For those of us who don’t have a team and go solo Arena; we’ve all been there. Losing a game because the whole team quit, or some guy wasn’t playing from the beginning in the match decided to join back in and become the moving practice dummy instead of a still one. Yes, yes, it’s all a pain in the butt, except that it won’t be as bad later on. I’m talking about the glorious Ban Hammer and the ranking system.
Let time take it’s course and weed out the less experienced crowd from the ones who do put forth a bit more effort to win the game at a slightly higher level. I hear a lot of people raging in my ear whenever I play a game of Team Arena. The people I hear raging expected a good, randomly matched team in the FIRST WEEK of Arena. Come on, people. Of course, one could argue this has been happening for a long time now in a ton of competitive games a million times over. That’s true but the reason I bring it up here is because from what I’ve been experiencing, people are going off on 343 or complaining that the ranking system is bogus. Like I said, we haven’t even finished the 3rd day of this game being out yet, give it some time!
I’d like to know what the community thinks about this topic and maybe share some of your Arena experiences so far. I’d also like to know how people have been warming up to the ranking system and if they like it at all.
My point: Give it more time to let the ranking system do its work and the ban hammer to take care of the rest. Another week or two and we’ll surely see improvements in Arena matchmaking.
I agree. I can’t wait. Although right now I think some of the quitters have been because of Game issues. I’ve been kicked out of a lot of games over the past to days due to the server. But I am happy the Ban Hammer is back.
Ranking systems for team playlists will work for teams. If you’re going in solo it will NOT give you even matches because of the sheer impossibility of the task.
Arena is team-based. If you want to rank up, get a team. You really have no room to complain. This has been the case in EVERY Halo game since H2.
I’ll go along with you on the quitters and afk’ers all the way. I guess I would have to understand what you mean by “scrubs?” By a narrow definition, I would probably be termed a scrub by many. I’m not the best MP player out there by a long shot. I will probably be near the bottom of the leaderboard at the end of a match every time. I don’t play many FPS games, I’m an older gamer with aging eyesight and arthritic hands. The former problem I can mitigate with additional playtime. The latter…well, I’m not likely to get any younger, so I’m sort of limited in that regard.
Now, with any luck, once the ELO algorithms kick in after everyone plays their initial 10 matches, multiplayer will find its own equilibrium and the better players will all have similarly-skilled people to play with, and the same with new and/or lesser skilled players. In the meanwhile, I’ll try not to suck quite as much and be less of a “moving practice dummy” in the future. One thing you can count on however; I’ll never simply rage quit or go make a sammich while the rest of the team carries me. So if that’s any amount of consolation, then…you’re welcome.
Nothing is more frustrating than starting a match and immediately seeing it’s turned to 3 vs. 4, and then someone else drops out because it’s already a slaughter-fest, making it 2 vs. 4, with you and one other guy versus four opponents, and you and your teammate not wanting to drop out too because you don’t want to get negative marks against your gamer tag, but, by staying, your K/D ratio gets decimated because you’re essentially cannon fodder for the other team. Why 343i hasn’t solved this problem is beyond me. There is a ton of things they can do: 1. just end the match. It’s not fun anyway, so why make everyone suffer through 12 minutes of playing hide-and-seek? 2. Do it like Titanfall did it: constantly add in new players: the match becomes re-balanced and the new players who joined mid-way through get credit for a win but don’t get penalized for a loss. It’s such an easy solution.
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> Ranking systems for team playlists will work for teams. If you’re going in solo it will NOT give you even matches because of the sheer impossibility of the task.
> Arena is team-based. If you want to rank up, get a team. You really have no room to complain. This has been the case in EVERY Halo game since H2.
You missed the entire point of the post, and didn’t read all the way through. I wasn’t complaining, in fact, I was addressing the complainers. As for what you said about the ranking system, you are entirely correct, it IS a team game. Arena’s purpose isn’t to cater to a specific group. When I say that, I mean that it isn’t simply just for the people who party up with 3 other friends and get ranked. The ranks don’t care if you’re on a team with your friends, it’s all about the wins and the losses. It’s obvious that going solo isn’t the best way to win, that’s just a given and I think most of us know that except for the ones who continually complain about having bad teammates, which is what I was pointing out and attempting to clear up.
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> I’ll go along with you on the quitters and afk’ers all the way. I guess I would have to understand what you mean by “scrubs?” By a narrow definition, I would probably be termed a scrub by many. I’m not the best MP player out there by a long shot. I will probably be near the bottom of the leaderboard at the end of a match every time. I don’t play many FPS games, I’m an older gamer with aging eyesight and arthritic hands. The former problem I can mitigate with additional playtime. The latter…well, I’m not likely to get any younger, so I’m sort of limited in that regard.
>
> Now, with any luck, once the ELO algorithms kick in after everyone plays their initial 10 matches, multiplayer will find its own equilibrium and the better players will all have similarly-skilled people to play with, and the same with new and/or lesser skilled players. In the meanwhile, I’ll try not to suck quite as much and be less of a “moving practice dummy” in the future. One thing you can count on however; I’ll never simply rage quit or go make a sammich while the rest of the team carries me. So if that’s any amount of consolation, then…you’re welcome.
Honestly, I wanted to word it better than a ‘scrub’ but the titles only allow for 50 characters. I don’t know how else to describe it in a limited amount of characters. What I meant by it though was to say that people you are matched with aren’t as proficient at the game. Which is why I attempt to say if you get matched with someone who is less experienced. Yet you echoed the overall point of what I was saying. I just wanted to help clear the air with those who felt the need to complain that 343 hadn’t done the ranking system justice or that it was broken.
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> Nothing is more frustrating than starting a match and immediately seeing it’s turned to 3 vs. 4, and then someone else drops out because it’s already a slaughter-fest, making it 2 vs. 4, with you and one other guy versus four opponents, and you and your teammate not wanting to drop out too because you don’t want to get negative marks against your gamer tag, but, by staying, your K/D ratio gets decimated because you’re essentially cannon fodder for the other team. Why 343i hasn’t solved this problem is beyond me. There is a ton of things they can do: 1. just end the match. It’s not fun anyway, so why make everyone suffer through 12 minutes of playing hide-and-seek? 2. Do it like Titanfall did it: constantly add in new players: the match becomes re-balanced and the new players who joined mid-way through get credit for a win but don’t get penalized for a loss. It’s such an easy solution.
But you have to see the other side of the coin here. 343i have done the homework for online competition, hell, they even had pro players testing and putting the multiplayer dev team to test. They made sure that what we have on day one is meant to work much better when the dust settles a little bit after a few weeks to let people get ranked and follow up from there. For your first point though, that would be cool for solo players but for all those people on teams, that would be terrible. Also, if it’s an objective game, they would have to implement a complicated system that would need to be able to tell how badly the other 2 remaining players are doing, focus on what gametype it is and at what time in the match to successfully determine that it would constitute a game over. That’s a lot for the game to keep track of and I’m not sure it would be possible and even if it was, it would have taken a long time to perfect it and keep it working the way it was supposed to. It’s not as easy as you would think. I’m not a developer but I trust that it really is beyond us to say how easy it is, or isn’t.
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> > 2533274816327235;5:
> > I’ll go along with you on the quitters and afk’ers all the way. I guess I would have to understand what you mean by “scrubs?” By a narrow definition, I would probably be termed a scrub by many. I’m not the best MP player out there by a long shot. I will probably be near the bottom of the leaderboard at the end of a match every time. I don’t play many FPS games, I’m an older gamer with aging eyesight and arthritic hands. The former problem I can mitigate with additional playtime. The latter…well, I’m not likely to get any younger, so I’m sort of limited in that regard.
> >
> > Now, with any luck, once the ELO algorithms kick in after everyone plays their initial 10 matches, multiplayer will find its own equilibrium and the better players will all have similarly-skilled people to play with, and the same with new and/or lesser skilled players. In the meanwhile, I’ll try not to suck quite as much and be less of a “moving practice dummy” in the future. One thing you can count on however; I’ll never simply rage quit or go make a sammich while the rest of the team carries me. So if that’s any amount of consolation, then…you’re welcome.
>
>
> Honestly, I wanted to word it better than a ‘scrub’ but the titles only allow for 50 characters. I don’t know how else to describe it in a limited amount of characters. What I meant by it though was to say that people you are matched with aren’t as proficient at the game. Which is why I attempt to say if you get matched with someone who is less experienced. Yet you echoed the overall point of what I was saying. I just wanted to help clear the air with those who felt the need to complain that 343 hadn’t done the ranking system justice or that it was broken.
I honestly get it, it can’t be fun for experienced players to not only be teamed with newer ones but to also face against newbs since they bring little in terms of challenge. By the same token, new players are often intimidated by being in matches with far more experienced players. They feel like they’re letting their teammates down with their sub-par performance, while at the same time it’s definitely NO fun to be repeatedly put down by someone who was “born with a controller in their hands” and can do 360 noscopes in their sleep. So hoping that the matchmaking coding eventually gets everyone properly sorted cuts both ways for both ends of the skill spectrum.
They’ve gotta make a lobby for Social. I won’t lie I, on very rare occasion will rage quit to cool off (i’ve been much better about this in my grown up years,) but its sort of like solo queuing in a MOBA. That’s just the nature that comes with it.
> So hoping that the matchmaking coding eventually gets everyone properly sorted cuts both ways for both ends of the skill spectrum.
That’s true and perhaps I made it seem like I don’t respect low-level players, because I do. But even in saying that, it sounds like I’m putting myself on the pedestal, which quite honestly I don’t mean to do in the slightest. I’m a harsh critic of myself but at the same time I sometimes forget to reel back and just have some patience with the newer players. So sometimes I’ll get upset about it but for the most part, I try to keep it cool and sometimes attempt to help people out.
All in all, you’re spot on, and I’m right with you when you say you hope it helps get the player-base sorted into their respective skill ranks.
I’m really hoping to see this rankings system work out. It’s pretty lame to get stuck in a class you don’t belong in, and when you try, and get out of the class you get teammates who belong in a lower class. Then you end up playing against people who are ranked 50 in the world. Really unbalanced ranking system so far, but hopefully it will straighten itself out. The game play seems pretty balanced too other than some weapons needing a little nerfing.
