During the last 2-4 years one death leaving (ODL) or one death quitting has become a major problem in this game.
Games exist to be an interactive plattform where the actions of the players that take part in it have an effect on the outcome of it. But especially in higher BRs ODL has become the key factor if a match is won or lost. This completely takes away the reason of what a game is and how it works.
There are more reasons for why ODL is a problem for war thunder, which is a multi-spawn game by default (in ground RB at least). But my main issue is just the unenjoyable gameplay that seems to happen more and more and is by far an exception in higher BRs.
And after all the other so called “reasons to one death leave” has been worked around (economic, repair costs, etc) there is only ONE SOLUTION that i can think of at the moment:
Give ODLs an own gamemode, where they can do their anti-teamplay-stuff and soon they will notice that this game is no fun if everybody acts like they do. Make it accessible only for people that one-death-leave alot and let them be stuck in this gamemode for a certain amount of time before they will be able to join normal games again. Its important to make the rules by which the matchmaker decides if you get the tag or not invisible for the player so they can not try to manipulate the outcome by dosing the one death leaving right at the sweet spot.
Example: If a player continously one-death-leaves for 10 games he will be tagged by the matchmaker as “ODL” and gets in the pool of players that will be put together into games while everyone else will NOT be matched with them. Once a player has this tag it takes a week for him to be able to “qualify” to get rid of this tag again by changing his playstyle. If the player qualifies for losing “ODL” tag he can then join normal battles again.
I know it sounds extreme. But Gaijin should be aware that there are people in this game who spend money on premium time and are long-term-customers who dont like to be at a disadvantage in favour of people that buy a premium vehicle once and then leave the game after alot of frustration (typical one death leavers). I am one of these long-term-customers and would like to be able to enjoy this game again. And it is not possible to do that in higher BRs. My workaround was to simply not play higher BRs, but it was a bad workaround. Gaijin needs to do something about it. Its one of the major problems in War Thunder at the moment.
Gaijin is not going to unilaterally punish ODL players while the current premium vehicle system encourages the playstyle.
Unless there is a radical rework to how premiums are sold (in groups / bundles rather than singular vehicles) there is no way to punish ODL players without harming premium buyers.
I see your point, but ODL is harming premium buyers too. I am one of the people that is harmed by it. What is the use of premium vehicles eitherway if you lose 80% of the games because your teammates (in the same premium vehicles) ODL the s**t out of the game?
The reward for winning doesn’t outweigh the rewards gained during your life. That’s why even without premium if I’m grinding new modifications on a tank I ODL.
The problem is that Gaijin cannot and does not want to further divide the player base. A game like Call of Duty or Fortnite can afford to separate players, but War Thunder has far fewer players already divided into three modes with 12 Battle Ratings and Arcade/Realistic. I don’t want to wait 10 minutes for a battle.
But the reward for winning is 120% RP. So if you have a good run with the vehicle you want to spade and then win the game with another vehicle (2-3 vehicles in a match) its better than to play two matches in the same time and losing both with 21% battle activity.
The result of this system would be that people would one-death-leave less. Because for the first time in their gaming-lives they would understand what their playstyle means for the game. (When forced to play with other one-death-leavers.)
So what I hope is: One-death-leavers will be the minority of players.
Punishing is really poor method to quide people´s behaviour.
Instead there should be a reward for those who stay in the game for a whole match and use multiple vehicles. Like if you play the whole line-up you will get multiplier for XP and SL reward´s, that way it would be smart to invest time in match.
This. In fact I posted my take on ODL in this year planned improvements thread:
Talking about QOL improvements, they should rework backups. Most common scenario in my case for ODL (which I do a lot) is because I’m spading a vehicle and I have no others to spade at its BR. So my lineup consists only of that vehicle alone.
If they would give me two free additional respawns each game as they do for example with Israelian M-51 (starter vehicle of that tree), I wouldn’t ODL. They should charge repair costs every time the vehicle is destroyed, of course, and to prevent spamming of OP tanks (e.g KV-220) they could restrict this feature to non-spaded vehicles only. Besides, in doing so, they actually wouldn’t need to rework how current backups work at all, as they could be used for already spaded vehicles. It would be enough to add the free respawns mechanic for non-spaded ones and that’s it.
Last change on backups improved things a bit as now I can do one additional respawn in each game by using one of the many backups I’ve been stacking along the years, but that’s only one extra respawn per game and I’ll eventually ran out of them.
Single vehicle is the most efficient way for stock grinding. Otherwise, you will end up with tripling the grinding time before some of the new vehicles can functionally fight.
Good for you. But if you press tab from time to time you will notice a big inbalance in how ODLs spread over the two teams.
I play this game as a team-based game. This means I watch what my team does and try to fit my playstyle to it. So I notice what the team does and also I notice when the team is gone after five minutes.
I can send you alot of screenshots if you dont believe that it is a problem. A problem that - as I said - makes your effort to win useless, because the win is decided by random (which team has more one death leavers). And this is not what a game should be like.
There already is a reward for staying longer in the game. The skill bonus that is handed out for a bigger amount of kills should be motivating enough to stay in the game longer. Also the repair cost rework tried to do something about it.
I wonder how many things they should do to please players before they encourage them by other methods. I mean, I know what you mean: Positive motivation is better than negative motivation. And I would be happy if they found the one thing that ODLs seem to need to stop ODL-ing, but it looks like the list never ends.
There is no problem in a game where many players are dead, gone and out after two lives spent and often with no kills to show for it . Who cares about that when it happens? You? The team?
Why after nearly 12000 games would I need a screenshot of anything? I can see the game for wha it is ,no offence ,I exist in a world of good teams and bad with equal measure. I accept what comes ultimately be it a team consisting of level 100 vets or newbies, CAS or full up tier or no up tier. I have no other choice
The fact a few from each side bail early makes no odds as the side will be uneven after a couple of minutes anyway.
What ruins my game is trundling up to the battle front in an old slow WW2 vehicle and finding my teammates have arrived in fast cold war stuff and bagged 3 kills each before I arrive, or I line up a shot and somebody else takes it for me. I prefer the overdose of incoming enemies, makes for a better score and reward.
If I miss a win in one game, I will most likely get a win in the next one. If players want to leave let them. Others can join a game late.
After more than 22000 battles and after reading your words it seems to me that you dont really understand what I am talking about. I am not talking about “some” people leaving a match early. I am talking about matches in high tier were the majority of players leaves after one death.
And if you did not encounter those matches by now, good for you, but if you do one day I want to read how you do not see it as a problem.
It is not just a problem for the overall game experience. Its also a negative factor on boosters and wagers etc.
Point 1) You really believe people will learn the error of their ways? Or is it more probable they will find a way to keep doing the ODL, but finding a way to avoid the penalty?
Point 2) I also assume that the “gang” that believes ODL is their personal and sacred right would appear in force.
BTW…ODL is already punished, and there are a lot of “pros” that defend their right to do it. There was a change in map rotation that only affected ODLs…and they were very quick to appear here in forum complaining that that game was “completely broken” and
“unplayable”.
THIS^^ is actually a situation where ODL makes more sense to me. The costs op spawning and dying in top tier are a bit too high. I am against ODL by several reasons…but the cost of spawning on a second vehicle on a “apparently” bad game is something that makes me think twice…even if for a few seconds.