No Sign-Up Required!
Play Now!
Team Game Enhancements
Hello All,
Deadbeats are players who join a game but do not finish. They are not a big deal for single player games, but for team games this can really affect the game balance.
We have now implemented a new and more advanced deadbeat player solution.
Deadbeaters will now no longer merge with the weakest teammate. Instead, the teammates will have the option to complete substitute turns for the deadbeat player. Teammates should take care to complete the deadbeat player's turn before their own, as the game will still not wait for the deadbeaters.
A few extra details:
- Teammates will not be able to read the deadbeater's game mail.
- Teammates will not be able to chat on behalf of the deadbeater.
These two items are to prevent character assassination.
We hope this will help keep the team games fair and the fun rolling.
See you on the battlefield,
The BATTLE FORCES Team
THANK YOU GOD!!!!!
that is all.
didn't you make this announcement and change a week or two ago?
They made it in I think one of mateus's threads about deadbeaters, and said after a couple more weeks of testing and the feature being out there in active game play, they would make the formal announcement.
sounds great!!! thanks!!
Great, although with single player games it is pretty annoying to watch a deadbeater come in 2nd place because taking them out earlier would weaken active players.Do they still get points for 2nd place? Any way to make them automatically last place?
@Bromley, Weakening deadbeat forces would mean punishing all their teammates for their individual actions. That seems to fit only if the idea is to encourage others to avoid playing with them again. I think it would lead to more friction and drama whenever someone is delayed for any reason. The group of active players might become somewhat more consistent, but it would also likely shrink considerably.
One thing I notice, this still means that teammates who previously had to coordinate with others through mail, now gain the ability to better coordinate the actions of now-deadbeat forces. That actually rewards the team with the deadbeat slightly, as long as they do take that turn. I wonder if there might be another option that mitigates this without really penalizing the team terribly. Not sure if say, the computer would be capable enough to take over for a missing player instead?
Overall though, I think this is at least preferable to what we had before :)
>Weakening deadbeat forces would mean punishing all their teammates for their individual actions.
Sorry, I should have made it clear that that was being presented as a solution to the single-player-deadbeat-massive army problem.
The team game deadbeat problem has been fixed as well as it can be, IMO. Sure there are variations, like having a deadbeat board where players could substitute for deadbeats, but that's complicated, might lead to problems in itself and pretty-much unnecessary.
Regarding the benefit of single-control (which I agree is a real benefit), that's offset by 2 turns of inactivity/crap builds and a loss of another brain working at the problem. In A&A, 2 turns of inactivity for the US/UK might not be a huge problem, but for the SU/Ger/Jap it's a penalty.
>Not sure if say, the computer would be capable enough to take over for a missing player instead?
I am. It can't :) .
Cheers Admins!
@Holbrook. Yes. Probably, but it may take some time :) .
The two suggestions are to move deadbeats to the bottom of the win list (in single player games only, as team games would make that difficult) or to remove units from deadbeating players every turn, so that eventually they can be easily taken out.
EDIT: Just for clarity, only the winner actually gains points. But coming 2nd loses you less than coming 10th, so you do sort ofget points for coming 2nd rather than last IYSWIM.
EDIT2: Damn, sorry. I forgot editing resends the message. This originally appeared before Kylen's post.
GG - Can you add a "deadbeat counter" to each persons profile so people can see if someone is a frequent deadbeat, and a way to reject them from joining a game?
and a way to reject them from joining a game?
Add someone to your block list and they won't be able to join any game you're already registered for. You can still register for games they're already signed up for though.
Thanks for working out a solution. I think this was the best option.
The scoring in team games sucks. You do great but your teammate sucks you lose points like you sucked. you get left to fend for yourself and get taking out but your team wins the game you still lose points.
you get left to fend for yourself and get taking out but your team wins the game you still lose points.
This is not corrrect... the team scores a win or loss as a single entity. All members of the winning team score + points, even those who were eliminated during play. If that weren't the case being Russia in A&A games would truly be the short straw, it's common for Allied wins to include a Russian elimination earlier in the game.
Thanks for the solution of the deadbeat problem in the team games. It is very fair. As far as deadbeats in single games, the active players should make an effort to eleminate them first. I was just in a game in which all I had was a tranport. There was only one other active player left and he made a point to chase my transport all over the map while leaving the deadbeats alone. I wasn't happy about it, but that's the way the game goes sometimes.