How to stack a team
frantix
Join Date: 2013-03-18 Member: 184063Members, WC 2013 - Supporter
Join Date: 2013-03-18 Member: 184063Members, WC 2013 - Supporter
Hello,
this is an experiment, I don't like stacked teams and try not to stack myself, but maybe because of telling people about it helps to do something against it. There are basically two ways to join a team before everyone else can, by console spaming or by going in and out of the team join zone in ready room fast.
- after a match or during a match, check the scoreboard what players are the best, try to remember to top players of each team; often, it is enough if the two best players join one team, this team will almost certainly win
- in ready room, check the scoreboard while people join up, pay attention if the majority of players join one team
- open your console (~ key or the key left of 1)
- type j1 to join marines, j2 to join aliens
- press enter
- if it says "team is full", repeatedly spam up arrow and enter in console so you join the team as soon as there is a free slot
Voilà, you joined the stacked team.
Conclusion:
- disable "priority joining" via console
- disable "priority joining" by quickly going in and out of the join zone in ready room
- pick people by chance out of the team join zone in ready room
This would already make it very hard for people to join in a stacked team. Instead, when the best players try to join one team, you would now see the whole server awkwardly standing arround in the teams join zone and noone could join any team. Maybe the good players in ready room would now decide to also join the other team, balancing the teams, instead of standing around in ready room together with all other people.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying all people always stack, often people really try to balance teams. But I think that the console spaming option is not known by new players, thats why they end up in the team that has free slots - the team that noone wants to join - while all people that know how to join via console can join the "good team".
this is an experiment, I don't like stacked teams and try not to stack myself, but maybe because of telling people about it helps to do something against it. There are basically two ways to join a team before everyone else can, by console spaming or by going in and out of the team join zone in ready room fast.
- after a match or during a match, check the scoreboard what players are the best, try to remember to top players of each team; often, it is enough if the two best players join one team, this team will almost certainly win
- in ready room, check the scoreboard while people join up, pay attention if the majority of players join one team
- open your console (~ key or the key left of 1)
- type j1 to join marines, j2 to join aliens
- press enter
- if it says "team is full", repeatedly spam up arrow and enter in console so you join the team as soon as there is a free slot
Voilà, you joined the stacked team.
Conclusion:
- disable "priority joining" via console
- disable "priority joining" by quickly going in and out of the join zone in ready room
- pick people by chance out of the team join zone in ready room
This would already make it very hard for people to join in a stacked team. Instead, when the best players try to join one team, you would now see the whole server awkwardly standing arround in the teams join zone and noone could join any team. Maybe the good players in ready room would now decide to also join the other team, balancing the teams, instead of standing around in ready room together with all other people.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying all people always stack, often people really try to balance teams. But I think that the console spaming option is not known by new players, thats why they end up in the team that has free slots - the team that noone wants to join - while all people that know how to join via console can join the "good team".
Comments
Bind F5 j1
Bind F6 j2
Now holding down the F5 key is equivalent to using the j1 console command really really quick.
But don't underestimate how long some players are willing to wait in order to join a specific team. It is very annyoing, especially if you played aliens for 3 rounds and you want to join rines for a change -> they don't make it happen. But then again, random ready room votes are started very fast...
1 vile method of the experienced folk willingly stacking for whatever reason.
The other method is all the newbies stacking one team, leaving the experienced folk noone else to go but stack the other team.
GET THIS OFF THE MESSAGE BOARDS RIGHT NOW. YOU FOOL
I know this was said jokingly, but why aren't the two join commands bind-able in the options/keybind menu ingame? After all the stink about buttjumping or similar things being hidden knowledge for the few that read gaming forums, isn't this the exact same thing? It isn't exactly game play related, but it does allow veteran players to basically get their choice of team while noobs are sitting in the ready room dancing on their preferred side, which can definitely be frustrating if you want to join a specific team.
There you go: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=160590541 ofc all vets use j3
I've just played 3 games as Marines, I'm *really* going to join Aliens whether the rest of the players like it or not.
I sometimes have had to follow the OPs rant just to go A-M-A-M-A etc ... should I be the one changing my pattern simply because other players have a different phase?
Well, probably ... there, I responded to my own post. Happy?
By default, the vote keys REALLY should have been something other than F1/F2. So many people use/used those as j1/j2!
That often ends up with a marine stack as a result. I really must get round to rebinding some keys
Sometimes they are the clippy equivalent during combat of super annoyance...
Why don't you try using NumPad1 and NumPad2 for j1 and j2?
I also use NumPad0 for spectate, and NumPad9 to kill myself just for fun.
For some reason j3/joinrandom/whatever never worked for me, so I tend to follow the A-M-A-M-... pattern unless I specifically want to focus on something.
This is a good point. It's weird that people always assume the onus for stacking teams is on the top of the scoreboard, but you can stack bads on a team and decrease that team's chance of winning just like you can stack skill and increase it. The burden for not stacking teams really falls on everyone.
I don't agree with the OP's suggestion because it impacts casual players who are just trying to play with their friends. People get just as frustrated when they can't play with friends they are trying to introduce to the game as they do when teams are stacked. It seems we're just like trading one problem for the other if the OP's suggestion were to be implemented.
As I said, often people really try to balance the game, and even random can stack often. But why give only experienced players the possiblity to join a team together, because only they know how to use the console? Give everyone the chance to join a specific team, without any console usage, what is wrong with this? For example, in ready room simply pop up a message "F5 - Marines; F6 - Aliens". Every player can then spam F5 or F6, no matter how good they are. This whole topic bothers me since I found out how to join a specific team with priority. I somehow felt bad for "abusing" this trick at the beginning. When chosing a team, everyone should have the same chances.
It is good when people can play together with friends in one team, but if it stacks one team all the time, nobody will enjoy the game. I also know that this is not THE solution for everything, but it is maybe a step in the right direction, and easy to implement.
I just f1f4 to vote
Agreed. I posted a suggestion on how to fix this in this post: forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/131318/team-stack-mitigation.
I expand on the idea of being able to see that people are rookie status, but allowing people to select what they believe they are. Check it out for more info.
I agree - when I actually played (before getting hacked by a childhood friend for apparently being an 'f'ing autistic freak' for not knowing what 'shooting a pistol off' was ... it's a long story) the "I'll join the team with low k:d - oops they are all elite and the green team simply isn't choosing to engage - now I get to help the surprise steam roll" thing was pretty disappointing.
'Once green, always green,' until your time is up, I say ....
And what if someone who is good wants to play one particular side on a given day? Or what if they want to improve their play or comm skills on one side? Although some people may enjoy "playing" the game for the sake of playing (which is probably the rationale behind "Teams are unbalanced, either wait here in spec or if you want to play sooner, join the opposing side" nonsense), most people may like to play the race of their choice.
And people forced onto a side they don't like or don't want to play will just lead them to leave the server and try again somewhere else.
The problem seems to be that there just aren't enough players, or enough servers to allow "pro" players to play amongst each other, intermediate players to play together, and rookies to play together. The pub-stomp loving/ rookie farming loving, KD buffing, ego stroking pairs of hyena like pro clanners preying on rookie and intermediate servers only serve to compound the problem. Bad game experiences are far too common in this game, and we are in a death spiral.
These days as I check the server browser at any given time, my favourites are mostly disconnected, the few that remain are either full or empty, and in the "all" category, there are about 20 full servers, 5 with some spaces, and the rest are either disconnected or empty.
Furthermore, most of the greens from the sale-rushes of June and July have either "graduated" into non-teamworking pseudo-regulars or quit the game entirely, having also driven away much of the experienced players by their frustration inducing ground-skulking, ground-lerking, welding power node while being chomped by skulks, suicide-onosing and rambo-exoing in the process. This has led to a rather hit and miss, decaying state of the game. I present exhibit A as evidence: http://steamcharts.com/app/4920#All .
On a lighter note:
+1 for awkward moment shared with fond nostalgia.
Thanks for reading the thread carefully. I didn't propose all random teams every time, I proposed to let everyone join a team by pressing a key without making this a "secret" aka console command.
Im a mentor. I play most of all on rookie servers, especially during newbie waves. And I will tell you..
newbies WILL stack one side.
Ironicly its more alien lately then marine. (used to be marine).
I dont know why, I simply observe.
Letting everyone press Fx for marine and Fy for alien doesn't solve the problem. The only solution is to have a ranking system like Starcraft 2 - sadly there isn't enough of a player base or sufficient usable populated servers to ensure everyone gets to play matched games at any time they want.
May I quote myself again:
I know that only a ranking could maybe have a notable effect on team balance. But as we still don't have one, I think it will either never come or it is very hard to implement. My suggestion is easy to implement, and has no disadvantage at all.