Speaking as a 1400-1500 rated player, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an 1800 and a 2300 teammate/enemy whilst playing the game myself (unless there was 1 of each to compare). I'm perfectly happy to have players like Blodir in my game, as long as the match is balanced and they can forgive my mistakes, but I do enjoy games more when everyone is below 1600.

A rating bracket system sounds alright, but not if the brackets are forced. Like if I have to play in the 1500+ bracket whenever I reach over that rating, I'm just always going to be the worst there and have no fun. With an optional bracket system it allows people who don't want to play with noobier players to opt out of those games, while still allowing those of us who don't mind playing with noobs as much to continue as we are. Those players who opt in will just have to accept the fact that imposing their own brackets will increase wait time.

Also, as a side note, whenever I get into a game where everyone is 1400/1500+, the map always seems to be 20x20, often with lots of navy, whereas the lower games are at least 75% land maps. Why is this, and can it be changed?

@ftxcommando That's understandable, however it leads to a, perhaps unintended, increase in noobiness. For a newer player who predominantly plays TMM, and who hasn't had years of experience in custom games, we learn how to do well in those low level TMM land maps and practice over and over at them. Then we rank up into more experienced games and the whole dynamic shifts - our prior experience is largely thrown out of the window. I think this is the primary reason that 1800+ players consider many 1300-1500s nooby - we just don't know what we're doing and haven't practiced 20x20 naval maps. This means its very easy for us to make "simple" mistakes which garners BM from better players.

I don't have a solution to this, but do other people feel the same way?

@Nex I concede, you make a good point - the only problem is 800s are expected to play poorly and 1500s are expected to be somewhat adept, so it's a shock to my team mates when they witness my utter lack of skill xD

@FtXCommando I agree that growing pain periods are required, but the issue is that these periods affect team mates too. As I'm sure you're well aware, having a sub-par team mate lose a whole side of the map is very frustrating. This leads to less desire to play TMM for the top rated folks, which is the point of this thread.

@ftxcommando That's understandable, however it leads to a, perhaps unintended, increase in noobiness. For a newer player who predominantly plays TMM, and who hasn't had years of experience in custom games, we learn how to do well in those low level TMM land maps and practice over and over at them. Then we rank up into more experienced games and the whole dynamic shifts - our prior experience is largely thrown out of the window. I think this is the primary reason that 1800+ players consider many 1300-1500s nooby - we just don't know what we're doing and haven't practiced 20x20 naval maps. This means its very easy for us to make "simple" mistakes which garners BM from better players.

I don't have a solution to this, but do other people feel the same way?

Speaking as a 1400-1500 rated player, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an 1800 and a 2300 teammate/enemy whilst playing the game myself (unless there was 1 of each to compare). I'm perfectly happy to have players like Blodir in my game, as long as the match is balanced and they can forgive my mistakes, but I do enjoy games more when everyone is below 1600.

A rating bracket system sounds alright, but not if the brackets are forced. Like if I have to play in the 1500+ bracket whenever I reach over that rating, I'm just always going to be the worst there and have no fun. With an optional bracket system it allows people who don't want to play with noobier players to opt out of those games, while still allowing those of us who don't mind playing with noobs as much to continue as we are. Those players who opt in will just have to accept the fact that imposing their own brackets will increase wait time.

Also, as a side note, whenever I get into a game where everyone is 1400/1500+, the map always seems to be 20x20, often with lots of navy, whereas the lower games are at least 75% land maps. Why is this, and can it be changed?