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[SUGGESTION] Teams should start with the same total health in ca - Printable Version

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Teams should start with the same total health in ca - gd - 09-06-2021

In clan arena, sometimes differently sized teams play against each other, because there are an odd number of players and/or because people quit during the game. Right now, everyone starts with 200/200 health and armor regardless of the sizes of the teams. This means that with an odd number of players, the teams are likely to be unbalanced unless we call a rebalance vote, or else put stronger players on the smaller team with the right switches. It also has the disadvantage that if we make teams balanced, and then somebody quits or joins, then teams are very likely to get unbalanced except if that player is very weak.

I propose changing this such that both teams start with the same total health+armor. Players on the smaller team should always start with 200/200, while those on the bigger team should start with e.g.
  • 200/0 in 1v2
  • 200/67 in 2v3
  • 200/100 in 3v4
  • 200/120 in 4v5
  • 200/133 in 5v6
  • 133/0 in 1v3
  • 200/40 in 3v5
This would have the advantages that
  • teams would be more likely to be balanced with an odd number of players even without rebalance votes; it would be possible to have balanced teams with an odd number of similarly skilled players.
  • if the game is balanced, and an average-skilled player (relative to the others) joins or quits, teams would stay balanced.
One disadvantage might be that a strong player couldn't be balanced out by being on a smaller team. Also, a match between very different team sizes still wouldn't be symmetric, though I'm not sure which team would have an advantage. Nevertheless, I think it would still be better than the current system.


RE: Teams should start with the same total health in ca - _para - 09-08-2021

That should have been a no-brainer! So definetly +1.


RE: Teams should start with the same total health in ca - BuddyFriendGuy - 04-15-2022

Replying to an old post, but just thought to add some thoughts.

First of all, the thoughts put in this are very much appreciated.

A real balance is very difficult, since it's very dynamic (the balance changes over time due to new joining/departure or player fatigue or getting more familiar with teammates and enemy; it varies depending on the angle and the type of hits, etc.), so it's probably not a no-brainer -- there might not even be a practical solution at all.

I once had a similar idea about this too: what about taking players' historical performance into account. Maybe after a few games, we can use the damage caused and damage taken to come up with an index for each player, and then use that to provide HP and armor?

However, no matter what we do here, it doesn't solve the dynamic change problem: for example, if I know I have 200 HP, I am likely to be more aggressive in my strategy, but then suddenly somebody joins, and my HP drops, and my plan suddenly becomes unwise.

Also, take your 133/0 in 1v3 as an example -- the 1-person team with 200/200 can take quite some shots, while each of the 3-ppl team can only withstand a few vortex shots. How do we compare this?

Another thing is -- much of the game relies on control of resources, so giving big life/armor points in the beginning will change the game too much.

Anyway, thank you again for the input. Please keep it coming.