Unbalanced teams.

[PLODDITHANLEY]

Something I'd like to discuss.

I think we have two types of imbalanced play:

1. Server owners (Clan) all on one side = ownage of the opfor.

2. People teamswitching to be on the win side or asset rich side.

For the first type of imbalance it is ofc natural that clan members want to play together, in the extreme this makes the map very little fun for the opfor thus people leave.

The second type I find more sinister, we all like to win but for me having a fun game is more important.

I have even seen on PRT at least one guy (I am sure there are more) teamswitching to the win side.
With the gameplay being not so much fun for one of the NATO companies an awful lot of experienced players quit.
This ofc further exaggerates the imbalance making it even less fun for the existing NATO team.

When I find myself on my 'home' server I try to SL even if I don't really want to - with the aim of using TW and coordination to help the gameplay for both teams (except the poor guys who foolishly joined my squad that is).

What I find intriguing is the amount of players that do not think or are unconcerned about the other players fun, in the extreme even their fun risks being curtailed - I heard one of the PRT matches was capped out in 17minutes, I think for the winning team that can't have been much fun.

I have no idea or suggestions to face this, all that can be done is if players think ahead with more emphasis on a good game than pure 'win'.

I remember good TW and fun maps much more than epic win rounds.

Just my thoughts guys I would love to hear yours.

Please no flame 'yeah this server sucks for teamstacking' replies pleease....

[Tit4Tat]

Ofcourse you will get 1 or 2 people teamswitching(really i dont see any point cause as iam aware your statistics change when u switch factions).
I prefer to play vs clan teams/squads because they are more tactiticaly orianted and have good teamwork between them(thats what they traine for)..hence why i prefer t play them more, it makes a better opponent.
But lol for the game not to be a OWNAGE type u need some decent player in ur team too, or u can just become Rambo and go lonewolfing with ur M60(no in game) or LMG. When u take this role dont worry u are a match for APC's, Tank's etc and it will take a sick amount of bullets to kill u U can also team up with Iceman and do fly-by's, ratio 2/32=impossible(not if ur Rambo and have Iceman as ur pilot)



P.s You will get some people teamswitching to gain something but its a small ammount. What i really dislike is when ur playing insurgency for 2hours or so and u've been blowing/beheading BLUFOR's and having a really good game u get teamswitched by auto-balance, thats when u leave or tell the US where the chaches locations are joke

edit: For good tactical and teamworking orianted games T&T in my mind has all that, if u get team switched and any T&T admins are on they will put u back where u belong.

[PLODDITHANLEY]

Yes thats always annoying doing your duty being an insurgent looking forward to being blufor...round starts WTF insurgent again...leave server.

[Mad-Mike]

To be fair this hasnt nothing to do with PR in general, Its the admins, so shouldnt this be discust on the server website.

Also it is a good point but it can be argued both ways..
If Auto balance is turned off, teams will be unfair and more on the blufor side than the opfor side.
And Auto balance on, causes gettin switched to the other side when someone leaves the opposite team, It switches you when you die, so dont get shot

[PLODDITHANLEY]

@ Mad Mike I am more interested in the general opinions, not individual server issues.
I see this from the quietest clan server all the way up to PR

Thats why I posted in Discussion hoping to sensibilize players I guess.

[Mad-Mike]

Ok fair enough, I get your point

[TheWhaleHunter]

I change teams at times. I usually have three reasons to do so.

1. My team only has full or locked squads, the only open ones being for assets. (I only play inf)
2. I prefer the other faction on particular maps. (In these cases I only switch if the game is even)
3. There's a really good SL in the other team that I know I'll have a lot of fun playing with.

I don't care much about winning or points but I play to have the most fun, and sometimes I switch team to have that fun.
Ofc I only switch when my original team is one man more than the one I'm changing to.

[Ghost_1ll1]

You should only switch teams to play w/ your friends/clanmates, but technically speaking, two or more clan squads on one team def. kills the server unless its that rare case you actually have good players on the opfor.

I understand most clans will want to practice their team oriented strats as well as squad ones, but uhhh, scrimmage anyone?

[[R-DEV]Thermis]

The best way to balance out the clan option is to have other clans playing on a server. I've been on servers with my clan mates were we get put on the same side as the owners and its not fair at all and I can really see were you're coming from. But plenty of times we're on the opposite side and it leads to pretty good rounds.

The problem of team switching to be on the side that is "better" can only be fixed by good server admins that prevent team switching unless approved by admins.

[[twl]Lan]

Unfortunately, this issue is not new. We have had teamstacking since day 1 of online team vs team gaming.

Even more unfortunately, there is no miracle cure.

1, Admin awareness
2. The clan who owns the server can encourage with example
3, General player awareness

It's that last bit which is soooo difficult. The kind of player that cares for teambalance is already reading these forums, the kind that doesn't probably doesn't read here. In my opinion, it's the number 2 which is our only viable solution.

Training others by example. Promote the right thinking.

It would be nice to have somekind of addon to BF2CC to measure teambalance and send a alert to a supervising admin (which may not be on the server) that things are unbalanced but I'm dreaming...statistical measure of K/D ratios, squad points, flags taken in time gap...ah...I should learn how to do programming. :P