Centralized Win/Loss Record Stat

posted on November 26th, 2009, 9:25 pm

I would like to be able to see other players win/loss records while in the multiplayer chat room.

This would require an official centralized server to keep the records.
This would require a chat command to display the player's win/loss record (i.e. /stat)


Optionally, have the fleeops.net show the record on a page.
Optionally, show any registered user's win/loss record (opt-out able)

posted on November 26th, 2009, 9:28 pm

Weeee, that would be interesting 

I can't say I'm for or against it 

posted on November 26th, 2009, 9:32 pm

Well we could assign someone to make a speadsheet of stats and keep it updated on the website/guide. But FO is hard to make truely competitive

posted on November 26th, 2009, 9:36 pm

Yup, indeed hard to make competitive - especially since I know many people would not like to see their win/loss record I think 

Then again, many would. Still, I'm not sure how a server could be made to function for this, as that would be quite costly, no?

posted on November 26th, 2009, 10:25 pm

Some of us would stop being cool with "teaming with the new guy" because it would affect our record.   You could also have an awesome win/loss because you play noobs all the time.  So a record doesn't necessarily describe the player's ability accurately.  And the community is small enough that we know about where everyone is at skillwise, so most of our team setups are pretty balanced.  I'd rather lose and take part in a great battle than be like "har har, another notch on my belt" , or have someone amazed at my ratio because I refuse to team up with anyone but the best.

I guess I'm not for this one because I'm concerned with it hurting player membership.  People are scared enough as it is to join multiplayer.  (And you shouldn't be.  There's a reason why we play online, so come join us.   We don't bite.  Well, there was that one time. )

I wish there was a way to figure out how to coax more people to come online.  There are tons of forum members who actively write posts, and only a handful of people who actually play the game with others.   

posted on November 26th, 2009, 10:36 pm

Mal put it right.

  I'm always game to team up with the new guys and make sure the teams are balanced.  A noob-stomp is neither fun nor helpful to anyone.  I feel that keeping records is only ever done in a game like this for bragging rights and personal gusto (as much fun as that is) .

  No need to add it here. 

posted on November 26th, 2009, 10:51 pm

Some of us would stop being cool with "teaming with the new guy" because it would affect our record.   You could also have an awesome win/loss because you play noobs all the time.  So a record doesn't necessarily describe the player's ability accurately.  And the community is small enough that we know about where everyone is at skillwise, so most of our team setups are pretty balanced.  I'd rather lose and take part in a great battle than be like "har har, another notch on my belt" , or have someone amazed at my ratio because I refuse to team up with anyone but the best.

I guess I'm not for this one because I'm concerned with it hurting player membership.  People are scared enough as it is to join multiplayer.  (And you shouldn't be.  There's a reason why we play online, so come join us.   We don't bite.  Well, there was that one time. )

I wish there was a way to figure out how to coax more people to come online.  There are tons of forum members who actively write posts, and only a handful of people who actually play the game with others.   

Well said! - I think that pretty accurately reflects my opinion too. There are 86 people who play using Wippien right now, but only about 30 are active - and even less are on daily for a long time. From conversations, it really seems that only a very few are very competitive - most people enjoy winning, true, which can sometimes drive those people to choose the same factions again, and again... aaaaaand again... aaaand you get the point, but I find this is usually the case only if these folks are being defeated constantly and have not been given advice. I think the truth is, most people who like playing online do so win or lose. Stats - even with an opt out possibility - could cause problems. Afterall, in other games that have this, people who win constantly will often create new accounts simply because without this ability, nobody new would play them (if someone has a 1000:1 win/loss record, it gets a lot of people freaked out).

The silly thing is that there are thousands of people who have downloaded the game - yet there aren't thousands of online players !  :pinch:

posted on November 27th, 2009, 5:16 pm

The silly thing is that there are thousands of people who have downloaded the game - yet there aren't thousands of online players !

Agreed, weird....

[yandonman]

posted on November 28th, 2009, 5:16 am

Last edited by yandonman on November 28th, 2009, 5:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

Points taken. Granted, there is a subset of the community that would be turned off by win/loss tracking. However, I would postulate that there is another subset of the community that would be turned on by the competitiveness of having a win/loss record.

What if:
* players could reset their win/loss record
* to record a game, all in the game would have to agree (i.e. by pressing a button) to the win/loss being recorded
* only automatically kept track of the number of online games the player has played (also reset-able)


An "on the cheap" implementation idea
------------------------------------------

bring up an ftp server (I'm assuming one could use the Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations - Welcome to Fleet Operations! site for ftp hosting as well...?)
obfuscate the ftp username/password (security/reliability concern) in game
after a game, fleetops.exe would upload a simple text file with winners/loosers (i.e. win_loss_.txt)
A deamon/service process (not necessarily on the ftp server) would
- periodically download (consume) the win_lossdate/time>.txt file
- merge the results into a global win/loss DB (could be a txt file, .xls (Excell), hsql db, or mssql DB)
- upload the merged win/loss DB to the ftp server


When logging on in multiplayer mode, fleetops.exe either a) download the db or b) query the DB for player stats




Note: Only getting the idea out of my head.

posted on November 28th, 2009, 5:39 am

I guess I'm curious as to why you (or anyone) would want to implement it.  What purpose would it serve to have this record?  It's neat idea, but I would like to know more about how you think this would entice people to play more competitively.

posted on November 28th, 2009, 6:08 am

I could be wrong but something like this would require a lot of recoding of the network and connection ability which is almost entirely done through gamespy.

posted on November 28th, 2009, 6:13 am

I could be wrong but something like this would require a lot of recoding of the network and connection ability which is almost entirely done through gamespy.

*warning, completely neutral comment approaching* I think that it would require recoding of the network, but that doesn't have to take place through gamespy, as the majority of games are purely through vpn services now (no gamespy feature being used - just LAN).

[Rhaz]

posted on November 28th, 2009, 7:22 am

Last edited by Rhaz on November 28th, 2009, 7:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

This isn't Call of Duty, in my opinion a win loss ratio would turn off nearly everyone on the fence with FO online as well as a few of the newer online players. I haven't been solidly online in a few versions (I remember my first game with DN back in beta 2 when I was the master and he was the newbie XD, how things have changed! lol). Guys like Mort, DN and Red Man Mark (Sorry, I'm sure the rest of you are ultra good but I have never played you first hand) who are all and all capable of dominating would feel at least a tiny bit of pressure to choose their teams more aggressively....as opposed to playing just for fun. If there ever is another attempt at an FO tournament obviously we'd need some excel stat tracking sheet made, I'd be down for that. I'd even make it lol. But for regular FO, I think you're very wrong and I think that subset includes close to only yourself. (Maybe serpicus too?). Lol.



And as an edit -

With guys like DN going around and doing what they can to convince the new blood (and some draconian hardliners) to join into the fun and the frenzy (even pinging me on msn on occaison lol) the last thing we need is a big confidence obstacle to separate the experts from being wingmen to the recruits.

posted on November 28th, 2009, 8:00 am

Aye.

I'm all about playin with the noobie to teach them how to become competitive.  Stardust began as a relative noobie and has since become quite the competent opponent after he and I spent LOOOONG nights playing (and he listening attentively and carefully) to every suggestion.  This is even after it came from a non-native language.

  Point is he is one of the few who are distinctly interested in becoming an excellent player and is not interested in being recorded.  I don't feel any one of us want our kindness, patience, or aggressiveness recorded for others to base opinions on.

just my thought.  I like playing with games full of people = to my skill level but I realize that ofte games are filled with new and eager players.  Them's the brakes!

posted on November 28th, 2009, 1:34 pm

I have to agree that it could create a confidence issue, and that indeed we (most?) don't really want a COD-style (or at least some fps) competitive thing going on here.
Although, I reckon it could work if there was simply a list somewhere here rather than shouting your score all over the network in-game!
I was thinking that perhaps just a record of wins would be a little friendlier too, but I'm not sure. For example, what to do about 3-player ffa when you come second? One system would add it as a loss, th other just ignores it. Whatever happens, I suppose it needs convey enough information about whether you play often, etc.