kainzero (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kainzero) wrote,@ 2009-01-26 09:03:00 |
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on competitive balance
Played Halo last night, and man, for some reason is was really entertaining, although for some reason my skill level dropped a lot at the end. It was like my BR lost its reticle magnetism. Also, I thought it was funny how the callout on Valhalla went from "under the arch" to "McDonald's", that had me laughing the entire time.
Anyway, while playing on Sandtrap and bitching about the map for the billionth time (to the point where Marc bitched back at me, hahah) I actually took a step back and thought about why it is such a shitty map and how this would lead to something like MLG-style.
The biggest thing about Sandtrap that bothers me is the lack of cover. Because it is a vast open field, any man-to-man fights are either luck based on the spread of the BR, or whoever has the distance weapon will win. There are 12 people, and only 3 power weapons (2 lasers, one sniper), so we know who's going to win those fights. The only indoor fights are in long tunnels, so the cover isn't as dynamic. The rest of the fights take place in vehicles, which IMO are extremely unbalanced and / or lacking in skill. Warthog vs. Warthog is nothing but point-and-click, with pure randomness. Warthog vs. Banshee basically depends on the skill of the Banshee, as in, he better not fuck up. And I don't even know what the other thing is. Also, because the map is a giant open field, any vehicle vs. a Spartan is insta-win for the vehicle, you won't see any daring sticky grenades, brute shot flips, or even well placed power drains.
The next thing that bothers me is that it's purely symmetrical and hardly memorable. Callouts are impossible because everything looks the same and there's no real distinguishing marks. I think that's what makes FPS maps more memorable, they need some unique feel or unique identifiers.
I thought more about MLG settings, which would appear to take a game and strip it down to a lot of basic stuff with no vehicles, 4 weapons, no items. I think the reason being is that you can create a better competitive atmosphere by limiting everything first, and then slowly expanding it. A game HAS to be released and tested by thousands of people before it can be truly mapped out, at which point changes can be made; this almost never happens with videogames, and I get the feeling that designers throw in all the features they can think of with little regard for playtesting. It's one thing that I think Blizzard does extremely well, they know how to balance their games and the features are carefully implemented, with input coming from the top level and not the battle.net forum scrubs.
I think even more interesting is the clear split in H3 between MLG and the other Halo Matchmaking players. MLG players think that Matchmaking people are garbage AR / Vehicle whores, Matchmaking people think MLG players bitch and whine about anything that doesn't add up to their system of competitive values. And sadly I think Bungie sided with the Matchmaking people.
And yes.
This is what went through my mind as I said out loud,
"FUCK SANDTRAP"
Played Halo last night, and man, for some reason is was really entertaining, although for some reason my skill level dropped a lot at the end. It was like my BR lost its reticle magnetism. Also, I thought it was funny how the callout on Valhalla went from "under the arch" to "McDonald's", that had me laughing the entire time.
Anyway, while playing on Sandtrap and bitching about the map for the billionth time (to the point where Marc bitched back at me, hahah) I actually took a step back and thought about why it is such a shitty map and how this would lead to something like MLG-style.
The biggest thing about Sandtrap that bothers me is the lack of cover. Because it is a vast open field, any man-to-man fights are either luck based on the spread of the BR, or whoever has the distance weapon will win. There are 12 people, and only 3 power weapons (2 lasers, one sniper), so we know who's going to win those fights. The only indoor fights are in long tunnels, so the cover isn't as dynamic. The rest of the fights take place in vehicles, which IMO are extremely unbalanced and / or lacking in skill. Warthog vs. Warthog is nothing but point-and-click, with pure randomness. Warthog vs. Banshee basically depends on the skill of the Banshee, as in, he better not fuck up. And I don't even know what the other thing is. Also, because the map is a giant open field, any vehicle vs. a Spartan is insta-win for the vehicle, you won't see any daring sticky grenades, brute shot flips, or even well placed power drains.
The next thing that bothers me is that it's purely symmetrical and hardly memorable. Callouts are impossible because everything looks the same and there's no real distinguishing marks. I think that's what makes FPS maps more memorable, they need some unique feel or unique identifiers.
I thought more about MLG settings, which would appear to take a game and strip it down to a lot of basic stuff with no vehicles, 4 weapons, no items. I think the reason being is that you can create a better competitive atmosphere by limiting everything first, and then slowly expanding it. A game HAS to be released and tested by thousands of people before it can be truly mapped out, at which point changes can be made; this almost never happens with videogames, and I get the feeling that designers throw in all the features they can think of with little regard for playtesting. It's one thing that I think Blizzard does extremely well, they know how to balance their games and the features are carefully implemented, with input coming from the top level and not the battle.net forum scrubs.
I think even more interesting is the clear split in H3 between MLG and the other Halo Matchmaking players. MLG players think that Matchmaking people are garbage AR / Vehicle whores, Matchmaking people think MLG players bitch and whine about anything that doesn't add up to their system of competitive values. And sadly I think Bungie sided with the Matchmaking people.
And yes.
This is what went through my mind as I said out loud,
"FUCK SANDTRAP"
