Galt's Gulch site - Feature Requests?

[AceOfThumbs]

I don't recall if you have auto balancing for CTF, but would prefer to have it off. I like to manually balance by switching teams if one has a huge lead. This might mean an uneven number of players but a more even skill match.

Hopefully, that would mean I would switch to the weaker team. I've been in a few games where I was the weak link though. In that case, I could always switch to the winning team to weaken them.

[nexbender]

I don't recall if you have auto balancing for CTF, but would prefer to have it off. I like to manually balance by switching teams if one has a huge lead. This might mean an uneven number of players but a more even skill match.

Hopefully, that would mean I would switch to the weaker team. I've been in a few games where I was the weak link though. In that case, I could always switch to the winning team to weaken them.

He does have auto-balance on (or did) and I'd prefer it off as well. I'd much rather change sides and help out the underdogs than completely destroy them...well, most of the time.

[:)]

I don't recall if you have auto balancing for CTF, but would prefer to have it off. I like to manually balance by switching teams if one has a huge lead. This might mean an uneven number of players but a more even skill match.

Hopefully, that would mean I would switch to the weaker team. I've been in a few games where I was the weak link though. In that case, I could always switch to the winning team to weaken them.

He does have auto-balance on (or did) and I'd prefer it off as well. I'd much rather change sides and help out the underdogs than completely destroy them...well, most of the time.

While that would be nice, what happens far more often is that players switch to the winning team.

[pavlvs327]

I usually run my servers with auto balance off for this reason. Often one very skilled player can only be challenged properly by 3-5 moderate/noob players.

[John Galt]

Yeah, I'm mostly concerned with the pwnage of one team or another. While the current balancing leaves much to be desired, I think it's better than the n00b effect of joining the winning team.

Is there any way to tune the auto balancing? Perhaps allow 1-2 more players on a losing team, etc?

[nexbender]

Yeah, I'm mostly concerned with the pwnage of one team or another. While the current balancing leaves much to be desired, I think it's better than the n00b effect of joining the winning team.

The "n00b effect" is a null effect. How many n00bs does it take to keep up with a skilled player? I can't count that high. They travel predictably and/or in packs like soccer moms at Wal-Mart - there isn't even a point in killing them unless they are directly in your way. So a bunch of n00bs come over to my team, which happens to be winning - so I switch to the other team and cap some flags to even it up, then pick on the traitors a bit just for good measure.

Whereas with auto-balance on, it's a PITA when, say, Sullivan gets on, plus there's enough of the cannon fodder for us not to realize we were put on the same team, so we spend a bit completely pwning our opponents. Then I realize what's happened and go into spectate, ask a n00b to change teams, then rejoin on the other team so it's more evenly matched - if one of them gets a clue and does switch, which isn't often enough actually. And frankly most of the time that's too much hassle and/or we just space it until the match ends and everyone groans that it was completely uneven, I apologize, Sullivan LOLs, clowns eat children, etc.

Or to take it from another angle, the argument for auto-balance is based on the fear of what n00bs will do if it is disabled. The argument against auto-balance is based on the trust that the experienced players, given the power, will regulate (alone and by consensus) the fairness and challenge of matches.

Or, worst case scenario with auto-balance on: Bender wins, Sullivan wins, mkzelda wins, and the four n00bs on the other team have that just-raped feeling and often quit out in frustration, seldom to return. Worst case with auto-balance off: n00b wins, n00b wins, n00b wins, n00b wins, and Bender and the bots lose, but Bender doesn't care - at least with auto-balance off the n00bs had the (taken) option of joining the winning team, thus shoring up their poor egos and usually ensuring they will stick around for another match, so Bender has someone to shoot at besides the stupid bots.

In conclusion (holy crap I'm long-winded today), John: please disable auto-balance for the weekend and see how it goes. If I'm wrong, I eat some crow (with BBQ sauce, please); if I'm right, everybody will be happier and I can say "told ya so told ya so" for years to come.

[Xeno]

Auto-balance unfortunately does more harm than good. The real balancing problem lies in the initial teams and there is no solution to ensure an initial balance. All the "auto-balance" does is essentially guarantee that if it's uneven to begin with, it will remain so until the next map.

There is a progressive way to deal with players that constantly switch to the winning team.

Code: Select all

]say "please stop changing to the winning team"

]say "hey <name>, really, knock it off, you're ruining the game"

]say "ffs, <name>,  stop fucking switching to the winning team every match... it's not all about winning, you lame shit"

}say "um, <name>, do you even speak english?"

}say "ok, who speaks german?"

]say "bah, fuck this";vcall kick #...

You could host a bind file on your website with those and similar vituperative remarks. How's that for a feature request?

[nexbender]

All the "auto-balance" does is essentially guarantee that if it's uneven to begin with, it will remain so until the next map.

Exactly! Thank you for explaining in one sentence what I couldn't manage in four paragraphs!

[Xeno]

All the "auto-balance" does is essentially guarantee that if it's uneven to begin with, it will remain so until the next map.

Exactly! Thank you for explaining in one sentence what I couldn't manage in four paragraphs!

[John Galt]

Point taken, gentlemen. Bender, thanks for your passion. Xeno, thanks for your eloquence.



I'm turning off autobalance on CTF. Let's see how it goes.