Make balancing easier by allowing a "handicap" value adjustment for any player

[Acero]

While reading the endless "ProGui" promoters and detractors posts in this forum, an idea came back to my mind.

I think ProGui gives an advantage to low level and mid level players by assisting their boom (requiring less attention for the training, and leaving more attention available for other tasks). While you could think of it like a negative (which in many cases is), it has a "good" aspect, which is that lower level players can now participate in higher level games, something that is especially welcomed now that 0AD has lost so many old players.

This reminded me of a feature AOE2 has, which is the possibility of adjusting the "handicap" of each player. This adjustment is basically a multiplier on resources collected for that individual player. For example, if you give a player a 20% handicap, he will get 20 more resources for every 100 resources collected. If I am not mistaken, this is the exact same mechanism PetraBot difficulty levels are implemented.

Vinme was complaining that he had no players of his level to play 1v1s against. And many of us can often either not fill a TG, or find suitable 1v1 opponents.

I think, if added to 0AD,  this handicap adjustment (per player) might make balances possible when currently they are not. They would promote lower level players joining higher level games (and the opposite can also happen). They would allow more 1v1s and team games to be played, and reduce the waiting time before games can be started.

Graphically, I think the handicap percentage should be shown in the row of each player in the pre-game screen. 0% handicap should be the default, and the host should be able to change it. Before starting, everybody should be able to see this percentage next to each player name, as we can see the team number and civilization chosen currently.

Maybe someone can tell here if this could be developed as a mod first to test it, or it has to be hardcoded into the game engine right away, to be able to work.

What you think about this idea?

 

 

[Acero]

Some AOE2 players talked about estimating how many ELO points the handicap tended to "give" to players. I might have heard that +5% handicap increased your ELO rating by 100. Of course this is a simplification, because it will not increase the game knoweldge and the micro of said player, but some useful estimations were made, in order to better balance games. So, under this loose logic, if you wanna play with your friend that is 300 elo points below you, you can give him a 15% handicap and enjoy the game better.

Edited July 10 by Acero

[alre]

19 minutes ago, Acero said:

Some AOE2 players talked about estimating how many ELO points the handicap tended to "give" to players. I might have heard that +5% handicap increased your ELO rating by 100. Of course this is a simplification, because it will not increase the game knoweldge and the micro of said player, but some useful estimations were made, in order to better balance games. So, under this loose logic, if you wanna play with your friend that is 300 elo points below you, you can give him a 15% handicap and enjoy the game better.

this won't necessary be true for 0AD, because 0AD does not use an true elo system, but one that's similar though different, and because the game itself is different and the same bonuses may matter more or less.

In any case, I second the proposal, I like the handicap feature too.

[Acero]

 

[real_tabasco_sauce]

i think its a no brainer. No idea if 'Gain x (resource) for y deposited' functionality is in the game already, but if not it would makes sense for a handicap and for civ bonuses, unique techs (like, just brainstorming: "Hides trade: "gain 1 metal for every 5 hunted food deposited").

[Stan`]

The IA has handicaps.

[ShadowOfHassen]

3 hours ago, Stan` said:

IA

IA?

[Gurken Khan]

1 hour ago, ShadowOfHassen said:

IA?

"Intelligence Artificielle", English: "AI".

[ShadowOfHassen]

10 hours ago, Gurken Khan said:

"Intelligence Artificielle", English: "AI".

Ah.

[LienRag]

I'm all for handicaps but not sure if bonus to collected resources are the best way ?

What about one more woman at start, or things like that ?