I’m a bit of a newbie to the forums (and the game overall), but bear with me on this one…
Being completely honest, I am a little bit surprised that there aren’t more ways of gaining Game Mode XP. I’m always a little cheesed off when killing someone who is planting or defusing C4 as there does not seem to be any extra credit for doing so (other than to keep your team in the game). Same likewise with people repairing the EV and to a lesser extent those escorting the EV or carrying an objective. I understand that the extra reward for killing someone who is directly interacting with or working on an objective comes inherently from keeping your team in the game, but shouldn’t the player(s) who stop an objective being achieved in such a way be individually rewarded somehow?
Current game mode XP allocation seems to me to be a little bit of a go big or go home kind of affair. Dealing with C4 (whether this is successfully planting or defusing), escorting the EV and dealing with objectives that must be carried quite rightly give good amounts of XP. This is how it should be - directly dealing with the objective should reward those players. However, is preventing someone from planting C4 any less important than defusing it? Is killing someone who is planting worth more than the regular kill? I believe in some cases, it is. Yet these actions, albeit not as risky, difficult or as threatening to your overall team as defusing C4 etc. go individually unrewarded. Other than getting a fraction of XP for defusing etc., the only small piece of Game Mode XP is for that of guarding (worth 10XP) and the only other indirect means of gaining Game Mode XP is that “Long Defense Bonus” (200XP; assuming here that killing someone planting C4 would be “indirect”), even if I have no idea under what parameters that is rewarded. If I’ve missed one, give me a shout…
Now I’m not saying that killing someone who is planting should be given 100XP, as is the case for defusing the C4. But surely 10XP of Game Mode XP for stopping someone who is in the process of achieving an objective would be a little more individually rewarding? In public lobbies, surely that would give a little more incentive for some players to watch the objectives a little more closely? This could possibly be supplemented with badges for stopping X amount of people from doing something in order to counterbalance some of the multiple-kill badges.
As I’m sure you’re aware, there are a couple of risks with this. Firstly, I am not too sure on how this would affect the balance between XP given for attackers and defenders. In the vast majority of cases, this type of XP reward would be given to defensive players - at least the vast majority of cases mentioned earlier revolve around the defensive team stopping the attacking team whilst achieving the objective. If anyone has any stats on the current average XP given to both attacking teams and defending teams, I would be very interested to see them. Secondly, this may falsely reward a defending player against someone who has no hope in hell of planting. I’m sure we’ve all seen cases of someone running into a crowded room trying to plant as fast as possible - would rewarding someone more for stopping that be exactly fair? In the worst case scenario, this could contribute to boosting - someone running in, starting a plant, getting killed… rinse repeat = bonus XP. Is that fair?
Anyway, curious as to your thoughts. I understand I’ve rambled like a trooper here, but I certainly feel that the current ways through which Game Mode XP is given is not exhaustive and feel that giving a small chunk of XP to players stopping others who are planting/escorting etc. would be a little more individually rewarding and would help to further the objective focus of the game.
TL;DR: I rambled and argued that small things that stop an objective being achieved like killing someone planting a C4 should be worth a little bit of Game Mode XP. Discuss.
