Autobalance (again)

[FixXxeR]

[*] I'd like to see something along the lines of the server keeping track of how many games a player played as thief and guard during one continuous session. Then the server can strive to autobalance games using this information to make gaming more fair for the individuals. The player with 80% thief to guard ratio should be pushed to guard before the 60% player, and the 30% player should get to thief if he wants to. This also allows players to guard a lot in anticipation of some maps he wants to thieve on later. Possibly default newly-connected players with 55% ratio, to keep them from purposly leaving and entering to clear their history of thieving to thief one more game.[/list]

Thats an absolutley superb idea! I mean, really thats a great idea... seriously... wow.



(no I'm not being sarcastic... its damn good, and wish I'd thought of it)

[Buho]

Yeah, I don't think Firetiger's suggestion is that hot. That's not really the issue, anyway. I'm talking about autobalance.

A few thoughts:

1. Thief team is the popular one. I suggest only kick people out of that team to balance. On the odd chance 4 people want to guard and only 1 wants to thief, so be it. At the least, allow at most 2 more guards than thieves instead of one more currently (1v3 or 4v6 max guard favor).
   
2. Not sure how it is now, but allow 0v2 (no thieves joined at countdown, and using idea 1 above).
   
3. I'd like to see something along the lines of the server keeping track of how many games a player played as thief and guard during one continuous session. Then the server can strive to autobalance games using this information to make gaming more fair for the individuals. The player with 80% thief to guard ratio should be pushed to guard before the 60% player, and the 30% player should get to thief if he wants to. This also allows players to guard a lot in anticipation of some maps he wants to thieve on later. Possibly default newly-connected players with 55% ratio, to keep them from purposly leaving and entering to clear their history of thieving to thief one more game.

[LaughingRat]

Even with your suggestions, Zidane, if a thief got down to very low health and no supplies, he could just leave, have his spawn restored, then re-enter the server and take it back, fully provisioned.

[Zidane]

If that were to be implemented, FT, I would also make it so that the person who left and had their life added to the life bank:
A) Dropped no items or loot (any loot on the taffer would be respawned back where it came from);
B) All enemies killed by the taffer would spring back to life, and..

uh, no. Just thought of what could happen even with restrictions

[LaughingRat]

and he is banned from server

Terrible headache to administer. He claims "I DC'd!!", and suddenly you're banning a player who had a momentary disconnection problem, and you can't prove otherwise. All more trouble than it's worth, and the current system works well enough.

[lazarius]

Yes, and I think that players who leave the game should turn back into lives.

So, when a thief is almost dead, but has all the loot, and the obj, he leaves, his friend grabs his stuff, the thief rejoins, buys new items, his friend leaves, that thief takes all of the loot and objs, and has 600 worth of equipment to try to break through the guards camping at exit.

and he is banned from server

[Swiss Mercenary]

Yes, and I think that players who leave the game should turn back into lives.

So, when a thief is almost dead, but has all the loot, and the obj, he leaves, his friend grabs his stuff, the thief rejoins, buys new items, his friend leaves, that thief takes all of the loot and objs, and has 600 worth of equipment to try to break through the guards camping at exit. Not to mention that his buddy is also fully healed, and equipped.

[Firetiger]

Yes, and I think that players who leave the game should turn back into lives.

[LaughingRat]

The only case where I see a need to enforce a "more guards than thieves" balance is the 2 vs 1 scenario Buho mentioned.

[Hybrid]

Yeah, how you said it sums it up just fine.

[Buho]

Has this been brought up recently for 1.5? If not, this is a good time to do so.

I was one of the people pushing for a new autobalance that prevented 2v1 games (thieves vs guards), the main argument being nearly all maps are impossible to guard solo against two thieves. However, the new autobalance prevents 3v2, which is not a problem, or 4v3, or even 4v2.

If there are to be any changes for 1.5, I'd like autobalance to be tweaked one final time. What kind of balancing would you all like? Discuss!

One thing I would like is a checkbox in server setup to turn autobalance on or off. Easy to impliment, since the setting is in some obscure ini file somewhere already.