Si Coc
In This B tch LLC
2
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Posted - 2012.07.17 15:40:00 -
[1] - Quote
Hey guys,
If my luck is with me, this has already been addressed and will be coming in a near future build. If not, I'll go ahead and lay it out since it is an extremely important factor.
A buddy of mine got ahold of a beta key (no thanks to my excellent Slay skills) and was able to play one good, solid round with me this weekend. However, we would have been able to manage many more if not for the difficulty of matchmaking between peers in the current state of the game. Like I said before, if it's coming into a future build that'd be great; but I might as well offer some pointers on what makes good matchmaking so good.
Comparatively, games like Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 have a party system that allows you to group up with your friends prior to entering a battle. This may or may not mean that you end up on the same team however, and many times clanmates can end up fighting each other to prevent a server imbalance. While it is very important to keep the playing field fair and level for both teams, here we have a mercenary war going on.
In an applied hypothetical situation, the contractor that hires more bodies into the fight will have the overwhelming advantage, so I would think that a couple extra people on one side (while potentially effective and a great complement to a coherent team) would not disrupt the overall flow of battle. Furthermore, it would prevent splitting of parties that causes players to flutter in and out of servers trying to find a compromise where they can get either the majority or all of their buddies on the same side for some good old co-operative online team play, as me and my friend struggled to do Sunday night. After all, that's what it's all about when it comes to multiplayer squad-based gaming.
Starhawk also has a "Homeworld" party system, where the party leader loads a private multiplayer sandbox map where his friends and clanmates can join up, monkey around and test out equipment, and warm up for battle. From there all players can browse servers on the fly, or join the same one as the party leader. This would be a good approach to consider, but probably more practical having folks join up in a ready room similar to the ones we all stand in prior to starting a round in Dust. Also very pointedly is the fact that as long as you are in the same clan as the people whom with you are joining, you are guaranteed to end up on the same team unless the server has a specific team balance setting enabled.
That's all I've got for now. I'm excited to see some of the potential applications for the contacts system as well as the gift system for transferring money and equipment between players. The idea of being able to finance my own army is somewhat daunting yet exciting.
P.S. - Sorry, but I had to say it again.... GET RID OF FIXED SPAWNS! |