Discussion: How Should the Titan be Chosen?

[Emu]

Hello, I'd like to create a topic of discussion for how the game should choose which player is titan.

Currently how the game chooses a titan via a forced slot in the lobby, which is usually forced upon the last joining player exception for the rare volunteer titan. I find this method of titan choice to be unfavorable for Island Defense at it's current state. Instead I suggest Island Defense employs a similar method as the custom game Trolls & Elves (T&E Method in spoiler below) has.

Spoiler!

In the lobby everyone is on the same team. When the game starts you get two choices; I want to be Troll (Titan), I do not want to be Troll (Titan). When player have chosen the game first chooses a random player from the "Want to be Troll" pool, if there are no players in that pool, the game chooses a random player from the "I do not want to be Troll" pool.

Benefits

• Lobbies take less time to fill.
• Diminishing results to stack for Elo.
• No reason to dodge games.
• More players learn Titan.
• Less inactive players in the game.
• A fair way to decide what player gets titan if there are two or more that wants it.

Drawbacks

• Developer needs to spend time implementing this.
• Stats page and Elo algorithm perhaps needs to be reworked (I don't really know the technicalities here but I'm assuming).
• New players might be less reluctant to play if they are stomped as their first game as titan.

Alright, I listed some of the benefits and drawbacks. I believe the T&E method is more beneficial than the current method, but I am biased so there might be some drawbacks I don't see. Discuss in the comments about potentially more benefits/drawbacks, other methods of titan choice, why the current one is good, why we need a change etcetera. Keep comments clean, concise, and relevant. Thanks for reading!

P.S. I'm working on a reply for the article I recently wrote

[FollowingPath]

New players Most players might be less reluctant to play will leave if they are stomped as their first game as titan when they get chosen as titan among 10 other people who also said "No."

Fixed.

[Emu]

That's when rules come in handy

[ShadowZz]

People will just leave after the 10min mark or the game will end up being completely boring vs noob titans who accidentally hit yes or got forced to titan when everyone said no.

[Lynx]

People will just leave after the 10min mark or the game will end up being completely boring vs noob titans who accidentally hit yes or got forced to titan when everyone said no.

Isn't this what games are currently though? Personally I don't care for a change but, this change will definitely increase fun value of games because mediocre titans will come more into play. Stacking will also 10x more fun because there is a big chance there will be decent titan vs a decent lobby instead of a decent lobby vs a bad titan.

Forcing noobs to be titan might be an issue though, but then again the chance of that happening in a large amount of games is small.

Idk though, I'd like to hear @Neco 's thoughts on this topic.

Also (ninja edit) it's a double edged sword, games will be boring vs bad titans yes, but games will be fun against mediocre and good titans.

[Haunt]

To be honest, I think this is a good idea.

Bad titans already ruin games, this wouldn't change that one bit. But it would make games fill faster. And force decent players to learn to lay titan.

+1 Neco implement pls

[Dehumanchum]

SC2 ID already has something like this, when I played on there it seemed to work just fine.

[Burn]

Just make it a separate game mode and make it default. EZ.

It'll now also be harder to dodge.

!Support

People will just leave after the 10min mark or the game will end up being completely boring vs noob titans who accidentally hit yes or got forced to titan when everyone said no.

As usual, I disagree with ShadowZz completely and as usual, ShadowZz is supportive of a suggestion.

1) I actively encourage bad titans to leave after the 10 minute mark, since it's wasting everyone's time already.
2) It might also mean that Neco has to balance titan ELO gain for high ELO players, or remove ELO, or even, God forbid, fix ELO.

-Burn

[Haunt]

Remove ELO = GG. I support that 10000000%.

[Emu]

In hindsight I should've made a poll to gauge at the general opinion. Don't sidetrack into elo discussion, make a separate topic of discussion instead of stealing mine!

[FollowingPath]

My problem with this is that 99% of the active community only plays Island Defense so they can play as builders. Forcing those people to risk being titan in every game could stop them from joining lobbies altogether.
The reason this mode works in TvE is because of how the game is set up. The players know that the Troll can easily win in every single TvE game if he plays safely and patiently. This is because he doesn't have to break a base or kill an Elf in order to gain something from a siege, simply hitting the walls grants him a large sum of gold, and it's why a lot of people don't mind playing as the Troll - it's easy.

[Merex]

Remove ELO = rip hash's life.

On a serious note, I see this going both ways.

People already leave when they're the last to join (aka titan) and don't wanna bother waiting in an entirely new game. So if this goes through and all 11 people say ''no'', like troll and elves, somebody will be picked at random and then what? They play it out? Everyone knows the ID community here, it'll cause chaos and put the work load on the ID staff.

On another note, much like troll and elves, this could potentially improve the overall titan experience on players but there are many differences between the 2 games and there's a reason why that mode is put there and not in ID.

I'm with Burn on this suggestion - Make it a separate game mode and if people wish to play this way, then it'll be their choice and not randomly forced upon the community.

[pep]

I support this, but losing -30 ELO wont be fun for "elo whores" playing titan. This needs to be fixed when implemented.

[Emu]

I support this, but losing -30 ELO wont be fun for "elo whores" playing titan. This needs to be fixed when implemented.

Elo loss will balance out between the "elo w****s" that spams builder, as they all will be chosen equally to be Titan. Players that can play both won't be at an affect and elo will be a better measurement of skill.

Some elo values might be near impossible to achieve with this change though so a possible elo reset should be discussed together with this.

[lordmillt]

I think instead care about The elo maybe They can get good instead of nerding builder.