Please BAN auto-deployers from GAC
May 6, 2021 9:32PM
edited May 2021
Note: I am not suggesting an outright ban from accessing the game, ONLY Grand Arena Championships.
Dear Capital Games,
I've played your game for 3 years primarily for the PvP component in Grand Arena Championships.
Over the last year increasingly I have seen a culture developing of people who openly join GAC just for the #8 rewards and do not participate - rather, they join and let the game auto-deploy every round.
Sometimes they will even be matched against another auto-deployer, and win the coin toss for having a larger roster, thus receiving better rewards.
This problem is especially prevalent in 3v3, which a larger chunk of the player base seem to particularly not enjoy, but wish to receive the "free" rewards for "participating".
These people ruin the experience for everyone else. To explain the effect it has:
1) if you do not have a roster over ~6-7m GP and set a typical defence, you will struggle to full clear your opponent with all of their strongest relic characters defending, even with randomised teams listed by the characters' power.
2) whilst it's still possible to score a win against an AFK opponent by focusing your strength in one area, this prevents full-clears and actively ruins Feat participation (most obviously with the Tactical Advance feat for clearing zones) and effectively reduces the maximum amount of score you receive for a round win. This can then cause problems reaching Kyber rank, even for skilled players, PURELY because they cannot achieve enough points if they encounter 4 such auto-deployers who prevent a full-clear - even if they win every match in a season. It becomes mathematically impossible with the low score wins.
3) obviously, it's not fun.
This could be a temporary ban (1-2 GAC seasons), or permanent for repeat offenders.
These suggestions also would not penalise people who make mistakes or are busy with work and forget.
(Option #2 effectively guarantees that the system only affects players auto-deploying randomised rosters. Having said this, I prefer option #1, as it is harder to dodge the system and maintain the behaviour. Setting a defence in the first round causes later auto-deploys to deploy the same set defence, thus would actively encourage these players to at least engage with the GAC event even if they intend to not attack. It would reduce the number of randomised auto-deploys, alleviating the issue. Also if someone accidentally misses the first round 3 Events in a row, they probably should have made more of an effort.)
I do not see why these players should be able to access GAC if they do not intend to properly engage with it, given that their laziness and apathy negatively impacts the experience of other players.
-- That is why the developers made it a Sign-up, rather than every player joining automatically, right?
I strongly believe this culture needs to be recognised, tackled and stopped for the integrity of the game.
Any one who plays every GAC event should have encountered this culture in the early rounds/lower ranks.
Many thanks and regards, stay safe
Dear Capital Games,
I've played your game for 3 years primarily for the PvP component in Grand Arena Championships.
Over the last year increasingly I have seen a culture developing of people who openly join GAC just for the #8 rewards and do not participate - rather, they join and let the game auto-deploy every round.
Sometimes they will even be matched against another auto-deployer, and win the coin toss for having a larger roster, thus receiving better rewards.
This problem is especially prevalent in 3v3, which a larger chunk of the player base seem to particularly not enjoy, but wish to receive the "free" rewards for "participating".
These people ruin the experience for everyone else. To explain the effect it has:
1) if you do not have a roster over ~6-7m GP and set a typical defence, you will struggle to full clear your opponent with all of their strongest relic characters defending, even with randomised teams listed by the characters' power.
2) whilst it's still possible to score a win against an AFK opponent by focusing your strength in one area, this prevents full-clears and actively ruins Feat participation (most obviously with the Tactical Advance feat for clearing zones) and effectively reduces the maximum amount of score you receive for a round win. This can then cause problems reaching Kyber rank, even for skilled players, PURELY because they cannot achieve enough points if they encounter 4 such auto-deployers who prevent a full-clear - even if they win every match in a season. It becomes mathematically impossible with the low score wins.
3) obviously, it's not fun.
MY SUGGESTION:
Automatically *ban from participating in GAC* any player who either:
1) auto-deploys the first Round of each GAC Event 3 times in a row
2) auto-deploys 4 times in a row.
Automatically *ban from participating in GAC* any player who either:
1) auto-deploys the first Round of each GAC Event 3 times in a row
2) auto-deploys 4 times in a row.
This could be a temporary ban (1-2 GAC seasons), or permanent for repeat offenders.
These suggestions also would not penalise people who make mistakes or are busy with work and forget.
(Option #2 effectively guarantees that the system only affects players auto-deploying randomised rosters. Having said this, I prefer option #1, as it is harder to dodge the system and maintain the behaviour. Setting a defence in the first round causes later auto-deploys to deploy the same set defence, thus would actively encourage these players to at least engage with the GAC event even if they intend to not attack. It would reduce the number of randomised auto-deploys, alleviating the issue. Also if someone accidentally misses the first round 3 Events in a row, they probably should have made more of an effort.)
I do not see why these players should be able to access GAC if they do not intend to properly engage with it, given that their laziness and apathy negatively impacts the experience of other players.
-- That is why the developers made it a Sign-up, rather than every player joining automatically, right?
I strongly believe this culture needs to be recognised, tackled and stopped for the integrity of the game.
Any one who plays every GAC event should have encountered this culture in the early rounds/lower ranks.
Many thanks and regards, stay safe
1
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Replies
https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/244666/bring-back-the-dislike-button#latest
They're not active if they AFK auto-deploy. The only active thing they do is selfishly press the "join" button, and then forget it exists for a week. It's the definition of passive...
And yes, it's the job of game developers to consider, plan and balance for players committing toxic behaviour like the auto-deployers. It's a flaw in the game's design, hence why I'm posting in the feedback forum.
Typically you plan development around preventing toxic behaviour - although this auto-deployer issue is something that has only grown more recently as people seem to become apathetic towards GAC, especially with the recent frequent 3v3 seasons. They can get away with it, so it's the responsibility of the developers to ensure their game is played as intended (*active* participation).
But hey, if you join and let your account auto-deploy for the #8 rewards, I guess this thread would scare you.
Also if you've played for 5 years and spend money on the game, I doubt it's much of an issue for your wide roster of high relics. Good for you.
That does not mean CG shouldn't take action.
Nor just it justify apathy towards your fellow players for whom it's a problem.
Also I'm rather surprised that people in these forums don't care about the player experience.
If the players want to take part in GAC, they should actually take part in GAC. Auto-deploying is not taking part, no one with any common sense or severity will argue that.
Yes
Are auto deploys stopping the highly capable players from Kyber?
Rarely
Should they stop auto deploying?
Yes
If CG had and intentions of stopping auto deploy players from playing, they would simply get rid of the feature and leave the defense blank.
I think the best solution would just be to make the auto deploy smarter. Just to throw something out there, how about, for a current D1 example, auto deploy picks a random character with a lead in the top 70 of their roster. It then fills the team out with the 4 highest remaining GP characters. It repeats that process 6 times to fill out all the squad teams. It then chooses random capital ships and fills it out with the top GP ships in that faction.
This would do a better job of simulating an opponent. It punishes your opponent because it's not going to do that good of a job, while also not gifting you easy max banner wins or punishing you with a virtually unbeatable defense. Sure, you could get unlucky and your opponent sets an actual crazy good defense, but you could get a real opponent that hates GAC and sets an F you defense too. If you want to minimize this, you can also code it to intentionally not set the toughest characters, or have other built in limits.
In order to join, the 1st time this is implemented, require people to set a full defense in order to be joined, then after that, unless they change it like normal, that is their default defense.
The player experience is exactly the reason why those players shouldn't be banned. I welcome the change an auto deployed defense brings now and then.
*woooosh*
I was talking about actual active players, not auto-deployers. But now that I've had to explain that, it is no longer as entertaining to me, which makes me a little sad.
But for real-I don't understand why you're trying to police other players actions, or how they engage with the game, especially when they're pretty much giving you a guaranteed win. If more and more people are growing apathetic towards the game mode, maybe ask CG to make the mode more entertaining and engaging for the playerbase, so people actually enjoy playing it? Or maybe asking them to up the rewards so it seems worth the effort for the vast majority of the playerbase? Or some of the more player friendly solutions that have been proposed that would make an auto-deploy defense work differently? Seems better than asking to ban people who play the game in a way you don't like.
But hey, you do you.
Change from descending order to ascending = everyone happy
Not setting defence shouldn’t have any form of reward.
honestly, I see that as an even worse option than most. that would mean people who dont care and just click join can (with very minimal effort) place a super difficult defense "4eva" that could hurt their opponent even more than a auto fill could.
Do you think there's enough ppl out there who would do that, even though it brings them literally no benefit, other than being spiteful?
I realize there are definitely a few, but it would take a decent percentage to make this a bad idea.
I guess, but we already have people who said they do that when they have no intention of playing. so I see it "getting worse" with a change like that, but I would agree, it may not be worse to a large degree.
On the other hand, it would help those of us who legitimately forget to set. And this would be one less instance where someone has to deal with an autoset, which may actually be a net decrease of some form of difficult defense.
yes, but interacting with the game is a little bit of a "requirement" for doing well. I forget too at times, but I think requiring someone to "play" to do better is ok in my book.
I also think that if people have trouble with auto defense, then that is on them. its a win being handed to them unless they drop it. towards the OPs point, i get it, auto defense may make it harder for someone to get the points they want/need, but that may also be a sign in some cases that a player isn't putting together the best balance of O and D, but i'm no expert.
We already have defense that carries over between matches in the same week. It's just an extension of that.
Also, the point isn't to protect people from autosets, It's just an added bonus. You were concerned about people abusing it by intentionally setting a difficult defense with no intention of playing, but that's just handing them a win just the same isn't it?
but as the OP is trying to state, a "harder than normal" defense (either auto, or someone not being nice and presetting a defense) hurts the other players who are trying to maximize points to get the promotions. its not just about "the win".
The auto-deploy feature is not there to help those players. It's there to help their opponents.
And nothing can eliminate that completely. Beyond these issues there are even people who (in my opinion), foolishly go heavy on defense as an earnest strategy, which also typically costs both sides points.
I'm only offering a solution that minimizes it by helping those who either simply forget (which we all have), or those who click join and can't be bothered beyond that.
I do think the system should be changed, especially as "end-game" players start having 4+ GLs, which the system separates. It makes it very difficult to clear more than half the board.
I honestly score lower against auto-sets than assigned defenses - mainly because most players don't set 3-4 GLs + JKL + DR + JKR + GAS all on defense.
In game guild: TNR Uprising
I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
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