heroes Heroes Blue Posts: March 19th

[Stan 5,247]

The Heroes team recently talked about Loss Forgiveness, Storm League seeding, and solo queue in a series of blue posts on Reddit.

Loss Forgiveness Clarifications

Loss Forgiveness was discussed during the Ranked & Balance & Matchmaking AMA of March 6. The new feature is there to help soften the impact of a team with a player missing a significant portion of a match which contributes to a potentional loss. We learned that it has undergone significant development and the team still plans to implement it to the game. Yesterday, however, the Heroes team informed us that there are still some edge cases that impact the release of Loss Forgiveness. The tricky portion of the feature is to truly determine, whether a player has connection issues or is disconnecting on purpose.

Blizzard (Source)

Do you plan to implement a loss forgiveness mechanic for being matched with AFK/Disconnected players in ranked?

Hello Midnight7_7:) Firstly I'd like to let you know that the The Loss Forgiveness feature has undergone significant development, and is something we still plan on delivering. However, there are quite a few edge cases that we need to consider when developing this feature in order to make sure it provides the best experience for you, the player.  Let's break this question down into a few scenarios: 

A game completes while a player is disconnected: A leaver penalty is already applied to the account and the user is no longer able to participate in ranked matches until they have played the required amount non ranked matches. This scenario is already handled. 

A player is disconnected for a significant portion of the match: This is the Loss Forgiveness feature that we would like to polish.

Update Posted on March 18th

Hey folks,

I'd like to bring some clarity to the second point that was intentionally left vague as we are working around some of the edge cases that impact the release of this feature.

The Loss Forgiveness feature is designed to help soften the impact of a team with a player missing a significant portion of a match which contributes to a potential loss. Ideas that that we've considered and are still polishing up are:

• The amount of time a player needs to be absent for before they significantly lessen the chance for their team to win.
• If the team who experienced the absent player wins - still award the win.
• If the team who experienced the absent player loses - forgive the loss.
• If the offending player has a frequent history of being absent for significant portions of a match, apply a stricter penalty that impacts their rank. The duration of time the player will be flagged as a frequent deserter will be for the remainder of the season.

The tricky situation around the polish of Loss Forgiveness is determining if a player truly disconnected or is experiencing (potentially widespread) connectivity issues outside of their control. In the event the player is experiencing connectivity issues, we feel it may be unfair to apply a stricter penalty that impacts their rank. On the other hand, for players who are intentionally frequently absent from a game, the stricter penalty needs to be applied otherwise the system can be exploited.

I hope this brings some additional clarity around some of the misunderstandings.

Using Team League MMR to Seed Storm League & Single Queue

Hero and Team League will be merged into Storm League, a single Ranked queue, in the latest content patch that arrives on live servers next week. The starting MMR in Storm League will be taken from a player's last highest MMR from Hero or Team League, whichever is higher. One reason why the Heroes team is okay with that, despite the unbalanced Team League, is because they plan to cap everyone at Diamond 5, so boosted players will have to fight their way up the ranks.

They're also internally considering the return of Solo Queue (being matched with other solo players), but it won't ship with the new Season.

Blizzard (Source)

Blizzard, it is no secret that TL is a highly unbalanced mess where ranks are made up and points don't matter. I assume you don't want to completely ostracize players that exclusively play TL, but I would highly recommend you ignore TL entirely when it comes to seeding Storm League. If you do not I fear the clown fiesta that Ranked is now will only be enhanced and your new mode will be DOA.

Good afternoon Reddit friends,

We have been hearing this feedback loud and clear, and have talked about it internally a lot. We understand your feelings about this and are working very hard to make sure that Storm League is fun, competitive, and inviting to all players interested in it.

The major reason we are okay with taking the highest between both current Leagues is because we plan to 'clamp' the high-end of the player base. The exact clamp position is still subject to change, but we are currently targeting an MMR equivalent of Diamond 5. This means that even players that were previously 'boosted' in TL games, will have to fight their way back into higher rankings. 'Boosted' players that don't actually deserve their current MMR should fall to where they belong over time, and with the incoming decay changes, will not be able to place high and then just quit.

We are still very hard at work on a lot of this stuff, so please continue to give your feedback and discuss all of the stuff you are looking forward to, as well as the things you would like to see changed!

Have a wonderful PTR day!

Thank you for the reply. Could you tell us if there will be a solo queue only possibilty? Like to only queue vs other solo players?

We have talked about this internally and think it's a great idea. We also bounced-around the idea of each player having two visible MMR's as well (solo and group).

The chance of it shipping with the first season is very small though, as we still have a huge amount of work to finish the current scope.

So correct me if I'm wrong. What you're saying is that the highest rank anyone will be able to achieve when Storm league goes live is (for now)D5? Is it for TL MMR only or both?

For both - but again, that is still subject to change as we continue fleshing out the full feature.

 

[lChronosl 182]

Thanks for this roundup. It can be difficult to find stuff on the Reddit after a big patch like this.

[VegaPl 88]

18 hours ago, lChronosl said:

Thanks for this roundup. It can be difficult to find stuff on the Reddit after a big patch like this.

I absolutely detest Reddit, so I never go back there for such stuff. All the more thanks for round two Stan.

Edited March 20, 2019 by VegaPl

[cavitaro 1]

On 3/19/2019 at 8:43 AM, Stan said:

Blizzard, it is no secret that TL is a highly unbalanced mess where ranks are made up and points don't matter.

? Whose line is it anyway?

[CyberDVonaven 82]

On 3/19/2019 at 7:43 AM, Stan said:

Blizzard, it is no secret that TL is a highly unbalanced mess where ranks are made up and points don't matter. I assume you don't want to completely ostracize players that exclusively play TL, but I would highly recommend you ignore TL entirely when it comes to seeding Storm League. If you do not I fear the clown fiesta that Ranked is now will only be enhanced and your new mode will be DOA.

o_O? Would someone like to explain to me how this is true (if it is)? Or is this guy just being an ***hat and talking ****?