Hosting of "Battleships Pro" Alteration Suggestion

[Flaminfirexxx]

I'd like to throw out the suggestion of opening all the slots on the Battleships Pro map to make it 5v5 like the map is supposed to be played instead of a 3v3.

Here are some reasons why, in no particular order:
1. Battleships pro is designed for 5v5 play. 3v3 play severely limits the strategies used and limits an effective team to only a few ships and weapons.
2. 3v3 play also eliminates the entire early game strategy. The game is often won or lost in the early stages of the game based on what team gets the first few kills, which players farm better, etc. Eliminating the 5v5 aspect grants players significantly more gold and income early. This severely takes away from the importance of early kills and early farming, as the large amount of extra gold lets you essentially skip the early phase of the game.
3. Most importantly... Through the significant alterations in gameplay from the original design of the map and the style that people are used to playing with.... This bot does nothing for people that want to play the game other than provide a backup bot when the main hosting one is down.

With this in mind... I feel that it's not your goal to be the backup hosting bot. The primary bot that hosts battleships games (Peps_Bot) hosts them at an exponentially higher ratio than the ENT bot EVEN THOUGH Peps_Bot hosts 5v5 games and ENT hosts 3v3. The main reason for this is that people don't want to play 3v3 ships. They want to play 5v5 ships, the way the game is supposed to be played; Peps_Bot gives it to them.

The problem with Peps_Bot is that it's a personally ran bot.... The owners ban people things such as targeting them in games. Obviously not cool. In addition, the bot has no limitations on leaving and no IP bans. As a result, people leave the game all the time with no consequences. With this in mind, people often elect to play only a partial game and simply leave - which ruins games. I have noticed through my experience on ENT bots that leaving isn't tolerated - an aspect that I feel needs to be implemented into competitive ships. You guys have a chance to make a significant difference in the integrity of the game. I would like to hope that you take me up on this.

My suggestion is to open all the slots on the bot when hosting Battleships Pro and eliminate the "3v3" from the game title. If you do this, you might not see positive results for a little (probably until the Peps_Bot goes down, which it often does). The reasoning for this is that you will have to fill all 10 slots instead of just six with the same audience that you had playing your 3v3. Most people that play on Peps_Bot search for the bot and join the game - not find it on the list. After people start realizing that you're hosting a 5v5 that actually bans leaver and isn't run out of someone's basement through subjective corruption, I would expect use of the bot to increase exponentially.

Just my two cents anyway.

-Ryan
xtreme_violence@azeroth

[uakf.b]

The primary reason we host it is because we have statistics that showns wins, losses, ELO score, etc., while no other bot has this addition. Otherwise we would not autohost it, because as you said other bots are already doing it.

I guess we could increase to 5v5 and have votestart set for four players or so.

[Flaminfirexxx]

The primary reason we host it is because we have statistics that showns wins, losses, ELO score, etc., while no other bot has this addition. Otherwise we would not autohost it, because as you said other bots are already doing it.

I guess we could increase to 5v5 and have votestart set for four players or so.

Really? I guarantee the addition of W/L/ELO to BShips would be a significant improvement. It's been something that the BShips community has talked about for awhile.

That would facilitate my idea a lot more of your bot offers something else the the other one doesn't - Something that actually MEANS something to people....

Honestly, I would give it a try. I can help promote it via word of mouth and greet messages on my bot as well, as I'd rather play on ENT bots.

[uakf.b]

Ok, updated to 5v5 and added votestart for four or more players.
Stats have been available at http://clanent.net/customstats/?statsmode=battleships

[Flaminfirexxx]

Ok, updated to 5v5 and added votestart for four or more players.
Stats have been available at http://clanent.net/customstats/?statsmode=battleships

I've started promoting this... and everyone I've talked to likes it better so far. Sounds like a good update.

I appreciate the extremely fast response