I partially agree, partially disagree:
I disagree on the ladder issue. Lifting up teammates with ladders and causing them to fall to death is not a "witty" way to play the game. It's the same as teamkilling at spawn and patting yourself on the back for figuring out this creative way of playing.
Lifting up enemies to kill them is indeed fun, but has no place in a "serious" gamemode like battle. It could be put into a separate one, though.
I agree on the need for a more sandboxy gamemode. I think that sandbox games are the holy grail of gaming. I don't believe mixing battle with sandbox stuff works though, because some like it fair and serious, some like it goofy. The problem for those that like to "grief" is usually that they dont want to do that to other griefers. They want to do it to the serious players for maximum impact (excuse the pun). Players don't need griefers, but griefers need players. This is why creating a grief only gamemode would not work, because the griefers would be sad that no players would be there to be griefed.
That doesnt mean it's not possible to create a gamemode that allows for a combination of sandbox+competition, though.
The reason for topics like this, though, is that the cRPG playerbase is not very homogenous. I am happy about that, knowing that the game is diverse enough to attract different kinds of players, but ofc it also makes stuff more complicated. Regarding ladders: iirc 70% wanted them gone, I bowed to the majority.
Regarding streamlining balance: no one plays a game for long where the gameplay balance is totally broken. Thats fun for some time, but eventually people start figuring out the "best" builds and the entire diversity is gone, probably with the majority of players. Claiming that OP weapons or chars would have in any way helped the mod to stay fun is simply very naive.
