Playing against the best players online is boring?

[dan0812]

Had some good fun online in this game but when I come up against someone with loads of ranked wins the game becomes very dull.

I don't mind losing but these players put so much spin on the ball when they serve that it's all but dead and barely bounces when it gets to my side of the table. It's effective for them but no fun if there's no rallies.

Thoughts?

[carrotstien]

hi dan0812. a matchmaking system will solve this issue I believe as it will match you up against players who are similarly ranked.

Generally speaking, many people i know of would not continue to do things that are unreturnable by their opponents in the case of the opponents being significantly under skilled. But there are definitely those for whom winning take the highest priority

[Zen Daddy 69]

That's unfortunately this whole game, I find. People IRL at a club would never continue to use the same serve as carrotstien has mentioned but the real issue is the number next to your name. I really think the devs need to take this away and make it more of a background feature as this is somewhat what is pushing this to manifest. These guys would get bored a lot faster if they were only winning and not competing for the highest number in the leaderboard. The only time I use a crazy spin is when it's neck and neck and the round is on the line.

[carrotstien]

I only said in the case of them being significantly underskilled... when the skill level is matched, people will try to do any trick allowed to win points - that's part of the sport. Watch any table tennis tournament video and you'll see people do stuff like serve with the ball barely visible, change directions last moment, "ghost serve", stomp to hide the sound..etc

This has nothing to do with the number - this has to do with people playing the sport and competing to win.

[Zen Daddy 69]

Originally posted by carrotstien:

I only said in the case of them being significantly underskilled... when the skill level is matched, people will try to do any trick allowed to win points - that's part of the sport. Watch any table tennis tournament video and you'll see people do stuff like serve with the ball barely visible, change directions last moment, "ghost serve", stomp to hide the sound..etc

This has nothing to do with the number - this has to do with people playing the sport and competing to win.

Winning WHAT? lol and you're talking at a club TOURNAMENT yeah. If I played a top club player casually he wouldn't sit there and send me CONSTANT serves he knows I can't return as it would be also a waste of his time as well but we're here in a VR environment with absolutely ZERO gain besides your stupid numbered ranking system that is for gamers and not for ping pong players. Imagine walking around with your numbered wins on your chest in a club IRL, you'd be a total A$$. You have a gamer mentality. Most people IRL would want to challenge you slightly to get you to be a better player ESPECIALLY in a club. FOR THE ENJOYMENT!

You're obviously just butt hurt that there's been a lot of posts lately with criticism of the game. You're basically saying to new players such as OP "get gud". Match making should be been a feature since DAY ONE.

[carrotstien]

I'm not butt hurt, nor have there been a lot of posts lately with criticism of the game in anyway other than recently introduced bugs (table positioning, connectivity issues, etc)..and i'm working on those. I read every post I can find about this game, and it has been overwhelmingly positive. Of course it won't be 100% approval, and I am perfectly fine with 5% of players finding the game not enjoyable

The rating system is a measure of skill. It isn't a point system. People want to see how they stand against the population. There is a rating or ranking system in place in every competitive sport. To you this is "ZERO gain", to these players, it means a lot. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't make it false.

What I'm telling OP, is that when OP plays people much better than them, especially in a ranked match setting, they will be beat. Maybe the person will do it in a nice manner and make you feel like you were close. Maybe they'll toy with you. Maybe they will take this time to practice killer serves. We have over 150,000 players at the moment. You will meet all sorts of people online.

[Akamaru1987]

Originally posted by carrotstien:

I'm not butt hurt, nor have there been a lot of posts lately with criticism of the game in anyway other than recently introduced bugs (table positioning, connectivity issues, etc)..and i'm working on those. I read every post I can find about this game, and it has been overwhelmingly positive. Of course it won't be 100% approval, and I am perfectly fine with 5% of players finding the game not enjoyable

The rating system is a measure of skill. It isn't a point system. People want to see how they stand against the population. There is a rating or ranking system in place in every competitive sport. To you this is "ZERO gain", to these players, it means a lot. Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't make it false.

What I'm telling OP, is that when OP plays people much better than them, especially in a ranked match setting, they will be beat. Maybe the person will do it in a nice manner and make you feel like you were close. Maybe they'll toy with you. Maybe they will take this time to practice killer serves. We have over 150,000 players at the moment. You will meet all sorts of people online.

https://steamcharts.com/app/488310 All time peak say 547 players, i dont see where you got 150.000

[carrotstien]

I never said 150,000 concurrent players, and never meant to. That'd be absurd statement for a VR game. I'm talking about how many people own the game. Thanks to santa it's a lot more now :D

Also, we are cross play - so steam charts would show only part of the picture..a small part at that.

see the charts :)
https://twitter.com/ElevenVR/status/1296237214817427460

[dan0812]

Originally posted by carrotstien:

Thanks to santa it's a lot more now :D

unfortunately they're all playing online - half don't know you're supposed to select ranked/unranked to start the game and others had no idea how to serve and the match never gets going.

Congrats on 150k, I don't know how many copies VR games sell (many get abandoned so not always that many I guess) but it seems impressive.

[carrotstien]

yea i'm about to push a pretty big functionality update - and with it will be a lot of serve instruction improvement to prevent the above situation from happening.

... though... the "half don't know you're supposed to select ranked/unranked to start the game" ...hmm. I'm not sure how to make "select match type" any clearer.

[Akamaru1987]

Originally posted by carrotstien:

yea i'm about to push a pretty big functionality update - and with it will be a lot of serve instruction improvement to prevent the above situation from happening.

... though... the "half don't know you're supposed to select ranked/unranked to start the game" ...hmm. I'm not sure how to make "select match type" any clearer.

I really love your game :) It simple yet super fun, the physics are really nice

[carrotstien]

<3

[falkenbbs]

I think this game needs a ranking system badly. When I get my ass handed to me like a hat, I get bored and turn it off, sometimes I don't come back for months and that's only because I'm playing with a friend that got the game in VR. I LOVE this game to play with my friends because we're not the greatest at this game.

I HATE playing against people I don't know online. It gets boring quickly as I realize it feels like I'm playing against people that spend every waking moment of their lives in the game. If you were to step into a time machine that went into an arcade back in the 1990s. Playing online against strangers is like going up to a street fighter 2 game as an inexperienced player and playing against the guy that's there all the time and has a hundred quarters on the bezzle on his side of the machine. NOT FUN.

The game itself though when I play with my similarly skilled friends is a blast though. Ranking is a must IMHO.

[carrotstien]

hi falkenbbs - the game does have a ranking system (sorry being pedantic). what you are asking (for anyone else passing by, not for you), is an matchmaking system.

This is literally the coming update i'm working on :)

[qwadrwr]

Originally posted by MrMuffStuff:

Most people IRL would want to challenge you slightly to get you to be a better player ESPECIALLY in a club. FOR THE ENJOYMENT!

Sorry, but no, absolutely not. In a club you play to win. If you play a match and count, you're doing it to win. If you found out your opponent can't return a serve, you will use this serve until you can tell he's getting the hang of it, then you start to throw a few other ones in so he can't concentrate on your good one alone, but you'll still mainly use your strong serve. That's how the game is played, that's normal strategy. In fact it usually is seen as being condescending to not give your all if you play against a weaker opponent, to show off you don't even have to bother.

For training purposes, to challenge and help your opponent to get better, you're doing the same type of topspin, slice or whatever and always to the same side, forehand or backhand. Very repetitive and a bit boring, but that's how you learn best.

Having said that, in a club the differences are usually not that big, if a good player has a bad day he'll lose against a weaker player. And that's the point where a good ranking system would help a lot, to match players with comparable strength so you're not constantly getting frustrated in a bad way. And maybe, if the playerbase allows, two classes, one for competitive play and one for fun, the latter one maybe even without ranking.

[Altiveda]

It's amazing how well the game feels compared to real table tennis. I think it's really well done. I just have some technical issues atm.