All Categories

improving grouping in tournament heats

Search
Dec 19, 2024, 16:1512/19/24
01/30/24
154

improving grouping in tournament heats

Hi, Plarium.

I would like to suggest an idea to improve how tournament heats are managed. (This is not related to matchmaking, for which there are ongoing conversations in other topics.)

Currently tournament heats are dominated by a combination of heavy hitters (high damage), SP droppers and players willing to play hundreds of games. These players almost always take the top 6 spots in each heat group, leaving scraps for other players. I thought a bit about how to group players in a heat in a more intelligent way instead of grouping them on the basis of when they play their first match of the heat.

Some ideas I thought about and discarded are grouping by other means, such as inventory power, highest unlocked tier or highest damage in the player stats. Another discarded idea, which comes from the ongoing matchmaking test, is to limit the number of games that can be played in a heat. All of these ideas are imperfect since each will leave some significant percentage of players unhappy.

There's another game I played recently which approaches tournaments a different way, and while that isn't perfect either, I think some kind of combined approach may work. Here is that combined approach:

  1. Week 1 - All players start at novice tournament level.
  2. All players play at novice level for every heat in the tournament week.
  3. The players with highest scores advance to the next level. Middle scores remain at the current level. At higher levels, the lowest scoring players are demoted to the previous level.
  4. Week 2 and beyond - All players play at their new tournament level.
  5. As with the current model, heats at higher levels yield higher rewards. The difference is that the levels change after a tournament week finishes, not after each heat in a tournament.

This way, after the initial few weeks, the high scorers advance and earn huge rewards, but lower scoring and more casual players are grouped with each other and therefore have a chance to earn some reasonable rewards.

Thoughts?

By the way, there is a much simpler idea that would probably address most dissatisfied users, as long as you're willing to consider it - Include acoin rewards beyond the top 6 in each heat. Any thoughts on that as well?

Views
17
Comments
8
Comments
Dec 20, 2024, 01:5812/20/24
09/26/22
205

I like #5 difference 👍 I know a lot games that do it this way. 

May 25, 2025, 00:4705/25/25
02/25/25
1

In short, this used to be a good game before the revoker weapon was released. It's just disproportionately overpowered to any other weapon and kills in a millisecond. It has reduced battles to a mere fact of "whichever team has the most revokers equipped will win" So all the time spent perfecting your helix skills are rendered useless against any mech with a frickin revoker. 

What's the point in trying to develop skills when they introduce a mega weapon which imbalances everything. 

CrystalDrewCommunity Manager
May 26, 2025, 14:0205/26/25
02/10/23
2761
Skinny47

In short, this used to be a good game before the revoker weapon was released. It's just disproportionately overpowered to any other weapon and kills in a millisecond. It has reduced battles to a mere fact of "whichever team has the most revokers equipped will win" So all the time spent perfecting your helix skills are rendered useless against any mech with a frickin revoker. 

What's the point in trying to develop skills when they introduce a mega weapon which imbalances everything. 

Hello! We are aware of the Revoker balance issues and will do our best to resolve them in the most harmless way 👌 

May 26, 2025, 16:3805/26/25
01/30/24
154
CrystalDrew

Hello! We are aware of the Revoker balance issues and will do our best to resolve them in the most harmless way 👌 

With due respect to Skinny47, this thread is not about revokers. There are other threads dedicated to revokers so let's not take this one off track. CrystalDrew, I appreciate that you responded, but perhaps you can look at the original post as well. Thanks.

CrystalDrewCommunity Manager
May 27, 2025, 08:5705/27/25
02/10/23
2761
tar

With due respect to Skinny47, this thread is not about revokers. There are other threads dedicated to revokers so let's not take this one off track. CrystalDrew, I appreciate that you responded, but perhaps you can look at the original post as well. Thanks.

Your post has been taken into account. Expect updates on the tournament matchmaking in the future!

May 27, 2025, 18:5505/27/25
01/30/24
154
CrystalDrew

Your post has been taken into account. Expect updates on the tournament matchmaking in the future!

Thanks. To clarify though, this post is not about matchmaking.. it's about heat grouping.

May 27, 2025, 23:0505/27/25
03/25/23
120
tar

Thanks. To clarify though, this post is not about matchmaking.. it's about heat grouping.

what do you think of maybe adding a tournement shop to make things simpler? these changes you suggested, especially number 5, could really work and i think number 5 is the best one so far....however the work behind this likely be heavier.

a tournement shop would be able to be a good temporary solution or one that is simpler to do as it could re use what already works in shops.  the idea behind this shop would be to casually earn tournement credits that can be used in the game for discounts (so to not unbalance existing shop too much) trade in for extra normal credits or to buy small amounts of mod parts since that seems to take a long time to earn. having this shop would give players a reason to do tournement since either way they'll earn something even if they can't get the main prize, and more players will be playing since i think a part of the problem with balancing this tourmenent is the fact more and more players stopped playing it,thus filling the list with more sp droppers and other types of players.

May 28, 2025, 07:0205/28/25
01/30/24
154
nyla

what do you think of maybe adding a tournement shop to make things simpler? these changes you suggested, especially number 5, could really work and i think number 5 is the best one so far....however the work behind this likely be heavier.

a tournement shop would be able to be a good temporary solution or one that is simpler to do as it could re use what already works in shops.  the idea behind this shop would be to casually earn tournement credits that can be used in the game for discounts (so to not unbalance existing shop too much) trade in for extra normal credits or to buy small amounts of mod parts since that seems to take a long time to earn. having this shop would give players a reason to do tournement since either way they'll earn something even if they can't get the main prize, and more players will be playing since i think a part of the problem with balancing this tourmenent is the fact more and more players stopped playing it,thus filling the list with more sp droppers and other types of players.

Yup that's in fact similar to my "by the way" note in the original post. Here's what I'd written "By the way, there is a much simpler idea that would probably address most dissatisfied users, as long as you're willing to consider it - Include acoin rewards beyond the top 6 in each heat. Any thoughts on that as well? "

Giving better rewards beyond the top 6 is surely an easy fix. Problem is Plarium probably doesn't want to.