all servers should be max level 9 or min level 10

(Ballto) #1

title, this will probably significantly help team balance and noob experiences

(RyePanda) #2

What if you get a friend involved and want to tutor them? Also, new players under level 10 can learn a lot from playing against a higher level player.

(watsyurdeal) #3

I have to agree, we need to prevent new players from playing with people like me, who work and study all the time and play Dirty Bomb to let off steam.

(Darkcola) #4

I also disagree- what if you are level 50 and all you did was main a few characters? What if you suck as a sniper and finally wanted to go back and start using one to play with as a new main? You obviously will not play as well as with your mains and would probably want to do some less hardcore competitive matches for a while to practice!

(watsyurdeal) #5

@Darkcola or just man up and take on the challenge

(Darkcola) #6

everyone is different- I just don’t think there should be a cap. The same logic applies from what you said though- ‘man up,’ can also apply to all the low levels or inexperienced players to be forced to play with high rank or highly skilled players…

(watsyurdeal) #7

@Darkcola Yea but playing with new players is like playing with bots, there’s no changes in movement like you’d get with veterans. Even if they are a tad unpredictable, they can’t aim worth a damn.

(Ballto) #8

I also disagree- what if you are level 50 and all you did was main a few characters? What if you suck as a sniper and finally wanted to go back and start using one to play with as a new main? You obviously will not play as well as with your mains and would probably want to do some less hardcore competitive matches for a while to practice![/quote]

the difference is this.

ill use myself as an example. I main proxy,stoker and sporks, i primarily play with a shotgun or a close-medium range automatic weapon and have gotten decent with them

now lets say i really wanted to learn to play thunder. He looks fun and he has a good automatic weapon, but hes a slow as fuck bastard, the LMG is weird, clunky, and awkward and sure he gets ARs but his conc is NOTHING like a molotov or prox mine

i can still aim though

even if the LMG is different than the emp-9 or timik like im used to, its still an automatic weapon with decent dps, and im already used to his assault rifle options.

Im also smart enough to know the maps. I know the jumps, the paths, the different routes to take.

Will i be at my best? god no. not even close

will i be totally ineffective and out of my element? no, again not even close.

Now a new player has NONE of this. maybe if this isnt his first fps he can aim pretty well and possibly get used the 1v1 moving under fire pretty quickly, but id go so far to say most new players in most fps games are brand new or maybe have experience in one or two toher fps games that could be hugely different to dirty bomb, like call of duty. i havnt played any of them since modern warfare two came out and i only played that for a total of about 15 hours online but from what i remember it was not really anything like dirty bomb. the closest fps game is team fortress 2, but its sill very different because the only automatic weapons in tf2 that i can think of were really kind of piss poor (looking at you SMG)

noobs have no idea what the kinks of each map is. He knows the main route and maybe kind of the side paths if theyre obvious. i seriously doubt a level 4 player would know about the MG in the spawn at the end of the second stage of chapel, much less how to get to it without being blown 9 ways to hell

TLDR: even if youre playing a class youre new to, youll still dominate a new player

(Ballto) #9

i think they could (and should) implement a coaching system like there was in team fortress 2 but better

basically, you were a spectator and could put down markers and arrows and whatnot for new players you were coaching if you signed up to be one to show them where to go and what to grab, and if its a friend youre probably in teamspeak or steam chat already to explain why and whats going on

(SamillWong) #10

@RyePanda That’s true, but I always find new players getting kicked just simply because they were considered as a ‘noob’ and some senior players do not welcome them. For example, I once introduced my friend to Dirty Bomb since he was searching for FPS to play. I joined a room with him and 2 minutes in he got vote-kicked.

I second the idea for implementing a coaching system, or maybe the tutorial could be updated into telling new players what to do, and what not to do, just a suggestion.

(Naonna) #11

I’m just sick of level 60’s joining a game full of us lv 15’s (yes i’m bad with anyone who isn’t sparks or fletcher) - They then team carry with either fletcher, fragger, or Aura (somehow). It’s only when super-high level people decimate an entire enemy team of noobs which the game feels imbalanced. This applies even more so when they have a pocket medic in a mumble call with them. The argument of “use voice chat yourself” doesn’t especially help in this situation due to the difference in experience within DB.

(Ballto) #12

exactly this.

as an aside, this is the kind of guy i picture when i see a person play fletcher like some kind of dirty god but is trash or average at any other class

(yes i know you said you play fletcher a lot but you said youre decent at sparks. i mean people who only play fletcher and then act like some kind of mlgl33tskillzpro)

(Drac0rion) #13

I’d like level 1-5, 6-10, 10-15 and 16+ servers, but I doubt we have enough players to pull something like that off.
This would hopefully make the game more enjoyable to the newcomers and would be a friendlier environment than having some level 60 wiping the enemy team on his own.

The higher skilled players will level up faster and I think players above level 15 are rather capable to not mind playing against those really high levels.

(FalC_16) #14

I wouldn’t split the community like this. Let the newbs decide where they want to play. Playing against good players helps to steepen the learning curve anyways.

(Ctrix) #15

Normally I would say that’s a bad idea.
But in this game, I really feel like it’s appropriate. Like, there’s a significant difference between a level 6 and a level 14 player, and if it’s only the amount of mercs owned.
It sure would put a stop to the constant “the other team is all level 20 and my team is noob”. I’ve not seen that constant complaint in any other game.

(mirthfulPicture) #16

For quick join I agree there should only be 1-5, 6-9 and 10+ servers available, most new players only use the quick join anyway I think. But I still think there should be some casual lvl unrestricted servers that you need to select from the browser specifically for the times when you want to play with things that isnt your forte.

(Naonna) #17

[left]@Ballto

[spoiler] [quote=“Ballto;133156”]

as an aside, this is the kind of guy i picture when i see a person play fletcher like some kind of dirty god but is trash or average at any other class

(yes i know you said you play fletcher a lot but you said youre decent at sparks. i mean people who only play fletcher and then act like some kind of mlgl33tskillzpro)
[/quote]

[/spoiler]

If you look around, you can find exactly 2 pictures of real-me on the site. Also, I only enjoy sparks for the revives: if I head shot someone from the hip, I end up feeling bad about it, because they have little say in the matter. I only use Fletcher if I have to: his skill-in to power-out ratio is pretty off: similar to phantom pre-nerf. I consider myself an awful player - I’ll only get mad at a team if they’re doing worse than me. If I’m top scoring, then someone isn’t doing their job right, on both sides.[/left]

(Dawnlazy) #18

Bad idea, you’d just be taking away the freedom to have pubs with more randomness in skill level. I mean, players are already free to stick to high or low level servers, they only have to go into servers with room for large skill variance if they want to.

(ImSploosh) #19

Added onto what others have already said, some players might be considered noobs (level 5-10 mostly), but are actually good players who have just started. After level 5, I was plenty good enough to face off against experienced players and found myself on top of the scoreboard against level 20+ players.

If I would have been playing in a level 9 and under server, there would have been almost no competition and that takes the fun out of it all. :wink:

(Amerika) #20

I wonder if threads like these would disappear if showing account level went away.

I’m all for keeping lowbie servers around for new players but I see account levels taking away from the game considerably. The game doesn’t use account level to balance at all yet it’s constantly being used as a balance metric by players. This causes a lot of toxicity and resentment and loss of fun because some people see a number and instantly get upset. It’s basic psychology. Instead of a guy simply playing the best they can they get upset because some level 50, who they won’t remember the name of or clan of, killed them 4 or 5 times during a map. Yet they forget a level 7 killed them 7 times during the same map. And that player is now angry because of “horrible balance”. I don’t get upset when I get railed on in every other game because of my level but I do feel bad for that guy who is so upset over a number and the others who see it and also agree but don’t say anything. That’s just bad for the game.

I’m all for getting a better system in place to try and make games more balanced but I also understand that things like account level is not a good metric for anything other than for the very new players. I also realize that perfect balance can’t ever be achieved even when you theoretically have skill level and merc choices balanced. The chances of those games playing out in a balanced fashion are better but not by a ton. Stomps can and will still happen and happen often due to the momentum and timing nature of Dirty Bomb. You might be destroying a team over and over but if you go on long spawn twice in a row while on defense and a few others with you then you’re going to lose that objective badly. It’s the nature of the best.

So yeah, get rid of showing account levels. It contributes nothing but confusion and toxicity while barely rewarding people for leveling. Or cap the level system at 25 or 30. Or bring back merc levels that are capped at 10 like they used to be (my preferred alternative). Anything is better than what we currently have.