Auto-balance

bigflopper

There has to be some form of autobalance implemented before release. As the games are no larger than 9 v 9 at the moment, any team with 2+ more players than another has a huge advantage. Many games I have played end up this way, with the losing team having a few players quit early on and then the other team refusing to even up. Just make sure the feature doesn't switch the commanders and I don't see a problem. It is incredibly frustrating to have to see out a game when the other team has 2+ more players than you and your pleas for evening up the teams fall on deaf ears (which is almost always the case).

plausiblesarge

this is a difficult issue. In most FPS games, each life is seperate and means nothing compared to the others. As a result, team switching is easy - the only consequences are that a player may join the losing team or may be separated from friends. In NS2 there is a bigger problem. Not only do we have to factor in personal res (if they keep their res they could give the losing team an unfair advantage, if they lose it then they lose their progress), we also have to factor in that the player knows what that teams commander is doing. It is especially troublesome when the aliens have a ninjahive with shades (which I have done before) or if the marines are building a super-sekrit phase base.

ScardyBob

Team imbalances frequently come from people leaving the losing side of a match. As such, forcing players from the winning side to the losing one isn't a very good solution since its basically punishing success. Instead, I'd like to see two things done to solve (or at least reduce) the problem:

<b>- Make lost matches end quicker</b>
In theory, the losing condition (i.e. the point beyond which you can't win) and the ending condition (i.e. when the game ends) should be the same. In practice, they can deviate by quite a long time. Some type of vote surrender system in which once a majority of a team votes, the game ends in a loss, would help shorten the difference between those times.

<b>- Match players based on skill</b>
Quite simply, its no fun playing against a team/players that are either way better or way worse than you. A rank or skill-based matchmaking system that ensures you can find a match between people of relatively equal skill would greatly reduce the number of losing ragequits. SC2's ranking system is a good example of this type of system working well.