We should not let...

[Shizoku]

Population usually takes a bit of a nose dive during summer, it's nothing much to be worried about.

[Youngmoose]

The main problem is the unbalanced games. A balanced game will allow a newbie access to tech they can learn the game with, a better grasp on development, situational awareness, more aspects of the game (dogfighting, miner d, nanning etc..) and a few safe sectors in which they can fly without getting instantly podded.

Inversely, an unbalanced and stacked game will give newbies the opportunity to launch in 1-2 sectors, sometimes to a camped base, and get quickly podded. Hardly a fun situation.

QUOTE Population usually takes a bit of a nose dive during summer, it's nothing much to be worried about.[/quote]

While this is true, the leader board has been in steady decline over the past 3 years. When I joined, it was over 2000, it is now 450 ish. Something really needs to be done.

[Freyja]

QUOTE S2. Enforce AutoBalance (AB) to be on for game scores to count. Disallow to turn off AB once the game has started.[/quote]

Ranks are completely messed up, especially on the lower end.

One or more of the following needs to occur;

1) AllegAge should be used as a governor (your displayed rank can't exceed your AllegAge) or AllegAge is averaged when displaying rank.
2) Minimum 10v10 games count. (not my favorite but it would help)
3) Ranking needs to count older games less (anything older a players last 1000 games (this primarily would be more accurate for players in the last 2-6 years)).
4) AB itself needs to have a better system (perhaps in effect also including imbal2 so that one side can't get too many players more than another, Pook and others once said that you should count everyone under (5) as a (5) as even an incompetent newbie offers some help, not sure the best way to go about all that though).




QUOTE S1. Remove all hiders. 1 account = 1 callsign[/quote]

I don't think the community would go for this- at the least there'd need to be a way to get players to be able to back in the server if booted to play on the other(s) (or same) team, however I'd definately like to see the number of callsigns reduced to 2 from 3, and resets once a year is probably enough.



QUOTE S3. Review and change the way stats and ranks are computed. Some people already proposed alternative. There are plenty room here for optimization and accuracy. For instance, a rank 20 player getting 50 kills vs (0)s and (1)s shouldnt get any point at all for these kills.[/quote]


See part response above. As for in game points, I think it's high time we added some other categories, miner kills and assists can be tracked so let's have points assigned for those, let's get different points for caping major/minor bases, different points for major/minor cons. etceteras




Oh, another thing is that a major reason games take so long is because of stack sure or worries there of, however more comms is also faster games, possibly need to relax a bit on how we treat comms from time to time, perhaps less bitching and more constructive feedback. Also of course more awareness that people that have played less than a billion hours aren't as good as those that have played that much.

[Elzam_]

In all honesty, I think Newbs learn the most from their first game being a 3v3 at 4am EST than playing in a Main game. I was commanding a 2v2 the other night. It was me and this newb EchoKnight. It was his first game. He didn't know a thing. Since the game didn't count and there really won't be any "pressing issues" in a 2v2 anyway, I had the time and focus to teach him how the game worked a bit. And I think that's what newbs need. They need more attention, and I hate to seem to necro an old post, but I'm all for "Adopt A Newb." Or at least get them some one on one time with a vet so the vet can set them straight on how things work.

[Youngmoose]

I don't see how rank adjustments are going to improve the quality of games. Let me put this clearly:

THERE ARE LESS THAN 500 PEOPLE ACTIVELY PLAYING THIS GAME.

Of those about 300 or so have a substantial amount of games and hours played. Call them voobs/vets. Whatever. With such few numbers AS means less and less. I know who the better commanders are. I know who the nanners, whores, stackers, andti stackers, minerkillers are. AS means nothing to me. I can look at the com, 1-2 pilots on the team, and tell you who is going to win the game 80% of the time. We need a way to effectively divide up teams for pugs.

This is the same reason I quit commanding. There are certain pilots who fly against me every time, whore my pilots and kill my cons and miners. This is exacerbated at late night when a PUG gets 10 times harder to balance.

I would suggest some sort of automatic pick pool. Players wanting to start join a pick pool, when both comms say there is enough, GC hits start, the teams are divided up automatically and off we go.

[Adept]

a) Act grown up. We know your e-peen is huge and engorged. Focusing on making fun of those less well endowed may give you a kick but it will also drive some away from the game... and we need the numbers.

b) Help spread the world. There are more gamers than ever, and there is no real competitor for Allegiance. Problem is hardly anybody knows about it.

c) Be extra nice to newbies. If a game isn't happening because of unbalanced teams take one for Allegiance and fly on the side you usually wouldn't so the game will start. New players will not have experienced Allegiance yet, so they'll not wait 15 min in the lobby waiting for a game to start, no matter how much they'd love the game if they actually got to experience it.

***

I basically agree with Fedman. We need to do more.

[Xeretov]

QUOTE (Youngmoose @ Jul 20 2010, 04:53 PM) I would suggest some sort of automatic pick pool. Players wanting to start join a pick pool, when both comms say there is enough, GC hits start, the teams are divided up automatically and off we go.

While I like this idea in theory, the truth is people have an idea of who they're willing to fly for/with and who they aren't.

If I don't want to fly for one of the comms then I either 1) go join the opposite team, 2) go AFK, or 3) log out and do something else with my time. The pick pool would just turn #1 into either "land on the team I want" or "quit and do #2 or 3".

I have a no-fly list for a reason: Flying for those comms (or with certain people) just isn't fun. I'm quite happy to put up with a comm who is still learning (and willing to learn) but many of the comms on my no-fly list don't seem willing to listen or improve.

[fuzzylunkin1]

We need to get R6 out the door.

Currently set for 2010-09-01.

[KGJV]

QUOTE (Freyja @ Jul 20 2010, 10:43 PM) I don't think the community would go for this- at the least there'd need to be a way to get players to be able to back in the server if booted to play on the other(s) (or same) team, however I'd definately like to see the number of callsigns reduced to 2 from 3, and resets once a year is probably enough.

reread my 3 years old post, S1 included a code change to the whole boot/ban system (basically only admins/@alleg should be able to ban people. Comms should only be able to 'kick' from team to noat, clearing the 'desertion' flag doing so). Hence 1 callsign is all we need.

As for 'the community would go or not for this'... May be we should be wondering who really is this community and where that game is going.

Haven't we for years avoided drastic changes just to please a small minority and doing so pushed away a lot of new comers ?

I'm not even sure there is still a big enough 'core' of old players that share the same vision of Alleg.

Today we more have 2 'clans' that share opposite ideas on where to lead Alleg and nothing is moving and the population is declining.

May be a solution would be to split this game into 2 different games: 1 pure FPS/all-I-want-are-no-brainer-frags-vs-newbies game and a teamwork RTS game ...

That's why I gave up coding anyway: We have no strong leadership with a 'plan' and a 'vision' for this game and we need years to get small changes going after endless debates and drama.

So fix the community before trying to fix the game may be ?

[Youngmoose]

QUOTE (Xeretov @ Jul 20 2010, 03:02 PM) While I like this idea in theory, the truth is people have an idea of who they're willing to fly for/with and who they aren't.

If I don't want to fly for one of the comms then I either 1) go join the opposite team, 2) go AFK, or 3) log out and do something else with my time. The pick pool would just turn #1 into either "land on the team I want" or "quit and do #2 or 3".

I have a no-fly list for a reason: Flying for those comms (or with certain people) just isn't fun. I'm quite happy to put up with a comm who is still learning (and willing to learn) but many of the comms on my no-fly list don't seem willing to listen or improve.

I can totally appreciate all these points, and they are valid. IMO however, we may have to consider draconian measures to make game more newbie friendly. There are some in this community who would do it willingly, but there are a lot of pilots think that a mg2 hvy int is simply an extension of their penis.



edit, Kage has the right idea.