Battle.net 2.0

First of all sorry for the lame title.

this is a thread for suggestions about upgrading battle.net for starcraft 2. so, share your ideas and your opinions of everyone elses ideas. i'll edit my ideas to add in yours if i don't completely disagree.

here are some of my ideas:

Voice chat

battlenet needs to support voice chat. no matter what.

anti cheating/hacking

id love to hear some suggestions on this. im sure blizzard will do the best job possible, but i dont want to touch the ethical issues of the warden program.

fix hosting games

the most frustrating thing is when playing with your friends it seems no one is ever able to host. in starcraft you could all join the same game, and then leave and you would be able to play a game together (lat breaking). in warcraft 3 it always seems that your dumbass friends dont know how to configure their router to open whatever ports (6112-6118?) and you end up playing some crap like dota cause its easier. (and i cant mess with my router cause its university connection ) ... : (

come on blizzard, i mean damn...

Game Client

i think the game should default into a public channel or your specified channel at start.
it should include the following features:

Game Search
Join as team
Replay Search (or observer search)
Host UMS
Browse UMS
Tournament

the game should incorporate ping and location information tools like ListChecker.

Game speed should always be very fast by default.
feel free to figure out a way to set up tournament games on bnet that might actually attract the best players, i cant figure it out this late : P

Game Search

i think it is pretty much a given that there will be a gamesearch and match making service. this is definitely an improvement in most ways of the starcraft method of searching for a game yourself, in terms of wait time and getting a competitive game. however, i think the gamesearch should only put you in a lobby with other waiting players instead of straight into the game.

the gamesearch feature would find a suitable game to join based on the rank of the individual players in the lobby.
the gamesearch should not distinguish between arranged team games and entirely generated teams IMO.

Join as Team

this feature would search for /create for a game to join that with the number of members your team has. you could be matched against another team or just regular gamesearching players, but they will be chosen to match your rank.

replay/observer search search

replays:
players should be able to search a replay database from the client.

observing:
if a unique name is given out when a game is created players should be able to observe the game (with chat disabled to prevent cheating). of course unfortunately there is no way to fully prevent cheating on battlenet, but i think having observers in game would prevent the worst forms of cheating (map hack) by having more eyes watching, so the benefit outwheighs the risk.

Maps

In war 3 you can only play blizzard approved maps, and the map is random. in starcraft, pro games are all done on custom made maps. blizzard needs to incorporate letting the players choose the map they want to play into the game. perhaps after the players are selected, they enter a lobby and then choose the map. (thus, my next point). in starcraft most games were only played on a few maps that everyone knew (in my days it was hunters and Lost temple. it probably still is)

Pre-game lobby

instead of jumping into a game after finding players, as players are found for a game they should be dumped into a lobby, like starcraft's. this way, if someone is going to leave the game before it starts when they see there opponents ranking, they can do that without ruining the game. plus, it lets you talk with your teammates and maybe discuss some strategy before the game starts instead of watching some eye look back and forth.

In the lobby the players will have the advantage of knowing how many players have been found so far, and will be able to know the plan before the game starts. in my opinion, the map should be able to be chosen in some way within the lobby before starting a countdown to the game.

Ranking

i think all standard games should affect rank. (standard means its not a "comp stomp" or a UMS game)
i dont want to go into the math details, but you guys can.

so...

its really late so ill fix this post up later, but please read and post away. there are probably a ton of typos, and some parts may make no sense.

 

Double post - should be removed.
(use the search function)

Edit: Here it was: http://www.starcraft2forum.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=47&topic=6162.0

 

Totally agree

Agree - They need to try to keep it clean.. to keep it competitive.

I don't know what you are expecting here. If your connection is gimped.. you can't host.. pretty simple.

WHAT!? I really don't agree with this one. There is a huge difference between ATs and RTs. This would be a huge mistake. ATs will rape RTs... Prefabs vs PUGs... They need to be kept separate.

Agree - You should be able to watch your past Ladder matches, and those of others. That would be a great tool to help everybody learn more about the game. You really do learn a lot from watching better players. I wouldn't expect them to save off-ladder matches, and UMS games.

What would be nice is to allow players to host other replays (non-ladder games like Korean pro matches), and watch/share them with friends.

I love Obs... but you can't do it on any ladder match. So many ways to abuse it. Obs in off-ladder games is great though. i just don't see how you get around the get-a-friend-to-Ob-and-tell-you-everything cheat, or the I-got-2-computers-so-I-Ob-games-I-play cheat.

I got 2 issues with your suggestion here.
First is map selection. Ladder games must be played on a standard set of maps. User created maps would be a disaster... Imagine a little game of LT.. or so you think... Turns out you are actually playing Last Tomple... which explains why you got 5 mineral nodes and he has 35. All we need to break up the map selection monotony is to get Blizz to start rotating the maps and introducing new ones (Korean pro maps would be nice.. if Kespa would allow it) at set points during or in-between each ladder season.
Second issue.. after waiting 20 minutes for the perfect opponent match-up.. the last thing I want to have to argue or agree with this stranger about map selection or game speed or what not... I just want to play!! I want the least amount of time wasted between match found and match played.

Again, still don't buy the idea of a pre-game loby for AMM ladder games. UMS and off-ladder melee games sure go nuts, but not for ladder. Anyhow.. I'm pretty sure that even if you did have to play it, a game wouldn't be to long against a guy with 12 wins 0 loses 233 disconnects.
In War3 doing AMM AT does put you and your mates in a chatroom for some pre-game discussion (usually ends up being post-game.. "did you see what i did to that guy's..." ^_^ ).

I know what you are going for.. a little feedback.. Why does it take 20 minutes for it to find me an opponent? What's the ETA on my game? The little eye doesn't exactly have any answers. I'm sure they can find a way to give us a bit of feedback so we know more and get frustrated less.

If by all standard games you mean AMM ladder and only AMM ladder then... Yes I agree. You can't seriously be ready to allow custom melee games to count?.. BGH? That would be a win-trading nightmare. If you want good players to play on the ladder it has to be as tight and legit as possible.

One of my irritations with War3 B.net was that most of the real juicy stats had to be viewed via web browser and that I didn't have access to all of it when I was in-game. I totally agree that all the stats should be available outside of the game... so you can check out stats and such from school or work ^_^... But the report on a player was way more detailed and informative vis the web page compared to what you got to see in-game. Also when I'm in the game, and i click on something, and have my game suddenly minimize, and browser launch ... I just get the feeling they didn't think it through, and that this is an attempt to jam in everything they forgot to put in the first place.

Anyhow.. those are my thoughts for now.
-ced

 

Locked.

See:
http://www.starcraft2forum.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=47&topic=6162.0

and also:
http://www.starcraft2forum.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=47&topic=3043.0
http://www.starcraft2forum.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=47&topic=4047.0