I didn't get into Spiral Knights until a month or so after the game launched. During recent discussion of PvP in the "what's in development" thread various people have said they'd like any future PvP elements to be like how they were during the pre-launch test period.
So what exactly did that involve, for those who weren't there?
Ah sorry, clicked the save button too many times. Just type in "spiral knights pvp" and click on the first video.
Well, at the endgame PvP zones, being T3 and ultimate, Sealeds and Antiguas would rule over.
There were 4 "tiers" for PvP:
-T1, where only 0 and 1 star gear was allowed. Boring as hell and would take forever!
-T2, where 0 to 3 star gear was allowed. Pretty fun and balanced.
-T3, where all gear was allowed. Much harder to play well than in T1 or T2, and against the stronger weapons/players, latency could potentially screw you over.
-Ultimate, everything allowed, even costumes, and damage increases. It wasn't very pretty.
On Ultimate, damage seemed to be doubled, so no shield could survive and a Gran Faust/Divine Avenger could kill ones with no defense in a single hit. It'd take 2+ in the T3 pvp.
It was mainly unbalanced because that back then, gathering money and crafting was much harder, (10k crowns for 100CE, although recipes were just 15k - but making profit was impossible sometimes, if there weren't any arena gates. Didn't really have any kind of economy either, so we had to rely on dungeoning for money) and PvP wasn't really that big, (usually, there would be only two matches a day, at most. Earlier times, when no one was online, it was literally impossible to start PvP.) so making armor sets and stuff just for PvP wasn't really something most players would care about.
Sealeds and Antiguas were powerful, yes, but they wouldn't really be that bad if the opponent had good defense against them, or had good maneuver to dodge. Both of those were nerfed in the official launch, so I doubt it'll be a problem once PvP is released.
Variety wise, there were only about 4 arenas - One with several spikes separating areas, and oil/fire pots, two with ghost/crystal blocks separating areas and some vial respawn blocks, and a final one with gates around the areas and a switch in the middle to toggle them, and some oil/fire pots.
There was only one "mode" - Free for all, timed. Deaths would remove about 60 points, kills would give around 120, and landing hits would give 10 every now and then.
T1 PvP was pretty unbalanced, because everyone could tank over 20 hits, so whoever was lucky enough to get kill hits would win.
T2 was fairly balanced and fun for veterans and newbies. I still remember kicking ass wearing the starter helm, a Vitasuit Plus, a Swiftstrike Buckler and a plain Brandish.
I think the general problem in PvP back then wasn't lack of balancing, just rather, a lack of variety on stages/modes, and no incentive to get specific armory/weaponry to play well on PvP.
Haha, that video looks kind of fun. I can see what you mean about the Sealed Swords and Antiguas, though, there are a lot of what look like one-hit kills in the footage.
That there were environmental hazards and obstacles to deal with is pretty interesting, so hopefully that makes it into whatever PvP system gets reintroduced.
Here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2_wtqnRR8k