars, the question of fairness of scoring has come into question as we lead up to this big moment.

We set Alpha 1 up with the expectation that we'd be able to see what kind of meta developed, and use it for a baseline moving forward. And thanks to the enthusiasm around the feature, we were quickly able to come up with a list of potential changes for our next round of testing.

However, there were a couple exploits that surfaced that ended up devaluing the hard work that many Outfits had been putting in, and that's certainly not what we want our first foray into Outfit Wars to look like.

Given the severity of the exploits discovered, we'd like to take a mulligan on the Qualifiers with some changes and fixes to the ruleset.

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This will entail a reset on all of the current Outfit Wars scores starting when servers come back online.

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We realize this is abrupt, but also feel that bringing all contenders back to an even playing field will result in a healthier, more satisfying Qualify phase and Outfit War, as a result.

When servers come back online tomorrow, Qualifiers will continue where they left off, with all scores at zero. You won't need to re-enlist your Outfit, and this does not affect your Outfit resource bank in any way.

This timeline gives Outfits about 5 days left of time to get to the top of the scoreboard, with the Qualification phase ending on April 6, and will likely be more akin to the length of our Qualification phases in future Outfit Wars.

Below is a list of the changes going Live tomorrow:

• When participating in a base capture, the top 10 scores of players within the same Outfit are combined to equal the Outfit's capture score. Previously, it would combine the scores of all outfitmates at a base. "Score" is raw experience gained during a base fight, unmodified by boosts.
• Some of the more passive or farmable experience types will no longer contribute to base capture score. This includes ammo pack experience, repair, revive, healing, spawn experience, etc. Base objectives now matter more than they once did.
• Capturing bases on locked continents and earning resources from bases on locked continents should no longer be possible.
• Standing at an uncontested enemy base when the continent locks should no longer grant your Outfit base capture credit just for being there.

What does this mean for Outfits moving forward?

• Being early to arrive at a base matters more, as you'll have more time to accrue score.
• Capturing and defending objectives at bases matters more, as these types of experience still count toward base capture score.
• Small Outfits and extremely large Outfits are now on a level playing field when it comes to claiming a base.

In the interests of preventing further exploitation, we're keeping the list of what exactly contributes to Outfit score a bit close to our chest, and instead encourage all players to play as you normally would.

Please help spread the word about these changes so that we can make the remainder of this Alpha phase as fair and fun as possible. The more feedback and data we get now, the better this experience will be in updates to come.

-Wrel, Lead Designer

P.S. The current number of Outfits enlisted per server are below:

• SolTech: 20
• Connery: 26
• Cobalt: 30
• Emerald: 45
• Miller: 47

Source: Official News and Announcements

[DeletedUser]

This is pretty big if we want to try and gain top spot now!

[Ansic]

Not really, we would still end up in top 3 playing as usual

[BashaR]

LOL score reset. Poor T.

[charlie11575nc]

I bet Znipsel is fuming

[Fallengud]

If this is an aprils fool joke then its a bad one. I dont care about the score reset but that you dont contribute to base capture with logistics and revives, its bullshit. Are they playing this game or just developing it?

[Sithis]

If this is an aprils fool joke then its a bad one. I dont care about the score reset but that you dont contribute to base capture with logistics and revives, its bullshit. Are they playing this game or just developing it?

Must agree with that, Its basicly MMORPGFPSRTS game, not just MMOFPS...

[LeadedKarma]

it is what it is

lets adapt, get organized and play for our spot in the OW

[Yragarn]

one more chance to prove our worthiness I'd say 

[MrFFF]

LOL score reset. Poor T.

Yeah, we can laugh at their faces that sitting on empty bases and camping hossin at night is not competitive elite enough.

[FelixTheLion]

How the score-reset feels for less successful outfits.

[Stummeursel]

I suggest they also put a stop to the gain, when the continent is clearly hard overpopt. So 1 faction has more than 3% as the other too.

[TheTry]

Oh dear. They really haven't thought through what these changes really mean...

First of all it promotes small fights since only the top ten scores matter.

Secondly it promotes farming. Doesn't matter if an outfit caps the Biolab, if a few people from an other outfit where farming they will take the top spots in the scoreboard. Doesn't matter if you set up a router, set up a good sundy or provided intelligence, it won't count.

Last of all it doesn't discourage capping underpopulated continents, it actually promotes this behaviour. Small fights are more worth in proportion to big fights, and capture score still counts.

[TheTry]

Wait a minute, that's the aprils fool prank, isn't it? Stupid me not looking at the date...

[Fallengud]

I'm still hoping for that too, but this is too stupid to be only a prank