Increased min level for certain mercs in ranked

(Teflon Love) #1

I’ve played plenty of silver-something games in ranked that were ruined by a single player that insisted on playing a merc that made him totally useless. The common culprits are:

  • Vassili and to a lesser extent Aimee and Red Eye
  • Phantom
  • Rhino

I know there’s plenty of threads discussing the min level for ranked and I think in general the current limit is fine for most mercs. Even inexperienced players add to the cause as long as they act as body shield, drop ammo or get lucky kills. The above mercs however are totally useless in the hands of inexperienced players and ruin the game for anyone else (even if it’s a cheap win it’s not much fun).

How about we can pick these mercs for ranked only after one reached, say, level 15? By then, players seem to have understood that they are more useful with other mercs, or developed some basic skill with them.

And they would still be able to practice these mercs in casual games at any level.

Frankly, right now I usually tell them in the chat that I’m going to team kill them until they switch. Which works reasonably well (after an average of about 3 team kills) but creates otherwise avoidable toxicity. And it’s hopeless for players that picked Vassili/Phantom/Rhino as their loadout. :s

(TepidJesus) #2

Splash Damage should do what has happened in PUGS, they should “outlaw” certain mercs. However this would annoy those “good” (if you can call them that) thunder or rhino mains. So I think your idea is quite good. Sadly I don’t think this will ever happen, due to a “but it is just a game, why do you take it so seriously” mentality that most of those players have and upping the level needed to play the merc that they are “good” at, might just drive them from ranked entirely and therefore worsining they matchmaking times. This idea could very much work well, but DB needs to grow first, it needs a larger player base before we limit who can play what.

(Press E) #3

I think it would be interesting to unlock mercs at certain levels. Easier mercs like Proxy, Phoenix and Fragger would be unlocked very early on, while medium mercs like Fletcher, Rhino, and Kira would be unlocked after a few levels, finally followed by mercs that are difficult to play properly, like Sparks, Phantom, Vassili, etc. Perhaps at a reduced credit rate too.

It would help players get a feeling of reward for leveling up, and limit inexperienced players from playing higher skill level mercs.

(Dawnlazy) #4

No. Just try to convince them to change mercs if you don’t like the team composition.

However I would like it if there were levels per merc and you had to have the merc at a certain level to play competitive, just like how they do it in Paladins.

(Teflon Love) #5

That’s certainly my preferred approach before I “educate them with bullets” but sadly it seldom works.

Yes, that would be even better though I suppose it’s harder to implements (especially GUI wise). Also a slightly higher level limit than the one Paladins uses might be helpful. AFAIR you can unlock a champion for ranked within 1.5 hours or so, but in my experience it takes longer to get a basic grasp on when to use which ability on each map.

Unlocking each map for ranked by playing it for, say, 3 hours might also be helpful but harder to implement.

One assumption for my initial suggestion was that it might be comparably easy to implement and provide a reasonable improvement concerning fun per minute.

(Nail) #6

[quote=“STARRYSOCK;c-226408”]I think it would be interesting to unlock mercs at certain levels. Easier mercs like Proxy, Phoenix and Fragger would be unlocked very early on, while medium mercs like Fletcher, Rhino, and Kira would be unlocked after a few levels, finally followed by mercs that are difficult to play properly, like Sparks, Phantom, Vassili, etc. Perhaps at a reduced credit rate too.

It would help players get a feeling of reward for leveling up, and limit inexperienced players from playing higher skill level mercs.[/quote]

this was somewhat the original way to unlock, can’t remember why it didn’t work but it didn’t

(KangaJoo) #7

“Useless merc… Redeye… Rhino…” You having a giggle m8? Surprised you didn’t throw thunder on that list of “useless” mercs too lol.

Actually, if the player has absolutely terrible aim andis trying to use redeye like a passive sniper instead of playing a bit more aggressive with him, I can understand how someone can be bad with him. Rhino, though, I mean as long as you’re not playing attack on a really open map just plop a healing station by a choke point in a spot that’s hard to blow up and he basically auto kills everything.

(SnakekillerX) #8

Since there are no merc levels, they could just go based off of merc play time instead.

So you’d still have to be level 7 to access ranked, but also have to have X amount of time logged on a merc for them to become available in ranked. This helps to ensure that you have at least some real experience with that merc before bringing it into a competitive environment.

Actually, to try and balance matches a bit further, I think it could be coupled with an option to pick your preference in merc type (support, assault, recon, etc…)

This way the game can make sure to build teams where there is someone playing a desired support role rather than forcing a bunch of assault players to play support instead (and possibly poorly).

I’m sure there are a lot of different things that can be done to improve ranked, or hell even the game in general… but I think one of the biggest problems is not having the player base to support some of these options as it would make it too difficult to find a match currently.

Game needs a bunch more map content, bug fixes and to be advertised if they want a player base large enough to sustain a ranked mode.

The longer the game is withheld from being officially released, the less relevant it will be by the time they do.

While I love the game and will still be playing it for years, I am not the average gamer who tends to flow with the crowd which tends to jump from one over hyped game to the next. I prefer to find those hidden gems and continue to play them regardless of how old they are.

(n-x) #9

Maybe instead of level/time restriction or as addition to it, badges could be a factor. It doesnt help if someone has lvl 20/played 100 hours if he still uses those med/ammo packs just for himself.
But if you need a certain amount of Ammo 1/2/3/Chache or Healing 1/2/3 and/or Revives 1/2/3 to unlock supports for ranked and other badges for the other classes, there would be at least some proof that a player understood how to play a class.

(Chris Mullins) #10

Having different level requirements for different Mercs would be really confusing. Interesting how the meta would change though as you progressed through, but in the long run I think this is more trying to fix a symptom of a problem, rather than the problem itself.

(SnakekillerX) #11

Interestingly enough, this is similar to what some other games do. Heroes of the Storm for instance makes it so that you have to have a certain amount of Heroes at a certain level before you can participate in ranked.

This ensures the player has an understanding of the game and played enough different Heroes to know how they work… this allows them to play those Heroes more effectively, and know whats in store if they end up playing against those Heroes.

(ostmustis) #12

yes, put lvl 9000 req on all teh recons and thunder

(ostmustis) #13

[quote=“SnakekillerX;c-226898”]Interestingly enough, this is similar to what some other games do. Heroes of the Storm for instance makes it so that you have to have a certain amount of Heroes at a certain level before you can participate in ranked.

This ensures the player has an understanding of the game and played enough different Heroes to know how they work… this allows them to play those Heroes more effectively, and know whats in store if they end up playing against those Heroes.[/quote]

that limit is just there because you need to able to pick a hero if you pick last after all the other players + bans.

(SnakekillerX) #14

[quote=“ostmustis;c-226936”][quote=“SnakekillerX;c-226898”]Interestingly enough, this is similar to what some other games do. Heroes of the Storm for instance makes it so that you have to have a certain amount of Heroes at a certain level before you can participate in ranked.

This ensures the player has an understanding of the game and played enough different Heroes to know how they work… this allows them to play those Heroes more effectively, and know whats in store if they end up playing against those Heroes.[/quote]

that limit is just there because you need to able to pick a hero if you pick last after all the other players + bans.[/quote]

That would just require you to own them then, not have a certain level with them.
Plus there are 5 free rotation heroes you can play as (even more on rotation as you go up in levels) The free rotation cap is 14 heroes now.

You also get enough gold to buy a Hero off the start, so either way you’d have enough Heroes to choose from to at least pick one in ranked, but they limit by level to make sure you actually have some experience with the game before jumping into a competitive part of the game.

Hell, someone could even buy ALL of the Heroes with real money, but they still wouldn’t be allowed into ranked until they leveled them up.

(anicca444) #15

I don’t really think there needs to be different level requirements for mercs… but why not a paladins-esq mastery requirement to unlock them for ranked (with a minimum of one of each role) - one that makes sense for dirty bomb and somewhat tracks how well they are actually using the merc)

Of course, paladins requires 12 “mercs” to be at a certain mastery level, which would not work in dirty bomb due to the long time required to unlock them in the first place, and (if adjusted for DB) the longer time required to learn said merc.

Playerbase, lack of a 1-in-play-merc limit and broken/OP mechanics (bursts, arty, fletcher etc) seem to be the biggest issues, but this certainly is a requirement… there needs to be something that prepares people for how the game is actually played, public matches basically do the opposite.