Disable Stacks for Now Except for Clan Battles/Allow Opt out

[King_Arthur253]

Currently, the M&B multiplayer population is extremely low. I agree, playing on the same team with friends can be fun, but it is ridiculously unfair against pubs, who are forced to fight against teams that are better coordinated and have better players compared to their own inferior team mates. It is extremely unfun for newcomers to the game, not to mention extremely unfair.

Speaking from personal experience, pubs have no chance against stacks. When playing as a pub, teammates barely coordinate while we usually voice chat within a stack allowing quick support and being able to avoid completely unskilled players. Pub teams almost always have one or two "dead weight players" who are completely new to the game and are unable to provide any real value to the team. In addition, quitting during the match is a real problem. I blame the matching system rather than the new players or the match-quitters since their actions are understandable.

I suggest disabling team matching for now until the population of multiplayer have increased to a point where people will almost always be able to be matched up with enemy stacks (ie. a 2 player stack + 3/4 player stack vs a 6 player stack or smth similar). In addition, I suggest implementing a hidden ELO value that is based on total score of player within the matcch as well as outcome, and distribute teams so that they will have equivalent aggregate ELO scores. Ie. the strongest player will be paired with the weakest. This way, we can ensure fair and fun matching.

In Warband, there was no real way to match with clans/friends other than organized events, and multiplayer players were perfectly happy. I suggest we go back to that type of system. There is simply no way that stacks can be fair under current circumstances. The player count is simply too low for any type of "skill based matching" unless people can tolerate 30 minute wait times while the system waits for equivalently skilled players.
Another option I’m suggesting is to give pubs the ability to opt out of matching against stacks. Let players choose themselves

 

[Aprikosenmann]

It would be nice if stack size was dependend on skill. It is no problem if 4 casuals form a stack but if 4 pros build a stack its a confirmed win.
For example on League of legends the best 200 players are forced to play alone. Everyone besides that can duo.

 

[King_Arthur253]

It woul be nice if stack size was dependend on skill. It is no problem if 4 casuals form a stack but if 4 pros build a stack its a confirmed win

Honestly, even 4 casuals forming a stack would be most likely a win against pubs. They would coordinate better, and given that they play in a group, none of them are probably true "noobs". Individuals in stacks have, on average, much better skill than the average pub.

 

[Lord Bryggan]

VOIP in captain mode would help so much. Except for the odd troll or two, most players want to do the right thing. When I first started, I thought a shield wall in a choke point would hold the enemy long enough for my comrades to get behind them. An experienced player could have told me it doesn't work like that.

In text chat we try help each other and plan, but timing is so important in this game. We try to guess what the other formations are doing, but 80% of the time we're wrong. And since the AI is so stupid attacking 2 seconds early will get you destroyed.

Adding the "Realistic Battle Mod" would make the game 5X better too.

 

[[VK] Shoomama]

I 100% disagree with disabling stacks in favor of only having clan battles. You shouldn't have to be in a clan to play with your friends, and a lot of newer clans can't get the 6 players required to even enable the clan battle system. At the end of your post you stated how clans would host events in warband, and as a clan leader I'd love to do this - but currently this is not possible in bannerlord as there are no custom servers and I am not a famous youtuber. The current system also prioritizes matching stacks with each other but the playerbase isn't big enough for this to be consistent.

My biggest advice to you would be to create/join a clan or find a group of friends to play with until custom servers come out, or just stick to tdm or siege.

Also a hidden ELO feature already exists. I've been noticing this a lot lately as the matches I am put into are often far more difficult.

 

[Brandis.]

most players want to do the right thing

Like 95% of players do the wrong stuff. That's part of the reason why people form groups to begin with.

In Captain solo queue you have to turn your brain completely off. I don't think VOIP would make it much better.

 

[Zettaiken]

Well partially I can agree and disagree with you, as Octavius said there are some people who want to create a clan for casual/ competitive goal while having 5 or less members fully active, also for clan match you need 6 people on the same clan, also that solution would kill the matches with mercenaries playing for other clans or also it would a little bit difficult for clans to make a match to check new recruits abilities in skirmish matches etc.

As I know there is an Elo system, I can't tell personally how accurate and good it is cause I've experience sometimes balanced team or sometimes been matched with 5 casuals in team against 6 clan members (4 stack + 2 stack) and it felt 1v6 for me so it wasn't fun at all.

I get it why you blame stacking match searching, but also people from clans want to play and practice together, for now it's impossible for them to do it other way cause there is no possibilities to create private servers for them to practice, so they end up by stacking to play in skirmishes.
Even if someone would said that a stack can go to tdm to practice, that's unpractical and not even enjoying to play against 30+ casuals without teamhit/kill system not even mention that most of people play cav/archer class which make you less able to train the infantry combat 1h+shield.

 

[King_Arthur253]

Well partially I can agree and disagree with you, as Octavius said there are some people who want to create a clan for casual/ competitive goal while having 5 or less members fully active, also for clan match you need 6 people on the same clan, also that solution would kill the matches with mercenaries playing for other clans or also it would a little bit difficult for clans to make a match to check new recruits abilities in skirmish matches etc.

As I know there is an Elo system, I can't tell personally how accurate and good it is cause I've experience sometimes balanced team or sometimes been matched with 5 casuals in team against 6 clan members (4 stack + 2 stack) and it felt 1v6 for me so it wasn't fun at all.

I get it why you blame stacking match searching, but also people from clans want to play and practice together, for now it's impossible for them to do it other way cause there is no possibilities to create private servers for them to practice, so they end up by stacking to play in skirmishes.
Even if someone would said that a stack can go to tdm to practice, that's unpractical and not even enjoying to play against 30+ casuals without teamhit/kill system not even mention that most of people play cav/archer class which make you less able to train the infantry combat 1h+shield.

Playing in the Asia server, almost half of all matched games are against stacks. It’s a terrible experience to be matched against stacks, and honestly, pub stomping doesn’t feel very fun for me. I think one way is that only 6 stacks are allowed and they can only be matched against other 6 stacks.

Another option might be allowing players to opt out of being matched with stacks. Give players the freedom to choose whether or not they want to play with stacks.