Why hosting games in Spring sucks

[el_matarife]

How easy it is to use doesn't matter until people actually start doing it, which they haven't yet.

Ever wonder why there's people who seem to be in solo games all the time? Yes, I think it is extremely likely that people are already gaming the ranking system.

Because the rank is only inaccurate in about 1/20 cases. Which isn't really all that much. Rank is pretty accurate and should really not be ignored. It's certainly very far from worthless.

Feel free to keep using it if you feel it is that accurate, but I really believe you're mistaken. I guarantee if you played a game you thought was balanced because you distributed the stars and lower ranks evenly with one of Isaac or one of the other of the Smug / LCC guys who have decently ranked secondary accounts you'd regret it.

[Boirunner]

How easy it is to use doesn't matter until people actually start doing it, which they haven't yet.

Ever wonder why there's people who seem to be in solo games all the time? Yes, I think it is extremely likely that people are already gaming the ranking system.

It only counts towards your rank if at least two players are ingame.

[TradeMark]

wtf, spring games starts quite fast compared to OTA games, STOP WHINING, YOU CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

[el_matarife]

It only counts towards your rank if at least two players are ingame.

Two real players? Or does AI count? Also, spectating still counts for rank correct? Regardless, there's probably still plenty of ways of exploiting the ranking system to add rank.

[Boirunner]

Speccing counts, yes. AIs don't count afaik, as they count as the player who is hosting them. I never personally tried this stuff out, though, I've just heard it.

[el_matarife]

I can no longer find the wiki page laying out how many hours it takes to get certain ranks and other details either. Unless I try this stuff or audit the server code I am basically making educated guesses about how the ranking system works, but my guess is that it would be pretty easy to up your rank. I just can't say whether any particular method works, and I am still pretty convinced the people in started games without any other players are trying to up their rank. However, based on what you said it probably isn't working.

[Snipawolf]

It's based on hours played..

AKA, phail.

[Machiosabre]

It's based on hours played..

AKA, phail.

it is however both better than nothing and the crap we'd get with skill based ranking.

[Zpock]

It's 100h for starn00b rank. Check the help in spring lobby...

Gogo built in ELO ladder and integrated tournaments.

[Boirunner]

Click help in TASClient to see the hours played/rank mapping.

[el_matarife]

Just to clear up any confusion: I know 100 hours = star, but that's about the only hour -> rank mapping I know offhand.

I also forgot all that info was in the Help file but not the Wiki. Does it say in the help what the qualifiers for in game time are? Do bots count, does spectating count, does it have to have more than one player, does watching replays count etc?

That's the kind of information you'd need to know if you were going to "game" the ranking system to inflate your rank without playing. Think about it from an attackers point of view, if you wanted to inflate your rank for any reason, how would you go about it? I am forced to conclude there's lot of possible methods for increasing your rank, making ranks even more untrustworthy.

Anyway, lets end the ranking system derail since it has been beaten to death 100 times in practically every forum on here.

[Cabbage]

1000+ hours for star rank please!

and 2 humans have to be ingame to increase your /played

[Zpock]

if you wanted to inflate your rank for any reason, how would you go about it?

Just create two accounts and put them in a game overnight?

[TradeMark]

1000+ hours for star rank please!

and 2 humans have to be ingame to increase your /played

+0.63545

1000 hours is a bit too much... because ive played 38127 minutes (635 hours) in 2 years or something like that, and i want to be a star...

Maybe ranks should be counted by wins, like 1000 wins = star, 500 = ... 250 = ... 125 = ...
And each won game should last at least 10mins to be counted as win...

Or you would store each won game as minutes how much it lasted, and when that counter reaches 10*1000 minutes, then you are star, so that how short games can also increment the win counter.

[Cabbage]

Cabbage wrote:
1000+ hours for star rank please!

and 2 humans have to be ingame to increase your /played

+0.63545

1000 hours is a bit too much... because ive played 38127 minutes (635 hours) in 2 years or something like that, and i want to be a star... Laughing

You obviously havn't been trying hard enough ^^

[el_matarife]

In order to get this thread back on track, I thought I would post this image to semi-settle the debate over ranking systems. According to TASClient help itself, rank is about experience, not skill. Please take the rank debates to one of the the many, many debate threads about rank so we can talk about how to make hosting not suck in here.

[ZellSF]

How easy it is to use doesn't matter until people actually start doing it, which they haven't yet.

Ever wonder why there's people who seem to be in solo games all the time? Yes, I think it is extremely likely that people are already gaming the ranking system.

Because the rank is only inaccurate in about 1/20 cases. Which isn't really all that much. Rank is pretty accurate and should really not be ignored. It's certainly very far from worthless.

Feel free to keep using it if you feel it is that accurate, but I really believe you're mistaken. I guarantee if you played a game you thought was balanced because you distributed the stars and lower ranks evenly with one of Isaac or one of the other of the Smug / LCC guys who have decently ranked secondary accounts you'd regret it.

Good thing I haven't played a game like that yet, and I believe I never will either.

And even if I do get to play a game like that sooner or later, it'd be one out of the 100 or so games I've played.

[SwiftSpear]

I'm the only good player in spring that doesn't smurf, and I'm really not all that good. Rank is worth poop.

[Adalore]

I don't smurf! unless you count that lost accout of mine...

When I try to host it's for like chatroom chat.

Some thing around these lines.

Hey any one wany to play NOTA/Gundam/Ect


Or When the only game up for a mod has a AFK host (blah annoying)

I host for that and the other annoyed players.



Other then that I tend to avoid hosting outa the blue.

Beware my 40'ish Hours! I think I got near that much.

[smoth]

I agrea 100% with the first two posts. I am too tired to read the rest or bother to be witty but I share your frustration.