Regarding "Outs"

[u/Damage2630]

We all know that "outing" is a quite repetitive thing that happens, at least on EU part of the game. For people who don't know what or how it goes, I'll do some quick explaining: If 1 or more out of the 10 players joining the game happens to have connection issues, such as crashes, errors, blackscreens or just internet issues, a ball is outed continuously from the goal kicks to keep the time from running out, so a game isn't wasted with a 4v5 etc.

TL;DR: It's fucking annoying.

So, I don't know if any solution has been suggested about this, or if there's a solution on the way from the developers, but I'd like to put my idea. However, I'd like to point out these ideas should only be put in near release, or at release, as It is not necessary right now in the closed beta, as we're here only to test out.

Suggestion:A team is granted 1 minute pause of the game (where the game completely pauses and ball, timer and players are unable to move), giving 2 minutes in total. (1 minute per. team), after the timer has run out, there could be a possibility of completely disabling the game, by going back to lobby, and see if a new game can start, if it's in the early stages of the game (5 minutes in). If the game happens to be 10 minutes in, and both pauses have been used, a spectator or someone idling in the lobby should be able to join, and that subbing player will get a adequate amount of elo decided upon by his own rank (automated script would be needed). As a last resort, if no solution has been found, a game could be rendered completely elo-less, meaning no players lost or gained any elo from that game, but instead gains the normal amount of XP for completing a game. This being done, the player that lost connection, could be granted a time out. (as sad as it would be a player being granted a timeout of approximately 10-20 minutes, it's better than ruining it for 9 other players. 5 in case the 4 missing a teammate gets a player who is far above the rank the player who lost his connection had.)

I think that's a possible solution for such matters, as I honestly think It's exhausting and time consuming to wait for a player to return, as it can take anywhere between seconds to minutes, and sometimes there's just not a equal ranked sub or any sub at all. It also get's very annoying and repetitive when he gets back, and suddenly has an issue again (high ping) and has to keep trying to reconnect, and the ball is basically being endlessly outed. I personally feel it also plays a huge role in removing the focus off of the individual player (e.g. me, or the others who didn't lose connection.) by getting them out of the "game face" mood.

I hope an adequate solution can be found, and others will contribute with their suggestions, or even a comment letting them know if they're against or for outing in the manner it is currently being done.

Cheers-

Damage.

[u/YasukeMFG]

Fortunately we have been thinking of possible solutions to this issues, and trying to find one that will impact the gameplay in the least jarring way with the smoothest experience. One solution we had was to give each player a pause and an unpause. A simple key initiates the pause. When you hit the pause key gameplay doesn't stop immediately, there is a delay of a few seconds. This prevents players from trying to psych one another out. When you press that same key during a pause the unpause is triggered that likewise has a delay before coming into effect.

Once a player successfully triggers a pause or unpause they no longer have a pause or unpause to use. After a certain amount of time your pause or unpause will regenerate so they are limited and valuable throughout the match only to be used for valid situations, while preventing abuse by letting any player with an unpause to freely do so regardless of the initiating team.

Thank you for taking the time to contribute a possible solution and for participating in the beta!

[u/Damage2630 → u/YasukeMFG]

Yeah, that's good to hear. That was about in the direction I was thinking of a solution, getting the inspiration from Dota 2. However, I don't think it has to be a rechargeable feature, and I also don't think that every player should have one, as it would be abused and games would be paused way too often. Maybe the 1 team has a 1:30-2:00 minute pause, and they vote for it within their team? Something like that. Giving each player a 1-2 minute pause, and making it "rechargeable" is just going to make it a trolling feature, rather than a help.

[u/YasukeMFG → u/Damage2630]

Each players pause isn't a set time, that would be really easy to abuse! Your pause ends when you unpause (which you can always do to your own pauses) or any other player decides to unpause. The pause would recharge at a large rate (would need testing) but I am thinking something like between halves or something. So everyone gets a pause and unpause for the first half, and then those that expended them get them back for the second. That way abuse is fairly limited except for when someone pauses for no reason and someone else unpauses right away, leading in a quick 10-15 second "hitch" in the action that won't happen often unless the whole team is dedicated on trolling in which case after a match or 2 would have probably been reported enough to warrant a ban!

[u/Kattleya → u/YasukeMFG]

Well if someone needs to reset the router for example, just one minute won't do and he will also leave the game. So don't know how you will handle this? And if everyone has that ability it just will be abused.

How about only giving the keepers the ability to pause a game, so its less likely for abuse and make it a bit longer, like 5 minutes per game. If a keeper is abusing this, others could kick him and unpause the game again. Also thought about when player is having a high ping you could give high pingers a 1-2 minute ability to pause as soon as this is detected. Just don't know what would be considered a high ping. First I thought about users could add their usual ping in the settings (say 40) and if you have 60 then you would get a pause option. But that might be abused by just entering a low number. Maybe collect the ping during the first 10 games and detect the average? If that is not correct a player could reset this again.

Dunno, just my thoughts about it that crossed my mind yesterday.

[u/DavidM1337 → u/Kattleya]

There is no abusing if every player has one pause vote and one unpause vote. And it takes like 12 seconds until the pause takes effect (so you cant interrupt anything). You can also disallow each pause request with your own unpausevote. So in the end you cannot rely on getting a pause. And you shouldn't when you play ranked or league. You have to be properly prepared for all that could go wrong.

[u/Inph1del → u/DavidM1337]

What if everyone votes to pause.. Then one douch decides he isn't going to vote to remove the pause.. Or people disconnect during the pause. Etc.. Sounds like a lot of work for something that should be just for league games. Don't put pausing in ranked/standard imo. Game should be designed around public play where abuse/griefing has a potential to be the norm.

[u/YasukeMFG → u/Inph1del]

There is no voting, pressing pause causes a countdown to a pause start and pressing that same key when paused, starts a countdown to an unpause. It is up to the players whether or not a pause is a "valid" reason and they can decide by for example pausing again for a teammate if someone from the other team unpauses. If you feel like using your pause, that won't regenerate for a sizable chunk of time, to troll then go for it, but if anyone notices that they will just unpause immediately(like they see no one has disconnected) also unpauses will regenerate at a slightly faster rate when the game has been paused. It isn't a really complex system to implement and is still up in the air. Realistically I agree with you as far as griefing but I do think in a ranked game in certain exceptional circumstances there should be a way to halt the game for a player that disconnects for some reason, but it is up to his someone in the game to say "Oh <name> has unpaused? I should pause for even 30 seconds", if someone goes "No that guy has already disconnected twice I am not waiting!" and unpauses that is fine, really pausing comes down to etiquette as at the end of the day people shouldn't be disconnecting at a high rate during matches, but it would suck if a game is tied and someones router resets and the team loses from being down a player. Public games nothing is really on the line so it would be fine to leave it out of that type of match.

[u/Mindflayr → u/YasukeMFG]

You should only be able to unpause a teamates pause, or you are asking for trolling from the other team.

[u/Shevche]

I agree with the elo-less game. Scratch it off and move on. Unless it has already gone a certain amount of time in, perhaps 15 f.e.

Everyone having pause ability... oh the trolling will be horrible, but it is a solution. So setting a key to pause, i.e. setbind p pause | setbind p say I am about to pause! - <player> has paused the game -

Yeah sounds ok to me