Valhalla server

[Shadow7168]

I disagree. IMO the most interested part of combat in any game is exploring it's ruleset and coming up with the best possible strategy then testing it against your opponents. And if the test part is taking place mostly on a test server, it takes away all the fun and competition from the main server.
I would prefer if devs were just closing the most obvious loopholes and sometimes would make some major changes in the system, just so it doesn't get boring. Let the smart people adopt to the changes and let the dumb ones complain about how the system is stoopid.

High-level players can use the current valhalla to practice combat and fight other factions, and yet it's dead 99% of the time outside of a few pre-arranged duels. It would be nice for the devs to host combat tournaments/ FFA death-matches, both to let them learn how the combat system works in practice and to let newer players experience group fights.

I severely doubt people would play exclusively on the test server as there just isn't that sense of achievement you get from doing things in the main game. But, if that does ever happen, then I'd say the devs did a good job making combat fun and balanced. Besides, if it's that bad they could just up their jew game and make Valhalla a verified-only feature.

Personally though, dev sanctioned combat tournaments with some goodies like a statue, sub time and/or cosmetics for the 1st-3rd place winners would be pretty awesome to see.

[Raffeh]

Signed.

I agree with this. PvP on the main server is so hit and miss because its normally a large group v smaller group and because it doesn't happen so often as people are scared of dying it makes giving feedback on the system hard.

I mean for example it took me and Mightysheep dying before the realisation that fighting multiple targets is hard because you don't know who you have targeted and that's when the target arrow was implemented.

Something like this would give J&L the tools to polish the combat system and test things without having a world wide epidemic about how someones 6 month old char was killed using unfair combat tactics.

[ArvinJA]

I disagree. IMO the most interested part of combat in any game is exploring it's ruleset and coming up with the best possible strategy then testing it against your opponents. And if the test part is taking place mostly on a test server, it takes away all the fun and competition from the main server.
I would prefer if devs were just closing the most obvious loopholes and sometimes would make some major changes in the system, just so it doesn't get boring. Let the smart people adopt to the changes and let the dumb ones complain about how the system is stoopid.

You have some valid points. A lot of people do default to complaining because they're stupid. However, it seems like your argument is based on the belief that a good combat system is one where there is sufficient complexity for different strategies to emerge, and I agree that this is important ceteris paribus, but it's far from the only factor that would make a combat system "good". I think it was pretty obvious from that Jorb stream how hard it is for J&L to keep up with how people actually use the combat system, and it seemed a lot of changes to combat happened after Jorb realized how silly some of the colors in the system were, I think that to achieve a good combat system, more efficient real-world tests have to be performed.

I also agree that it's fun to test out new strategies on your enemies, but the downside to having an untested combat system is that people will lose their characters they might have worked months on, due to silly quirks of the system, and that is not fun gameplay.

[razfen]

Signeed because it's an interesting idea.

[JLo_mindset]

Do keep in mind that sparring is actually already doing this thing exactly. Wouldn't it be the same thing if... people just organized actual sparring arenas similar to the w8 trade hub, where killing is simply forbidden, enforced by other players (if you kill someone, you're free game for everyone else)?

This is a sandbox game. It's all already in the game, you, as players just simply have to make it work.

[/JLo_mindset]

[jordancoles]

Signed