One reason people leave battle is the one you mention here.

But I think you're not considering another: people don't even bother to find out if they're not gonna enjoy the battle, they just leave based on corp squads in the list of names. Some battles where I looked at the merc list at the start and thought "ugh this might be tough" have been great fun.

And when I'm getting owned....it's not always proto on the death screen. The attitude I have that made me hang around to find that out is something that is probably dying out.

Then it will probably be 'Team-work' and 'High SP players'. You'll never stop a player from leaving a match they feel will be difficult, the reasons will always change.

Hide the other team's character names.

Lol. Proto-stomping is a consequence of fundamentally broken design, not a consequence of a player not having enough e-bushido to run militia against every player the match-maker pits against him. Acting as though my argument is invalid and that it is wrong for me to want a good fight, instead of fighting against a team of 2-6 people, because I run the best gear that I can applicably afford and have worked for over the course of three years... Is like saying that I shouldn't use every available advantage afforded to me by game design because it is unfair for the other guy.

If you want to stop proto-stomping, join me in the constant fight for tiercide. Join me in wanting a better match-maker overall. Join me in wanting better performance.

Or you can sit there and constantly confuse the issue with players doing exactly what the game allows and intends for them to do.

It isn't totally, but there's another aspect to it. Right now, there are complaints that people are leaving matches all the time and the only fix to this offered is timer penalties. Well, what happens if nobody cares about those penalties? Then you're left in the Warbarge against anybody on the other side entirely. Then those same people don't want to play DUST anymore at all because of said penalties. Attention spans are small. "Why should I stick around and play," they will ask themselves.

I never said you were wrong either. There are absolutely issues with tier-ing and matchmaking. Just as there is also the issue of proto-stomping right now, until said teircide gets fixed. It all really goes hand-in-hand, but the point is that timer penalties aren't the fix. We want DUST to stick around and not die due to the community leaving for the next best thing.

GG, by the way. =)

I really don't think adding an artificial number system with which to guilt players that they have little to no control over is in the best interests of either the game or the community, especially one that can be so easily abused for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with match-making considering that it isn't even done after the fact.

Getting people to stay in matches requires the carrot, not the stick.

How much ISK would you have to make to want to stay in a match where you're being severely stomped? It's probably so high that it would ruin game balance.

CCP should try to implement a way for squamates who disconnect, or don't make it into a match for whatever reason to redeploy with their squad mid-battle. This would eliminate "legit" reasons for quitting battle. After this I think they should use a pretty heavy stick to punish cowards because they screw up matchmaking for everyone else.

e.g. The first time you quit you get a 10% reduction to passive SP for 24 hours, 2nd time 30% reduction, 3rd time 70% reduction, etc.

I agree with the first part of your post. The second part is one of the more ridiculous ideas that I've read on this particular forum. Do you actually understand what you're suggesting?

What you think of as legitimate reasons for quitting is irrelevant. Any reason for quitting a match is legitimate. You don't get to define legitimacy.

I don't think you understand what freedom of choice means. Maybe you should go look that up before posting asinine nonsense about how you think everyone should do things your way? There is nothing in the terms we agree to that states you must finish a game you join. Do you know why there is nothing in those terms? Because it's absolutely UNENFORCEABLE. As a result your "opinion" on people's freedom to choose who, how, when and if they play and finish a game is irrelevant. If you don't like it, then don't play. Simple as that.

Because there is nothing in the terms and conditions of the game that states I have to finish a game, then a PUNISHMENT for me not finishing a particular match of any kind is unreasonable and will just lead to people quitting the game. So instead of unbalanced matches, you'll trade that for much longer queue's to potentially no matches as the numbers in this game are already close to rock-bottom according to other posts with verifiable figures on eve-offline.

Let me put this in a way you can (hopefully) understand: This is not a job. I have one job and I don't want another one. This is a game. I play this to have fun. If I'm not having fun, then I'm going to leave. It's got nothing to do with me wanting to ruin your game specifically, it's because I want to have fun which leads me to the following equation:

My Fun's Importance > Your Fun's Importance

If it comes right down to it, then to hell with your fun. Now note, that there's nothing personal there, but if I'm not having fun then I'm not going to waste my already precious free time. That doesn't mean I'll auto-quit if I'm losing, some of the best matches I've played have been losses, but they've been tense, they've been exciting, they've been enjoyable. If I'm just getting stomped the moment I spawn with no opportunity to defend myself? There's nothing fun in that, I'll just leave as per my above.

Punishing people for staying in a game where they are already not having fun, is even less fun. In a game where you have nothing to lose, a la halo some people might stay, because they have nothing to lose. This isn't that game. People have potentially a lot of isk that they will lose by staying and I'll post up another variant of the equation for you below:

My ISK's Importance > Your ISK's importance.

Thirdly, I'm not a child. You can't punish me because I don't want to play the game the way you think I should play the game (I'll refer you back to my freedom of choice spiel further up). If we want people to stay in a game where (and here's the crucial point again) they have something to lose, then they have to be incentivised as others have said.

If you go the punitive route, people will just stop playing so it must be incentivised. You say ISK would be unbalanced, so go a combination of ISK and Skill Point Multipliers, Warbarge Components, Salvaged weapons and items. Something that would offset the massive losses and lack of fun that would be involved in staying in these matches, but using a stick will just stop people playing. It's the wrong way to go all around.

The importance of your fun < the importance of the 31 other players' fun

When players leave it creates a snowball effect of sh*tty gameplay for everyone else, more people end up leaving and you've got a f*cked match that's no fun for anyone. Lobby shoppers are like the d*ckheads that cut in line. Currently there are reasonable excuses for leaving battle because you can get separated from your squamates, but once that's fixed there is no legit reason to leave a battle.

When you join a battle you're signing up for a contract with an NPC corp. It make sense that there would be repercussions for bailing out on your contract. With stiff penalties for bailing on your team, I guarantee there will be better matches for everyone and people will be less likely to want to bail as a result. It's a virtuous cycle. You may not be a child but your argument reads like it's been written by one. Freedom of choice... give me a f*cking break.

... match-leaving is a symptom of the real problem, not the problem itself.

If Scotty must serve low-quality matches, adjusting pay scales would be the very best way to keep players playing.

As a given lobby's Mu disparity increases, the underdog SP / Isk multiplier increases. The steeper the odds are against you, the more you get paid at the end of the match. Once it is worthwhile to do so, more players will stick it out and fight through the low-quality matches.

You still don't get it clearly. My fun is more important than anyone elses fun that I happen to be online with. That's the way people play games in an online setting. I don't know you and I couldn't care less about you or your fun. If I'M not having fun, then to hell with your fun. If people aren't having fun then what you are suggesting is happening will continue to happen.

If you implement your moronic suggestion then *I* guarantee you that the players who are more casual will just stop playing the game entirely and you'll be left with nothing but the hardcore dedicated people like yourself who seem to feel that complete strangers somehow *owe* them something.

I don't owe you anything you arrogant individual and the fact that you seem to think otherwise is the biggest problem with your suggestion. Any reason someone leaves is legitimate. They don't owe you anything, least of all an explanation for why they left a game. The fact is that you're stomping your feet like a petulant child because they have the "audacity" to want to have fun, or whatever other reason they leave, and are doing the equivalent of complaining to your parents. What you are asking is unenforceable and will lead to this game simply dying. No other game ever has attempted to punish its players for leaving games, no MMO, no online FPS, RTS or Grand Strategy because to do so would be complete suicide for that game.

What makes sense in terms in-game is irrelevant, like I tried to explain to you, if people aren't having fun, they will stop playing. You seem to think that they owe you their time. I don't think so.

Three questions that anyone can supporting character name removal can feel free to answer:

1) How does this fix people leaving because of the map?

2) How will this fix people leaving because a member of their squad did not get into the game?

3) How will this fix people leaving because of the match already being in progress (and the sever decrease in ISK paid as a result)?

If the lobby shoppers leave the game, most matches will be a lot closer and everyone will have more fun in general. I'd welcome that. With lots of close and fun matches more people will come back to the game and newer players will stick around. It's a small precent of the player base that's causing the problem for everyone. I have no problem with them quitting the game. DUST won't die with them gone, it will probably retain more players.

There are plenty of games that penalize you for leaving a PvP match early by the way.

It's easy... player who leave the battle... The Concord fine there with 2% of there total ISK... so.. If you have only 10M ISK ... Concord Takes you 200,000 ISK ... but if you have more that 100M ISK well.. the fine will be loosing almost 2,000,000 ISK...


Only applies if the player leve the battle by Menu option... (as a coward)