It's simply astouding. Most of the 1v1 10x10 maps generated with the "tournament" setting are better than most ladder maps. It feels a lot like AoE2. Definitely wouldn't mind seeing generated maps on ladder.
Would it be possible to have some 10% chance of getting a brand new mapgen map on ladder?
Hello, I’m a long term supcom player having started in January 2013 with some breaks inbetween. I started by playing only teamgames, many of them in such glorious maps as the original Gap of Rohan and Senton. Eventually my interest shifted and I became primarily a 1v1 player. You could say that I’ve been through all the phases of fafdom, from a beginner teamgame player to #1 ladder. As such I’ve developed an understanding and appreciation for a variety of different styles of enjoying the game and am uniquely positioned to represent the playerbase. This is my application for the 2021 player councilor (PC) race. If you read carefully you might not only learn something about me, but also about the other candidates.
In the spirit of keeping the post short enough for most faffers to not tldr through, I have omitted some important responsibilities of the PC such as:
I will also try hard to represent players' voice when it comes to opinion about the balance. If you are interested and want to read more, other applicants have gone into much more detail about how these reponsibilities relate to the PC role.
Tournaments have historically been one of the main responsibilities of the PC. Previously we have seen a focus on giving the community big high level tournaments that the people who the PC represent strive to have the skill to participate in. In the current PC race we have seen a more grounded approach as candidates have proposed tournament scenes around the 1671 ladder rating range. While the spirit of hosting more mid-tier tournaments is wonderful, I don’t see why we’d stop around that specific rating range.
As PC I will be promoting tournaments for average joes that are able to reach the most people. While there will still be some beginner players that may not be able to participate, higher rating players have historically not had too much trouble getting in. Overall we’ll have a tournament scene that reaches as many players as possible.
I will also take a closer look at the sometimes contentious relationship between tournament directors (TDs) and players. Specifically I will ensure that all prize money is given out and that all players are treated fairly regardless of their relationship with TDs.
As the PC I will have direct responsibility over many things, including promotions. Social media has always been underutilized in FAF promotion and I think we are missing a great opportunity. I will be looking to bolster our social media presence with the addition of the official FAF TikTok channel. This will increase traction with especially the younger audience.
I will look to increase the faflive viewership to about 2500-3500 concurrent viwers for this year’s LotS. I will also establish the Russian, German and Finnish language faflive streams for the event.
Moderation is a subject that is near and dear to my heart since - as all of you surely know - I have a bit of a troubled past. It is imperative that each PC applicant discloses the extent of their respective criminal backgrounds. I was temporarily muted in 2013 by our rightful leader Ze_PilOt, I have been repeatedly accused of smurfing (my original account was permabanned, but everyone knows who’s behind the wheel!) and there have even been rumors of rating manipulation on Dual Gap. I know my record is not quite as impressive as the other applicants, but I hope to still qualify.
In the “Why would you have left FAF?” thread we saw just how many people feel uncomfortable with the amount of toxicity in the community. Clearly the current arrangement is not working. I pledge to take the weight off moderator’s shoulders and fire the entire moderator team. Instead I will be surveying FAF activities like a hawk over aeolus and dual gap games.
Recently we have seen a great boom in FAF developers and are in risk of having exhausted all meaningful work. As PC I will have a tremendous responsibility to make sure all of my underlings have excellent work opportunities. I will make sure such opportunities are provided in the continued development of the Python Client.
A particular issue that has haunted our community, and most players have undoubtedly suffered from, is cancer. It comes in many forms: astro, dual gap, phantomx, the list goes on. I will divert some of our development resources to launch a cancer research initiative. I’m confident that with my guidance we will surely crack this persistent group of diseases. Talks with major players in the pharmaceutical industry have already commenced. We will of course limit the supply of our cancer cure in order to maximize profits (as is customary in the industry), which will be promptly pumped into mid-tier supcom tournaments. Unfortunately many of our patients, such as astro players, may not be able to afford the treatment, but this way we will finally be able to afford tournaments for players around the 1671 ladder rating range.
The birth of FAF association will be a threat to the current balance of power in the council of Seton’s. I will prioritize cementing the lawful position of the PC as the ruler of FAF by any means necessary. If it comes down to it together with my supporters we will perform a storming of the FAF association. FAF will officially go back to being a just monarchy, ruled by the rightful heir of zep. He ruled firmly but fairly and was gone too soon. Together we will do what is right by his memory.
In the new order council seats will be determined by trial by combat performed by the applicants. Once the application period ends we will hold a series of showmatches (watch live on faflive) between the applicants. Applicants may choose a champion to fight in their stead. This arrangement will ensure the strength and stability of the FAF organization.
Thank you for reading and voting. I am looking forward to my 80 hour workweeks! Just to check that you could hear me properly I have to ask: is it loud over there?
I would like to thank my right hand man Swonkoll for his help in writing this application. I would also like to thank my left hand man ArchDemon for reviewing an earlier version of this application. Thirdly I would like to thank my third hand man Tex for existing. Therefore the application has been moderator-approved. So back off.
^Title
Example situation: if you assist a damaged t2 mex to t3 and forget to take assist engies off after mex is finished, you have to pay a big repair tax.
That's not the only case, just in general repair is almost never worth doing. The only case where I've found it useful is sometimes repairing a damaged transport after inty tried to kill it at the opening. But that's literally the only case I can think of.
@judahx said in Calling for nine2 to resign as Promotions Councillor:
Pretty sure FAF has some toxicity.
Just a little follow up to this: searching for the n-word on the FAF discord server brings up 23 pages of results 
Most occurrences are from select few users (yes, including ftx).
Obviously the amount of messages in each server is different, but I searched for the n-word on a few other
loosely similar discord servers for reference.
FAF: 568 occurrences
Sanctuary: 0 occurrences
Immortal: Gates of Pyre: 0 occurrences
Godot Engine: 30 occurrences (note that this is a very big server)
Pocketwatch Games: 11 occurrences
BRNK: 3 occurrences
A Year of Rain: 0 occurrences
RTS Games Lovers: 1 occurrence
Bannermen: 0 occurrences
Now it's not exactly a secret that this word is generally frowned upon and racials slurs are forbidden in virtually any public space, at least in western society. It does not matter how you feel about this word personally. Do you think it's silly that people are upset by a mere word? Do you think that people should grow a thicker skin? Do you find it cringe that people are getting mad by proxy even though the word does not relate to them directly? Again, it does not matter what you think. The community will be judged regardless of how silly you think it might be. Even the people who do not care about the n-word in the slightest take it as a massive warning sign "toxic community ahead, steer clear".
And why is it that you feel it necessary to use problematic language?
Let's be honest it's really fucking childish. Also moderators need to get their shit together.
And no, this is obviously not the only form of problematic communication in FAF, but this fruit is hanging so low that it's undeground in Onkalo, the world's first permanent residence of nuclear waste.
Problem:
Fix: detailed below.
T1 engis should live with low hp from one bomber pass. Some combination of the following:
Bombers should be capable of economic damage (other than t1 engineers)
Make up for reduction in damage if necessary
Note that all changes should apply in all faction matchups
Side effects
Exact values can (should) be played around with to find a good balance.
In this thread: high rating players claiming aeon gun is broken and low rating players calling it a skill issue
There used to be a ground decal mod, where some custom decal would appear at your spawn location. I think it might be this one https://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=12450 but not sure. Anyways, spawn decals would be a cool reward.
@melanol said in Open the FAF wiki:
How about we test out Elon Musk's direct democracy and vote on this issue? (And maybe even start doing this for almost everything.)
Why are u crediting a scam artist with the simplest most obvious way of democracy that existed since ancient greece, probably ever since the dawn of language?
I agree with opening the wiki, but I can't with good conscience upvote ur post when u include paragraphs like that xd
@jip said in Matchmaker Team Sentons 4v4 TMM Inclusion:
@Lord_Asmodeus / @FtXCommando I'd like to see you enjoy a game of about 1200 average rating where the air players are equally rated, yet one air player is a 'setoner' and manages to make an escorted strat before the other air player even has a single ASF.
The game is essentially over at that point. As beach / rock / mid player you didn't even participate yet. How is that fun for anyone involved but the air player with the strat?
While this doesn't invalidate your point given the current state of things, I'd just like to point out that this is a balance issue and things don't have to be this way despite the game having existed in such a state of air balance ever since the beginning.
On another note, I think it's sad that perhaps the best map in the entire game is so hated due to it being so good that it has developed a dedicated community around it. It seems to me that most (if not all) of the prejudice against this map is based on people not wanting to play against sentoneers rather than intrinsic qualities of the map itself.
RAS SCUs aren't strong, lategame aggression is just super weak. Same thing for t3 arty. It's a massive mass investment, but it's not like you can just mount a land attack lategame. Navy situation is a bit better, but it's a bit too slow paced too imo. Balance team might want to consider playing around with some stat changes for all of t2+ (scale change magnitude by tech level) to provide more mid/lategame aggression opportunities
@blackyps said in Allow us to pick rating brackets for TMM:
It seems to me the root problem is a lack of activity in the highest bracket. Not sure if there is a good technical solution
This is not entirely true. It seems to be generally true that there's a high rating discrepancy at top level.
aoe2: 450 rating difference between #1 and #100 https://www.aoezone.net/deladder/?ladderid=3
aoe4: 400 rating difference between #1 and #43 https://aoe4world.com/leaderboard/rm_1v1
sc2: 1400 rating difference between #1 and #100 (7.4k vs 6k) https://nonapa.com/ladder?4&season=52®ion=2&mode=1
The examples are all 1v1 since teamgames are broken/dead in those games, but there's a similar trend in team based ladders too.
Yes having more players helps a little bit, but in general the top few players will still have issues finding games, because of the huge rating discrepancy.
In my case there's been 3 hours and 15 minutes since my last tmm game (rating 2316). It is pretty much prime time: 18-21 finnish time (1-2 hours earlier for most of europe). During this time there's been numerous games with many 1700-1900 players which I didn't get into (often the system matched them with 1200-1400s instead).
I don't know exactly how the system currently works, but I'd like to see players that have been in queue for a long time get some kind of extra priority if it doesn't do that already. Or strengthen it if it does exist. Alternatively there could be some system to favor higher rating players as it seems that generally most players prefer playing with higher rated players (1700 would rather play with a 2000 than a 1400). If those games in above pictures were custom games I doubt I would have any trouble getting into the lobby.
In its current state it's pretty unfeasible for higher rating players to play tmm, which only exacerbates the problem (making it even harder for high rating players to get games since there's fewer of them searching).
@sheeo said in Aulex's Player Councilor Application:
While I appreciate a joke; why not put this energy towards something productive?
I love u Sheeo, but not a fan of this attitude.
Reminds me of when a colleague told me about how they had a bit of a pokemon go club at coffee breaks. The big boss of the org came by it and said he thought it was dumb and a waste of time. She was not very happy about that.
The truth is we all spend most of our time suboptimally. Some play games, others watch reality tv. Making people laugh is hardly the worst thing you could procrastinate with.
Besides while you could argue that contributing code is more valuable than humor from a pure utilitarian standpoint, you could also argue that nobody should be working on FAF in the first place. We got plenty of bigger problems in the real world we should be tackling instead.
But yet we work on FAF anyway, because for some reason that is what inspires us and motivates us. And yes, sometimes we are inspired to write satire, or long winded forum posts. And that's all right.
Hello it is me.
I've said since the beginning that EcoManager is an obvious cheatmod and the opinion has not changed.
APM should naturally arise from the breadth and pace of decisionmaking opportunities. Any action that does not amount to making a choice between at least two relevant alternatives tends to feel unnecessary and superfluous, and imo is a cheap way to make the game "harder".
As an easy example in early sc2 betas (iirc, don't quote me) many players complained that the game was too easy. The developers ended up adding some additional mechanics to artificially raise the skillcap. One of these mechanics was larva inject. Zerg players need to periodically use the "inject larva" ability with their queens in order to spawn larva that can be used to construct units. Without larva you can't make units. There are some edge cases where players skip injecting larva to save queen energy, but in the vast majority of cases injecting does not include a choice from the player and is just a mechanical task that players have to perform periodically. Furthermore the few edge cases where you'd skip injecting are only relevant for high level players and as such have no effect on how an averge player perceives the game.
In my view, pausing massfabs is an entirely mechanical task as there's no situation where you wouldn't want to pause your massfabs when running low on energy. That's why automating massfab pause is fine (as long as everyone has access to it). For the same reason automating pausing buildpower is not fine -- there's compelling decisionmaking in which engis to pause etc.
When people talk about bos they probably mean (either directly or through misattribution) that the expansion phase has a disproportionate impact in a 1v1 game, which I tend to agree with.
The fact that units can't see 5 meters in front of them is ridiculous. If there's 2 t1 land armies moving towards each other I'm pretty sure it's actually impossible to turn back in time once you see the opponent units even if you were to pay 100% attention. Not to mention certain (direct fire) units not even being able to use their weapons at max range, because they have old eyes or something. And let's not even get started on air...
Idk people probably take t1 scout spam and t1 radar creep for granted at this point, but it doesn't have to be this way. T1 scout spam in particular doesn't add any extra dimension to the game.
Yea, increasing vision+radar radius would make the game "easier" in some ways, but at the same time it would allow you to make more conscious decisions (=more skill) in some cases where you've lost your radar, rather than just retreating with tail between your legs. Imagine flying over your opponents base and actually being able to see the AA that is shooting at you for instance.
Btw, while the title says "all units", there's probably some exceptions and different units probably deserve slightly different treatment in general. The point I'm making is just the general design direction of increasing vision/radar ranges in the game.
@blodir said in Council of Setons EXPOSED - Part 1:
@ftxcommando said in Council of Setons EXPOSED - Part 1:
@tatsu said in Council of Setons EXPOSED - Part 1:
@ftxcommando said in Council of Setons EXPOSED - Part 1:
going around the Council to get people to everyone ping about your game on official FAF Discords with no actual oversight from FAF management.
that is quite the ...interesting way to put it.
this is just some more ad hominem so. since you didn't bother to formulate it truthfully. I'll let the truth come back to nag you when it does come out.
In the meantime you can correct yourself on your own if you feel like it.
I know won't and that you much prefer falsehoods and leading others on. I won't play your game.
...
Far as I'm concerned it's a bannable offense for you and as nine is project manager of this game, he should be held responsible for failing to communicate to his team what the line in the sand was for FAF after he was told this was off the table.
Yea this kind of advertising is completely unacceptable.
Tatsu messaged me with a clarification to this situation. Apparently these screenshots are from the FAF-RU server that is not officially associated with FAF, which of course changes everything. It is the FAF-RU server administration's business whether they want to allow this kind of advertisement or not. So I retract my earlier statement.
Torp bombers essentially remove all subs from the game. Now torps already have a few issues:
I wouldn't want torps to get worse vs frigs really so you can't really nerf torp damage without also having to nerf frig hp. Value of frig hp nerf is debatable and not really the topic here.
When it comes to other torpedo units the interaction is really weird though. Torp weapons in general are extremely low dps, and submerged units have extremely low hp to compensate.
Salem hp/mass: 2.69
Barracuda hp/mass: 1.3
Not only are subs paying dearly for their ability to submerge with hp, but they are also somewhat low dps:
Salem dps/mass: 0.147 (0.102 surface, 0.044 torp)
Barracuda dps/mass: 0.102
The result:
Nobody wants to make any changes since there's too many moving parts and I guess most people don't really care that much about improving faf design anyways, but an overhaul would seriously improve the game.
Said overhaul should include:
As usual, this post is hardly conclusive and I've surely forgotten to mention 200 things that I've noted before.
Have an extra graph (yea it's missing some stuff like flak for example):
The lower the rating scale u go the less u will be punished for pretty much everything (in any game), so yea, maybe fullshare doesn't feel punishing enough for you (and no-share doesn't feel too punishing). That's fine, you are welcome to play no-share games.
Idk how to sugarcoat it. In a total beginner game literally nothing in the game feels impactful, you can enter a 1v1 5 minutes late and still win. Likewise in a 1k rating setons u can probably get t3 air at 12min and be fine (just guessing here) whereas in like a 1500+ game if you don't have 10min t3 air your entire team instadies. In a 1800+ mapgen I still constantly feel like people get away with murder, but that's how it goes. At every stage the margin for error grows smaller. So yea, it's not exactly surprising that in low rating games things such as losing an acu feel not that impactful.
Don't get me wrong, 1v1 is great and important and everything, and global is really bad, but hear me out:
It's totally fair to not personally care about global, but it doesn't mean that it's wrong for other people to care, and it's not an excuse to neglect the health of global rating. So I have 2 requests: 1. 1v1 games should amount the same to global rating as teamgames do and 2. until its fixed, tourny games should be unrated by default.
I feel like I'm putting myself in front of the firing squad by making this post (which is fucked up btw, I should think that the forum should feel like a bit safer of an environment than that), but it had to be done. There's some really messed up anti-global (actually to extend that, anti-tryhard) sentiment in the community that I've not seen anywhere else.
