Handicapping -- An Essential Feature Still Missing

[charlesk]

Hi Everyone...

I just returned to playing Nexuiz after taking a long break (I think I played too much and got worn out.) And I found the new version of the game really nice -- you guys did great work. The graphics are nice, the interface is snazzy and I like a lot of the new maps.

But as a long-time CTFer I find it sad to see that an essential feature is still missing: some sort of handicapping system for regular players. Without this, most games end up lop-sided affairs, as even one good person too many on a team can lead to a blow-out, which is boring.

Has there been any discussion of a system to improve game balance? Thanks.

[Dokujisan]

As a regular player, I would be interested in this on some pubs, as long as it was obvious in the server title, and possibly show it in the scoreboard as well next to the playername, or a column showing the degree of handicap. It would make the game a little more challenging and allow me to play with newer players.

I could see this applied to DM, but not sure about how it would apply to other game modes.

Btw, this was one of the features of the Spidflisk mod.

[MirceaKitsune]

I took a look through the mutators and settings in the last few days and got interested in a handicap mutator for the game as I seen one was needed. Was going to make a new topic about it but found this thread instead. I too am very much +1 for seeing such a thing in the Mutators menu and believe this would be a fair thing to have around.

The first reason this is needed is because often, someone who is an expert may want to play with someone who is a newb. One case was with me and my father irl where I'm already a medium to advanced player (I think) while he hardly even moves around without bumping into walls. So this mutator could make it possible for an advanced player and a new player to play together while both have equal chances of winning. Also there may be new players around who hardly know how to play but want a server to go on without being blasted before they even get to move, so this would also prevent skill rape on servers where the mutator would be selected.

The second reason is that even those who play well need to focus a lot to be good. I often keep my body contracted while playing so I can aim precisely and think fast what to do and my hand even hurts on my mouse sometimes. So another thing this would do is make a server where people can play more relaxed and without having to squeeze all power out of theirselves to have a good score (in other words make a relaxation server vs. performance server choice).

Weirdest thing however is that I read in this thread and post that there was a cl_handicap cvar around version 2.3 but I tried it in the SVN and there is no such thing in the menus nor code. The cvar search engine from Nexuiz-Ninjas also shows no results for "handicap" so I wonder why that got completely removed?

[divVerent]

Handicap is in, it simply is missing from defaultNexuiz.cfg. Fixed now (set cl_handicap 2 to get a 2x handicap, i.e. damage affects you twice as much).

It works on all existing servers.

Just "set cl_handicap 2" (note the "set") and reconnect.

[MirceaKitsune]

Handicap is in, it simply is missing from defaultNexuiz.cfg. Fixed now (set cl_handicap 2 to get a 2x handicap, i.e. damage affects you twice as much).

It works on all existing servers.

Just "set cl_handicap 2" (note the "set") and reconnect.

Thanks Div I tested it and found two bugs however, if anyone can take care of that;

- Handicap seems to be based on how many Kills you have, not what your score is (at least in DM). So if you kill yourself a lot and your score drops because of that you will still be most vulnerable even if you killed yourself so much your score is the lowest (wouldn't happen in reality of course but over my test this is what I seen). So just like the scoring in CTF which should not be frag-based, this should be fixed.

- When you are under the influence of handicap, this also affects how much damage your weapon does to you. This does make you kill yourself more easily which is fair if you're way too high, but it brakes laser jumping as you can die in the first few jumps like that.

Apart from the above however all else is well. I believe this can go in the Mutators menu even if the two small issues above exist since otherwise it works well and many people wanted to see it in. Made the patch myself, get it here or here.

[divVerent]

It is not based on deaths, but totally fixed, IIRC.

[TwEaK]

Handicapping is the worst idea in an fps ever, what is the point of getting good if your just going to be punished for it? Why cant other people try and improve instead of being given an advantage for sucking?

[divVerent]

It is voluntary handicap, not based on frags. You set it to e.g. 2 if you notice the match gets out of hand by you being too strong. Maybe thinking "Can I still beat him with handicap 2"... think of it as a higher achievement.

[The mysterious Mr. 4m]

TwEaK, it's an option for those who want it. And it's supposed to keep massacres (15 frags in a row) away from newbie servers.

[TwEaK]

As long as it's voluntary (ie clientside) then i see no problem with it