What would make ladder less stressful, intense, or scary?

@waffelznoob I do agree 100%, however newbies are in general terrible at improvising build orders, and thus gravitate towards rote learning instead in order to compensate. By removing their ability to rote learn, this lowers stress and will make them actually start improvising, because they know the other player has to do the same and therefore feel that the game is 'fair' (which makes them more likely to queue ladder). Perception shapes reality in this case and all that.

P.S And yes trees on Loki are fun to get out early bombers when you're lower ranked 😛

Build orders are part of the game. I realy like it to see a map were I have a good build order. Also build orders are counterable. If I know what my opponent is doing then I can try to thwart his plans.

I'm not playing 1vs1 anymore as I simply don't like the maps. I would prefer 5x5 km land maps. The other maps are stressfull as you have to trop islands or you have a disadvantage against hover factions.

@mach said in What would make ladder less stressful, intense, or scary?:

imo only mapgen ladder would be close to "fixing" it because it removes the map knowledge advantage, but it will always be "scarier" than other modes because 1v1 of any kind is hard

This would make me stop playing 100% because after awhile you realize Map Gen is not all that random and it becomes business as usual.

Not to mention a lot of the biomes are really awful to look at…

@waffelznoob said in What would make ladder less stressful, intense, or scary?:

you do not need map specific build orders, you just need to get better at improvising them. nobody in the lower rankings has a good build order, otherwise they wouldn't be lower ranking. nobody in the higher rankings has a good build order either, they all just got good at improvising them

only map that i can think of that actually has a commonly used build order across the playerbase is loki

Crossfire canal, point of reach, the ditch (you be damned if you don’t know how to manage that unique amount of reclaim), tag craftious, ronoake, sera glaciers, theta passage, open palms, and tons more have unique openings.

You just don’t feel it anymore as you’re so used to it…

Also this thread title is leading people to believe something that is not true: reason Ladder is low in play at a decent level is because everyone is tired of it, and 4v4 tmm is the new, fun, social thing.

@cetea then do something that counters their build order. any disruption in their build order will force them to return back to their true level of gameplay. even something as crazy as first bomber can completely crush all the preparation they did

@Morax i dont have a bo for crossfire canal, its always improvised and always shit
i treat PoR, roanoke and sera glaciers as basic intie/trans rush BOs, ditch is the same as any other insane high reclaim map (which mapgen can be too), theta is unique i agree, and my tag/open palms build orders dont extend beyond land fac (pgen) 4 mex hydro

All this and im still able to sit somewhat comfortably around the 2k rating range. That is proof enough that lack of build order knowledge is not a valid excuse. Work on your general gameplay skills and you'll be able to work around it. Starting with a disadvantage never means an immediate loss even at the top tier of ladder play, let alone in a lower rated game

profile picture credits to petric

@morax said in What would make ladder less stressful, intense, or scary?:

@mach said in What would make ladder less stressful, intense, or scary?:

imo only mapgen ladder would be close to "fixing" it because it removes the map knowledge advantage, but it will always be "scarier" than other modes because 1v1 of any kind is hard

This would make me stop playing 100% because after awhile you realize Map Gen is not all that random and it becomes business as usual.

Not to mention a lot of the biomes are really awful to look at…

sounds like mapgen just needs to be improved more, the concept behind it is sound itself

For me, it would help if the client did not fail to log back in after a disconnect. Forced to close client to log back in using the browser and can then not reconnect to a game.

isnt 1v1 ladder supposed to be intense scary and stressfull? i think its good as it is, its just not the kind of game experience i want most times. and who you can annoy with pinging when only you are there to make bad plays? 🐷

@voodoo I understand that b.os are a big part of the game, especially once you get to the top tier where it starts to matter a lot. It also gives a lot of different style of games because you get maps like the ditch, loki, where it's really satisfying to get it right and just get an advantage right off the bat via your superior opening. However it's also what drives away a lot of newbies since they think (incorrectly, but you can never get rid of the idea) that they need to have B.Os down to a science for every ranked map before they'll even touch it, which lowers the number of players who are willing to get into ranked.

If there was a way that made it where lower rated players just get map gen (i.e anyone below 1500 in 1 vs 1), while above that you start getting special maps, that would be pretty awesome IMO, because the higher skilled players get their special maps that they can have home field advantage on, while the lower rated players can relax (especially since B.Os really don't matter much below a certain rating anyway).

@waffelzNoob I agree as well, any early raids or aggression usually forces someone who's just rote learning a B.O to revert to their natural skill level, but most players are around the 700 rating skill level or something. So what is natural for any 1400+ player is basically impossible for these players already, they're too busy trying to sim city early on to do any raids, let alone do first bomber micro. Some of those players might be good enough to improve, and my idea is just to make the game seem less 'scary' to them, so they can play in ladder and hopefully improve and give the higher rated players more competition eventually.

I like the Idea of a mapgen ladder. Also I have no problem with includint AI as a possible opponent in the lower ranks (let's say below 500?). On chess sites you can also play vs AI of different difficulties which are considered to have a certain rating (Elo).

Of course you can set up your own game vs the AI but the element of randomness with the mapgen and the match getting rated sounds pretty appealing to me. It would also help newbies getting some expierience without getting crushed from more experienced players and avoid some frustration.

Another thing could be a 10min build up timer for games in lower ratings so you can focus on your bo without getting harassed.

increase game speed ie less hp for buildings, more damage(x2) for units.
simple as

I don't like early raid as i don't have the apm to take care of my build order and take care of that single bomber/lab killing my engi