Some good news about Team Matchmaking (TMM)
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FtX makes a good point. The most I play with full share, the more it seems like a better way to play. The meta simply needs time to develop with full share on to really get people out of the share-until-death mindset.
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After having hosted countless all welcome games on randomly generated maps I can attest to the fact full share makes the games more fun to play, for both sides. Without it, games end at around 10 minutes, after the first player death, with no chance of recovery for their teammates, after some 2v1 or unfortunate first engagement. This drastic, game-ending outcome often comes as a result of rock-paper-scissors dynamics in the build orders (much more prevalent on random maps), not some grand masterminded strategy that could potentially be scouted and countered in time.
I am, however, dumbfounded by the amount of people that join only to immediately throw a tantrum because they see full share on, then begin to educate me on its shortcomings. Very few games have ended in victory for the team down a player, so the oft repeated argument that full share makes snipes meaningless just doesn't ring true to me. Being down a com and placing more burden on another player does not make the game easier for the losing team, and, at least around my level, it takes time for the the unified economy to compensate for these disadvantages.
I really hope more people give it a chance, and, as funk said, learn to adapt their decision making to this change in rules. Snipe economy, and press the attack once you get a kill instead of zoning out and going sim city.
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And that's not even factoring in concerns about disconnects potentially ruining games and poisoning the whole idea of random queues for people. At least with full share you can still feel like you maintain some level of control over the game outcome.
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There's another point to be made regarding player experience.
Since without full share, you are usually punished with an agonizing and inevitable defeat when your teammate dies, sometimes through no fault of your own, player deaths are often followed by toxic interactions between teammates, "moron" tags peppered around the map and stuff like that. Full share helps a lot with this problem.
It also seems to me that people more often stay in the game instead of leaving immediately when full share is on, maybe partly because they want to see their stuff put to use. For one thing, this means defeat feels less bitter since fewer rage quit. But it also increases the chance that dead high rated players instruct lower rated players on their team, and that dead low rated players stick around to learn from their teammates. These are the only times casual players get to see high level play and actually pay attention to it, since very few of them spectate games or watch replays, and actually incentivizes high rated players to teach, since they can salvage their rating if they guide their teammates to victory.
These are not minor concerns. This community is plagued by the unreasonable popularity of maps like astro craters or thermo or gap. If a lobby features some other map, it's almost always rating limited. New players end up joining the only lobbies that will have them, the aforementioned shit map trifecta. Some never leave this comfort zone even after gaining a white rating.
TMM is one of the few developments in years that has a chance to change this, and, if I'm not mistaken, it's whole purpose is specifically remedying this situation. We should not overlook player experience when deciding how to structure team play. Even if it turns out full share is not the best option, TMM should arguably use it at launch to be more noob friendly.
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Full share would be more encouraging for a super low rank noob like me to try. Otherwise I just know I will suck and die, then my teammate will have to live with that :((
p.s. I'm too much of a chicken to do 1 v 1 ladder. It stresses me out for some reason. lol -
@BananaSmoothie If you're nervous about the ladder, (1) your first 4-6 games usually involve going up against 1k rated players. You aren't going to win those anyway, so you might as well get them out of the way (2) host some custom 1v1s with a rating limit. Call it something like "1v1 Under 500." Then you get to pick the map and pick your opponent and it's not even a "real" ladder game. If you understand why you lost, you can improve. If you don't understand, or if you just want someone else's perspective, ask someone to look at your replays. You can also invite better players to 1v1 with you. Host a "1v1 All Welcome" and if you get rolled by a better player, ask them what you could have done better. They might not know, they might tell you something untrue, but most people LOVE to give you their opinion if you ask for it. You will have no shortage of advice and then it's up to you to evaluate it to decide which advice is good.
I do think TMM games involving low-rated players will be a great way for people to learn about FAF because you will have a teammate who will tell you some things during the game. It will be an opportunity to get advice/direction from many people that you might not otherwise team up with.
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I am all for full share in 2v2, those that say the team that loses a players has the advantage because they have eco just clearly don't know how to take advantage of that situation, or shot themselves in the foot with a poorly coordinated snipe where they lost their entire army or mass bar doing it.
However i cant say i am a fan of full share being for ALL team games 3v3 and beyond. Full share in a 4v4 on 10x10, sounds like it will be a slow and painful game that drag on far longer than it should. I understand pros and cons to having full share and why those are for it and against it. I do feel it is needed in a 2v2 situation, but i worry that in larger team games full share will just put people off (perhaps just speaking for myself). Even without full share - team games with current map meta (canis and hilly being the main team game maps) the games drag out because bases are so tight and morph together to form a turtle) and these games drag on and become painful. I dont even want to imagine or play a full share version of that.
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There will be a far larger proportion of 20x20 maps as player count increases. I would be treating 10x10 in 4v4 similar to how 5x5 is currently treated in ladder. Namely, it’s a way for <800 players to get comfortable with working as a team and quickly helping one another out which then takes them into higher brackets where the 20x20 proportion gets ever larger.
And if you want a decent 20x20 experience, some degree of full share is necessary.
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And what is the current view/stamce regarding 3v3: 3v3 on 20x20 is horrible for players like me so i appreciate full share helping the game remain competitive. but 3v3 10x10 I personally think fits nicely and is both enjoyable and competitive without full share. Would it be a possibility to only have full share coded for the larger map in this scenario?
EDIT - i also forgot to continue your point of larger maps as player count increases. i feel that works well especially how its done in ladder. But that still means if similar to ladder its possible to get say a 4v4 10x10 even in higher leagues or tiers? so in that case would full share still be on?
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Share conditions changing like that is incoherent to players and makes things extremely unintuitive for newer players. I don't want to introduce anything like that because it means players are fighting and getting frustrated at the rules of the game rather than the game they are actually playing. This is harmful to both new and irregular players which are meant to be targeted by the matchmaker as it is supposed to be the new introduction to pvp for players.
I am technically able to have entirely different pools between rating brackets. I could have hilly as an <800 10x10 for 4v4 and then idk, planet shmal as one for 1300+. I'm just going to carry over the system from ladder into tmm though as I have no real way of knowing what needs to be changed and what doesn't right now.
One thing I was wondering was whether Fields of Isis should be kept in higher level 2v2 pools or not because it's a decent 2v2 for newer players but tends to become less interesting as your rating increases. I just need to see how player preferences fall.
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@FtXCommando Good call on keeping rules consistent. Isis is a classic but I think it works better without reclaim in the middle. Ideally, turtle maps should be mostly excludes. (Turtle map is when ally spawns are close together, enemy spawns are far apart, most mex are in the bases, and each player need only manage one "lane". Isis is a turtle map.)
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Super excited for 2v2 ladder. Thanks @Askaholic! When do we expect this to be released
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The answer to your question is in the original post.
There is no more accurate release scedule yet.
