Ladders

So just to be clear a "ladder" is inherently ranked because you have a position. 1v1 that isn't ranked isn't a ladder, it's just 1v1.

I do think we need to keep the number of ladders small at the beginning for a number of reasons.

I agree, I'd just stick with 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4, everything else basically falls under clan war type stuff which I imagine will be handled separately from the regular ladders.

Mike

you also have to think about what game modes for team games. will you be using team armies or alliances? i would by far prefer alliances.

i think starting out with just 1v1, 2v2, and 5v5 would be best due to population of the game.

I'd like you to go in opposite direction. People are too used to mirrored maps. Shake em up a bit.
Ranked maps should be fully randomly generated planets/systems so part of the player skill is adapting to new planets and environments.
Maybe people will get used to that. If they don't and complain about it you can just say it's beta. You are testing stuff.

Miror maps planets, and unmirrored ones. Time will show which ones are more popular.

For that the generation needs improvements or we'll get people who lose the game because they happened to have half the metal of their opponent due to bad map generation.
But yeah true we have Beta. If Uber wants to put more work into more balanced map generation sure they could test it in the beta ladder. Once we have that. :>

Keeping it small sounds like a great idea.

1v1 for the hardcore ladder guys, 2v2 and then probably 4v4 or 5v5.

Also, why is there no love for a ranked FFA? I would love to see a ranked FFA ladder.

If we had to keep it down to three ladders I would totally vote for 1v1, 4v4 and 5-player FFA.

People will also lose because of pathing bugs and other unexpected behaviours such as disconnects, client crashes and long loading times. So a few games determined by bad starting positions is no big deal I'd say. It's only beta after all.

1v1 (Versus)
2v2 (Team Versus)
1v1v1 (Free For All)
2v2v2 (Team Free For All)

That's four options and include everything except for large teams and "clusterfuck" FFAs.
Personally, I find large teams to be too anonymous for a ladder, and large FFAs tend to result in some players being sandwiched and other players lucking out. 3-team FFAs are ideal, because you balance between two enemies, rather than hoping distant players are keeping each other well enough occupied.

For everything else, there's custom games. There should probably be 'quick games' that are treated similar to a ladder, so that arranged teams can face arranged teams and random players can face other random players, but with more exotic formats like 10-player FFA, 5v5, or 4v4v4v4.

From the games I've played I'd say bad spawns are by far the most common problem that affects balance. Pathing bugs don't happen as much and are not as bad usually. But yeah, sure I agree: Beta.

I see no reason to play on non-random maps. You will get games where the enemy has the advantage. You will get games where you have the advantage. If you play more then a few games it will average out and won't be a problem.

1v1 and 2v2 are the only ranked matchup that matters.

Unranked (Automatch that suppor):
2v2,3v3,4v4 Free For All (from 4 to 10 ways)

On a sphere you can actually have 4 players/teams where all are equidistant to each other so a four-way-FFA is also fine. You can even have mirror starting positions where everybody has the same borders to all other players.

True, but I'm not sure how well a 4-player mexican standoff works out from a game theory perspective, especially given the outcome of rock-paper-scissors-dynamite.

Well from my experience it usually goes like a 2v2 and then one player on the winning team backstabs his ally.
Kinda interesting I'd say.

1v1 and 2v2 to start?

Mirrored starting planet in a tournament setting makes sense.
Otherwise, keep the ladder with randomly generated maps.

wow, epic hope ladder is coming down the pipe line this next week, that would be so freaking tight! I really dont care as long as there is a 1v1, 2v2, and 5v5

i didn't dare suggect it because that sounded like alot to ask,but now that I'm not alone.
I think there's talent in deception. being able to win on Phantom/TTT proves that.

ranked Phantom pretty pretty pretty please?

max 8x8 match.

BTW my the current metal system sucks. I know it, you guys know it. We'll be fixing that issue. It's a big job because I'm going to move it around into the sim.