March 10 2011 Patch

I need to know a few things before I can have a fully informed opinion on the update.

First, can you turn votekick off on your own server?
I hate votekick, I hate it with a passion. I have seen it used BY trolls, would-be-ragequitters more times than I can count. I have seen it used ON trolls and hackers less times than I can count on my fingers.

What does the all-star system use to determine your star rating?
The level system was a system put in place to show your experience in the game, not your skill. I honestly do not mind having a team full of bad players, it happens. If you want a guaranteed good team, join one. I can't see how the dynamic rating could be positive, but at least with a formula I could evaluate how bad it is.

End of questions.

I find the armor nerf unnecessary, but balance is generally something I like to steer clear of arguing. Uber has had a good grasp of balance so far, I'd like to trust their judgment on this.

Rage ahead. Sorry in advance.
This is something I have an opinion on immediately, it's not gonna change. WHY THE **** DID YOU DESIGN SERVERS INTENDED FOR NOOBS ONLY? WITH A ****ING DYNAMIC RATING SYSTEM AT THAT! Best case scenario, the noobs don't get any better. Worst case, they get rolled by good players who destroy their rating so they can super pub stomp. A system for better players would have been much more reasonable, it gives noobs a goal, and allows skilled players to play on servers with fewer bad people(so they can stop bitching about their teammates).

My current stance is that the game seems LESS noob friendly. It's still a fresh update so my opinion has plenty of wiggle room.

I love the new skins though. Awesome work.

I can see this happening. The problem is designing a system that adequately considers everything you do in generating your rating while preventing abuse of the system. For example, bot/pro/turret kills/assists, moneyball damage, accuracy (maybe), turrets built/upgraded, etc - each of those contributes to your team's efforts, and so each of them (and probably a few I've overlooked) needs to be properly weighted. Things like suicides (dying with no instigator at all, not falling 10 seconds after being pinged by a single gunner bullet) would subtract from that score, but would need to be capped based on the frequency of the occurrence to prevent abuse. Perhaps there'd be a small bonus multiplier for any of those things while defending your base (in your base while the ball is down).

tl;dr: It'd be possible to make a complex system that adequately evaluates a player's performance in the game. It already exists in an imperfect form as Cash.

Uber, for the love of God, stop making balance changes around terrible players.

Or, at the very least, don't bring that poop to 360.

The All-Star system is a fun looking experiment, but it wont turn bad players into good ones, nor new into experienced. It'll be interesting to see where it stands in the next month or so.

Bravo, I cannot play anymore because your All-Star system has blocked me from every server for being too good!

Is it just me, or do people not deserve their rating? My first game I went around kamikaze airstriking people, killed 0 bots, turrets, and did no damage to the moneyball. Somehow I ended up with a 5 in the lobby afterwards.

It's blocked everyone. I think it may be a bug that makes everyone a star-5 after one game.

Please fix this bug...

No new maps? I don't care about the update without new maps ... :evil:

Weren't you the one asking for votekick?

Hopefully the fix comes by tomorrow so I can properly test it. I know that the MNC team is burning the midnight oil to fix this.

Yes, but not for me, but for my unsatisfied need of "You can do everything you want with your own stuff".
So it was just a general discussion for me, I don't care anymore without new maps :cry:.

The new map is being shown off at pax.

Have gunners ever been able to survive headshots before this update? Because I encountered a pair today, and I can't say I've seen such a breed before. :|

What the **** is pax? I read it everytime.
But hey, then we have 6 maps instead of 5. 20% more maps, hail statistics.

A lv3 Gunner Deployment can survive headshots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Arcade_Expo

PAX East is now, PAX Prime is in August

Taking away armour seems like a bad idea. It seems to me your complaints are "that guy is better than me make him worse."

they haven't nerfed armor that bad, i don't really mind it, not like everyone is gonna stop running armor, its still effective.

Weren't you saying something about juice the other day...

With that said take PC balance changes with a grain of salt, that is a whole 'nother beast.