A comment on balance

[PJY]

I have a suggestion about balance. I'm sure it has been mooted before so forgive me in advance if I am repeating something that has already been discussed ad nauseum.

One part of balance is ensuring that both teams are relatively even in their overall abilities. Obviously we already have tools that purport to achieve this - such as TS etc.

By contrast, my suggestion is towards dealing with imbalances between noobs and veterans. The community is not exactly welcoming to noobs and I can understand why they say it is dispiriting that they can get crushed very swiftly in multiple games and then end up finding a different game to play.

My suggestion would be to give genuinely new players a boost, such as increased m generation or speed of manufacture, relative to the default rules, to help them compete a bit more with veterans. I appreciate that the danger with this is that some players like to create new accounts from time to time and play via them. To counter that perhaps a noob would have to play a few games before the boost kicks in, so that some stats are available showing whether the noob is a genuine noob or a veteran in disguise. Also, it might be sensible, if the code allows it, for this boost to wear off as in-game time progresses because whilst I can it would add to fairness early on in a game, by the time one ends up with a decent sized T2 eco an early boost is not so much use and may become distorting in the new player's favour.

The other factor that may have to be taken into account is the new player "gifting" that boost to a veteran by, say, using it to build useful things like adv solar panels and then giving them to others.

Anyway, this is my suggestion.

[SinbadEV]

I see where you are coming from but think that it's a little unfair to assume things about new or veteran players... I do agree that a optional boost system would be a good option...

If new players "have it easy" at the start and don't know why they will not have an accurate perspective of the game... but if all players know about (and agree prior to the match) that some are being granted a specific boost it would be a good option... and a match making system could suggest which boosts might be appropriate based on each players current rank/rating.

[jamerlan]

just disable noob cannons and t2 factories for noobs

[smoth]

It is called handicap and the lobby has it.

Also veterans of spring frequently smurf.as in create an alternate account that is a noob just because and this would break the system.

[Kapytii]

New players need a kick. To the head. Then if you got their attention you can start telling them what they should do and what not to do. If they listen(not too many do even if youre super nice to them and tell them to do simple stuff), then they'll do well enough after few hunnerd battles. No need for extra resources at any point. Its nice to see new players who get better and better. Some slowly, and some people just stop getting better fast when they hit their brain/fast-mouse-moving limit. Ive hit mine at TS 31.

I remember when I started playing BA, I didnt know what the hell to do, so I specced to see what to do. Hoh, I watched people who have now below TS 25 and thought they were gods then :D Talk about being noob. All experience Ive had with RTS games were original TA when it came out, and some C&C and red alert after that, then I grew up for ten years. Now a child again, playing a boom boom game.
Anyway, I got shitted for not knowing what to do and doing shit myself. Dap... Pizd... I mean people were really nasty fuc*s towards me. But this aint a game for fragile flowers, right? Its a totally balanced annihilation f*s. ANYWAY, I had to learn everything from near 0, so constructive shit was good. New flowers need shit, not extra metal.

New guys should be forced to get front line spots, so they have to learn how to fight to survive and be useful.

Bastard smurfs. Wasnt it suggested somewhere that to change player name it would have to go thru mods or sth? Ok thats nothing to do with creating new account, but new account needs new email address, or hows that work? Why is it so easy to do new? But you make new account and game detects you and gives you your old TS? Bastards, anyway.

(Ooh, edited away bad * words.)

[zwzsg]

Extra resource doesn't help when you have trouble spending them.

In KP I have a gadget that translate the handicap bonus into units getting less damage from enemies. Feel free to take it.

[albator]

I like that: get all the noobs and kick them all so you get all the metal !

[Silentwings]

Yep, as smoth said things like this can't happen because some people would try to abuse it. At risk of sounding like a scratched record... one day there will be a single player tutorial/campaign!