#1

I’ve seen a lot of people say that leavers should be punished severely for leaving a match. I feel that this is the completely wrong approach and here are some of my reasons why:

  • [Punishing leavers does not solve any problems]
    I’m not saying that there should be no consequences for leaving but; rather than trying to stop the inevitable, the game should be able to balance itself out when people leave. I know this has been mentioned countless times on the forums but: whoever leaves should be replaced with a bot of equal ELO and replaced back with the player if he/she returns. It’s a simple solution considering bots have already been implemented in private/solo play.

  • [Sometimes there are genuine reasons for leaving matches]
    Connection issues sometimes happen as does life. There are a few times (they don’t happen often) when I urgently need to do something with short to no notice. We don’t live in an ideal world though obviously people should only really play if they have 30m free. Do I really want to suffer when the cat tries to yank out my Ethernet cable? I could easily reconnect but don’t want to experience any nonsense to put me off finishing the match.

  • [Matchmaking is currently a problem]
    This one may not always be the case, but I have a post covering the serious matchmaking issues SOME people experience SOME of the time. Surrendering isn’t a option early in the game and the people affected I’m sure would rather not waste their time.

Ultimately, all this stuff puts people off playing the game if they’re unjustly punished. I think the existing system of only being able to rejoin a match in progress is ideal as it stops people from abusing the system. You know who should be punished and banned? Cheaters. Not people which cannot guarantee their connection will hold out 24/7 or have to do something in an emergency they have little control over.

These are just some of my thoughts I wanted to share since everyone seems to be so strongly focused on wanting those abandoning games punished instead of focusing on the root of the problem at hand :slight_smile:

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I am getting tired of people leaving matches they need too give a punish or something
There needs to be harsher punishments for these rage quitters
Leavers and AFKers will be the final nail if the coffin
#2

You see, those players aren’t the issue though, if those situations happen, most of the time the person trys to reconnect. But the majority of players that leave do not try to rejoin the match. These players are the issue, and they should be punished. I think that if you leave the game for any reason besides being disconnected, you should be punished. If you leave for an emergency or other real life situation, then obviously the game doens’t matter to you at the time and a punishment shouldn’t affect you.

I think the people that say that it is a legitimate excuse is correct in saying so but a fair punishment system wouldn’t affect you that much anyway. Unless there are multiple occurences, then too bad honestly IMO. An occasional real life reason to the game, should only be occasional not every day/every match. Fair punishment systems will increase the punishments in increments and won’t affect the people who really have an emergency that much.

I think we need a fair but tougher punishment system to punish the habitual leavers.

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#3

You see I disagree with you; it just goes to show how unfinished Battleborn is if it can’t handle inevitable disconnects. If just one person from either team leaves then it’s pretty much over.

Punishing players will make NO DIFFERENCE to the outcome of the match; what will make a difference is if Gearbox actually replaces players which have left with bots. There is absolutely no point in punishing people for leaving, this isn’t ranked play…

You know what most people would do if Gearbox made the punishment system more severe? They’d probably find something else to play. Especially seeing as I’ve been disconnected from Steam randomly for some random ass reason.

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#4

You are both right. Players who quit need to be punished and the devs need to find a way to handle loosing a player. I don’t play LoL anymore so I don’t know about that, but in SMITE if soemone disconnects you don’t get a bot, and it can ruin the game.

As a person with a often spotty internet (thanks Comcast, you’re tops) I am ok with punishing disconnects, because if you don’t, people will just unplug the modem like in Halo 2 (but to quit instead of get an advantage). If I have to leave a game for anyreason and I leave my team hanging, I should be punished. So long as the devs are fair it shouldn’t be an issue. But if I quit 3 of my last 10 matches and quit 50 of my last 100, there’s a pattern and a problem.

This may sound harsh but if quitters…quit and go play something else forever, that only helps the community.

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#5

Nearly every moba style game has some kind of punishment system to discourage players from leaving , Battleborn needs the same.

Also when a player leaves the game it should not be announced to the opposing team instantly since then they almost always push in as hard as possible. Announce it after 5 mins I say.

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#6

Lol I had a crazy Idea:

Matchmaking should have two options: A option to find a lobby where no pre-made groups exist and the other not caring what lobby your in (assuming the matchmaking is based on k/d first, followed by w/l, followed by surrenders “requested”(so quitters feel at home with other quitters), and finally the players level(some people are intimidated by high level players “option to hide level would be a good feature like in “Rocket League””) )

Heck, when a match starts losing players it should automatically prompt players to surrender or not OR follow me here, in setting, a new feature will be added of joining an already in progress match and taking the average level of the highest team and giving it to that new player so he is not falling behind with a guaranteed 3000 shards, hows that sound?

Punishing players, i agree with you, 100%, although i do want to see a report feature added in-game and the whole game footage is sent to be reviewed for proof of cheesing or exploitation, I have seen so many players quit Battleborn because of it, and Overwatch is coming out during Alani’s release, so we might see a drop and long wait time for matchmaking, just being honest

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#7

Depends what we’re talking about, are we talking people leaving mid game? or in the lobby? Because i tend to leave in the lobby like a few mins ago we got a 5 man premade with no one under 90 and 2 100’s. Yeah bugger that…

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#8

either connection issues or they quit prior to starting. I believe if the countdown is still around 100 second or so the lobby should be able to pull someone that is in currently searching for a similar room, match, mode.

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#9

I agree with the fact it would be nice to have someone to be able to join during the countdown or during said game. It would help improve a lot of bad experience of having players leave cause they are either having issues with steam or there internet(No like seriously fuck steam), or just disconnect for some other reason.
Its not fair to other people OP that the people who purchased a 60 dollar game, gets screwed cause one person leaves. I rather have 4 people happy, than to let one person to get away with a chance they happen to have issues.
Said person if they did have issues should understand that there is consequences as it is.

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#10

Punishing players does make a difference though. It discourages the behavior. As others have said it just needs to be designed in a way that doesn’t harm those who genuinely had something come up and they had to leave. But for those who do it habitually there needs to be real consequences or else they will just keep doing it.

#11

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere:

Implement a “leaver” status. If you leave games a lot? Guess who you get paired with… Other leavers! You decided that you’ve given yourself enough punishment? You stop leaving games and it balances out.

The key question there is “how many games makes someone a leaver?”. I’m inclined to say if you leave 1/8 or more games, y’know, averaging back 30 games. If you’ve left 4+ games out of 30, then you’re a leaver. You get queued with other leavers and the rest of us don’t have to worry about it.

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#13

I can tell you that the few times I quit a match, I just exited Battleborn and started playing a different game. Even if we’re doing badly I try and stay just to get more EXP, it’s not really because I don’t want to be blocked from starting another game.

#14

How is this still an issue?

I hate to be dramatic, but leavers are killing the game experience. Stop putting them in my games. Just stop it. If I have to wait 5 extra minutes in order to not get people who leave games, then it’d be worth it.I played 4 games Tuesday:

1 - Leaver in the first 5 minutes. We managed to lose by tie-score (another shit thing, but, w/e)
2 - 5v5, enemy team surrendered in the first 8 minutes with the sentries 100-100
3 - 5v5, Long slow defeat (I’m going to blame the Pendles with 2 kills, to my Ambra’s 11, but w/e)
4 - Leaver in the first 10 minutes. We were winning until they left, then we couldn’t keep ground in the center.

I’m sure that we would have won the first game and probably the fourth game. The only defeat that I “deserved” was the 3rd game.

#15

I agree with you, but people still don’t get it. You cannot stop people from leaving, you can punish them all you want but it won’t automatically fix the issue for those affected. You can put an hour ban up, and people would still leave if they got irritated enough (or left because of a connection issue). Yes it sucks and yes people should feel bad for doing it but that doesn’t change the facts.

I’m not entirely sure people are capable of understanding how banning someone does NOT improve the situation for the team affected. This isn’t an opinion, this is basic mathematics…

What we need is a system to compensate for the loss of players.

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#16

You can’t stop them from leaving, you’re right.

But you can stop the system from pairing them with me. Heroes of the Storm does it. You quit a game? Guess what, you have to go play with the other scrubs until you learn to play nice.

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#17

I’m new to the game and having fun so far, but I agree that there should be a bot replacement or a new player joining mid game if someone leaves early.

Would not be against the mechanics to pair people who leave often with others who do the same, and not players who fight till the end.

That said, last two nights I got thrown out of the match we were winning because steam client went down. I could not rejoin, because I could not log in to shift ingame or go past the main screen. My internet was working fine, it was an issue on steams end. I should not be punished for that.

2 Likes
#18

The steam disconnects is a funky part of the issue (because PS4 and XB1 don’t use it, obviously)

That’s why my “solution” has always been to have a running tally. Look at your last 20 games. If you have more than 3/20 leave early games, then you’re a “Leaver”.

#19

Regardless of the “punishment” I’ll still leave a match if I am paired with level 100"s noobs against skillful opponents when I solo play. Nothing will change. Gaming industry needs profit and thus they won’t ban players for a ridiculous reason such as a leaving a match… Specially when they lack player base.

I like the idea of bot replacement. The bot would only feed kills but at least it gives the opponent a target to focus on for a few seconds per kill instead of the actual remaining players.

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#20

I’m going to counterpoint here, mostly because there’s very few people who’d willingly admit it. I HAVE left games. Games where people turned off their brains, and just farted around for 20 minutes. Games where a Miko stood next to a Montana, and didn’t heal them for more than 1k in the entire match. Where two melees constantly sentry-dived AHEAD of the minion wave. Where…against the advice of a healer trying to keep people up, one Deande was adamant about soloing the mid thrall camp, even when she got jumped twice. So, yes, I leave a game when it is no fun for me. But why is it my fun, MY enjoyment of the game, doesn’t matter? Why is it only those who STAY in a game, get to complain about someone?

Now, I WILL meet those who decry leaving halfway; I’m willing to accept a system of punishment for people LEAVING a game early…just as soon as there’s also a punishment system for people sabotaging a game and blowing the score out. I’ll happily stay in any game where I can report someone say using Kelvin’s Ice Wall to block off ALLIES instead of enemies, or a Galilea who won’t fight anything but a 100% kill fight for herself. The entire reason I leave a game is because OTHER players on my team, destroy our efforts to have a good fight, and I have no recourse against them. I can’t even avoid being matched up WITH them again so they get a second round of it. Even worse, this ISN’T what I would call deliberate “griefing”. It’s just people being idiots with their characters. What happens when that isn’t enough for someone? LoL was brought up before, and in LoL, you CAN report someone for griefing your team or sandbagging the game to help the other side. Right now, there’s NOTHING that penalizes a player for doing precisely that.

As a final thought, and specifically to your comment dwabi; beware what you wish for. I’ve said repeatedly, that the day GBX implements a penalty too stringent for me leaving without a similar penalty for bad play, is the day I’m done with this game and most other GBX products. I got about ten people into playing BB because I played the beta, liked the game where it was at that time, and advised them to buy it. Word of Mouth, swings both ways. I’ve got NO problem telling them and others that BB is a sinless zone for griefers when that day comes down, and they shouldn’t buy it. About two years ago, Monolith Productions farmed their IP F.E.A.R. out to Aerial games, who made F.E.A.R. Online, a competitive shooter variant of the horror game. And they had griefers and cheaters galore in that game. As with everything, word of mouth got out quickly about the hacks that could be used, that were’t patched out or even punished by the devs, and F.E.A.R. Online, didn’t even make it nine months before it went offline.

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#21

In this same context.
I can say lvl100 premades who stomp though the newbies in this game is killing my fun in this game. If i have to wait an extra 5 min to avoid leaving a game and gettinga balanced match where i dont run into those lvl100 premades then it’d be worth it.

Obvious reason why people leave games is because the match making has issues, and the person is NOT having fun. I have yet to see a case where anyone left in a balanced match.

Its always the unbalanced ones where they leave, because they dont even want to waste the 15-20 minutes of hell which will be coming.

Its really sad how people think one sided, and its also sad how people only find amusement in domination and tormenting these newbies to the point where they want to drop the game and already hurt a diminishing player base.

As for leaver penality… not unless you can fix the match making issues.
Otherwise have fun playing with a even lower player base when people leave because of the leaver penalty. The game is not fun when u have less then 400 player base, which the PC version has seen before pindles came out.

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