For Gods sakes, REVERT back to 'Host Chooses Settings!'

[Krono]

Seems to me, this last update has broken the game for high level/competitive style players. Taking the ability for the host to be the primary decision-maker has completely eliminated high level play, which REQUIRES 8 players, all on competitive mode, in VH difficulty. Those are the settings for the 'big leagues' so to speak, and with current game settings, it's no longer even possible to have a big league game unless you have a group of 4 or more players to get a majority vote.

I have a small group of gamers, several of whom including myself were avid wc3 ELETD'ers, who have been slowly developing our SC2 ELETD skills.

We have stayed together in difficulty levels, and always have a reigning 'champion', the guy who has attained the highest level on the highest difficulty, started at medium, and worked our way up to Very Hard.

In any case, what we quickly realized is that the ONLY way someone can ever be in a game that we consider 'real' is if it's set to competitive and Very Hard. Going through these forums, I now agree with that more than ever, who gives a flying fruit if you can get an infinite fruit loop (excuse the pun) on very easy? Seriously who gives a HOOT!?

The ONLY thing that matters to the big boys, is what you can attain on Very Hard / Competitive in a game that starts with 8 players (for the fastest possible timers and for other players to throw a wrench and keep 'interesters' honest, a necessary balancing presence)

In the games current state, now that the host can no longer dictate settings, random players will rarely agree to Very Hard and rarely agree to competitive mode, so someone wanting to play a 'big league' game, has to leave the game, rejoin a new one, BEG for proper settings, probably fail, leave the game, restart a new one, etc...

Essentially, the ONLY way to play a 'big league' game right now is to either control 4+ players directly, or play by your damn self, which is no fun and doesn't really qualify as a real game anyway without 7 other people trying to F you up. I.E. If you want to set a 'fruit record' the ONLY way it counts is in a game with 8 players, VH difficulty, Competitive settings, how the heck can you set one of those up as of now?

Very unhappy with this latest change, and to me it just 'n00bified' the public ELE TD games on B.Net.

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TL;DR

New game settings that disallow the host from choosing settings has led to all n00b style public games, no longer possible to set up elite contests unless you personally know and invite 7 other players to try to get a game going.

Please either revert to options for Host to set game settings or some other method to generate more elite contests, as those are the only ones that 'count'.

[Megadramon]

Quite frankly there are very few players who can play Very Hard, and the majority of players are new comers; however, I'm also opposed to the modes being 100% player vote; I believe Karawasa is aware of this as I've brought the issue up to him before.

Veteran players need to have fun too!

[Vyce663]

I mean honestly Mega hit the nail on the head. Not many players who play the game for the first time want to be placed in a game where VH is going to happen. They will get their asses kicked within the first few rounds.

But i do want to bring the attention to *IF* you had the control to choose the difficulty as host and set it as VH. How many of the players who were there (8) do you think would stay in the game? To be honest i would guess around 1-3 other players would and that's more than half gone. Not something really conductive towards a game being popular just "Hoping" the host will pick what you want.

[Karawasa]

I think what I will do is make the host's vote count as half. Therefore, if more than half of the remaining players vote against you...well tough shit?

[HiggsBoson]

I'm really close to getting Infinite Fruit on Very Hard since all you babies whine about it, so...

[oyzar]

On all pick getting a ton of fruits on very hard is not THAT hard (though my record is somewhere between 700-800 but i have only completed it twice at all pick, once over 600 once over 700).

That is why it should be possible to play stuff like random / competetive etc to keep the game fresh. Playing against yourself is only fun for so long (it is a multiplayer game for a reason). The channels (both mirc and ingame) are also extreemly sparesly poppulated so trying to arrange a game that way is also very hard. Making comboboxes instead of dropdown boxes would be a major improvement. Host pick would also be a solution i suppose, but it still doesn't change the fact that options should be immeadiatly displayed to the user. Also difficulty should be chosen after seeing the modes. People might vote different for difficulty for competetive same random than all pick standard or extreme for example.

[Megadramon]

If we make difficulty selection after modes are selected, it'd be easier to emphasize whether you're choosing a difficulty for everyone, or for yourself.

Sounds like a good idea.

[Krono]

...Not many players who play the game for the first time want to be placed in a game where VH is going to happen. They will get their asses kicked within the first few rounds.

...host and set it as VH. How many of the players who were there (8) do you think would stay in the game? To be honest i would guess around 1-3 other players would and that's more than half gone. Not something really conductive towards a game being popular just "Hoping" the host will pick what you want.

Oops, I should have mentioned this in the OP, but with every game I have macro text on standby:

'HARDCORE ELE TD! This game will be EXTREMELY challenging! Please vote Competitive Mode & Very Hard difficulty! If that sounds too tough, please leave now!'

Then I paste it into chat for EVERY new player that enters the room, so that noone is taken off guard and everyone has a chance to leave (except the 8th player since the countdown starts right away).

So no, everyone is informed, everyone gives consent by staying in the game, and even then most people vote incorrectly or just faceroll the defaults. It's not something that should be a problem, but many players either don't understand the voting, don't read anything in the lobby chat, or just don't give a flying fruit. Unfortunately with B.net 2.0, you can't have an individual game that stands out like you could in WC3: 'ELE TD MAXIMUM DIFFICULTY!' etc.

Therefore, we still need a solution for getting together elite caliber games.

[Karawasa]

Anyone want to comment on "host counts as 50%" idea?

[Krono]

Anyone want to comment on "host counts as 50%" idea?

Sounds like a winner to me, then I only need one competent individual that can read, and we're golden...

[Megadramon]

Anyone want to comment on "host counts as 50%" idea?

It's better than host having no power.

I'm all for it.

[Vyce663]

Yeah i like the 50% idea. It seems to be a fair compromise.

[Karawasa]

I am now leaning toward 33% because with 50%, it would take every other player voting the opposite to nullify. If even one player votes different, host always wins. Different doesn't mean same as host, take for instance All Pick, All Random, and Same Random.

[Vyce663]

Yeah, you have a good point. Maybe 25% then would be even better, requiring 2 others to vote with the host.

[pyrobob262]

Whatever the numbers turn out to be, it sounds decent, except that the host is usually random

I would suggest a -nominate feature, where you an either -nominate (color) , (player) or (#), It resets the options and gives the nominee control over options. Make it require 3 -5 /8 I guess.

[Megadramon]

Host vote now counts for around 33% of players.

Because of the new changes, I've been content playing in Standard to check everything out.

For those who wanted the change, are you guys able to host with your desired modes? At least now, if you have a small group of friends, you can control the modes and find some potentially good players to play with.

Getting people to choose Competitive or something maybe be easy now, but I dunno about making them same random.