Official League Discussion Thread

LEAGUES AN EPIC FAIL

What is an EPIC FAIL? It’s when an attempt to fix something fails catastrophically and ends up either making the problem worse or causing unintended consequences and/or collateral damage. This is what has happened with the new Leagues update to the game.

What was the intention of the Leagues update anyway? Without being involved in the developers’ strategy meetings, it is difficult to tell. It appears they were trying to create a ladder-type structure for player rankings. This is to make game matchmaking more equitable, give players structure to improve themselves and encourage play. The result, in my opinion has been the exact opposite. Here is first a RANT outlining the failures and why and then the FIX represented by some suggestions. Feel free to present your own observations, experiences and fixes as you see fit.

I have put in dozens ( maybe 100’s?) of matches since the game update and struggled to move a single level from Silver 2 to Silver 1. I notice that matchmaking has gotten far worse than ever since the update and the advancement path is stacked against success. Here is why:

1. The points are awarded for damage caused on a tiered basis – +13, +10, +7, +4, +3, +3. However, the penalties for losses are -20, -15, -10, -4, +3, +7. On the win side, the awards are too modest; on the loss side, they are too heavy handed.
2. This is because there are too many situations that arise that are not in the gamer’s ability to control such as drops, game instability, server lag, mismatched teams, etc.
3. In addition, certain maps have variable drops with strategic significance. There are certain matches that I immediately exit once I see the spawns because I know the odds for a win are stacked against my team. You all know them. Only Dead City, Yamantau and Shenzhan have the same spawns every match. Shenzhan has a slight advantage for the southeast spawn, in my experience. Due to the loss penalties, experienced players will also do this to avoid hits to their league points.
4. The game awards league points for damage only. This is a major fault. Gold is awarded for damage and beacon caps. Not so with league points. Since about 99.9% of the games are won by beacon caps, versus, eliminating an opposing team, caps are critical.
5. The above failure has the effect of discouraging caps since the priority is on damage points. Also, if a player opts for a hangar full of beacon grabbers, but the team loses, the penalty could be massive. A losing player can be awarded league points by leading his team in damage, but the high capper on a losing team will likely get hammered.
6. Since the leagues update, the number of matches I am in with mismatched players has increased substantially. Most of the time, I am in with Gold, Diamond and Expert players (I am Silver) and there are many players with level 12 bots and weapons. This means that the probability of a win is based on the number of stacked players on my team, something I do not control). Worse, a win will likely award me minimal league points and a loss will cost me much more.
7. You will spend a great deal of time earning points for the League Challenge. You have 5-matches to maintain a minimal amount of points; dropping below the threshold knocks you out of the Challenge. The degree of difficulty in Challenge matches seems to be much higher than prior to entering the Challenge. I found all of my challenge matches had substantially higher level players in them. I was merely along for the ride. After 4 attempts, I got lucky enough to advance, but not without major frustration.
8. I am seeing far too many exploits by more experienced players. In general, higher level players have artificially lowered their ratings by decreasing their wins. They also stack their hangars with low level bots. Sometimes these bots have high level weapons. Sometimes they are unequipped. All of this seems to “game” the matchmaking handicap system. BTW, I have seen this previously during the Special Events, because event points are issued for damage and ignore caps.

The number of mismatches has dramatically increased, not decreased as intended. Advancement is difficult. League awards are skewed and losses have an unfair impact. The focus of game strategy has changed because everyone is chasing damage points, even over wins by beacon caps. The result has been to discourage players and take away some of the fun we used to have. A discouraged player is not going to want to buy gold for advancement, equipment, bots, etc. It seems pointless.

Here are some easy changes to reform the league update.

A. Change the loss penalty to a single value for all players on the losing side.
B. Award league points for beacon caps on both the winning and losing teams.
C. Adjust the matchmaking algorithm to discourage the exploits in Item 8 above. In theory, you’d want a player to advance weapons and bots at the same pace, or within a margin, and you want them to play like adversaries. If you put a person with equipment no higher than level 8, then no player with level 11 or 12 equipment can be matched under any circumstances. Likewise, no player with less than level 6 equipment could be matched (2 up, 2 down). This would be regardless of player rank, win rate, awards, etc. According to the video, you are part-way there in that a player’s hanger purportedly is rated according to the highest bot level in it. (Frankly, I do not believe this is affecting matchmaking) Nevertheless, now do this with weapons.
D. Account for the number of bots in a team’s combined hanger. I find too many 3-bot hangers playing against 5-bot hangers. Balance this with the equipment ranking. It doesn’t make sense to compare 6 players of 3 level 12 bots with 6 having 5 level 10 bots.
E. In the Challenge rounds, allow a player to fall below the points threshold during the series without starting the series over.
F. Do whatever it takes to stop matching substantially different experience and equipment levels, especially now with the penalty point hits to losing teams.
END

LEAGUES AN EPIC FAIL

What is an EPIC FAIL?  

LEAGUES AN EPIC FAIL

What is an EPIC FAIL? It’s when an attempt to fix something fails catastrophically and ends up either making the problem worse or causing unintended consequences and/or collateral damage. This is what has happened with the new Leagues update to the game.

What was the intention of the Leagues update anyway? Without being involved in the developers’ strategy meetings, it is difficult to tell. It appears they were trying to create a ladder-type structure for player rankings. This is to make game matchmaking more equitable, give players structure to improve themselves and encourage play. The result, in my opinion has been the exact opposite. Here is first a RANT outlining the failures and why and then the FIX represented by some suggestions. Feel free to present your own observations, experiences and fixes as you see fit.

I have put in dozens ( maybe 100’s?) of matches since the game update and struggled to move a single level from Silver 2 to Silver 1. I notice that matchmaking has gotten far worse than ever since the update and the advancement path is stacked against success. Here is why:

1. The points are awarded for damage caused on a tiered basis – +13, +10, +7, +4, +3, +3. However, the penalties for losses are -20, -15, -10, -4, +3, +7. On the win side, the awards are too modest; on the loss side, they are too heavy handed.
2. This is because there are too many situations that arise that are not in the gamer’s ability to control such as drops, game instability, server lag, mismatched teams, etc.
3. In addition, certain maps have variable drops with strategic significance. There are certain matches that I immediately exit once I see the spawns because I know the odds for a win are stacked against my team. You all know them. Only Dead City, Yamantau and Shenzhan have the same spawns every match. Shenzhan has a slight advantage for the southeast spawn, in my experience. Due to the loss penalties, experienced players will also do this to avoid hits to their league points.
4. The game awards league points for damage only. This is a major fault. Gold is awarded for damage and beacon caps. Not so with league points. Since about 99.9% of the games are won by beacon caps, versus, eliminating an opposing team, caps are critical.
5. The above failure has the effect of discouraging caps since the priority is on damage points. Also, if a player opts for a hangar full of beacon grabbers, but the team loses, the penalty could be massive. A losing player can be awarded league points by leading his team in damage, but the high capper on a losing team will likely get hammered.
6. Since the leagues update, the number of matches I am in with mismatched players has increased substantially. Most of the time, I am in with Gold, Diamond and Expert players (I am Silver) and there are many players with level 12 bots and weapons. This means that the probability of a win is based on the number of stacked players on my team, something I do not control). Worse, a win will likely award me minimal league points and a loss will cost me much more.
7. You will spend a great deal of time earning points for the League Challenge. You have 5-matches to maintain a minimal amount of points; dropping below the threshold knocks you out of the Challenge. The degree of difficulty in Challenge matches seems to be much higher than prior to entering the Challenge. I found all of my challenge matches had substantially higher level players in them. I was merely along for the ride. After 4 attempts, I got lucky enough to advance, but not without major frustration.
8. I am seeing far too many exploits by more experienced players. In general, higher level players have artificially lowered their ratings by decreasing their wins. They also stack their hangars with low level bots. Sometimes these bots have high level weapons. Sometimes they are unequipped. All of this seems to “game” the matchmaking handicap system. BTW, I have seen this previously during the Special Events, because event points are issued for damage and ignore caps.

The number of mismatches has dramatically increased, not decreased as intended. Advancement is difficult. League awards are skewed and losses have an unfair impact. The focus of game strategy has changed because everyone is chasing damage points, even over wins by beacon caps. The result has been to discourage players and take away some of the fun we used to have. A discouraged player is not going to want to buy gold for advancement, equipment, bots, etc. It seems pointless.

Here are some easy changes to reform the league update.

A. Change the loss penalty to a single value for all players on the losing side.
B. Award league points for beacon caps on both the winning and losing teams.
C. Adjust the matchmaking algorithm to discourage the exploits in Item 8 above. In theory, you’d want a player to advance weapons and bots at the same pace, or within a margin, and you want them to play like adversaries. If you put a person with equipment no higher than level 8, then no player with level 11 or 12 equipment can be matched under any circumstances. Likewise, no player with less than level 6 equipment could be matched (2 up, 2 down). This would be regardless of player rank, win rate, awards, etc. According to the video, you are part-way there in that a player’s hanger purportedly is rated according to the highest bot level in it. (Frankly, I do not believe this is affecting matchmaking) Nevertheless, now do this with weapons.
D. Account for the number of bots in a team’s combined hanger. I find too many 3-bot hangers playing against 5-bot hangers. Balance this with the equipment ranking. It doesn’t make sense to compare 6 players of 3 level 12 bots with 6 having 5 level 10 bots.
E. In the Challenge rounds, allow a player to fall below the points threshold during the series without starting the series over.
F. Do whatever it takes to stop matching substantially different experience and equipment levels, especially now with the penalty point hits to losing teams.
END