You know, to say that PVE “shouldn’t” exist in OPR is ridiculous. Many players say this despite the fact that THAT’S the entire thing that OPR IS all about. PVE should and must exist. In fact, it should have even MORE of an impact than it currently does like the siege weapons should do even more damage to players and structures. There should be strategy and decision-making involved in sieging a point rather than the way that things are in OPR’s current form which is to brute force and mindlessly zerg vs. zerg back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back and borth… A few people holding off 10 people can and should be a thing because that’s what the premise of OPR is in the first place. There ARE tools in the OPR shop that allow for the siege and the destruction of those fortified capture points. Whether or not those tools are useful, efficient, and/or effective in their current form is a matter of balance and should maybe be revised and looked at to streamline things out. But people forget that it’s called OUTPOST RUSH and that the idea was always to capture, build, defend, and SIEGE points. Honestly, that is what the design and balance should be centered around and the developers should genuinely LEAN INTO that as the game mode’s design backbone. OPR in its current form is just a giant zerg vs. zerg wave OR it’s a constant Call or Duty emulator that we like to, instead call, BowPR. Not many actually focus on the objective and that’s fine if some want to play that way, but when everyone does it, the state of competition either dominates the other side or it stalls. This also causes gameplay where people that just want to fight and players that just want to play the objective are at odds with each other because teamplay isn’t rewarded very well. I’m not saying that this is right or wrong here, but OPR needs to get its identity back to what it is supposed to be. CAPTURE, DEFEND, SIEGE. If people can’t handle that. If people don’t like that, then they can go play one of the other game modes. Do they want strict PvP? Go war and open world PvP. Do they dislike PvP? Go farm unflagged and do dungeons. But as far as game modes. What has always made OPR cool was that it’s different from both sides. The problem is that OPR is trying to be too many things at once. If OPR were to just focus on its own unique identity of CAPTURE, DEFEND, and SIEGE. Then it would do alright.
Here are a few recommendations that I suggest that I believe could make OPR better. (keyword SUGGESTIONS) Some of these could even make other game modes better, but I digress:
- Lean into the design philosophy of "Capture, Defend, and Siege and center your balance and design decisions around THAT core.
- Introduce the PvP timer, that leaving a sanctuary has in the open world, to leaving the main respawn camp to prevent spawn camping, but DO NOT add this feature to those that are spawned by respawn points in the outposts.
- No matter the cost, no matter the benefit, no matter the risks to the team OR the individual, ALWAYS design counterplay. ALWAYS.
- Increase the amount of cover and concealment throughout the entire map to prevent ranged player abuse and allow players the ability to be able to conceal their nameplates when lying down/crouching, just as they can do in the open world, preferably, when out of combat. If some players have access to ranged weapons/abilities while others don’t AND there is no place to cover and or hide. There is NO COUNTERPLAY. This is unfair game design and is the main reason why players HATE going against those weapons.
- Design avenues and opportunities to allow for meaningful long ranged plays (For example, create a vantaged location that might allow a long ranged player(s) to apply pressure to those inside a defended outpost). This should be designed in such a way that prevents players from applying ANY seige pressure to the outpost itself without risk to themselves because the further you are, the safer you will be and everyone knows this. AND create a similar location/structure that allows a defending long ranged player(s) to be able to counter said pressure (ie grant them ranged in some way like a fixed turret crossbow or something). One should never say to their teammates, “hey that dude is shooting us from over there” and have no ability to do anything about it because, if that is so, then there IS NO COUNTERPLAY and this is unfair game design. It is the main reason why players HATE going against those weapons.
- Reward and celebrate defensive, strategic, and supportive playstyles and choices, alongside damage playstyles, and allow players to become AWARE of these rewards and celebrations. (Example: On the scoreboards provide feedback to the players and allow the player to receive personal points in regards to damage taken, damage prevented, buffs granted, debuffs granted, siege damage done, siege damage prevented, crit damage done, crit damage taken, healing done, healing taken, overhealing done, overhealing taken, crowd control applied, headshots, damage over time, etc., etc., etc.). And grants points, personal end-of-game points, for many of these things being tracked. Do you know how unrewarding it is to exist as a tank in OPR? Do you know how unrewarding it is to exist as a tank in New World? A good tank should score well. A great tank should be on top. A good healer should score well. A great healer should be on top. A good support should score well. A great support should be on top. Catch my drift? As it stands right now, those that do the most damage and those that focus on padding stats are on top and that rewards and incentivizes meaningless play. The same is true for wars and invasions as well, but those other game modes aren’t today’s topic.
- Lower the number of points that the teams get for non-meaningful play (by this I mean the actual win condition team points, the blue vs red points). Within this context, non-meaningful should be defined as against the spirit of CAPTURE, DEFEND, SIEGE.
- Remove the PASSIVE generation of team points over time completely and instead use ACTIVE generation of said points, instead (Points can be added due to kills, assists, structures created, structures destroyed, etc. and those points can be multiplied BY the number of captures. But simply owning the point should add NOTHING, inherently, just for being owned). This will prevent situations like turtling and other inactive/passive plays that could arise without careful conscious design decisions).
- Design more reasons to break large groups apart to instead go and deal with/defend/or fight on/for another area. The mines, the tree groves, the portal, and the Baron pit are great, but they are unimportant to the masses. Design, reasons, and threats that cause players both “PvE” and “PvP” alike to WANT to go there. (For example, a threat could exist, or spawn in a region where, if killed and/or captured, could cause structures to downgrade that were owned by the opposing team and/or offer buffs/debuffs the way baron does. Increase siege damage done/taken to players and/or structures etc., etc., etc.). The world is your oyster and multiple things like this could happen at the same time in various places on the map.).
- Counter to #8, design windows of opportunity for everyone to WANT to zerg vs zerg (because it can be fun) and all be together. Make those moments meaningful. Make them an event! Cause this to happen by shutting off ALL other reasons to be anywhere else.
- Blur the line between the “PvP” player and the “PvE” player. Force people to not know WHAT to think.
There are probably more ideas. I’m honestly tired of typing. I’ve played a LOT of OPR and I enjoy it. But of course, there are many things that I wish OPR could be, instead, to make it better. These are all just some of those things and this is all MY opinion and these are all MY suggestions. Keep that in mind.