I think it's pretty common to tell new or less skilled players that they are stupid and should uninstall the game rather than help them improve. True teamwork is very hard to find around here. I have played with certain people game after game and winning like crazy and playing solid but when I make one mistake and now we lose one game then all a sudden those same mates who were great during wins are telling me I am an idiot and hating on me because we lose one. Watch any replay and read the chat and more often than not it is people yelling at each other telling each other horrible things....people don't know how to lose as a team....this is the greatest team game ever and most people can't understand that. People don't understand that we are lucky to have such a community and such support....there is no love here....everybody hates everyone.

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this but I would like to donate to the prize pool so that the prizes are as follows

1st - $200
2nd - $100
3rd - $50

If this is acceptable please let me know how to make this happen. To be clear I am offering to fund the entire prize pool of $350. If the current funding is already in place then I will fund the balance. I don't use discord when I am away for work (near the Arctic circle) so I only use the forum app so please contact me here.

I've been playing this game since 2018 and have logged nearly 4,000 games. A good 2,000 of those are Astro.... Yeah I know I'm pathetic but I like the arcade aspect of it okay.

I played a thousand games of Astro before I ever tried map gen and that's where my bread and butter is now. I've gotten to know the community really well despite not being a discord person. Just playing with different multiplayer map gen games you get exposed to all the different clans and all the high-ranked players and despite a lot of toxicity there is 100x more positivity.

I have been very impressed with how many pro level players, yourself included The Wreck that will play in 1200+ games with professionalism and respect.

One thing that has always shocked me is the makeup of moderation/leadership group. I would fully expect people like yourself and the many other pro level players who have been active over the last 5 years to be a key part in the leadership group of FAF. I don't understand why that isn't the case. I'm sure everyone has different levels of time and effort they can commit to such things but over the past year or so I've started to realize that it's more political than that and it has always had me worry.

As I've said before this game has essentially changed my life. It is the only game I play. It is part of my culture and my way of life. I don't ever want to play a different game. But I'm very worried about the future of FAF.

It seems to me like some moderators don't have the best interest of FAF at heart because they don't understand the game and the community at the level required to have such a role.

I have always wondered what the peak version of FAF is and if we could ever get back there. There are so many updates and changes balance or otherwise I'm just not sure is worth it. I like the changes from a couple years ago that made energy be more important and prevented nukes from being rushed so quickly and slowed the game down a bit because I personally like a more slow and strategic game.

But lately it seems there are so many changes and moderation efforts that seem to go counter to the spirit of the community and the game.

I completely agree with you that there needs to be a standard set for who is in control of this and who makes the decisions all across the board. The pro level players clearly care about this game based on the number of games they play. I'm sure they would play more but as I've noticed it's harder for a 2k player to find a game than it is for a 1200.

I think that the moderators, The balance team, board of directors, every key group that governs this community in this game should be led by the people who play it most not necessarily the people who have certain skill sets. Those people should be under the direction of the people who play it most.

There are a lot of toxic people that play this game a lot so obviously it's not then. But like I said before there are so many pro-level players who log in everyday and play this game and are legitimately good people and treat others well and understand the essence of what this community is because they are immersed in it.

I am not a pro-level player and I went through my stage of being a toxic piece of shit for the first few years of playing but over the past few years I have really chilled out and that's probably because I got a job that has me traveling to the remote places of the world so much where I can't get a good internet signal and now when I get home I appreciate the game so much more.

I feel I understand the game and the community pretty well and if I had more time to commit I would be a great fit on some level. My point is that I'm a great example of the type of person in this community and have played nearly 4,000 games and would be an excellent person to be a moderator if only I had the time.

Take any of my replays from my first few years of playing and you would say the hell with this guy but that doesn't represent who I am now and I'm sure this is the case for many people.

There's probably people that are currently banned that if given another chance they would be excellent community members.

I think there needs to be a complete rethink of how we operate because it's up to us to keep this going. The moderator s that are currently in place need to take a big step back and if you really care then you will support the efforts of the community to keep this thing alive.

Taking this name change rule as an example it is so clear that the community does not want it and your best thing you could have done is revert it and move forward because that's what the community wants but instead you spend however many days or weeks now justifying and defending the decision..... It's low level tyranny...

Give the people what they want... In most cases that is the best way forward for a small gaming.

I'm not familiar with the exact structure of how this is all governed and moderated but again I say there needs to be a serious retrofit of all systems. I've seen so many posts for the balance team makes changes and they are so unpopular but the changes are just defended over and over again rather than reverting them based on the will of the people.

Somehow someway we got to get to a point where the most mature and dedicated players are the ones who make key decisions. I manage hundreds of people in my role at work and the best way to get them to do the job.... The best way for the company I represent to succeed... is to give them what they want.... And all they want when they are at work is to be given the resources they need and the support they need to succeed and they will. Very rarely will I make decisions that go against what the group wants because they care about these projects just as much as I do as their manager. Everyone that works for me is constantly telling me this is the best place they've ever worked and they never want to leave and I take a lot of pride in that because we're not doing things my way we're doing things our way. My senior corporate managers didn't understand it at first but the results speak for themselves. The way of the company has to be the way of the people. I'm lucky enough to have managers that recognize this and they step back and let us do our thing.

If the governing body of FAF needs to have the keys to the kingdom because of legal reasons and irreplaceable skill sets such as coding and all that stuff then so be it but the best thing they can do is take a backseat and let the people who love and care for this and play this the most shape this and build this.

Okay I've said enough. I'm not even going to proofread it.

If you are in a game where anyone builds 8 novax uncontested then you should be very happy when that game ends no matter what team you are on.

@zhanghm18 within the organization I work for we have something in our employee code of conduct called incivility. I'm sure everyone knows what that is but essentially it allows the company to dismiss an individual for disrupting the workforce and bringing down morale. They don't have to actually specifically attack character or be abusive or harassing. Essentially if they are inciting others to have a negative view of the company or are being disruptive in similar fashion then we are allowed to dismiss them for incivility.

I've never been a moderator in any type of online forum but I think a similar clause in the code of conduct should be considered.

In my opinion if certain people only seem to want to be part of this community to tear it down in some way then we don't need them. This would tie back into the topic at hand and would be one less way why certain things suck right now.

@ganima said in The End of FAF:

This thread is very confusing for me. It's very hard for me to tell who is telling the truth.

Its not really about truth or lies its about differences of opinions in which case everybody is telling the truth.

It is clear that there are so many passionate people who are a part of this community and I trust that such debates will make the community stronger and that people who may have chosen to leave will return and help build it further.

I started my FAF career as a -700 after a half dozen games. It was pretty scary but didn't take long to turn it around. I would argue that people who quit FAF after losing their first half dozen or so games didn't really have their heart in it and were going to quit whether their rank said -700 or 300 after such a stretch.

@indexlibrorum said in $350 BigBrain 1x1 Tournament:

@dorset Really cool Dorset! Very kind.

Thank you....but Skrat is putting much more into this than me.

@brutus5000 said in What is going on with FAF?:

Please guys. If you want to donate for the cause of FAF that is fine. But don't donate and expect and problems to be resolved in return. This is not something we can guarantee.

Absolutely understood. I suppose the better term I should have used is support rather than donate... Support can come in many forms, financial, skill set, or even just positive attitude. All I can do is bring a positive attitude and support the developers by not whining and complaining about the state of FAF every time I log on and I am more than happy to donate financially to a game that I care so much about and spend so much time playing.

It's clear from this thread there is no easy fix so I'm not going to expect the few hundred dollars that I donate a year to instantly change that but it might go towards ensuring our tournaments at FAFLive continue to have great turnouts due to respectable prize pools and that the lights stay on so to speak.

As great as my skill set is in my own life and career it is completely useless for what is required here at FAF but it brings me joy to be able to support financially.

The greatest first person shooter game ever created was Battlefield 2142. There never was a game like it and there never will be again. When Battlefield 3 came out the community kept 2142 going.... Right up until the moderators scared everyone away and ruined the fun of it all....FAF has all the ingredients to survive whatever next gen game comes along to compete with it... Unless the people get scared off for no good reason.

It's shocking to me that the moderators can't see from this thread that the will of the people is clear. Just do the right thing and switch it back.

I got one week left in my 7-week shift up north and I get to come home and play FAF for 2 and 1/2 weeks straight while I get day drunk and realize that I can't handle my weed anymore and get yelled at in chat by young RAGErs because I'm playing like crap... but I'm getting worried that there'll be nothing left for me to play when I return.....

Please just do the right thing and switch it back....

@Kilatamoro said in Wish-A-Mod Foundation:

A mod that draws a radius for every known enemy SMD when you press launch on your SML to choose a target. And maybe also draws a wide line from your SML to where your cursor is that becomes red when it obviously crosses an enemy SMD's radius.

There is a mod called SMD ring that I use religiously both for marking all the SMDs on my team and the enemy team. I also use a straight edge to make sure I can thread the needle between smds. You can also see the line the launch order makes to ensure it doesn't cross over an SMD ring and move the target to bring the line away from a ring ... This is how to do it. I think having a mod that automates this is not good for FAF but that's my opinion.

I personally don't mind waiting several minutes or more for another player who has to deal with an IRL situation and I find it so annoying when others refuse to have the game paused. We're all just human beings on the world playing a video game and sometimes stuff comes up.

It's not like we're playing a first person shooter where we can die and just not respawn to deal with stuff. Once we start a match we're committing 45 minutes plus if it comes down to it and we're all in the same boat so why some people refuse to have the game paused is just toxic in my opinion.

I think it should be something that is punishable. It would deter people from being the ones who spam the unpause button and those who grief it like that could be reported and punished accordingly.

@maudlin27
I appreciate that but my logic is as follows.

• Ban evasion, meaning people can get away with bad behavior that wrecks the FAF experience for others, leading to an increase in such behavior

Yes this is true but if someone makes a new account and then never act out of line again the net affect is we have 1 more person in the community. I think it would be very rare for someone to repeatedly be toxic and make a new account over and over. These types probably do it anyway.

• Rating becomes less reliable, meaning fewer balanced games - generally a closely fought game where either team could potentially win is more likely to be fun than a completely 1-sided game where one team never had a chance. The more reliable rating is, the easier it is to come up with teams that are a similar level of skill.

In my opinion this isn't a concern because the "smurf effect" only lasts what?...100 games? I just dont think people can outrun their rank and it will quickly settle to what they are. I dont see pro level players wanting to pretend they are a 1200 and blend in a game and pile up losses just to be a smurf. I am a 1300 level and cant stand playing in games where everyone is a 600. Anyone who wants to do this is probably doing it anyway.

• New player experience is likely to be worse if you have a much higher chance of fighting against someone who based on their rating should be a new player but turns out to actually be a smurf that completely destroys you (leading to fewer people playing FAF longer term)

I am curious how many new players are onboarded each month to know if this would be a legit reason. If multiple accounts were allowed there may be an initial rush as players made new accounts but once that equalized I think it would be the same experience as it is now.

It's also not that much effort to create multiple accounts, and with people often enjoying winning more than losing there'd be a strong incentive to do it (since it'd increase your chances of winning a game).

I think its a rare type of person who wants to go through the effort multiple times over any meaningfully short duration. Anyone who wants to go through the trouble every time they get a few losses is probably doing it already anyway. I think most people probably don't even make a second account if it were legal and if they do its for a specific purpose such as playing only GAP with one account and playing only mapgen with another. Or maybe one where I am only ever UEF.

I personally would love a second account to grind but I wouldn't want a third or 4th or 5th lol. Multiple email accounts multiple steam accounts, keeping track of it all hurts my low apm brain. I have a few other games I play and have 3 accounts on each and each one is for a different playstyle but those are different genres so its not apples to apples I admit.

I'm not trying to suggest we should change the rules because FAF is great as is but since the topic was raise I wanted to point out that I think there is an argument for not governing multiple accounts.

Personally I don't think there should be any restrictions on having multiple accounts for any reason across the board. If people want to go through the effort of having multiple accounts what does it really matter? I think most people wont even bother and those that do aren't going to really affect anyone else.

I finally got matched in a 4v4 and it now shows 1 of 10 games played to get classified. 3v3 shows 6 of 10 and I haven't been matched in a 2v2 or 1v1 game yet to know if those sections are asking for 10 games or the 3 it should be. 3 games would be so much better than 10 that's for sure....other than that its skill issue on my part but maybe that helped find a bug so there's that lol

Can you rephrase the question?

@BlackYps Thanks for the clarification. I don't want to make work for people trying to weed out any bugs if they are only really affecting me (I can stop crying and try to be better lol) but yes all 4 ladder scenarios reset for me so now I have 10 games to play for each one and I had all 4 into rank as I played a lot of ladder last season compared to what I normally do.

I played 6, 3v3 matches so far this season, lost all 6 and I would say at least 4 of those matches if not all felt like I was placed with Bronze/Silver/Gold players rather than the higher level gold and lower level diamond players.

It may not be as noticeable with other leagues and skill levels but I tell ya the difference between playing in a game that is more like a 1.3k+compared to a game that is more like a 600-1200 is like playing an entirely different game all together.

I can jump in 1.3k+ games knowing that any typical opponent in that match is going to do things a certain way and there is an expected pace and there are things that players just don't do. That's why you see many 2k+ players host 1.2k+ games and very rarely see them host anything that allows less ranking.

These past few weeks I have hit another level in my gameplay and a lot of the regulars I play with have complimented me on that but dang it I still cant overcome playing in a game where a random guy makes a million t1 bombers at min 5 for some reason while another guy somehow has a t3 mex at min 8 and nothing else. Some random 600 level player who can make a mavor in 32 mins and nothing else so thats what they do here in ladder while the team dies around them lol....Its complete madness at this level lol

I find these games I spend more time figuring out how to defend myself against the madness rather than playing FAF the way I should be LOL...

Anyway. I appreciate the responses and I'll just try to stop crying and realize I just have serious skill issues. :)....but I already knew that lol

I thought so but wasn't sure. I think its just the stage I am at in my noob level. I am a global 1300 that typically plays in pretty intense 1.2k+ mapgen customs. In 3v3/4v4 ladder I was Gold 1 and only a few points from Diamond 5 just before the end of season so I was playing the last few weeks against all diamond league players and playing at the level I do best at. Now in this new season I seem to be getting matched against lower level Gold players along with silver and bronze. Its a completely different pace and I find it much harder to play at a high level inside a low ranked game than I do inside a high ranked game as ironic as that sounds lol.

Like I said in my OP, skill issue... but I do wonder why such a big change in matchups from one season to the next.

For the first time last season I got into ladder and really enjoyed it. I got myself established and was really enjoying striving toward getting up the ladder to the next league. I almost got myself into diamond league on 3v3 and 4v4 and made considerable progress on my 1v1 and 2v2 gameplay....then I noticed that near the end of the season I stopped playing. What's the point in playing and trying to progress to the next tier when its all going to be reset on Jan 1....so I stopped playing and found myself just waiting until Jan 1st which makes me wonder does ladder player count drop off in the last weeks of the season or is it just me.

Now we have a new season and I am so disheartened that I need to play 10 games each to figure out what type of player I am....4500 games and I still need 10 games each league in order for FAF to know what I am about?? I have tried but I am not doing it....Id rather just abandon ladder. Why do we have to play these 10 games at the start of every season? Can we just not get our ranks carried over?

At my level I have to go backwards now and play with a bunch of lower ranked players where as just a few days ago I would be placed with my rank or higher....

Forcing players to play with lower ranks is not how you get people to improve especially at this level where I am not good enough to over come it in larger games but I am good enough to step up as the lower rank player in a 1.2k+ type game.
I know.......skill issue.

Its tough at this level because we are being forced to play with a lot of players that don't know how to play and are learning. Maybe I should be able to carry but if only it were that easy.

Is there a good reason why we cant just start a new season with carried over rankings?

It just seems like such a waste that all the hard work I was doing, and progress I was making in my gameplay is now suddenly interrupted with a much different experience.

If I lose all 10 games then I am placed in a lower tier and its even harder to get out.....by the time I do its the end of the season again and I have to do it all over. I would much rather start a season knowing I am being placed with the same types of players that I was just getting days ago......Id much rather just stick to custom games then to stay with ladder that has no feeling that you are working towards something because its all reset every quarter

I know.......skill issue.

@funkoff if this is what you bring to ladder than please just stick to custom games where you can host your own map the way you like. Quitting on people after they have waited in que is selfish and toxic.