Pennant Chase may be a somewhat dated game, but I think there's some life in the old girl yet. As per Modrian's request, I'm placing some suggestions for revisions on the forums. Other comments are welcome for those that disagree with my suggested changes, or have further improvements to suggest.

When I first started playing PC, the tent was incredibly crowded. Every game center had a full load (I think 30 people?) with dozens more running around trying to find an open slot. Hundreds of people were playing at once. These days, matches are much smaller. We don't even fill Game Center #1 anymore, meaning that games should be balanced for 10 people rather than 30. Furthermore, it's usually a pretty safe assumption that at least a few of the players in any game are "pros." Because of the way the rules are currently structured, it's pretty easy for veteran players (such as myself) to blast through and win games by margins in the hundreds of points, leaving newer players frustrated at never having a chance.

I'd like to see PC reworked to be friendlier to smaller groups and to newer players. Obviously the pros will (and should) keep winning the games, but not in such a way that the newer players are frustrated by matches where they earn 20 points and a handful of silvers and the pro has 600 points and a new piece of PC swag. Or in other words, here's a couple examples of the things that I would like to see not happen:

- A pro player snags 12 pennants within the first 10 seconds of the game. That player is basically guaranteed to win because the current rules specify an "invulnerability period" of up to 75 seconds, depending on what actions the player takes, and that player is basically guaranteed to finish the match with 8+ pennants if they play their cards right.

- A half dozen people are playing a game together. At any given time, there's a good chance that 5 of them are in their "invulnerability period" and hunting the sixth. Whomever finally gets the sixth person becomes the new hunted. Instead of a wild free for all, there's very little action happening at all.

So here are the changes I'd like to see made.

1.) Eliminate the prohibition against coloring the same person twice in a row. In a team match of 4v3 (which happened several times earlier today), that prohibition means you only have 2 possible targets at any given time. That's a bit crippling.

2.) Reduce the "invulnerability timer" from 75 seconds to "75 - (15 * number of pennants held)" seconds, with a floor of 5 seconds. This means that people with a lot of pennants (and thus a lot more points) can't just hang out being invulnerable for a while. If they want to protect their lead, they have to work harder. Winning a match should require good play over the entire period rather than luck and fast typing (or clicking) in the first ten seconds only.

3.) Impose a 2-3 second RT for picking up a pennant. The zero second RT right now means that a person can grab a whole roomful at once via script or Stormfront PnC. It shouldn't be a long RT, but enough to give someone else a chance to color their target.

4.) Give a minimum floor of 1-2 seconds for a coloring attempt. With a bit of luck, I've abused the zero second RT before by running into a room, coloring multiple people via smashing a few macros, and running out before there's a chance to catch me.

5.) When player A is in their invulnerable period and attempts to color player B (but misses), allow player B to attempt to color player A back. I hate being "fired at" by someone when I can't fire back at them, which happens quite often with today's games of only a few players.

6.) Tweak the pennant distribution such that they don't cluster in single rooms as often as they currently do. It may be a good idea to distribute them over the first minute rather than all at once.

I think those would all help make the game more balanced for a smaller number of players, and reduce the vast gulf between pro and newbie, thus luring more new players into the game. The real key behind pennant chase is "fast blazing action," and today's games get just a bit slow and stodgy with the limited player numbers.

Also, as a tangent, I would like to see the ability to create arranged teams in the game rather than randomly distributed ones. A tweaked PC would be great fun for CHE/MHO/other player group tournaments, but only if you can arrange your own teams in advance.

-Grendeg

>I'd like to see PC reworked to be friendlier to smaller groups and to newer players.

Good post. I'd like to see all of these implemented. Particularly 1-4.

It'd also be nice to have the prizes re-worked a little. More PC gear, some new scripty additions to supplement some of the stuff that's there (that's still good). Stuff like cool off the shelf toys from past merchants. And less of the garbage.

I also think, in order to get new people involved, more experience should be given out based on score rather than winning. Maybe double the exp/point, and halve the exp for being in the top 3.

- Greminty

I think there are only two changes to PC that are crucial to improving the game:

-Roundtime for ALL baton waving (I propose 2 seconds soft RT for waving at a target that is present, hit or miss, and 2 seconds HARD RT for waving at something or someone that isn't in the room)

-Better pennant distribution. Let them trickle through the game, at more random places.

The first rule is crucial to eliminating the mindless button-pushing that is necessary to win. The second rule is a small but necessary tweak.

I think these simple changes will both make PC more of a sophisticated game, as well as one that's more accessible to the average novice player.

-E

I really hate the barrel round. "Click wildly and hope you hit something by the time all the pennants disappear" isn't fun to me, and usually not successful (this past time is the only time I've picked up more than 2 or 3 in that round--I got ELEVEN. Something's wrong.)

Hillbullies is also no fun with the current population and rules, because you have 5 people standing at the bottom for 75 seconds until one of them can be colored.

~Becca

All you really have to do is spread out where and when the pennants fall more. No more pile 'o pennants when the round begins.

I've noticed that on some playing areas, you don't get the pennant of a person you color. They lose one, and it falls somewhere else on the field. In those situations, players can be rewarded for being less aggressive and more exploratory and perceptive, catching the pennants that fall at Point B from a firefight that happened at Point A.

Just give us soft or hard RT for baton waving... it will make PC 99% less button-mashy. And fix pennant distribution if possible. I am sure no one is eager to mess with the PC code but the RT fix is super simple and would improve the game immensely.

-E