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HappyHourSumwur's avatar
HappyHourSumwur
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago

Idea for how to handle people quitting early in TDM

My TDM experience so far is basically people quitting as soon as your team starts losing.  About 3/4 of the games I've played were lost causes before Round 1 even finished; 4v6 or even 3v6.  At 4v6, ...
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reconzero's avatar
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@HappyHourSumwur

The first multiplayer shooter I ever played was Halo 2. In 2004. In almost 20 years of multiplayer shooters I never encountered anything, certainly not bans, that could stop people from chewing off their own leg in order to escape a frustrating situation. I'll grant you, some people have a very, very low threshold for frustration. But I'll ask everyone to grant me that team-based multiplayer shooters can objectively be frustrating. Sometimes extremely so.

And with all that in mind I ask you this: How on earth did anyone, developer or player base, think this was going to work out any differently? If there's any way at all that anyone here hasn't already seen this play out a million times in a million other games then I'll eat my hat. If there's any way that anyone thinks that any of the tired and failed solutions of the last twenty years will somehow magically work here and now then I'll eat it again.

This game has a skill ceiling that is too high. Skill-based matchmaking almost never does anything to make players feel as if they are in a fair and balanced match. If they do anything to address the quitting that doesn't address at least one of these two points then they are wasting everyone's time.
  • Kyldenar's avatar
    Kyldenar
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago
    @reconzero Exactly!

    I can't believe even though they can't "test for players leaving" that the behavior was not considered during the design and testing phases. Even in business software designs we have to consider non-process user behaviors that can have impacts on the process or data entry inaccuracies. I simply refuse to believe they NEVER considered players leaving the match when losing.

    Also, clearly, Matchmaking is still not working, or people would not be leaving them when getting steamrolled, or being allowed to load into a match start with only 3 players total in one team while other loads with the full 6 (which I saw on PS4 using my barely used console account).

    The game is doing nothing to encourage casuals, and a lack of casuals will eventually bite any "free to play" game, as the casual player base is required to keep it populated enough for the whales to want to buy skins and show off. Just how it works.

    They are not doing anything to convince me to re-install on my PC here. My kid is angry he lost Arenas for this TDM that no one seems to be playing and half the character abilities are useless in.

    (Also, @reconzero, I tried to party up with you on PS4 last night and you never accepted, I assume cause you never saw my PS4 name before).
    • KelRiever's avatar
      KelRiever
      3 years ago

      I mean, backfill is a basic, 2+decades old mechanic you put into any team deathmatch game.

      It is totally pedestrian that this wasn't part of the thing on launch for the whole match.

    • reconzero's avatar
      reconzero
      Seasoned Ace
      3 years ago
      @Kyldenar

      I saw you! But it was late, I wasn't using a mic, and I was in a foul mood because NOT ENJOYING THE NEW SEASON. Except for the Drum Tao version of the theme music. That is aces.

      "clearly, Matchmaking is still not working, or people would not be leaving them when getting steamrolled"

      I figured I'd better at least try a match or two of tdm. The second one, after about three minutes: Opposing team top three players had 15, 9, and 8 kills respectively, while my team had 3, 2, and 1 respectively, the other three players having no kills at all. That's some pretty atrocious... what? Game design? Matchmaking? I don't even know what to think except to ask anyone to give me a reason why players (of either team) would want to continue that dumpster fire.

      @KelRiever

      "backfill is a basic, 2+decades old mechanic you put into any team deathmatch game."

      Halo tried it. Players who demanded it changed their minds pretty quickly once they themselves got a taste of being dropped onto the losing side of a blowout match. Many players would quit the match before they'd even spawned in, opting instead to re-queue and hope to get their own dumpster fire instead of someone else's.
  • HappyHourSumwur's avatar
    HappyHourSumwur
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago

    @reconzeroTotally agree with you. How they didn't see this coming is really inexcusable.

    No amount of new content or shiny cosmetics is going to make a difference long term if they don't fix matchmaking and improve anti-cheat. One of the amazing things about Apex is working against them here and that is the high skill ceiling you point out. They built a game that allows for people to be ridculously good and ridiculously bad and anywhere in between.. The skill gap between even average players and the best (pros/streamers/Preds) in this game is larger than in any other game I've ever played...and I've been playing video games since the 80s.

    As for TDM, there are some things I think they can do to minimize people quitting matches early, but what they've done so far isn't it.

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