In his latest journal entry, Frogboy wrote :
There are people out there, particularly from certain competitive communities, that clearly have a different vision of what Demigod is or should be (i.e. a clone of some other game). As someone who plays (and gets crushed) online every day, I love Demigod. It’s a great game. It works well, it’s well balanced and I know most people feel this way too. But it’s not for everyone. There are other games that are much better suited for hard core competition than Demigod.
Well, although I'm not from any "competitive community", I do not think the game is balanced, and I do think the game would gain through being more "competitive".
It is widely admitted that some DGs are clearly more powerful than others, that some items are clearly better than others, that some skills are clearly better than others, that some strategies are clearly better than others (HP stack vs Damage stack, anyone ?), etc...
But those imbalances only show at a "competitive" play level. If "competitive" isn't a factor, they don't matter. For relaxed games, the balance is good enough.
So, okay, the vision is clear : DG is aimed at people who want a casual, relaxed and fun games. Not at "hardcore" competitors.
...
What's the point of having a ladder, then ?
It fosters competition, ie : "stats whoring" (noob stomping), cheating (exploit-users), ranting and whining on the forums vs imbalances and screwed ranking system, etc...
Just remove the ladder, and get rid of most of those grief behaviours, thus making the game a far better experience for its targeted public.
For fun and relaxed games, ladder rankings and stats only bring one thing to the table : they allow attempts at balancing teams so that the game doesn't turn into a stomp (which aren't fun, either as the stompers or the stompees).
Removing the ladder would remove that tool...
... hence the next suggestion : a Team Strength stat.
Ideally, it would be shown graphically in the lobby, as two "power bars" of relative length next to or under the names of the teams ("forces of light" / "forces of darkness"). Frogboy has said that interface changes are very unlikely, but that one would be minimal.
A players's strength (not shown) would be calculated with the following formula :
Player strength = (Total wins + wins on selected map + wins with selected DG) x DG strength rating
With DG strength rating = 2 x (win %) / 100
UB currently has 64% win, so his strength rating would 1,28.
Team Strength = Avg player strength x team size / team max size
That stat would not be very accurate, but imo enough to help balancing teams for fun games.
(might be more suited for Ideas forum, feel free to move)
