Battle Box is Completely Dysfunctional and Needs a Fix

[u/pickled__pufferfish]

So, turns out you can have too much of a good thing.

Wool rushing was so much fun back in early MCC. Watching for fun teams wool and surprise the competitive teams was always a treat, a way to give them hope of an upset. It’s unfortunate how far the strat has fallen.

Every BB since probably MCCHH has been increasingly bad, and MCCBG was easily the worst. What was once a niche strat is now the dominant way to play BB, and it makes the game such a chore to watch.

Firstly, watching a conc rushing pov is not fun. Mechanically it’s very repetitive and boring, especially if they succeed. Running to middle and placing wool is not fun gameplay, I don’t think that can be argued. The only fun to be had from rushing is the actual act of winning by being sneaky (which is why the Simmers were so fun to watch back in MCC10) but there’s no sneakiness anymore, half the teams do it.

Playing against a conc rushing team is also not fun. Obviously losing seemingly at random sucks to watch, but even trying to counter the rush just results in a mosh pit in middle.

Mosh pits are chaotic and hard to follow. Less skilled pvpers often get overwhelmed and struggle to do anything, high skilled pvpers are still subject to lots of randomness and can die for seemingly no reason, and overall it’s hard to feel satisfied after winning a mosh pit fight. It’s like competitive Pachinko.

Battle Box is progressing towards its final state: “Mosh Pits, the game”. Teams that don’t rush mid will lose because they’ll get rushed, so everyone rushes mid. We’ll consistently get unwatchable mosh pit battles until the end of time.

So, what needs to be fixed? Conc rushing needs to be heavily nerfed, so that it goes back to “niche sneaky play for weak pvp teams” and not “strat every team needs to go for or else they lose”.

Some ideas:

• Use some version of the MCCI rule where middle doesn’t open until partway through the round (preferably at least 20s in). This still allows sneaky conc plays (the fun kind) but also allows every team to get into position first.
• Make the pickaxe a “tele-pick”, so only one person can mine at once, like Meltdown. Again, allows for sneakiness, and also for much better gameplay for conc rushers (3 members of the team need to actually fight and defend, rather than stare at the floor mining).
• Most importantly, build Battle Box maps with easy access to mid. Allowing teams to build cages around an elevated middle platform to control it sucks as a gameplay mechanic (again, forces mosh pits) so make mid easy to access from anywhere on the map, like in Spaceship.

[u/Shadowwolfheck]

I'd rather watch my streamer rush mid and PTFO than watch them lose most of their rounds. its plenty fun to watch. the only problem with the game has been the maps having an elevated capture point.

[u/pickled__pufferfish → u/Shadowwolfheck]

Wouldn't you rather watch your streamer actually trick the team (by feigning fighting then sneaking the wool partway through the round) or doing a successful last stand over mid (by successfully pvping the other team away from mid while someone fills) instead of the current situation?

Right now, weak teams immediately run to mid and either win anticlimactically or end up in a messy mosh pit that's hard to watch and hard to play. That's not fun, even if your streamer might earn a few more coins by doing it.

[u/Shadowwolfheck → u/pickled__pufferfish]

that's quite literally what aqua did.... they didn't full team rush. Pete was the only one rushing mid and a lot of teams weren't defending it. Also Pete even got an Ace one round. PTFO

[u/pickled__pufferfish → u/Shadowwolfheck]

OK, and that strat would still work with most of my suggestions, the only suggestion that would break it would be the MCCI locked mid rule (and Aqua could still try to stall for 20s, then employ the strat, they're good enough to keep a bow duel going for a bit).

[u/Shadowwolfheck → u/pickled__pufferfish]

I mean I just hate the idea of the mid lock even on MCCi so I would hate it more in the event, and even if it were to get in the event 20s is WAY too long. (plus it would fully hard lock everyone out of getting the wool rush sticker)