DvR
Recruit
I have played Warband to dead during beta and I’m returning now after a short break. I have been thinking about competitive play a lot during beta and since Warband has now been officially launched I think it’s a good idea to discuss this.
During beta there were already a lot of clans actively playing matches against each other. The problem in my opinion is that these matches are rare, once or twice a week at best. Being a long time counter strike veteran that knows people that play 2-3 hours a day but haven’t joined a public server once in 5+ years I find it annoying and strange that matches are this rare. Its especially strange seeing as a lot of people prefer “wars” over “pubs” you would think there would be a small but active scene doing fun competitive matches every day.
Why isn’t this happening?
One reason could be that Warband has a small player base and is still rather new. Even so I think a small active competitive scene is possible. I think a big part of the problem lies in how these “wars” are currently organized, one clan challenges another on the forums or ingame and then a time and date is set. This has several disadvantages one being that you need a certain amount of people to be online at a prearranged time and date, this is hard to do. There are also a lot of people that would like to play a competitive match every now and then but aren’t in a clan or team that is capable of playing “wars”.
How to make it happen you ask?
I suggest we look at games that have a competitive scene and try to figure out why they do have an active scene and we don’t. The only FPS that I play competitively is counter strike and these are some of the things I noticed:
- Matches are found using IRC (instant relay chat).
- So called “mixers” can team up and also play “wars”
- Software meets the requirements of professional game hosting companies.
- Global match rules.
IRC is basically a chat box( it’s much more but chatting is all we need). In several games played competitively including counter strike people that want to play a “war” log into IRC and arrange a war there. Some examples on how this works in practice:
Player A is part of a clan or a group of friends and wants to play a “war” against other opponents that are on their own voice chat program and use organized tactics. At the current time there are 6 players of his clan online. He logs into IRC and types in something like this:
“xonx” “mapname” “server on/off”
For this example lets assume that he want to play on the map ruins and he has a server that can be used to play the match on. He would type this:
6on6 ruins server on
Other people that are also in the IRC channel looking for a match will respond by whispering him and asking him to play against them.
Example2:
Player B wants to play a match but he has no clan or there are no other people in his clan online right now. He would log into IRC and type something like this:
Free for mix!
He says this to let others in the channel know that he is available for a so called “mix”, a “mix” is a group of people that join together to play a mix but aren’t in a clan, they just band together temporarily so they can play. Two things can happen:
- A clan looking for another player because they are currently short one or more members can ask him to join them for the next match.
- Or if there are enough people looking for a mix they can band together and form their own temporary team.
This allows players to have fun and practice even without being in a clan or when not enough of your clan members are online. Another huge benefit is that existing clans can find and recruit new members like this. Clans come in contact with solo players and if someone fits in with the group and is skilled enough they can ask him or her to join the clan. A lot of clans are formed because of mixes as well, people that are currently clanless play with other people that are clanless and a lot of times new clans will emerge out of this.
Good software that supports competitive play is also very important. At the moment I can’t find game hosting providers offering to host Warband, I hear complains that Warband doesn’t meet the requirements of a lot of game hosting providers. It must be possible to host multiple servers on one server and to change the ip and port per server etc. I suggest that one of the devs has a chat with some hosting providers to find out what their requirements are and how to meet them. It’s a lot easier for people to buy a small private password protected warband server for a small amount of money a month then to buy a dedicated server for 100+ euro a month. Yes they can host multiple servers on a dedi but most clans won’t need this.
It is also important ( although less) to be able to connect to a server using the console and the server ip, you don’t want to have to look through potentially hundreds of servers just to find the server you need to join for the match you want to play.
Lastly it’s VERY IMPORTANT to have somewhat universal match rules. This includes what game modes should be played, how many players each type of match requires. How many rounds are played.
For example in counter strike:
- Only defuse maps are played since they’re the most suitable for competitive play, but ofcourse if both teams want to play another game type nothing is stopping them.
- Matches are played 2on2, 3on3, 4on4, 5on5
- Each match exist out of 2 halfs, after 15 rounds total played the first half is over and people change team. The first team to win 16 rounds in total wins the match.
For example:
Team A plays swadia the first half and team B plays the nords the first half.
Team A wins 10 rounds and team B wins 5 rounds. The score for the first half is then 10-5 for teamA. Now the second half begins and Team A plays the nords and Team B plays swadia. Team A now only has to win 6 more rounds to get to 16 points and win. In the end Team B manages to win another 5 rounds before Team A can get those 6 rounds. So the final score would be:
16-10 for Team A and thus Team A wins.
This system means that every team has equal chances they play the same teams on the same map as their opponent.
Of course these are just some examples of how it works in counter strike, things need to be changed to fit Warband. I don’t see 2on2 working in Warband for example.
I would like to know peoples thoughts on this subject and if they think it would be a good idea to implement some things from other successful games. This so we can make playing Warband even more fun!
Ps: sorry for my crappy English I hope I could make myself somewhat understandable.
During beta there were already a lot of clans actively playing matches against each other. The problem in my opinion is that these matches are rare, once or twice a week at best. Being a long time counter strike veteran that knows people that play 2-3 hours a day but haven’t joined a public server once in 5+ years I find it annoying and strange that matches are this rare. Its especially strange seeing as a lot of people prefer “wars” over “pubs” you would think there would be a small but active scene doing fun competitive matches every day.
Why isn’t this happening?
One reason could be that Warband has a small player base and is still rather new. Even so I think a small active competitive scene is possible. I think a big part of the problem lies in how these “wars” are currently organized, one clan challenges another on the forums or ingame and then a time and date is set. This has several disadvantages one being that you need a certain amount of people to be online at a prearranged time and date, this is hard to do. There are also a lot of people that would like to play a competitive match every now and then but aren’t in a clan or team that is capable of playing “wars”.
How to make it happen you ask?
I suggest we look at games that have a competitive scene and try to figure out why they do have an active scene and we don’t. The only FPS that I play competitively is counter strike and these are some of the things I noticed:
- Matches are found using IRC (instant relay chat).
- So called “mixers” can team up and also play “wars”
- Software meets the requirements of professional game hosting companies.
- Global match rules.
IRC is basically a chat box( it’s much more but chatting is all we need). In several games played competitively including counter strike people that want to play a “war” log into IRC and arrange a war there. Some examples on how this works in practice:
Player A is part of a clan or a group of friends and wants to play a “war” against other opponents that are on their own voice chat program and use organized tactics. At the current time there are 6 players of his clan online. He logs into IRC and types in something like this:
“xonx” “mapname” “server on/off”
For this example lets assume that he want to play on the map ruins and he has a server that can be used to play the match on. He would type this:
6on6 ruins server on
Other people that are also in the IRC channel looking for a match will respond by whispering him and asking him to play against them.
Example2:
Player B wants to play a match but he has no clan or there are no other people in his clan online right now. He would log into IRC and type something like this:
Free for mix!
He says this to let others in the channel know that he is available for a so called “mix”, a “mix” is a group of people that join together to play a mix but aren’t in a clan, they just band together temporarily so they can play. Two things can happen:
- A clan looking for another player because they are currently short one or more members can ask him to join them for the next match.
- Or if there are enough people looking for a mix they can band together and form their own temporary team.
This allows players to have fun and practice even without being in a clan or when not enough of your clan members are online. Another huge benefit is that existing clans can find and recruit new members like this. Clans come in contact with solo players and if someone fits in with the group and is skilled enough they can ask him or her to join the clan. A lot of clans are formed because of mixes as well, people that are currently clanless play with other people that are clanless and a lot of times new clans will emerge out of this.
Good software that supports competitive play is also very important. At the moment I can’t find game hosting providers offering to host Warband, I hear complains that Warband doesn’t meet the requirements of a lot of game hosting providers. It must be possible to host multiple servers on one server and to change the ip and port per server etc. I suggest that one of the devs has a chat with some hosting providers to find out what their requirements are and how to meet them. It’s a lot easier for people to buy a small private password protected warband server for a small amount of money a month then to buy a dedicated server for 100+ euro a month. Yes they can host multiple servers on a dedi but most clans won’t need this.
It is also important ( although less) to be able to connect to a server using the console and the server ip, you don’t want to have to look through potentially hundreds of servers just to find the server you need to join for the match you want to play.
Lastly it’s VERY IMPORTANT to have somewhat universal match rules. This includes what game modes should be played, how many players each type of match requires. How many rounds are played.
For example in counter strike:
- Only defuse maps are played since they’re the most suitable for competitive play, but ofcourse if both teams want to play another game type nothing is stopping them.
- Matches are played 2on2, 3on3, 4on4, 5on5
- Each match exist out of 2 halfs, after 15 rounds total played the first half is over and people change team. The first team to win 16 rounds in total wins the match.
For example:
Team A plays swadia the first half and team B plays the nords the first half.
Team A wins 10 rounds and team B wins 5 rounds. The score for the first half is then 10-5 for teamA. Now the second half begins and Team A plays the nords and Team B plays swadia. Team A now only has to win 6 more rounds to get to 16 points and win. In the end Team B manages to win another 5 rounds before Team A can get those 6 rounds. So the final score would be:
16-10 for Team A and thus Team A wins.
This system means that every team has equal chances they play the same teams on the same map as their opponent.
Of course these are just some examples of how it works in counter strike, things need to be changed to fit Warband. I don’t see 2on2 working in Warband for example.
I would like to know peoples thoughts on this subject and if they think it would be a good idea to implement some things from other successful games. This so we can make playing Warband even more fun!
Ps: sorry for my crappy English I hope I could make myself somewhat understandable.
