Level balance

I would like to see a level balance during online play. Ive had matches when 99 went up against 10-20's and some of my friends have stopped playing because of it.

While that is a problem, the most usual answer to that is parties.

That's pretty much what this game is now. Roll with a party and you'll roll over the other team. What a wonderful game.

Yes although that is how to primarily completely obliterate in this game but i am asking so that even though your in a party you still could get put on the other team to compensate for their lack of levels

And I totally agree with that.

Having the ability to invite 5 other people into a party to take into a Crossfire was a REALLY bad idea. Mercenary Crossfire, plz.

I absolutely disagree. When playing the random games online, you will most often be assigned with people who have little idea as to what they're doing. What you are proposing is not balance, it's rolling dice to determine a winner. Balance is keeping things fair at the highest level of competition. Besides, anyone who thinks the Quick Match function is a true indicator of skill is missing the point entirely. Private matches, the ones that are organized for set groups, those are the ones where you can be concerned about balance. Quick Match is the "fun" version. When you talk about balance, you make the discussion strictly about competition, not fun. I have far more fun when I am with my friends than with I'm with a bunch of others who don't even communicate.

Adding a new playlist and/or even a new multiplayer will be effectively splitting this already small playerbase possibly making it harder to find games. This is where Private Matches come into play.

Fyi the rank show is only based off of the players Lifetime Earnings which is carried out within the whole game and both game modes. However there is a "hidden" truskil rank and it tries to balance out teams according to it.

What do you mean by the truskill rank and balancing? I played a game last night with a big party and it consisted of 99's for the most part, but whenever the games were kinda of unbalanced, one of the guys would ALWAYS end up on the other team away from us. I couldn't figure out why in the world he would get seperated the most even though we all started together.

Microsoft has a ranking system for XBox LIVE called 'Trueskill." It tries it's best to balance out team based on their Trueskill level. It's more accurate in some games then others.

[Edit]
On a side note MNC does tend to group other 99's together though.

That's actually interesting, so what does that say about his level then? And I've never really seen party seperations as often as MNC before so this is probably why it's not something I've really noticed until now. Does this also affect private matches? I play the privates but I ALWAYS get teamed up with one of my friends and I go against my others, only rarely do we switch private match teams. I seriously wish I could pick a team for those games :?

I've seen this "splitting the playerbase" term thrown around a lot. It's a single additional mode. It's a mode that I and many people I know think would make this game playable again.

People will either play it or won't play it. I can't even find a blitz match anymore, even going through all five available modes. (yeah you'll probably jump right to your console to refute my claims but whatevs lol)

If ya' wanna talk about splitting the playerbase, hows about trimming some of the blitz modes away? Eh? There's a whole five there, and I'm only suggesting one. One.

I pretty much think that having the ability to invite 5 friends into a party to take into an online Crossfire match is just nuts as well. 3-4 would be OK, but a whole team? All of the lurking on these forums I do has made me realize that when an idea such as this is brought up, it's quickly shot down with a bogus excuse. Anything that makes this game playable for randoms or people that want to give this game a try is "splitting the playerbase", but in actuality, it's hampering your k/d. So there.

Party separations, right now with MNC, is a problem in the game. Then again the Party Lobby isn't really a party because there is no backing out to that menu as a whole.

Trueskill is only for Public and Ranked matches.

Once the Private Match options release, and improve, you will see a drop in party v random matches. So basically 'Quick Match' will some what become solo players.

I don't think you people now what i am trying to say. I don't want an additional mode for online play. What i am asking for is some form of programming that balances the teams levels like say 4 level 99 join and 4 level 1 join the teams would turn out as two 99 and 2 level 1. Not an additional game mode.

I'm sorry, but I think this is pretty much ridiculous.

This is definitely a TEAM game. It is not meant to be played solo, although it is certainly possible to do so. The classes all have different specialties, which are best utilized by a group of individuals working together. To suggest that I cannot bring a group of my friends with me into a game and expect to be on the same team is completely opposite of the core gameplay. I enjoy the idea of being able to play multiplayer shooters that aren't all identical.

That being said, I think that almost everybody would agree with a 'mercenary' playlist. It certainly gives solo players a place to go, while the teams still have their playground. Unfortunately, this idea is not very feasible for THIS game. Your dismissal of the split playerbase argument is ignorant. This is an XBLA release, and it is competing with very good blockbuster titles. Size of the playerbase is a very real concern, and I'm glad that UBER is smart enough to realize this.

Additionally, don't bring your dumb K/D point into this. Go start a K/D thread and see how many of the board members respond saying that K/D in any individual game doesn't really mean anything.

One last thing: Ending your post in 'So there' does not make you right.

The problem of having another playlist added is that MNC will take that much longer to join a game. Also if its a team game whats their incentive (besides Blitz because that got old so long ago) for people that don't like going in parties to play this game?

after reading this, i am beginning to think maybe it does need a non-party-mode as an option. id rather have competitive matches against competitive teams while being on a competitive team, even and especially with the current garfunkle that juice is, than be on a team that dies repetitively to a team that has at least 2 juiced members at any chosen moment in the game after the 45 second mark.

this, as well as the most obviously unfair juiced tank and sniper tactics ive seen, is why im not playing crossfire till update.

*Grabs his "Let Billy Tell You How It Is" Soapbox*

A. Crowd Controlling Juiced players is not as hard as people make it out to be. If everyone wasn't so concerned about their god damn Kill/Death ratio, it wouldn't be an issue in the first place. The Assault's bomb, the Assault's charge, the Sniper's ice-traps, the Sniper's grapple, the Assassins smokebomb, the Gunner's grapple, the Tank's charge, the Tank's product grenade, the Support's airstrike, and EVERY CLASS' SECONDARY GRAPPLE, are all tools to properly crowd control a juiced player. Learn to do it, it isn't hard.

B. This game doesn't have the player base for any other playlist. I'm sorry, it just doesn't.

C. This is a team based game. If I want to play with my friends, I'm going to play with my friends. When I play solo, I also have to contend with parties on the other team. What do I do? I realize this is a chance for me to really play my absolute best, learn from my mistakes, and grow as a player. It is a chance for me to make that other party feel helpless if they get anywhere near me. If they win, so what? If I win, it's a major upset, and I love EVERY second of the post-game lobby.

Done. Feel free to quote every letter of that post and try and tell me where I'm wrong. I'll gladly debate every bit of my post in a civil manner. So there.

Yay an actual levelheaded human being that posts here. Thank you sir. I don't even think I'm going to bother replying to Jackie boy over there. Proclaiming that I am ignorant and suggesting my use of "so there" means that I think that I am right will not deserve him a reply from me. I'll make sure to look out for his Gamertag the next time I'm playing MNC to see if he's rolling with a party just to make sure.

We should play sometime; I've no one on my friends list that plays this anymore.

Yeah, well, when you're playing by yourself like I always have to do having no friends that play this game anymore, it's next to impossible.

This is way too laggy of a game to do really any of that to an enemy. If I'm the host? Yeah, I can do all of that. Guaranteed. (Cable connection. Please don't suggest it's my internet connection is the problem having to pay so much for my internet a month)

Then how about we do what I suggested earlier? There's 5 blitz modes; how about we remove a few? One mode is "splitting the playerbase" (lololol) but five for blitz is just fine? Also, I'm not advocating the removal of blitz modes but this "splitting the playerbase" nonsense is such a crock.

When going against a party by yourself involves all of them being super aggressive and finding a good spot to camp, it's impossible. It really is. Throw in an opposing sniper shooting through walls and whatnot, it's unplayable. That's pretty much every match for me. I've got a life; things to do. When I wanna play a fair match of MNC that I for some reason still love, I wanna play a fair match. A few kills and a few deaths.

Read what BroTranquilty said up there; it's incredibly accurate.

It's not really fair to the other team if you party up. I wish they'd put in a mercenary playlist so I can avoid community destroyers like you.

If him and I were to party up, it'd be two of us. I suggested party sizes be 3 to 4 person groups; the full team parties is the major qualm I have.

Nice try at a troll, though.