Let's do something about people leaving pub games mid-game.

(triteTongs) #1

Nothing frustrates me more than players on EITHER side leaving the game when the game gets challenging.

I’m sure it happens to every one of you, too. You will be winning pretty well then suddenly you have to deliver the objectives. If you don’t get a delivery within 1-2 minutes, players seem to freak out and leave. Then this snowballs to more people leaving, making it easier to defend/attack with the more populated team (or get spawncamped).

Stopwatch, objective. Doesn’t matter if the round ends in 1 minute, people quit when the going gets tough.

It’s the most annoying thing in the world. Rather than adapt to the new set of challenges, players would rather quit the game. It just takes a playstyle switchup or a merc switch up (why are you a shotgun proxy at the last point of chapel when we have no medics?) to break the defense/offense. The ability to adapt is what so great about this game!

So.

What if we made a ‘finishing’ credit bonus more clear at the post-game screen? Perhaps 25% of the overall credits you received go into a category of ‘finishing a game’? IE, 25% of the base fee becomes a “finish a game” bonus. You could even reduce the amount of credits you receive per minute to balance that (so it won’t break double credit weekends).

This slight credit boost could also help make it feel less ‘grindy’. That’s definitely a good pitch to the players.

But I’m not sure how credits work anyways. Do they even save if you quit? If they don’t then maybe the solution is to simply remind players they won’t receive mission progress or mission bonus. Or… Maybe none of this would persuade the average player to stay in a game and another solution should be presented.

(bushyg) #2

They don’t award credits if you leave a game.

(Ardez1) #3

Currently there is zero reward when you leave a match in progress.

Honestly, this topic has been brought up several times. Pub games are supposed to be a drop in and drop out at will environment. If you are having issues in pub matches with people leaving I would suggest Competitive.

(Backuplight) #4

A bonus for being there at the end of the game would be nice and all, but the whole point of casual is that you can leave at any point without penalty. It’s fine as is imo. An incentive to stay until the end won’t stop all the ragequits, people who actually need to go, disconnects, etc.[center][/center]

(Ninjy) #5

It’s just a public game. There is already a punishment for leaving, and it’s getting nothing as a reward. People have real lives they have to attend to sometimes and if you were punished further in a non-serious match that would be pretty rage inducing.

(shroudedMacadamia) #6

I dont like people leaving either but when you have a team ranging 12-35 in levels against a team sporting impressive levels between 1-8, its going to be a complete stomp and everyone knows it so I dont blame the low levels if they want to skip the frustrations and find a different match.

I have seen more of those matches than I would like.

(Nickles) #7

While I am frustrated when people leave if the tide of the game turns, I don’t want to be punished for pulling out of a blatant pub stomp rather than sitting through it and getting aggravated. The system is fine as is.

(triteTongs) #8

Then this needs to be clear in the post-game screen. That’s all. SUPER super simple fix then.

[quote=“shroudedMacadamia;51170”]I dont like people leaving either but when you have a team ranging 12-35 in levels against a team sporting impressive levels between 1-8, its going to be a complete stomp and everyone knows it so I dont blame the low levels if they want to skip the frustrations and find a different match.

I have seen more of those matches than I would like. [/quote]

I’m not even talking about those games.
I’ve been in plenty of games where lower level players are stomping my team. Instead of players changing their mercs to adapt and try something new, they leave.

We could have easily pushed through their defenses or held them back if we just had a bit more time with it being a proper 7v7.

And most of the time players don’t join the empty slots. If a new player does join, it takes them about a minute to load in. By then, the game is over.

So there’s a couple of solutions to fix the problem. Incentivizing players to stay in longer (but they can still leave, if they wish), or speeding up the load times and removing the 15 second wait lobby time for new players joining in.

(Dirmagnos) #9

A possible incentive to play games to the end.
For every completed match player gain commulative bonus to creds/exp.
Gain is 1% per game, up to 50%.
For every forfeited match current bonus is halved. So at 10% bonus player loses only 5%, while at 50% bonus he loses whole 25%.
Keeping in mind possibility of disconnects and such. For each 10 completed consecutive games, players get “get out of jail” counter(can have only one, to prevent hoarding). Allowing him to quit game, for any reason, without penalty.
Penalty does not apply if player quit during pre-game lobby phase.

(triteTongs) #10

[quote=“Dirmagnos;51212”]A possible incentive to play games to the end.
For every completed match player gain commulative bonus to creds/exp.
Gain is 1% per game, up to 50%.
For every forfeited match current bonus is halved. So at 10% bonus player loses only 5%, while at 50% bonus he loses whole 25%.
Keeping in mind possibility of disconnects and such. For each 10 completed consecutive games, players get “get out of jail” counter(can have only one, to prevent hoarding). Allowing him to quit game, for any reason, without penalty.
Penalty does not apply if player quit during pre-game lobby phase.[/quote]

I’d rather not see any punishments like that, as people stated

Totally agree with that. But I can guarantee people are not leaving every single match to attend to other matters. I am guilty of leaving mid-game as well. I usually do this when my team is downright awful after a few games and we are already down a player.

It’s really all about being CLEAR to the player that they will not receive these current bonuses. That should help keep a few people to tolerate a challenging match a tiny bit more.

Then, close the gap if someone does leave by doing whatever it takes to fill that space up asap. That way you won’t see a snowball effect of players leaving.

(Dirmagnos) #11

What penalties ? Those are bonuses, on top of current earnings.
And if player wannt to gain and keep those bonuses, he will play games to the end.
And if he dont, then he dosnt lose anything ether, just keep current basic income progression.