Thursday, June 26, 2008

Finally, a clear explanation on how 'team-switching' will work

Originally posted on SOCOM.com:

Hey Slant Six, why add team switching?

That's a good question. The decision to implement team switching stems directly from the core premise of SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation; pure online competition. The ranking system in Confrontation is meant to truly reflect individual skill and teamwork, and in order to do that all other variables must be controlled. If a team only plays one side of a map then we can’t determine who truly is the most skilled, flexible and capable team. Would anyone claim that they have played a game where all the weapons, attachments, maps and game modes are 100% balanced in every way (including the previous SOCOM? Does that stop people from taking advantage of those subtle imbalances and aiming to play under the most advantageous conditions? Not a chance.

In order to make a game truly competitive it must be as fair as possible and that means leveling the playing field. There is a reason professional sports have the competitors switch sides part way through a game. Surface irregularities on an ice rink or tennis court could unbalance a sports competition, so the players always switch ends. We don’t want people walking away from a match attributing their win or their loss to the location of their spawn or the weapons their team had. In addition, we feel that players will have the greatest investment in their Clan-specific Special Forces character, or at least have a preference for playing Commandos or Mercenaries and we want to ensure that in ranked games everyone gets equal time with their preferred character.

In ranked games players can expect to play a total of 10 rounds, each round being 6 minutes long. At the 5 round mark the teams will switch sides and the players reverse roles. This is the reason that each player has two avatars: your Commando (Special Forces) and a Mercenary. You will be playing with these two characters each time you jump into a game. Players will be able to create multiple preset loadouts for each avatar which can be easily selected during the course of a game. At the beginning of each round players will be able to choose the loadout they want to use.

If at the end of the 10 rounds both teams are tied at 5 rounds each then the team with the best overall performance is awarded the victory. This is where individual skill blends with being a team player to tip the balance in close matches. So if you have a camper playing with you, hanging back and not pulling his weight you may want to persuade him to change his play style.

Finally you can disable team switching in custom matches.


My comment to that was:

I understand what you're saying, but I'm not yet convinced.

And you can't blame me for feeling this way when no one complained about how this was handled in previous SOCOM games. We've been waiting for a true SOCOM experience since SOCOM 2, then we finally are offered what seems to be one...yet now you guys want to change aspects of the game that was never broken to begin with.

My big problem with your method here is that in classic SOCOM, it was all about those heart-pounding come back victories. Your team was down 4-0, but then you all agreed on a new strategy, banded together, and came back to win 6-5. This is what classic SOCOM is about.

Are you making us play 10 rounds in every match, even if it's not needed? If a team wins the first 6 rounds, are they going to have to play the next 4 as well? Your explanation is hazy in this regard.


I'll let you know if I get a response to this.

3 comments:

CubsNSkers05 said...

these guys are idiots and should be taken off the game. No tiebreaker you've got to be kidding me, well heck we might as well just flip a coin to see who the winner is on a 5-5 tie. That is just as fair as by team stats. Maybe the 5 rounds you lost you really sucked and the other team was phenomenal where nobody died.

But when you won your 5 rounds you had 2 or 3 die on your team every time? Well Jeez the other team wins because they died less times. A tiebreaker being taken out is the dumbest thing ever and I hope there is some way they can patch it, or else custom matches unranked here I come!

Anonymous said...

Slant Six wants to make the fairest and most legit ranking system as possible. This might have stemmed from all the complaining about rank ups in past SOCOMs. Not that I'm supporting it, we asked to get rid of rank-ups, not a whole new ranking system.

CubsNSkers05 said...

I could care less up rank ups, its going to happen whether they like it or not people are going to find away around the system, they always do and always will.

The moderators that are put in place will eventually drift off like they always do and so forth, I don't understand why they couldn't change the maps and such but not leave the same lobby system and round type that Socom 1-3 had. Just stupid IMO, but at least there is unranked custom maps so you can play an 11 round game and actually have a legitimate winner.