Better Team Balance and Spawn Camp Prevention

There was a thread about a month ago in a different subforum about spawn-camping; someone suggested it'd be better off here anyway, so I'm posting here with my own experiences, as a newcomer to MNC.

I'd like to highlight one particular paragraph of a post in that previous thread:

I wish my story went the way of that paragraph; in that case, I wouldn't have actually spent money on a game that has been more or less hosed by its userbase which apprently largely suffers from self-serving elitism and lack of sportsmanship, even judging from some of the other replies to that thread.

As it was, I was recommended this game by a friend, and I actually had a positive experience during my trial period - probably because I stayed mostly out of Crossfire, and happened to find a couple of players who communicated well. I actually thought this game had promise, so I shelled out for it during the December Bonus event.

Now that I've been trying Crossfire though, I can already say I've been spawn-camped a significant number of times, and more often than not, the teams feel pretty uneven. I've experienced very few rounds where there actually was a significant back-and-forth going on - and those rounds are the most fun.

So I'd echo the request of the OP of that thread - I'd love to see something done about the spawn-camping and team imbalance that seems to be ruining this game. It's obvious that a significant portion of the game's players aren't going to help it themselves.

Team balance is the BIG issue here. The game tends to lump higher-leveled players together...And unfortunately that pretty much KILLS any chance of teams being more balanced. The current party system compounds the problem by practically encouraging pubstomping.

So we've got this fun little dilemma here...Focus on pleasing a set group of players that play a lot, or get more new players in to get more new blood and thusly more new hardcore players? The current system is broken and as Banana here has said, sends a message to new players that the game and it's community both suck to a ridiculous extent. In my opinion most of the hardcore players that aren't just egostrokers full of illusory superiority due to winning with stacked teams would stay even with changes that would split up their parties intentionally.

Yes, split up the parties. That's actually a GOOD idea because a big part of team imbalance is how the game deals with parties and the other major part is how the game has that nasty tendency of segregating random players by levels.


tl;dr Split up parties and teams according to level, tack on an autobalance mechanic that forces players on a team that has two or more players than the other team to be switched over to the smaller team. POOF! It's suddenly much more friendly to new players!


EDIT: Oh, and about those egostrokers full of illusory superiority? Things are always better without them, thank you.

The first half of the team balance keeps groups together, but it keeps multiple groups together.

2 groups of 2 will always be on the same team, and in the case of facing randoms It usually stacks them. Granted BEFORE the patch, it sometimes split you up for no reason even at the lobby. The groups need to be split up on either team, Im not sure if level really has anything to do with it, just groups in general always will get stacked. Any kind of coordination in a public game is already a slight advantage. At best have it try to change the teams after the games over, once you get stuck with a certain group....it really doesnt change the teams at all until someone leaves.

I definitely support team balancing, but splitting up parties? That's the stupidest thing I've heard (no offense). Why would they change it so when some friends feel like playing together, they instead be put up with some complete strangers? That would completely destroy the point of even having a party, no one invites their friends to a lobby so they can play against each other unless it is a private match.

Overall, I only support the idea of balancing teams.

Because teamwork is RUINING THE COMMUNITY.

really uber should hav it so if there are multiple parties the parties are put on oppisite teams and if only 1 party the other team gets more players

I love how we have people complaining about splitting the community when it's fairly obvious that the community is already splitting itself up.

I still think the best idea is to make a team matching mode, but the most agreeable one is to fix the matchmaking of Crossfire. I don't think it's viable to split up parties; it doesn't help increase the satisfaction of newer players in parties, which is what we're trying to do. Fixing the matchmaking is an easy and quick (I think) and really can't be argued to be bad. At least, I can't see any downsides.

One more thing:

How is that not offensive? "You have literally stated the most ridiculous idea I have ever had the misery of hearing in my entire life (no offense)." Saying no offense does not make what you said okay, especially when you put it in punctuation that makes it unnecessary to your sentence.

I think that team balance is the real issue here. When a team is much better then you, they will always end up outside your spawn, because well, your money ball is just outside your spawn.

Now, how to fix it?

You can't just have the game ignore parties. Friends want to play together,and some people might not play at all if they can't play with friends. The game could however, offer the OPTION to play on a server that ignores parties. The downside to this is of course that the "party server" maybe totally empty at times. I think another more simple solution is best. Just show who's partied with who in the lobby. That way you can decide on your own if it's impossible to have fair teams.

Here are a few suggestions harvested from other posts , some of them were mine , most of them are stolen from others. The availability of these functions would be unlocked only when a teams moneyball is damaged or their team is seriously outnumbered.

- Have the teams sponsors step up and donate additional churro's, cash and Juice pickups to be dropped directly into the teams spawn point so only the outnumbered team receives them.

- Have a power up machine in the teams spawn base, that can do things such as bot spawning, juice purchase and a top level ejector function.

- Have a turret point on top of the central exit to the teams spawn point, where the vent has just been placed, this turret would focus on enemy's on the top level and turret upgrades could be purchased from inside the protected base.

- Have the team owners step in when a team is outgunned and getting trounced, giving their employees cheaper upgrades and turrets.

We need something done that will make the game friendlier to new players. Like it or not, parties make the game damn near impossible for the other team of most-likely random players because it's a team of coordinated, experienced players that are communicating versus a team of inexperienced players that probably couldn't handle even half the other team with a 6v3 advantage. If it keeps up, the pool of new players will trickle to a halt and hey! Guess what? There won't be any use for the matchmaking options because nobody will be playing!

The smaller a community is, the more significant the loss of an individual is. If the game keeps becoming more and more focused on pandering to the hardcore players without throwing new players a bone, what do you guys think is going to happen? All of you will become bored of the game eventually. When it's down to under a hundred regular players, it's over because every single match will be between basically the same people that all have seen and done everything in the game. It'll get very stale because things will become predictable to the extreme.

If the issues of teams being stacked and impossible to change are dealt with then there's some hope the game's community could last another year. Not even the big sale on MNC coming up soon is going to be able to inject enough new players into the community to keep it going if it isn't fixed.

Map control.

Leave.

Play with a party.




Jus sayin'

AGREED. Exercise your social skills and make some XBL friends.

Well, that works just fine for those that have lots free time or that already knew people that played MNC. The issue is that it still leaves new players out in the cold. Fact is, the game is borderline unplayable in Crossfire without a party. This is undeniable. And I repeat: it drives off new players in droves. Honestly, the way the party system is it's pretty much as bad as APB. Which had the exact same issues. In order to not get raped, you needed a team of people that already played the game regularly. Anybody remember what happened to APB?

Of course APB did suffer from issues beyond being ridiculously unfriendly to new players but like MNC that was one of it's most significant issues. All games gradually lose popularity, but if the games don't give new players a fighting chance then most people that try it simply aren't going to buy it or stick around for it. You simply cannot sustain a community with a negative amount of growth, period.

Handicap.

If you find yourself on a major deathstreak (say ten deaths and/or no kills), mostly from another team camping your base, have the game respawn you with all gold endorsements for a brief 5-10 seconds. It could work out well that way.

I'll admit i do Spawn camp a good amount.. mostly when i go play solo, i kind of find it funny when someone continues to leave their spawn room directly after they spawn 10 times in a row. If there is multiple people spawn camping, just sit back and wait for the game to end, if only 1 is go out a side entrance

Put an ejector in the spawn ring. Nothing major, 30 second cooldown, boots everyone out of the upper ring spawn areas.

Seriously, the most irritating thing in the game is when you get a few people camping your spawn and you just watch moron after moron run straight into the Assault/Support/Gunner sitting outside the base.

Solution: Don't let the other team push you so far back that you're being spawn camped.

I don't get that mad when the other team is killing me at my spawn. It only happens if their bots are rushing in and our moneyball is down. I mean really, it's not like it's easy to spawn kill. Eventually, you're going to get double-triple teamed unless you have tactically pushed your team's bots in and whatnot.

When you have your bots pushed in that hard, spawn killing really is the most strategically sound thing to do - it prevents the other team from pushing back. I mean, what else are you supposed to do? If you are in their base and you see them coming out of their spawn, should you just sit there and wait for them to get a chance to get an advantageous position?

If teams aren't balanced and competitive to each other, one side is always going to be pushed back and be thoroughly stomped. Teams tend to not be balanced and competitive to each other in random games, so...

Well dude there's not much to be said for that. If your team is getting its *** kicked, your team is getting its *** kicked. Uber can't help you there. They aren't going to split up parties because the reason why you party up is so that you can play against each other.

Even if they DID split you up by level and all-star rankings, that isn't ALWAYS a 100% reliable way to determine skill. Some people learn faster than others. Some people play a lot and just can't seem to get any better.

May advice: find teammates, or don't play against a big party.

Most players don't have the option of joining parties. People should get better at the game, but again one or two competent players can't carry a team of bad players against a team loaded down with competent players. Seems unfair from the perspective where nothing you do can even equal what the other team does. I don't know what kind of change could be done that would make things more competitive without breaking the game, I just wish there was a way to do this that I could think of :|