that time they put special crates in trials

transmat crates: Picking up a crate gives significant progress on the transmat bar

Context, I am a fighting lion+bow main who goes flawless once every 3 cards. I am not exactly high skill but I dont get shit on. I think that the less special in circulation the better just for team fights. But single ammo crates to fight over reduces the effecacy of the 1v3 clutch. The great draw of having special to reverse the situation makes trials more fun and puts less emphasis on team shots. I think even distribution of special(2 to start) was a good system.

The solution I immediately thought of was having the special brick spawn where heavy does during heavy round in every round except heavy round where it gets replaced by heavy. Have it function just like the heavy brick where only 1 player can pick it up and the ammo doesn't carry over to the next round. Combine that with the transmat system at a slightly lower rate that we last saw (closer to how we saw it before it got buffed). Location can also be away from zone like cammy said to promote the choice of map control for zone vs map control for special. Treating special like a pseudo power weapon (which in some cases is true, some cases they are lesser aka rocket sidearm and some cases they are arguably equivelant to power ammo) and having the only garunteed special ammo be a single pickup on the map that you need to earn map control to get at the cost of not having map control for zone imo promotes more immergant gameplay vs what we have seen with this initial introduction to special ammo on walls in trials.

I liked the transmat system, but how it was originally, when you got less special progress

For me the reason I play pvp is primary gunfights. Every time I play with a shotgun I am reminded how easy it is to just end a fight instantly with no back and fourth. It removes a lot of skill from fights and makes a lot of fights a coin flip of reaction speeds where you can just bandaid a lot of positioning issues with a 1 shot weapon. This is why i was a fan of the original implementation of transmat. The was much less special so you had to use it tactically and not just as a constant bandaid for poor play.

god forsaken trials weekend

Another consideration is that laning became a bigger issue with transmat, as you wouldn't be punished by snipers as often and could still build special from a distance.

I didn’t play trials because I knew that this weekend was going to be people just using there special weapons as primary weapons.

It’s just an experiment and was really fun to play last word snipe again but god you were practically forced to use fore runner as a solo player. Still managed 2 flawless cards and have nabbed pretty much every imaginable summoner role but I really did not enjoy using so much special ammo, especially on a map that I feel allows so much variety in primary play

Special Ammo Transmat has a couple problems: 1. readability in how much ammo your opponents have 2. reliability in having special ammo available 3. exacerbates problems with losing gunfights solely because your opponent has special while you do not 4. promotes usage of safer special weapons since you don’t always have special on respawn. My solution would be to have players respawn with special ammo so that people can more reliably have special ammo for duels and make players drop special ammo bricks to increase readability of who has how much special ammo. AKA the old system.

I think special ammo at a fix time interval drops once or twice directly into your weapon for everyone (preferably later into the match. Your weapon is unloaded always and loader mods will not work with the air drop.

I liked your idea of Felwinters lie pickups …. To build off of that… I think what they could do (if possible) is bring in a weekly rotational ammo system. So for instance, week one could be shotgun ammo and fusion ammo only. Maybe week 2 could be snipers and sidearms since forerunner is practically a sniper ranged weapon. It would add value and a nice change of pace to the normal “oh what is the map this week and what weapon is dropping. Perhaps you could still bring in a gun you like even if it isn’t in the rotation, but get less ammo for using it and more ammo for using a the rotated weapon type. Again, this would add value and change up pace for those who only want to use Conditional or only want to use a sniper. They still can but would be at a disadvantage if they do

Getting Flawless this week was a headache when the sessions mostly consisted of randoms on your team who insisted on dueling with their double primary autopilot loadout. I don't mind a temporary return to play patterns that mirror those of S22, it's just an issue with matchmaking or mismatched expectations at times. The normal experience of getting matched with a duo who have Resist chest mods and PvE guns is only exacerbated when you see a double special player who already went Flawless for the week on the other team. (Not that people playing Trials casually is an issue, it's just a whiplash when you're gunning to finish a card and you get two 1796 buds just goofing around on your team.)

crates is so much worse about snowball, if you don't spawn in the right place/time you are now fighting with 0 special vs 12 shots

I think a 15 second timer from the start of the round before you can pick special makes way more sense

reduced ammo transmat with a minimum of 1 special on spawn (more for things like forerunner), meaning that if you die with 0 special you get one shot on spawn but if you die with two then its just stays. that might still be too much special ammo so it could be reduced to be reset to one special on death but have a faster transmat spawn to incetivize kill streaking. this forces more defensive shotty play and higher risk sniper play since you cant just 2v1 with special and have to take atleast one primary dual

it was fun when using doubles primary and quick movement to get in position to follow up on and dmg or special kills from teammates, good video

I genuinely prefer primary v primary fights. They feel way more interesting than being sniped across the map or hit with a fusion from 20 meters. I think the system they tried this weekend was genuinely awful and was the least fun I've had playing trials. I like the transmat system quite a bit because I enjoyed being rewarded for keeping track of who had special ammo and I feel that knowing when another player should roughly be getting special ammo again is another layer of strategy for engagement in PvP. I think special weapons should be special in nature and not the primary source of kills in a match. I think what you mentioned in the video of having a special ammo crate that spawns away from the objective is really interesting and I would love to test that out. I like the idea of a trade off between taking the point and taking the ammo crate is interesting in a coordinated team setting, but I only play trials solo and I can see that system causing a massive amount of miscommunication between teammates that aren't on the same page. If one person has a special weapon and they rush the crate, while me and the other person rush point, then they could get picked up off easily if the other team rushes crate. It adds a layer of strategy but also another point of friction in random teams.

My idea is the following: Instead of Special Ammo, we get "Equipment Points" or whatever. The match locks the inventory (NOT loadouts) so no items can go in from the Vault. Everyone starts with 1 Equipment Point and zero weapons (this typically means that everone chooses their first Primary weapon to start with). Items are chosen from the inventory, Vault never participates in this once queue begins. Equipment Prices are the following (examples just to understand the system): 1 Point: enable a Primary weapon to use. Additional points can be spent to unlock more throughout the match (from those in your inventory). 2 Points: enable a Special weapon with one kill worth of ammo 3 Points: 2 kills worth of Special Ammo 4 Points: enable a Heavy weapon with one kill worth of ammmo 5 Points: spawns a Heavy Ammo crate for one player (anyone can pick up though) The goal is to accumulate these points and spend them as you see fit to adjust to the map and enemy team. You typically start with your primary of choice and then choose between getting a second primary or save up for Special. Only one Exotic can be chosen so once you choose Le Monarque you can't choose another exotic. You COULD forego spending your points at the beginning and have your team carry you to pick up that special as soon as possible - interesting to explore the possibility of announcing weapon pickups to everyone.

cammy embracing the way of telesto as he should 🥰