How to fix Turf War

[Tribow]

Tired of the last 20 seconds of a Turf War match being the only thing that matters?

Tired of getting obliterated for 3 whole minutes against a team you had no chance against?

Despise the fact that there's no way for Turf War to be a competitive mode even though Nintendo keeps using it in their tournaments?

I have the solution. A solution that keeps the spirit of casual play from Turf War, while keeping it fun for the pros!
Here's the idea: Instead of points being decided by the total amount of ink on the from the team at the end of a match, points will be gained throughout the match.

The team with the most amount of turf will gain points based on how much more turf they have over the other team. The team with less turf will not gain any points. Once a team reaches a certain amount of points, they win the match!

I'm being vague with the numbers on purpose since obviously I have no way to test the balance of this. However, I imagine that if one team maintains a tiny amount of turf over the other team it should take about 3 minutes for the match to end. If one team has a huge lead the whole time it be a minute or less. If it's a close game the whole time it should take around 5 minutes.

I don't a have time to make mockup graphics for the UI, but imagine bar right below weapon/timer display at the top of the screen. One half of the bar fills up from the center with the team's color when they gain points. The other half is the same for the other team. Once one half fills up all the way that's victory! The bar could even disappear when it's getting close to full to keep that ambiguity of who will actually win in the current Turf War rules.

This should solve most of the issues from Turf War. It's never the last 20 seconds that will matter. Similar to Splat Zones, it's about maintaining control for as long as possible. If one team is completely dominating the match won't drag for 3 minutes. There's a lot more value with inking the base for the sake of getting early leads. This shouldn't alienate the casual audience either.

What do you guys think? Is this a better ruleset for Turf War? Do you see a bunch of issues with this idea?

 

[s9221300]

MAKE ALL THESE CHANGES NINTENDO

 

[Deleted member]

Someone send this to Nintendo. Does anyone know anyone who works at Nintendo?

 

[Cephalobro]

This change and one that doesn't waste your ticket if the match happens to make you lose because one or more players on your team disconnected.

 

[missingno]

Since it is the designated casual mode, Turf War is designed to be as volatile as Mario Party. Little Timmy can sometimes get a lucky win in those last 30 seconds and that's not a bug, it's a feature. I don't think redesigning Turf is necessary when it's doing exactly what it's designed to do, and I would expect it to just upset casual fans who enjoy Turf the way it is.

We have alternative modes that are built for competition, all I really want from Nintendo is to stop putting Turf in official tournaments and stop setting aside a weekend every month where I'm not allowed to play anything else but Turf.

 

[Tribow]

Since it is the designated casual mode, Turf War is designed to be as volatile as Mario Party. Little Timmy can sometimes get a lucky win in those last 30 seconds and that's not a bug, it's a feature. I don't think redesigning Turf is necessary when it's doing exactly what it's designed to do, and I would expect it to just upset casual fans who enjoy Turf the way it is.

Good point, my proposed changes would certainly result in the better team winning more often. Low skill players might start getting more and more losses and less lucky wins.

You also made me realize that I completely neglected to think of the timer. As much as it sucks to lose in the last 30 seconds, you can't deny how good it feels to clutch out a win in the last 30 seconds. That is a feature of Turf War. I tried to recreate the tension of not knowing who will win at the end by having the bar displaying how close a team is to winning disappear, but that's not the same tension as time running out.

My proposed changes didn't even have a timer, I even suggested the match could last up to 5 minutes...but a Turf War shouldn't be 5 minutes right?

So, I'll make an amendment to the proposed ruleset. There's still a 3 minute timer and the bar still disappears if a team is close to winning. However, it will also disappear in the last 30 seconds. If 3 minutes pass, the team who filled the most bar wins.

Admittedly, this doesn't really address missingo's point. In my ruleset, it's a lot harder to bounce back from a good spawn camp. I do think the time limit is an improvement though.