The Gather System
schu
Join Date: 2012-08-04 Member: 154768Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2012-08-04 Member: 154768Members, Reinforced - Shadow
So from what I've noticed in the beta about the gather system is that the system is wrong. Never mind the fact that it's broken right now. But I figured out how it's working and it needs to be fixed.
It needs to be a match making system. Not a system where you type in a password to a pug/gather and join. That's what the server list already does. Why do it again? Let me explain...
So firstly, if you haven't seen the gather system yet, you can either join an existing gather or create one. There are dedicated gather servers, public servers or custom servers. Pretty self explanatory. You join them based off of a list.
The way I would have envisioned it would be when you click "Gather" on the main menu it takes you to a lobby. You get to choose what class you want to play for aliens. You also get to choose if you want to command or not.
So for instance. When you click "Gather" it should send you to a screen that allows you to click what you play on Marines. This only requires two options: Foot Soldier or Commander. Then it should let you click what you play on aliens. Gorge, Lerk, Fade, Onos, Commander. The system will then let you decide what ping you would like to play on. So you choose something like <100 ms or what have you. Then it throws you into a lobby with other players and everyone has their classes chosen beforehand. So it would list the players, what team they are on and what class they are playing in the match.
That's how I would have envisioned the gather system.
It needs to be a match making system. Not a system where you type in a password to a pug/gather and join. That's what the server list already does. Why do it again? Let me explain...
So firstly, if you haven't seen the gather system yet, you can either join an existing gather or create one. There are dedicated gather servers, public servers or custom servers. Pretty self explanatory. You join them based off of a list.
The way I would have envisioned it would be when you click "Gather" on the main menu it takes you to a lobby. You get to choose what class you want to play for aliens. You also get to choose if you want to command or not.
So for instance. When you click "Gather" it should send you to a screen that allows you to click what you play on Marines. This only requires two options: Foot Soldier or Commander. Then it should let you click what you play on aliens. Gorge, Lerk, Fade, Onos, Commander. The system will then let you decide what ping you would like to play on. So you choose something like <100 ms or what have you. Then it throws you into a lobby with other players and everyone has their classes chosen beforehand. So it would list the players, what team they are on and what class they are playing in the match.
That's how I would have envisioned the gather system.
Comments
I have 1750+ hours in this game and have been wanting pug/matchmaking system built into the game since the start.
It seems logical that a gather system would be along the lines of:
- Join a queue for a lobby based upon region (if not enough players in one region, just join a lobby anyway)
- Select a side
- Vote for map
- Select preference for commander or not
- If alien, be able to display your life-form preference to the lobby
From what I hear of the gather beta, it doesn't seem like the basics of what the gather system needs to achieve are being totally addressed. Would love to see this done right by UWE at the end of the day and if not by UWE, release the right tools and resources to the community (APIs etc) to enable this system to be integrated.
minus elo? gather bann?
Lets say there are 250 people queued for a gather. They have all chosen a role they want to play. The gather system will throw you into the first available gather that needs your life form or you as a commander. Now obviously tactics and strategies change all the time so I can understand how having a default alien meta game isn't the right way of going about this. But its the easiest way to get new players into pugging/gathering without having to get these players on mumble or teamspeak.
I'm going to admit right now I don't have all the answers of how to fix this. But this definitely needs to be addressed with a lobby based system of predetermined lifeforms/commanders and skill levels.
A gather system is about getting 12 people together to play a semi-organised match, where you play 1 round as marines, and one as aliens.
Yes ENSL.org and Reddit games work, but last time I checked, I had to register on a website to be able to do that, I can't click a button in NS2 to do it. That is what this gather system offers, 1 click gathers.
ENSL is a great gather system, and I don't remember ever publishing my lifeform preferences on it. Why should this gather system be any different?
So rather then treat the current implementation as final, start suggesting & motivating what it should be and why?
For everyone already doing that... yays
Things that should be improved from the top of my head:
- Enter should send a message. It is very annoying to move the mouse over a button every time you want to send a message.
- People should be able to choose teams. Cant find any option to do that yet.
- Hive rating should be visible for every one, so people can try to judge if the teams are kind of balanced (yes i know the rating is very inaccurate at best, but its better than nothing)
- All gather servers have to be on hive to improve the ratings accurancy
- Hive rating itself should be improved to be able to use it for balancing seriously. At the moment it is very weird and doesn't really reflect skill very much. I've seen tons of bad players with good rating, as well as good players with bad rating. It seems to just take score into account, but that is obviously a bad choice as a bilebombing gorge gets huge amount of destroyed buildings and a commander gets nothing.
This is not true. I've often had my Hive skill rating go down after a win. It's mostly based on K/D and maybe some score.
@Gorgeous, we finally got @Golden too post about the skill system. Skill system is no longer a banned topic in our mumble. woot!
I actually like this aspect, because you will never drop into "elo-hell" but its always your current performance.
Play as commander a couple of times, your hiveskill will drop. Play 20+ rounds not commanding => boom
You could still do that of course. When you note you go Onos it doesnt mean you can't go Fade. It would just be a personal preference so that the system doesn't group up 10 Lerk lovers into the same team. (Though Lerk Airlines Rushs are fun too).
So that would also not be a problem if the startegy needs say a bigger amount of Gorges for a rush.
The commander would have the knowlege that there is a teammember that prefers to go Onos/Fade/Lerk, is maybe saving res for it and is probably good at it. Should the need arise for one of these lifeforms.
Also Gather should be able to assign players into a running match... Nothing stops people from ragequitting, a penalty is also no solution.
Just because you envisioned it differently doesn't mean the current system is "wrong". I think the gather system will have it's merits, mainly in providing a bridge between casual pub play and competitive play, where people who'd like to start playing a bit more organised games without having to join a clan can get their feet wet. For these people, an in-game gather system is more valuable than say reddit PUGs or ENSL gathers, because it would be much more accessible. For instance, how many people really know about the ENSL gathers, who are not already active in the comp scene to begin with?
I'd love to test it and give constructive feedback, but at the moment my most pressing feedback is: This has nothing to do with the design you guys postet 11 months ago, please implement at least some of the features you outlined if you want more detailed feedback.
Score is heavily based on either score per minute or k/d ratio, I've lost and still had the same rating I'd get from winning because my score was so ridiculous (yes I was facing rookies)
But I notice it's always higher on marines, not sure why -- either way it's not just winning or losing, your personal performance factors a lot
And it's pretty broken because when you face people who are actually good it goes down a lot
It fits in with the stuff in the link you posted. It's not all of it, but its a good chunk. The important chunk. Other stuff can be implemented around the foundation that is being built here