Best posts made by Dorset

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....

@biass I have(what I think is an incredible idea) but zero skills or ability to do it nor the time so is there anyone willing to hear my idea and if they like it then they can do it and take the credit, I just want it in game lol

edit

Since I didn't see someone put their idea I might as well put mine. How about a T3 mobile unit transport? Armored and perhaps stealth and a recon package or shield depending on the faction. Similar to the air transports it can take more lower tier units and less t3 type thing. A great way to extract an ACU in trouble too for the land players. For that matter, it could be amphibious for beachhead assaults with naval fire support. I think you get the idea. I would love to see this whole dynamic in the game and it's pretty common in our universe so it makes sense that FAF universe would have advanced this as well.

It's a great looking unit. Without sounding disrespectful to the work that went into creating it I think it should have legs rather than feet such as the rest of the Cybran units. Big ole spider legs that are very sharp and plant deep into the ground in order to gain its stability.

@rezy-noob said in TMM matching:

No they don't, there is no way anyone is going to limit someone's access to the game because of a bad cpu, your request is so beyond selfish as well since most maps tend to be low count unit matches

Why take instant offense to things so easy??. My intentions are not selfish even if you interpret them that way for some strange reason. This is a problem that many people are complaining about and I was throwing an idea out there that I think would work. Its not just one single person who has a bad cpu or connection that ruin it for the masses its many people causing the problems because of bad computers and such. I don't see a problem with forcing those people to make custom games that better suit their systems rather than having them ruin TMM matches time and again but If it is not viable then that's fine but getting bitter and accusing me of being selfish is just silly and immature. I'm trying to start a conversation to find a solution, thanks for your constructive input on the matter. It is so helpful!

I am starting to play TMM a lot more these days and am finding a few issues that revolve around the fact that TMM seems to attract a lot of high CPU players and/or people with bad connections because they cant get into custom games

For instance a person who is similar rank as me and plays at the same time has a 450 cpu. He doesn't play custom anymore because he gets kicked from the lobbies so he only plays TMM but every single game I get put in with him is a lagfest from min 1 due to him so we will all call him out in chat and we ask him to leave so we can continue 3v2 or 4v3 but he wont leave so then everyone else does only to rematch with him right after.

Is there a way to limit who is able to play TMM based on their CPU score so that say nobody with a CPU score above 300 or whatever seems right is allowed to join? I feel bad for those that don't have a good enough machine to play this game but they need to start respecting that and play small customs games or 1v1 or something.

I am curious if the same can be done with people with network issues.

For now I have him marked as a foe and just wont join TMM while he is online....maybe preventing matching with foes is a solution too?

Not sure how this all works but wanted to throw the idea out there for those that do.

Thanks

@magge said in TMM matching:

If you encounter someone who is constantly slowing down games or causing network issues, then report them, so we can look into it to find a solution.

You can host your own games with your own CPU rating limit, so you can decide which CPU is good enough for you to play with, same for your friends in team games.

So the solution is to just host a custom game rather than play TMM at all? That's exactly what is happening now and TMM is getting the reputation as a place where laggers and high CPUS go to play. TMM has so much potential and people want to love it but it is ruined by the lack of controls that custom games are able to employ. I am a solo player and don't play with any set group but I often get put on a team with players who are in a group and like I said in the OP one player among the 6-8 player pool has a system that cant handle TMM settings and so everyone has to suffer because that one person is not willing to accept the reality of their situation and make custom lobbies that are better suited to their system.

Hosting your own game isn't so cut and dry either because lobbies don't always fill but there might be 15+ in the TMM ques at that time (and multiple people complaining in chat about the problems with TMM funny enough) The point of TMM in the first place is to be able to just find a quick game without having to host custom lobbies isn't it but its being ruined by a small group of people who cant handle it.

I am not trying to single any one player out because these these people are nice people who just want to play FAF so I never thought to report them and even then how does reporting them fix their 450cpu from 1999? Do the people that keep the FAF ship sailing want a bunch of reports coming in about all this so then you all have that much more work to do sifting through legit and BS reports and then dissecting the technical data on top of that to see what a solution might be when simply limiting TMM to a set CPU score and ping would solve a lot of these problems right off the top and establish a new baseline going forward? I don't sail this ship I just play on it so I don't know the answer there.

I haven't really played FAF since TMM no share was a thing but after trying TMM for the last little bit it didn't take long to notice this glaring problem and notice that many people are saying the same thing about TMM

You cant just take your Toyota Prius onto an race track, most tracks have a minimum spec to what a vehicle must have in order to get on the track. Its just the reality of the situation and like Penguin said if it is technically viable than I think it would be a huge benefit in a number of ways.

@lordfoul13 I have been through this a few times as I have gone from 1k to 1.4k back down to 1.2k and I truly believe the best option is to get better and take your mex faster. Send out those early engines(not actually early just seem early compared to what a higher rank player can do) and if for some reason an 1800 takes "your mex" then don't let it get in your head and eco hard(er) It's annoying yes but trust me you'll enjoy the game more. I view it as a challenge being the lower rank player in the game because I typically only play 1200+ games where there are typically many 1800r to 2000r players. I learned for myself that it was a skill issue on my part and it taught me to change my build order so that I could get those engineers out to those mex on time and take what is mine. I can almost guarantee that if you got to "your mex" first then he wouldn't have taken them.

Also I like to view team games as making sure that your team gets the mex...so long as the enemy doesn't have them then you are on the right path. Think about the effect of that 1800 having more mex than his opponent and possibly gaining an advantage that will help the team win. If that 1800 is able to crush his mirror which is likely a 1700 to 2000 ranked player then your team is much better off in most cases than if you had them.

I play air a lot and sometimes I find if I have fewer mex closer together I can get my eco up faster than if I had more mex that are spread out... Another skill issue I'm working through now.

I vote for allowing people to change their username daily. If the community wants to have fun with usernames then let them.

I just got a starlink for when I'm near the Arctic circle working and I had planned on changing my username with the word starlink at the end of it every time I'm at work just so people knew if they wanted to risk me in their lobbies or not. It's usually pretty good but I still want to give the heads up to people beforehand.... With these new changes I wouldn't be able to do that. I do 7-8 week shifts at work then I'm home for 2-3 weeks so the old rules of 1 month would have worked perfectly for me to switch back and forth.

@plunder I agree and briefly touched on it in one of my posts that there are likely alot of players who are currently banned that deserve the opportunity to return. Take some of my early 1000 games and if people reported me I would probably have been banned because I was toxic.... More so I returned toxicity 10-fold to those who showed it to me which is not the way to go. My last 3,000 games I've been pretty chill and I feel I definitely deserve to be here. It would have been a shame if I got banned during that first stretch and would have never been allowed to experience this game the way I have over the past 3,000 games. I try hard now to contribute to the community as best I can when I can and I'm sure there are a lot of others who would as well if they had the opportunity to return.

Not sure how we communicate with people who have been banned to let them know they are unbanned and they can return but I think it's something that should be considered.

@lowki said in What can be done to make 1v1 more popular?:

A few reasons for me

1. the maps - this is obviously a personal preferance and will be different for everyone but i dont like small maps or large maps or navy maps so that puts me of playing because the chances of me getting a map that i would want to play on would be like 1/10

1.1 small maps are very micro intensive and usually result in very short meaningless games, large maps leed to long boring games

2. rating, i dont play many 1v1s so my 1v1 at the min is not reflective of my true skill and i can say the same for many others, i came across this guy the other day with 3 games rated at 400 but played like a 1400 at least, so you just dont know what caliber of player your going to be up against as its all over the place.

3. its just not as fun as playing with others, more so if in discord with friends.

4. you cant blame your teammates for doing random stuff

This is the exact reason I don't play 1v1. I am horrible at 5x5 and navy and have no desire to have that as part of my skillset so I stay clear of 1v1 rather than risk playing these types of maps.