[Suggestion] Real "push" for ranked?

(bontsa) #1

Latest patch introduced +50% credit gain for games played through matchmaking. While this is definitely good step, albeit somewhat baby one, towards adding incentive to play ranked, there’s not only lack of advertising towards it but also doesn’t alone cut in current swamp said mode is wading through right now.

Judging from vague memory I have of developer streams, devs are stating ELO system doesn’t have simply enough players to deal with in order to create as balanced as possible matches. That the issue lies in numbers, hence it cannot be started to tweak. I see this latest change is attempting to correct this issue. But let’s be honest, if the addition only lies within some shady patchnotes how many potential ranked players are going to catch it? Add a note about it in the main menu or under the “Ranked” title when you press it, anything to make it correctly shown instead of some rumour spread around.

Second thing, will this credit bonus alone do enough? The majority of ranked players first were alienated from mode by hacker issues months back, then because of missing incentive and lacking ELO, presumably, who knows.

That’s why, if SplashDamage and Nexon are now set on with that lack of players is the first obstacle ranked mode has to conquer, I suggest running an event of sorts. During 2 weeks, some 5-10ish % chance of obtaining Elite cases from each match, or guaranteed one for every 4 matches or such. No matter the reward it really has to be good and generous one instead of this 0.3% slap-in-the-face, in order to get people ditch their prejudice against the mode and try it out in masses.

If not, fix the ELO first, then publish an event. These “little by little” changes like +50% credits just make handful of people try the mode, get stomped, hate it with passion again. Real push, not baby steps. During this said event or similar, premades / solo+duoques should be able to be separated too, just for testing purposes to see if it’d make a change in match outcomes.

Might be wasting my time, maybe end of preseason will indeed introduce something like this or another way of push for ranked. But I like to write things :>

(srswizard) #2

Before they start pushing ranked, I’m hoping that they try to figure out why the game is completely freezing at times, or heavily dropping frames, and get it fixed.
I really don’t see a bright future for a game that has such issues on high end PCs.

There are plenty of smaller bugs/issues to sort, next to that as well.

(bushyg) #3

They really need to focus on drawing people into it somehow. Can’t blame people for not playing it though, it’s a mess in its current state.

The hackers were the predominate reason people stopped playing ranked a few months ago, but now I think it’s more to do with solo queuing and vs’ing a pre-made party. The games aren’t fun for either side and there needs to a be an option for solo queue and a party alternative. Even if SD thinks there’s not enough players for this to work, I’d like to see it implemented (it’s better than leaving ranked to rot), I believe it might prove to be the solution.

(bontsa) #4

[quote=“srswizard;144473”]Before they start pushing ranked, I’m hoping that they try to figure out why the game is completely freezing at times, or heavily dropping frames, and get it fixed.
I really don’t see a bright future for a game that has such issues on high end PCs.

There are plenty of smaller bugs/issues to sort, next to that as well.[/quote]

This too, definitely. I simply think these pushes require less developing “power” and effort to produce than rooting down on the optimization issues right now. Not to belittle them in the slightest! I’ve had my share of inconsistencies and 5-10 frame skips and freezes, but I feel ranked is by default more of a glorified pub in any level below higher Cobalt ranks (being Gold 2 myself). So it could be pushed to get solid playerbase before setting sails full-throttle towards optimization, just to make crowd see there is potential in the mode and ELO is in fact functioning (if it is, which is only my gut feel) just doesn’t have enough sample size to work with.

Some issues have simply been delayed and delayed in terms of fixing, so SD / Nexon are basically burning candle from both ends for themselves. Now we’re at situation where multiple big fixes/pushes have to be done simultaneously in order to get the game going before it dies out.

(dnbradio) #5

By the time the game gets out of BETA the gap between new players and oldschool players will be so big that the new players will simply give up and that is something the community doesn’t want to happen.
Prices for competitive are indeed needed in order to get some people excited about playing it. I have to say when there was the mission about win a competitive match or just play one there were a lot more new players trying to play ranked and I really don’t know why they removed it. They should put that mission back and not for 1000 credits but for 2000 since it’s competitive and more difficult and therefore should be more rewarding.

One other thing which is just a simple idea is adding a small map and when i say small i mean small… with two objectives only where a party of 2 or 3 people can play 2vs2 and 3vs3. The map itself can contain one C4 plant in the beginning and a obj delivery as a second objective like sp_delivery in Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. This will make people work on their teamplay since it’s only one or two people they can rely to. Before unlocking 5on5 competitive the 2on2 and 3on3 will be unlocked first since it’s easier to make a 2on2 and 3on3 group with your friends and if you just have downloaded the game you have better reason to make a friend play with you instead of looking for 5 friends of yours which might or might not agree on downloading the game.

Feel free to give ideas for such map or your opinion in the matter. I believe that if the community gives ideas for the map it will be easier and faster for the developers to create it!

I’ll try to create some idea which you guys can work on :smiley:

EDIT: Oke, I’ve created the basic idea for now… I can keep working on it depending on what you guys think : P @RazielWarmonic

Of course I didn’t go into detail putting crates, plants and such… but once those things are added I think the map will look pretty awesome :wink:

(bontsa) #6

This part is definitely a consequence that has to be taken into account while closing release. However, unlike in multitude of problems, this one has one silver bullet solution: community servers. Not dwelling more into that subject, since there are plenty of threads and much more insightful arguments for it.

For the rest of your comment about less than 5v5 modes… My opinion is it could potentially separate playerbase little too much in current situation, but definitely interesting concept later on. Albeit current objective maps don’t really seem the best theatre for such display. shrug