I think an issue is that it's challenging to create new game modes on such a large scale. I don't think Torn is structured in such a way to handle global warfare well. Elimination feels like an oversized and clunky faction war in a game not originally designed to accommodate teams over 100 members in size. As a result, the only way to effectively communicate is through third party apps like discord. Chat becomes difficult, mail gets spammy, etc. No one legitimately using human hands and eyes to play is going to have a very smooth time engaging so many targets at once and you need all sorts of scripts to optimize play.
In its current state, elimination feels exploitative in terms of draining energy, slowing stat growth to a halt for all competitive participants, and disruptive to flight and trade. I can't think of a valid reason to disable early discharge from outside hits during ranked wars otherwise. I'd love to get some developer perspective on why they insist on that.
Right now elimination basically feels like it requires all of the effort of Halloweek, with none of the eventual reward. I have to constantly remind myself that I'm acting as a volunteer beta tester in a game I otherwise love in order to feel any sense of satisfaction at all. It's not fun because I feel like every action I try to take in-game is constantly disrupted, and I'm wasting valuable training and play time. A sense of sportsmanship is the only reason I didn't quit almost immediately.
An especially frustrating element is the timing for the event. We just had an intensive pvp event a few weeks ago during Halloweek, duke's dump event is underway already with christmas town right around the corner, etc. It feels overwhelming
I do understand the need for such a long running game to come up with events and mechanics that rebalance the economy or the training gap between new and old players by expending energy, so I do apologize to the devs if my feedback seems uninformed or unreasonable vs the state of the game.
This post was originally a reddit commentary in response to someone else's elimination feedback, the community suggested I post it here as it gained a bit of traction there, so it's been slightly rephrased and formatted. A healer did mention to me there that for them, the event has been very positive, so I do think devs are on to something as far as making healers and their factions more worthwhile beyond chasing their related merits, and I look forward to replaying the event in the future as a healer despite finding it frustrating and disappointing for war fighters.