made a discord for competitive 0ad matchmaking/finding people to play with https://discord.gg/2q9mj9Bue2

[vinme]

Came back recently and from what i can tell the game isn’t as popular as it used to be, at least at 1300+ level.

Often no one is online and it’s difficult to find people to play with so I made this discord with hopes of making it easier for those who want to play to arrange and organize games be it 1v1 or TG, set up game times with others.

Can be used for other purposes as well like general discussion, posting 0ad related videos or other media, organizing tournaments, Ect.

Main goal is still finding games.

Goal is to keep the discord clean and organized so it’s not a mess and finding games is simple.

requirement to join is that one must be 1300+

Come and get verified through your in game account and get your rank.

Ranks (appropriate color): Gold:(top 3), Silver-(1900+), Bronze-(1800+), Iron-(1600+), Pleb-(1300+)

there is also a separate channel category for anyone Iron or above for improved ease of finding challenging opponents.(just to clarify there is a single separate category encompassing everyone 1600+ therefore they can use both the regular channels and the "high level" ones.)

https://discord.gg/2q9mj9Bue2

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by vinme
fixed expired invite link now you guys can use it again

[Yekaterina]

So what is the point of diamond, since you can't play with yourself?

 

Also what about second accounts, smurfs and trolls?

 

But I like your idea, I have joined

Edited July 16, 2021 by Yekaterina

[vinme]

i mean if someone can achieve rank x on their smurf account i dont see an issue with letting them in given theyve proven their skill.

diamond is for som1 who will surpass the gold players prob some pro coming form some top tier rts.
 

[vinme]

[Stan`]

Could be a lot of things though, people hating A24, being on holidays, people tired of the lag bug that'a been fixed in A25 people playing the RC... End of covid confinement...

[vinme]

what does RC mean? 
yeah no idea why ppl stopped playing im guessing the game changed too much so the old specialization went down the drain,faimilar got messed up with archers being even more op now than they were weak before.

im sure you know the countless issues that A24 brought. 
i see many many improvements and good changes as well but i guess it got overdone by the issues(balance mainly the way i see it).

id say the main issue (like 90% of the problem) has always been balance of units,civs and one would think thats the easiest thing to fix since one just has to tweak attack=5.5 to attack=7 for example or other variables in game code.
is it possible to do like update patches for 0ad without new alphas coming out so when theres a rly rly big fucup like there are many every time it can get patched in 2min of a single person changing variables and uploading the patch ppl can download instead of it persisting and eroding game popularity for months or years.
no point inventing new civs and spending months or years developing it if 1/3 or more are near unplayable and like 3 are too op for any civ to deal with on even terms.
 

 

 

[Stan`]

RC = Release Candidates.

5 minutes ago, vinme said:

0ad without new alphas coming out so when theres a rly rly big fucup like there are many every time it can get patched in 2min of a single person changing variables and uploading the patch ppl can download instead of it persisting and eroding game po

Currently not possible because of Linux. We could have a custom public mod on modio but it would require you to always manually update and it might be confusing.

7 minutes ago, vinme said:

no point inventing new civs and spending months or years developing it if 1/3 or more are near unplayable and like 3 are too op for any civ to deal with on even terms.

People that only play single player will disagree with that.

[vinme]

yeah i forget about the city building ppl and singleplayer ppl of 0ad since im purely on compettetive side.
i have no idea what the proportions are of compettetive players / recreational players 

[LetswaveaBook]

On 16/07/2021 at 1:36 PM, vinme said:

diamond is for som1 who will surpass the gold players prob some pro coming form some top tier rts.

The Viper isn't playing Age of Empires2 these days ;P

For the record, there were players in AoE2 which I would be never able to beat in a best of 5, but those players would never be able to beat The Viper in a best of 5.

For the discord group, I am frequently in for a 1v1 so I could join. However if I would be online in discord, I could also visit the lobby so I don't know why to use the discord.

[vinme]

the use of the discord is to interact with people who arent currently online in 0ad lobby  ofc you can go to 0ad lobby but if lets say no1 is online, you had bad timing and you couldnt find decent 1v1s in a few days(happens to me often) you can go check discord and since many ppl have discord open on the background or because they engage in other servers theyll see your request for 1v1.
even if you cannot immediately arrange the game because of people being buisy you can still then arrange a time when you can go online together and play.
for such organizational things discord can be helpful since not many ppl except @Dunedan have 0ad open 24/7 by default.

even if no1 is online on discord you can still ping them or simply state in #1v1-matchmaking or #tg-matchmaking that you want to arrange a game and eventually som1 will respond. 
as you see there are countless advantages to a matchmaking discord server.
btw ty @Stan` for commenting on here now more ppl saw the thread and more ppl r joining the server  

as for diamond i hope to see ppl come and destroy vali borg and feld(currently mia) and then ppl who are even better to come and destroy the diamond altho idk what one would call something above diamond.. emerald?
 

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

On 16/07/2021 at 3:12 AM, vinme said:

Came back recently and from what i can tell the game isn’t as popular as it used to be, at least at 1300+ level.

I have played fairly consistently over the past year and I observed a few big things that lead to loss of many long term players as well as less retention of new players.

• DDOS epidemic which used to impact nearly every game (not as bad now)
• issues with alpha 24 that made it less exciting and lowered the skill ceiling such as unit movement, building strength/ turtling, extremely long games, OP archers and eles and metal costs/availability. Many players (including myself) have less fun on an average a24 game than on an a23 game.

Edited July 19, 2021 by BreakfastBurrito_007

[Stan`]

3 hours ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

I have played fairly consistently over the past year and I observed a few big things that lead to loss of many long term players as well as less retention of new players.

• DDOS epidemic which used to impact nearly every game (not as bad now)
• issues with alpha 24 that made it less exciting and lowered the skill ceiling such as unit movement, building strength/ turtling, extremely long games, OP archers and eles and metal costs/availability. Many players (including myself) have less fun on an average a24 game than on an a23 game.

How's the rc looking ?

[Yekaterina]

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

How's the rc looking ?

Obviously there is no more ddos in A25

DDOS has reduced a lot since A24, especially these days. I think the hackers are no longer interested. 

A25 does challenge both pro players and noob players. Pros can dance once again with cavalry and fast turning speeds. However, it feels like we are back in A23, except this time it is javelins and melee OP instead of slingers OP. In A25 archers and slingers are overnerfed, because of units being able to run / charge. Their longer range is no longer significant and the huge spread also weakened them. 

Either: A24 archers + current formation / run /charge mechanism or A25 archers with A24/A23 formation mechanism. 

 

Another solution is decrease the run speed of some infantry units. For example set pikeman running speed to the same as their walking speed, set javelineer running speed to their walking speed etc.

I don't mind charging cavalry though, even if it is ranged cavalry. 

 

The charging mechanics makes the A25 samples less suitable than A24 for competitive games such as this, so I recommend sticking with A24 which everyone is familiar with by now. 

 

[Stan`]

7 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

DDOS has reduced a lot since A24, especially these days. I think the hackers are no longer interested. 

We also made it harder for them to get IPs which might explain why.

7 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

Pros can dance once again with cavalry and fast turning speeds.

That's not good?

7 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

Either: A24 archers + current formation / run /charge mechanism or A25 archers with A24/A23 formation mechanism. 

 

Yeah @wraitii said this new bug/feature couldn't be fixed

7 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

The charging mechanics makes the A25 samples less suitable than A24 for competitive games such as this, so I recommend sticking with A24 which everyone is familiar with by now. 

I don't understand.

[vinme]

Just reached 10 verified users on the discord ayy  

currently no silver/gold players sadly :/

 

[Yekaterina]

9 hours ago, Stan` said:

That's not good?

There are two sides to everything. For pros this is good news but they can also use this dancing to troll less experienced players. So it is extremely difficult for nubs to progress, a bit like A23.

9 hours ago, Stan` said:

I don't understand.

People will get really confused by the change. In A24 units are quite reluctant to turn, move and attack, but in A25 suddenly all units charge like crazy, which can upset some medium level players. Also, the balancing issues that arise from charging (OP melee, OP javelineers, useless archers and slingers) means less fair on certain civs like Carthage, meanwhile Macedon and Seleucids are absolutely OP. 

[vinme]

i think current unit turn speed is really low and provides less dynamic gameplay mainly because of the lessened optimality of retreating but also because of general difficulty manuvering units via micro.

still i think its no worse than the issue on the other end of the extreme taht we had before where dance was feasible and the factor of micro was insanely significant in defnining the totality of a players skill level.

i think it would be best to have a turn speed somewhere between the current one and the previous one.

perhaps a turn speed that is in some way correlated with move speed with higher move speed warranting slower turn rate so one cant dance with cavalry.

i dont know what the multiplier for this would be though.

 

[vinme]

i dont think micro should be more relevant than macro in 0ad players skill level and in a23 it was widely considered that micro > macro 

 

[Stan`]

The multiplier in A23 was not existent.  SP player want bugger turn rates and actually welcomed the change while MP players want it gone. The reason it's there to prevent dancing. Since it's been lowered again by @wraitii i suppose dancing was somewhat restored which IMHO is a big regression.

[Gurken Khan]

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

SP player want bugger turn rates and actually welcomed the change while MP players want it gone.

Speaking as a SP player I truly hated those turn rates of a24. I believe in a25 RC2 the turn rate is between those of a23 and a24? I understand the desire to nerf dancing, but still I want a reasonable chance to retreat...

[Stan`]

Goal wasn't to nerf but to nuke entirely. And as such we kind of reintroduced it.

[PyrrhicVictoryGuy]

7 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

There are two sides to everything. For pros this is good news but they can also use this dancing to troll less experienced players. So it is extremely difficult for nubs to progress, a bit like A23.

People will get really confused by the change. In A24 units are quite reluctant to turn, move and attack, but in A25 suddenly all units charge like crazy, which can upset some medium level players. Also, the balancing issues that arise from charging (OP melee, OP javelineers, useless archers and slingers) means less fair on certain civs like Carthage, meanwhile Macedon and Seleucids are absolutely OP. 

Jesus, they're OP for all the wrong reasons.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

A quick +10% for everything archer and slinger?

[alre]

isn't this whole charging thing a bug?

I'm kind of impaired now at writing in the forum, but I was doing some testing and soldiers charge only when in a idle formation. I thought it was formations use of running speed leaking somehow.

[PyrrhicVictoryGuy]

14 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

A quick +10% for everything archer and slinger?

nah just tweak the javelineers a bit, make them specialized in bringing down units with smaller shield like pikemen by decreasing their dmg or fire rate and giving a positive multiplier towards small shield units like pikemen.

Edited July 21, 2021 by PyrrhicVictoryGuy