|
I always play SC2 with a group of friends. Some of us (including me) like to spend time reading new BO's, watching VOD's, and practicing mechanics. Nothing fancy, enough to keep us in the 1vs1 gold league. Others just like to play (really) casually, rumbling in the bronze.
After a year or so, this has resulted in a skill gap that's large enough to make any 2vs2/3vs3 among ourselves feel "unwinnable" for the bronzies. We always try to make "even" teams, and we've experimented with team monobattles, handicaps, and other restrictions to keep the game more balanced/fun. But in the end the bronzies usually feel like they haven't done anything significant, up to a point where some even consider quitting SC2. And that would really suck 
Do you guys have any tricks to keep the game "level" between players with varying skills? Maps that work out better then others under these circumstances? Maybe I'm not using the handicap settings correctly (they seem to be made for this very use case, right?).
Thanks in advance!
Edit: thanks for the suggestions! I'm gonna give shared control a spin, might lead to hilarious situations and it functions both as a practice tool for the lesser player ("Hm, a Raven! Let's try some hunter-seeker magic!") and as a handicap for the better player ("Crap! Where's that raven I put on patrol for darkies?")
|
I have the same problem with some friends, but there's not much you can do. SC2 is an extremely skillbased game with a very high skill ceiling and like a fighting game, it's boring as crap to play against players much better than you since they need extreme handicaps to make it fair.
The only thing you can do is try to push your friends to get better instead of giving up, getting to gold league isn't hard.
|
What I do for cases like such, is just plain have fun with the game. Don't take the game so serious when playing with friends. For example, if I know I'm playing one of my friends in a fun match, I try to do something new and have fun playing around with it. Or I sometimes off race which that in itself will lessen the skill gap. Just try to throw monkey wretches into your play and see if you can maybe think of something that you might want to actually try to use in your "real" games.
|
What I prefer to do is put pressure while they macro up and help them make the bigger macro or attack decisions.
|
Off race for the better players, play custom maps like phantom, desert strike.
|
Maybe share control? Try having the bronze players actually make attacking decisions, but the better players control production cycles and scouting. Then both parties would have strong macro and strategic information, and the bronze players could skip right to the fun part (for them), smashing things into other things.
|
On January 17 2012 22:19 Iranon wrote:
Maybe share control? Try having the bronze players actually make attacking decisions, but the better players control production cycles and scouting. Then both parties would have strong macro and strategic information, and the bronze players could skip right to the fun part (for them), smashing things into other things.
Yea, they shall keep stuck and never improve! Sounds logical.
|
1) teach them, coach them, obs their games vs their peers, teach them cheeses and tricks
2) playing games vs them while the more skilled player offraces
3) 1 good player vs 2 bad players (done this in the past in broodwar, lots of fun), combine with off racing if it becomes to hard
4) ffa are fun, or mass island maps ffa with AI or 1 vs 1 with AI, etc
5) play versus on a fastest possi map or other money map where macro is less of a deal
6) play team games together 2v2, 3v3, 5v5, try fun combo's and cheeses.
Hope these are some nice things to try
|
I play ladder with them (2v2s/3v3s/4v4s). If you have more than 4 at any given time, you can either play random customs, or you can try makings teams like 2v3 ect, or add in appropriate level bots to even out teams.
|
On January 17 2012 22:27 YipMan wrote:Show nested quote +On January 17 2012 22:19 Iranon wrote:
Maybe share control? Try having the bronze players actually make attacking decisions, but the better players control production cycles and scouting. Then both parties would have strong macro and strategic information, and the bronze players could skip right to the fun part (for them), smashing things into other things. Yea, they shall keep stuck and never improve! Sounds logical.
Well the thing is, they do not want to improve. They are not playing sc2 to go up in ranks, they are ok with bronze.
|
play customs. star strikers is a great one with friends. you could play one of the DOTA mods if there is 5 of you?
|
i offrace against my friends and try to prod them for what they want to play against
if they think they can almost counter one of my strategies i keep using that, work on my micro/macro execution instead of my strategy, if they despair then i do something else.
just don't ask them directly or the whole thing might become a bit fake for them, depending on how they look at the game
also, we 2v2 but i don't really like 2v2 'cause it's so full of crap
|
On January 17 2012 22:13 Tobberoth wrote:
I have the same problem with some friends, but there's not much you can do. SC2 is an extremely skillbased game with a very high skill ceiling and like a fighting game, it's boring as crap to play against players much better than you since they need extreme handicaps to make it fair.
The only thing you can do is try to push your friends to get better instead of giving up, getting to gold league isn't hard.
I say it's boring as crap to play vs players much worse than you. Though this might only be so from the perspective of a person wanting to improve their game.
|
Can't do really much, just ladder 4v4 with skype with troll strats. Manner pylons EVERYWHERE!
|
On January 17 2012 22:36 Josh111 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 17 2012 22:27 YipMan wrote:On January 17 2012 22:19 Iranon wrote:
Maybe share control? Try having the bronze players actually make attacking decisions, but the better players control production cycles and scouting. Then both parties would have strong macro and strategic information, and the bronze players could skip right to the fun part (for them), smashing things into other things. Yea, they shall keep stuck and never improve! Sounds logical. Well the thing is, they do not want to improve. They are not playing sc2 to go up in ranks, they are ok with bronze.
Well, honestly you can't resist improving if you do something repeatedly. And if you can't take the advice to build more workers or to build a gateway at 13 instead of building it at 18 supply, what's the point playing then?
From Bronze to Diamond it's really just about macro, it does not really matter that much what units you build, just keep the money low...
|
If you're playing inhouses, try playing some exotic maps. In BW this was achieved with BGH (big game hunters). 4 teams of 2 players means that even the highest skilled players can get absolutely stomped early on (and come back :D). Custom games are another great way to play with lesser skilled players. Alot of the time these people dont want to play melee because they dont want to learn or put effort in, but they will play a custom.
|
in your matchmaking teams, have the higher skill players play off race or "troll builds" and dont take it seriously, if your playing with a bronze friend, play dumb and play fun, because otherwise your gonna get to a point where your average skill is equal to opponents, and since he has the attitude of not caring about improvement etc etc you are gonna be frustrated in your loses.
apart from that just try out customs, either map variations or full on mini mods where you arent even playing sc2 anymore. and just remember to chill. its frustrating to have to "carry" a friend but they are having even less fun if you are reminding them every 3 minutes what a burden they are.
|
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm gonna give shared control a spin, might lead to hilarious situations and it functions both as a practice tool for the lesser player ("Hm, a Raven! Let's try some hunter-seeker magic!") and as a handicap for the better player ("Crap! Where's that raven I put on patrol for darkies?")
|
United States43350 Posts
|
I'm masters but play with my gold or lower league friends. We either play UMS or if we're playing a melee match, I just screw around like going mass planetary fortress rush. Alternatively, you could try out the handicaps.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
