Yesterday, I got joined into a private server by match-making. When I had first checked before in server browser, there was no other server besides that same private server which had any stars at all. This private server had no PW, was just simply open to the public - but since I normally don't join private servers unless someone sends me an invite, and since this one only had like 4 players in it, I decided I'd just use match-making. I assumed the match-making algorithms ignored private servers, normally those have always been locked usually.
I was wrong. It matched me into that same private server. I figured since it's unlocked to the public and being the only server in my range, I'd just stay for a bit. I then noticed a scout with 4x the HP bar of a regular scout and a bruiser also with similarly modified HP. Now I'm sure they're admins of their server and free to modify stats and screw around and such, but why is MM matching me into private servers when this is allowed? If I wanted to screw around in a private server, I'd do it with people I know. When I'm trying to find an actual game, I don't want to be matched into some unlocked private server with randoms who've modified their stats - where I'm free to always lose to them & stats are still recorded.
The weird thing is I'm not even sure if they're able to just increase their HP or make it infinite. Because I was shooting that bruiser for a while and the HP bar never moved. Even a Boss Brawler shows HP depleting when being damaged. Maybe the HP was just set so high the bar loops around or whatever. Anyway, if they can freely modify their HP, are there other things they can modify as well? I mean we can usually tell with HP, it's visible, and even if modified in small increments like +50 HP, you can still spot it by paying close attention. But what about other stats? Can they modify damage? Speed? A scout with 1.2X normal speed. A TOW with 1.5x normal damage? Or maybe they can make it even more subtle. Are such stats modifiable now in private servers? If so, either prevent stat-keeping or MMR changes from happening on those servers. Or prevent players using MM from being matched into those private servers. Imagine a new player matched into one, fighting someone with infinite HP and obviously never being able to kill them no matter what they do; they're going to just assume the game is impossible or full of hackers.
Now that MMR ranges have been restricted when using the server browser, there need to be more filters to the match-making allowed. There should be a filter to take out private servers, regardless of whether they're unlocked to the public. If not, set some client-serverside checks to flag anyone with modified stats other than the norm, like make their name a different color or something visible. That way, we can decide whether we want to play against them or not. Add filters for the Mayhem/24 player servers, if people don't want to play them - since it basically promotes a different playstyle.
TL;DR - Add more filters to MM so we can filter out things we don't want; filters are good.
Edited by GGGanjaMan, 08 May 2015 - 12:40 PM.
Sign In
Create Account



Back to top










