So here in the forums I know that a lot of you do have quite a lot of gripes with the current state of the game. I am opening this thread so we can all list our current grievances in an organized format, figure out what causes them (when applicable), and discuss solutions. My hope is to get as many grievances out of the way to put these posts up in Reddit where most of the community resides.
So the BIGGEST problem I see with VG is the player base. Dodging is still rampant, trolling is still too prevalent, Smurfs are everywhere, boosted players in high tiers, etc etc. Another problem is the usually busted MM which can ruin ranked matches for some players who are not god tier or partying with their god tier friends. Also, the most important problem I feel is the speed in which these issues are being handled.
Dodging:
For this the solution is simpler than the others. Allow players maybe 2 dodges (Wanna give at least some leeway for certain situations tbh cause some people troll so hard in draft) before they lose elo (scaling with their rank to make dodging at high ranks more punishing if abused) and maybe at 3 or 4 dodges you get LPQ. This could reset after a certain number of completed ranked/casual (not brawl) games, so like 15 or so. The elo loss was implemented before, but that seems to have been removed for some reason. Also, implement the mechanic from league that lets you choose your role before queuing up so that allies have to worry less about their roles being taken and stuff, which can help reduce dodging.
Trolling:
This is more of a job for customer support, so maybe punish trolling harder. Maybe make the first offense of trolling (With damning evidence) a day ban with a 3 game LPQ afterwards and have those punishments scale up. Trolling is one of the worst things you can do in a game, so it should be heavily punished. However, even with this LPQ is too easy to get out of since you can brawl out of it, so they could make it so that brawl modes DON’T COUNT FOR LPQ!!! You need to play casual to get out of it. If SEMC acts upon this and implements these changes the amount trollers will go down HEAVILY!!!
Smurfs:
Honestly, there is no easy way to deal with smurfing at all. THIS is probably an issue that can be discussed throughout the community more as it really sucks for new players to get absolutely stomped on by tier 4 pros.
MM:
In ranked, DO NOT allow teams above a 1 or maybe 2 gap skill tier difference to play with each other. Also, bring back restricted queue so t9s can’t party with t7s or something in ranked. Please. I feel so bad for the t6 teams going up against my 5 mans ._.
Weed Out the Boosted Players:
I feel that many POA players kinda feel a bit…boosted, so maybe once a YEAR our skill tiers can reset like the old times instead of every season. This will prevent the annoying grind of having to climb back up from the bottom every few months while also keeping each skill tier as balanced and accurate as possible. The skill tier reset could be designated for any specific season, so maybe Spring since it’s right after Winter, which is at the end of the year.
SEMC’s Speed:
Let’s be real here. You guys are not handling many of these problems very quickly. Still many bugs and the grievances listed here have been long time issues that the community has called out for SEASONS (Although SEMC has tried certain things like restricting ranked play while in LPQ, so there are already some good changes currently). I get that developing a competitive game is demanding, but some of these changes do not take seasons to fix. This is costing you guys players and can kill the game if you don’t handle them in a timely manner due to new players feeling discouraged from playing due to getting stomped on by high and even mid tier smurfs in addition to veterans not being pleased with many changes (cough cough talents cough) or lack of solutions to lingering issues. You guys really need to step it up cause I REALLY want to see this game truly compete with League or DOTA and I especially want to see a large organic e-sports scene that can thrive on its own in this game.
Events:
Do not make events competitive all the time and maybe stick to the lower battlegrounds threshold with some more tweaking and keep it permanent. This can help players with and already high amount of essence have a better chance at actually using them by getting BP chests if they’re good at the game and allows new players to try and build up a collection. The glory cost should also be fair, but not crippling like the 10k cost is. Also, do more events like the Summer Finale. Events that are non-competitive (No leaderboards is what I’m saying), f2p friendly, and have rewards that are worth it. However, don’t make them a few days long especially if they’re grindy. Give the casual players a chance at least.
Overall Communication:
You guys keep telling us you take in the feedback, but currently you do not have much to show when it comes to taking action upon it, which also goes back to your speed. The ambassador program is a great step in the right direction, but currently only time will tell whether or not you execute it successfully. You need to make sure you keep disgruntled customers at ease with issues like these.
Problem With the Overall Community:
Another big problem can also be the community itself. Of course, there are members that discuss instead of demand, but I see plenty of players that only complain (Keep complaining about talents though ). The easiest fix here is to just do stuff like this where we discuss solutions to our problems instead of constantly hound SEMC all the time with no substance, though SEMC does need to work on some long time issues like bugs. Additionally, if the community as a whole discussed solutions for problems such as map balance, can you imagine just how helpful that could be for SEMC if they took the good ideas for future reference from a decently sized community? You don’t need to be a professional to have good ideas (Professionals implement those ideas ). One great post that should be a benchmark for how the community should discuss the CAUSE of certain problems is the recent post by @ThePinkOtter (Yeah that nerd) which gives a detailed perspective for seasoned players, so everyone understands where each side comes from. If the community just kinda calms down and slows down the amount of complaints all over the place SEMC may become more active in the community like some (former) devs such as Niv was (hopefully). Also, we should be a bit less dramatic with some features like the recent hat controversy when they did not seem as intrusive as some players feared (Though the party hats still feel weird outside of Clownwalker), so we should wait for more details sometimes (Talents still succ tho).