War of Rights - Patch Notes

[Saris]

One good thing I see about this autobalance that it will make the two sides more fluid and become easier to join than before.

[sal_tuskin]

yes you are kicking people out if i was already in and i cant join again because the union left the game and i cant join then yes you are kicking me out of that map cause i was already in it and to no fault of my own i can not play then yes you are

not my fault the union quits after they get beat about 3 times in a row or they cant get enough people to keep the battle going you already have it so u cant join and unbalanced game why punish the people already in the game is my point

its like our dam bush again trying to keep the csa down lol just kidding

[Moose Man]

We are Alpha testers here to test what the devs decide to put in the game. I'm not going to say I'm a fan of this autobalance (I'm not) but right now there doesn't seem to be a better alternative and I'd rather give it a try over the events this weekend to see how it goes before I go screeching "GET RID OF IT!!!"

I do like the ideas of making officer and flag bearers immune and having a sort of "volunteer" system to see if people will voluntarily swap instead of being booted to the faction menu.

Maybe the autobalance could be sort of delayed. Like when people die and autobalance kicks in, there could be some warning message saying that "you're at risk of being balanced to the other team" so that being booted to the menu isn't a complete surprise. Maybe work in some voluntary switch option with it.
It might not be a great idea but it's a thought. I definitely believe this needs a lot of work still but hopefully testing it this weekend will offer some more ideas and alternatives.

[Fancy Sweetroll]

August 11th - Hotfix Released!

- Fixed the intense fire sounds on the camp of Bolivar Heights.
- Replaced the battle ambience sound on the camp of Bolivar Heights with a regular wind ambience.
- Improved the shading on some of the flags on the camp of Bolivar Heights.

[CptData]

Thank you for your input - do you have a suggestion as to how to balance two teams not balanced (and thus causing a bad gameplay experience for both sides which will kill the population of the server entirely without a huge influx of new players joining (being then forced to join the outnumbered team) without moving players from one team to another in one way or another?

The only "solutions" present apart from doing the above I can come up with is to:

1) Give the outnumbered team more morale (yay, they get to die more - no improvement in the gameplay experience).
2) Give the outnumbered team some sort of buffs to counter them being low on numbers (reload twice as fast or other gamey solutions like it which does not make sense).
3) Introduce longer respawn times for the outnumbering team (this can be countered if the outnumbering team plays smart and lay low while their respawns slowly tick in - it is also an excellent way of turning a 150 player online game into feeling like a 80 online player game because of more people will be sitting in a longer spawn queue).

We probably worded the updates to the auto balance system badly in the patch notes - the code behind the system itself is experimental but the design of it is as well thought through as we can muster without actual testing done yet.



We very well may look into making certain classes "immune" to being moved back to the faction selection screen when on the outnumbering team and dying - at the same time we don't want to make these classes taken by people not intending to play the class as it was meant to just to be immune to the auto balance system.

- Trusty

That's the point where I'm really sorry that I can't present you a better idea. At least it's not one you can implement that easily - but you can give it a thought or two.

1st: Allow players to pre-select a side in the company tool
So far, the company tool exists to support company / regimental gameplay, but does not get properly supported ingame currently. Also it mostly supports companies but doesn't so for unalligned players (like me).
I know you're planning to implement some features supported by the company tool later ... so maybe my idea can be implemented as well.

In the company tool, any player can pre-select his (or her) favorite faction: CSA or USA. The player is given 5 points he can award to one or both factions more or less equally, which do influence the likeness of being picked to join that faction.

2nd: Remove the faction selection screen ingame.
You'll be assigned to a side based on what you've pre-selected in the company tool. Also, company membership is taken in account, so if you're member of a CSA company, you'll be a CSA soldier more frequently. If your company is already on the server and most players are assigned to CSA, unless there's a significant difference in strength between both factions, you'll be assigned to your company's favored faction.

3rd: Allowed faction population deviation
I think allowed server population should be somewhere between 5 ... 10% of half of the server population for each faction.
Math is easy:
5% allowed: 150 players on the server => 75 players per faction for an even game => Deviation of +-5% (rounded down, but never less than 1 player) = 3 players => Worst Case: faction A has 78 players, faction B has 72 players => Difference of 6 players between factions.
10% allowed: Same as before => Deviation of +-10% (rounded down, but never less than 1 player) = 7 players => Worst Case: faction A has 82 players, faction B has 68 players => Difference of 14 players between factions.

4rd: How does it really work?
It goes down a priority list.
1st priority is to keep company players together, which means:

#1 if your company is on the server, you'll get moved to the faction where your company has the most players active, as long as that side is not too much stronger (see allowed faction population deviation). Your personal faction choice is ignored.
--> it is entirely possible the IInd Corps ends on Union side, if the majority of players are moved there for some odd reason. Company gameplay is prioritized above faction gameplay.

#2 if you're part of a company that's not on the server or only has very few players online, you'll get assigned to your company's prefered side. Your personal faction choice is used to "boost" your tendency spawning for the prefered faction.
--> this is usually the cause if the server is about to get populated or if a company joins in force to an already semi-populated server. Here, faction gameplay is prioritized so the company ends more likely playing for the prefered faction. Once enough members of a company are online (either a flat amount - 5 players - or a relative amount - 10% of server population), #1 is used.

#3 if you're not part of a company, your prefered faction will be taken in account. If you've set up 4x USA to 1x CSA, you'll fight for USA more likely. Your personal faction choice is used to determine where you'll end fighting for.
--> faction gameplay is prioritized, if possible.

#4 if you're not part of a company and didn't pick sides, you'll be send to whatever faction has a free spot.
--> lower faction population is prioritized.

#5 is only taken in account if there's an option to "affiliate" yourself to a company without becoming a member: your faction choice will be used with priority but once your supported company is online, the game will try to move you to their faction.
--> once again, company gameplay is prioritized.

Long story short: I'd love to see the faction selection screen gone in favor of a pre-select mechanic based on the company tool and some prioritizing attempts as written above. It's not perfect - there's no such thing like a "perfect" faction balance as long as players prefer one side - but it may settle a thing or two.
As I said: I'd favor company gameplay above faction gameplay while still trying to move companies to their prefered faction.
Can't stress that enough.

[TrustyJam]

That's the point where I'm really sorry that I can't present you a better idea. At least it's not one you can implement that easily - but you can give it a thought or two.

1st: Allow players to pre-select a side in the company tool
So far, the company tool exists to support company / regimental gameplay, but does not get properly supported ingame currently. Also it mostly supports companies but doesn't so for unalligned players (like me).
I know you're planning to implement some features supported by the company tool later ... so maybe my idea can be implemented as well.

In the company tool, any player can pre-select his (or her) favorite faction: CSA or USA. The player is given 5 points he can award to one or both factions more or less equally, which do influence the likeness of being picked to join that faction.

2nd: Remove the faction selection screen ingame.
You'll be assigned to a side based on what you've pre-selected in the company tool. Also, company membership is taken in account, so if you're member of a CSA company, you'll be a CSA soldier more frequently. If your company is already on the server and most players are assigned to CSA, unless there's a significant difference in strength between both factions, you'll be assigned to your company's favored faction.

3rd: Allowed faction population deviation
I think allowed server population should be somewhere between 5 ... 10% of half of the server population for each faction.
Math is easy:
5% allowed: 150 players on the server => 75 players per faction for an even game => Deviation of +-5% (rounded down, but never less than 1 player) = 3 players => Worst Case: faction A has 78 players, faction B has 72 players => Difference of 6 players between factions.
10% allowed: Same as before => Deviation of +-10% (rounded down, but never less than 1 player) = 7 players => Worst Case: faction A has 82 players, faction B has 68 players => Difference of 14 players between factions.

4rd: How does it really work?
It goes down a priority list.
1st priority is to keep company players together, which means:

#1 if your company is on the server, you'll get moved to the faction where your company has the most players active, as long as that side is not too much stronger (see allowed faction population deviation). Your personal faction choice is ignored.
--> it is entirely possible the IInd Corps ends on Union side, if the majority of players are moved there for some odd reason. Company gameplay is prioritized above faction gameplay.

#2 if you're part of a company that's not on the server or only has very few players online, you'll get assigned to your company's prefered side. Your personal faction choice is used to "boost" your tendency spawning for the prefered faction.
--> this is usually the cause if the server is about to get populated or if a company joins in force to an already semi-populated server. Here, faction gameplay is prioritized so the company ends more likely playing for the prefered faction. Once enough members of a company are online (either a flat amount - 5 players - or a relative amount - 10% of server population), #1 is used.

#3 if you're not part of a company, your prefered faction will be taken in account. If you've set up 4x USA to 1x CSA, you'll fight for USA more likely. Your personal faction choice is used to determine where you'll end fighting for.
--> faction gameplay is prioritized, if possible.

#4 if you're not part of a company and didn't pick sides, you'll be send to whatever faction has a free spot.
--> lower faction population is prioritized.

#5 is only taken in account if there's an option to "affiliate" yourself to a company without becoming a member: your faction choice will be used with priority but once your supported company is online, the game will try to move you to their faction.
--> once again, company gameplay is prioritized.

Long story short: I'd love to see the faction selection screen gone in favor of a pre-select mechanic based on the company tool and some prioritizing attempts as written above. It's not perfect - there's no such thing like a "perfect" faction balance as long as players prefer one side - but it may settle a thing or two.
As I said: I'd favor company gameplay above faction gameplay while still trying to move companies to their prefered faction.
Can't stress that enough.

We'd like to implement the company tool partially to its own game mode in the game in the far future. It gets incredibly complex very quickly when you mix game systems with systems outside of the game.

At the moment integrating the company tool is not doable for us - especially not to the extent you are suggesting.

- Trusty

[CptData]

Never said it would be easy.

Just suggesting to get rid of the faction selection ingame - it may solve some issues we currently have and also had before the current patch.
I call it "too slow to pick your favored faction". Pre-selecting + prioritizing stuff in the other hand ...

[TrustyJam]

Never said it would be easy.

Just suggesting to get rid of the faction selection ingame - it may solve some issues we currently have and also had before the current patch.
I call it "too slow to pick your favored faction". Pre-selecting + prioritizing stuff in the other hand ...

Your suggestion sounds incredibly complex to me - not being a programmer but a project lead none the less I’d imagine a dedicated team of programmers would be needed to achieve anything remotely similar to it. Naturally we don’t have that amount of manpower available.

I’m also unsure to its actual use.

What happens when the majority of players using the tool are in a company and they set 5/0 to one of the factions?

- Trusty

[A. P. Hill]

… What happens when the majority of players using the tool are in a company and they set 5/0 to one of the factions? …

That sounds like a reconnaissance mission that didn't encounter any opposition.

[CptData]

Your suggestion sounds incredibly complex to me - not being a programmer but a project lead none the less I’d imagine a dedicated team of programmers would be needed to achieve anything remotely similar to it. Naturally we don’t have that amount of manpower available.

I’m also unsure to its actual use.

What happens when the majority of players using the tool are in a company and they set 5/0 to one of the factions?

- Trusty

Golden rules
- Factions need to be balanced according to the rules you set up (like the one instance I suggested, based on relative numbers instead of absolute numbers. 3 guys deviation per team is nothing in a 150 players match but will do a huge difference when only 30 players are on a server.

- If possible, put all players belonging to one company in the same team (company gameplay priority)
--> if not: put players to the other side (there's no other option, after all).
- If possible, put company to favored side
--> if not: put said company to the other faction
- If possible, put a player to his favored faction
-->if not: you get it ...

Etc. Long story short: even if a player wants to play only for CSA since he puit 5:0 points there, even if the guy is part of a CSA company, he will have to fight for the Union if there's a huge difference in team numbers. If things go well, he still can stick with his company (now fighting for Union). If things go badly, he may have to fight for the Union, while the company is still fighting for CSA. But that's more or less the situation if nothing else applies before. So the game needs a logic that tries to prevent said situation, but it can't do it every time.

And yeah, you do need some programmers, but they only need to understand proper scripting (afaik the game is C++ based) and it shouldn't be too difficult to read in a database with player attributes and favored factions to feed in a logic that does all the final selection stuff.
The difficult part is to set up a fair logic.