It’s nothing new to know about players deserting, but implementing punishment against them without fixing the problem will drive players away.
Here’s my proposition:
- Looking at:
what really is a desertion? Did someone disconnect because poor network quality? Or did they actually quit? If so then why did they quit?
There needs to be a system in place to deem what happened and distinguish between true desertion and network disconnection then respond accordingly. It is understandable that this can be tricky to implement and would require ample development time.
Alongside this these changes will not only keep a healthy balance for the game and a long life but to also provide a massive quality of life change to matchmaking in general for the better.
Stacking
- Player Stacking:
This has been a long time issue with the community, and has been fought over since the games inception. A system should be put in place to prioritize 4v4 stacks, 3v3 stacks, and 2v2 stacks playing together. If it cannot find enough players within a certain time it opens to regular matchmaking. Players in a stack should have a clear indicator on the scoreboard that ALL players can see, This can be either changing the color of their name or putting an icon next to their name. It can also be something else to distinguish a stack of players.
This system will also allow multiple stacks on one team, so a full 10 man team consisting of:
- 2 stacks of 4 and a stack of 2
- 3 stacks of 3 and a single player
- 5 stacks of 2
- 2 stacks of 3 and 2 stacks of 2
- A mix of 4 stack and 6 single players
Ect.
Another added thing stacks have to their advantage is voice chat, This should be a feature available to ALL players even if they play by themselves. This way a group of solo players can coordinate just as well as a stack of players.
Tech Tree
- Adding equipment to the tech tree:
When a piece of equipment is added it needs to not just be in a single tier, equipment needs to be added to at a minimum Tier 2, Tier 3, and tier 5 for example. This would effectively stop most if not all players from leaving a tier to farm a new piece of Tier 5 equipment that was just released for example. Instead it would create a more blended and balanced release schedule for equipment and also smooth out matchmaking, between all tiers, due to players being spread across tiers utilizing and unlocking the new equipment.
It would be understandable since more equipment would be added at a time that there would be larger gaps of time between getting equipment for the factions. But this is a better alternative than getting say, a single tank and a plane for a faction. It is also understandable that not every faction had a large amount of equipment or it may be difficult to find ideas on what to add, but what they are missing needs to be looked at.
A good recommendation would be 3 pieces minimum of equipment per faction per equipment update spread across multiple tiers. Not every faction has gotten a fair amount of equipment, in some cases it may be a tank while other fractions are getting 3 or 4 items. This further pushes people towards one faction or another, only increasing the instability in matchmaking.
This would also more evenly spread players across multiple tiers, reducing the time needed in some cases to connect to a match. Players have seen times were it takes 2-3 minutes to find a match in tier 2, but the second they go to Tier 5 they immediately find one, and vice versa.
The added equipment would work the same way for all factions, to fill the gaps lend lease, purchased equipment by that faction, and other equipment not yet added that a faction has created can fill this Role.
- As a secondary point to this, equipment needs to be looked at from a standpoint of “what is missing? What is this particular faction at X tier lacking?”
If nothing is lacking then it would be acceptable to add whatever piece of equipment that was decided for that tier. If something is lacking that should be added in at a higher priority.
Permanent ±1 implementation
- The recent change to matchmaking allowing the soft rule ±1 needs to become a permanent rule. It has already widely proven itself successful. With the steam launch incoming, The amount of players will increase. So as a middle ground many players wouldn’t mind waiting 15-30 seconds longer for a match as long as it means it is more balanced. The added steam players will help reduce these times. This only makes ±1 move further in the direction of being a permanent rule.
Desertion and specific maps
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There has been many ways proposed on how to go about this, Some have proposed the desertion rule kicking in after 15-30 seconds.
While this is not ideal from a developmental and programming standpoint as there are too many variables, I believe we already have our solution. -
Preferred maps
This needs to be a system that doesn’t allow just a few maps to be removed from the pool, This needs to allow blacklisting ANY and ALL maps A player does not wish to play on. This also needs to be extended to preferred game modes. Allowing players to choose what modes they want and don’t want to play.
While this would likely permanently remain a soft rule, it still needs to be heavily emphasized on the weight it carries, and must be carefully thought out.
What if que times become too long with preferred maps? What happens if preferred modes are added? How long will the que become then?
Preferred modes and preferred maps need to be PTS tested for effectiveness, and the communities input needs to be collected on how they feel the time, execution, and stability of the change would be with an implementation such as this. This would allow the game to continue as normal without causing any sort of damage to the long-term, while also testing this feature. When the system fails to find enough players within a set time that’s when it can default to regular matchmaking.
With the implementation of the steam launch, given a little bit of time the time it takes to que for a match will lower as player count rises. This will only help preferred maps/modes.
And if it was to become a permanent rule, modes should come first. The reason why modes would come before maps is because we have a large number of maps set within each “campaign”, and only a handful of game modes. This would further help keep que time to a minimum compared to the time it would take to filter through every player and finding out what their preferred maps are. When the system can easily look at if a player only wants to play invasion, conquest, or other modes and make a faster decision on who to pair.
As disappointing as it may sound to players who only want a map preference, it would take longer to filter through all those players who are currently logged in to the servers.
Accidental Match Joining
- More often than not players will hit the join button and find a match relatively quickly, sometimes this button is hit by mistake. Adding a 2-5 second delay before it begins to matchmake would help cut down on people accidentally joining in matches and deserting as a result.
During this time the game can be looking at whatever it needs to, such as what BR a player is in, what their preferred maps/modes are, etc.
Bug Fixes
- This one is big, there is a large variety of bugs in this game. Some of these bugs are game breaking, from camera bugs, to textures improperly loading, etc. These are things that must be looked at and collected, fixed then implemented. Some of the reason people may quit matches is because they get a game breaking bug and the only way to solve it is either leave the match, restart their console/pc or close out of the game. Some of these bugs are only noticeable after fully loading into a match. Such as one that has gained an increasing presence within the game over the last few updates.
Implementation of Mouse and Keyboard
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This is already become something that has attracted attention quickly, to further aid and combat desertion players not using a controller need to be locked into matches with other non-controller users. This is something that can be done in one of two ways:
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Lock the player not utilizing a controller into matches with everyone, full matchmaking permanently turned on While mouse and keyboard are detected.
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Lock the player into matches between just consoles using mouse and keyboard while it is detected.
Either way that is chosen if mouse and keyboard is detected, Auto aim and any sort of aim assist needs to permanently be set to off during connection. This will stop console players from effectively having “Aim Bot” with a mouse and keyboard. Yet again further aiding and combating desertion.
These things must be dealt with BEFORE any sort of punishment for desertion is implemented. Many players agree punishing deserters is necessary, there is no mistaking that desertion is a huge problem that is harming the overall health of the game. But desertion reasons need to be looked at and solved first. There has been a lack of care towards asking, why do players desert? This refusal to acknowledge the problems and fix them could result in potential, and quite serious damage to the state of the game.
There is only a finite amount of people you can use as a replacement when players leave, and once you anger enough of them and cannot replenish them the game will begin to die.
Enlisted was and still is an amazing game, developer and player alike no one wants to see their hard work disappear.
It’s definitely not worth 3 paragraphs answer.
. I wasn’t exactly sure what was being said, so I tried to get clarification.