Ladder is dying

Discussion of all aspects of multiplayer development: unit balancing, map development, server development, and so forth.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Post Reply
Zatoichi
Posts: 7
Joined: February 19th, 2011, 11:35 am

Ladder is dying

Post by Zatoichi »

Hi, after a brake, I looked to ladder and what i see? Ppl from middle of the ranking are in top 10. Most of best players dont play, and there is no uplifiting matches of the best or famous players what always was bringing lot fo observers and giving emotions like in real sport matches. Then i hear about ladder8. In my opinion its that worst thing that can happen, i mean whats the sense of dividing a ranking system with such amount of players? Idk but probadly some personal and ambitional stuff there. Simply i miss that atmosphere what was some time ago, hope im not the only one. And maybe lets do something with that, for example lets encourage newcommers to joining the old ladder or something. I dont say what of them is better but its not the point. The point is that we need only one that will reflect wesnoth gaming scene and bring back the old honeysm.
User avatar
Radar
Posts: 19
Joined: April 30th, 2011, 3:43 pm
Location: Bo to Polska nie elegancja Francja...
Contact:

Re: Ladder is dying

Post by Radar »

I agreed. I remember games of Dauntless, when saw many obs. Next I checked the ladder and there were many games played. But last time something is going wrong with ladder. I don't know that is caused by falling trend relatively Wesnoth or its just fault of L8 or maybe begin of school. For me, L8 is unintuitive and i prefer the old one. Hope that more players will register at http://wesnoth.gamingladder.info/ and regular players will refresh accounts.
milites.pl
Sometimes a single battle decides everything and sometimes, too, the slightest circumstance decides the issue of a battle. There is a moment in every battle at which the least manoeuvre is decisive and gives superiority, as one drop of water causes overflow.
Fosprey
Posts: 254
Joined: January 25th, 2008, 8:13 am

Re: Ladder is dying

Post by Fosprey »

My personal opinion:
I think that wesnoth doesn't hold up that well at high levels of play, as a game. And that's part of the reasons. I had fun until i reached top 10, but later only played vs the best players at that time active in the ladder. Video Games generally tend to be more exciting when you play against the best players but I didn't feel that was the case for BfW for me (and others too for what i hear, even if we are a minority, i do not know how many we are).

For that reason I tried to make a mod (then realized many things I want to do are modifications I have to do the exe, but one of the major problems is that I didn't had enough interested people into helping me test it)
So my opinion is that there needs to be some improvements at the game at high level to made it more mind game based and more agressive. I feel at high level the game becomes too defensive and too slow.

If doing a good mod is out of the question, the best bets are imo:
a) Reducing the timers
b) Forcing random map selection
c) Make easier matchmaking (a good way would be to have it integrated on the game official lobby, but at least on the webpage if two players press a "Ready button" and then the web tell the players they have an opponent, I think it would help)
User avatar
Kanzil
Posts: 288
Joined: June 14th, 2012, 4:09 pm

Re: Ladder is dying

Post by Kanzil »

There's nothing wrong with ladder8; almost the only difference is that it has a different ranking system. Many top players still play on it- look at the game archives. I for one have certainly seen many of them, and players like dauntless and TheBlackSword et cetera are very much active on it.
High over valleys in the red levelling rays -
In din of crowded streets, going among the years, the faces,
May I still meet my memory in so lonely a place
Between the streams and the red clouds, hearing the curlews, Hearing the horizons endure.
Huumy
Posts: 293
Joined: October 15th, 2009, 9:52 pm

Re: Ladder is dying

Post by Huumy »

I haven't played or have much to do with wesnoth lately so I don't know how much this opinion means.

Personally I just have other stuff to do and other games to play at the moment. I believe this is very common reason, players are simply doing other stuff :)

I don't believe wesnoth ladder is dying, it just has it's relatively small up and downs but as long as the community and devs are doing such a great work for the game I think there always will be players. Mostly non-ladder players, but there is some players trickling down to the ladder community too.
"And the girl that you want is directly out in front, And she’s waving her caboose at you, You sneeze achoo, She calls you out and boom!"
The offspring, trolling you since forever.
User avatar
Rigor
Posts: 941
Joined: September 27th, 2007, 1:40 am

Re: Ladder is dying

Post by Rigor »

this is what it feels like when long time players lose interest and you feel there is a global negative trend. of course, i also feel a bit sad when i dont see people i usually logged in for in the evenings, but im sure they found more exciting things to fill their time with. recently im more convinced at studying hard once more after finishing university and so add to the pool of people busy elsewhere. However, i must also mention that the interest to change things has diminished since the argumentation for or against xy is too exhausting and nobody draws the final line, and no conclusions are reached or enforced. under this falls the random maps that fosprey mentioned as well as more fairness in rating games and small changes in balance that were not even implemented due to the heterogenity of opinions and whats more, no opinions as well. however some kind of interest in wanting to be the best will always be there, the question is, will we remain interested for long enough in a gme we know from the inside out to see those new, enthusiastic stars rising?
User avatar
Horus2
Posts: 407
Joined: September 26th, 2010, 1:05 pm

Re: Ladder is dying

Post by Horus2 »

Rigor wrote:However, i must also mention that the interest to change things has diminished since the argumentation for or against xy is too exhausting and nobody draws the final line, and no conclusions are reached or enforced. under this falls the random maps that fosprey mentioned as well as more fairness in rating games and small changes in balance that were not even implemented due to the heterogenity of opinions and whats more, no opinions as well.
While my withdrawal from ladder has multiple factors, like lack of freetime, problems when moving to L8, reaching 500th game, my interest migrating towards developing PYRA and other eras, what Rigor said was also heavily present. Atmosphere at R&D division was so sleepy and gloomy, searching for an ultimate evidence expected to shine in pure holiness while neglecting other issues entirely, that the level of surrealism forced me to lose interest, therefore i fled before exit doors are going to transmute into Escher-esque stairways, and floating plastic cones begin to ask silly questions from us about the correct method for consuming wooden chairs without mouth.
User avatar
Cackfiend
Posts: 558
Joined: January 28th, 2007, 7:36 am
Location: Florida, USA
Contact:

Re: Ladder is dying

Post by Cackfiend »

simply put, it's an old game
"There's no love in fear." - Maynard James Keenan

I'm the guy who's responsible for 40% Gliders in all hexes... I can now die a happy man. =D
Wesnoth Strategy Guide for competitive 1v1 viewtopic.php?f=3&t=54236
Post Reply