Handicap system

[Alxa]

Hey people.

Almost everybody believes that the skillgap between the top players and the new ones is too big (they may end up frustrated by this). What if we had a handicap system like the one Quake 3 has?, if someone hasn't played it; you can substract any amount of health points in the game menu, which helps balancing the difference in skill.

It could be even more interesting if the health points you subtract can go directly into your impulse meter, which i think it could allow people to develop totally different playstyles based on their configuration. It may be overpowered in CtF but since you have less health, you will die faster (it could work under a 2:1 ratio). What do you guys think?

[qreeves]

We've discussed this in the past and the consensus was that, for it to work, everyone would have to be honest about their skill levels.

The method you describe here actually provides too much of an advantage to the "top players". Who needs health when nobody can catch up to you anyway?

[Alxa]

Yeah haha, i barely thought about the last thing i said, it just seem interesting. But why do you say that everyone would have to be honest about their skill levels?, i`m proposing to have the option of reducing your health manually from the default (100 hp) for those who want an extra challenge (and maybe another column in the scoreboard where you could see if other people are playing handicapped too).

Or is there a command to do that?

[bonifarz]

I think the tricky part will be team balance with such a thing.

And better team balance has been the way to face the "problem" of skill gaps, as far as I have seen.

E.g. kills to deaths ratio is taken into account, taking the average ratio from all stats enabled games. And this ratio can actually be shown in the score board.

[Alxa]