Gentlemen,

I was already well-decided to leave this conversation all "Fonzie-Style", but the juicy talk here is just TOO DAMN JUICY!!! hahahaha

As far as I can decipher, we all agree on nearly every topic; and have nearly the same solutions for each and every problem discussed here.

However, there are a few things I can't help but touch on:

Pika, I never suggested West be made into male-dominant server. Recall my quote: "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water"?... in fact, I quite admire Graal for bringing two such heavily-contrasted audiences to a single table; and personally prefer having girls running around in Easter hats than not! ...(any chance on getting some Easter-hat girls in CoD)? ʕ ಠᴥಠʔ

What I was making you aware of is the fact that BECAUSE Graal has many of these feminine social factors, it will naturally attract a more passively-spirited audience (rather male or female)... and naturally manifest a more non-aggressive player base, resulting in this "limp basing society" (West's largest current dilemma); of which, I propose, would not be nearly as prominent- or even existent- if this game's attractive qualities were solely masculine-based. Should I further explain?

^ hahaha sorry, my dudes- that frickin' bites!- can relate... many times over.....

As for my two suggestions towards Spar, Pika:

[1.] The addition of a hierarchy of Spar-Edition hats (earned in realistic increments of Spar Wins: 1, 5, 15, 30, etc.)

[2.] Tallying only Spar Wins to elicit a larger spar audience (by easing-off the fail factor).

^ I am most aware of this being off-topic, and did ask permission to state it. I think it's a valid point being (the grand scheme of this thread): to discuss development- it doesn't hurt to add additional points; and furthermore, I'd like to point out that my "nearly-always-dead Spar House" topic also stems from the same origin as your "hardly-ever-aggressive Basing Community": Feminism..... You disagree?

*pink-bear-shakes your big red-panda hand!!!!!

When a half-crazed-orange-tinted millionaire starts yelling "GET HIM THE HELL OUTTA HERE!" at political rallies... yes, that I can get on board with.

I do agree with that. (big surprise- not haha)

But this restricts the Pk-incentive strictly to inside the bases (unless you get giddy over seeing your red Pk number increase for almost no reason?). We have so many social "non-Pk" zones as is... why not loosen this up a bit?: GP the entire map!

And here, I quote Tomato:

We can have our cake and eat it too, boys...

Both a large array and balanced system of guns based on your- how to say- seniority:

"The Pk Gun-Level-Up System" I previously suggested:
0Pk = PeaceKeeper + Nab Knife
10Pk = Cactus Melee
30Pk = '44 Army Colt
60Pk = Pearl Guns
100Pk = Double Barrel
...
1,000Pk = Snubs
10,000Pk = WoodBow
20,000Pk = LeMat
...
40,000Pk = Viper
50,000Pk = CarcanoRifle
60,000Pk = .45Rifle

Etc. Etc. Etc.

And before you jump on me and say that "I think the .45 should be on 75,000Pk" or whatever blah blah... calculating the exact degrees and specifications of this gun hierarchy would certainly be a job in itself... AND as a player of this game, for a few years now, I embarrassingly admit to only using a handful of the guns. Back when the .45 and Carcano were only $20,000, I simply inquired about gun opinions from higher-seniority players + visited the Spar House; thus I've not used (let alone) considered 75% of West's available weapons, AND THEREFORE would have a heap of studying to do before ever taking a genuine crack at properly allocating Ol' West's weapons.

WHEW! OKAY! Just a bit more then I fr gotta get back to my life! ʕ ಠᴥಠʔ

So coupling this Pk Gun Hierarchy with the current GP system, gives us options:

[1.] Using Pk points to earn basic guns instead of purchasing them with money (which makes more sense because Pk = Guns = Reward for aggressive behavior... (V.s. West's current gun-earning system): Gralats = Passive behavior (fishing, farming, mining) = Guns? = no sense).

[2.]Co-op this with GP that earns more quirky, flavorful weapons: doorknocker, flintlock and blowgun + gun skins + apparel.

^ Honestly though, GP for "Specialty Items" is highly unsustainable. This would put intense strain on the developers to either: Constantly produce new combat-mechanic items to meet the demand of earned GP >> OR risk running out of new, highly-desirable GP items to earn <--- this would then result in (what is now) a very-high priced market of options that simply prolong a dedicated-players' reward; which benefits nobody, because like J* said, "You can't purchase GP"... so in cold-hard fact, these intensely-high prices are doing NOTHING for the community.

The only difference between GP and PK is the location in which you kill players: inside or outside of a Base. So why not just use Pk to earn all weapons?

I take into account that GP is to entice Basing Pk... so what if instead, there was a single numeric value that was applicable to the entire gun hierarchy?

Meaning... something like.....

1GP = 1Pk outside of bases

2GP = 1Pk inside of bases

^ if you are indeed looking to entice Basing-Pk... this could be just one of many options.

^ but "GP" would not be "spent"- rather automatically advancing you the guns as you accumulate kills- the "Pk Gun Level System" with the GP parameters above.

^ I hate Events.

WHIPPY AIN'T RUNNIN' 'ROUND NO RAT MAZE TO EARN NO FLIP-FLOPPIN' GUN.

WHIPPY WANNA KILL FOR GUN.

WHIPPY BIG KILL = WHIPPY BIG GUN!!! HUHUHUHUHU *accidentally smacks Pika in the eyelid*

No seriously, guys. Broke asf ideology. Fishing for guns = no sense.

Should be like this:

[1.] Fishing, Farming, Mining = Gralats to buy Hats, Furniture, Accessories, Gun skins + a weekly-stream of hats should be marketed to evoke players to log in during times other than holidays

[2.] Pking = Earning a hierarchy of Guns, based on your Pk's + the GP parameters: (1GP = 1Pk outside of bases || 2GP = 1Pk inside of bases)

^ (meaning that GP = "Pk Points" (more or less) to advance you in the gun hierarchy... restricting earning anything cosmetically to Events and Gralats)

[3.] Events = (High-quality - probable gif) Hats, Accessories, Gun skins

[4.] Spar = Earning a hierarchy of Hats, based on your Spar Wins

[5.] Basing = Basing Rewards: Gang Hat, Melee, Mount, etc. + Additional one monthly item to entice OP gang wars

Am I missing anything? Can anyone dispute this?

Guys, this eats half my day, man. Can't afford to do this again. I can point out that anyone in on this topic actually cares about trying to fix broken things... maybe we should just go be... I dunno..... plumbers? lol... Because, honestly, this entire discussion is worth a hill of beans. Nothing is going to be done, and we damn well know it.

Lastly, @ Tomato

I want you to realize West's gun-ideology options... I believe there are only three:

[1.] West's "Current Gun System"- a rainbow of "anything-goes".

^ (Makes it less boring, but also provides a very unstable combat system)

[2.] A "Core Set of Guns" system i.e. Halo, CoD, GoW.

^ (Boring that all players would have a limited set of guns, but provides a stable combat system)

[3.] My RPG-like "Gun Hierarchy" system

^ (utilizes the same array of guns currently in West- providing flavor among player's seniority range- finally resulting in your [2.]: a core system of guns used by the highest-level players).

Additionally, as for your perpetual Base updates: I'm all for it... though I currently only have beef with Mohawk's tileset... too damn dark. I play Graal outside sometimes. Impossible to see the bullets, man.

Final thing I'd like to point out is the Base layout and structure:

Bank is the only Base with an immediate access door to the Flag-level. All other bases have at least two/three levels of doors/obstacles that precede the Flag Room. If you couple that with these Bases being way-the-frick BFE out in Timbucktoo... then yeah, no wonder everyone Pk's Bank.

I could go into this further, but I'm about beat, man...

Lastly @ Andy

This is a huge swing at melees (ha ha):

I think it's ridiculous to have a melee AND doorknocker. There's too much annoyance when trying to switch weapons during combat. (Doors, laggy players, flag, laggy players, doors, shooting, more shooting) URRGHHH!!! You can eliminate one of these by simply have all melee-weapons act as doorknockers.

Truthfully, melees are only used to hit the flag + kill lag-bursting players.

^ If you add Doorknocker traits to melee weapons, then that's a bit more compact/less annoying

ADDITIONALLY... All melee weapons should HAVE THE SAME DAMAGE OUTPUT + GENERAL STATS.

Why?

Think of all the useless melees that you'd like to use, but can't because of their crap stats! A remedy would be like our gun fix: JUST HAVE MELEE SKINS.

I want to use a flipping Cactus Melee, BUT CAN'T 'CUZ STATS. I want a Cactus Melee skin, okay?

Last note about this: Melees are crap in terms of actual combat. I think shotguns should act like shotguns in FPS videogame: short-range + high damage... this would essentially act as a "practical melee" replacement.

^because this game lag too dang much to actual kill peeps wit da melee, okay? OKAY!

Lastly @ Mr. Pika

Thank you for hosting this topic, man; and as much as I'd like to continue to discuss these issues with you, I can't. I can't afford the time.

I do say "Best of luck". I hope I've contributed in a productive sense. And I'd say "See ya in West!"... but literally, I've stopped playing.

Who knows! If we see some turn-around, it may be worth coming back!