Unless the dev team creates a working ATB and forces it on every server, people will just join a server without an ATB so they can stack. I don't play Empires much anymore because one or more of the following three things happens almost every game Idiot Comm Idiot Team Stacked Teams
There are people who complain about stacked teams and then there are people who admit that they wait to join the winning team (some even whine that it takes forever to do so). Why the hell can we not press the "auto-assign" button?
Because there are always those who won't. I've said about 5 times before, one team gets screwed by stacking, and all the expert players on that team stack the next round so they can win. And then the cycle repeats. Over and over. It's a sick cycle. Someone needs to put in more soap to eradicate the stuff.
I tend to end up as one of the top players on my team, and I do my part by always auto-assigning. As for the problem with the MySQL server, was the 30s latency because of the connection to the server, or the time it took to make the query? If it's the latter I should be able to help optimize that, I've spent a bit of time working on MySQL table optimization.
MySQL server will only do that if it has a slow connection, or if the server is overloaded with other processes and the server can't retrieve data. If you guys were running really complex SQL SPOCS, you might need a faster MySQL server.
Depending on how they store player information, I can imagine many horrific joins they might make. ^_^
You don't need persisted SQL stored data. Just persist player data from the previous round to the next within empires itself. Store by steam ID their score; Split up the high scorers, and balance based on player's value. You can determine value easily from K:D ratio and score per minute.
*only reads first page* How lazy of me. ANYWAY, IMO, it should be anti-stacked, based on a combination of skill and number (no more than 2 players difference, no more than 5 stat points difference), so that it would be the best of both worlds.
If you don't understand teamstacking, you are a noob. Is it that easy for a std engine & armor AFV to take on a 3phase reactive lt running circles around it?
way to vote in a noob comm, afvs are useless - use apcs or jeeps instead, and yes, NF has the advantage at the start
I would rather see an apc with a grenadier in the second seat, or even two jeeps than see an afv, especially before an armor and engine
you forgot to finish with the </photoshop> tag. Idk i mean i guess its possible to make an auto team balancer. actually it might be really easy. I'll look into it because i have a few ideas on how to do it. (Unless whoever made the old one wants to make the ATB plugin field a monopoly.)
Like I said about 5 times before... The only way to get an ATB in Empires is if the devs include one and force it on every server. Otherwise, people will just go to another server so they can stack.
Well then they must be noobs and i wouldnt want them around anyways. If you really need to stack that bad and do it intentionally you dont deserve to play. Really the fact that you can even pick your team is silly.
The thing is with stacking I don't think most peoples motivation is "I wanna beat up on noobs" but its more like "I don't want to get stuck with a bunch of retards and sit around getting raped because the rest of my team can't do shit". Also there are a few people who I enjoy playing with because we'll form a squad and wander off and actually work as a team. Its a bit of a collective action problem, if no one stacked we'd all be better off in the long run with better games for both sides. But if only you don't stack you are going to get stuck with retards and probably not have a good game. Size of the community is an issue as well there really isn't enough people to have a dedicated US and dedicated Euro pro player server.
Someone should write up a plugin that takes the people with the lowest scores and uses them to balance teams. Chances are, if someone has a high score, they're going to feel pretty dedicated to the team they're on. But people who just joined the server, or those who are newer to Empires will probably not care as much. Sure, one team might end up getting all the noobs, but the teams will be physically balanced. Also, this would give a good incentive to get a high score (since after moving around a few times would probably be annoying). Theres no perfect way to solve the problem. We just need to find creative solutions that would make it less bad.
