Any way to screen out terrible players?

[nengjanggo]

I was playing online with a friend of mine tonight, as teamates. We played two games where one of the other team dropped, and were sorta bored. I only wanted to play one more game, because too many games and I can't sleep, so I started a game called "2v2 competent players only." Two guys joined, I asked if they were good, they assured me they were, and we started.

My partner ended up wiping one guy out with his scouting force. I had gone random and was orc, and they were both eldar, and that made me nervous, so I gone fairly quickly for nob leaders and then tracks. I sent in my army in the remaining guy's base and met.... almost nothing (my partner ended up fighting his army elsewhere); the base was destroyed in about 30 seconds.

I watched the replay and the first guy had built: guardian, guardian, bonesingner, aspect portal, SOUL SHRINE, but no plasma. The second guy didn't even cap. all the points near him Totally incompetent.

So here's my question... any suggestions on how to get decent players into my games? Clearly ASKING didn't help. In starcraft one could check the stats on a player by typing "/stats [name]" so you could see what you were up against; is there an equivalent here? If that isn't possible, what can I do? I'd say I play MAYBE 1 in 5 games where I feel challenged, and I'm not THAT good. It gets sorta boring.

Thanks for listening, and for any suggestions.

[Caladbolg]

No theres no way to screen out good and bad players.

Honestly, just deal with it. Beat the crap out of the noobs, tell them what they did wrong at endgame. Tell them to watch replay. Theres a rogue (yes I know very very small chance) that one might get the hint and become a better player.

[Korbah]

Call your game "No noobs/Pro's only"....then in the in-game chat ask them if they're good. If they aren't sure make it simple for them to understand: "If you're only an average player my teammate and I will tear you a new one in a humilitating fashion so do yourself a favour and please drop now if you're not up to the task".

PPL usually get the message at this point. I've nothing against noobs....we were all there once, but it doesn't do DOW any favours if you're continually wftpwnage the poor guys every time since most ppl don't enjoy being totally pwned. If you're a noob looking to improve look at replays and play 1v1 automatch - team games are not the place to improve skills.

[ceejayoz]

Call your game "No noobs/Pro's only"... That's a guaranteed way of getting newbies.

From my experience, the best way to good good opponents is to name the game "n00bs only"...

[Navaros]

only real way is by trial and error

play a whole bunch of games - many of which you are guaranteed to lose due to unbelievably crappy allies

during those games, keep your eyes open for which players are good (allies or enemies), and be sure to get their contact info

eventually you may be able to amass an army of like-minded good players in such a manner.

but not without a whole lot of pain and suffering first! :fight:

[Aron_DeTomado]

Try naming the game :noobs only , no rush, no artillery,
as ceejayoz said...
Reversed psychology might work wonders here...

[-|EoT|-Havoc]

just check out there accounts on the ladder pages, takes a while but better then nothing.

[Galdred]

I've never used the Gamespy client, but what about having it open with another account to check people stats(you'd need to ALT-TAB though)?
Could it work?

[Sajuur]

That would work, but would take a while to do for everyone.

[FireSoul]

Just use the address
"http://gamestats.gamespy.com/whammer40000/player.asp?nick="

then insert the nick afterwards like

http://gamestats.gamespy.com/whammer40000/player.asp?nick=FireSoul

If you forget the address then use the history tool to look up the address (if you have visited in a few days).

[agitator]

Dont be daft mate if you screened out terrible players then no-one could improve could they. :bandit:

[Holy Chaos Ryu]

i have a confession, i am not the best player in the world, so sometimes i go online, go into a game which asks for experts only, and then when i get my ass kicked i watch the replay to help me learn.

in the next patch they should make a filter, only letting you in if you have the right amount of stars

[Skull_Face]

But we can't jut keep playing with newbies all the time .

[Alpha_1]

Simple, join another clans games, I get owned all the time when teaming with a clan mate against friends. I hardly ever 2v2 with the same clan member so you have a chance at winning or learning.

Nice to have a regular ally, look for other games with regular allies, you can then be sure you will not suffer from expert nOOb syndrom.

[K_R]

Have you and your teammate use the same team colours and say to people entering your game that you're a team and have played X games together. If they're newbies, they'll probably leave.

[Warskull]

Actually K_R that tends to have a weird effect. I have noticed a clan tag usually results in some of the worst players ever or actually good players. It chops out the middle section who are scared off.

The really bad players usually don't care about their percentage and don't know enough about the game yet to be scared off by a game with decent players.

You also get a lot of really green players with the "I wanna join a clan attitude." They tend to still be rather clueless as to what is going on, but join clan games in hopes of getting in one.

The middle section has your average players. You have a majority of your player base here. They tend to run away from clan games because they don't want losses to hurt their record.

Finally you will have the average players who aren't afraid of getting a bit dirty and your better players. Problem is these guys are rare and thus when you host a game where it is know you are an arranged team you tend to mostly get the green players.

Another big problem is I think a lot of the DoW players who play the custom games tend to play rather badly and don't really have anywhere to learn from to improve the general play level.

Honestly your best bet is to get to know clan players. Make some friends, the clan players tend to vary in skill (so it isn't an guaranteed beating), but usually tend to be competent. Thus you can actually get a decent game out of them.

[John_Mirra]

On a related note I think the idea to have stats for custom games actually hurt the game. First you'd have more people playing ladder if they wanted to raise stats. Second you wouldn't have the problem Warskull mentioned of people worried about their stats in clan games. Lots of clan players will admit to really good records from beating pubbies. If the stats weren't there you might have the clan players split between the 2 teams to get more balanced games.

[K_R]

All we really need is arranged teams automatch.

[Warskull]

Well the problem is two fold. I gets easy wins from playing against pubs. The problem is if I want to play with my clan mates there aren't many other options. The wins are more of a side effect (I don't really put much weight into in the win/loss record, too much noise to be useful.)

An AT ladder would be very nice and really will be part of DoWs survival in the long run. Really what is going to make or break this game's longevity are the clans. Through them is really the only way to have a decent shot a getting a good game (other than 1v1.) Doesn't matter how good the game is, if you can't get any decent games it gets boring fast.

[nengjanggo]

Hmm... some good suggestions. I've tried naming games "good players only" and "competent players only," or asking people if they are any good ... doesn't work. I'll try telling people that my partner and I know each other and see if that helps.

Also, is there a map that new people seem to stay away from? I like Biffy's Peril and Mountain Trail, but maybe these are too popular, and another map would attract better players?

I know we were all new once and new people have to be able to play and improve, but, really, I'm sick of going into someone's base at Tier 1 and finding four plasma generators.

An arranged team automatch would be awesome.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

[The Legacy]

I think I'm one of those middle players...

What I think would solve this problem is as said before the Starcraft system of /stats [Player]. Mind you, another good idea is a lopsided team game, with a gang of newbies going against one or two good players, so that way they can play better games, yet still have a chance.

[nengjanggo]

Well, I had to Alt-Tab out to my desktop and check everyone's stats manually, and then kick anyone who didn't impress me. It took forever to get the game started, but we finally got two decent opponents. Each of them had more games played, and more victories, than me and my partner combined, and pretty good win/loss ratios. It was the most satisfying game I've played in a while.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

[Aron_DeTomado]

Did you win?

[Aendracon]

From my experience, the best way to good good opponents is to name the game "n00bs only"...
No. You will either get what you aked for (nOObs) or a couple of "stats-whores" who think they are in for an easy kill.

Anyway, I could imagine that part of the problem is that people usually have different ideas of what it takes to be a "good" player. With even the *-rating being rather vague at best (can be easyly boosted by matches against an ai at an "easy" setting), the only reliable indicator is indeed the ladder-ranking. Of course not everybody plays ranked games, but if one doesn´t chances are he is not that serious a challenge. So asking about ladder ranking should give a fairly good indication of one´s skill.

[nengjanggo]

Aron: Yeah, I won. I actually did it again recently (and called the game "2v2 >60% win ratio only," which seems to help) and had another great game -- my friend's base was almost destroyed, and we wiped out one of the our opponents, and almost killed the other before he came back from attacking my ally and our army was destroyed. I'd rebuilt my army to be equal to our enemy (based on watching the replay), and my friend was rebuilding, them my computer locked... frustrating... but screening opponents does seem to work.