Few players - unbalanced gameplay

[duralakun]

Problem:
It is difficult to jump start a server. When there are only few players playing the server can die easily.
If there are only 3 players playing - 2 zombies, 1 merc, it will be much easier for the merc to escape. Which will make it annoying to play as zombie. The same goes for hero. It is much easier for the hero to find flags when there are only few players on. Playing with only few players is very unbalanced and not fun which leads to players leaving and making the problem worse.

Solution 1:
Nerf certain human classes depending on how many players are online. For example give heroes only a grenade launcher when there are at least 6 players. Reduce reload speed of merc pistol. Let scientists only have 1 mine and remove its teleporter. Let ninja only have 1 zap before touching the ground again. And maybe more....

Solution 2:
Buff the movement speed of all zombies depending on how many players are online.

Solution 3:
Give each map a minimum player number. For example infc_warehouse and hardcore pit could have a very low min player number (of 0) while infc_newdust and spacelab could have higher one. If the next map has a higher player number than online players it will skip the map and search for a map with lower min player number.

[teoman002]

Solution 1

Introduce new config vars called

• g.Config.m_InfNerfFactorLevel1
• g.Config.m_InfNerfFactorLevel2

They change the parameters of human classes

The affected parameters will be:

• medic shotgun blow back + damage
• hero shotgun damage
• scientist mine damage
• looper laser damage
• engineer wall duration
• soldier bomb damage
• sniper damage
• mercenary reload speed

Nerf factors will be activated on the basis of online players
level 1 = 40 (%), for max 3 players
level 2 = 70 (%) for max 5 players

Nerf factors will be deactivated after >5 players
tweaking factor will be 100 (%) then

[bretonium]

Weakening humans is a good thing when there are not many players, indeed.

However, infclass with many players is different from infclass with few players. With many players, there are roles - defense, support, medic, hero. Zombies win by finding weak parts in that system. Individual players do not survive against zombies. Yes, they can still have fun, but they definitely get infected and lose. Personal skill does not help you if the rest of your team fails.

With few players there are no roles. Everybody plays individually and has fun. Personal skill becomes the main driver of the game. The game basically becomes dm/tdm. And i think we should embrace that by removing abilities that make humans tactically more powerful than zombies:

• flying of mercenary
• mercenary bombs
• insta-kill of engineering walls (maybe they could deal N damage?)
• looper walls
• insta-kill of scientist's mine (maybe they could deal half of normal damage?)
• hero flags
• 3 scientist's mines (maybe leave 1?)
• 2 ninja katana-jumps (1 is enough)

We should not make zombies' life too easy though. Lets not forget that they still can heal each other or that they have full armor when there is only 1 zombie.

The cut-off limit should be 6 players. 6 - nerfed game, 7 - non-nerfed.

[bretonium]

P.S. medic is fine as is, i think :3

[duralakun]

Solution 4:
Make an alternative gamemode that will be activated when there are less than 4 people on. In this gamemode there will be no start zombies, instead humans will fight against ai. This could be bots that look like zombies and try to hammer you, or maybe flying rotating triangles that shoot at you. This way the game could be fun even if there is only 1 player on. But of course this would be hard to program and take a lot of time. Just wanted to put the idea here.

[ResamVi]

However with solution 4, players are mislead to think that this game they play right now - with fewer than 4 players - is the "original" game mod.
With the sudden change to 4 players and it flipping back to normal - it could be that they wouldn't like what they see anymore and start leaving again.
Or when the server drops from quite a lot of players back to less than 4. You are basically forced to stop playing infclass until more players are ready again

[teoman002]

So solution 1 will be implemented?
I talked with duralakun about nerf factors, they will change in linear order with respect to number of players.

The implementation is still pending, but it is not very hard to code the changes.

[duralakun]

I think solution 4 can be very good, if implemented correctly.
There could be a config var that defines when bots should join. (how many people are on)
For example it could be set to 1. Than only when 1 player is on bots will join and we would have a singleplayer mode. But of course implementing it might be very difficult.
This might help: https://github.com/LordSk/teeworlds/tree/mod/zomb (it is a zombie mod with bots)
This could be implemented together with solution 1.

[teoman002]

Todo:

• parametrise merc bomb
• parametrise hero-flag
• fix engineer wall damage mechanic -> free points for dealt damage
• find a formula for NerfFactor

[yavl]

Solution 4: (just an idea)
When there are few players, 'Hide and seek' mode is activated - humans spawn as basic class with pistol-only and with 1hp. Zombies will be too powerful then, so if it's possible those pistol-only 1hp humans should behave like Ghost but against zombies.

[teoman002]

With regard to solution 4, I would suggest to implement solutions, which increase the motivation to work together. When player join the game and are nearly alone it is very boring, finding another player on a big map isn't helpful either.

Solution 5:
My suggestion would be zabys from Zomb-mod. However, the mechanic is very hard to understand and would be a copy from another repo. I think it would not be fair to the creators of zomb-mod.

[bretonium]

Initially-infecting 2 humans in a 3-people game looks bad. It quickly becomes boring to be zombie 2/3 of the time and people quit

[teoman002]

Yea if nerfing is introduced there is no reason to increase initial infected count.

[Kaffeine]

Changing the rules at game time is a bad idea. (If a player put a laser wall then they expect that nobody can go thought). I would suggest to disable some classes (e.g. hero if there are just a few players.)

An option to change own zombie class would help a lot. A bat and a slug would have a good chance to counter a mercenary.

[teoman002]

Your suggestion about wall is understandable. I probably revert the "parametrize engineer wall" commit.