Marine To Alien Player Ratio
Turtle
Join Date: 2002-10-18 Member: 1540Members
Join Date: 2002-10-18 Member: 1540Members
I know the auto-team balance is going in with the next patch, but I need to vent and to get some perspective on the issue, perhaps as a warning to future mods, and to discuss ideas on how the team balance should work.
I just got off a server where up until the end it was 11 marines vs 3 aliens. It did start out even, but some left, and when new players joined they went marine, disregarding the current imbalance.
Why do they do this? Don't they know what they gain if they win is only a false victory? It proves nothing that you can win against 3 aliens with 10 other guys behind you. One guy had the audacity to think that he was a godlike player just because he took out three hives single handedly. The only problem was, any marine can do that, especially when the entire alien team is off battling the other 10 marines, and you're equipped with a grenade launcher and heavy armor.
What's worse, one of our guys was afk, and we always had a third hive building, but it would always happen that while the two of us were busy defending the entire map, one of the 11 marines would go and blow up a hive.
Seriously guys, if you notice that there's already plenty of people on marines, just leave or observe the game until a spot opens up on the marine team. It's as simple as that. I know many here don't like to play aliens, and I'm cool with that, but that doesn't mean you have to go unbalance a game because of it.
The only team imbalance I'm not complaining about it the kind that happens when players drop out for whatever reason, whether it's because you're losing or real life issues (which should always take precidence over gaming).
Those two reasons are also things I'm concerned about with the auto team balance. Certain people just can't play aliens or really don't like to. Since that's their choice, they shouldn't have to. And sometimes the team ratio ends up uneven, I don't want to see the other side penalized just because the a few members of the losing team decide to drop out.
Perhaps a way to balance games using the current spawn system will work as an alternate setting servers can use. If there are more players on one side than the other, a few players are placed into a waiting line while the number actually playing is equal. So if there were 4 aliens and 8 marines, four of those marines would be waiting in the reinforcement que until one of the marines dies, which then begins a different marine's reinforcement. Sure, that would mean you have to wait if the teams are unbalanced, but have some empathy for the other side, they're not having any fun at all with the unbalanced teams. And in the end, you do get to play the team you want. There's also the issue of people leaving, though...
Of course, the want to get into the action could entice some players to go alien anyway. And for those of you who say you don't like playing an alien, or that they're not "cool", I ask you to try it out for longer than a minute. I also ask that you learn alien tactics, even the simplest tactic of the rear ambush. Try following someone who looks experienced for a bit, see what he does. I'm sure many of you have not experienced the pure exhileration that playing an alien with ambush tactics brings, whereas playing the marine is a somewhat mindless turkey shoot.
What are some of your ideas and thoughts on this issue. I'd like to hear from those that have legitimate reasons for not playing a certain side as well.
Idiots who post mindless one liners are not welcome to post in this topic, though. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I just got off a server where up until the end it was 11 marines vs 3 aliens. It did start out even, but some left, and when new players joined they went marine, disregarding the current imbalance.
Why do they do this? Don't they know what they gain if they win is only a false victory? It proves nothing that you can win against 3 aliens with 10 other guys behind you. One guy had the audacity to think that he was a godlike player just because he took out three hives single handedly. The only problem was, any marine can do that, especially when the entire alien team is off battling the other 10 marines, and you're equipped with a grenade launcher and heavy armor.
What's worse, one of our guys was afk, and we always had a third hive building, but it would always happen that while the two of us were busy defending the entire map, one of the 11 marines would go and blow up a hive.
Seriously guys, if you notice that there's already plenty of people on marines, just leave or observe the game until a spot opens up on the marine team. It's as simple as that. I know many here don't like to play aliens, and I'm cool with that, but that doesn't mean you have to go unbalance a game because of it.
The only team imbalance I'm not complaining about it the kind that happens when players drop out for whatever reason, whether it's because you're losing or real life issues (which should always take precidence over gaming).
Those two reasons are also things I'm concerned about with the auto team balance. Certain people just can't play aliens or really don't like to. Since that's their choice, they shouldn't have to. And sometimes the team ratio ends up uneven, I don't want to see the other side penalized just because the a few members of the losing team decide to drop out.
Perhaps a way to balance games using the current spawn system will work as an alternate setting servers can use. If there are more players on one side than the other, a few players are placed into a waiting line while the number actually playing is equal. So if there were 4 aliens and 8 marines, four of those marines would be waiting in the reinforcement que until one of the marines dies, which then begins a different marine's reinforcement. Sure, that would mean you have to wait if the teams are unbalanced, but have some empathy for the other side, they're not having any fun at all with the unbalanced teams. And in the end, you do get to play the team you want. There's also the issue of people leaving, though...
Of course, the want to get into the action could entice some players to go alien anyway. And for those of you who say you don't like playing an alien, or that they're not "cool", I ask you to try it out for longer than a minute. I also ask that you learn alien tactics, even the simplest tactic of the rear ambush. Try following someone who looks experienced for a bit, see what he does. I'm sure many of you have not experienced the pure exhileration that playing an alien with ambush tactics brings, whereas playing the marine is a somewhat mindless turkey shoot.
What are some of your ideas and thoughts on this issue. I'd like to hear from those that have legitimate reasons for not playing a certain side as well.
Idiots who post mindless one liners are not welcome to post in this topic, though. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
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Nullzero
Marines.... They taste like chicken!!
I liek to hear that. =D
I can tell you that I like to be a marine more than an alien myself, But 99% of the time I ended up being Alien either the beginning or mid-game.
People like to be marine because it's what they are. THey're human. And they like to get a bigass gun and shoot at xenoforms that look different than they do. They think this is a single player game.
Well, I would rant on that but i guess everyone has their view. I would just suggest those who thinks that way to experience the Alien side and play from a different perspective
The hardest part about being an Alien is not game "unbalances" (as I feel there is currently NOTHING unbalanced with any part of this game, save for the external "resource bug"), but the lack of people wishing to be Aliens. This, as the original poster stated, leads to the ever favorite position of Marines doubling or sometimes tripling the Aliens in number of players.
Resource "bug" fix + Team Auto-Balance = Perfect Natural Selection.
This mod is <b>BY FAR</b> the best coded mod I have ever had the pleasure of playing, and its near flawless <u>first</u> release is proof of that.
I think as time passes and people realize they can really play whatever side they want, it will even out on it's own. The patch's auto-balance feature won't hurt things either.