Arena caps are...

[Babalonian]

I think the idea of evening out the teams is just to work-around the ever-changing server caps (IE: 80 on Knit, 80 on Bish, 60 on Rook... well have the server let 20 more players wanting to connect, just on Rook only).  And in regards to maintaining the best quality of game play for a player while on the server, this does nothing, if anyhting it makes it worse and increases lag by pushing the server above it's limits (yes, the teams are even, but if you can't play then what's the point?).

I'm personaly unaware of what trips a server into lowering/raising it's maximum population numbers throughout the day, but if it were possible to eliminate it (or make it a rarer occurance, especialy during prime times when things are at their peak) then I think it would help eliminate some of the player frustration over it (obviously, not all of it). 

Once a server is capped, it's capped, but if a server is capped at 200 players 24/7, then people learn to respect the hard-cap.  A squad leader starting up for the evening, seeing the server at 190/200 and estimating 20 members in attendance for that evening, will make a decision to not join it and pick another server, knowing once it hits 200, it's full.

The way it is now, that squad leader shows up, picks a server that is 210/250 players, and then a short while later the server cap is lowered to 200, but there are still 230 players on it.  This frustrates the people not only trying to connect to it ("WTF, it's got 30 players over-cap!  My CO is going to have my hide.") but the people who already connected to it ("Worst attendance ever guys, there was just 3 of us on last night, thnx for blowing it off." - Is it really his fault that 10 minutes before meeting time the server cap changed?  Hopefuly the rest of his guys locked out have a way of contacting him while he's in-game and can change to another server.... hopefuly.).

[The Fugitive]

So... you are OK with the choice of flying with your squadmates (staying with your country of choice) and having the following choice (granted it is in the extreme, but I personally have had this happen on more than on occasion):

arena 1: ENY 26
arena 2: unnumbered 3-1 by one country

I think that HTC has responded admirably to the changing dynamics as the game has evolved, but I also believe that there is always room for improvement.

If having "balance" between countries and/or servers is the desired result, do you believe that we have reached the zenith of possibilities in achieving that goal?


You will have to argue your point more convincingly if you want to win me over... I stand by my proposal.

I don't have a problem flying with an ENY value, nor in an out numbered arena.

ENY means nothing to me, it just means I fly a different plane...tho I do fly the P-38 G often enough as it is  Being out numbered is fun because I'd rather defend than attack. fighting over my base I have less of a chance of getting hit by ack, and in a 38 that is pretty important. Again you limit your self by looking at these things as restrictions, I look at them as different paths to explore.

Your idea has merit... so sayeth the high lord HT    But like I said, to me its not a problem that must be solved. Are we at the "zenith" maybe. Any solution that is used  must be something in the middle. There is no hard a fast way to fix it. Like HT said, your solution addresses the ENY issues, but really doesn't do anything in maintaining an even split between arenas. What would you do if the arena has hit its hard cap (because you know there will be one due to the healthy game play issue) and all you have left is the other LW arena and there is ony 75 people in there split between 3 countries?  My guess is you'd hit the BBS, and pretty hard   

The way it is now many not be perfect, but its about the only fair way to do it.

 

[MajIssue]

Your idea would achieve this goal, but the arena limits have nothing to do with this goal. Unless I miss the point and if all sides are balanced no one can get into the arena after a certain number? If this is what you think, then you would be limiting the arena even more. Because I would write it so that if 300 was the cap only 100 of each could enter.

The arena limit is in place because there simply is a limit of how many people can play in one place and still have good game play. If you idea is meant to increase this number, then it most probably is a hidden vail to just increase the caps and not solve the issue.

So while your idea is not a bad one for achieving country balance, it really does not address the reason the limits are there in the first place. 

Thank you for the thoughtful reply oh Grand Poobaa! The Scotch is in route!

My suggestion was meant to address the issue of having an excessive ENY in one arena, and going to the other (to escape the oppressively high ENY) and being outnumbered by a large margin. I do think that an overall number cap is useful for balancing the load on your equipment. However, it seems to me that a few tweaks could generate an improved balance in sides, and lower instances of a 26+ ENY.

Thanks again for addressing this issue HiTech, It is always educational to get the perspective of the guy that actually created the product!

[MajIssue]

I don't have a problem flying with an ENY value, nor in an out numbered arena.

ENY means nothing to me, it just means I fly a different plane...tho I do fly the P-38 G often enough as it is  Being out numbered is fun because I'd rather defend than attack. fighting over my base I have less of a chance of getting hit by ack, and in a 38 that is pretty important. Again you limit your self by looking at these things as restrictions, I look at them as different paths to explore.

Your idea has merit... so sayeth the high lord HT    But like I said, to me its not a problem that must be solved. Are we at the "zenith" maybe. Any solution that is used  must be something in the middle. There is no hard a fast way to fix it. Like HT said, your solution addresses the ENY issues, but really doesn't do anything in maintaining an even split between arenas. What would you do if the arena has hit its hard cap (because you know there will be one due to the healthy game play issue) and all you have left is the other LW arena and there is ony 75 people in there split between 3 countries?  My guess is you'd hit the BBS, and pretty hard   

The way it is now many not be perfect, but its about the only fair way to do it.

 

Thanks for the honest discussion Fugitive, I retract and apologize for my snide comment directed at you!

[hitech]

Like I said Kev, I could limit all sides to 100 in your example.
So then you would have 100/100/25 it that suites  you better?

[Shifty]

Your idea would achieve this goal, but the arena limits have nothing to do with this goal. Unless I miss the point and if all sides are balanced no one can get into the arena after a certain number? If this is what you think, then you would be limiting the arena even more. Because I would write it so that if 300 was the cap only 100 of each could enter.

The arena limit is in place because there simply is a limit of how many people can play in one place and still have good game play. If you idea is ment to increase this number, then it most probably is a hidden vail to just increase the caps and not solve the issue.

So while your idea is not a bad one for achieving country balance, it really does not address the reason the limits are there in the first place. 

Jebus! When did HT learn to spell? Only two misspelling in the whole post. I must have missed something the past year or so. 

[TheBug]

Firefox

[Shuffler]

Like I said Kev, I could limit all sides to 100 in your example.
So then you would have 100/100/25 it that suites  you better?

Woot limit 100 good for me.

Why that thar is way on up tha krusty scale fer shor.

I'll take "Dog Fights" for $200 please!

Watch messin with HT or you'll see prompts in the future, "To enter this Arena please authorize $15 per use". Thank you for your patronage. 

[SlapShot]

I still think this would be the best way to go ...

I will use numbers that are easiest for explanation and not the real numbers.

If ...

Orange and Blue have a cap of 100 and when an LW arena population reaches 50% of the cap, the other LW cap is increased by 50 seats.

So ...

Once Orange reaches 50 players, Blue cap is increased to 150 and Orange still has room of 50 more players before is reaches its cap.

Once the 100 cap is reached in Orange no more entry is allowed.

Now that Blue cap has been increased to 150, players will begin to fill up Blue. Once Blue reaches a population of 75 players, Orange cap will be raised to 150. At this point, people really have a choice of Orange or Blue because neither has reached their respective caps.

So at this instant we would see ...

LW1 - 50/150
LW2 - 75/150

==============================================

Now lets go back to the beginning and start again ...

Once Orange reaches 50 players, Blue cap is increased to 150 and Orange still has room of 50 more players.

Once the 100 cap is reached in Orange (current numbers in Orange are - 60 Rooks - 25 Knights - 15 Bish) and someone selects Orange while the cap has been realized, they are presented with another popup choice ...

Orange - Knights (until they reach a population of 60*)
Orange - Bish (until they reach a population of 60*)
Blue - Open for all at the moment

*60 is set by the highest single population at the point that the cap had been reached ... in this case, the Rooks had 60 when the cap was reached.

This way, someone who wants to play in Orange and is willing to join one of the weaker sides, is allowed entry. So ... If I choose Bish ... then the cap is now 101/101 ... so on and so forth until balance is achieved (180/180), and at that point, there is no more entry into Orange until Blue has reached its saturation point causing the cap in Orange to be increased.

So if Orange did reach 180/180 by people choosing the under populated countries and Blue eventually did reach it 50% saturation point, the new cap for Orange would be 180 + 50 = 230 so we would see ...

Orange - 180/230
Blue - 75/150

This allows entry into a "capped" arena ... as long as you choose one of the under-populated countries.

[MENDEZ]

I used to love the huge furballs on the old maps, these caps personally drove me away from the game.

[999000]

999000<----agrees with MENDEZ
<S>

[Kev367th]

Like I said Kev, I could limit all sides to 100 in your example.
So then you would have 100/100/25 it that suites  you better?

Hi HT,
Still leaves you with the same problem, is (a)100/(b)100/(c)25 good for gameplay?
Plus you could guarentee the other arena would have a huge amount of country (c) players in it, unbalancing that arena.
So it would really be no different.

It's a toughie, but it's obvious for one reason or another the majority of people/squads are now loyal to their chess piece.
Wasn't such a problem a few years back when every country took their turn in the bucket as squads rotated around countries, still don't know why it stopped happening.

Time to rename the countries and randomly assign squads to them?

[hitech]

It's a toughie, but it's obvious for one reason or another the majority of people/squads are now loyal to their chess piece.
Wasn't such a problem a few years back when every country took their turn in the bucket as squads rotated around countries, still don't know why it stopped happening.

You have a very selective memory. When we had only one arena, we also had the imbalance issue. There were 6 month periods of huge imbalances between countries.

[1pLUs44]

HT, just make them both stop at 500....

[Bronk]

You have a very selective memory. When we had only one arena, we also had the imbalance issue. There were 6 month periods of huge imbalances between countries.

I liked the hard side caps, however I am in the vast minority on this.