Proposal: add some metric to compare players in custom games

So, i recently returned to PA after Titans release and found out that finding a balanced custom game is still next to impossible. One would think that after time has passed the skill level of most of the players would normalize, but it seems this is not the case. Its quite common to either have a teammate that annihilates all opposition by himself or a bunch of dudes that turtle at their starting 4 mass points and wait for, um, not sure what.

So why not make it easier to balance teams? At least victory ratio and games played per game mode would go a long way to make games more interesting. A player level (depending on number of games played) would do too.

I like to play 1v1 and FFA as much as the next guy, but shouldn't PA be about massive scale battles?

P.S. And before someone suggests it, i don't think joining a clan should be a requirement to have an interesting team game. Imo, this option should be included in "vanilla".

Well, I can already see the "1000> or kick", which worked fine for Company of Heroes but I'm not sure if it is the environment Planetary Annihilation wants to be. Still, it might make it easier to set balanced games up.

Yeah, i guess this would make it harder for new players to find a game if the majority of players are not "new", but right now there should be enough "1000< or kick" for them to join, imho. Besides isn't it like that in most RTS games(except Starcraft 2 probably)?

You could use PA chat to find and organise games with players on your level.

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/...lobal-chat-stats-using-chrome-chromium.69168/

Also: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-server-lobby-display-rank.68337/

While thats a nice option to have, not everyone plays ranked and not everyone has pa chat(there are like 50-100 people in there at "prime time" usually i think). Not sure if spamming the chat with "need five more for 3v3 silver-platinum" is a good idea...

That server mod is great too, but sadly not an option for me due to having too low an upload bandwidth to make my own server and definitely not and option feasible for every player.

A lot of the more experienced players can be found in the chat. And finding and announcing games is one of the main reasons for it. It's not spamming, people find it helpful

By default when you "host" a game the server used is one of Playfabs dedicated servers, not yours.

But I agree that a way to better balance team games is needed.

Oh, i assumed that since it is a server mod you gotta make your own server to use it. Gonna try it out i guess.

Nope, you upload the files over to Play fab and they host. =)

That would be really bad for the player community if something like that would be implemented. Fact is most people play casual and wan't to enjoy themselves and off course turtle which is one of the most fun things in RTS for a lot of people (me included). Yesterday I thought all the time I will be annihilated soon and when I looked at replay later it was obvious the enemies were just sitting there spamming units but not really doing anything else and so overdoing the turtling. At some point you do have to attack and annihilate

Um, and how does comparing players prevent new people from playing like they want to? Quite the opposite, it would allow them to check if all the players in both teams are also new.
Btw had a game recently where both my teammates and opponents were like that, and i felt bad for ruining their fun. But how would i know beforehand that they are new?

I think this could be implemented fairly easily if the devs were to use badge or even a "license to smash". A player could add endorsements on their license that are based upon achievements earned. Limit the amount of endorsements on the license so good players will have to choose the best options to show their skill.

This could easily separate new people from more experienced players. A simple check of a license could show one's experience level based upon their endorsements.