OpenRA

I'd just like to see some kind of indicator of matches played to serve as an indicator of how new or experienced someone is - single player doesn't count

If we do implement registration, it is likely it will only provide a badge of some sort next to the player's name. It is very unlikely that nickname locks will exist. Reputation/quit rating/win-loss ratio are also very unlikely to happen.

raymundo wrote: The only type of ranked match I think would work are 1v1's. Possibly a check box could be in match options to turn ranked on or off. This could have a negative impact also though, maybe a big focus of the game will become 1v1 matches and team based games which are where this game really shines would decrease in popularity.

80--90% of the time people want to play team games. In theory they may make possible some clever team tactics and working together to get the win. In reality, a lot of the time, it's just random luck of which side ends up with a rubbish player or whatever. I wish more people were happy to play 1v1...

zinc wrote: 80--90% of the time people want to play team games. In theory they may make possible some clever team tactics and working together to get the win. In reality, a lot of the time, it's just random luck of which side ends up with a rubbish player or whatever. I wish more people were happy to play 1v1...

It would be nice if servers could put player caps so that there could be dedicated 1v1 servers etc.

You can disable observers now so after all slots are filled, no one else can join.

Having to manually set up a game, choose a map, set game options and all that bullshit is only a minor nuisance but not many bother because you can just join a team game instead and start playing right away, right now (even if it isn't balanced its still fun).

A ranked ladder would be awesome. Some might argue we need a huge playerbase for a such thing but IMO a ladder is actually a prerequisite for a huge playerbase.

winftw wrote: A ranked ladder would be awesome.

I can't see how a ranking system would benefit the OpenRA community, even if it could be properly implemented. Just enjoy the game.

zoidyberg wrote:

winftw wrote: A ranked ladder would be awesome.

I can't see how a ranking system would benefit the OpenRA community, even if it could be properly implemented. Just enjoy the game.

Agreed, I just want to know WHO you actually are (not impersonator), and if you are new to the game or not.

I think a ranking system incites game-playing. People are often competitive and want to climb a spot on the rankinglists.

Personally I think we are reinventing the wheel: how do the communities of Starcraft (2) cope with this? Do they have a ranking system? Is it ELO-like or different?

I could be mistaken, but an ELO-like ranking system could allow us to make an auto-match system, and/or a handicap system. Also there can be chesslike results: a strong player wins against a weak player, few points are gained/lost. Other way around the weak player wins: many points are gained/lost. Or play a game with handicap: teh strong player can win "full" rating points as if he was rated equal.

There are many ELO-systems that take several aspect in account. Im not an axpert, but imo it would be very fun addition.

I agree with NMM, would be fun.

I've been playing for some time under the Zoidberg handle. zoidyberg = Zoidberg. :-)

Aside from "It would be neat," I haven't heard a one reason to create a ranking system. There are no heated arguments about who gets the OpenRA trophy. I've never even seen players bickering about who is better than who. Most conversations are about annoying players or game balancing, not points.

noobmapmaker mentioned that rankings will make it easier to roll out a scoring system. However....Scoring systems incentivize players to rack up points, not play OpenRA. Players will gradually cluster together into trusted groups because they want to increase or maintain their coveted rankings. Games are already sparse and a scoring systems will create an artificial barrier that should not exist.

Let's say the decision is made to introduce scoring. The scoring process will need to be refined for some time because players will "game the system" and devalue the rankings. For every hour a developer spends on dealing with players who cheat the scoring system, that's one less hour that can be spent on things like game balancing, networking issues etc.

While a scoring system is a good idea it can also seperate the community. Luckily for me, ive been able to play against anyone who joins in (Unless they know the name then they jump back out). If the match making system is involved it can create staggering game issues as it did with Grey Goo. Trying to match players equal level only the system can't find enough players to match with and gets matched with a strong vs new player.

I prefer the system as it is right now and just work on the network bugs and issues. We have spectator problems where if a player leaves ingame while spectating the replay breaks.

Spectating a lobby can prevent other players from joining. and etc.

Some of the things that should be ironed out first before a ranking system comes into mark. Ranking system has its pros and cons.

I started working on IRC support https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/pull/8480 which will give us authentication for free.