Random Allocation of Teams in CTF

[dublpaws]

Some statistics.

of the games where the score was to 300:
. . . 44 games finished where the losing team had less than 150 points.
. . . 24 games finished where the losing team had more than 150 points.

[[-z-]]

And this thread helps... how? We are already well aware of this problem and some solutions have been discussed but someone needs to step up and code a better matching algorithm... and I highly doubt this is something divVerent wants to touch.

[dublpaws]

you seem to be annoyed.

I was hoping for discussion on how different implementations might be approached.

The algorithm to determine the teams is the easy part. Collecting the data and aggregating it is the hard part.

One way which I don't think was discussed might be to have the players client dump metrics out to a local file. When joining a game, the server would poll the client for the metrics and put the team together like that. No need for IP or username matching, which in general changes. No need for authentication, which would probably be the best way to handle it. Just keep a local file client side. Tamper proofing it isn't that big of deal, it's not like the player would gain much by altering their rank.

[[-z-]]

If I seemed annoyed it's because this is a touchy subject and last time it was opened in combination with other elements of CTF is created some tension.

I'm not sure why you think this should be done client-side as the server already has all the information that is needed, except maybe weapon accuracy. Unless you're talking about a leveling system which would most certainly require a master server to avoid abuse (editing your level to something really high or really low).

I developed a formula I thought would help alleviate this balancing problem but it needs some fine-tuning and perhaps more in-depth statistics for the utmost accuracy.

The basic idea is session-based. It uses previous match data to better balance teams. The equation was designed prior to some major redesigns in the CTF scoring... so it hasn't taken advantage of information like flag pickups... but maybe you'll find this helpful. It's in the Team Balancing of this old thread.

[dublpaws]

One thing is, if you have decent way of keeping track of people the server way works fine .. until player goes to a different server .. unless the server people are synching metrics. Keeping player stats locally would let them bring their history around.

To get the best balanced team, yeah it'd be good to see who works well together, set up a system of equations and do some linear algebra - but it doesn't have to be that precise - just distributing the noobs evenly would be a huge plus imho.

[[-z-]]

You would only be affected for 1 match when joining a new server. You'd be assigned a value based on your performance at the end of the match. It's not a perfect solution. There are many ways the algorithm isn't perfect but it would help alleviate the problem in a relatively simple way without relying on a master server.

Having the client keep track of their rank is fundamentally wrong. If we want to go forward with a player matching / team matching system we should do it right. Global bans already exist for participating servers, so this isn't too far away from being possible.

[dublpaws]

you're right.

[[-z-]]

So where do we go from here?

1) Fine tune the algorithm
2) Find someone to code it into the match end
3) Investigate options on syncing with a master server like the global bans do