Yet another "Spawn Camping" thread


(bontsa) #41

[left]Rant-mode activated over an idea with tiniest impact, behold in advance!

Seeing this thread having most discussion about just the right aspect (in my opinion) of spawn camping, I thought of testing out an idea here. I too find the issue rising from team balance to such extent, that enlarging actual spawn protection area would in the end of the day be pointless and just move the issue some meters further. Those things have been discussed pretty throughroughly here and most of the other such threads.

In the end, there are as many reasons to camp as there are players. As someone jokingly mentioned here earlier, camping might trigger the primal “bloodlust” feel for some. It might feel very low-level, still way better entertainment than leaving the match or switching to losing side. As for now, there is simply no enough reward for switching team. Sportsmanship? I raise an imaginary pile, heck a tower of hats for those who do so out there, but that’s very small number of people. Let’s tickle with something of a more primitive feel. Let’s add greed into it, or at least a “physical” (as far as lines of ones and zeros can be called physical) reward. Let’s add credits.

Imagine (or since we’ve all been there, recall) a match where unbalance has been for such a while already that first quits are happening. I haven’t found myself in games that were extremely uneven at 6v7 yet, but rapidly falling there. This is the time to sportsmanny people to swap, but rarely people are glued to scoreboard to see, note or do anything about it here. And not blaming anyone, teams are still number-wise as good as even. Second quit from losing Attackers, making situation 5v7.

Here in my opinion is the time for credit bonus to make swap more appealing. Not going into exact amount, but still something to make more than just GoodGuyGreg-level fair players to switch. There must be plenty of fairness-in-mind players who are just not confident with their skills or something else making them see themselves swap as a 99% no-go option. This would give one more encouragement to it. It still wasn’t a good enough player from team Defenders switching, unbalance and besiege continues? 6v6 turns into 5v6 once one more gets enough of the situation. Now thing here though is, teams were still tried to be kept even, so when new player joins mid-way through, he doesn’t find himself in 3v7 kill-a-fest with no chance of pushing through, but rather 1 player-difference game where even if still somewhat stomped, at least seemingly more chance of getting something done.

Seemingly isn’t much, but I think it’d benefit in very long run, as having been myself on both ends of those infamous 3v7 situations it’s not fun for the whole family for anyone except a few sorry bloke here and there. If the reward was made one time only for individual players per said match, can’t for now see a way of exploiting it consistently.

I do hope I’d have some restraints on my novel-mode :'D Specifically when there is never going to be a godly duct-tape level all-around solution to the problem. It is one of the things that are very harmful in terms of making newcomers maybe never touching the game again, so finding solutions is essential though.

TL;DR, shudup already: Add appealing credit bonus for people swapping in situations, where their specific swap would make teams more even number-wise (for example from 5v7 to 6v6, or 4v7 to 5v6)[/left]


(Gi.Am) #42

The thing is there are two different gamemodes (competive and casual) at play and they need different approaches.

For casual switching up the teams is feasable and atleast evening out the Teams by numbers should be something that is done automatic (since players don’t seem to be capable of doing it themself) in an aggresive manner.
I.E. checking every respawnwave if teams are missing 2 players and then switching players over. Give those that get switched a XP or Credit bonus, so they don’t whine too much not being in the winning team anymore. Maybe add a team switch stop for the last 1-2 minutes of a game to prevent a mass switch to compensate for the buhuhuh the game is lost I leave mass exodus.

For competive autoswitch is not a good Idea. For that mode you need good matchmaking routines (side note. besides LOL I’d argue that Ghostrecon Phantom has top notch MM, same as lol people bitch about it, but I have never seen a game consistently produce so many draw grames). Clear communication how this mode works and what you are commiting to. And lastly strong punishments to prevent leavers (I would like to see credit penalties ontop of the ban).

While those are not perfect solutions, I think they would help quite good with reducing spawncamping without resorting to hermetically sealing off spawnareas.


(bontsa) #43

I know I’m stepping into dangerous territory since I haven’t tried out DB competitive matchmaking myself, but while leaving early should be made very, very unappealing, people can still drop connection out unintentionally and not get back. If its so strict to touch credits, that’s a bit rough since stuff we can’t help like lightning, pets, silly housemates turning off router etc etc can happen. Where as CS:GO matchmaking like 30min-1h ban would be just fine, go do something else in the meantime. Cool your head if you quit for your sanity, punch your flatmate, take dog for a walk so it doesn’t keep gnawing wires and so on.

Autobalancing competitive is indeed absolute no and I don’t think anyone with grey matter in their think-ball would suggest so. In there preventing spawncamping is achieved getting people ranked properly, and matching them with as even people as possible, as you said Gl.Am.

As for pubs now DB has autobalance system only in lobby and even that fails to some extent since balance happens and people quit just before match, But I thought having encouragement- based balancing system nice to try out instead of “Hey, you, git there!” type of bouncer. Both could be implemented too; if no one swaps voluntarily in a given time, announcement is made on server that one of ya darling’s are gonna get yer buttocks relocated. Encouraging first rather than forcing would even follow the game’s “Don’t be a d!ck” mantra, since people start, while maybe having credits-signs where their pupillaes should be, thinking about game balance even a little.