Reduce ragequits & make ragequits less harmful to gameplay

[HasteDC]

Definition of ragequit: players leave because they feel they've lost the flagging game.

Reducing ragequits:

Somehow make it more beneficial to keep playing. Increasing the jackpot reward for the losing freq is not my idea of a good way to do this. Suggestions are welcome.

Making ragequits less harmful to gameplay:

Idea 1: Stronger ships for the weaker, losing frequency

I've been playing around with this idea. A flagging freq that has a weaker freq according to the balancer (so lower total experience) could get, say, a small percentage reduction in all damage taken. This would prevent one or two players ragequiting from making it impossible for the losing freq to take base again, leading to even more ragequits.

[thenightwassaved]

This doesn't really change much but adding a stat that people are conscious of and want to keep in good standing might help.

So once you ?flag you might get an an automatic -2 loss count. Then winning the game gives you +3 while losing gives you +1.

[HasteDC]

Don't think people care enough. What's more important is actually making it possible to win a flaggame, even if you're behind and have fewer players because of people ragequiting. It'll take some attempts to get the balance right and not make it too beneficial to deliberately ragequit to make your team stronger.

[thenightwassaved]

Perhaps more incentive for people to actually ?flag or get out of spec and ?flag. So to actually balance the team.

I can see problems with awarding the losing team. How do you define losing? I've seen a team with less people beat teams with more. Helping them out just makes it harder. Although this is probably just the edge case.

To improve more people flagging might require that decreasing high initial tick update which I'll add.

[thenightwassaved]

Plus there could be ways to make them care enough. Make the stat actually matter somehow.

[thenightwassaved]

I still think an MVP system would be helpful but that's a whole new conversation.

[HasteDC]

Less total experience. Significantly less, like a 20-30% discrepancy.

[thenightwassaved]

Would it apply even when teams are even in numbers or would that be a different check?

[mijellin]

Not even increased reward for losing freq will do it. From a purely rational POV, there is no reason to NOT stay in for the free money, even if you're just chilling in spec. However, I find myself quitting all the time if the lanc sucks or whatever. 10k, or even 50k, is not enough to offset the frustration IMO. I don't think post-hoc rewards or punishments will work.

So I agree with you that it's important the goal is to only reduce RQ.

For sure, I think the ease of attacking and rushing is the main mechanism to consider. The easier it is to rush, the more viable that an attack is even with little time and a stacked opposing freq. This can be accomplished with your idea of damage reduction, or temporarily giving free PDs to ships, or giving free Evoker, or anything else.

The requirements for this to take effect should consider number of players on each freq, difference in average BOUNTY of each ship (a bunch of bountiers=one freq is owning another freq), and how many seconds are left on final flags. This third one is particularly effective bc then dropping all 12 at same time would not allow the opposing to get the stat boost for long, but it's also harder for the defending team to hold with three less players. A slow drop allows for more defenders, but the last drop will be particularly hard to hold as the opposing team gets stronger.

Under this system, you are not trying to punish the RQers, bc they will RQ no matter what, but rather rewarding the players who are staying in.

As a side effect, it would also hopefully lead to FGs that are more back and forth.

[thenightwassaved]

Still thinking your comment over mij but I do like the bty check kinda but you also have to assume the defending freq will always most likely have high bounties on its anchors and bomb/gun liners.

I think focusing on the people who stay (thus encouraging you to stay) is also a good thing to consider.

[thenightwassaved]

I'm pretty sure the loss rewards goes to everyone playing too and not just those on the losing freq. Changing this would make people want to ?flag just to get the loss money (and possibly help out).