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Discussion Why Annihilation Needs Changes

Discussion in 'Annihilation' started by enderCJNG, May 7, 2020.

Discussion - Why Annihilation Needs Changes
  1. Tahrien Platinum

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    58,918xp

    This post was created by ColorDream, I apologize if the name on this post confuses you.

    To Begin, this post is very beefy and covers a lot of technical issues in the game surrounding the Meta. I completely understand if you have difficulties reading it because it is very, very long; however, it may be very informative to those of you who care as much about this server and game mode as I do.

    My IGN is ColorDream, but I am known by the name "ender," and my old IGN is endermanking333. I've been playing this game for about five years, so I've seen the ups and downs of Annihilation and Minecraft in general, but more importantly, I've seen what works, and what doesn't. Given a lot of experience with the single-player aspect of Annihilation as well as the clan-based one, I hope that this post is a least biased as it may be for either solo players and team-based players.

    Finally, before I begin, this post is not going to be about my opinions regarding the minor details of hypothetical class changes; rather, it is going to be an overview of what I believe are the three biggest unresolved issues in Annihilation and how they impact the game in every facet for players of all types. If you read this entire post, I beg that you hear me out till the very end.

    With that out of the way, let's talk about the meta. I believe that Shotbow’s Annihilation has a major flaw in that it is too defensive and defense-oriented (Not referring to actually building defenses). The reason for this is because of three unbalanced components of Annihilation games: Classes, Strength, and Enchantments.

    Let’s begin with classes. Annihilation has many classes, many more then there were originally. For the OG players out there, I’m sure they remember an Annihilation with very few kits to choose from. Why is this important? Well now, Classes have taken over the roles that people needed to master, such as brewing potions, breaking leaves, walking to bases in order to rush, creating defenses, and being vigilant 100% of the time to protect against invisible rushers. Now, Alchemist and Farmer supply us with potion and Gapple materials, Riftwalker can transport entire teams across the map, and Engineer can destroy entire bases with ease. Not to mention Vampire can allow you to fly across the entire bloody map. The argument here is that people rely on classes too much, and for this reason, the meta is solely class-based where people master classes instead of skills. This isn’t to suggest that any or all classes should be removed; instead, certain classes deserve a nerf or rework, the matter of which I will not discuss here (Except for RIFT). With a decreased reliance on classes, Annihilation will become more intense and more interesting because players will be forced to think creatively to solve problems such as moving teams across the map, countering defenses, controlling mid, and creating potions and gapples. But enough talk about classes, how about the strength issue?

    It is no question that strength in Annihilation is EXTREMELY Underpowered. Even with a diamond Sharpness V sword and Strength III, it requires two hits to kill a leather, whereas before you only needed a Sharpness I Iron sword and Strength II. Why does Strength need a buff? Well, it is essentially impossible to kill people while rushing if they are fully geared. Even in casual games, rushing can be extremely difficult because of the dependency of Strength III. As seen in recent clan matches, people have been mentioning a “cleaning meta” where teams patiently wait for another to rush, and then strike at the best time when their base is empty. This is occurring since players take too long to die in rushes when they have gear, potions, and Gapples. Because people take too long to die while rushing, players instead wait for the nexus bleed to do the work for them, and they rush with gapples and protection to clean the base. This is the current meta, and it isn’t fun for players who play Annihilation all the time. Games last for too long and often go without any intense action, and players spend little time killing each other in rushes because it is too difficult. I suggest a simple fix for this: Increase the amount of damage strength does. Of course, this would break the game; but it isn’t the fault of Strength; rather, it is the fault of overpowered classes. The sole reason why Strength has not been buffed in the past is that it would be too overpowered with classes such as Rifter, Alchemist, Vampire, or Farmer, classes which were either not the same as they were in 1.7, or were underpowered. Buffing Strength is the quickest and least-disastrous way of changing the Meta forever, for good. However, this is not a one-sided ordeal, so in order for Strength to be buffed, classes including Rifter, Engineer, Alchemist, and Vampire must be nerfed or removed.

    Lastly, the enchantments. Probably the most controversial topic on this list because why do the enchantments need changing? To list out the ones that need changing or reworks, here they are: Fortune, Looting, Sharpness, Power, and Protection. I’m sure Fortune and Looting are obvious because literally everyone-in-the-game-depends-on-multiplier-enchantments. Almost all of the time in Phases 1-2 is dedicated to finding Fortune and Looting III, and then gearing up for mid. Players are discouraged from working together to build mid basses, building a defense, or gearing up traditionally because the rewards for getting either Fortune III or Looting III are immeasurable. In a minute, a player can gather about 80 diamonds for their team (Depending on the map), so control of mid for even 10 minutes means that diamonds are of a nearly endless supply. This abuse of Fortune and Looting means that players depend on them in a similar way that players depend on certain classes (... maybe like Alchemist and Riftwalker). Diamonds are the most valuable resource in Annihilation, so a control of mid should be difficult, but very rewarding. Also, because mid is the most important area of any map, it should be difficult to farm diamonds for your team; however, the Power enchantment has made it very easy to control mid since the damage from bows is quite literally insane. A Power V bow can drop a leather by eight hearts, and a fully enchanted iron by four or five. Sharpness V iron, on the other hand, deals considerably less damage to both a leather and iron player. This imbalance means that players are rewarded for using Power IV-V Bows at mid; thus, decreasing the number of melee interactions. If you aren’t already convinced some enchantments are broken, let’s move onto Protection. To cut it short, Protection and Sharpness are not balanced for diamond gear. Sharpness deals too little damage compared to the damage resistance Protection grants. If we compare a full set of enchanted Protection IV Diamond armor to a Sharp V diamond sword, the sword is considerably less powerful compared to the armor. Interestingly, full enchanted Protection I diamond armor compared to a Sharpness I diamond sword is perfectly balanced. In fact, this same balance can be found in the Iron sets as well. The problem lies with the unbalanced level of damage resistance that only diamond armor gets when the level of Protection increases. What this all means is that defending players have difficulty dying in rushes if they have decent Protection levels because gapples and potions account for extra damage resistance. So what is the solution now? Simple: Increase the damage Swords receive for each level of Sharpness from 0.5 to 1. Another solution I’ve heard is to improve the hit register for Swords, which is a solution most can easily agree upon.

    The solutions I’ve mentioned are only ideas and can certainly be improved upon, but I believe changes need to be made soon to save communities of people that are tired of the repetitive games they encounter on a daily basis. A lack of intensity when it comes to Annihilation games is dangerous because boredom is the driving force that causes players to quit. If you take anything from this post, it should be that players shouldn’t be dependent on the game doing the work for them. Yes, it is still difficult to make potions or enchant gear or create gapples or enchant armor, but aren’t those tasks supposed to be difficult? Doesn’t the difficulty lead to enjoyment and satisfaction when either a rush or defense succeeds? Those items are, in the end, the most powerful in the game, so no ordinary Joe should be stumbling upon on multiple gapples, or fully enchanted Prot IV gear. Building intricate defenses should be worth it, and controlling mid should be a luxury only the most skilled teams would have. The defensiveness of Annihilation has brewed a Meta where players depend on classes rather than their own inherent skills of PvPing, pot brewing, or vigilance; if changes aren’t made soon to any of the topics I’ve listed above, there is little hope that Annihilation will stay enjoyable for players of all types.
    drewko09, Ganzatron, mik4 and 20 others like this.

  2. samare_144 Platinum

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    1,661,569xp
    i agree they should bring back farming
    Paolo_24 likes this.
  3. IBlakeI Emerald

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    982,331xp
    God apples are way too overpowered right now given the meta. 30 seconds of Regen III is not counterable since strength is so weak. Even against prot 3 diamond enemy, strength 2 on a sharp 1 diamond sword still takes a heck of a ton of hits to kill the enemy, and if they're a scout, forget trying to kill them through a combo unless you manage to trap the player.

    I have said time and time again that god apples should not be immune to combos. As they are right now, there is no way to overpower the regeneration effect they give, which is even more of a problem than it otherwise would be given the expansion of the nexus area from long ago. The only map where you can properly block the nexus is Andorra. Coastal used to be this way, but then the staff (who the heck knows why) thought it would be a good idea to remove the fences surrounding the back of the nexus block.

    Yes, there are many other issues present in annihilation that I have discovered over the course of my several days of playing after years of inactivity, but I find this to be the most urgent.
  4. soto Platinum

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    1,536,055xp
    Great post,

    There was little I could disagree with, probably some parts that are overthought but still considerably well thought of regardless. Not a lot of people will understand the point of having too many classes, and I don't think that'll ever change, besides class-reworks or balance changes. However, I do agree on the fact that mid battles heavily depend on: Fortune 3, 10 absorption pads, 1 bard & 1 transporter and a sniper to keep everyone away from mid cause like you mentioned, the power on bows is ridiculously overpowered and it's almost a joke as to how strong they are. There's absolutely little to no way to counter a sniper hidden in his mid-base with perfect precision aim so it's hard to stay above ground and you are forced to hide out in your tunnel hidden like sewer rats waiting for your turn to mine that one diamond that spawns in-front of you.

    I could write endlessly about it but I'll keep it short:
    - I agree with your points about strength & enchantments immensely.

    Looking forward to see other feedback.
  5. Tobi472 Platinum

    XP:
    1,650,597xp
    We need this changes!!

    1. I wouldnt change much about the enchants but if I could change one thing Id remove fortune 3 and 2.
    2. Classes? I mean sure vamps make defense pointless but lets just hope they fix riftwalker.
    3. YES! Strenght is just a wasted potion! Strenght one is +1.25 damage. This is comparable to change from a iron sword to diamond or just the 1.7 difference between sharp 1 or 2. Even strenght 3 is only +3.75. This is in 1.7 having a sharp 1 or sharp 4 and this wasnt even a real differnce back in the days. I really think we should just start with changeing strenght to what it says in the sub texts and thats still way less powerful than 1.7 strenght!!!
    Meramii likes this.
  6. theeliteexterma Platinum

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    9,692xp
    Maybe implement class limits on the non free classes, there's a lot of scouts.
  7. Walkop Silver

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    30,323xp
    First off, mad respect for you ColorDream. Great player.

    Now - on to discussion. I fully disagree on armor enchants. Protection IV armor should be stronger than Sharp V. Much stronger. That's 4 lvl30 enchants, vs 1 lvl 30. If you think it's too easy to get full Prot IV, then that's a deeper problem with the meta - too much free time, games are too long, like you said. The issue isn't armor enchants all. The problem is that defenses get exponentially stronger with time, because there's a much longer "tech tree" for defense. 4 defense pieces of armor up to Prot IV, walls, delaying blocks, pre-emptive bard boxes, swapper traps, Defender class, etc. What is there for offense? Sharp V and Str III. Warrior if you want to be out of the meta (which I believe is a very underplayed class for rushes). That's it.


    That's where we need ideas. How can we add to the 'tech tree" for attackers? Give them more options to build up attack force, and with a fair advantage over defenders? More thoughts needed.

    I'm not convinced that Str III needs a buff. However, I do think that the current system is broken and attacks need more power. I think there should be more tiers of Str, with greater costs for each level, and remove the alchemist exclusivity to these pots - it would give the brewing speed bonus more power, since you could brew up to, say, 5 tiers of Str, while removing class dependency. It would give more balance to the ratio of the power between attack and defense.

    An example:

    Str I - 1 blaze.
    Str II - glowstone.
    Str III - glowstone, 1 blaze
    Str IV - 2 glowstone, 2 blaze
    Str V - 3 glowstone, 3 blaze
    Capping at +6.25 damage.

    Also: Instant Damage II. Out of meta rn, but it can be used to great effect in rushes if done properly.
    _Swipe and Paolo_24 like this.
  8. PastaNeedsSalt Regular Member

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    21,209xp
    About the classes:
    I don't fully agree to this part. Especially alchemist and farmer aren't inherently flawed. They are overtuned currently, but I don't see how having to break leaves for apples was good.
    Swapper/Immobilizer/Vampire/Engineer on the otherhand are just fully broken the way they currently are. Engineer/Vampire deserve a full revamp, because it's just painful to play against. You say Power makes mid control easy. That is just not true. Especially in maps like Coastal mid is impossible to hold if there is even one team dedicated to swappertrapping. So yes some classes pretty much take over the gameplay, but I don't think they are alchemist/farmer.

    About strength/sharpness:
    I think the best way to solve this would be to use the toughness damage formula. (maybe a changed version of it)
    AFAIK current damage is calculated the following way: (1-0.04*armor)*(1-0.04*protection).
    Because of the nature of additive multipliers, getting closer to 0 causes an enormous boost. The difference between prot0 and prot1 is 4% extra hp and healing, the difference between prot15 and 16 is 11% more hp and healing. So prot scales better the higher it get's and it affects two aspects of pvp.
    Damage does not have the same kind of scaling. Sharp1 is a boost of 14% damage, while sharp5 is a 5% boost of damage. So what about str3 and sharp5? That is a 47% damage boost. Sounds nice right? You wish. Prot16 gives a 180% boost to effective hp(Meaning you need to deal 280% of the damage AND healing gives 280% value). So the scaling just does not work out.
    Here is where the The tougness formula could provide inspiration:
    It lowers the damage reduction of armor based on the damage dealt. Meaning a hit with 20 damage would do more damage than 2 hits with 10 damage. If you change the damage formula to reduce damage reduction based on damage, protecting against full prot4 dia will become a lot easier, without one/twohitting leathers. Which was the big problem with strength back in the day.
    So my suggestion is: Make damage reduction scale negatively with damage. Slightly buffing str/sharp would also help.

    I'd like to talk about your other points about enchantments too, because I think you are looking at the wrong things.
    First of: PowerV can deal up to 8.25 (9 for crit) hearts of damage to a leather yes, but that's maximum damage which you rarely ever get. When I tested bow damage with a pow1 bow (without armor), I usually got 5 hearts of damage instead of 7. AFAIK That comes from arrow speed, meaning only if someone is standing a few dozen blocks directly above you should you ever get full damage from a bow. So your damage numbers are exaggerated. Sniper does seem to add a ton of damage though. So Power is completely fine the way it is. A nerf to it would only buff swapper which hurts melee confrontation at mid a lot more than bows. And at least bows aren't affected by ping and jitter/autoclickers. :nope:
    What I think would help the game the most is to remove visible enchantments(meaning Enchanting for prot3/4 diamond has a 55% failure chance) and nerfing fort/loot to give less rewards. Maybe multiply their current effects by 50% or so.

    TL;DR:
    1. Rework classes that suck the fun out of the game (Swapper, Engineer, Vampire, Immobilizer) and nerf alchemist/riftwalker and a slight nerf for farmer
    2. Make damage reduction scale worse with damage, maybe buff sharp/str slightly.
    3. Hide enchantments + lower the gains from fort/loot

    EDIT:

    First of: Defending in the current Meta is weak. Not getting middle is an auto loss and engineer/vampire make walls trivial. Additionally both prot and sharp are offensive and defensive enchantments. Who doesn't rush with prot/defends with str? So I don't agree at all.

    Re: Instant damage. Instant damage was never Meta to begin with. They kill yourself, do little damage on prot enemies and you need a ton of extra gunpowder/glowstone. I'd love a buff to them though.
    Layhoun, Paolo_24 and soto like this.
  9. SupremeGustice Platinum

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    33,178xp
    Great post. I used to play back in 2013, 2014 (with different accounts) and then stopped until quarantine. Here's what shocked me about the new meta:


    1) Phase 5 bleeding: phase 5 used to mean that nexus's would lose 2x more damage, which would incentivize rushing quickly, not waiting and building these massive defenses.

    2) People are unwilling to go to mid; they're either too busy getting fully enchanted gear or too scared to take mid from another team. I find myself way too often being the only person to go to mid unless there's a TP set up and we already own mid. This is a ruthless cycle because I can't take mid by myself, but people won't come if we don't have mid.

    3) Leather PvP. Leathers used to be valuable for distracting people, maybe rushing a nexus with nothing but a gold pick, or mine rushing if you're toxic. Now, leathers can have a significant advantage over even full diamonds: swapper traps, immobilizer, void scorping, etc. They're not necessarily fun to play and don't benefit the player directly, but they sure ruin someone else's day. There's not really the incentive to gear up anymore because your class ability (not PvP ability) can kill almost anyone. Don't get me started on Scout.
  10. hiddenbun Retired Staff

    XP:
    569xp
    Agree with all your points, great post, and I remember your old IGN. The biggest difference I felt when comparing the beta days of Annihilation, 2.0 release, and today is (like you said) the balancing of melee, ranged damage, buffs, and armor.

    Bring it back to the basics, and lean on vanilla mechanics to let players have to work hard to develop loot that is strong and pays high dividends. Many classes are still cool concepts, but put them back into the context of Minecraft.

    Strong loot should be strong and difficult to obtain, weak loot should be weak and easy to obtain. It shouldn't be impossible to take out a much better geared opponent, but it should take immense skill.

    Balance to highlight skill.
    Layhoun, SupremeGustice and Meramii like this.

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