In Response to All of The "People always leave cuz they are losing" threads - An idea (Clutch Factor)

from Demigod Forums

I see a lot of threads about people complaining about quitters as well as people who just openly admit that they lost and then quit anyways, leaving the winning team to fight AIs.... and rightfully so. This is obviously very annoying, but why don't we think a bit about how this can be rectified?

I have some ideas that maybe could help fix the flow of the game. As you all know, for the most part, once the winning team has reached a crucial point in Domination, Conquest, and Fortress modes (usually in mid-game), it starts to become painfully obvious who is going to win and who is going to lose. The losing team will sometimes quit, often complaining, or every once and awhile you get the "honorable quitter" who says gg, and leaves you to fight the AI.

SO why not shake up the flow of the game a bit? Here are some ideas, and please don't hesitate to post your opinions.

1. Domination mode should be reversed. Flags should debuff you, decrease mana flow, decrease health regen, lower damage, increase cooldowns, or whatever. This would make the game much more strategic and competive, always giving the team without flags the advantage at the consequence of obviously losing the game. The matches would be brutal and always tight, since the winning team would be suffering all of these side effects... matches would sway back and forth, and a wins would be immensely satisfying. Teamwork would also be promoted as teams with the flags would have to be careful.

2. A Clutch factor. I would think this would be great for Conquest. Considering the citadel is the beacon and the object in the game you must protect most (aside form yourself of course heh heh), wouldn't the team on the defensive be fighting and scrapping as hard as they could to attain their grand citadel? So why not have a clutch factor that slowly fills up as your citadel takes damage (or some other means) and can be unleashed giving the defending team an advantage (Increased damage, Health, Faster attack, More exp gain, more reinforcements, or whatever) to push back the attackers and gain a foothold. To balance the clutch factor, it can only be used ONCE, and only lasts for a limited time... but enough time to give the defenders a chance to turn the tide of battle around and maybe win. It would basically be the equivalanet of a nuclear bomb, a last resort only used in the direst of situations. But if it still doesn't net you the win, well you lose.

I think that in implementing these ideas we would atleast make winning a more satisfying experience while also giving the losing team a chance to fight back.... granted, this obviously would not prevent quitting altogether, but it would atleast make the end game more interesting... and I guarantee that there would be a lot less quitting since the losing team still has a chance, and if used correctly could hopefully (for them) turn the tide of battle around. Teamwork is essential no matter what though.

These I have in mind so far to what *I* think would greatly improve the flow and competiveness of the game. If you've some great ideas as to how we can improve the flow of the game feel free to post. Hope you guys like it, maybe someday it could be modded into the game.

For now, what are your thoughts and opinions?

1,804 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

I've had games where the enemy had a huge warscore lead, and so they bough tlots of minions.  Now alot of poeple would just give up right here, but here is the thing, you should be able to leapfrog them in level, thus making a push at the end.  Will it happen in enough time?  wait and find out.  I've seen it happen a few times.

 

 

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

I've played a couple  of games where it may appear that one side has an advantage and then the other recovers and comes back.  Sometimes its not really clean cut as to who is winning especially in conquest. 

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Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

Altering the attribute flags in domination would certainly provide additional tactical considerations, but may or may not result in changing when the game has already been decided, since the other team that takes the flags would simply place themselves at a disadvantage again, and does not prevent the other team from earning domination score with the flags in their base. A much simpler and more effective change would be to grant the increases in domination score only when one team has more flags than the other. The counter stops if the number of flags controlled are equal.

Changing the citadel or fortress form of gameplay does not seem necessary, as I have already experienced several games that resulted in combacks where I would have otherwise believed the game to be lost. There is however an issue with fortresses being a little too easy past the midway point in the game though, as fortresses do not scale in strength with warscore and are often in locations not near creeps or towers, meaning demigods can solo them with ease (some of them very early in the game). Perhaps increasing the strength (and range) of each fortress as more of them fall would aid in preventing the game from being decided too early on.

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

I have played a few great games where the sides seemed to change as the game went on. In the best game I ever played I had already told the other team GG and that they whopped our tails. Then I managed to grap a lvl and an artifact and become a monster. I was killing both of them left and right. It looked like we had a great comeback and were going to easily win. Then they turned the tables again and beat us. Congratualtions to them, but it would have been a very boring game if I had told the GG and then just quit to leave the AI in place.

 

So while I still lost, I had more fun in that loss than I have had in most of my wins.

 

 

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

I like these ideas from the OP.  They seem interesting, and if implemented officially or via mod, I would try them enthusiastically.  In any case, SOMETHING needs to be done about rage-quitters and even "honorable quitters" -- whether that SOMETHING be a fundamental change in gameplay to which point comebacks are more possible; or some kind of added incentive to stay and play the game through, win or lose.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

The game as it is now has an intentional slippery slope to prevent games where skills are obviously lopsided to not waste time playing tug of war where the game artificially buffs the losing team. I think it was precisely what the devs had in mind. However, these ideas would definitely be nice to try in a mod. yes.

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Playdoh, reply 6
The game as it is now has an intentional slippery slope to prevent games where skills are obviously lopsided to not waste time playing tug of war where the game artificially buffs the losing team. I think it was precisely what the devs had in mind. However, these ideas would definitely be nice to try in a mod. yes.
End of Playdoh's quote

I've already looked through the Demigod files and the potential for modding looks huge. For a Reverse Domination mode (that I like to call Dreadful Domination) it hopefully could just be a matter of editing the flag capabilities file. If that's the case, not only would it be a very competitve and thrilling mod, it would also be extremely easy to back up and implement with other users. Throw in native ventrilo VoIP into mod package files and you have the making of the next sleeper mod hit. It would make demigod so competitve... I think... in theory... lol...

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting transitive, reply 8
what you've suggested is the equivalent of Rubber Band AI except for humans. 

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RubberBandAI

 

in short, i disagree with your proposals. 
End of transitive's quote

Yeah, I know what Rubber Band AI is. And I wouldn't exactly say it is equivalent. It is more an addition to the game play to foster more competition between players.

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

I have mixed thoughts about this. Its true that giving people another chance could provide more fun and exitement but its also wrong to punish people for their achiements in that game. I dont know... the game feels good as it is right now.

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

1. I think this will just divert the action away from the flags until a team feels confident they can hold the flags and sustain the disadvantage. I don't think it will actually end up being all that great for gameplay in the long run, maybe initially.

Right now the flags in domination are obviously a hotspot and encourage players to be aggressive, not just sit back, play it safe and farm, you have to go get those flags.

2. This sounds interesting. Often times once the enemy is pushing you on your doorstep. You can hold it, you just can't push back, leading to a slow painful death by attrition, your probably just better off leaving at this point.

This may just change that.

Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top

It seems like it would turn the game into a half-hearted attempt at grinding up in level past the other team. It all boils down in my mind to be way too WoWish and I have to disagree. The team that is loosing lost because they made mistakes early on that they couldn't make up for.


I really don't want to be so negative, yet I feel that if these changes were introduced it would defeat the purpose of getting better. The fact that you do not have a safety net and will loose if you get careless early on should be motivation to keep improving your game. Yet if you know that when they are knocking on your door step with giants and catas, and you are given an advantage however slight, the quality of matches would over all be reduced.