[Warzones] Put Power in Players' Hands

[xaviyago]

I've seen threads that are suggesting a Warzone Deserter Debuff or similar mechanic to penalize the players that quit warzones. Although I agree with the intention of this suggestion, I wonder what will happen if those players continue to quit in the middle of a Warzone and just hide in a corner to prevent the debuff. It already happens now, at least on my server (Jung Ma.)

 

Recently, our Warzone teams have had to suffer particular players quitting in the middle of the battle, and one specific player does not participate at all. I've tried to report this player and received a response from Customer Service that stated "as per BIOWIKI (*Any reports of players deciding not to participate in the battle, but [are] otherwise at their keyboard.) is a case w[h]ere we will not [take] action".

 

Bioware will do nothing about these players; they will insist that the player community will ultimately handle these situations themselves. However, we do not have the proper tools to do so. For example, the warzone players being cheated do not have the option to "kick" these players from the battle, nor do we have the ability to look up the players' guild information in game to possibly send an in-game mail to their guild leader to give them a head's up. In fact, I can't even find guild/roster information browsing through the SWTOR website (the main guild information page seems to be a dead end.)

 

My preference would be to have a "kick" from Warzone option. Guild Wars has a pretty decent system by which players may report their fellow teammates for leeching, harassment, etc., while in game. The offending players that receive these reports receive a debuff that prevents them from reentering PvP for a time. I don't see why Bioware cannot implement something similar.

 

Please Bioware, if you're going to rely upon the player community to police ourselves, give us the in-game tools we need.

 

tl;dr: Give players a "kick" from warzone option so we can police our own community.

Edited February 10, 2012 by xaviyago

[netskink]

I agree.

 

Votekick is a must. It allows players to enforce afks since bioware can not. I suggest the vote be a majority vote and not unanimous since I've seen two guys afk at the same time in huttball.

 

Votekick should have some limitations to prevent abuse though. If someone sucks, but they are participating then they should get an opportunity to continue. To be honest, I don't mind a bad player who is trying. I remember once a toon running to our endzone with the ball thinking they were going to score. I did not get upset because I assume they are new. However, some people would want to vote her out simply because they are impatient.

 

I also don't want to be spammed with vote messages, so limit vote kick initiation to once per toon per match.

[Raximillian]

They just have to completely change the way the WZs are scored. It already tracks objectives, damage, healing, tanking. So just score based on those. So an active player, even if the team loses will get lots of points. An inactive player (like the OP states) that gets no damage, no healing, no objective points, then they should get nothing, even if the team wins.

 

I'm a bit against player policing because it could be abused under certain circumstances. I would prefer they just make the scoring more strict and give points based on participation only.

[Necrodiety]

I agree. Better "idle detection" would help in WZ's. It's tough because some players like defense more, and some people may guard a turret that never gets attacked. Do you punish them?

 

A WZ quitter debuff may not be a good idea either. What about disconnects? What about griefing? If a player is getting wiped so fast he isn't helping, would you rather him quit or sit in a corner doing nothing? At least a quitter brings in a new player.

 

The key is better "idle detection", but will be very hard to determine that.

[xaviyago]

If power is given to the players to "kick" non-participants, then Bioware can remove the idle kick system completely. Players can tell who is particpating within warzones by looking at players' positions on the mini map, and also by observing them participate in the battle, too.

 

An aside: Warzone scoring needs to change, or at least less importance needs to be given to medals, if any at all. Rewards for medals should never out-do rewards for a victory. The metrics upon which the medal system gives rewards has nothing to do with achieving victory within a warzone. In fact, one could argue that DPS and Kills have a detrimental effect in some cases (such as causing unneeded respawns while trying to score in Huttball or damaging someone out of CC while trying to capture a node in the other two.), and healing numbers can also be inflated (I've seen sages reduce their health somehow to nothing while guarding nodes in Alderaan, healing up completely, then repeating the cycle.) I don't know how many times I've seen players boast their DPS, kill or healing numbers after getting whiped by the other team in overall objectives. These metrics do not measure a player's contribution to the overall objectives at all. If anything, it contributes to the "lone wolf" attitude that pervades warzones.