Please increase ranked min level req.

(buffBook) #1

I am sure this has been said before and i wont apologise for posting it again. This is a big problem for ranked, people with very little game knowledge playing ranked. I saw someone with under 10hrs played, in ranked, many others under 20hrs played. Such players often have no idea what to do in the game, let alone ranked. People wondering around aimlessly and often quitting soon after being destroyed.

Ranked shouldn’t be a play for people to learn the game, they need to have experience before stepping into ranked. I know ranked is low on population but no one wants these players in there. It’s both unsporting and unfair for them and everyone else.

I would hope for an increase in level requirement for ranked. Other games require a lot of more time to learn the game before being allowed to play ranked, than DB does.

(frostyvampire) #2

I would really love this if there were no noobs in ranked but at the current state of the game, there are not enough people searching for a game.
It already takes at LEAST 7 minutes to find a game and that is during the peak hours (can take even 30 mins not during peak hours).

I honestly prefer being matched with noobs and finding a match within’ 10 mins, than waiting an hour to get matched with medium skill players

But when the game grows big I totally agree on changing it
Increasing limit to 15 ranks and requiring you to own at least 15 mercs (mercs that on free rotation also count even if you don’t own them) and then adding a limit so you can only have 1 of each merc on each team (2 players can’t have the same merc in their squad)

(RickyNeuman) #3

I was just about to create the same topic.

Raise the Level to 15, better 20 to play ranked. I played with/against people with under 10h in game. And they have little to no idea what to do. They don’t even know about ff.
Furthermore a higher min Lvl would help to avoid more smurf accounts.
If you raise the min Level, remove the search for the skill range. Waiting time is allready long enough and searching for players in your skill range is a waste of time, since you will only get a game when it hits the maximum skillrange. I’m not even sure if the search for you skillrange actually does something besides wasting your time.

Making these simple changes would improve the quality of ranked games and the time we have to wait. Skillrange can be reintroduced once there are more people playing ranked.

(BananaSlug) #4

ez cobalt trinkets

(SiegeFace) #5

I know this is probably already gone through your heads, but ever tried queing with friends?

Its the same in csgo I just will not solo que as the rank you gain/lose is all down to the luck of the draw (rngesus if you will) and not down to actual skill/teamwork etc.

This is all assuming that this is a salt based thread based around your negative experience with solo que MM.

If its about just the general state of matchmaking, then increasing the level could work.

But the way I see it if this noob got to level 35 by spamming medkits and ammo then I wonder how much “better” MM will actually become ; )

(RickyNeuman) #6

I play duo queus only, but it’s very hard to compensate 1 or 2 of the low Level Vasillis in a 5v5 team.
I’m not saying that higher Level means more skill, but at least people have spend more time in the game and know more about the basics. Things that a player with less than 10h is just not familiar with.
Furthermore Vasilli should be more like 60k Credits, so newbies wouldn’t buy him as their first merc.

(Ardez1) #7

I hope everybody is aware that the consequence of raising the minimum level for ranked is exceptionally longer wait times to play it. I am very happy that enough people are playing ranked for there to be complaints about the skill level of players in it.

5 hours? 10 hours? Time doesn’t create skill out of thin air. People NEED to be educated to get better. Grinding more TIME doesn’t fix player skill.

Things that create skill gap that isn’t related to ability/talent!
-Level segregated servers
-Not communicating with player

Every 6 months or so there is a push to add another tier to level segregated servers and there used to be requests to increase the min req for ranked and SD complied then. But ya know what? It doesn’t fix anything.

There is a GREAT reason for have a minimum time to play ranked. It makes it a high effort situation to prevent hackers from getting into it and it gives players time to get a good handle on the game before going in. Making it excessive just helps kill the playerbase and is not a long-term solution for anything. In another 6-12 months you will want it increased again. If you believe a player doesn’t have the knowledge to play ranked at the minimum requirement, increasing the requirement is NOT a fix. The fix is helping them. If they have no desire to be helped, more time does NOT fix anything. If they have a desire to get better, separating them from people able to help makes things worse!

Food for thought.

@buffBook @RickyNeuman

(RickyNeuman) #8

@Ardez I agree with you that it is nice that we have enough players on ranked (at least during EU peak hours) to have this discussion and I agree that communication would be the best thing to help new players.
But let’s be honest, what kind of communication will you find if one or your teammates doesn’t know some of the basics of the game. In most cases it won’t be a helpful one, it will be very toxic. I’ve experienced more than once that a newbies are leaving mid game because they get all the hate from the team. After a experience like that he won’t come back to ranked games and his teammates are pissed because he was useless and left the game. No one will enjoy a game like that.
Raising the min level helps both sides.

You are talking about education of the players and that grinding time doesn’t help. But in my opinion grinding time creates a base from where you can start to educate players. If you don’t know some basics you won’t learn them in a ranked game. If you know at least some stuff and if you are trying, people will be much more friendly and willing to help you in ranked games. Of course not all newbies are bad, but it feels that in a high percentage of games it’s the newbies who ruin a game.

And it is not about seperating newbies. It’s more about giving them more time before they jump into ranked. It will make ranked a better experience for low and high level players.

About waiting time: As I said earlier, remove the search for skillrange. In maybe 1/10 times I find a game before the skill range hits the maximum. If they remove that search I can save myself the 4 or 5 minutes until it is at maximum. And when it is at maximum, unranked players are playing against gold Levels…so there is no real point at keeping it at the moment. Bring it back once more people play ranked.

Everything I write is based on my personal exerience in ranked games. Maybe SD knows about how many (low level) players are really playing ranked. Without this data it is hard to have a solid discussion about it. So there is a chance that I am completly wrong.

Actually I think a ranked system similar to how pug/scrim games are played on the DBN servers would be more beneficial fro db atm, but this requires bigger changes than rasing min level and removing skill range search…

(kopyright) #9

Further limiting the player base of a game mode which can’t find a suitable match for a five merc party after waiting 30 minutes on a Saturday evening? Ehhhhh…

(geronimoooo) #10

Instead of limiting this on players. Why not limit it on mercs?

Any player can enter ranked, if they wish so. However, their 3 mercs squad would have to all fulfill individual requirements set for those mercs.

Lets say, I have a squad of proxy, kira, sparks and want to enter ranked. Instead of being level 7,10 or 15 or whatever is set, I would have to have fullfilled every requirement for these mercs.

These numbers are just an example.

Proxy - having planted 50 bombs, 100 mines, having 100 000 game mode xp, having 50 000 combat xp.

Kira - using laser 20 times, dropping down ammo station 30 times, having 100 000 support xp, having 50 000 combat xp, having 50 000 game mode xp

Sparks - throwing out 100 medpacks, reviving 100 players, having 300 000 support xp, having 50 000 combat xp.

These are individual, always could be tailored to each merc for a level that is acceptable to know the merc and use him properly.

Currently, there is a problem with new players, that me and my friends and probably most of you noticed and that is, that no ammo, no healing station, no medpacks on the ground, no revives, no nothing from newbies. And this is far more dangerous for ranked, than a simple skill. And the normal game itself. Raising a level requirement wont solve anything.

Game currently tracks a lot of these things and we already have a profile to show us some. Therefore setting these minimal requirements and expanding a profile, would allow more transparency, increase more awareness between players and would ensure, that players dont go into ranked without knowing mercs.

To expand on my example, lets say I would have just bought rhino and want him to play. I will put him in my squad. I will play a game or two, find myself playing awesome with him and want to go ranked. Because I am confident in my skills and rhino was easy for me to play. However, in just two games, I was not able to fullfil all requirements set for rhino. Therefore game wont let me queue with him in my squad. And I have to have more playtime to reach those requirements. Only then the game will let me go ranked with him.

This wont ensure you have a skill for ranked, but it will ensure you have enough experience and knowledge of the mercs in your squad to enter it and not act as a clueless noob. Simple level requirement is not enough, we need to have complex system that ensure that ranked is played by competent people who know what they are doing. That would ensure that skill decides the match and the team that wins is better.

PS: I wonder if this is even possible.

(buffBook) #11

The idea of accepting new players in ranked, on the basis of improved queue time is absurd. You’re creating a 5v5 pub game, not a game of competition which ranked games should be based on. Are we satisfied with a branded pub game? The basics of ranked is already destroyed with how it pins players against each other, why further accept watering down of it for the pure reason of better queues?

Gold tier players fighting bronze, we accept this burden - why accept new players too?

If public games were more like ranked, i think we’d have less issue with newer players; but they’re not. Often i hear people moan at the suggestion of FF in public games, but how else will people with only 15hrs of game play learn?

We hold only bad options, all of which worsened by the fact there are no practice servers. I still hold that we need to increase the level needed, 15 i think is the best option. Even people in the 10+ servers while being low in skill have picked up on reviving and giving ammo.

Alluded to by others, merc choice also plagues low levels. Phantom, Vasili and Aimee all horrible picks for ranked, especially by low lvls. Yet you’re hard pressed to find a ranked game without them. Perhaps level req. need to be added to mercs as well?

(LifeupOmega) #12

I’d rather just have only ranked. But I guess we’re getting that anyway with CMM, so now we have two seperate ranked gamemodes.

(Dawnlazy) #13

Is it even possible to find ranked games anymore?

(kopyright) #14

With enough patience, it is. And a bit of crossing fingers when DB tries to move players to a suitable server.