Team Stacking

(disguisedAtom) #1

I’m not one to normally complain about having bad games - no balancing system on a server is ever perfect - i play BF1 too and there are uneven games on there as well.

That being said, we all know there aren’t that many players on Dirty Bomb anymore compared to they hype when it first came out.

Think about this from a new players point of view - they join - they go into one of the three populated 8v8 servers in the oce region - and they get absolutely scrotum stomped by 3 guys, level 88, 145 and 123 who purposefully stack one side of the game - and have been doing this for weeks.

New players cry for ages - get absolutely steamrolled, i get pretty rolled too, then they ragequit. Their experience of dirty bomb ruined for the day.

They come back, there isn’t exactly man of us in oce so you see familiar usernames, and the same 3 guys are still going at it.

Literally - if they’re on a diff team from each other, they’ll go spectator to block someone else coming into the server- and the minute a spot is free- swap sides to stack the other.

I mean, if this keeps going - you may as well cut 80% of the servers currently available in AUS as there are never any players on them anyway.

Have you guys thought about in game mods etc who can monitor this sort of crap?

It does make the game fairly boring when you play incredibly one sided games for hours on end on the 3 available 8v8 obj servers…

(bushyg) #2

Weeks? They have been doing it since open launch lol. Casual Matchmaking will be people’s reply to this, but it’s not going to be very active in Aus.

(disguisedAtom) #3

I didn’t notice it a couple of months ago lol. Casual matchmaking won’t do anything in AUS/NZ as the playerbase is too small for it to make a difference - but my god, a mod or something who could lock them on one team etc. I have no issue going up against a level 144, no problem, i just don’t like playing against a stupidly stacked team, or on a stupidly stacked team. Takes the fun out of it. And they’re abusive mother fuckers.

(GatoCommodore) #4

yeah i saw this couple of times too yesterday.

level 30’s and level 20 move to my team because their team consisted of level 15s and 20s and later they revealed they said free win.
Luckily i play with my crew and vote kicked those two after they move
people who leave their teammate should be punished for purposefully unbalancing the match.

(bushyg) #5

I hate to play the devil’s advocate, but at least they aren’t abusing the vote kick anymore, at least to my knowledge. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and who are we to stop them from playing games together? As much as it sucks to play a completely unbalanced game, they should be able to play together if that’s the way they want to play.

The only fair fix for this is better level restrictions on the servers. Its been suggested before many times, something like; Max20, Min50 or even lv20-70, etc.
It comes with its own set of problems, from population (like you said before) and also the skill jump from being forced out of those servers. In similar open server games, the open servers are the ones that usually thrive the most, unfortunately. Even if it means facing off against a completely stacked team.

(disguisedAtom) #6

[quote=“bushyg;c-220020”]I hate to play the devil’s advocate, but at least they aren’t abusing the vote kick anymore, at least to my knowledge. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and who are we to stop them from playing games together? As much as it sucks to play a completely unbalanced game, they should be able to play together if that’s the way they want to play.

The only fair fix for this is better level restrictions on the servers. Its been suggested before many times, something like; Max20, Min50 or even lv20-70, etc.
It comes with its own set of problems, from population (like you said before) and also the skill jump from being forced out of those servers. In similar open server games, the open servers are the ones that usually thrive the most, unfortunately. Even if it means facing off against a completely stacked team. [/quote]

Oh i know exactly where you’re coming from… We’ve all done it before at some point in our gaming lives, stomping the living crap out of noobs for fun… which it is :wink: lol. My main issue/concern is - in OCE there are fuck all players - this type of behaviour ruins the experience for all the newbies (and it isn’t like they do it every now and then for fun - they do it every single day - and are abusive as hell to the newbies) which means we’ll never have enough players to populate servers with level restrictions :disappointed:

I like to play together with my buddies in other games - but the matchmaking/balancing systems work a million times better - if teams are unbalanced - it sorts them out next game. Hell the matchmaking in black ops 1 works better when i jam a bit of nuketown for fun lol.

The main issue really is not the skill gap between level 10 players and level<120 , but the skill difference between 8 x level >10 players vs 3x level <100 players(plus the other 5 insiginificants)

Edit - yes they do still try to randomly vote kick people for fun etc - use voice chat to tell people the player theyre kicking is afk when blatantly not etc…

(Mc1412013) #7

I will sometimes switch if its realy bad and theres an open slot. You only get one daily win bonus and i more credits than i can use so i dont need win bonuses. But i do want the match to last so others can can get there credits. Although no mater how many times i say let them plant no one listens anyways

(superLobster) #8

pacman77 considers himself both a victim and occasional abuser of this.

So for some reason, Dirty Bomb always assumes that the best way to balance the teams is to give me nothing but players level 10 or less REPEATEDLY over and over on my team and keep everyone with higher levels on the enemy team. This often seems to be a big problem for me when I stay in the same server with the same people for lots of games.

I’m ok with losing, and clearly, I do when I have teammates that barely understand any of the game mechanics (not knocking low-levels, just true). Typically, after 3-4 games of getting UTTERLY SLAUGHTERED, and the game not giving me any semblance of team balance whatsoever, I find that if I change to the team with the higher levels, that once I’m back in the game lobby it has a much higher chance of balancing me with at least one of the players with a level higher than level 10 instead of constantly giving me nobodies.

No matter who you are, or what your skill level is, it’s so incredibly frustrating to be constantly an incessantly paired up with absolutely horrible teammates. That’s the only “fix” for it that I can do sometimes if I wish to stay in the same server.

(StIwY) #9

Excuse me, how can i change team during the match ?

(Fluffles) #10

I’ll be honest and say that I’ve been there myself. When I first started playing Dirty Bomb I played with 3 friends and we obviously wanted to play on the same team. When I started I sucked at the game even more then I do now so I wanted to have them on my team because they were better and I had a better chance of winning with them. Especially in the good old 6v6’s.

When we got to about level 10-ish this stopped. After that we usually played against each other because it would make the matches more balanced and enjoyable.
So I get why friends want to play together and I also prefer the balanced matches over the easy wins.

My friends have stopped playing so I always play on my own now. I don’t switch teams just because there are some high level players on the other team. I do switch teams occasionally when it’s unbalanced and there is an open spot on the other team or my team fails to kick the AFKer 3 times in a row.

There are still a lot of people switching teams making them even more unbalanced but I guess winning is more important than balanced matches.

(The_N00Ba) #11

I avoid team stacking if I can. If I notice the teams are stacked I usually take my skill down a couple of notches and practice things I am not so good in to make things more fair. :slight_smile:

(Melinder) #12

Aba Dura Raj - gets me everytime. @bushyg lul.

(disguisedAtom) #13

[quote=“Fluffles;c-220080”]I’ll be honest and say that I’ve been there myself. When I first started playing Dirty Bomb I played with 3 friends and we obviously wanted to play on the same team. When I started I sucked at the game even more then I do now so I wanted to have them on my team because they were better and I had a better chance of winning with them. Especially in the good old 6v6’s.

When we got to about level 10-ish this stopped. After that we usually played against each other because it would make the matches more balanced and enjoyable.
So I get why friends want to play together and I also prefer the balanced matches over the easy wins.

My friends have stopped playing so I always play on my own now. I don’t switch teams just because there are some high level players on the other team. I do switch teams occasionally when it’s unbalanced and there is an open spot on the other team or my team fails to kick the AFKer 3 times in a row.

There are still a lot of people switching teams making them even more unbalanced but I guess winning is more important than balanced matches.[/quote]

You’re missing the point. I’m not complaining about the ability to switch teams. I’m not complaining about playing with friends. I’m complaining about 3, abusive, very high level players who are trolling the only populated servers in the oce region to the point of ruining the game for a lot of people.

They obviously don’t understand that if they keep going - there will be no-one left to troll…

Dirty bomb is down to like 1900 active players online at once. It’s not many, and shit like this just causes more and more people to leave.

Even when i’m on their team - it just makes the game pointless. It’s like playing a soccer game and being up 99-1. It’s not fun no matter which side you’re on unless you’re one of the three guys, abusing people, vote kicking(attempting to anyway) people, and ruining the game…

I refer to rule F of the Nexon code of conduct - “You will not harass, abuse, bully, spam, scream at, threaten or stalk other users or encourage other players to do so.”
Removal or their ability to talk ingame(text & voice) for a while? Surethey could teamspeak but they wouldn’t be able to abuse players in game at least… Surely SplashDamage staff could at least look into it?

(Melinder) #14

@disguisedAtom

I dont think you know these people like a lot of us Aus/NZ oldschool players do. It took over a year to convince SD to take action against a particular player who had abused the vote kick system in order to clear out servers so that his minions (the three people you are speaking about) could be in his team.

These people are the ultimate trolls. Mediocre players that make themselves seem good because they purposely stack on the same team and use cancer merc setups (e.g. Aura and 3 naders/rhinos). Count yourself lucky if you didn’t play back in the day when being kicked temp banned you from the server, because myself and other db regulars ( e.g. @Dox @bushyg ) had been banned from every active server multiple times by them.

As for them being abusive in voice, you just have to mute them. Asking them to be quiet will only result in them attempting to get you kicked from the game, or have Raj blast your ear drums with his put on Indian accent.

(Nail) #15

you’re asking for Splash Damage to write code to legislate the behavior of idiots on the internet, can’t see that happening, you CAN mute anyone who offends you though

(teardrops) #16

All aus players just mad they get owned by us 24/7
Get good lmfao

(disguisedAtom) #17

@Cam

It doesn’t bother me in the slightest - just makes them seem like fuckwits. I’m more concerned on the effect it’s having on new players. It’s a huge turn off for them - and we need all the players we can get in OCE.

Whats the point in a code of conduct if it isn’t enforced? They obviously enjoy hassling the shit out of other people - so why not enforce the code of conduct and remove the option for them to do so?

@teardrops

Lol - Anyone can own on a stacked team. Good job buddy

@Nail

No - i’m asking them to take an interest in trying to make the game seem attractive to new players. Because currently - those three have got to single-handedly be responsible for heaps of newbies not coming back… IF there isn’t code already set up for temp bans etc - then the game isn’t very well made is it. And it is still in Open Beta, so surely if they plan on the game getting bigger they need ways to punish players where the only option isn’t perma bans.

(disguisedAtom) #18

@Ardez @stayfreshshoe Share some insight? If it’s just part of the game and tough @#$! let me know…

(teardrops) #19

When I was a new player I loved being stacked on by better players helped me learn how to get better. It just sounds to me like bad players complaining they are bad and can’t do an ounce of teamwork to complete an objective, nothing new right? Get good please

(ImSploosh) #20

I play on U.S. servers and generally don’t see team stacking often. Sometimes I switch to play with friends, but when I do, the teams aren’t stacked. It’s not really a big problem (on European or U.S. servers as far as I know). But, in other regions, it might be more of an issue with the smaller playerbase.