One of my original goals for PvP was quick battles (~3 minutes) to provide optimal experiences for mobile and short interim breaks on PC. I've observed that our recent update (adding both the heavy freeze mechanics and the advent of custom decks with trillions of possible combinations to affect game outcome) has resulted in longer game durations. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (if players are still finding the experience engaging) but I still want a solution for those quick battles for players that want or need that choice.
This has got me to thinking about ways of constraining the battles. Lain has suggested an idea of limiting the rounds as a potential solution (something akin to Warhammer objectives) which I really liked. Playing off this idea, I'm considering a way to combine restricted turn time with objective to create a fast pace game where the duration is guaranteed.
Rather than limiting turn time like other games might do (ex: 90 seconds) which doesn't actually reduce game time (in fact, it can increase it when players intentionally drag out turns to frustrate their opponent) what if we were to limit the game duration itself like a chess match?
Let's say we wanted games to take no longer than 5 minutes. Each player would get a total of two minutes, 30 seconds. You can manage that time however you like, but after you've spent your turn time, you no longer take turns, which adds a very intensive pressure to complete your turns as quick as possible. If both players exhaust their time limit, the game determines the winner based on whichever summoner has the lowest life, tie breaking by life of remaining units, and finally establishing a draw if everything is equal.
Thoughts on this from the community?
Topic: Game Duration Solve Ideas (Read 5532 times)