A TRUE Autobalance?
CodeCowboy
Join Date: 2012-09-21 Member: 160235Members
Join Date: 2012-09-21 Member: 160235Members
Someone mentioned in one game I was in that there is a mod which balances teams based on past round score... so that the top two scorers are on opposite teams, etc.
It seems to me that this or a ranking system could be used to accomplish the same thing. It would be great if this was in the game natively. If not, does anyone know the name of that mod?
It seems to me that this or a ranking system could be used to accomplish the same thing. It would be great if this was in the game natively. If not, does anyone know the name of that mod?
Comments
There are probably too many factors to consider when trying to balance a random group of players
What if one team ends up all the good commanders?
What if the two best commanders get separated, but one decides that he/she doesn't want to comm this game?
What if Aliens end up with no skilled Lerks or Fades?
What if Marines team is full of players that scored high destroying buildings last game, but have terrible aim?
What about friends that team up and dominate, but don't do half as well with random pubbies?
Even with all the information and the best analysis of different team combinations it still likely to be a one sided game
Any mod attempting it would have to be scored on a per map basis for it to be even up to my standards to try it since strats vary so much
The mod OP is referring to existed in NS1 and was installed on a few servers back in the day. It featured dynamic balancing, so it switched players from one side to the other DURING the game, not before. The commander was not affected (back when only marines had a commander). If one side was getting all of the kills, the mod would choose two players, one from each side, to switch. It would choose one from the top of the scoreboard of the "better" team, and then one from the bottom of the "lesser" team. It would make this switch as many times as necessary until the kills started to even out. This mod existed, and it worked as-advertised.
That sounds downright god awful.
Frankly, team switches would probably do more damage from an intel perspective than anything.
What might be better would be to take these temporary player ratings and apply them to the next round. If a player tries to join a team that is 'stacked' then it will pop up a message saying "team is stacked, choose opposite team or wait for more to join."
Not to mention the fact that being teamswitched mid game just sucks big time.
But I do like the idea of balancing teams after the game is over, based on the scores. Not perfect, but still superior to a basic randomise.
Why not hide the player names of those players that already picked a team.
Once the games starts, all names are revealed again.
Anti stacking would solve most of the balance issues..
Another important and obvious reason for stacking, I hope this was already considered: People are only able to stack so hard because you can "spam" the join command and get the team you want. By spaming it in console or going in and out of the "join area", experienced players chose the stronger team, while unexperienced players (who don't know how to join a team THIS way) can only pick the other, weaker team.
At least, take this mechanic out. If 80% of the players want to join a specific team, let it decide by chance. This way, SOME good players will HAVE to join the other, weaker team.
That is a genius idea. However, just disabling the tab/score screen in the RR is not enough. People can go spectator, press F4, and then join. Or they can join a team, F4 and then join. You have to disable the score screen until the actual game start.
On top of that, I can see player names while in the RR just by looking at people. Unless everyone joins with console you can watch to see what door players walk through or what door has a bunch of players standing in it. That means you need to hide all player names in the RR.
You can't hide the names after you joined a side, because you need to know if a known troll commander goes into the command station!
And People still can F4 after the round has started!
Even with stats to balance teams, random allocation to teams is a bad idea. People want to play with their friends, and people want to play on specific teams, and they want this often enough that it should be the default. A better solution would be something like the soft matchmaking system I suggested here.
I don't know if i like this idea. On the one side it could get some balanced teams. On the other side, I want to choose which side I play! (I don't want to play one side all the time, just because I get picked by the Marine leader all the time ...).
Oh and there needs to be a time-limit for choosing, or a troll leader (yeah, we created a new troll species!) could delay a game forever!
1) We track the Win/Loss records of every player on our server, and we typically use that data to form teams, placing the scariest players, statistically, against each other. When regulars are most of the server's population, the entertainment provided by this distribution is noticeably better than "random". Teams are dictated at game start, never during game.
2) When our regulars-to-strangers ratio is high enough, we enable a "Captains Games" mod. Two captains (who have volunteered) choose teams, fat-kid-last style (<3), and we play two rounds, switching sides between. It's familiar to many, and it's a great compromise between casual and competitive play, while it lasts.
Both of our 8v8, rookie-friendly, community servers have reserved slots (purchased or earned), demand teamwork and the ability to hear voicecomm, and invite the best and worst skilled who can and do (generally) treat players nicely regardless.