This year is more fun than last year for me. I understand more this time and our team has a good vibe to it overall.
Like many things in Torn there is a lot more nuance to it than one might see at a glance. That said, it's fairly clear when a team is doomed. With few exceptions once your team is the focus there's only so much you can do. To survive or not rests on command decisions by leadership of various teams as well as the proper execution by its members.
My ideas won't change this. Torn has a long history of politics. Many wish it didn't result in such stagnation in several areas of the game but removing it would be nearly impossible even if the devs thought it was a good idea. A large community inevitably forms clicks and factions.
I do have a couple ideas that might make the event more interesting and engaging. More inviting to players beyond a couple merits and perhaps more fun in general.
First idea is a team chain of sorts.
Not like the faction chains but something to both encourage teams to grow and enemies to break. The numbers likely need tweaking and testing. My numbers here are likely not good.
Chaining:
Each team can chain. This is done by defeating players of other teams. Each win adds 15 seconds to their teams chain. Each defeat removes 5 seconds from the chain. A loss neither adds or removes time.
Every victory adds 1 to the count of the chain. Every second defeat removes 1 from the chain. Every time a team loses life the chain loses 500.
When the chain reaches 10,000 the team receives a 5 E reduction in energy needed to attack. The chain caps at 15,000.
The Underdog and Surpremacy system is primarily to make alliances more tenuous and unstable. Giving an advantage to both ends of the ticket scoring. It won't save the doomed or secure a win but add to the need to continue activity as gaps widen.
Underdog & Surpremacy:
When a team has 25% more tickets than the second highest team they achieve supremacy. This reduces the hospital time of targets defeated and left by 30%. It also reduces Energy needed to attack by 5 E.
When a team has a ticket total less than the median of all other remaining teams by more than 30% they achieve Underdog 1. This reduces E needed to attack by 5. Medical items used are 15% more effective and add 25% less to their medical cool down.
When a team has a ticket total less than 50% of the median of other remaining teams they achieve Underdog 2. Energy used to attack is reduced by 10. Medical items effectiveness is increased 30% and uses 50% less medical cool down.
A team can only have one level of Underdog at a time.
Loot:
This is not intended to fully supply a player to the point they could min max their cool downs or receive more items than they could use. The developers don't seem to desire this event to be profitable. It could use some encouragement to promote participation and engagement by reducing the burden of trying hard.
Each successful attack has a chance to receive a reward in 4 categories.
Drugs. 1 in 10 chance to receive either a Xanax or Vicodin. Yes, I'm sure everyone needs more vicodin...but honestly you know the devs would like this.
Temporary Items. 1 in 25 chance to receive a temporary item. Grenades, HEG, smoke, tear gas, pepper etc. Also with a slightly lower chance to receive a needle and a rare chance to receive a SED. Yes SED is not a temp.
Cans. 1 in 50 chance to receive a energy can of random quality 20, 25, or 30 E.
FHC. 1 in 100 chance to receive a FHC.
I would like an item that reduces medical cool down to drop. Perhaps at a high enough rate that people could stockpile them and create another item coveted by players . This item would be very desirable and likely become a reason for many to participate and try hard. But there is no such item in the game that reduces a cool down so I doubt it would be created. It would lower medical cool down but add to booster cool down. I would make the chance for such an item dropping 1 in 5.
I would like to see the chance to receive loot from each category in every attack. So that one could potentially get more than 1 item. The drop rates are likely not good and need balance but the concept is there.
These ideas are primarily to encourage discussion on ways to make Elimination more engaging and add more strategic diversity into it. The potential stacking of energy reduction for combat and added weight to ticket totals would make alliances more tenuous. Also with the Underdog mechanics a team still couldn't fight off too many teams at once but could definitely complicate what is as now just a matter of time without much hope for the chosen sacrifice.
I don't pretend that these ideas are without flaw or properly balanced. I look forward to comments and other ideas from the community.