How to fix Ground Wars

DISCLAIMER:
(Just to clarify, I do not mean this as a suggestion, as I would post this in the games category if it wasn’t foolishly removed. Please don’t feel obligated to vote if you agree with one thing and don’t like something else. This is only meant for discussion)

Anyway, I’m going to be making an essay post on Ground Wars, and how I think it could be fixed. I’ll be covering various topics, which include the powerups, what unique cosmetics could be used, and what unique features I would implement into the game. Anyway, let’s get started.

Powerups
Tweaking

To start us off, I would immediately remove the knockback egg, as it really has no real good use, and can’t really be buffed in any way to make it much better. The explosive egg I would buff to have a much larger radius than it currently does now, as it doesn’t really do much and could potentially destroy cover if its radius was just bigger. Hell, we could even make it destroy the mounds in the ground that a lot of players use for cover instead of building if we really wanted to. And secondly, I’d implement the suggestion that I made here to improve the imposter powerup. Now, that’s it for my tweaking, but which powerups would I add?

Adding

Well, a good but basic idea that I have is simply having a large egg. Which is the exact same as a normal shot, just a much bigger radius, at around 3-4 blocks. Quite self-explanatory really, but this would definitely add an extra layer of fun to the game, as players who say aren’t that good can slightly compete with the sweatier players if they get this powerup, and the spawn frequency of it would definitely be high, and it would probably be called “Radiation” (and would look like radiation spreading when it hit the ground). Another one that is a lot like imposter that I thought of I would call “Trickster.” It’s where you disguise yourself as one of their players on your own side, making them think that you are an imposter, and you can activate this at any time. However, instead of just keeping your skin, you would change it to another person on your own team to trick them into not thinking you have this powerup, and it would last about 15-20 seconds. Another thing I remember reading about on this forum is the idea of a freezing powerup, however that would be very overpowered, so instead let’s make it a ‘slowness egg.’ This would have about the same radius as a blindness egg and would slow the player down for about as long as if they got hit by a blindness egg. (2-3 seconds). That’s all that really needs to be done with powerups to at least make them more fun and worth it.

Gameplay
XP

I also want to talk about XP, as I feel that the XP system in Ground Wars is pathetic, as you only get 1 XP from killing someone, and 10 from winning a game. So, let’s do some math to determine how long it’ll take me to get to 28,500 XP in Ground Wars and max it out to level 20. First off, here are the need to know stats: 44 games played, with 31 wins, 70.45 win%, and 501 kills. Another important thing is that I have Hive+, which increases my XP by 50%. So, here’s our formula:

number of kills ÷ # of games played = 11 kills per game - 11 XP every game for kills
number of games played ÷ # of games lost = one win every 3.38 games
11 x 3.38 = 37.18 average XP per game. 37.18 x 1.5 = 55.77 average XP per game including Hive+. 28,500 ÷ 55.77 = 511.03 games to max out Ground Wars. And without Hive+, it’s 766.545 games.

A bit too slow considering it’s only to level 20 and pretty damn repetitive. I feel like every powerup collected should award 0.5 XP per. This change could really help in speeding up the leveling up process for Ground Wars, so let’s do the math again to see what our new games played amount is with 0.5 XP per powerup, which we’re going to assume is 15 per game:

Keep in mind one win every 3.38 games.
11 + 7.5 = 18.5 XP with kills and powerups combined. 18.5 x 3.38 = 62.53 x 1.5 = 93.80 XP per game 28,500 ÷ 93.80 = 303.83 games played to max out Ground Wars. While this is a bit short, this is with Hive+, and without Hive+, it’s 455.7 games. Even that may not be enough for it to not be too fast, but I do believe it’s better than over 500. I do believe that this is necessary because look at Block Drop for example. I have played 133 games, with an 18.5 win%, and am already at level 16/25. I’ve played about 1/3 of the games I’ve played in Block Drop in Ground Wars, with having gotten 43.55% XP in Block Drop, taking me 133 games. If I continue at this point in Ground Wars, it will take me 200.14 games to reach the same level. Whereas, if we do it applying our changes, it’s right at the Block Drop level with 132.32.Now, we’re just talking about me, but what about the average player?

Well, the average player has about a 50 win%. How do I know this? There are only 2 sides in Ground Wars, making it a 50/50 that you win every game. And for kills, we’ll go with 6 because that’s how many players are on the other side most of the time. Key stats: 2 games played, 1 game won, 12 kills
6 x 2 = 12 average XP per game. 12 x 1.5 = 18 Average XP per game including Hive+
28,500 ÷ 18 = 1583.33. Holy [donk] that’s insane. Without Hive+? 2,375. That needs improvement. I’d say improving the amount of players from 12 to 18 could really help, though that doesn’t seem likely considering the player count can consistently be below 500. Let’s put out new rules into place though, with 0.5 XP per powerup, the average we’re going to assume is double the kills at 12.
6+6 = 12 x 2 = 24 average XP per game. 24 x 1.5 = 36 average XP per game including Hive+
28,500 ÷ 36 = 791.67. Without Hive+? 1,187.5. Could definitely still be improved upon, so we’re going to make every kill earn 1.5 XP instead for the next one

12 x 1.5 = 18 for kills + 6 = 24 x 2 = 48 average XP per game. 48 x 1.5 = 72 average XP per game including Hive+.
28,500 ÷ 72 = 395.83 Without Hive+? 593.75. This is where I feel the sweet spot is for Ground Wars, at around 390-600 for the average player. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the Hive can do .5s, as receiving a meh vote in JB actually grants 0.5. All they do is round your total at the end, so the math may or may not be that accurate. Now, how long will I take with these? Well…

16.5 + 7.5 = 24 with kills and powerups combined 24 x 3.38 = 81.12 average XP per game x 1.5 = 121.68 average XP per game including Hive+
28,500 ÷ 121.68 = 234.22 games. Without Hive+? 351.33 This sure as hell works for a slightly below average sweat.
So the new methods of XP on the website would be:
Kill - 1.5
Collecting a powerup - 0.5
Win - 10
At the end of the round, your total XP is rounded up to the nearest whole number

Also, please correct me if my math is wrong with no hesitation

Minor but important changes

Okay, so the gameplay I believe is what ticks most people away from Ground Wars, as it is often described as boring and repetitive. And I can easily understand, as each round feels exactly the same outside of maybe a few imposters or center powerups. First off, I would change the block being used from concrete to wool, as that way it’s much easier to destroy your own blocks without having to use your own ammo.

Couple other things, I would probably make the build height much higher, as it could really add some strategy and make it less repetitive, and there shouldn’t be barriers in places that you otherwise would be able to get to without building because of the build limit. Oh, and I think that there should be a similar hotbar system to the Bridge one, where if you put something in a certain slot, it’s saved there for every game you play. This definitely doesn’t affect me as much as others, but it could help for other players.

Display

What do I mean by display? Well, I mean cosmetics and maps.

Cosmetics

I’m going to start off with talking about the most underwhelming feature in my opinion, the cosmetics, as there’s only 9 of them, and they are all only one thing: the projectile that you throw. This could definitely be improved upon by adding something simple like say a projectile effect. While I can’t really see much else as the only thing to expand that much upon is the projectile that comes out of your bow, I still believe that 9/20 for cosmetics is a bit low, so let’s fill up 6 out of the 11 empty spots:
Level 3 - Red particles
Level 6 - Skulls
Level 9 - Flowers
Level 11 - Neon particles
Level 13 - Fire/flame
Level 18 - Ender effects

This could definitely be improved upon, but please tell me what you think about this and what you would tweak to make it better.

Maps

Something else I’m noticing is that the maps are very… dull. Sure, the outside generally looks pretty stunning, but there’s not really much on the ground other than your own blocks and maybe 1 or 2 mounds on the surface. I feel like that needs to change. Shown below is what I believe the interior should look like for the theme I’m choosing, which I’ll go with nether. For this map I only made one side to save time.

First off, I believe there should be an upstairs added to spawn with 3 entrances up there. The 2 on the side will contain a castle-like structure like this:


This is a build free zone as it is still considered spawn, and I also believe that you shouldn’t be able to build in spawn because players love blocking it.
In the middle one, there would be a path similar to this:

Now there is one thing I’d like to clarify; I don’t believe that the path should be accessible without either going upstairs at spawn or building up, so ideally these paths would connect on both sides instead of going to the ground. I also believe you should be able to build up to 3 blocks on the path to make some cover. The fire thing is a unique element to only maps with fire in them, and all they would do is break armour, but would never kill you. The mounds right now are fine as is, but make sure to include them instead of making it empty. I’d also like to clarify that the designs shown are templates, not final designs, so you don’t need to harass me about how my building sucks.

Phew, that took a while. Anyway, with all of that being said, please give me as much feedback as possible, and don’t tell me that it’s a “list,” because I clarified in the very first paragraph that I wouldn’t post this in suggestions if I had a choice. Anyway, thank you for reading my 3000+ character essay, and have a good rest of your day.

2 Likes

That was really good and well put, so my two cents are just, if you happen to have a login streak, that also gives a 10% XP boost so I’m not sure if you accounted for it in your maths if you did have one.

And some other ideas I think would fit here are these self-link, wow

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i had no clue you made that lol
and no, i did not account for a login streak, but because that’s impossible to calculate as it’s pretty random across every player, we’ll just leave it as is
killstreaks do sound like a really good idea though, and i’d be happy to see them in gw, however they should not gift xp imo, as that would make it a bit too easy if we take into account our additions already

although an alternative to our additions is an xp multiplier for a killstreak, however that is also very random, so we don’t exactly know what the average is. so for now, we’ll play it safe.

instead though, the killstreak should give you a random powerup for every 2 kills. this could definitely be an awarding set up for killstreaks and doesn’t make maxing gw too fast. and no, you would not get 0.5 xp for that, only if you punched it on the map

and also, i do have a login streak, but it so far has only granted me about 33.5 more xp than it would otherwise

thanks for the feedback (:

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its good, i like it

now that the deathrun update is out, gonna bump this to spark some discussion about potentially the next update being a ground wars one
also wanna say that a winstreak xp multiplier would actually be quite a great idea in substitution for powerup xp (or really any improved xp amount)

2 Likes

Why? This is basically a troll-only power-up and a waste of power-up slots.

Bruh I’ve destroyed entire mound protections with a single shot. Just get good at using the bow lol.

I think they made it so you couldn’t break them for a reason. Feels overpowered as that’s one of the few places your basically 99% safe.

First off, this is a dupe in it’s own right. Second, I also made a post about xp a couple months back so I feel your pain. Here’s the original xp complaint here:

This isn’t really necessary and concrete works fine. Also, it’s impossible to break blocks with your hand.

Guess someone is having issues pulling off a 360 no scope. But seriously, it’d be very annoying to kill these people since it’s easier to aim down then aim high. I don’t really want to be scared of a us navy seal sniper sniping me. This would also screw up alot of defenses.

On average you’ll have three items in your hotbar; And I don’t think you need your hotbar to be saved for just three items.

Yeah I know right. The Inferna map with it’s terrain and massive dragon is pretty boring. The hive’s gotta step up their game.

Overall, some solid and some not so solid ideas. I might come back in the future and check your math but I don’t know about that one. Thanks for reading and Happy Hiving! :beedance:

2 Likes

it would prevent players on the other side from killing you because they believe you are passive, it’s very similar to the imposter one but could work if done right

that i find hard to believe. i am quite good with the bow and have maybe gotten a 2x2 radius at best with it, even at point-blank

this was mostly a hypothetical (at least in my head it was), the reason i said “hell,”. so i see where you’re coming from and would actually agree with you on this

why how’d you know? anyway it’s not even that hard to kill people that build high, heck i find them the easiest people to kill usually because they aren’t moving around, and you can use your bow to destroy any cover blocks. just get good with the bow amirite?

yeah i can easily see where you’re coming from, but there are a few people i imagine who don’t like adjusting this due to hotkeys, even if you and i aren’t one of them.

you are, again, referring to the outside. in terms of gameplay, there is only one mound that you can actually stand on and no paths or whatnot like what i was suggesting on that map. i have literally seen maps with not even one mound on them, so what you are basically saying is that the hive wasted their time on the outside trying to make something that few players will actually care/look at. when i said dull, i was referring to the gameplay, i’d rather have terrain like ctf than just straight up flat nothingness other than one or 2 small mounds, also the build height can greatly interfere with building on the mounds i’ve noticed, which is why i want it increased.

thanks for the feedback, greatly appreciated

oh crap i forgot two lol

we are suggesting the same idea, but our suggested changes are greatly different if you actually read it

that. is. the. point. i don’t want to have to use a bow or egg to break a block when it’s much easier to do it with my hand, especially during the build time when i can’t break it because it’s concrete and not wool

2 Likes

It wouldn’t prevent them from throwing an egg at you just to be sure either.

Ok I haven’t destroyed them entirely but destroyed to the point beyond usefulness.

Oi I read your entire post for this. Don’t do me like that.

Have you ever heard of sarcasm?

Are you sure you’re good with the bow? I’ve gotten a 5x2 radius via explosive egg. And if you don’t believe me on this I’ll simulate a situation of this being possible on a cs.

You could’ve mentioned that in your original post.

Another thing, you say the build height will be extended but never said by how much? Can you be a bit more detailed and less vague on this part?

Overall, nice counter to counter-argument. Thanks for the feedback and Happy Hiving! :beedance:

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How does a 5×2 radius even work? A radius is circular/square, I would love to see evidence of you shooting a 5×5 wall (I think that’s build height), and having the explosion make a pillar in the middle

Oh I was thinking LxW lol.

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Bump hive needs to fix the xp in ground

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Bųmp. This needs to get fixed.

Yes please? Being level 2 is embarrassing?

Bump because the XP System was a problem with snow wars, (R.I.P) and now it’s a problem with ground wars… and this suggestion is a QoL that world make ground wars a better game and would hopefully make the game more popular…

I think this is perfect :ok_hand:. If the projectiles could go further would be cool.

I wish people would talk about the Block power up- it gives your 32 more blocks and looks like a concrete block

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Very well put together. Voted!

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Bump because it will take ages to lvl up

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