(January 10th, 2013, 23:02)Merovech Wrote: What are your guy's opinions on buying a few (not all, of course, or even many) tier one runes until I get to level 20 and can start buying tier three runes? Is it wasted IP since I won't be using them after that point, or is the help they give until then worth the later lesser amount of IP?
It's not quite wasted IP, because once you hit level 20, you can gamble the tier 1 runes up to tier 3 before you start spending your IP on new Tier 3s.
On my smurf, when I was introducing friends to the game, I don't think I bought any runes (I used the IP instead to secure a useful champ or two) and didn't notice the lack. 'course, I had a 100+ games under my belt at that point, and was comparing my play to a pool of novices.
Ahh, thank you. I missed that thread somehow.
Edit: Except quintessences, which you don't unlock early...whoops. That's 495 IP I'll have to wait a while to use. (Well, I suppose only 2/3 of that is delayed since I will have one open quintessence slot long before I unlock tier three runes). Should have realized that the suns are not slots.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
My overall impression is unless a certain role requires it (jungling on lots of characters really need the Armor runes) you can skip runes until you get Tier 3 ones. Typically the edge isn't important enough until you're playing at higher levels.
However, most people like to get 1 or 2 sets of Tier 1s, then combine them into Tier 3s, hoping a few will save them some IP. And the edge is definitely non-negligible, especially at Level 1 trading. I forget what I did. I feel like I did Tier 1 set into Tier 3 combines.
Tier 1 not worth it. Game is unbalanced as fuck until level 30 anyway. It will be full of smurfs (players on alternative accounts) who will wreck any beginners. Games are usually decided by the amount of smurfs on each side. You will have to ignore balance issues during leveling, or else the journey will be too painful and you'll end up quitting. Always play with friends if at all possible. Others were correct to point out that junglers could use those Tier 1 runes, but I've been following my friend during his leveling and he didn't start seeing regular junglers until close to level 30. If you still do decide to buy Tier 1 runes though, it's okay. They really don't cost that much, you'll just have a few less champs to play early on.
(January 12th, 2013, 05:43)Jowy Wrote: Tier 1 not worth it. Game is unbalanced as fuck until level 30 anyway. It will be full of smurfs (players on alternative accounts) who will wreck any beginners. Games are usually decided by the amount of smurfs on each side. You will have to ignore balance issues during leveling, or else the journey will be too painful and you'll end up quitting. Always play with friends if at all possible. Others were correct to point out that junglers could use those Tier 1 runes, but I've been following my friend during his leveling and he didn't start seeing regular junglers until close to level 30. If you still do decide to buy Tier 1 runes though, it's okay. They really don't cost that much, you'll just have a few less champs to play early on.
For now, at least, I'm still playing against bots, so the presence or lack thereof of smurfs isn't a huge deal, in that even the average beginner is better than a bot and smurfs just accent that. I will keep that in mind for the future, however.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Quote:Our matchmaking system still matches you by skill level, but this “rating” is no longer visible and does not have any bearing on your seasonal rewards or ladder standing. Your standing in your league is now determined by your tier, division and League Points, not your matchmaking rating.
Quote:If your hidden matchmaking rating (MMR) is far below where it should be for your current division, you will gain LP much more slowly. Similarly, if for some reason your MMR is far above where it should be for your current division, you will gain LP more quickly.
Quote:For ranked solo/duo, you have to acquire 16 champions.
Anybody play enough competitive SC 2 to offer an opinion on whether this is anything more than a giant pile of marketing?
Quote:Our matchmaking system still matches you by skill level, but this “rating” is no longer visible and does not have any bearing on your seasonal rewards or ladder standing. Your standing in your league is now determined by your tier, division and League Points, not your matchmaking rating.
Quote:If your hidden matchmaking rating (MMR) is far below where it should be for your current division, you will gain LP much more slowly. Similarly, if for some reason your MMR is far above where it should be for your current division, you will gain LP more quickly.
Quote:For ranked solo/duo, you have to acquire 16 champions.
Anybody play enough competitive SC 2 to offer an opinion on whether this is anything more than a giant pile of marketing?
They just want to give some kind of incentive/achievement to players by being highly placed in a league or encouraging people to want to get to the next level. Whether it will or not is open to debate.
"We are open to all opinions as long as they are the same as ours."
It's just an excuse to hide the ratings. Majority of the player-base believe that they deserve a much higher rating than they have. Then they whine, flame and rage because of that belief. Once you earn a tier, you cannot drop down. Let's say you get a lucky streak in the current system and you get to 1500 rating. Then you drop down because you are not skilled enough to be competitive on that level. You drop down to 900 rating. With the new system, your current rating is hidden. So all you will see is the shiny "1500" as your rating, even though your real skill level is way below. Your rating still exists, it's just hidden so you won't feel bad about it when it tanks. I can't really think of a single good thing about this update. It's just pandering.
(January 17th, 2013, 17:45)Dantski Wrote: They just want to give some kind of incentive/achievement to players by being highly placed in a league or encouraging people to want to get to the next level. Whether it will or not is open to debate.
I think the new system is a good idea. After all, in most countries with amateur sports league there is a system in place with leagues/divisions. I believe the ELO system is not very motivating - who cares if you raise your rating from 1520 to 1580? But if you climb from 10th to 4th in your division, that's far more motivating.
The only thing I wonder about is why they have a rating floor. I guess it's to keep people from stop playing: Remember, the same thing happened with rating rewards: Once players reached i.e. gold rating they stopped playing so there was no chance of losing any end-of-season rewards.
