Possible Pitfalls of Quake Champions
Disclaimer
I've been having some concerns about Quake Champions lately and today I've found enough time to put them on paper. So to make this clear, I haven't in any way played the game or seen more than any of you reading this did. I am just voicing my concerns based on the available information and previous experience with Quake and other games (Overwatch). You shouldn't take anything I've written here as a proof of what's going to be in the game, this is more of a list things that I wouldn't like to see in QC.
1. Pitfalls
i) Strict roles
Seeing the Nyx video today, I've seen something that I hoped I will never see in a Quake game. It's Clutch and his shield ability. Granted, it's only a couple of seconds of gameplay and offers no real insight on how the hero will actually play, but seeing that made me think of other stuff that would be good to avoid in a Quake game. My issue with Clutch and his shield ability is that he seems like a typical tank. What's wrong with that is that, in my opinion, it does not fit in to Quake gameplay at all. Why? Because it reminds me of class based gameplay with strict roles: tank, support and DPS.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against abilities as long as they add to the variety of gameplay and expand on how you can play the game. Having strict roles is forcing people play the way the champion's designed to play and certainly does not add to the possibilities of what you can do in the game, quite opposite – it limits the options to a single task. Yes, we already have roles in Quake, but they're set by players and can be adjusted on the fly, without needing to re-pick the guy you're playing with because, aside from the aesthetics, all the guys are identical. It is all about your play style and what you're most comfortable with.
ii) Uneven playing field
Even playing field is what Quake has been known for since it came out. Again, Nyx release info suggests completely opposite. It seems that each champion will have different starting health, armor and speed. I personally can't imagine myself getting killed in a Quake game just because a champion I'm playing is inferior by design to a champion that killed me. My opinion is that if abilities are properly done, there is no need for further diversification of given champions. Yes, champions might be designed to reach maximum synergy and efficiency in proper compositions and team fights a la Overwatch, but that's not what a Quake game should strive for.
Quake is not a game like Overwatch where the whole team stays together for most of the time, the individual fights happen as often as team fights do and it'd be silly to lose them just because you have less armor and health than the other guy by default.
iii) Patch based meta
This is a thing that annoys me the most about Overwatch and since the games are so frequently compared I thought to write a thing or two about it. First and foremost, what is the meaning of having a wide variety of champions available if due to current meta only few of them will be considered as viable picks? Will the meta change mid tournament due to inappropriately timed patches, like it was the case in Overwatch? I hope that none of this will happen in QC and that the patches will be mostly bug related and addressing only serious imbalance issues. Everything else should be left for players to figure out.
iv) Hard counters
I'm sorry, but again an OW comparison. Think of Junkrat, he's an unpopular hero as it is, but when an enemy has Pharah he's just a man down. I hope that no champion in QC will have an ability or a design flaw that lets it counter an another champion by default.
v) Abilities
Let me repeat myself, I like the idea of abilities. I have no actual concern about them at this time, but as it's a major feature of the game I'm pretty sure we can all agree that if they're not well done, they're going to ruin the game. Hopefully the people playing closed beta will give sufficient & quality feedback to ensure that abilities are an actual addition to the game and not something that'll turn the people away from it.
Active abilities are also the main similarity between Overwatch and Quake Champions just by being in the game. Some of them even seem to share same design like Clutch's & Reinhardt's shield and that's fine. It's not necessarily a bad thing, plus it could help Quake get some OW players by offering something familiar in a completely new game.
Passive abilities on the other hand are quite an unknown thing at the moment. So far it seems that they're only movement related (Nyx's wall jump, Anarki's air control). It would be nice if they stayed like that, just adding different movement options to different characters.
What wouldn't be nice is if some characters had passives or actives that regenerate health, armor or ammo as that would significantly reduce the need to control map items in my opinion, perhaps even make them insignificant. That's the only concern I have about the abilities, that they don't regenerate resources which you need to fight for.
2. Solutions
I think that most of my concerns can easily be vanquished just by having every champion have same stats. For example, if everyone starts as it is now – 125 health, no armor and same base speed then at least the first 4 concerns I've listed would have a very low chance of happening. The reasoning behind that is this: when you have no advantage over anyone when you spawn the only thing that sets you a part is skill (or shit spawns).
The playing field would be level at all times, you would work with only what you have managed to collect on the map + abilities. There would be no strict roles in the team and players could shift between play styles more dynamically as all champions would be the same at their core with only abilities to differentiate them.
If there really is a need for characters to have different movement speeds then let it be done via passive abilities instead of a default setting. The difference is that you would actually have to learn how to move properly instead of just pressing +forward and outrunning someone due to a design choice. On the topic of movement - strafe jumping should be available to all champions, because what is Quake without it?
The patch based meta would have less of a chance of happening since only thing that'd require balancing would be abilities, and abilities so far do not look like they can change the flow of the game on their own, unlike ultimates in Overwatch.
When it comes to abilities I've said most in the pitfall part. I've just one more thing to add concerning active abilities – they shouldn't be available off the game start and instead unlock at a certain point in time, think 30 seconds in. I've picked this time because it's the power up time and in my opinion the first major power up on the map along with map control should go to the team that does the best with limited resources. That's also something I wouldn't care about even if it's not like the way I imagined since good ability use also comes down to skill, wouldn't you say so?
3. Conclusion
In the end, I do not see Quake Champions being an FPS MOBA. I really do believe that abilities will be just what Willits said, something that adds to the gameplay without changing it's core.
Anyway, that's it from me, feel free to comment, criticize, discuss, share your own ideas, etc.
I've been having some concerns about Quake Champions lately and today I've found enough time to put them on paper. So to make this clear, I haven't in any way played the game or seen more than any of you reading this did. I am just voicing my concerns based on the available information and previous experience with Quake and other games (Overwatch). You shouldn't take anything I've written here as a proof of what's going to be in the game, this is more of a list things that I wouldn't like to see in QC.
1. Pitfalls
i) Strict roles
Seeing the Nyx video today, I've seen something that I hoped I will never see in a Quake game. It's Clutch and his shield ability. Granted, it's only a couple of seconds of gameplay and offers no real insight on how the hero will actually play, but seeing that made me think of other stuff that would be good to avoid in a Quake game. My issue with Clutch and his shield ability is that he seems like a typical tank. What's wrong with that is that, in my opinion, it does not fit in to Quake gameplay at all. Why? Because it reminds me of class based gameplay with strict roles: tank, support and DPS.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against abilities as long as they add to the variety of gameplay and expand on how you can play the game. Having strict roles is forcing people play the way the champion's designed to play and certainly does not add to the possibilities of what you can do in the game, quite opposite – it limits the options to a single task. Yes, we already have roles in Quake, but they're set by players and can be adjusted on the fly, without needing to re-pick the guy you're playing with because, aside from the aesthetics, all the guys are identical. It is all about your play style and what you're most comfortable with.
ii) Uneven playing field
Even playing field is what Quake has been known for since it came out. Again, Nyx release info suggests completely opposite. It seems that each champion will have different starting health, armor and speed. I personally can't imagine myself getting killed in a Quake game just because a champion I'm playing is inferior by design to a champion that killed me. My opinion is that if abilities are properly done, there is no need for further diversification of given champions. Yes, champions might be designed to reach maximum synergy and efficiency in proper compositions and team fights a la Overwatch, but that's not what a Quake game should strive for.
Quake is not a game like Overwatch where the whole team stays together for most of the time, the individual fights happen as often as team fights do and it'd be silly to lose them just because you have less armor and health than the other guy by default.
iii) Patch based meta
This is a thing that annoys me the most about Overwatch and since the games are so frequently compared I thought to write a thing or two about it. First and foremost, what is the meaning of having a wide variety of champions available if due to current meta only few of them will be considered as viable picks? Will the meta change mid tournament due to inappropriately timed patches, like it was the case in Overwatch? I hope that none of this will happen in QC and that the patches will be mostly bug related and addressing only serious imbalance issues. Everything else should be left for players to figure out.
iv) Hard counters
I'm sorry, but again an OW comparison. Think of Junkrat, he's an unpopular hero as it is, but when an enemy has Pharah he's just a man down. I hope that no champion in QC will have an ability or a design flaw that lets it counter an another champion by default.
v) Abilities
Let me repeat myself, I like the idea of abilities. I have no actual concern about them at this time, but as it's a major feature of the game I'm pretty sure we can all agree that if they're not well done, they're going to ruin the game. Hopefully the people playing closed beta will give sufficient & quality feedback to ensure that abilities are an actual addition to the game and not something that'll turn the people away from it.
Active abilities are also the main similarity between Overwatch and Quake Champions just by being in the game. Some of them even seem to share same design like Clutch's & Reinhardt's shield and that's fine. It's not necessarily a bad thing, plus it could help Quake get some OW players by offering something familiar in a completely new game.
Passive abilities on the other hand are quite an unknown thing at the moment. So far it seems that they're only movement related (Nyx's wall jump, Anarki's air control). It would be nice if they stayed like that, just adding different movement options to different characters.
What wouldn't be nice is if some characters had passives or actives that regenerate health, armor or ammo as that would significantly reduce the need to control map items in my opinion, perhaps even make them insignificant. That's the only concern I have about the abilities, that they don't regenerate resources which you need to fight for.
2. Solutions
I think that most of my concerns can easily be vanquished just by having every champion have same stats. For example, if everyone starts as it is now – 125 health, no armor and same base speed then at least the first 4 concerns I've listed would have a very low chance of happening. The reasoning behind that is this: when you have no advantage over anyone when you spawn the only thing that sets you a part is skill (or shit spawns).
The playing field would be level at all times, you would work with only what you have managed to collect on the map + abilities. There would be no strict roles in the team and players could shift between play styles more dynamically as all champions would be the same at their core with only abilities to differentiate them.
If there really is a need for characters to have different movement speeds then let it be done via passive abilities instead of a default setting. The difference is that you would actually have to learn how to move properly instead of just pressing +forward and outrunning someone due to a design choice. On the topic of movement - strafe jumping should be available to all champions, because what is Quake without it?
The patch based meta would have less of a chance of happening since only thing that'd require balancing would be abilities, and abilities so far do not look like they can change the flow of the game on their own, unlike ultimates in Overwatch.
When it comes to abilities I've said most in the pitfall part. I've just one more thing to add concerning active abilities – they shouldn't be available off the game start and instead unlock at a certain point in time, think 30 seconds in. I've picked this time because it's the power up time and in my opinion the first major power up on the map along with map control should go to the team that does the best with limited resources. That's also something I wouldn't care about even if it's not like the way I imagined since good ability use also comes down to skill, wouldn't you say so?
3. Conclusion
In the end, I do not see Quake Champions being an FPS MOBA. I really do believe that abilities will be just what Willits said, something that adds to the gameplay without changing it's core.
Anyway, that's it from me, feel free to comment, criticize, discuss, share your own ideas, etc.
Play Reflex.
However, one thing I am sure of is that veteran Quakers are going to need to allow for some aspects of the game that might lower the skill ceiling somewhat, or raise the skill floor up from what they have been used to for the past 10-15 years.
My hope is that Quake champions retains enough of the depth that I have been used to with Q3 and QL so that I can feel satisfied and not held back by game mechanics that cheapen the skills and experience.