The server ping/location argument is rather flimsy, I mean... Where are the servers so bad a rookie server is your only choice?
That's fairly often the case if you're playing from the west coast of north america during primetime.. it's either a 24-32 player clusterfuck or join a rookie server. Or play the faded, which is a fucking awesome mod. That usually has some people playing.
This is 100% true. Every day, all I see (and I rage it to my clan every evening) is 22-34 man servers that are all green. There is usually only ONE server that is below 20 man, but it's always full and always green. Most of the time I just try to start up our Next Level west coast server (non-rookie), but I get tired of always waiting 20-30 minutes before I can play and sometimes I just want to jump into the action.
My personal opinion is most of the complaints about balance pertain to people getting their basis from a game they played on a 24 man chop-fest. I wish all servers would be forced to be 18 man at largest.
I find it amusing when posts regarding rookie servers or experienced players/pros playing on rookie-friendly servers pop up and what they should be or should have.
1) *Anybody* (with a credit card or pay pal account) can get their own server rental (~$25-$50/month).
2) With said server, this person can set whatever rules they want the server to live by, seeing as they pay for the service.
If someone feels strongly about a certain server "culture" or "restrictions", and from the varied posts on these forums, there are many... then, maybe they should band together and save all rookies from the 100+ hour experienced players! Land of the free, land of opportunity, and all that jazz. I'm not really sure what's stopping all these people from doing so, and why they feel they have the right to dictate what goes on on other people's servers that the owners have put in their own hard earned money?
I find it amusing when posts regarding rookie servers or experienced players/pros playing on rookie-friendly servers pop up and what they should be or should have.
1) *Anybody* (with a credit card or pay pal account) can get their own server rental (~$25-$50/month).
2) With said server, this person can set whatever rules they want the server to live by, seeing as they pay for the service.
If someone feels strongly about a certain server "culture" or "restrictions", and from the varied posts on these forums, there are many... then, maybe they should band together and save all rookies from the 100+ hour experienced players! Land of the free, land of opportunity, and all that jazz. I'm not really sure what's stopping all these people from doing so, and why they feel they have the right to dictate what goes on on other people's servers that the owners have put in their own hard earned money?
Terrible logic. Firstly, you need the admins to be there. Secondly, you require that these people pay 300 dollars a year for it.
What you say is as logical as saying, "if people cared so much about a troll being fixed, why not instigate a votekick plugin.."
Why make work when you don't need to? Was everyone in favour of the votekick? No. Was everyone in favour of the concede option? The eject commander option? No.
Some people just detest change, no matter what you suggest. It's incredibly dogmatic and they also tend to be very selfish. My suggestion is for the game and the community as a whole, and I have little doubt that with the correct implementation it could work. By contrast, you want people to work harder and harder to do things that should be already built-in.
24/7 admins or a system that allows it to be automatic? I choose the former. When you're new to the game do you religiously search through the search engine for the rookie only server? No. You pick whichever one is green and has enough players. So your system doesn't make sense as it precludes that rookies read all of the information.
"I'm not really sure what's stopping all these people from doing so, and why they feel they have the right to dictate what goes on on other people's servers that the owners have put in their own hard earned money?"
You clearly didn't read a thing I wrote. I never said any owner HAS to do anything. I said the OPTION is there.
ScardyBobScardyBobJoin Date: 2009-11-25Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
I've long held that rookie-only servers would be a benefit to this game. The best way to learn NS2 is to play it and the most satisfying way to play NS2 is against people of close skill. Rookie-only servers provide the best method to satisfy both.
this would only be good if the tutorials were effective (that means people actually do them, and they actually explain the point of the game)
People will take too long to learn the game without those few experienced players guiding the team and explaining the game and introducing strategies
at the very least the commander should be a veteran instead of a rookie on these servers
i'd rather see veteran-only servers than rookie-only servers because it actually solves an immediate problem
as of now, the skill level of games is low enough for newbies to have fun.
what's the real issue? are people actually quitting because they aren't dominating after a few hours of play? those people don't seem like the target audience of skill-based games...
I question whether this change would really improve the learning curve. New players need to play with more experienced players, it's the only way they will learn advanced tactics and strategies. If rookies only play against other rookies, they'll essentially be playing in a bubble. Then all of a sudden, they'll hit 100 hours and the bubble will pop. They won't be able to join rookie servers anymore, and they won't be adequately prepared for more advanced players. Everything they've learned will essentially be thrown out, because they've only learned how to play against other rookies, not with or against experienced players.
I question whether this change would really improve the learning curve. New players need to play with more experienced players, it's the only way they will learn advanced tactics and strategies. If rookies only play against other rookies, they'll essentially be playing in a bubble. Then all of a sudden, they'll hit 100 hours and the bubble will pop. They won't be able to join rookie servers anymore, and they won't be adequately prepared for more advanced players. Everything they've learned will essentially be thrown out, because they've only learned how to play against other rookies, not with or against experienced players.
most new players dont want to play against experience players. Infact they dont care about learning the game at all, you see ... they show up to see what the game is all about, if it is any fun, if it is worth spending their free time on. Anything thats frustrating for new players during this period impacts their first impressions about the game and can potentially turn them away.
Thats the very first hurdle that this game is failing on. Only after you have sold new players on staying with the game, then can you move on to 'teaching' them.
This thread is seriously making me consider renting a server and calling it: teaching new players. Sadly i don't feel like i have the appropriate level of experience yet to truly know all the subtlties i want to pass on.
I question whether this change would really improve the learning curve. New players need to play with more experienced players, it's the only way they will learn advanced tactics and strategies. If rookies only play against other rookies, they'll essentially be playing in a bubble. Then all of a sudden, they'll hit 100 hours and the bubble will pop. They won't be able to join rookie servers anymore, and they won't be adequately prepared for more advanced players. Everything they've learned will essentially be thrown out, because they've only learned how to play against other rookies, not with or against experienced players.
...
Someone with 2 hours can learn from someone with 80 hours. Also, someone with less than 100 hours practically never dominates an entire server anyway. Contrast this with the f ucktons of people with 300 hours and more stomping in rookie servers all of the time.
The number of people playing this game keeps decreasing. Is it really JUST because of the performance issues? Of course not. How do I know? Because I have two friends who have this game, one of who actually bought it for me, and one of them won't play because so many rounds are imbalanced and thus no fun (which to be fair the Rookie Only will merely alleviate the problem in rookie servers but not prevent them in their entirety) and the other hates playing skulk (and he;s a former CS pro). I can understand their complaints.
Should we try and fix it with methods like these? Or should the status quo remain and let's just let the game die?
That bubble you talked about happens EVERYWHERE in life. One moment you're in High school wrestling, then that bubble gets burst and you're in college wrestling. But are you in high school wrestling with 30 year old OLYMPIANS?! No. That is stupid.
I could see your idea (BestProfileName) working under 2 conditions. Firstly the new players aren't forced into the rookie only servers, it's just an option available to them that is not available to others. (Possibly their default server browser is rookie only and then there is a box to tick to show all that comes with a pop-up warning). The second condition is that this is implemented shortly before a free weekend of some desciption. As it stands i don't think there are enough people picking up the game at the current rate to warrant this implementation (namely rookie servers would be empty).
I could see your idea (BestProfileName) working under 2 conditions. Firstly the new players aren't forced into the rookie only servers, it's just an option available to them that is not available to others. (Possibly their default server browser is rookie only and then there is a box to tick to show all that comes with a pop-up warning). The second condition is that this is implemented shortly before a free weekend of some desciption. As it stands i don't think there are enough people picking up the game at the current rate to warrant this implementation (namely rookie servers would be empty).
I have stated multiple times that I am merely advocating the introduction of an option that would allow owners to make their servers rookie only. Rookies can always go to non-rookie servers if they like, but given the amount of complaining done by new players about the learning curve then I'm sure they won't select this option.
The second condition I agree with - we should have a free weekend probably a week after.
Also, I'm not entirely convinced that rookies will learn anything from playing with other rookies. If you go into the average rookie server, all the marines will go the same direction at the start of the game, and the aliens will get celerity first nearly every single time, to the point where they will rage quit if you're commanding and do something that's actually smart like buy carapace. The game has been out for ~7 months now and people are still doing that, which makes me believe that they simply don't learn from eachother.
??????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You're talking about rookies with fewer than four hours in the game. What else would they be doing?
You know that rookie you saw in January? Well he's not the same person as the rookie you see in May, so when you say, "they're still doing the same thing!" that is about as logical as saying, "I've seen babies putting their hands in the fire and they're still doing it after 40 years!!!". No...That specific baby/rookie has changed by then.
I'm not talking about "Green" rookies, I'm talking about regulars on some rookie friendly servers I frequent. You forget that this game has an incredibly small community... more often than not i'll join a server and recognize at least half of the people that are playing there.
I'm talking about groups of people who learned on rookie servers then stayed there.
Also, I'm not entirely convinced that rookies will learn anything from playing with other rookies. If you go into the average rookie server, all the marines will go the same direction at the start of the game, and the aliens will get celerity first nearly every single time, to the point where they will rage quit if you're commanding and do something that's actually smart like buy carapace. The game has been out for ~7 months now and people are still doing that, which makes me believe that they simply don't learn from eachother.
I am so sick of every pub player telling me that celerity/shift is the best upgrade for aliens and phase gates by 1 minute or YOU'RE OUT.
I refuse to com in pub games anymore because of this.
Hate to say it but in pub games where the marines actually miss a few shots and the skulks aren't laser guided bite rockets, that IS the best strategy for marines, as once they noob out and advance too far & die the alien team proceeds to wipe out every res node they capped so far. And for shift first, depends on player count. Large servers require it for pubs because aliens die so much. For smaller games I can see going crag first.
On topic: I've been begging for rookie only servers for a long time now, and I really think it would do wonders to help the community progress! But there will still be the finesse of teaching noobs how to play. More in game videos for noobs will be needed, as well as advanced training videos to teach them how to prepare for when their 100 hours are up. Maybe start playing those advanced videos once they hit 50 hours.
The community is too small to divide the playerbase into two separate entities. Also, rookie servers mixed with experienced players can be a good thing. I've helped out numerous new players by watching how they play and offering advice or by helping them to learn the nuances of commanding.
I could see your idea (BestProfileName) working under 2 conditions. Firstly the new players aren't forced into the rookie only servers, it's just an option available to them that is not available to others. (Possibly their default server browser is rookie only and then there is a box to tick to show all that comes with a pop-up warning). The second condition is that this is implemented shortly before a free weekend of some desciption. As it stands i don't think there are enough people picking up the game at the current rate to warrant this implementation (namely rookie servers would be empty).
I don't know about others but last greenie period I went gorge a while bunch and brushed up on my comming. and I saw a lot of veterans do the same.
Hate to say it but in pub games where the marines actually miss a few shots and the skulks aren't laser guided bite rockets, that IS the best strategy for marines, as once they noob out and advance too far & die the alien team proceeds to wipe out every res node they capped so far. And for shift first, depends on player count. Large servers require it for pubs because aliens die so much. For smaller games I can see going crag first.
So if they're "noobing out" on their rookie servers, when are they ever going to learn that they're doing it wrong? When they take the jump into the regular servers? But you just spent 100 hours reinforcing their belief that shift hive first and phase tech first are the only viable strategies... this sounds like a great idea.
Hate to say it but in pub games where the marines actually miss a few shots and the skulks aren't laser guided bite rockets, that IS the best strategy for marines, as once they noob out and advance too far & die the alien team proceeds to wipe out every res node they capped so far. And for shift first, depends on player count. Large servers require it for pubs because aliens die so much. For smaller games I can see going crag first.
So if they're "noobing out" on their rookie servers, when are they ever going to learn that they're doing it wrong? When they take the jump into the regular servers? But you just spent 100 hours reinforcing their belief that shift hive first and phase tech first are the only viable strategies... this sounds like a great idea.
Those techniques are valid all the way up until the highest skill range of players. So until the noobs decide to turn pro, its fine if they learn that stuff..
Those techniques are valid all the way up until the highest skill range of players. So until the noobs decide to turn pro, its fine if they learn that stuff..
They're "valid" wherever you want to use them, but they're only useful if you're making tons of mistakes and dying a lot. It's always stronger to get upgrades first as marines, or carapace as aliens. The sole exception to this is Veil, where it's sometimes smart to get fast phase gates.
It has nothing to do with the "highest skill range"... if you go to any of the non-rookie servers that are running the game within the recommended player counts, you'll see that upgrades and crag first are commonplace. It's ONLY the rookie servers that have been modded to run with more players on them where its a good idea to go shift first.
Those techniques are valid all the way up until the highest skill range of players. So until the noobs decide to turn pro, its fine if they learn that stuff..
But see, if they spend the first 100 hours believing that PG and shift first are the best strats, then they'll be learning that it's okay to be super risky and die a lot, because they'll always have PGs and eggs to fall back on. Then once they hit 100 hours they'll find themselves in games where people are going crag first and getting upgrades before PGs, and they won't be prepared for that.
6v6 with players who coordinate is not common in public play (in the US)
shift / fast phasegates is still the highest win-rate strat in pubs (excluding rushes)
there are perfectly legit reasons for this and why it's different with better players and smaller teams, but that's a separate topic
6v6 with players who coordinate is not common in public play (in the US)
shift / fast phasegates is still the highest win-rate strat in pubs (excluding rushes)
there are perfectly legit reasons for this and why it's different with better players and smaller teams, but that's a separate topic
Introduce servers exclusively for people with <100 hours and you will see many more small servers filled with experienced players.
And I question your statement that shift/PG first is the highest winrate strat in pubs. It's the most common, for sure, but in my experience crag and arms lab openings are more successful, even in public servers.
So if they're "noobing out" on their rookie servers, when are they ever going to learn that they're doing it wrong? When they take the jump into the regular servers? But you just spent 100 hours reinforcing their belief that shift hive first and phase tech first are the only viable strategies... this sounds like a great idea.
Its much easier to learn a new strat or method to play once you've mastered the basics. Otherwise, we'd have new comp teams play solely against Archaea, Godar, and Nexzil to learn how to play comp NS2.
So if they're "noobing out" on their rookie servers, when are they ever going to learn that they're doing it wrong? When they take the jump into the regular servers? But you just spent 100 hours reinforcing their belief that shift hive first and phase tech first are the only viable strategies... this sounds like a great idea.
Its much easier to learn a new strat or method to play once you've mastered the basics. Otherwise, we'd have new comp teams play solely against Archaea, Godar, and Nexzil to learn how to play comp NS2.
I did not start watching competitive play until I was around 150 hours and only then did I realise that arms labs first is generally the thing to do.
Once you go from skill level x to y and those people above you say crag is better, or arms lab is better, you learn it in 0.0003 seconds.
Again, some of you, such as ritualsacrifice, are missing the point. It is not about, "well how will the 100 hour plays then fit in at the top?". They by definition will. Once they know the fundamentals, they will pick up the rest. It's like learning your ABC before you learn how to read words. You don't give a 5 year old 'On the origin of species by natural selection" (appropriate pun) before giving them some simple 10 word a page book.
"BUT BEST IF WE GIVE THEM THE CHILD BOOK THEY'LL THINK THAT IS WHAT LITERATURE IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT AND THEY WILL KEEP TELLING US LITERATURE EXPERTS WE'RE WRONG WHEN THEY REACH A CERTAIN AGE!!! ERH MERH GERDDDDDD"
-Sigh-
It's about not turning new players off in their first 10 hours or so of play. If people are noobstomped over the course of 10 hours, they usually won't want to play and that is one of the main reasons why we have big numbers of sales but a massive drop off of players. They go, "am I having fun? No? Okay, next game".
I got lucky when I started playing. There were fewer pro players, and I got the game bought for me with a bunch of mates and we just so happened to not get some epic player roflstomping everyone. For many, many people, they're not so lucky.
ScardyBobScardyBobJoin Date: 2009-11-25Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
I largely agree with you @BestProfileName. The reading analogy is apt; everyone pretty much learns to read via simple picture books, not Pride and Prejudice. Gaming is no different in that you want to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) then build upon that base.
I'm not going to pay for a server for rookies only to play on. I do however have absolutely no problem helping the new players who come into ours ( any NextLevelGaming.net)
Hopefully something such as this could be implemented. Dare I say... CoD has a similar system, locking you to certain games against other low level players and i'm sure it does in fact help the rookies.
most of the official UWE servers arent being used, they could be retasked as rookie only.
It wouldnt hurt to at least give it a test run, have a free weekend after the change and see if theres higher player retention after the free weekend is over
So if they're "noobing out" on their rookie servers, when are they ever going to learn that they're doing it wrong? When they take the jump into the regular servers? But you just spent 100 hours reinforcing their belief that shift hive first and phase tech first are the only viable strategies... this sounds like a great idea.
Its much easier to learn a new strat or method to play once you've mastered the basics. Otherwise, we'd have new comp teams play solely against Archaea, Godar, and Nexzil to learn how to play comp NS2.
I don't know about ONLY playing Archaea, Godar and Nexzil, but I definitely think even the worst teams can learn something by doing that. I think I'm in the minority on that though, most people just get frustrated.
Comments
This is 100% true. Every day, all I see (and I rage it to my clan every evening) is 22-34 man servers that are all green. There is usually only ONE server that is below 20 man, but it's always full and always green. Most of the time I just try to start up our Next Level west coast server (non-rookie), but I get tired of always waiting 20-30 minutes before I can play and sometimes I just want to jump into the action.
My personal opinion is most of the complaints about balance pertain to people getting their basis from a game they played on a 24 man chop-fest. I wish all servers would be forced to be 18 man at largest.
1) *Anybody* (with a credit card or pay pal account) can get their own server rental (~$25-$50/month).
2) With said server, this person can set whatever rules they want the server to live by, seeing as they pay for the service.
If someone feels strongly about a certain server "culture" or "restrictions", and from the varied posts on these forums, there are many... then, maybe they should band together and save all rookies from the 100+ hour experienced players!
Terrible logic. Firstly, you need the admins to be there. Secondly, you require that these people pay 300 dollars a year for it.
What you say is as logical as saying, "if people cared so much about a troll being fixed, why not instigate a votekick plugin.."
Why make work when you don't need to? Was everyone in favour of the votekick? No. Was everyone in favour of the concede option? The eject commander option? No.
Some people just detest change, no matter what you suggest. It's incredibly dogmatic and they also tend to be very selfish. My suggestion is for the game and the community as a whole, and I have little doubt that with the correct implementation it could work. By contrast, you want people to work harder and harder to do things that should be already built-in.
24/7 admins or a system that allows it to be automatic? I choose the former. When you're new to the game do you religiously search through the search engine for the rookie only server? No. You pick whichever one is green and has enough players. So your system doesn't make sense as it precludes that rookies read all of the information.
"I'm not really sure what's stopping all these people from doing so, and why they feel they have the right to dictate what goes on on other people's servers that the owners have put in their own hard earned money?"
You clearly didn't read a thing I wrote. I never said any owner HAS to do anything. I said the OPTION is there.
People will take too long to learn the game without those few experienced players guiding the team and explaining the game and introducing strategies
at the very least the commander should be a veteran instead of a rookie on these servers
i'd rather see veteran-only servers than rookie-only servers because it actually solves an immediate problem
as of now, the skill level of games is low enough for newbies to have fun.
what's the real issue? are people actually quitting because they aren't dominating after a few hours of play? those people don't seem like the target audience of skill-based games...
most new players dont want to play against experience players. Infact they dont care about learning the game at all, you see ... they show up to see what the game is all about, if it is any fun, if it is worth spending their free time on. Anything thats frustrating for new players during this period impacts their first impressions about the game and can potentially turn them away.
Thats the very first hurdle that this game is failing on. Only after you have sold new players on staying with the game, then can you move on to 'teaching' them.
Wow that dude got jailed!
...
Someone with 2 hours can learn from someone with 80 hours. Also, someone with less than 100 hours practically never dominates an entire server anyway. Contrast this with the f ucktons of people with 300 hours and more stomping in rookie servers all of the time.
The number of people playing this game keeps decreasing. Is it really JUST because of the performance issues? Of course not. How do I know? Because I have two friends who have this game, one of who actually bought it for me, and one of them won't play because so many rounds are imbalanced and thus no fun (which to be fair the Rookie Only will merely alleviate the problem in rookie servers but not prevent them in their entirety) and the other hates playing skulk (and he;s a former CS pro). I can understand their complaints.
Should we try and fix it with methods like these? Or should the status quo remain and let's just let the game die?
That bubble you talked about happens EVERYWHERE in life. One moment you're in High school wrestling, then that bubble gets burst and you're in college wrestling. But are you in high school wrestling with 30 year old OLYMPIANS?! No. That is stupid.
I have stated multiple times that I am merely advocating the introduction of an option that would allow owners to make their servers rookie only. Rookies can always go to non-rookie servers if they like, but given the amount of complaining done by new players about the learning curve then I'm sure they won't select this option.
The second condition I agree with - we should have a free weekend probably a week after.
Hate to say it but in pub games where the marines actually miss a few shots and the skulks aren't laser guided bite rockets, that IS the best strategy for marines, as once they noob out and advance too far & die the alien team proceeds to wipe out every res node they capped so far. And for shift first, depends on player count. Large servers require it for pubs because aliens die so much. For smaller games I can see going crag first.
On topic: I've been begging for rookie only servers for a long time now, and I really think it would do wonders to help the community progress! But there will still be the finesse of teaching noobs how to play. More in game videos for noobs will be needed, as well as advanced training videos to teach them how to prepare for when their 100 hours are up. Maybe start playing those advanced videos once they hit 50 hours.
I don't know about others but last greenie period I went gorge a while bunch and brushed up on my comming. and I saw a lot of veterans do the same.
thats nice
for me, i avoided the game like the plague during the free weekend
So if they're "noobing out" on their rookie servers, when are they ever going to learn that they're doing it wrong? When they take the jump into the regular servers? But you just spent 100 hours reinforcing their belief that shift hive first and phase tech first are the only viable strategies... this sounds like a great idea.
Those techniques are valid all the way up until the highest skill range of players. So until the noobs decide to turn pro, its fine if they learn that stuff..
They're "valid" wherever you want to use them, but they're only useful if you're making tons of mistakes and dying a lot. It's always stronger to get upgrades first as marines, or carapace as aliens. The sole exception to this is Veil, where it's sometimes smart to get fast phase gates.
It has nothing to do with the "highest skill range"... if you go to any of the non-rookie servers that are running the game within the recommended player counts, you'll see that upgrades and crag first are commonplace. It's ONLY the rookie servers that have been modded to run with more players on them where its a good idea to go shift first.
But see, if they spend the first 100 hours believing that PG and shift first are the best strats, then they'll be learning that it's okay to be super risky and die a lot, because they'll always have PGs and eggs to fall back on. Then once they hit 100 hours they'll find themselves in games where people are going crag first and getting upgrades before PGs, and they won't be prepared for that.
shift / fast phasegates is still the highest win-rate strat in pubs (excluding rushes)
there are perfectly legit reasons for this and why it's different with better players and smaller teams, but that's a separate topic
Introduce servers exclusively for people with <100 hours and you will see many more small servers filled with experienced players.
And I question your statement that shift/PG first is the highest winrate strat in pubs. It's the most common, for sure, but in my experience crag and arms lab openings are more successful, even in public servers.
I did not start watching competitive play until I was around 150 hours and only then did I realise that arms labs first is generally the thing to do.
Once you go from skill level x to y and those people above you say crag is better, or arms lab is better, you learn it in 0.0003 seconds.
And I rounded that up.
"BUT BEST IF WE GIVE THEM THE CHILD BOOK THEY'LL THINK THAT IS WHAT LITERATURE IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT AND THEY WILL KEEP TELLING US LITERATURE EXPERTS WE'RE WRONG WHEN THEY REACH A CERTAIN AGE!!! ERH MERH GERDDDDDD"
-Sigh-
It's about not turning new players off in their first 10 hours or so of play. If people are noobstomped over the course of 10 hours, they usually won't want to play and that is one of the main reasons why we have big numbers of sales but a massive drop off of players. They go, "am I having fun? No? Okay, next game".
I got lucky when I started playing. There were fewer pro players, and I got the game bought for me with a bunch of mates and we just so happened to not get some epic player roflstomping everyone. For many, many people, they're not so lucky.
I'm not going to pay for a server for rookies only to play on. I do however have absolutely no problem helping the new players who come into ours ( any NextLevelGaming.net)
Hopefully something such as this could be implemented. Dare I say... CoD has a similar system, locking you to certain games against other low level players and i'm sure it does in fact help the rookies.
It wouldnt hurt to at least give it a test run, have a free weekend after the change and see if theres higher player retention after the free weekend is over
http://www.steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&jstime=1&appid=4920&from=1349067600000&to=End+Time
I don't know about ONLY playing Archaea, Godar and Nexzil, but I definitely think even the worst teams can learn something by doing that. I think I'm in the minority on that though, most people just get frustrated.