How about a random teams option?
I just played a fun custom game on Open Palms (okay, my teammate lagging out and then me dying to a huge mass of tactical missiles isn’t the part I’m referring to). Shloober, who was the host, was using an improvised random teams option. Teams were set to unlocked, starting positions were set to random, and everyone went into the game unallied. Then, once you do end up in the game, you ally with the two other on your side of the map. The idea itself is very nice. It prevents stacked teams and friends/ringers who come into the game together, play on the same side, and dominate.
What wasn’t so nice was the execution. You have to announce your position on the map, listen to everyone else do the same, figure out who your allies should be, and then ally with them. This took quite a while to figure out. It’s simple in theory, but doesn’t run so smoothly in practice, especially when everyone is mostly preoccupied with building their base. Our opponents seemed to have a bit of trouble figuring this out, with many allyings and deallyings over the course of the first two minutes.
So the idea is a very good one, but the manual implementation of it suffers. That’s why I think a random teams option should be added to the skirmish menu. Another option immediately presents itself: to make the random teams option aware of map location. Turn on this second option and the players will be randomly placed, then teamed up according to their position (e.g. the partner locations on Fields of Isis). Not using this option would still make for some fun hectic gameplay though. Imagine on a 3v3 map if one player from the other team was randomly on that side. It’d be a race, with the two near players from both teams simultaneously rushing to destroy the nearby disadvantaged enemy while sending support to keep their isolated ally alive.
So how about it GPG, random teams? Please?
July 20th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
nice idea…..
but ive got to say im starting to give up on custom games… there are to many Fields of Isis 2v2 games where me and a freind looking for a chalange go in and play against loosers who are like i can build a mavor in 64 min ‘I WIN!’
these games suck… and a random team thing could be good… but my self and the friend i was talking about have tried playing games on seperate teams… and it just leads to a whos got the best team mate cuz we are so evenly matched…
random would be nice… but i think it would only been usefull on 3v3 maps….
also should u try it again Cyde try waiting to scout ur team mates before allying with them… (could be intresting if u find a scout NEAR a ally base ally with them and find out they are the enermy on the other side of the map with a early scout :D
July 21st, 2007 at 2:25 am
I gave up on custom games after my 4th or 5th unbearable one (which happened to be 4th or 5th period). Anyway, random teams is a standard option in RTS multiplayer, there’s no reason supcom shouldn’t offer it.
July 21st, 2007 at 3:02 am
HEAR HEAR
July 21st, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Agreed
/signed
July 21st, 2007 at 7:14 pm
There’s a pause option for a reason.
Just pause the game, send chat messages with the cool image link option to show where you are, visually, and then ally. Easy as pie.
July 21st, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Custom games are balls.
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:57 am
Nova: Pausing the game really interrupts the flow, though, and gives people extra time to start queuing up their base and such.
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:21 am
as to the queuing, not much can be done, but pausing before anything starts means there’s nothing TO interrupt.
If only you could pause in that window before it allows you to que things, this problem would be solved.
Oh well.
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
how far ahead can u que….
what to build ur first couple of mex’s and pgens gives u 1 min another min to build ur factory… thats 2 min of queing… thats a LOT of time!!! what extra do u want to add to ur que that u need more then 2min?
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 am
We do random teams on LAN’s. We have 2v2v2v2 on The Bermuda Locket Unlocked teams and random spawn location. Whoever you spawn next to is your team mate and away you go.
Very fun games because it prevents the good players ganging up together. This was something I planned to try in a shoutcast a few weeks ago that ended up with idiots claiming I was being elitist by only wanting top 100 players for it.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:09 am
theShiznit approves
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
Only having top 100 players makes sense, you want a match that is enjoyable to watch and enjoyable for you too shoutcast, the the bext matches will always be between the top players