Curse

T RAND · Jun 23, 2007, 05:22 PM // 17:22

Update - Friday June 22
Alliance Battles

To encourage active players in Alliance Battles, we have adjusted the faction rewards, increasing the rewards for winning teams and decreasing the rewards for losing teams. The new rewards are as follows:

Two million faction has been transfered on my account.
I did Aliance Battles yesterday, before the downgrade, for about 6 hours. Most of the time was on losing teams. I would play with anyone as long as they participated. I'm not the kind of person that would leave in the middle of a battle.

There was enough progress made toward my next title to keep playing.

Today, after the downgrade, I did two losing battles. There's not enough incentive to continue playing. My faction was cut in half because of inactive players. No one deserves to be treated in this manner.

To encourage active players in Alliance Battles? This active player has been converted to a selective participant. Maybe I'll play when my alliance has an advantage. Maybe.

Rocky Raccoon · Jun 23, 2007, 05:57 PM // 17:57

What happened to sportsmanship? If a football team goes up against a team in that teams home park do they say oh we won't play because they have an advantage, no they play them and do their best to win. Another thing is if they lose they get a loss and no points for it. You still get points for losing just not as much and you get more for winning which is what you should be trying to do. It seems wrong (poor sportsmanship) to me to say until I have an advantage I won't play.

Spazzer · Jun 23, 2007, 06:06 PM // 18:06

Risky, this isn't gvg. There is no record. There is no penalty for quitting, no penalty for leeching, and the only reason to stay is a handfull of points you might earn after 15 or 20 minutes.

The game is currently intended for you to win only. If you can't win, don't waste the other team's time by trying to put up a fight. And don't waste your own time in the process. It's just not worth it to lose.

Voltar · Jun 23, 2007, 06:12 PM // 18:12

yeah, i like the idea of it but i'm not sure how it works in practice. i think it's going to have unintended effects. as it is, there's a pretty big disincentive for faction farmers to play if their team is winning (since enemy territory gives you a disadvantage and more likelihood of losing).

i think it was intended to make leechers feel like they're wasting time however i'd imagine that leechers' time isn't spent leeching...they're doing something else...which is why they're afk.

this was probably a way to attempt to fix a problem by tweaking numbers instead of all the hassle of adding new code. i don't really think it's going to change anything except penalize those of us who are actually playing.

Spazzer · Jun 23, 2007, 06:57 PM // 18:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voltar

i think it was intended to make leechers feel like they're wasting time however i'd imagine that leechers' time isn't spent leeching...they're doing something else...which is why they're afk.

Exactly. The more notorious ones are obviously running macros to autoenter (or to click the ground to move when in the match). These people don't care if they don't get as much faction as they used to. They're at work. They're sleeping. They're doing something other than sitting at the computer while their macro gains them free rewards.

HardWonFame · Jun 23, 2007, 07:04 PM // 19:04

Good move.

Alliance Battles are competitive by nature, if you are not playing to win, don't play at all. This just makes it harder for afk'ers to get by. Also it just might make things a little more fun in there, no more of this half-a**'d attitude about playing well or not when going about these battles.

And losing is normal, if you cant take a loss then get out as well.

wetsparks · Jun 23, 2007, 07:38 PM // 19:38

If you think AB rewards are now bad if you lose, go to FA. A loss there will only get 100 points or so.

pingu666 · Jun 23, 2007, 08:17 PM // 20:17

i just done some ab, if u loose, then the reward is pretty pathetic (average 115 from my last few matches).

and you probably lose about half your ab battles... :/

Shuuda · Jun 23, 2007, 09:14 PM // 21:14

Didn't Anet make other ways to farm factions in another update or something? So it seems fair, AB gives better rewards, but now you have to try a bit harder. Personally I'd say remove all side advantages on maps and keep the current reward as they are now, perfectly fair.

Scary Raebbit · Jun 23, 2007, 09:35 PM // 21:35

It still doesn't matter to AFKers. They just macro enter and don't care about the reward. There are still getting at least 1 Faction so they're making a profit since they are doing something else.

Shuuda · Jun 23, 2007, 09:52 PM // 21:52

In that case, remove all reward for losing, and remove all advantages, but some people would see that as unfair for "Casual" PvP.

Sarevok Thordin · Jun 24, 2007, 12:13 AM // 00:13

Just let the players have a report system where they can flag someone for being deadwood (Generic Term for leecher etc). Enough flags and it can be checked by someone who has the power to stop it :P. Yeah, I'm not hot on ideas right now, late an all >_>

These Macroers will never stop =(.

tacitus · Jun 24, 2007, 01:33 AM // 01:33

give us an option to enter with specific other teams. This would make it more competitive and make sure those players at leats arent dealing with afkers. Im not saying we must make 12 man teams to enter all the time but having the option would be good.

Even if this was just a weekend it would be cool.

Sol Deathgard · Jun 24, 2007, 06:57 AM // 06:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by T RAND

Maybe I'll play when my alliance has an advantage. Maybe.

Spoken like a true person that really isn't that great of a player. So many people think they are soooooooo great at ab, but will only play on the side who has the advantage because it's "easier to win". If you really were so great people, then it really wouldn't matter who has the advantage.

Div · Jun 24, 2007, 07:07 AM // 07:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by tacitus

give us an option to enter with specific other teams. This would make it more competitive and make sure those players at leats arent dealing with afkers. Im not saying we must make 12 man teams to enter all the time but having the option would be good.

Even if this was just a weekend it would be cool.

QFT. That would get rid of the leecher problem if you actually have enough people you want to play with. If you don't then it'll just be like now where you have to take a chance with leechers.

Because seriously, if you see 5 of 12 people leeching AB or 4 of 8 people leeching FA, you really lose incentive to try hard, and some people I've seen outright just quit the match to join another one (which I really don't blame them for either).

Cathode_Reborn · Jun 24, 2007, 07:16 AM // 07:16

Maybe soon you'll see it in AB...

"...roll?"

/resign

Patrick Smit · Jun 24, 2007, 07:49 AM // 07:49

LOL at the above remark, you might indeed see it -_-.

I have not been in yet, and with some loosing strings it will not be wortwhile. I do win pretty often, but for example grentz or even worse, ancenstral lands will just not be played or less. I hope I'm wrong.

Leechers cannot be dealt with in such a way to my opinion, I guess most people leave if they see that they are loosing, which ruins a bit the game.

Lexar · Jun 24, 2007, 11:54 AM // 11:54

So we're encouraging leavers now, while fighting leechers? I'm sorry but the people that stick around fighting a losing battle because of leechers/leavers are the ones getting screwed over by this update and not the ones it's supposed to counter.

I mean waiting 20 minutes (and getting killed every few seconds because of a lack of .. teammates) for a measly 100 faction seems like they're punishing the wrong group here.

I predict that we will see in AB what we see in RA now: leavers as soon as there's a first hint of losing. (For example if the enemy alliance has 4 shrines at the start and yours has 3) And unlike RA I can't really diasgree with the leavers in AB because why the hell would you waste your time now?

I agree with the above statement that it should be easier to report leechers (and leavers imo) instead of giving the people that play by the rules less points when they lose due to unsportsmanship behavior from other teammates.

Navaros · Jun 24, 2007, 12:20 PM // 12:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shuuda

In that case, remove all reward for losing

They basically already did that. The reward for losing is now next-to-nothing so much that it might as be nothing since the difference between it and nothing is so small. Note: this post is in regards to both FA and AB.

However, this will not affect leechers at all.

They still use their macro entering just as much after the update as they did before.

They know that despite them leeching, their teams will still win occassionally and get them faction for doing nothing.

They know that the other team also has leechers doing the exact same thing they are, which cancels out the detriment they provide to their own team and thus ensures their leeching faction reward remain incoming at a steady rate with the update having little to no effect on that ill-gotten faction income.

Therefore the only thing trying to counter leechers with this update has actually accomplished is to hurt legitimate players.

Liselle Morrow · Jun 24, 2007, 01:50 PM // 13:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shuuda

Didn't Anet make other ways to farm factions in another update or something? Personally I'd say remove all side advantages on maps and keep the current reward as they are now, perfectly fair.

That's the whole point! If you just want to farm faction, go do something else, like FFF or kill stuff with bounties. For a lot of people I know AB used to be about having fun as a team, now they're just turning it into a sad faction farm machine.

What's the fun in winning a match that's decided on the basis of your team having fewer leavers than your opponents? All this update will do imho is make the matches shorter, less challenging and lengthen the waiting time to get in (due to more people leaving the match halfway and rejoining another team). For me this has taken away about any incentive I had left to do Alliance Battles.

And a note on leavers: anyone who thinks it's ok to leave a match halfway should seriously consider getting a course in basic human social skills!