What's the ideal number of players for a COMPETITIVE match in DB?

(Xenithos) #1

As the title states, is it 5v5, 20v20, or 3 juggernauts versus the alien and predator?!

(Press E) #2

6v6 for me.

5v5 may be tactical as hell, but 6v6 is just so much more enjoyable that the tradeoff is worth it to me. For me, the more people in a server, the more I usually enjoy it. But after 6v6, the competitive team-based atmosphere starts to disappear. However at 5v5, maps just feel too empty and well, boring.
6v6 helps add more variety to the game and relieves some of the tension associated with ranked, without relieving so much that it no longer feels competitive.

Anything below 6v6 and matches become too tense for most players who are on the fence about competitive. Anything above and you lose that sense of being a major part of the team.
SD may say the game is balanced around 5v5 too, but with the 3 merc restriction and how large most maps are, it really is just better with more people.

(geefunkster) #3

6v6 sounds good to me. I think 5v5 works great under ideal conditions, but 6v6 gives a little more wiggle room and flexibility.

(Artyrim) #4

6vs6 is perferct for most of DB maps
5vs5 is fine as well but sometimes you need that extra slot
But fuck even 4vs4 is good when your team suck hard, at least you have to deal with 4 people instead of 5 or 6 xD

(K1X455) #5

Five archetypes in DB:

  • Assault
  • Fire Support
  • Medic
  • Objective Specialist
  • RECON

any additional merc will duplicate a role among the archetypes, however I have observed in Ranked Season IV that a double medic is a strong defensive as is offensive in to give up a less effective RECON.

(henki000) #6

Why not have tournaments from 1v1 to 8v8? I dont want to rule out any possibilities. We are talking about competetive tournaments right? These maps what we have right now, perhaps 5v5 is optimal. But it’s too controlled, if we had larger teams, it would generate more action and different meta. Different synergies with merc stackin on or off.

([ *O.C.B.* ] Wildcard) #7

@geefunkster said:
6v6 sounds good to me. I think 5v5 works great under ideal conditions, but 6v6 gives a little more wiggle room and flexibility.

This is a point I can, admittedly, agree with; however when they were balancing based off of a 5vs5 setting for a good chunk of the games lifetime, changing it now might turn this into a massive mess. Granted it’s not that it couldn’t be made to work, but I voted to keep it 5vs5 for two reasons:

  1. Tradition - It’s been this way for a long time and they have made balance changes with the team size of five players in mind for most of the game’s history; changing it now would leave us with a large mess to clean up after in its wake that would likely be neglected for other issues with the current path SD seems to be taking with the game.

  2. Adjustment time for balance in the new format - With the team size changing the format there would naturally be some form of adjustment required to keep things from devolving into the piss-poor excuse for balance that we experience in pub games daily, and with their energies currently devoted to other area’s this would likely be delayed heavily; so I wouldn’t mind it when they clearly have the time to devote to focusing mostly on that, but until then I’d have to vote against it. Having 6 players just means stacked Mercs become even more cancerous, and without a Merc limit in ranked play it will only be made worse; maps like Chapel will become even more painful to play in, as they would have the option to take yet another Arty, Skyhammer or Kira along for Defense (and it would happen on maps of that kind; you would now have at least 4 air support users spamming you down all game instead of the usual minimum of 3).

This small change in the number of team members doesn’t seem like a large change on paper, but in practice it makes a notable difference where it counts; and unfortunately in the area’s that cause Dirty Bomb to fall apart at the seams, devolving into a pure spam-fest focused game.

(Ptiloui) #8

6v6 to let a room available for a more “utility” merc, especially recons. As @K1X455 said, competitive team usually go with 2 medics setup, leaving the last rooms for only 1 assault, 1 fire support and 1 engineer. There’s only a few situation where the engie can be replaced by a recon class. And don’t forget about Hunter which can be really useful against Turtle / Aura combo.