Disclaimer : I know absolutely nothing about designing and building things in video games. I play Gears ALOT and this is just an idea I have for a way to improve Taps in Horde.
We’ve all had games where the Taps are just really bad or are in spots on the map that just aren’t ideal for a base setup so I have an idea on how to improve where the Taps spawn. Usually the taps that are most annoying/difficult to defend are the ones across the center line on most of the maps. Sometimes at the beginning of the game, if a tap spawns on the center line, theres no way to tell where the rest of the taps are going to be. The only way to tell, usually, is if a Tap spawn on the left or right side of the map. This usually means most of the taps will be on that side.
So heres my solution for bad tap spawns : at the start of horde match every Tap that can spawn will be available to capture, the team can then choose which tap they want to capture and that will be the teams tap for the rest of the game. On Wave 11, the same thing happens. The rest of the available taps remaining on the map will show up and the team can then choose their second tap location that they want for that match. Wave 21, same thing. Wave 31, same thing.
The taps are such a fantastic tool in horde now since they spawn on wave 1 and they give the team more health. I think this new way of capturing taps would be immensely appreciated by the community. Like I said in the beginning, I know nothing about game design so this just an idea I have. Im sure it would take a lot of work to implement but Im just tossing an idea out there.
They are meant to be defended yes, that does not mean they are meant to be easily defendable. In fact, I would say it just makes everything more predictable/more boring because now everybody just sets up in one location and there is never any kind of disagreement or ‘off-meta’ strategy.
Seems to me that what everyone is asking for is just free energy… if you want to defend a tap use a melee class or something (a class that is well equipped to defend one)
Edit: you also have to option of setting up a temporary base then migrating later on.
I mean, people just restart mostly anyways if they get a bad tap off the rip. Me included. 1-50s are a time investment that need a strategy before the game starts. Being able to choose your taps improves base building for the engineer, they can build the base based off where they know the taps will be.
Horde is already pretty stagnant. Mostly just the same setups on maps, may as well let people choose their taps.
I think its important to put history into perspective here:
originally taps were far far worse than what they are now. They gave no health buff, less power, had less durability. Only reason they buffed them was that they found players just kind of ignored them and never bothered even drawing from them. They were meant to be out of the way from the very beginning.
I would even go as far as to say that it has had a significant impact on map design. Its why we get these huge maps like Regency or Pahanu and so on, the developers intentionally make these maps large because they know it opens up tap locations and setups (I hope this is the reason anyways lol)
power taps in their form are pretty OP in my opinion. They pretty much made Jack’s energy cards worthless and it only takes an open sightline or person close to one in order to defend it. It may be very difficult to defend one after wave 30 its definitely possible to defend it before then with relative ease.
If you wanna restart every time things don’t go your way then fine, that is your choice, but don’t be bringing everything else down just because you like restarting. Back in OP1-3 taps were barely ever used, you had to work Jack like a slave just to survive. The current meta is spoiling a lot of people.
Edit: They were meant to replace those bonus objective things in GOW3/4.
I gave this exact piece of feedback to Michael before the new system with extra health for the team and more power, he wasn’t a fan.
and I get why, its less risk/reward but I think the tradeoff in players being able to choose where they want to be outweighs the negative from them almost alwyas choosing the same spot.
I don’t get why people are fine with defending the exact same spot in every single match, it’s so ■■■■■■■ boring. Choosing your tap spawns only makes the meta fab placement problem even worse.
A video a watched a while back explores the concept of saving players from themselves. I figured this is a good chance to link it
My two cents (despite liking the idea of us picking the initial tap)
If we got to choose where taps spawned, got to choose to get rid of annoying enemies etc the game would end up becoming way too boring and easy. Some player feedback is great, but it should be on the game designers in how to change/improve things without just copy pasting player solutions/ideas because those will usually result in the game becoming eaiser and more boring.
Michael has done nothing but great work for the PvE side of this game. If thats what he said, I completely understand then.
I understand what people are saying with the “no risk high reward” argument for sure. But people mostly setup in the same spots on every map anways.
It was just an idea looking for some discussion. Wasn’t aware of Michael’s previous thoughts on this exact thing. Thanks for letting me know.
I’m down for anything making this game more difficult. Was just thinking about certain maps like regency where the tap spawns are absolutely abysmal no matter where you want to setup.
and there is no problem with you giving feedback or ideas and TC looking at that and coming up with their own ideas or solutions to what players see as a problem
