Spring RTS Engine

Hello,

I love the new xp/ranking/award system which is integrated to your website.

http://zero-k.info/Users.mvc/Yogzototh

Imo you should develop this further and add some kind of tournament system around it. This can become a really huge advantage compared to other games around here - An actual comptetitive environment! Now the awards at the end of the game actually means something. Good job.

Dont like the icons though, and while at it, on the website, you should add descriptions to them about what they mean.

This can become a really huge advantage compared to other games around here

Its nice indeed but imo even bigger advantage for whole Spring would be if all games had stats tracking :)
If that is technically possible.
(sorry for such early derail)

Im speaking mostly about Xp/awards that exist in zerok. ELO rating system could easily implemented to any mods AFAIK, but It's up to you ppl.

I see the potential in this cool stats/xp/award thing like in the "Worms" games back in the days. I'd like to see this evolve in that kind of direction, but in multiplayer environment, in terms of competitive play.

site is looking pretty sweet.

I have to agree, this stuff is really cool. For me a clear reason to get into this game.

SirArtturi wrote:Im speaking mostly about Xp/awards that exist in zerok. ELO rating system could easily implemented to any mods AFAIK, but It's up to you ppl.

I would mostly be interessted in just simple stats. Just total matches played/won/lost (divided by game and maybe also 1v1 / teamgame)
Having that for all mods would add alot I think. Awards are nice too but only zK has them atm.

So how does it work, does it only work on Springie autohosts or in all battles? How does the server get the results of a game, does it/lobby parse infolog? Or can you return stuff from inside spring, how?

Won/Played converges to 50% with elo based balancing system...

in a big enough pool of 1v1 player, yes.
so far only zk and ba (or do the ba autohosts still use ingame time?) arrange teams by elo.

Elo is implemented by autohost, so games played on Springie autohosts arrange by elo.

And win/loss converges to 50/50 with team games also, according to the data collected by Springie.

Licho wrote:Won/Played converges to 50% with elo based balancing system...

unless your godde...

Why not? Afaik his was closing to 50% too

for me, elo got one big issue. first of all, all springie hosts use elo. what means that xta and ca players got one elo (some other games share same elo? SA? ). first of all, for example, xta player who starts playing CA is considerated as CA 'pro' even if he didnt play it before. now, there comes BA player, who is considerated as newb, but pwns CA/XTA experienced players. was bit fucked up when i started playing CA with 12th best elo rating made in XTA >>

for me, the main reason why big CA/XTA games are so horribly unbalanced. fix that and there will be no special reason to bitch at elo that much.

just saying, stuff looks cool, was like wow.

Stats shows they are balanced, otherwise it would not converge to 50%.

well i say what i see, one side rape in every game.

maybe im unlucky, dunno.

Not that I'm against this but you'd really call some xp/awards system "actual competitive environment"? Stuff like "reclaim awards" is just a funny stat to look at, not something anyone would seriously aim for when playing a game.. At least not persons who I'd call competitive.

And how do you get XP? Just a meter how many games you've won or played?

Johannes wrote:Not that I'm against this but you'd really call some xp/awards system "actual competitive environment"? Stuff like "reclaim awards" is just a funny stat to look at, not something anyone would seriously aim for when playing a game.. At least not persons who I'd call competitive.

+1
It's a nice overview of the stats (+ some fun) without having to go through all endgame graphs.

Johannes wrote:Not that I'm against this but you'd really call some xp/awards system "actual competitive environment"? Stuff like "reclaim awards" is just a funny stat to look at, not something anyone would seriously aim for when playing a game.. At least not persons who I'd call competitive.

Awards are for funsies, if you need something to massage your e-peen there is elo rankings. Top 10 have special icons in the lobby and are displayed on the front page.

More can be done but this is obviously all work in progress.

Johannes wrote:Not that I'm against this but you'd really call some xp/awards system "actual competitive environment"? Stuff like "reclaim awards" is just a funny stat to look at, not something anyone would seriously aim for when playing a game.. At least not persons who I'd call competitive.

If you read my posts carefully, you realize that im not speaking in present. vice versa theres a lot of expressions indicating to the future like develop, evolve, could become, potential.

But yes, awards are fun, and now they are something that has a meaning. And, on the other hand, as a competitive player johannes, you should know that reclaiming is crucial... Usually player who has this award wins the game. So the example you are using is bad for your argument.

convergence to 50% win/loss does not prove that games are balanced.
if every single game is horribly unbalanced, but each player is in the no-chance-to-win ally-team every second game, it would still converge to 50%.
The problem is, that even the best possible balance is unlikely to be perfect. in addition, there are factors that no system will ever cover, like unstable player performance (drunk, tired, ...), someone playing with the account of a friend or brother, undetectable smurfs.
One thing that could possibly help, is if data used for balance is stored on the lobby server, and could be retrieved and show by lobby clients. Lobbies could then show the ELO rank per player and team, for example.
Changes to the lobby protocol to make this possible are already in the workings.

Okay, I just played my first game with this - I have one problem with it - the starting factory set doesn't include any of the extreme-terrain units, but instead includes the nearly redundant set of bots and vehicles. I would've made the starting 3 factory options bots (or vehicles, not both), gunships, and boats. Not having gunships or planes or hovers or jumpers/all-terrains means that newbies have *zero* options for working around impasses.

edit: Also, link to factory/unit documentation on the Unlock screen would be a nice-to-have.