Competitive and public balance - impossible to achieve both within one build?

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Comments

  • _INTER__INTER_ Join Date: 2009-08-08 Member: 68392Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    I don't believe Aliens win more than Marines or the other way in pub play. Imo the team with the stax wins. It's science to join the moar stacked team. Also another rule is that "Randomize" puts you in the noob team.
    blubb
  • 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
    But that could be solved for pubs if the skill ceiling were to be lowered. A stacked team would cease to exist. But then so would an interesting game, Imo
  • amoralamoral Join Date: 2013-01-03 Member: 177250Members
    Honestly, the more I play the more I notice what a difference your FPS makes.

    Upgraded my card recently, got a few extra FPSes and suddenly am scoring much better.

    Reality is, most pub players dont have £1000 monster gaming rigs, and most comp/ 'decent' players and those whose aim is magically better than everyone else, all the time, do.

    If the performance issues were fixed (though I am under the impression they will never be?) I guarantee pub marines would suddenly become much more dangerous, and comp/pub balance would be much closer to reconciliation.

    :)

    upgraded my gfx card and threw in another 4 gigs of ram. the new gfx was literally 3 times the size of my old one. went from a inconsistent 60 fps at 800x600, to something like consistent 100 at regular resolutions. I laughed my ass off. made my aim slightly better, but not too much effect on my skulking. on the other hand, i can now spot camo much easier :).
  • ResRes Join Date: 2003-08-27 Member: 20245Members
    edited December 2013
    I think that if this game didn't have such a huge snowball effect, if it was lessened to a great extent, then it would have a side effect of bringing balance to different amounts of players, whether it's comp or pub games.

    I honestly think that's a big part of the issue and most other things or ideas listed so far sidestep this.
  • meatmachinemeatmachine South England Join Date: 2013-01-06 Member: 177858Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Res wrote: »
    I think that if this game didn't have such a huge snowball effect, if it was lessened to a great extent, then it would have a side effect of bringing balance to different amounts of players, whether it's comp or pub games.

    I honestly think that's a big part of the issue and most other things or ideas listed so far sidestep this.

    No snowball effect = games will last forever, and/or the resource system is completely negated. We have a version of the game devoid of snowballing and it's called combat.

    The snowball effect in this game, in pubs at least, is actually pretty mild compared to most RTS. Consider SC2 where the majority of games last 5-10 mins before a concede. Most of the time once the players show their hands to eachother it's obvious who will win and pointless playing the game through to higher tech.

    In NS2 the FPS element means there's always a chance one team can get their act together and take out some important structures, setting the enemy team back greatly. Comebacks are not as uncommon as some people like to make out :)
  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    @meatmachine while I agree with your post, I just wanted to point out that combat isn't entirely devoid of the snowball. Get kills, get upgrades, get more kills.
  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    I spend a lot of time on pub servers and even more on servers with rookies on them or a mixture of rookies and vets.

    And I said it before, I will say it again. MANY MANY rookies stack one team, leaving no room for the vets then to stack the other team. (I am for this regard also not just counting greens, but also folk who aint new but still relatively suck)
    If teams are balanced, then in most cases matches are experienced as good matches on both sides. Almost every time it was a stomp, one side was simply stacked.
    I spend well over 3 matches on eclipse yesterday where the marines kept stacking rookies, wondering why they kept loosing. (only 2 vets on the rines with one being comm)

    I am more and more looking forward to UWEs solution to balancing teams as well as teambalance mods. And again, it is NOT always experienced players whom stack. Many MANY times rookies stack one team, so a 'forced' way for them to not stack would be far more helpful.
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