Does the concede function need revamping?

yuckfooyuckfoo Join Date: 2012-11-08 Member: 168216Members
I know this issue has been brought up a few times in the past and it certainly is on peoples minds.

Many games I have played lately end prematurely via the concede function. Am I the only one who thinks "criteria" or a better reason aside from "its been ten mins and I give up" is needed to really improve this feature? It is very rare to get a game anymore where the objective stated at the beginning of the game is even reached (being able to cleanse the intruders or kill the alien hive) before the game is ended by conceding.

Using concede to end a game which is grueling long (45 mins+) and team 1 is destroying team 2 in res but team 2 has "better," (more team oriented) players allowing them to fend off alien attacks (due to lack of coordination) being entrenched at their 2 tech points with 2 rts is totally understandable. Refinery really comes into mind (in this example) especially if marines have Turbine/Smelting and you're on an alien team full of "hero" onos running into smelting/turbine alone only to get cut down over and over again by camping 3/3 marines/exos.

Before concede was added to the game, what was the average game length? Since concede has been added, what is that length now? When the dev's added this to the game, was there a specific circumstance this was to be used in? Is it being used as intended? Is this the kind of non-competitive play we are to expect?

I believe that conceding most of the time just gives people an easy way out and really has devalued and ruined what it feels like to win a game.

You almost never get the come from behind win anymore since people are always conceding due to the mentality of "we lost all our initial res because we didn't defend our rts and we are so far behind compared to them better end it now"

I would like to see winning games of ns2 mean something again, instead of having the easy way out misused.

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Comments

  • lwflwf Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58311Members, Constellation
    Removing or limiting the option to give up won't make people play, it will make them quit.
  • TheriusTherius Join Date: 2009-03-06 Member: 66642Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter

    This topic has already been discussed to absolute death. Please do not try to resurrect the putrid corpse of the horse by beating it with a stick.

    You stated that you know this issue has been brought up before. I suggest you head to those threads and read them through, because there is absolutely nothing that can be said that isn't said already.

  • CrazyEddieCrazyEddie Join Date: 2013-01-08 Member: 178196Members
    edited May 2013
    Recent threads about concede, in (roughly) chronological order:

    Your Opinion On Concede
    How To Make Concede Better

    And somewhat related:

    I encourage you to read at least a few of those threads. I believe you will find most of what you are looking for there. You will also read the very same points repeated over and over. I encourage you not to repeat them here. I do, however, also encourage you to post any new comments, thoughts, or suggestions that have not already been beaten to death in the previous threads.

    For example:

    Am I the only one who thinks "criteria" or a better reason aside from "its been ten mins and I give up" is needed to really improve this feature?
    No, you're not the only one. Many people agree with you. See the threads listed above. However, many people also disagree with you. See the threads listed above.

    Before concede was added to the game, what was the average game length? Since concede has been added, what is that length now?
    An interesting question. You can probably figure it out by exploring NS2Stats. I believe concede was added to the game in Build 236 released on Jan 15 2013. There was a later change to the minimum time at which you can concede (raised from five minutes to the current ten minutes, I think?), but I'm not sure offhand which build that was done in.

    When the dev's added this to the game, was there a specific circumstance this was to be used in? Is it being used as intended?
    I don't think UWE has made an official statement on concede other than "We've added it to the game". I don't even recall seeing an unofficial comment from any of the UWE staff or other insiders. So "being used as intended" is at this point a subjective opinion or guess on the part of the players, not the developers.

    Is this the kind of non-competitive play we are to expect?
    Again, at best, any answer here will be subjective.

  • Blarney_StoneBlarney_Stone Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited May 2013
    I don't usually like to flag things as spam, but this topic has been discussed so many times that I don't see any point in continuing it.


  • CyberKunCyberKun Join Date: 2013-02-02 Member: 182733Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    The answer to this thread.

    No.
  • ezekelezekel Join Date: 2012-11-29 Member: 173589Members, NS2 Map Tester
    concede or f4

    Both options work
  • RicezRicez Join Date: 2013-04-13 Member: 184784Members
    The forum needs a concede option.
  • RobotixRobotix Join Date: 2013-02-20 Member: 183222Members
  • sotanahtsotanaht Join Date: 2013-01-12 Member: 179215Members
    You have it backwards.  The situation you described where one team is ahead on res but the other has stronger players is exactly the kind of thing you SHOULDN'T concede.  If you get destroyed in the early game, it's better that you concede immediately and try to get a to a reasonably fair game as quickly as possible.  You aren't going to have a balanced game after being pushed back to one RT at 6 minutes.  Frankly I think concede should be allowed earlier, cause I'm kind of sick of needing to wait that extra 4 minutes after all hope has gone out the window but the aliens have no chance of clearing out our base yet.
  • Salraine_ChiSalraine_Chi Join Date: 2011-07-03 Member: 107669Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited May 2013
    yuckfoo said:
    I know this issue has been brought up a few times in the past and it certainly is on peoples minds.

    Many games I have played lately end prematurely via the concede function. Am I the only one who thinks "criteria" or a better reason aside from "its been ten mins and I give up" is needed to really improve this feature? It is very rare to get a game anymore where the objective stated at the beginning of the game is even reached (being able to cleanse the intruders or kill the alien hive) before the game is ended by conceding.

    Using concede to end a game which is grueling long (45 mins+) and team 1 is destroying team 2 in res but team 2 has "better," (more team oriented) players allowing them to fend off alien attacks (due to lack of coordination) being entrenched at their 2 tech points with 2 rts is totally understandable. Refinery really comes into mind (in this example) especially if marines have Turbine/Smelting and you're on an alien team full of "hero" onos running into smelting/turbine alone only to get cut down over and over again by camping 3/3 marines/exos.

    Before concede was added to the game, what was the average game length? Since concede has been added, what is that length now? When the dev's added this to the game, was there a specific circumstance this was to be used in? Is it being used as intended? Is this the kind of non-competitive play we are to expect?

    I believe that conceding most of the time just gives people an easy way out and really has devalued and ruined what it feels like to win a game.

    You almost never get the come from behind win anymore since people are always conceding due to the mentality of "we lost all our initial res because we didn't defend our rts and we are so far behind compared to them better end it now"

    I would like to see winning games of ns2 mean something again, instead of having the easy way out misused.


  • Salraine_ChiSalraine_Chi Join Date: 2011-07-03 Member: 107669Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited May 2013
    I agree. And the fact we have had so many threads about this obviously means a lot dont like it as it is. Its fine to end some games were a team is down to one base and the winning team just dont make that final push. But when I see players concede when they have two hives/CCs and plenty of scope for a win it makes me press escape and do something else.

    Rarely see games finished through natural means. Lets face it the goal of the game is to destroy the enemies CCs or hives not just give up after 5 minutes. I have seen comments from new players recently say concede is really spoiling the game for them. One had put about 3 hours in and hadnt seen an Exo or tried Onos yet simply because people just give up too easily and as games dont last more than 10 minutes on average now.

    I miss the epic long, back and forward games and comebacks.

  • TheriusTherius Join Date: 2009-03-06 Member: 66642Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    I can see the horse twitching! Beat harder!
  • ResRes Join Date: 2003-08-27 Member: 20245Members
    I agree. And the fact we have had so many threads about this obviously means a lot dont like it as it is.


    No, It's just the fact that people seem to "forget" what  was done pre-concede option.   That was F4'ing or base recycling.  Having or not having the concede option changes nothing when people just used those other options.
  • VayVay Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183959Members
    If anything, they need to lift the restrictions on concede. I still see too many servers die because one side cant concede so they just quit. Nobody wants to waste five minutes in a game they have no chance of even putting up a fight.

    There is never any back and forth in these games. They were broken from the start because of the teams. Forcing them to continue just drives players away. You want exos and onos? Then try making topics about fixing team stacking instead of concede. Stop complaining about the current treatment and start fixing the disease.
  • WakeWake Join Date: 2003-03-05 Member: 14351Members, Constellation
    Therius said:
    I can see the horse twitching! Beat harder!

    Soon UWE gonna get sued by protection of animals societies
  • Salraine_ChiSalraine_Chi Join Date: 2011-07-03 Member: 107669Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited May 2013
    Vay said:
    If anything, they need to lift the restrictions on concede. I still see too many servers die because one side cant concede so they just quit. Nobody wants to waste five minutes in a game they have no chance of even putting up a fight.

    There is never any back and forth in these games. They were broken from the start because of the teams. Forcing them to continue just drives players away. You want exos and onos? Then try making topics about fixing team stacking instead of concede. Stop complaining about the current treatment and start fixing the disease.
    I play mostly on servers with random teams enabled so team stacking is normally not a problem. If we only played games to win, then what would be the point of playing any game at all? You have to deal with the fact you will never ever win every round in any game so why even join a server in the first place? Games are meant to be entertainment and fun. Some of the best rounds of NS2 I have ever played, I lost. I dont care either way as long as its fun. Investing time in something that rarely gets finished is not fun imo. UW invested a lot of time in Exos and Onos etc and that time seems wasted if they never get used because players conced as soon as a defeat looks likely. Sometimes games are conceded and i am left baffled as the circumstances did not justify it. Like I said, there are games were a team is turtled and the winning team just dont seem to be able to finish it. Thats when concede should be used.

    Some would say that playing games, win or lose is a waste of time. I disagree though. Its no more a waste than reading a book or watching a film. Atm I play hoping to get one good game here and there. Unlike pre release and concede when games were mostly played out till that final hive or CC went down.


  • yuckfooyuckfoo Join Date: 2012-11-08 Member: 168216Members
    edited May 2013
    I play mostly on servers with random teams enabled so team stacking is normally not a problem. If we only played games to win, then what would be the point of playing any game at all? You have to deal with the fact you will never ever win every round in any game so why even join a server in the first place? Games are meant to be entertainment and fun. Some of the best rounds of NS2 I have ever played, I lost. I dont care either way as long as its fun. Investing time in something that rarely gets finished is not fun imo. UW invested a lot of time in Exos and Onos etc and that time seems wasted if they never get used because players conced as soon as a defeat looks likely. Sometimes games are conceded and i am left baffled as the circumstances did not justify it. Like I said, there are games were a team is turtled and the winning team just dont seem to be able to finish it. Thats when concede should be used.

    Some would say that playing games, win or lose is a waste of time. I disagree though. Its no more a waste than reading a book or watching a film. Atm I play hoping to get one good game here and there. Unlike pre release and concede when games were mostly played out till that final hive or CC went down.


    Thank you Chi, for thinking outside the box.
  • CrazyEddieCrazyEddie Join Date: 2013-01-08 Member: 178196Members
    edited May 2013
    I play mostly on servers with random teams enabled so team stacking is normally not a problem.
    Random prevents deliberate stacking, but it doesn't prevent imbalanced teams. In fact, if the high-skill players are trying to avoid stacking (which most of them do), then random makes imbalanced teams more likely, not less.

    Games are meant to be entertainment and fun. Some of the best rounds of NS2 I have ever played, I lost. I dont care either way as long as its fun.
    I think most people will agree with you here. Most people have fun playing games regardless of whether they win or lose.

    However:

    For most people, the fun in playing a game comes from the challenge. Challenge comes when you test your skills against a difficult task such that a) the outcome of the game depends on how well you perform at the test and b) the test is neither impossible nor trivially easy.

    Most games of NS2 reach a point where one team has an insurmountable advantage in resources, lifeforms/weapons, and map control. At that point, the game is no longer fun for most players (including those on the winning side!) because the challenge is gone. The game's outcome can no longer be affected by the actions of the players, and the tasks facing the players are either impossible (for the losers) or trivial (for the winners). That's why most players want to concede when victory becomes hopeless... because the game no longer presents a challenge and therefore is no longer fun.

    I believe that a significant amount of the disagreement over concede comes from the dual nature of NS2 as both a shooter and a strategy game. As I discussed in this comment

    In shooters, you demonstrate your skill every time you pull the trigger. Playing on even though your side can't possibly win the match is still fun because you are still engaging in a protracted contest of skills. In strategy games, once the game reaches a point where one side cannot possibly win and the other side cannot possibly lose, then skill is no longer a factor. Accordingly, playing on is no fun.

    You've said that it's disappointing that more games don't go on to have Exos and Onos and so forth. From an FPS perspective, playing with the big boy toys is a lot of fun no matter what else is going on. But from a strategy perspective, if getting out the superweapons isn't going to affect the outcome of the game - i.e. if getting one won't give the losing team a shot at winning, or if NOT getting one won't cost the winning team the victory - then there's no point in doing so.

    From my perspective, and, I think, for most people, the attraction to NS2 is that it is a strategy game. Yes, the shooting is fun, but the shooting is not the point. Shooting is merely a means to an end, and the end is the strategic dominance of the map and economy necessary to achieve destruction of the other team's bases. Once shooting can't change that, then shooting is pointless. The game has been decided, the game is over, concede, gg, that was fun, let's play again.

    If games are not as fulfilling as they could be because they become decided before the superweapons come out, the solution is not to remove concede and force people to play games that no longer have any strategic challenge. The solution is to improve the strategic gameplay such that games are more often in contention all the way through the endgame rather than being decided very early on. There have been some threads about this topic as well, and some of the changes being made in Sewlek's Balance Test mod will hopefully address these "snowball" issues. We'll see.


  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    Therius wrote: »
    I can see the horse twitching! Beat harder!
    That's just my eyelid spazzing... My brain is seizuring from wanting to close this thread
    :-D
  • ResRes Join Date: 2003-08-27 Member: 20245Members
     
    . In fact, if the high-skill players are trying to avoid stacking (which most of them do), /......

     

    No they don't... actually... most "high-skilled" players tend to go Marines mostly in pubs, they rarely go out of their way to switch teams or even go Aliens (usually because suck much worse).  At least that has been from my experience on Mavick's server.
  • yuckfooyuckfoo Join Date: 2012-11-08 Member: 168216Members
    IronHorse said:
    Therius wrote: »
    I can see the horse twitching! Beat harder!
    That's just my eyelid spazzing... My brain is seizuring from wanting to close this thread
    :-D
    So close it. This forum is pretty backward for not allowing the author the ability to remove their own topic.
  • TheriusTherius Join Date: 2009-03-06 Member: 66642Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
  • yuckfooyuckfoo Join Date: 2012-11-08 Member: 168216Members
    Therius said:
    Last post!
    nope.
  • VayVay Join Date: 2013-03-14 Member: 183959Members
    The probability of random evenly dividing four skilled players is only 37.5%. Not even half of games with random enabled will be a fair fight. That is not a solution; that is making it worse.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    edited May 2013
    yuckfoo wrote: »
    So close it. This forum is pretty backward for not allowing the author the ability to remove their own topic.

    I was just joking. (hence the smiley)
    As long as it's friendly discourse, it can be a topic that's repeated daily for all i care
    :-P
  • rebirthrebirth Join Date: 2007-09-23 Member: 62416Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    Res said:
    I agree. And the fact we have had so many threads about this obviously means a lot dont like it as it is.


    No, It's just the fact that people seem to "forget" what  was done pre-concede option.   That was F4'ing or base recycling.  Having or not having the concede option changes nothing when people just used those other options.

    For one concede made the "barrier" at which an round ends way lower. Getting a whole team to F4, required a whole team to actually F4. Recycling required the comm to actually recycle.

    But since concede got added, the majority of rounds don't even end in a proper way anymore. On most popular EU servers it usually goes like this: Marines get second tech point -> Marines lose second tech point -> Concede!
    And that in situations where none of the two sides had any big advantage in terms of tech points or map control. Marines just need to lose their second CC (or simply the PG to a second CP) and they will gladly concede, even against a Kharaa team with 1 Hive and 2 RT's.

    People don't even try to comeback anymore, the moment they realize they have to fight an uphill battle, as the enemy team got an temporary advantage due to an won encounter, they just throw it all down and go knee-jerk "Meeehh....no fair!".

    I had tons of rounds where the one team conceded and the other team goes "Wtf? We've been losing the whole time and you just concede?!". It's like players suffer from a total lack of game-sense in terms of what's going on in the round, they are only focused on their end of the whole thing and assume "We are losing", but many many times both teams think exactly that, both teams believe they are losing, especially in those rounds that are not horribly stacked and both sides have to fight for every inch of mapcontrol. Often these end up with the team that's slower at "Concede voting" winning.

    Personally i don't like this trend at all, the most memorable moments in NS had been those when you and your team came back from impossible odds. Yes those have been rare, but if they wouldn't be rare they wouldn't be special.

    But concede in it's current form kills any and all motivation to keep fighting, it lowers the already very slim chance of combacks to basically zero. It also promotes this thinking along the lines of "playing a game where you lose at the end is wasted time" and that's an really dumb mindset because it's impossible for everybody to always win, so by that logic 50% of all people on any given round are just "wasting their time". It's like the CoD mentality of "If i can't get points, it's pointless!!".

    Imho maybe the whole issue could have been solved by simply giving Kharaa a way to recycle their Hives to "give up", similar to how Marines have had the option to recycle when they are hopelessly bottled in. Yes that would offer a new angle for grieving and trolling, but current concede also does just that.

    Often it's enough to have one vocal negative nanny on the team to convince a whole team into conceding. Negative nanny will say things like "Zomg comm sucks, we only have 1 CP and 2 RT's! This is going nowhere!" while ignoring that the other team might be also just at 1 CP and 2 RT's because it's an pretty even round. Having a lone vocal guy like that can demotivate a team in a matter of minutes, regardless of the true state of the game, into conceding.

    I'd rather give that power back to the one person on the team who is actually supposed to lead and has the best overall perspective on the round: The Commanders 
  • CrazyEddieCrazyEddie Join Date: 2013-01-08 Member: 178196Members
    edited May 2013
    rebirth said:
    It also promotes this thinking along the lines of "playing a game where you lose at the end is wasted time"
    Nobody thinks that. Most people do, however, think that playing a game where you have no chance of winning is wasted time. There's a difference.

    Often it's enough to have one vocal negative nanny on the team to convince a whole team into conceding. Negative nanny will say things like "Zomg comm sucks, we only have 1 CP and 2 RT's! This is going nowhere!" while ignoring that the other team might be also just at 1 CP and 2 RT's because it's an pretty even round. Having a lone vocal guy like that can demotivate a team in a matter of minutes, regardless of the true state of the game, into conceding. 

    I'd rather give that power back to the one person on the team who is actually supposed to lead and has the best overall perspective on the round: The Commanders 
    Part of the Commander's job is to motivate the team. He doesn't need a game-mechanical power to prevent conceding; he already has all the power he needs in the sound of his own voice. Leadership and other related social skills are important parts of the NS2 gameplay, especially for Commanders, and a com that can't keep his team from conceding a winnable game is a com that deserved to lose.

    I think you have some good points, though, about the ease of conceding contributing to the number of games that are conceded while they are still winnable. In my experience, though, it's not been a big problem; I rarely have played games that were conceded before they were obviously unwinnable.

    I'm less sure that concede has contributed to the lack of comebacks. I'm not certain comebacks have ever been particularly viable, and I think this lack of viability is what has kept people from trying harder to pull them off. I haven't seen a noticeable change in the amount of comeback attempts before or after concede was introduced. They were rare before, and they're rare now. If they worked more often, we'd see them tried more often, and we'd see fewer concessions.

  • current1ycurrent1y Join Date: 2003-12-08 Member: 24150Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    edited May 2013
    Concede is ruining the game IMO. It does a great job to end stacked teams but fails to accomplish any thing of value past that In my opinion. All it does (and does well) is make people want to give up and lose their motivation to try and win. Lost the second tech point? It's vote concede time.

    Vote concede needs to be active only from about 5-7 minute mark to allow stupid stacked games to end and disable the ability to concede after that.
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