Why would you have left FAF?

Hey there,

sorry i didnt read the whole thread, maybe my points where mentioned before.
I play sup com since 2007 with breaks. Starting agianst ai, later so lan with friends, sorian ai and with the pandemic i started loud.
so with the new pc in december i finally started playing faf. I think the learning curve is not the thing although its hard.

one thing is, and there cant be done much about i think, that there are always disconnects, desyncs and hard lags, so a 40 min match lasts in real time 1 h 30 min. often players write into the chat that they dont want to anymore and suicide bcs your monkeylord on dual gap needs 20 minutes to the other side.

Another thing is the team balance. Noobs like me want to play fast and some more experienced players exploit this. i often see, that some 500 - 700 players with summed up 1000 matches are together in one team against all grey noobs. the game balance shows 86% or somewhat because there is someone with 22 games and a 900 or so. When u mention this u get kicked. Its not very rewarding to play such an autoloose match against those seal clubbers because they are hard trying to get 800 rating.

sometimes there are hosts with like 800 rating and a few hundred matches and they hosting matches like: only noobs <500 <100 games, this is just stupid.

i admit i dont know what can be done about this, you need at least maybe 50 matches too recognize those problems and speak about it in the lobby.

but anyway, i played now 60 games and im here to stay=) the all grey kindergarden idea is nice its a like a safe space =D

thx too all for keeping this game running

lobbygames
I tell you i dont understand why i still have 1200 global rank as i didnt play a team game for at least 3 years. I cannot join a game without ruining it for someone else(which i wont).
proposed SOLUTION = rank decay, or hard rank reset on inactive accounts

ladder
think about how much time does a new player need to be properly prepared, to know all the races, maps and tech thats in ladder?
new player is thrown into a pool just after 5 games or so and then they get demolished.

• losing a game because its the first time you encountered a zthuee, or didnt know about 1k reclaim, or didnt have a proper BO for that map, or didnt know the map is fucked and the terrain behaves differently from what you expect from when zoomed out, or lose otherwise won game because of enemy guncom... i imagine it can demotivate

I know there already is a limit on maps in the ladder pool, based on players rank, but i think its not enough.
proposed SOLUTION = for the first 100-200 games, there should be different approach to matchmaking. Less races, less tech, small maps(carefully selected with intention to ) only.

Something like:
#gamesPlayed
1-5 only 1 5x10 map in the pool, only UEF ACU available
6-10 + 1 Map 5x5
11-15 + cybran enabled
16-30 + water map
31-60 + map 10x10 that is good for hover + Aeon enabled
.. you get the idea. slowly adding things to learn about the game, not overwhelming anybody. and smurfs would maybe get bored
for this league, there should be a page reflecting each of the steps (level-1,level-5,level-11) with description of newly unlocked things, and tips and tricks about them, BOs for unlocked maps, common tactics, tricky things about new tech...

and promotion in the client. the first tab opened should be one with matchmaking 1 button away from a game. new players should play ladder, thats the place where they can learn how to play.

It would be nice to have a "baby ladder" where one player is always UEF, the other player is always Cybran, and you don't get to choose your faction or anything else. Let's say there's only about 3-5 maps for the baby ladder and they don't change month to month, just the most absolute classic maps with no weird amounts of reclaim or navy/water other than maybe a pond to hide in.

All T2 and T3 tech (including HQs, T2 mex, ACU upgrades that correspond roughly to T2) is disabled. If the game lasts more than 20 minutes, call it a draw.

It would force players to make an effort to spam T1 and learn what is possible at the T1 stage. There would be less incentive to turtle. Later when they get into the real ladder they can do whatever they want. But the baby ladder would force a certain mindset of spam/expand/make t1 work for you.

Cybran has a disadvantage because ACU has less HP? UEF nano gun ACU beats Cybran gun+stealth ACU? don't care. At that level, faction advantage/disadvantage is going to be a lot less important than everything else. And fairness isn't really the goal, it's to push them to learn a certain style with less complexity. And cybran has jesters. Even if Cybran has a winrate of only 35%, that wouldn't be a bad thing. Players could feel extra good about winning with Cybran and it's not exactly a tragedy if a bad player manages to win a game because they have an extra 2k hp on their ACU. Bad players want to win sometimes too.

When a player starts crushing it too hard on baby ladder, or when they get a good enough rating on the real ladder, stop letting them queue for baby ladder.

EDIT: I made a mod, called "Stone Age." It's in the vault. It limits you to T1 tech, no mass storages, and it limits the ACU upgrades you can get. With the mod on, the only way you can really spend your mass is to spam factories and spam units from the factories. The idea is that you can learn all of the fundamentals of the game (economic balance, aggression, raiding, defense, scouting, radar, reclaim, etc.) without any of the complexity added by T2 tech, and without the temptation to spend your mass on T2 mass extractors. It forces you to spend the mass immediately on making more factories. So it is a tool to encourage people to learn how to spam and to learn game fundamentals. I am especially interested in hearing from new players if playing some games with this mod helps you to learn.

@FtXCommando said in Why would you have left FAF?:

@kokoryba said in Why would you have left FAF?:

ladder
think about how much time does a new player need to be properly prepared, to know all the races, maps and tech thats in ladder?

Zero.

0 time needed to get to know all the maps, races, tech...? doesnt sound right, sorry

@FtXCommando said in Why would you have left FAF?:

Why do you guys think that new people in ladder are facing 1600s?

why do you think "we guys" think that new people in ladder are facing 1600s?

so you are one of the new players, saying that?

i agree the players want big shit stuff, but ladder is not the place where you get it.

and the baby ladder how @arma473 calls it, could exist next to normal ladder so you wouldnt be forced to play it. but new players should be encouraged to

@FtXCommando call it ladder or not, it wont change a thing. and why map pool, and why 50 games? dont you think player can have fun in first 5 games with 1 race and 1 map? and next 10 games with 2 races and 2 maps? how fast can they finish those 5 games? 1 hour? many modern games limit players before they let them play the real stuff. and its for their own good

@FtXCommando said in Why would you have left FAF?:

Yes, I was a new player once. I would have never played anything that forced me to play a faction I didn't want to play. Nor would I want to be restricted to these tiny garbage t1 units when I want to make the cool big shit stuff.

But you also weren't afraid to play in the real ladder.

Let's add to it: participation in the baby ladder would be anonymous, so people wouldn't worry about being judged for bad gameplay or worry about having a "losing record" or worrying that they need to "prepare" more before jumping in. There could even a chance that your opponent is just an AI, especially if the queue time is too long.

It would remove 90% of the reasons that some people are afraid of trying the ladder and it would give them the tools and confidence that they need to play the real ladder.

@kokoryba said in Why would you have left FAF?:

many modern games limit players before they let them play the real stuff. and its for their own good

There are people who come back to FAF after a few years or a decade's absence, we don't need to force them to play 30 matches before they can unlock the real ladder. And there are people with 1700+ global rating who barely play the ladder, we don't need to make obstacles for them.

@arma473 said in Why would you have left FAF?:

There are people who come back to FAF after a few years or a decade's absence, we don't need to force them to play 30 matches before they can unlock the real ladder. And there are people with 1700+ global rating who barely play the ladder, we don't need to make obstacles for them.

one half of me wants to agree with you, making it optional, to play the baby ladder only if you want. the other half has this feeling, that most of the players will want to play with all the toys immediately, they get crush, frustrated and they leave the FAF for good.

as long as there would be enough of new content so the player wont get bored, it should be fine to force it (not on players with 100+ games) (and lets face it, standard supcom had 3 races and you get access to all the stuff after how many hours of gameplay? 30 games on small map might be 5 hours of gameplay)

@FtXCommando said in Why would you have left FAF?:

Zero. After watching several dozens of 0 rated games from people that are new and ask for advice, I can tell you that if a new player prepared by watching a 5 minute BO explaining 1 land fac 4 mex hydro land fac or 1 land fac 2 pgen 2 mex 2 pgen 2 mex pgen land fac they would already be about 500 rating underrated.

Why do you guys think that new people in ladder are facing 1600s?

Sorry to say it, but you are completely out of touch with what it is like to be a real noob. I got 25 games in 1v1 and got messed up good. After spending about 1-2 hrs watching tutorials and BOs. So I spend almost as much time improving as I played.

I got a 400 rating and constantly get raped by 500s and 600s. Quickest game I had was against a 1200 who wiped me in 5 minutes. Got a 40% WR.
Hard, just hard.

Now my own thoughts:
FAF isn't the game I want to have but I am stuck with. I really dislike the efficiency simulator aspect, as I come from the original TA. It was way more about tactical decisions and unit composition as FAF is. But to my knowledge there is no usable TA version around anymore so FAF it is. Credit where credit is due, FAF has its glorious sides!

Now about my experiences when I started about 4 weeksa go. Sobering is the best word to describe them. You come into the custom lobby and there are only camping games. Not what the tactician in me wants. I play Setons because it is the most action packed map aviable. I get raped and flamed because 600-700 players are 5 leagues above my skill level even though I am ranked the same for some reasons. In other games I tried to prevent seal clubbing parties by being outspoken and begging overly experienced players to leave. Got seal clubbed anyway, as predicted.
Hosting games myself is out of the question, I am too unexperienced. Still tried, no one joined. Reasons unknown.
In the end I had 1-2 very fun games on maps usually not hosted where the balance was somewhat okay.

Went for 1v1. As in my first post, that experience was pretty hard too. But at least I got some good games out of it.

The community is very weird. In lobby chats you have a person talking back from time to time but most of the time it is like talking to a wall. Russians spamming the team chat in Russian even though you beg them to talk in English. Ocasional flaming. The Client chat room 'aeolus' has a very weird toxicity to it and everybody seems to know each other so I don't dare to ask anything. Newbie chat is deserted. Here and there I met with friendly players but really just here and there.

Pretty sobering all in all...

@FtXCommando i think its not about losing itself, its about the reason of losing

have you ever played a board game where you have lost because of some special rule nobody told you about? and later again, you played well but you lost because there is a special rule you didnt know about...now you know, but the game is already lost. and you would ask why didnt you tell me before? well because there is just too many of these little things so we just cant tell you all of them, you will have to learn as you go. but many people wont. they leave

i will list some of the reasons why people lose their games (my opinion only, no research done apart from playing the game myself

• not aware of guncom strength and cost (could be solved with nice 10x5 map with chokepoint)
• special units from aeon and seraphim such as aurora and zthuee with floating capabilities
• too big map (20x20) too many things to do
• new map, no idea what to build, where to go
• bad T2 timing

i dont think its about small differences between units as you mentioned. i think you mentioned T3 bombers to partly disqualify my point

but maybe you are right about ACU movement and mass overflow. on small map, they would learn better that ACU must be used, and they wouldnt get easily overwhelmed by the size of the map

now your talk about 1000 rank i cannot take it seriously but you can prove me wrong, you play rank under 1k and win with mass sky slammer spam

the point of the baby league is to keep the player long enough in the game to teach him the basics. as it is now, ladder will teach them the same, but only if they wont get frustrated before. and that might be the case why people are leaving.