Friend Protecting Scramble (FPS)

[Nekopawed]

Ever been waiting for the server to open so you could play with your friends? Ever finally gotten on the same team as them, only to have a scramble occur and remove you from their side? I find it happens during scrambles a lot to me that the one friend I've tried to play with always ends up on the other side after a scramble. Is there a way to tag a friend so when a scramble occurs, it takes into account that you want to be on the same team as one another?

Has the furry pound considered implementing a system to help friends stay together?

Now not to sound like I just see the good in this:

Known Issue:
Stacking could occur by team friends that try to circumvent the scramble just to be able to steamroll.

Possible Solution:
Only allowing the option for 1 friend. Player A must friend Player B and Player B must friend Player A in order for it to work.

[skunkfox]

[Purplecat]

Can't really be solved either way. I think the current scramble plugin have inbuilt functionality to keep friends together, but actually enabling that will make just players whine more (even if it really at most just keeps together two people at most, exactly like what you suggested). Personally I don't see nothing wrong with friends being together*, especially with scramble plugin being there as a safety net.

Hell I remember there being a stacking complaints regarding a group of friends, even when they didn't really steamrolled the games that they were in (mostly cause most of them were fairly casual TF2 players).

Another problem is that players don't understand the algorithms behind the scramble plugin, which seems to be another source of complaint. It sorts players after scores divided by minutes, so someone with ten points over five minutes ranks higher than someone with twenty points over 15 minutes.

*Part of the reason people complain about friend-stacking is probably cause most public players don't even try to play together, leading to stupid four snipers, three spies teams, where none of them are concerned about carrying out team objectives. I personally start to consider this a bigger problem, but I'm not sure how to best solve it. I admit I feel less inclined to vote for scramble with a such team around, even if I am on the same team! (You don't really deserve to win if you don't really try)

No we're not going to implement class limits, however I have considered if a dynamic hint system of some sort would work. Something hinting the player that being the fourth sniper is probably not viable and the team probably really needs a medic/*whatever class is missing from the team*.

[skunkfox]

[Nekopawed]

Eh, I could volunteer to help with it. :S I don't know much about the system currently, but would not mind reading up on the code at all. I'm not that smart, only have a Bachelor's in Computer Science so I could try to help wherever needed.

But yeah, I see what you guys are saying. I trust the system for the most part, but I literally have had a scramble where all 4 of my friends on the other team, got scrambled to my team....and I to their old team. Twas funny.

>.>I like playing Engi/Medic a lot so I cringe when we have 3/4 snipers or spies on a team. I do enjoy being spy, and sniper is hard for me to learn because of the awesome snipers that won't let a newbie try XD.

I think that this FPS post is my first one. Sooo its also my introduction! TTYL!

[HayashiFox]

I say an forced scramble plugin would work wonders, actually.

Just my opinion, anyway.

[STrRedWolf]

[NikkyVix]

[Helios]

Just remember folks that we only provide the Steamroll Countering Randomized Algorithm to Maximize BaLancE (S.C.R.A.M.B.L.E). Weither or not it gets used is up to you guys.

[HayashiFox]

Except every time I've seen the vote come up, they winning team ALWAYS votes against it. It's not worth trying anymore.

Until a better system can be found/implemented, we'll have to survive with epic stacking for now.