This thread is created as a result of a discussion with Basro. He wants to know how many people would be interested in this idea, therefore, we will open the discussion to all of you here.
As the title implies, I am going to talk about something that is very important for the competitive scene of any game, which is a ranked matchmaking system. Why? It is one of the main reasons, if not the main one, that people keep playing a game, where the objective is presenting a PvP environment. What I mean by this, is that PvP games (Player vs Player) need to support and nurture the competitive nature of the playerbase. This is done by, for example, creating a system which purposely pits players against each other and rewards them accordingly. Examples of this could be an ELO system, the system that Chess utilizes to rank the professional players, or the ranked system that League of Legends uses, a more visual ranking. Link: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_system
Before I address any of the critique that some of you might be wanting to present in regards to this topic, as Haxball is very different from other games, let me first briefly explain what the suggestion is.
For a system like this there are some things that need to be implemented:
- A login system. This means that the game would have to let their users be able to create accounts which they would play with.
- Regional servers. Server hosts for the respective regions where the users would play.
- A matchmaking system. A system within the game that automatically pairs up players with teammates and against other players. Later on this could be in combination with some form of ranked system, like the ones mentioned previously.
Now to address the critique with a system like this implemented in Haxball, going by the three things mentioned above.
First of all, the login system could cause problems for people who would want to simply enjoy the game without having to register. Also, people who normally use a nickname would maybe be forced to create a different one for their account, if it is already taken.
A suggested solution for this would be having nicknames and accounts be separate. Accounts displayed with a different colour ingame than temporary nicknames. An example of this would be this:
The biggest problem of this whole thing comes with the server hosting. To get and maintain a server host that would be required to host for the amount of players in Haxball, would be financially difficult for a single person to cover, which in this case is Basro. Also, providing servers that are adequate for all the regions playing Haxball, is an even larger hurdle to climb.
Sadly, the only solution that I see to this, is having the players themselves financially support the servers, however this will not be possible, and we all know why.
The matchmaking system itself is a matter of having the right person being able to code and/or program it into the game. This would require the person in charge to have the knowledge of creating it, but also maintaining it. It requires someone to also monitor that it is working properly and the ingame issues that it would present (toxicity, bad matchmaking, etc.).
I, as well as many of you here, I hope, are not happy with the current situation in Haxball. Having to go to extreme lengths to find competition, even just friendly matches, and being able to visually see how you are progressing in the game. This system does not only provide a way for people to find matches effortlessly from WITHIN THE GAME, but it also helps satistfy the competitive nature within the playerbase. We have to resort to create our own competition as the founders of this league have, and it simply demands too much time and effort from the community, that could easily be fixed if the game itself provided it to us. In the worst case scenario, we'll have to rely on some community members to create this system, like we always have. Feel free to discuss and share your opinions for or against this topic, it would mean a lot.
