04 Feb 11, 11:28PM
I've seen a couple posts lately about the perceived problems that are cropping up now that HI-SKILL has left. However, I think much of the focus is on the wrong things. Some don't admit there have been changes - others can't see a solution and leave. I want to focus on the problem and what we as a community can do to fix it.
The problem is that we can't find each other.
There was only one single HI-SKILL server for a while. If you wanted to play you knew where to find it. The server also appeared to be located in a datacenter that provided low enough ping for each of the locations around the world were we came from. Personally, I found many of the other public servers had less ping (down to about 18ms!) but I knew that the people I wanted were on HI-SKILL and that was all that mattered. After a while, HI-SKILL separated them and we had a North America and Europe server which provided enough room for most of us without splicing the ladder into too many servers.
The HI-SKILL server(s) had a 12-14 player limit which was easy to fill and kept people wanting to get in. This created a desire in the players that it was a "special" server since it seemed to be loaded very often. As humans we always want what we can't have - not what is right in front of us.
Another thing I would like to point out is that a game full of pros, by nature, keeps beginners out. No one is going to play a game where they can't kill anyone - so they will leave and join an easier match freeing a slot for another pro.
Now take the real AC latter, last I checked it had over 15 servers in it. How am I supposed to know which one has the people I want? Even worse, how am I supposed to gather them together into a single server? I believe that the problem with the move back to the standard AC ladder is that we have a lost a central server and spread our players out too thin. Each of the 15+ TyD servers has about 1-4 good players and tons of first-time players. This leads to constant server swapping until we finally settle on a match with at least a couple good players - or we quit AC for the night.
I believe that we need a new master server from TyD - they need to set one of those servers apart as the place to be. If they don't have a server that is geographically central - then they need to drop a couple and get one good one.
By nature this process will complete itself someday - but I don't want to wait that long and risk losing anyone.
The problem is that we can't find each other.
There was only one single HI-SKILL server for a while. If you wanted to play you knew where to find it. The server also appeared to be located in a datacenter that provided low enough ping for each of the locations around the world were we came from. Personally, I found many of the other public servers had less ping (down to about 18ms!) but I knew that the people I wanted were on HI-SKILL and that was all that mattered. After a while, HI-SKILL separated them and we had a North America and Europe server which provided enough room for most of us without splicing the ladder into too many servers.
The HI-SKILL server(s) had a 12-14 player limit which was easy to fill and kept people wanting to get in. This created a desire in the players that it was a "special" server since it seemed to be loaded very often. As humans we always want what we can't have - not what is right in front of us.
Another thing I would like to point out is that a game full of pros, by nature, keeps beginners out. No one is going to play a game where they can't kill anyone - so they will leave and join an easier match freeing a slot for another pro.
Now take the real AC latter, last I checked it had over 15 servers in it. How am I supposed to know which one has the people I want? Even worse, how am I supposed to gather them together into a single server? I believe that the problem with the move back to the standard AC ladder is that we have a lost a central server and spread our players out too thin. Each of the 15+ TyD servers has about 1-4 good players and tons of first-time players. This leads to constant server swapping until we finally settle on a match with at least a couple good players - or we quit AC for the night.
I believe that we need a new master server from TyD - they need to set one of those servers apart as the place to be. If they don't have a server that is geographically central - then they need to drop a couple and get one good one.
By nature this process will complete itself someday - but I don't want to wait that long and risk losing anyone.