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Unrealistic balance

Ivan_

Professor
Minecraft IGN: _Navyy
Auralock Griffin Phoenix Vampire Werewolf
#1
So I've noticed a trend where "skill" is getting less and less rewarded on the server. It goes along the excuse where PW no longer wants to "lock" rewards behind difficult gameplay as thats "unfair". Okay, but my issue and the reason why I'm making this thread is because its even more unfair for players who do that difficult gameplay. I'll name a few examples and I hope that will showcase what I'm talking about. First of,
1. Parkours
It's noticable how parkours are generally not rewarded well on the server, and its even more noticeable how increasing difficulty of a parkour is not rewarded at all (during events for example).
If we take current Valentine's event and look at the rewards, icarus escape elytra which isnt even that hard and takes about 40s gives about the same reward as the two medium parkours (which take much longer and generally are way easier to fail at). Now even if we ignore that, my main point comes to the "Very Hard" Ruined Temple parkour, which gives only 25 tokens. The difficulty of this parkour is not rewarded at all. This parkour could easily have a 10* bigger reward and possibly have a cooldown, and it would still remain fair in sense of how much it requires to do. If a "Very Hard" maze (which requires you to follow a person who knows the way or you watching a youtube video) can give out 50+ tokens, I really dont see how a 25 token reward for this parkour is logical and "fair".
It also happened with hunts where the London eye parkour gave out only about 80 raw magic and its probably the hardest parkour on potterworld ever. I can agree with decision to remove rewards from such content (like what happened to amor vita parkour) but that doesnt mean that they shouldnt be rewarding anymore. People should be motivated to do those and be rewarded for their effort and time.
And finally, the world parkours. I'll name the "Lost Toad Parkour" which gives an underwhelming reward of 2 gold. No matter how easy a parkour is, 2 gold during this economy, and during the time where a single chest can give you much more than that - its just unfair. Even the hardest parkour there is, the forest parkour, gives only 50 gold, meanwhile if we compare it to some mazes (which do have a cooldown, but still) that give 100/40 gold, its doesnt make much sense.
2. Arena
Arena is one of the only places on the server where skill is rewarded well, but I will name one recent situation as an example to prove my point.
So recently arena shop got a rework and its prices were reduced by like 60%. Honestly, nobody within the dueling/flying community asked for this, it was mostly the "outsiders" who couldn't buy those items fast enough because they weren't getting much ATs (even tho challenges always happen and they could always get their 5 ATs no matter how bad they are, or maybe sign up for tournaments and get even more). So okay, lets say thats fair. But then things like reputations (a not so skill demanding gameplay) did not get 60% (or any other percentage) requirement reduction because its "permanent gameplay which you can always grind for" :unsure:
So a skill demanding gameplay (or a better word, skill related gameplay) which is also permanent and that you can always grind for can get the cheap prices (a 60% difference), but something like reputations cannot? Why is that? And how is that fair to those people who did grind ATs for like a year before that and paid those higher prices.
3. Daily/class rewards
So for some reason, the highest rewarding daily (in HPs) is simply for going to two classes. It gives 5 HPs (aka the same as third reward in like flying or wiz pe). Finishing all wiz pe courses gives only 3 HPs. Winning in dueling in some cases also gives just 3 HPs. I dont really see how that is balanced.
4. Chests (speaking from a graduate pov)
I already spoke a lot about chests and how rigged they are for gold, but this time i will just touch on chests versus mobs. So a single chest can give you like 1-8 materials, around 8-15 gold and a chance of getting a gear recipe, low chance of broom recipe (some can give many gear recipes from just one chest). A single mob kill gives you 0-3 materials, a very low chance of getting a single gear recipe, and even lower chance for something broom related. With the removal of selling broom recipes, the profit you make from mob farming is almost non existent (8 gold for 20 materials, low chance for gear which is usually common so less than 10 gold, broom recipes and parts which are not much more than that). And then chest runs can give you so much more simply from chest giving you gold right away + all the material/recipe benefits + gold reward from dailies (160 gold from 50 chests + 3 house points). So that means a single chest is worth much more than several mob kills. A chest which you click and keep clicking mindlessly every day versus battling mobs. So yeah, just something to think about.
So yeah, thats all the points i can think of right now, I hope this explained what I was thinking about. It's been bugging me for some time so I thought I might share it here finally.
EDIT:
5. Voting - with new streak rewards, Im not sure giving people 6hps daily just for voting is right (especially with the amount of alts that are voting as well). For reference, that would equal to 540 HPs per quarter per account, which is a crazy amount (season MVPs get "only" 300 HPs).
 
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cheddarsoup

Graduate
Minecraft IGN: cheddarsoup
Auralock Phoenix Serpent Werewolf
#2
Yeah this is all facts, the server feels like a slap in the face to anyone who wants to be even remotely competitive in some way. Stop letting people skip quest/event parkours just because they're bad (get good at the game it's not that hard), stop catering changes to the population of PWMC that complain about the Whales WizPe map (if that's you, yes I'm calling you out, yes I think you are the problem), and stop rewarding people for the wrong things.
 

Rosieonyx

New Magician
Minecraft IGN: RosieOnyx
Honeybadger Auralock
#3
I can see where you're coming and I agree there should be better rewards for the harder content. However for things like say quest parkours, maybe instead of them doing skips (which I didnt know was possible) They just actually make an easy version that like someone less than 12 could do, But, I do agree the balancing on rewards, from the examples you've given, isn't fair. (Also I will complain about the whales map bc I'm bad ata parkour, which is what I think most of the people who complain about it are. However, that doesn't mean they're opinion should be what makes a decision final.)

Also, I think the having the cost on arena things be reduced is a good thing. However, 60% is alot and probably too big of a reduction. I would've done 30-45% personally. I think the reputation rewards could do with that too. And just because one type of content is 'permanent' and one 'isnt' is not a good reason to reduce one and not the other, just because it's grindable. Just like people don't want to work that hard in challenges or arena, there are people who don't want to grind chore quests either.

I don't personally think the chest and mob balancing is that bad, however I would like better rewards from bosses. Maybe a collectable instead of a piece of gear that is probably worse than what you could buy for cheap. Also, maybe make bosses grindable and make cosmetic rewards for them like a Siren or Leprechaun themed wand or broom. Grinding bosses is much more enjoyable than grinding mindless quests, especially since if bosses were made grindable then you should be bale to bring friends in which the boss could then scale with the amount of players and the rewards could scale as well.

But, that's just my thought. Sorry if any of it came out rude. ;3;
 

Ivan_

Professor
Minecraft IGN: _Navyy
Auralock Griffin Phoenix Vampire Werewolf
#4
Just like people don't want to work that hard in challenges or arena, there are people who don't want to grind chore quests either.
Thank you
Grinding bosses is much more enjoyable than grinding mindless quests
I agree
(Also I will complain about the whales map bc I'm bad ata parkour, which is what I think most of the people who complain about it are. However, that doesn't mean they're opinion should be what makes a decision final.)
It's fine that you complain, I used to struggle there as well. But wiz pe kept it's core and didn't allow newbies to change how it is. So why is it that outside of wiz pe, we wash down parkours and not reward ppl who do them?
 

Athena__Pallas

New Magician
Minecraft IGN: Athena__Pallas
Griffin
#5
In relation to your comments about the parkour, I completely agree that it should be rewarded better. If this were to be changed, I would highly request that a cooldown be placed in effect because for those who excel at parkour could easily gain an unfair advantage.

Stop letting people skip quest/event parkours just because they're bad
Coming from someone who is not that skilled at parkour. I think skips should be available for the events. While I agree that the more you play on the server and practice at parkour the better you get, all players are able to do the special events. Early levels/those new to parkour should not be held back by parkour requirements. I believe the aim is to include everyone on the server to play. However, the quest lines should not have the ability to skip (I didn't think they did? I recently had to do a few and there were no options). I think it is great that players need to complete parkour, elytra etc because it makes them better at it. Personally, I am not amazing at parkour but I have definitely improved by playing on this server (seeing as I made it to graduate) which is why I think it is important that skips aren't added for the main quests. Additionally, in the last event, Candyland, there was a cooldown for skipping parkour/elytra which makes it fairer to those who actually complete them.
So why is it that outside of wiz pe, we wash down parkours and not reward ppl who do them?
My issue with this argument is that wiz pe is a class and not a requirement. It is not part of the questline and merely serves as an elective for those who wish to participate.
 

Ivan_

Professor
Minecraft IGN: _Navyy
Auralock Griffin Phoenix Vampire Werewolf
#6
In relation to your comments about the parkour, I completely agree that it should be rewarded better. If this were to be changed, I would highly request that a cooldown be placed in effect because for those who excel at parkour could easily gain an unfair advantage.


Coming from someone who is not that skilled at parkour. I think skips should be available for the events. While I agree that the more you play on the server and practice at parkour the better you get, all players are able to do the special events. Early levels/those new to parkour should not be held back by parkour requirements. I believe the aim is to include everyone on the server to play. However, the quest lines should not have the ability to skip (I didn't think they did? I recently had to do a few and there were no options). I think it is great that players need to complete parkour, elytra etc because it makes them better at it. Personally, I am not amazing at parkour but I have definitely improved by playing on this server (seeing as I made it to graduate) which is why I think it is important that skips aren't added for the main quests. Additionally, in the last event, Candyland, there was a cooldown for skipping parkour/elytra which makes it fairer to those who actually complete them.

My issue with this argument is that wiz pe is a class and not a requirement. It is not part of the questline and merely serves as an elective for those who wish to participate.
Quests themselves aren't skippable, but you should be able to finish the storylines without finishing every single quest. So you can do the next quest without finishing the previous, which is fair enough imo.
I named wiz pe because that's the only place where parkour has remained it's difficulty and it's rewarding. Outside of wiz pe, parkour keeps getting washed down (no matter if it's a requirement or no) - this includes rewards, difficulty and amount of parkours, all the things i named originally. So yeah, that was my point there.
 

cheddarsoup

Graduate
Minecraft IGN: cheddarsoup
Auralock Phoenix Serpent Werewolf
#7
In relation to your comments about the parkour, I completely agree that it should be rewarded better. If this were to be changed, I would highly request that a cooldown be placed in effect because for those who excel at parkour could easily gain an unfair advantage.
... an unfair advantage by being... better at the game?


Coming from someone who is not that skilled at parkour. I think skips should be available for the events. While I agree that the more you play on the server and practice at parkour the better you get, all players are able to do the special events. Early levels/those new to parkour should not be held back by parkour requirements.
since events and stuff don't give players items that allow them an advantage over others in aspects of the server and are purely for aesthetics, i don't think this is as relevant as it seems. the whole idea of this post is that every competitive scene on PWMC is dying because there's no real reason to get better, since the server sets up every single gameplay mechanic with a "get out of jail free" card (skips, unbalanced rewards, etc.) with the only exception to this being the few remaining competitive stuff.

if there was an actual reason to get better (i.e. having to do a little bit of grinding to beat a parkour to get a cool event hat or finish a quest, being rewarded in a way that proportionally makes sense for being good at something), there might be more than 6 people that show up to challenges/tournaments/etc. on average :)