C&C3 Online Gaming – The Issues

This is just a quick rant on the bad status of online gaming, in particular CNC3:TW online. This is just from my experience.

Pros

• Online games are fast and furious
• Generally speaking the server software is stable and online
• Games load quickly on the most part
• Easy login and registration
• The human aspect – far more exciting playing human players
• Game lobbies are easy to use and respond quickly
• Community
  • Sites like CNCDEN.com and CNCNZ.com support the game wonderfully

Cons

• Automatch – Players are matched against similar ranked players but not players with similar amounts of skill
  • Noobs verus Pros and Pros versus Noobs only and not matching up correctly
  • If this feature worked correctly it would be very useful, but many people simply avoid using it
  • Randomness of maps is not correct and you often end up play the same map 3 times in a row
  • Seems to match simply by rank and ping range
• Attitude – Most players are friendly online, but some aren’t
  • Around 20% are annoying little prats who use exploits, play against Noobs constantly (when they are Pros) etc
  • In team matches most players do not remember that they have an ally to help/use and can use beacons, build in their ally’s base, reinforce their ally and combine some units
  • Some players simply have too much time on there hands and just spam message lobbies
• Cheating
  • Cheating is rife in CNC3:TW online and it comes in forms of
    • Cheat skirmish maps
    • Trainers (unlimited money, speed up in build time etc)
    • Disconnections (unplugging)
• Community
  • There are very few players online at the same time and it’s hard to find people from your country
  • Support for the game (official) can be really slow and unhelpful

Solutions

• Automatch
  • You should be matched to other players by rank, skill, location (ping), win loss ratio and time played online
• Banning Cheaters and Annoyances
  • Players who are an annoyance and stop other players from having fun should be booted off the system and their key locked
  • Players who have typed over 90 messages in one session online in a lobby should have their accounts suspended
• Connectivity
  • Player statuses in game lobbies should have their connectivity status actually being accurate (showing ping as a tooltip)

Conclusion

There has to be a better way it’s as simple as that.

All decent players want to play against players of equal or similar skill (regardless of rank) and want an enjoyable fun experience online with mates and people nearby (for better network connection).

The main objective of online play should be to make it FUN, remember that? That’s where you are not a professional player are not micromanaging to the hilt to win and are far more casual.

Most players are not playing it for the reason of Online Sport.

Don’t get me wrong I want to play CNC3:TW online but it just isn’t right yet. Until then I’ll be playing very few games and not waste my time playing online.

I really hope that the expansion “Kane’s Wrath” includes a server software update to improve online play and makes the majority of players (not professionals) able to have fun, quick matches online.

What do you think about CN3:TW online? Do you play online often?