Make Double Squadding Legal! Yes I actually am saying this...

[Jessup]

Ok.. so being a cap for many years on squads like Paladen, I've had my share of nightmares concerning double squadders. Finding a great player only to have snatched from me with a ban for d/sing and then having to pick up the void losing this criminal pro 2d shipper. I always respected the staff rules and actually thought it was a lame thing to do and ruined the notion of squad loyalty.. blah blah blah. Well.. I'm starting to feel differently. For one activity is down, so much so that we have lowered the limits to 3 in jd fd dd sd and I think bd too (not sure about that 1 ). I don't like 3's at all but I will admit it has helped pick up activity in twd some and it that regard it was a good move by staff. How about this idea. ALLOW US TO DOUBLE SQUAD. It may increase activity. It may be fun. It may increase competition in games. We could stop the regularity of the 3 vs 3 games that are taking hold. As far as TWL is concerned of course a roster then would have to be chosen and stuck to. I know ladder fairness is an issue. This is just a thought. Maybe implement once twl quails are over or some way work around it. Heck this year maybe we shouldn't even have quali's just a signup for twl.. Anyways a thought over competition/activity and sharing fun with friends on other squads.

[Fork]

Well to be honest i see no harm trialling this out for a week to see what happens. --Obv twd activity is gonna go way up by double-- Nice if double squading was allowed during dead times or weekdays only... if they don't implement this now- if the population decreases any more- they will have no choice but to implement this anyway (as a last resort :P). There will be many people against this however as with any idea.

How about this guys:

We have key players already allowed to double squad anyway (caps running those 4 new player squads) but perhaps expand on this list and have it so Players who try their best to recruit new players (for a while- 1 month+) are granted permission by staff to double squad. This will both increase the twd pop and increase the number of new players joining twd and sticking to this game.

[Shaddowknight]

This is unlikely to happen during TWL Qualification period. I agree it would help with things plenty otherwise though.

[KrynetiX]

My two cents: Allow infinite squadding for TWD, but obviously not for TWL. One squad per person for TWL. Unlimited squads per person for TWD. Why the hell not?

[bkgmjo]

Fully agree with KrynetiX here. Using the in-game squad tag for twd should be enough with such low populations and would eliminate some quite annoying signup/waiting time trouble. Could also help on reducing maintenance.

[Left_Eye]

Well what could be done instead of allowing double squadding amongst all squads is to have 2-3 squads made for people that want to participate in them whenever they wanted to, possibly "captained" by active staff members with tons of active assistants, so anyone could be accepted at any time among those squads. Anyone would be able to join those squads and play twd games. Essentially, everyone would get a "free pass" to DS on those squads only.

When it comes to TWL qualifications, those squads would just be discarded off the ladder by the staffers running TWL. That way, these select squads could run/operate year around, even during qualifications times, without hindering TWD squads getting into TWL. Those squads that want to make it into TWL would still have to battle their way up the ladder. I think it's a good medium between allowing double squadding for all squads and permitting no double squadding. It shouldn't be that hard to implement and find responsible captains/assistants that wouldn't act foolishly when it comes to accepting games, etc. I think, however, that free range double squadding for all people would be a step in the wrong direction. If done properly, I think this could really spark more TWD activity, as active squads (when have enough) could challenge any of these "fake" squads to TWD. Plus, if win/lose, it would only affect that real TWD squad's score on TWD ladder instead of the made-up squads, since they would just be discarded by TWL Ops.

[Fork]

Well what could be done instead of allowing double squadding amongst all squads is to have 2-3 squads made for people that want to participate in them whenever they wanted to, possibly "captained" by active staff members with tons of active assistants, so anyone could be accepted at any time among those squads. Anyone would be able to join those squads and play twd games. Essentially, everyone would get a "free pass" to DS on those squads only.

When it comes to TWL qualifications, those squads would just be discarded off the latter by the staffers running TWL. That way, these select squads could run/operate year around, even during qualifications times, without hindering TWD squads getting into TWL. Those squads that want to make it into TWL would still have to battle their way up the ladder. I think it's a good medium between allowing double squadding for all squads and permitting no double squadding. It shouldn't be that hard to implement and find responsible captains/assistants that wouldn't act foolishly when it comes to accepting games, etc. I think, however, that free range double squadding for all people would be a step in the wrong direction. If done properly, I think this could really spark more TWD activity, as active squads (when have enough) could challenge any of these "fake" squads to TWD. Plus, if win/lose, it would only affect that real TWD squad's score on TWD ladder instead of the made-up squads, since they would just be discarded by TWL Ops.

This seems like a great idea to trial out asap as it will be far easier to monitor dsing during TWL (just disallow them squads from participating in twl as left eye says).

Disadvantages of allowing dsing on any squad:

1) The idea of everyone dsing on any squad may lead to a lot of arguments- example would be: an unknown name who genuinely doesnt double squad (who gets a good rec/ playing well) and the opposition accuses them of dsing- a pro player hiding under that name. At least with left eyes idea squads will know who's dsing and will be more cautious when accepting games from these squads.

2) I would guess many people will get fed up not knowing who is who anymore and also for squads who have alot of new players or players not that skilled will find that they can never win any games as there is always some aliased pro that stops them from winning. Left ideas idea would def prevent this from occurring too.

[multipass?]

The obvious reason this is a terrible idea is that it would kill squads. Just like losing a player for illegal dbl squadding, creating a 'void' of skill in the squad, this would happen to every squad we have, all the time. Players would troll squads, blow off matches and squads would have even more roster deficiency than they do now.

The only way to save this game is to continue recruiting newplayers. Apparently this is difficult because of the huge ego everyone has in this game for playing with "newbs". Recently we have had a good group of very skilled TW vets create new recruit squads and the result is amazing.

Try and focus on possible solutions instead of dwelling and making shit worse.

-mp?

[Jessup]

Ok . I'm not trying to vs anyone here but just taking the other side of the argument for the sake to explore this idea.

1)We wouldn't need to hide/alias if double squadding was allowed. Still the one name rule is in effect. One ip address, one name, two squads. Bans for abuse still in effect.

2) Maybe community squads are a bit too much like pub and we will lose some sense of being a real squad. Does this mean anyone can be accepted on them if they apply? We are maybe heading towards nothing more then ?go javduel , wbduel and base.

3) I think it would be more enjoyable for players to have the freedom of choice to go where ever they want and perhaps even there would be less arguing than a community TWD type squads. If we get to choose the squads and people/players we like won't that be more fun ? Won't that maintain a squad dynamic too?

4) It will give players a chance to join squads in divisions they may otherwise not be able to play in.

5) We have nothing to lose anymore. We can always go back to 1 squad rules if we get some success bringing enough new players to match the 02-09 era but holding onto the old rules may be deluding ourselves and living in the past. It doesn't have to be this big bad thing. D/S openly and proud!

6) 4 Community squads may become too active and flush out the idea of of starting your own squads. Imagine how many new squads may form if you allow d/sing anywhere. I'm sure players will create a few new ones and existing squads will become much more active.

7) It is time for jebass to be free to GTFO Paladen for a while :P

Just a quick view from the other side I was thinking about. I'm happy left shadow fork all you guys think doing something in this direction may make some sense.

[Jessup]

MP i'm not so sure it would. It is just an idea to talk about first , hence why it is here. I'm open to Lefts suggestion and liked it. I like building on ideas not tearing them down. Lets be real too.. d/sing has been going on for ages by more then just a few players who have 2 lines or know how to evade. We have to work with what we have. Getting new players has obviously been a problem. It is not easy. I'd love to hear some suggestions from you about how get a new population.

[bkgmjo]

Actually, are there any "pro players" left who do not know how to get around alias checks? What is there isn't foolproof and won't ever be due to technical limitations. So might as well make it legal and increase activity. Maybe limit to one name on TWD and for TWL qualifications make people on the TWL roster play a minimum number of games for this squad against other squads who signed up for TWL to avoid self-qualification.

Having more open squads might actually make squads more than mere TWD again and has a chance of affecting pub as well and bringing in more fun to the whole game. Years ago spontaneously formed squads which battled for flag in pub often turned into something that kept players interested and spiced things up. Would love to see that coming back and we really need to bind the different areas of the game closer together to offer something for vets and newbies alike at all times of day. Waiting for something to happen anywhere half of the day won't really convince any new players to stay, no matter how convinced some vets are that TWD is the greatest fun in the world. If it does not happen it's pointless.

[Fork]

Actually, are there any "pro players" left who do not know how to get around alias checks? What is there isn't foolproof and won't ever be due to technical limitations. So might as well make it legal and increase activity. Maybe limit to one name on TWD and for TWL qualifications make people on the TWL roster play a minimum number of games for this squad against other squads who signed up for TWL to avoid self-qualification.

Having more open squads might actually make squads more than mere TWD again and has a chance of affecting pub as well and bringing in more fun to the whole game. Years ago spontaneously formed squads which battled for flag in pub often turned into something that kept players interested and spiced things up. Would love to see that coming back and we really need to bind the different areas of the game closer together to offer something for vets and newbies alike at all times of day. Waiting for something to happen anywhere half of the day won't really convince any new players to stay, no matter how convinced some vets are that TWD is the greatest fun in the world. If it does not happen it's pointless.

If it were up to me I would implement left eyes idea of having 3-4 squads that allows people to double squad (excluded from twl). It will work, will cause twd activity to go way up/ make the game much more fun. There is no doubt because most people only play this game for squad action. Players on normal squads that dont hav 3 players online will now stay online to play squad battles on their other squad. it should make people stay online longer. There are 2 priorities for dev to work on: improve the appearance of pub/ better link between pub and twd (new players will know twd exists somehow after playing a minute in pub) and left eyes idea.

[Hulk]

They won't allow double squadding cause they want to see the zone die. pls moof on. ty

[Rab]

I could abuse the crap out of this, you shouldn't implement it.

[Ephemeral]

Would not double-squaded players will always default to their ‘favorite’ squad? What happened when the two squads play each other? One squad and its player feel like they got screwed? Or is the thinking that the double-squaded players would always be ‘fair’ and split their time equally between the two squads?
I understand the allure of trying this; on paper it seems to have some merits. But IMO in practice this would end up causing a lot of hard feelings, apathy, and frustration with those who are supposed to be leaders of a squad/zone.
eph