Great commander, would eject again A+++++

ljcrabs · September 2008

I like playing with friends. In TF2, I like to play Medic, and when I find a good Heavy I like to add them to my friends list so I can play with them again. A difference between TF2 and NS is that a commander influences the whole rest of the team, not just one medic. So my idea is a recommendation system for commanders.

It would have to be handled right to account for a bunch of stuff. One bad situation is griefing causing a player to get into a catch-22 where they can't get into the chair because of a bad rating and they can't improve their rating because they can't get into the chair. Another is that sometimes people share game accounts. So I guess the best way would to do it is for it to effect a player's decision to join a game, using a personal rating just like my TF2 situation. But that could be improved on too!

I recall it being mentioned somewhere that there is going to be a way to match up players with servers of players of the same skill level. An extension of that is to allow players to sort a server list with an algorithm which takes into account stuff like the availability of good commanders, if people on your friends list are in the server, and a whole lot more meta-data which could be made available like how balanced the teams are, how long the games are going for, etc.

Just some musings <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />

the_x5 · September 2008

Where is this data stored?

On the client?
Pros:<ul><li>you can have your friends set-up</li><li>encourages making friends in-game</li><li>encourages clan formation</li></ul>Cons:<ul><li>could create "inner-circle" clique situations when a bunch of those friends are on the same server</li><li>defragmentation management needed on the client</li></ul>
On the specific server?
Pros:<ul><li>Marketing asset for popular servers, server ops have the option of having or not having it turned on (for those that like or dislike it)</li></ul>Cons:<ul><li>players who are new to that specific server are not going to be chosen</li><li>possibly encourages individuals to play obsessively so they can boost their ranking (pointlessly?)</li></ul>
On a central, company owned server?
Pros:<ul><li>everybody, everywhere is rated</li></ul>Cons:<ul><li>dependency on the central server being up and running 24/7/365 (if it goes down or get over-loaded everybody looses service, just like Steam centralized master servers)</li><li>additional operating costs for UWE that might come back to us all in the form of monthly charges (to pay for labor for maintenance and management, hardware upgrades, broadband utility fees, and electric utility fees)</li></ul>

Great commander, would eject again A+++++

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