Team stacking getting worse and worse:

It's a good thing Mad_Rebel's here, or we'd need another strawman.

Hmm. TPA. The Pubber Alliance. Got a nice ring to it, but how could you get folks to use a [TPA] tag? :D

This is another reason why team balancing each round sucks majorly.

I've only ever played in pubs and I'd rather not have the randomization every map. It seems like many players end up on a stacked team and think, "Woohoo, looks like I won the lottery!" and forget how much more enjoyable a balanced game can be.

How well did shuffles (at the admin's command or by vote, not on every map change) work in Tribes pubs? I seem to remember the feature being added and used on the greatest server ever, Speed Racer's Place, but I can't remember what the general effect was.

I always do my part to balance things by switching to the winning team. Any team with me on it is at a severe disadvantage.

How well did shuffles (at the admin's command or by vote, not on every map change) work in Tribes pubs? I seem to remember the feature being added and used on the greatest server ever, Speed Racer's Place, but I can't remember what the general effect was.

ahh yes, speed racers. what a great server.

as i remember it it only worked in theory. the shuffle was random and could just as easily create a stacked team as a balanced team. 1/3 the time it didnt change anything. 1/3 the time it balanced things out somewhat and the other 1/3 the time it created worse stacked teams.

Yeah, but the point is that instead of gambling with the teams each time the map changed, you'd instead gamble only when there's an admin present who sees that there are enough jerks on a stacked team to warrant mixing them up.

Maybe the players could be "sorted" into teams based on the statistics of the previous map, to improve the chances of not effing things up more.

As it is right now, balanced teams are often lost by the randomization after a map change.

:rofl: you got beat by SMACKDOWN??????


:lol: you must really suck

That fool called me a hacker because I was kicking his are so much. Good times.

...again, youre expecting far to much from average pub play.


I think thats the key: "average" pub play(ers). A lot (probably most) of ppl in pubs are out for themselves; to make it to top scorer (or as close as possible).

However, in my experiences, quite often there are ppl in pubs that actually play for the benefit of the team (I and my friends are some of them). I can't count the times I've been pubbing, especially in T2, that I've played with random folks that actually tried to work together and it paid off. I don't know, maybe I've just been lucky as far as pubbing goes.

Don't get me wrong, there have been many times I've found my self on the team getting our asses handed to us; I'm just saying there's been a lot of good times and close matches too. It's like one of the previous posters stated... Its a crap-shoot, you never know what your gonna get.

It'll change. T1 pubs didn't really mature (players voluntarily balancing teams and a BIG deal always being made about a very close game and the fact that it was much more enjoyable than a total shutout) until a few months before T2 came out and most of the annoying (win at all cost) players just got tired of the game and moved on to new and 'better' games or T2. T1 gaming matured quite nicely imho and so will T:V someday.

It'll change. T1 pubs didn't really mature (players voluntarily balancing teams and a BIG deal always being made about a very close game and the fact that it was much more enjoyable than a total shutout) until a few months before T2 came out and most of the annoying (win at all cost) players just got tired of the game and moved on to new and 'better' games or T2. T1 gaming matured quite nicely imho and so will T:V someday.

oh i disagree with your timeline. about 6 months after tribes the pub play was great. people actually went offense, imagine that. DoD wasnt a massive deffensive sniper fest. then pub play deteriorated. everyone and their mother became a leet HO which forced lots of people to go defensive.

all im saying is pub play style didnt remain static.

My question is, why do you think its the "better" players job to switch to the lesser team? isnt he/she allowed to play on the team they want and have fun, insted of getting frustrated with noobs.

Maybe if the teams are that stacked, you should leave the server

The reason this happens is because of the speed of the game. It's too difficult to keep up waging a high-speed war between two sides of equal power, so at first sign of imbalance, all the "good players" jump ship.

looks pretty even to me

It'll change. T1 pubs didn't really mature (players voluntarily balancing teams and a BIG deal always being made about a very close game and the fact that it was much more enjoyable than a total shutout) until a few months before T2 came out and most of the annoying (win at all cost) players just got tired of the game and moved on to new and 'better' games or T2. T1 gaming matured quite nicely imho and so will T:V someday.

I don't think so...

Near to the time T2 was coming out there were so many script kiddies (like HO mortar jump) playing pubs that playing mods was the only way to find good players and balanced teams. Earlier in T1 you could find good pub play on lots of servers - hell, you could find half decent pub play on the demo, till a couple of guys from a ladder came in on the same team and kicked everyones arse!