Whining (Mk II)

[old.Zenith]

Okay then. A different thing that folk whine about in servers is "teams".

Sure, sometimes the sides are uneven and it's pretty simple to change sides and level the teams up. No problem.
So how come a player with a known and respected tribe starts whining about the teams in a public server? The server in question had 7 a side and it seemed fairly balanced from my point of view. There were a number of tagged players on both sides and yet he was yelling "Even the teams up!".
When I said that the teams were even at 7 v 7, he said "You know what I mean".

Excuse me, but I DON'T know what you mean!

I think he was trying to get across that there was a disparity in the average skill between the BE and DS sides, but he never came out and SAID it. When I pointed out that "THis is a public server. Live with it!", he started with a tirade of abuse at myself and one or two others on my team. Another player on his side also started on me with the abusive messages as well. As luck would have it, my connection died at that moment so I didn't have to listen to any more.

Whining in public servers is nothing new. I just mute the players in question. What bothers me here is that this player was playing in the public server, making these abusive comments, while tagged. The tribe in question is/was one of the premier tribes in Europe and shouldn't need to descend to abusing other players in such a fashion.
_________________________
Zenith

UNTAGGED Tribes playing bloke

 

[old.Annexed]

Anyone who can't cope with fighting and losing should leave the server. Today I was, for once, playing C&H, and my team got absolutely beaten into the ground on Anthill I think it was. We managed 30 points and even that was a surprise. But the team stuck together and on the next map we won.

If you can't stand the heat, piss outta the server - new MOTD message there if ever was

 

[old.Crunchy]

Changing sides when it's 8 v 6 or something makes sense, but changing because the sides are uneven rarely works. The domination of one side of the other often swings each map change as ppl are joining and dropping.

 

[old.Magnox]

It's really not *that* hard. At times when one team is (nearly) all clanned players while the other isn't, or averages half the ping of the other, I'd consider it courteous and common sense if a few players were to swap teams. The community at BW isn't so large that it isn't easy to estimate the relative strengths of the teams usually. Hint: if 5 maps in a row are cap-outs vs. 0 by one team, chances are the people on the losing team aren't having much fun- and normal people on the winning team likely aren't either.

 

[old.Annexed]

In these days of mass aliasing just because you've got one team of clanned players it often doesn't mean a thing. There are plenty of quality players either aliasing, or unclanned.

If there are repetitive cap outs then yes, some people should get off their lazy asses and swap teams.

 

[old.logic7]

If I join a pub server (which I often do) and the skill level is completely lopsided (usually in favor of the other team), I try to take it upon myself to even things out by placing as many turrets and the like everywhere. Since all I play on now are Shifter servers, this can help 1 person swing the balance of a game to his team, even if they're complete morons.

 

[old.[TMC]Santro]

Some people do take it all a bit too seriously - i agree!
As a general rule though, Crunchy is right and it's not unusual for a team to get whooped one minute and on the map change - completely trash the opposition after the usual droppers and joiners
It's nice to see some of the better players out there - especially well known cappers - playing Flag Def in some of the pubbies - I've seen a lot of this recently (gives the rest of us a chance to play Offence!

 

[old.Poker]

Option in BWAdmin to randomise teams on map change.

 

[old.Magnox]

IMHO completely shuffling the teams around after each map sucks just as bad, it will be the final blow to any sort of cooperation on pubbies. Ideally, after a while a balance is formed and a couple of fun games are the result. It does happen, ocassionally

 

[old.Annexed]

BWadmin team reshuffling

Poker, would it be possible to reshuffle teams on the basis of player score? At least that way it would be possible to even out the amount of high scoring players.

I admit this would not take account of the (unfortunately very few on most pubs) team minded defenders and turreters, but at least you could arrange the LDs and cappers with reasonable accuracy.

Although team play is cut between up between games it would serve the useful purpose of always evening up the teams in both numerical and, theoretically, skill which could guarantee a good game for everyone joining, because they'd know that whatever the situation on a map, it will be evened out in 15mins or so.

This should encourage people to play to the best of their ability on every map, and remove the defeatist attitudes that are present when your team is being owned by the other.

Hmmm, another rant from me

 

[old.logic7]

Poker: There are several Shifter servers that randomize teams every 2 or 3 maps. I kinda like that 'cause I can get some kills in as soon as the match starts.

 

[old.Poker]

It certainly does not stop teamplay, just means that it is more short-lived, you have to develop it over the space of one game, not many and thus both teams are on an equal footing for each game rather than one dominating for a good few maps just because they get things right and the other team drops continually spoiling the end of a game because they lose heavily so they don't get it together and don't win the next one either (sound familiar?).

It is there as a possible solution and there is precedent in other online games. In some circumstances it works, in others not, but the option is there for server admins to use if they wish.

Score and/or ping no basis to allocate teams imho, neither are superb indicators of skill/teamplay particularly as the map changes.