Grand Arena Speed-up

Beeblebrox

Personally I like the new Grand Arena game mode, generally speaking, however there are a few issues with it and probably the biggest issue is that CG seem to be either unwilling or unable (not sure which) to have both Grand Arena AND Territory War events running at the same time.
IF Grand Arena could run from start to finish over less days then they wouldn't have to compromise and have less of one or the other all the time.
CG have already shown that they are happy to try out various versions of GA and so I would like to suggest they try the following 2 slightly altered "deploy phase" versions and then take see what the community thinks about them:

Option-1: Customized Defence After the 24hr joining phase have players provided with 7 "Battle Tabs" where they can deploy their squads/fleets individually against their first actual designated opponent AND each of the 6 other 'potential' opponents in their mini GA League in the first 24hr after joining. Then you could have 3 consecutive "Battle Days" with no need for additional "Deploy Days" in between each battle. This would allow for players to still put down unique defensive setups for each potential opponent but crucially would reduce the total time needed for each GA Event by a full 48-Hours

Option-2: Standard Defence After the 24hr joining phase have players provided with JUST ONE "Battle Tab" where they can deploy their squads/fleets ONCE and that same defence will be used against ALL THREE opponents they end up battling in their mini GA League. Then you could have 3 consecutive "Battle Days" with no need for additional "Deploy Days" in between each battle. This would require players to try and figure out a defensive setup that could be serviceable for each potential different opponent while keeping back attacking squads that could also be serviceable against any potential opponent. It would be far less flexible and far more tactically difficult, but would only require 1 set of deployments and would also reduce the total time needed for each GA Event by a full 48-Hours

Reducing each GA by 2-Days would allow for CG to put on a higher number of GA & TW events overall, which I think is something that the vast majority of players would like to see.
Personally I would prefer Option-1 but I can see the appeal of Option-2, and certainly rotating those 2 formats in conjunction with the different types of sector/fleet/squad etc formats that they've already used for GA would keep it interesting and different while keeping it more engaging without the "downtime deploy days" that GA currently has.

What do you think??

Kyno

Hey, I found one of your posts and approved it.

I don't know about others but I always tweak my defensive setup based on my opponent. So neither of those options works for me, but that'l could be just me.

Beeblebrox

Thanks for sorting that.
As for "tweaking based on your opponent" that is what "Option 1" would allow. You would set up separate defences for each 'possible' opponent - so you would set up your defence 7 separate times in the first 24-hour setup period, and each one would be specific to one of the particular opponents in your 8-person GA league. It's just that instead of waiting to see which 3 opponents you end up getting you would set up as if you were going to face all 7, but then only the 3 setups that correspond to the 3 opponents you end up facing would be actually used and the other 4 setups would end up never being used.

Option-2 would of course remove that 'setup per opponent' and personally I would hate that too...but it is another valid option for a quicker GA and could involve some complicated strategy which would be a challenge that players (other than us, lol!) might enjoy

Kyno

I see what you mean now with option 1. That would work for customization. A little more work up front, but over a 24 hour period isnt too bad. Consolidate all the setups into 1 period, nice.

Waqui

The suggested changes would completely eliminate the ability to customize your strategy / defense for each opponent. I would rather not loose that ability. It's part of the fun and challenge.

Waqui

... and setting up a defense for each of the 7 possible opponents instead of only for the 3 you actually battle seems like a waste of time. The game consumes enough time already, if you play all game modes.

Bulldog1205

If they aren’t running GA consecutively then it really doesn’t matter. Lets get them to run more GA before things like this are even applicable.

beer30mn

I like the current tournament style. The only thing I wish they did differently was to tier the rewards for every place. I don't like how 4th or 3rd place get the same rewards as 2nd place. I am also biased though because I have taken second or first place every time. Grand arena is far less frustrating than the arena, I love it.

Beeblebrox

Waqui wrote: »

The suggested changes would completely eliminate the ability to customize your strategy / defense for each opponent. I would rather not loose that ability. It's part of the fun and challenge.

No it wouldn't! "Option-1" specifically would still allow for defensive setups to be specific to each different opponent, that's why it would be my preferred of the 2 options personally (as I also like the customized setup)

Beeblebrox

Bulldog1205 wrote: »

If they aren’t running GA consecutively then it really doesn’t matter. Lets get them to run more GA before things like this are even applicable.

Part of the reason for speeding up the GA in this way is so that they can/will run more GA events: For whatever reason they currently do not seem to want to run a TW and a GA at the same time, which means currently they are splitting the schedule between less TW than we would usually have had, and not as many GA as we would like.
If however each GA event took 2-days LESS than it currently does then there would be more space on the calendar for them to have additional GA and/or TW events within any particular month.

Obviously I think many players would like to see GA become an ongoing game mode, or certainly far more frequent than is possible with it splitting time with TW. But any improvement in the number of GA that it is possible to run each month is a good start. Currently you have a 7-day event, so 2 GA events takes up 14-days even if run back-to-back. Whereas with this kind of change each GA would only take 5-Days, and so you could have 3 in 15-Days for instance - more is good - or they could run 1 TW then 1 GA then 1 TW then 1 GA etc with each GA taking less time and giving 3 battle-days in a row

GrantusMaximus

Anything to speed up GA is welcomed, preferably a resign button 1 minute into the event so I can just get the bottom loot.