Auto-TeamBalancing

[ZanteWarrior]

I think there should be a built in feature to the game that stops players from all joining one team in a CTF, TDM, or TR if it is a public server. There is a problem now with public servers that people are always changing sides and unbalancing teams. Changing sides should be allowed only if there is the same amount of people on alpha and beta. When it gets to the point where there 2 extra people on one team the newest person should be moved to the other team. This should be implemented to help control team hopping and should be optional when creating a server.

 

[Sharp]

I disagree. This is where having smart admins comes is important. Everyone seems to have a weird hang-up on having numerically equivalent teams, even if the game is clearly not balanced. Especially not in team rabbit, when the number of players is not relevant in the slightest. Or what if there's only 4 people in a server and they all want to be on the same team? It just ties people's hands when an admin (if they were paying attention) could be taking care of this.

 

[RockeyRex]

Well numbers are a big part actually. All too familiar scenario is that the other team is doing better than the other and people hop on to the winning team, making the game even worse.
Balancing the teams "skillwise" is a bit... Meh. If the other team is doing better on equal numbers then they've damn well earned to win. You don't go around balancing soccer teams mid-flight because the other team is doing better.

Someone in the team is bound to take a look at the issue sooner or later. POSSIBLY making something that CAN balance the teams depending on score or whatever of wished but...

 

[Sharp]

I don't really get switching to the winning team, so I'm not defending it. The only scenario it makes sense to me is if you're trolling, but anyway, the game would end quickly if you did that, so it's of small consequence.

If it is 10-0 with equal numbers, is that better than 8-8 with one team having 2 more people? I think that's highlighting the procedure of competitiveness rather than the reality of it. Balancing teams skillwise in TR at least, is a must. I try to make the team compositions most difficult for myself so that the game will at least be somewhat fair. E.g. If I could give myself significantly fewer players without people complaining about the appearance of equality rather than its reality, I would. It's more fun for both sides if the game is closer and poses a challenge to both teams.

I'm not advocating having absolutely equal teams (after all, that means too much balancing, which you pointed out). It's just that the admins should be determining when some game is getting out of hand rather than some arbitrary, binding number determinant that gives the semblance of roughly equal teams rather than actuality.

 

[ZanteWarrior]

If it is 10-0 with equal numbers, is that better than 8-8 with one team having 2 more people? I think that's highlighting the procedure of competitiveness rather than the reality of it. Balancing teams skillwise in TR at least, is a must. I try to make the team compositions most difficult for myself so that the game will at least be somewhat fair. E.g. If I could give myself significantly fewer players without people complaining about the appearance of equality rather than its reality, I would. It's more fun for both sides if the game is closer and poses a challenge to both teams.

I'm not advocating having absolutely equal teams (after all, that means too much balancing, which you pointed out). It's just that the admins should be determining when some game is getting out of hand rather than some arbitrary, binding number determinant that gives the semblance of roughly equal teams rather than actuality.

I think you are focusing to much on TR because alot of TR games are usually 3vs3 or 4v4 now but the few times we have had 6v6 and 7v7 it was more even because not just one person was deciding the game. In bigger games, 7v7 and up numbers matter.

I agree balancing by skill is best but that is extremely hard to judge at any given point due to smurfs, map and position people play. Admins try there best when they are around but there not always around to do that.To many people to just hop on the team thats winning after 10 minutes of play making it worse. So something to help prevent that would be nice. Something that detects that there is 7 alpha and 5 beta so to move one over automatically, choosing the top scorer will help regulate pubs some more. Again, I know there special cases that some people may want to practice or something so disabling it by admin privileges should be allowed.

Someother suggestion for balancing teams is that instead of making teams decided by random. Take the scores from the last game and make the top scorer one team the 2nd the other and vice versus all the way down.

 

[k e v i n]

Someother suggestion for balancing teams is that instead of making teams decided by random. Take the scores from the last game and make the top scorer one team the 2nd the other and vice versus all the way down.

i do like this idea, i'm not sure how hard it would be to impliment this into the game, i'm sure there would be some sort of mathematical way of making this happen

i personally dislike it when people say the teams are even (which they are, but not skill wise) and yet the score is like 7 - 0 so i don't know if anyone notices, but normally if the game is like 4 - 0, and my team keeps on scoring, i would normally switch to the loosing team even if it may make the teams 5vs7. cause to be honest, it's not much fun when the teams are stacked....then you start thinking "what's the point", and then people start saying "oh who cares, it's just a pub". even though, it can still be fun, i'm sure the higher skilled players have fun when they've got players on the opposite team equally as skilled, or when they've gotta try harder to try and win the game...which confuses me on why some people like to make the teams stacked, just doesn't make any logical sense

 

[Defender]

You could look at some of the tribes2 admin mods. They had team balancing code.
It would be nice to add a simple admin menu option to disable player team changing or switching. I will look in to it if any ones interested..

 

[RockeyRex]

There is one.

 

[Jordahan]

There is one.

Press F5

 

[Sin]

Balancing by numbers ruins games. If a game sucks, I switch and try to help, as every decent player should. But some people are more focused on winning than a good game. I like to win, and PuGs/competitive play is a different story, but I really like to see just a decent game in a pub.