1 vs 1 Ladder

[Cerberus]

1 vs 1 Ladder has been deal lately, and by dead I mean flat-lined.
Any chance we can do some promotional ladder usage campaign?
From my POV, (#14 ladder&global) I only run into MadStork, Blackdeath (who has not been on in a while) and Wu Ming (once every 5-6 days) and then the occasional new payer ( 0 rating ) from time to time. Now, I know most of the top ranked players are inactive, and that most of the new players run into me, or MS, BD, WM, and then get scarred to rejoin, because even after helping them get set up, and started, you never see or hear from them again. Im not sure how much of this is being near the top of ladder, and how much of this is ladder dying, but we need to find a way to make ladder more popular.
Also, Stop having 0 ranked players meet up with 2000 rating players. Its killer all around. I personally don't mind spending the 30 or so minutes getting them orientated with the proper guides, tips, places to go, etc. But I'm not sure if everyone else is as accommodating. Plus, after a while, It gets quite annoying trying to find a nice even game, and getting your third beginner in a row.
Maybe I'm just missing everyone, but I have been talking to a lot of other people, and they seem to be running into the same lack of ladder players.

[Panchovilla]

I would have to agree here, I haven't joined the ladder yet, but what's the point of joining when your either waiting an hour to get a match or its the same few people. I'm not afraid of losing to higher rank players, but whats the point of having a ladder system...when it seems to me more like a "Foot stool" at best and maybe the ranking system needs tweaking. Like Tex said...not all players have a mentality of losing there first few matches before the "Trueskill" system kicks in. Just my two cents on the matter.

[FA_Returnee]

I don't mind losing as I'm rusty anyway and haven't worked out the nuances of the FAF balance, but more players are always welcome.

[MadStork]

Concur with everything Cerberus said. It seems like a few ladder regulars disappeared, and it became a pretty tight circle of players playing each other all the time, and lately it seems some guys have become sick of that and now getting a game at all is pretty difficult.

This saddens me, and I don't understand why more of the good active players never play ladder. I find 1v1 to be a more interesting, dynamic brand of FA than the turtle-fest of most team games. And I think the current map pool is for the most part excellent.

So I don't know the answer, but hopefully this thread starts a discussion on how to revive it.

[SeraphimLeftNut]

I don't know for sure and it is probably not the only reason but a big reason why the ladder has seen a decline is the absense of Isen. He used to play the ladder more than anyone and he was good enough to play against anyone. This in turn would keep players like Zock and Uber around because they knew they could get a challange almost anytime. The absence of FunkOff is also a big loss as well as Deathly and later FA_Account who was pretty dominant for a while.

It is interesting that Isen left after IMBA cup 2...

[Ze_PilOt]

Also, Stop having 0 ranked players meet up with 2000 rating players. Its killer all around.

not all players have a mentality of losing there first few matches before the "Trueskill" system kicks in. Just my two cents on the matter.

It's the exact same system than the starcraft 2 one (and I don't think that SC2 ladder is dead .

New players are randomly matched in order to evaluate their level (new players on matchmaker doesn't mean noob).

Don't worry, they have a message explaining it the first time they search, and a "placement completion %" message each time until the system learn them.
Each one explain that they are randomly matched and that it will be better once finished.

It generally take around 7-10 games. I know that the starcraft 2 system use only 5 matches, but it's not true : your 10 next are still placing you inside the system -I have jump from bronze to gold in no time-. Starcraft 2 one It's a variation of Trueskill - if not trueskill itself - and it cannot be done any other way. But it's way better than Elo (Elo system, it's your 20 -30 first matches being your placement matches...)

Other than that, look at the leaderboard : everybody is around the 50% victory ratio, meaning that the matchmaker works perfectly. The system won't change, I can't make it better.

According to the database, yesterday (08/08/12), 141 ladder games were played.

But I agree that the competitive spirit of FA is dead (look at the FA release tournament, more than half the players not showing, and a low level tournament overall), but it has to do with the players, not the system.

[Panchovilla]

Just because the Old guard has moved on to other things, doesn't mean we can't try to do something to bring competitive back to the game in FAF...the money question is...how do we do that...and how do we convince the newer players to join the ladder and and get this thing going, otherwise it just seems pointless to have a ladder when we are still seeing issues of waiting for matches and the same group of players facing off. There is no easy solution it seems, but there has got to be a way.

[ozonex]

want to know why i dont play 1v1 ranked games? becouse they are ranked...
what do I get after game with good player in 1v1 ranked game? nothing... only kick in the ass and lose score. You can say that i have satisfaction that i played good game. Rly? good? But why then my score says that im noob and i played bad. This is why most new players don't like this, theywant to feel they can be good.

This is why i dislike "true" skill system. Its very hard to get up, and you can very easy lose your score.
Old playertracks system can give you good score if you play good, even if you lose.

We must show players that they do good when they play harder games. This is old rule from mobile/web games to get more people playing. This is hardcor game you say? In hardcore games you dont matter how many players will play. Supcom needs a "marketing" campaign. We need show new players that SupCom give satisfaction.

[Ze_PilOt]

Your concerns are not based on facts.
Trueskill, unlike elo, won't make your score jump all around because you lost a single game.

Playertrack is not a rating system. It was gathering stats about your games, and this is not good, because it's not representative a all of your skills in game.

While you can have better eco, you can have 0 army and lose badly. That make you feel like you are playing good, but you will never lean thinking that.
Or you can turtle like a noob, have a high unit kill ratio, but lose badly because you can't go outside your base.

Also, if I was basing your rating on that kind of stats, you will be ranked against way better people in no time (you tech your mexes but do no army : You can't play but can have similar eco stats than a real good player).

[Ze_PilOt]

Also, you must realize that there is NO ladder in FAF.

There is a matchmaker, and this is very different. You never play better players. You always play people of your level.