Suggestion on improving the perceived game balance
WhiteWolf22
Join Date: 2009-08-21 Member: 68559Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2009-08-21 Member: 68559Members, Reinforced - Shadow
So, I noticed there are quite a few opinions / discussions about the game being imbalanced in favor of the alien team. I must admit, I haven't read all of them, just a few.
I'd like to start with my point of view about this, if you're interested. If not, please skip the following part:
I am an "alien specialist" so to say, I am a terrible shooter in NS2 and just can't get used to the virtual body / gunplay of the marines against the bouncy aliens.
I never managed to do so in NS1 either, but I always loved the asymmetrical gameplay and the variety of lifeforms on the alien side. That's why I choose to play alien only / about 90% of the time.
I play public only and the fact that I'm specialized on the alien team might affect my personal statistics about the marine / alien wins. The thing is, that for the last few months (or let's say since release) I saw a clear alien domination, whether I played as an alien or marine. I barely was in a losing alien team, and when we lost, the team was either full of completely new players or just didn't have ANY teamwork or coordination, which is a natural reason to lose. But in all the public games I play, it's around 80% alien wins for the last weeks. Yes, basically around 4 out of 5 games.
Even when there are good shooters on the marine side, who make my life very hard as a skulk, the rapid expansion and early map control of the alien team leaves the marines barely a chance.
I have had only ONE (1) game, where I saw a turtled marine team with full tech, pushed back into server room on tram to be able to fight back room by room and finally win the round in an amazing 1+ hour match. I want more of these matches. And currently, the game is *absolutely* predictable for me after around 2 minutes of gameplay:
I watch the rate of expansion while scouting. I see the rate of the first kills and how well / if my team works together. I watch if the comm knows what he does. And I swear, I can almost everytime predict the outcome of the match, because in NS2, there are just too few surprises and imho, the match is decided in the first few minutes. Which team does expand best / puts better pressure right at the beginning will win almost everytime. And this predictability is starting to bore me a lot! I miss the intense matches I had in NS1, full of changing map control, hard fights that may take more than an hour but result in either extremely rewarding wins or respectable wins for the enemy team. Good fights, you know? These matches were always a bit exhausting, but memorable and they made the game special. They made it rewarding. NS2 is mostly casual, compared to this - because it lacks these dynamics. Get pushed back and you're fu***d. The end.
This is my biggest concern about the game at the moment, besides my thoughts about it being too symmetrical.
But back to balance, and how you could improve it with a (probably) innovative method:
You may have seen many kinds of matchmaking mechanisms in certain online shooters. The game tracks your stats, you may gain levels and you'll be placed with approximately similar experienced players on the same server, or teams will be balanced by levels or whatever. But this is forced, and therefore not what NS2 should do.
What, if NS2 tracks player stats / performance / preference for teams, calculates a skill-level out of it and then - here's the new thing: SUGGESTS which team you SHOULD join in the ready room, or in other words: tells you, which team could use your skills best to be balanced?
This would be the scenario for players joining servers with a running game. There should be a *suggested* team placement if all players are in the ready room, right before a new round.
Then, they can vote to accept these teams or to re-roll the suggestion with another layout. After 3 failed attempts, all players will be automatically put to random teams, if the server has this setting, or they can choose freely as before if the server admin does not like the random thing for some reason.
To get this done right: only players who are not AFK have to be asked to vote, so they have to have moved in the few seconds before the vote starts. AFK players will be asked to vote, once they move, as long as the vote isn't over yet. This is to prevent frustration while waiting for them.
Also, the voting time should be relatively short (because of 3 possible attempts) and the buttons to vote should be easy to reach, like spacebar to re-roll and return to accept, or left mouse button to accept and right mouse button to re-roll the teams.
This would give the ready room a whole new meaning and make it a more useful part of the game in my opinion. (I love it as it is, though, don't get me wrong!)
So: what do you think? I hope the team reads this and will give it a serious thought at least, thanks for your time.
I'd like to start with my point of view about this, if you're interested. If not, please skip the following part:
I am an "alien specialist" so to say, I am a terrible shooter in NS2 and just can't get used to the virtual body / gunplay of the marines against the bouncy aliens.
I never managed to do so in NS1 either, but I always loved the asymmetrical gameplay and the variety of lifeforms on the alien side. That's why I choose to play alien only / about 90% of the time.
I play public only and the fact that I'm specialized on the alien team might affect my personal statistics about the marine / alien wins. The thing is, that for the last few months (or let's say since release) I saw a clear alien domination, whether I played as an alien or marine. I barely was in a losing alien team, and when we lost, the team was either full of completely new players or just didn't have ANY teamwork or coordination, which is a natural reason to lose. But in all the public games I play, it's around 80% alien wins for the last weeks. Yes, basically around 4 out of 5 games.
Even when there are good shooters on the marine side, who make my life very hard as a skulk, the rapid expansion and early map control of the alien team leaves the marines barely a chance.
I have had only ONE (1) game, where I saw a turtled marine team with full tech, pushed back into server room on tram to be able to fight back room by room and finally win the round in an amazing 1+ hour match. I want more of these matches. And currently, the game is *absolutely* predictable for me after around 2 minutes of gameplay:
I watch the rate of expansion while scouting. I see the rate of the first kills and how well / if my team works together. I watch if the comm knows what he does. And I swear, I can almost everytime predict the outcome of the match, because in NS2, there are just too few surprises and imho, the match is decided in the first few minutes. Which team does expand best / puts better pressure right at the beginning will win almost everytime. And this predictability is starting to bore me a lot! I miss the intense matches I had in NS1, full of changing map control, hard fights that may take more than an hour but result in either extremely rewarding wins or respectable wins for the enemy team. Good fights, you know? These matches were always a bit exhausting, but memorable and they made the game special. They made it rewarding. NS2 is mostly casual, compared to this - because it lacks these dynamics. Get pushed back and you're fu***d. The end.
This is my biggest concern about the game at the moment, besides my thoughts about it being too symmetrical.
But back to balance, and how you could improve it with a (probably) innovative method:
You may have seen many kinds of matchmaking mechanisms in certain online shooters. The game tracks your stats, you may gain levels and you'll be placed with approximately similar experienced players on the same server, or teams will be balanced by levels or whatever. But this is forced, and therefore not what NS2 should do.
What, if NS2 tracks player stats / performance / preference for teams, calculates a skill-level out of it and then - here's the new thing: SUGGESTS which team you SHOULD join in the ready room, or in other words: tells you, which team could use your skills best to be balanced?
This would be the scenario for players joining servers with a running game. There should be a *suggested* team placement if all players are in the ready room, right before a new round.
Then, they can vote to accept these teams or to re-roll the suggestion with another layout. After 3 failed attempts, all players will be automatically put to random teams, if the server has this setting, or they can choose freely as before if the server admin does not like the random thing for some reason.
To get this done right: only players who are not AFK have to be asked to vote, so they have to have moved in the few seconds before the vote starts. AFK players will be asked to vote, once they move, as long as the vote isn't over yet. This is to prevent frustration while waiting for them.
Also, the voting time should be relatively short (because of 3 possible attempts) and the buttons to vote should be easy to reach, like spacebar to re-roll and return to accept, or left mouse button to accept and right mouse button to re-roll the teams.
This would give the ready room a whole new meaning and make it a more useful part of the game in my opinion. (I love it as it is, though, don't get me wrong!)
So: what do you think? I hope the team reads this and will give it a serious thought at least, thanks for your time.
Comments
The tricky part is how to rate people? It can be easily tweaked and even something like just total accumulated score would work to start with.
UWE has shown no interest what so ever in this concept of balancing teams. But I'm sure we will have all the levels vents / power nodes / etc completely redone, along with tweaks to damage & armor of certain units for next release.. they always got time for that.