I think to solve the Weaves problem, one should first look at the goal of the game mode and contrast that with the problems that have emerged, after now 4 seasons.
The goal:
So you should be aware that this mode is primarily meant for well-rehearsed teams and not for wildly thrown together players or solo players. Therefore, I would say that this goal has been achieved.
The only problem is that the weaves don’t really get progressively harder. The mode is simply poorly optimized. The problem that underlies this, in my opinion, is that both spawns, map and wind, and end event are thrown together anew from existing scripts without really testing these combinations. In the current Season 4, Weave 140 and 143 are probably by far the hardest (personal opinion), but even these can be mastered entirely without “cheese”. @Samoly has also recorded this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAmPY1OHgzI
I’ll be upfront and honest at this point, I didn’t make it this way with my team.
Which could also be because the spawns are no longer 100% scripted. This was also requested in previous seasons and I think it also makes sense to bring more variety into the mode, but then please only for QP Weaves, as it can simply come to unfair advantages and disadvantages for the competitive part.
Another factor that is particularly problematic in the Weave 140 shown in the video, are the arbitrary spawns of specials, at the beginning the spawn location of the Rattlinggunner for example, in other Weaves also the type of specials that can spawn (these also seem to be no longer fixed in every case).
The solution to these problems should be very simple: playtesting and bugfixing before the season starts and fixed spawns in Ranked Weaves. On the subject of cheesing in Weaves, I can only say that this will always be there as long as the Battle Wizards ultimate exists in its current form.
What should be changed in my opinion to make the weaves better?
First of all, I support the removal of the timer. You can tie the time to the points, but it should not determine victory or defeat. Without the timer, other tactics and playstyles can be used, opening the door for players who don’t want to cheese or rush through the level.
Variety and a fresh look for new seasons is another important aspect. Currently we have 10 maps and 8 winds. 10 maps that consist of parts of existing maps. So they don’t “really” offer variety to the main game and they don’t really differ from each other within the winds, except that the crystals have a different color. I think the mode would benefit the most if new maps were themed and built around the winds and the enemies were themed as well. The impact of the weave modifications should also be more significant.
You could also think about dedicating a season to only one wind and using different modifications that are adapted to the wind, instead of only one modification per wind. I am aware that this would be too much of a rework, but I still wanted to keep it as an idea.
I would also prefer to have more varied seasons that are longer and allow more preparation time for the following season.
The scope and rewards. Players should be able to decide for themselves at which difficulty they start. Whether from 0-40, 40-80, 80-120 or 120-160. Rewards should unlock the underlying difficulties as in the main game. Furthermore, the quality of the rewards should be more worthy than a recolour of the previous season. I think there should be only one frame (no matter on which difficulty level you finished the weaves), the different difficulty levels could simply be expressed with different colorings of the little box where the level is e.g. bronze/silver/gold/diamond or green/blue/orange/red. The frames could also be animated (the possibility exists), why don’t you just add some small blazing flames to the current frame, some glittering stars to the white one, something like that?
Now to come back to the OP, I don’t agree with most of the ideas listed here, as you can probably already tell, at least in the area of Ranked Weaves. Except for the ideas about leaderboards. I’m not a big fan of the leaderboard in general, but it should at least be fair and honor the overall performance and not just the one highest weave you played. That’s why I think the additive variant is really good.
But as mentioned here several times, we probably won’t be able to expect big jumps anyway, if at all. Maybe we don’t deserve it, there was this one passage in the Franz Lohner Chronicles:
If ever there was a gamedev who liked reminding everyone that he’s the big shark, it’s Fatshark, and they probably reckon we’ve been getting a bit uppity of late.
or something like that… 