ideas on how to fix the unit killing and wait time issues. *updated march 29* | Forums

[deamonomic]

i want to first say that if you do not like the idea, please tell me so and say why you do not like it, this way i can either try to explain it better or i cant fix the idea so that way it is better for everyone.

also, these idea are meant to be done after the glitches are fixed.

hi everyone. i have been thinking about the issues that i am hearing endwar is facing atm. now i know that there is already a thread for sugegstions. there are reasons as to why i am not posting it in there. 1: is ideas tend to get overlooked when you have a bunch of people posting in that type of thread. 2: it is very hard for ideas to evolve in that type of thread. ideas evolve by getting feed back, and in a thread where people are posting their own ideas and discussing other ideas its hard to get decent feed back. 3: well... look at how long it is

now you guys know i dont actualy own endwar. but that doesnt mean i cant help figure out ways to fix the issues.

now to the point. the are 2 main issues at the moment. 1: there is the issue with it taking too long to get units upthere because of them being killed off. 2: the wait time to find a match on some maps.

here are the reasons as to why the wait times are high:

*** with ALL games, the player base decreases dramatically about 1-3 months after its release. for the first few months halo had around 500-800,000 people playing at one time. now 200,000. and its only that high because its a highly popular title (meaning it has halo in the name). the problem is that people get bored and move on.

*** now RTS games are not insanly popular on the consoles. which dramatically reduces the chances of having enough players consistently playing in order to keep it going.

*** the glitches with the game. they are many and annoying, which has driven a portion of the players away. tho a patch is on the way, the damage has been done. we will have to wait and see if it revives it.

****** ubisofts silence. this imo is what is TRULY hurting the game in regards to the glitches. the imformation that ubisoft gives out is limited at best. players dont know if ubisoft is actualy working to fix the problems. this inturn angers the players and drives more away.

alot of players would not be lost due to glitches if ubisoft were to speak up more often and keep the comunity informed.

**** freedom of choice. this is the main reason tow have issues. because of the fact that people dislike starting at a disadvantage. they can choose to play other maps which are easier for them to win. this problem is the hardest of all of them to correct.

those facts combined is whats causing the high wait times.
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INCENTIVES

i think that there is an way to fix both problems at the same time. as i mentioned in a nother thread the way to help get other players to go to other maps is by offering them incentives to do so. for example: today the map of paris offers an extra 100-250k credits to the winner and 50-100 for the loser OR today the paris battle offers a 10-15% exp bonus to the winner, and 3% to the loser.

now this will get players to play on other maps more often thus lessening the wait times. AND it would help players rank up their units. thus solving both problems.
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SPECIAL MISSIONS


also a way to get players to have a bit more fun and want to try their best, is to have a program for the top ranked players. what would be done is faction would get special missions assigned to them. for example: the russians are doing a sneak attack on shenandoah valley while there are no linking territory. winners on this map get a 25% exp increase for the battle. losers get 10%. these would be completly random. and i think would add another way to have fun as well as another way to increase the availability of games and help players rank up their units faster.
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LEADER BOARDS

another way to increase the players willingness to play on different maps would be to change the leader boards

the best way to do this im my opinion is one of 2 ways. 1: the person with the higest amount of wins combined with the best kd ratio. now this is a bit dificult to work out. it would have to factor in the total amount of games played, how many wins, how many losses. and it would have to do it to where a new player on a winning streak doesnt get the #1 spot because he has 9 games played total and 8 wins.


this one is a bit different. it ranks you by giving you points for every win you get. the more wins you get on specific map, the less points you get over time. this way people cant just camp the same map if they want to be ranked high. it would basically be a point system based off of your wins over the entire game. winning on one map wouldnt work. (i think this is the best way to do it)

example: (this is just a rough example) playing on any map for the first time earns you 100 points if you win. and 50 points if you lose. if you have played on this map 15 times today, your points are reduced to 50. after that every 5 games it drops by 15 points down to 10 points a game. the system resets the point reduction every 2 days.

changing the leader boards to be efected by how often you play on diferent maps will make the players whom care about the leader boards play on other maps. this will not have as great of an effect as the offering incentives. but this combine with the other ideas i believe will make the game far more enjoyable for everyone.


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INSURANCE

it would probaly help the unit killing issue if you could purchase an insurance on your units. it wouldnt need to be called insurance. it could be called something like: advanced combat survival training or something.

phase one: affect changes to the leader boards to reflect more accuratly the real great players. meaning that if you want to be a high ranking player you need to have a good score. read above for more info.


the point is that it would protect some of your units. i would say 5 units can be protected for 2 deaths by this. after the 2 deaths, the player would need to buy it agian for the specific unit. it would be purchased seperatly for each unit. it wouldnt be cheap either. but nor would it be too expensive.

btw this idea was sparked by BIO and his question on medics being added to the game.
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HOW THIS WILL HELP THE GAME:

ill try to explain as to how these ideas will work together and how they will help the game.

PHASE ONE: change the leader boards to better reflect whom the true best players are and add a TOW AI commander. read above for more info. this will motivate those whom do care about the leader boards to play on as many different maps as possible. the AI commander would help direct players to specific maps to help get games going. they would also notify players of what maps have the incentives and what they are.

PHASE TWO: implement a incentives (or insurance) and special mission. incentives would give players another good reason to play a specific map for that day. this would do 2 things. 1: make players want to play on specific maps. this would help the wait times. 2: it would help easy the issue of unit killing, and the long amounts of time it takes to rank units back up.

if they add insurance to the game, it would more or less have the same effect as above. it would help players keep a few high ranking units safe from death. the only catch is it needs to be purchased, and only saved the unit from 1-2 deaths, after which it will need to be purchased agian. if they add insurance AND incentives to the game (exp incentives), the isurance would only be able to be purchased on 2 instead of 5.

the special missions additon is a reward for doing well on the leader boards. not every player would be allowed to take part in these missions. what this will accomplish is it will make players care more about the leader boards, and thus more about how often they play on other maps.
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this idea came from Widar:

"I think that to add a SINGLE PLAYER TOW AI Commanding Officer (CO) at “AI hardcore” level might also be a good idea to kill the 40 minute waiting times. Different TOW rewards could be applied to the AI TOW CO, such as that every 10 battles won by a player against the AI TOW CO count as 1 battle against a human TOW player. The same 1-to-10 factor could be applied for Prestige (=CR) and “unit experience” gained in a battle against the AI TOW CO. Waiting 40 minutes for a game is just unacceptable."

[Biohazard529]

I know this sounds gay but maybe make less maps playable at a time

Your most likely to find a match on TOW when there is only one map to play on, than if there was 7 maps open, because everyone is spread out

And unit killing, well all they have to do is change how much xp you get when killing units

but about longer wait times, I don't think you could really fix that, you would need to get more people to buy the game

[IllusiveViper]

Not the greatest idea in the world, but there's a bit of potential.

Take your idea of offering some form of incentives to players and switch it up a bit:

For each faction, a group of 5-6 highly skilled and active players is selected to be the official leaders for the faction. Each turn, this group is given 2 - 3 incentives that can be assigned to any of that faction's maps for that turn. Incentives could be something like x1.5 or x2 experience or money. If used correctly by competent leaders, it would be much easier to direct where players from their faction want to go. For example: because newer players tend to need cash more than exp, the leaders might use the promise of extra money to entice newer players to play on near-hopeless maps (directing the flow away from a close map) or on an easy-win map (again allowing the seasoned players to focus on the more difficult tasks), while an exp bonus can be used to try and focus a faction on a territory to make it the primary front.
Leaders that prove to be incompetent, or less active with that faction would be replaced.

[deamonomic]

Originally posted by Biohazard529:
I know this sounds gay but maybe make less maps playable at a time

Your most likely to find a match on TOW when there is only one map to play on, than if there was 7 maps open, because everyone is spread out

And unit killing, well all they have to do is change how much xp you get when killing units

but about longer wait times, I don't think you could really fix that, you would need to get more people to buy the game

then it turn into what every other rts does, searching for games on a random map. the point of the TOW mode is to fight over territories and that you egt to choose where you attack. attacking one territory at a time doesnt work.

also to the other guy, you dont want to make official leaders because that will cause issues. if they are competent leaders... IF is a big word. besides those leaders may not be the best of people and decide to put them on the maps which are already too easy to win.

it would be far simpler and far more realistic to have ubi say where the incentives go.

also the idea of a leader system was already shot down by this community ages ago. but i still think it would be something of a good idea.

such as not forcing or anything but simply chosing a territory for your forces to concentrate on. but in the curret state of the game this idea would not work.

[Biohazard529]

Ya, I'm not trying to be mean, but I can see how the idea system could blow up in your face

what could work though...

[IllusiveViper]

easily

[deamonomic]

if you would care to explain how this idea would blow up please

[Biohazard529]

Well, would you like to be lead by some randomly picked 5 people?

[deamonomic]

Originally posted by Biohazard529:
Well, would you like to be lead by some randomly picked 5 people?

oh you mean his idea, thought you meant mine. it does have its upsides, as in it can possibly lead to better coordination and a better feeling of being apart of a larger picture and effort. but people dont listen very well and wouldnt be doing what they are told and what not.

[xXRaptor22Xx]

I have an idea to stop unit killing and being able to rank up too. When you enter TOW mode, a screen will come up that has two options, Causal (Non-unit killing players) and Hard-core (Unit-killing players)modes. Ther outcomes of both modes would be combined to determine the outcome of the turn. Plus if any one was cheating (i.e. Hard-core player playing in the Causal game mode and playing like on Hard-core) you could report them and they would be banned from TOW for a couple of days. Plus players can rank up because they if they choose Causal mode, they know their units get ranked up and not killed. This idea might lower the wait times too.