AOE-II DE The smurf problem in DE

[Eru_iluvatar]

Will we ever get a solution for the rampant smurf issue in DE? after playing another stack of 4 smurfs with 75+% winrate im kinda at a point where i consider quitting matchmaking.

 

[Chainsaw]

I think a better question is if we will ever get a satisfactory solution to the smurf problem. I think the answer is no. The devs have been saying that they are looking into the problem for a long time, but they are obviously putting more importance on the aesthetics and events.

I myself have played with friends who used a smurf account who have their reasons for doing so, which, I might add, I never think justify smurfing. There have been long threads discussing the ins and outs, the morals, and there are good cases to be made for and against. Again, I regularly meet and lose to smurfs both in TG and 1v1 and it is frustrating and sometimes demoralizing.

I don't know how active they still are, but NCzone apparently was a good solution for some. It was a German community that had their own elo system. I myself just play to have fun and regularly play with friends so I can blame them for my shortcomings lol.

TL;DR it won't be fixed, it sucks. Play with friends or look into NCzone

 

[HelloWorld]

Will we ever get a solution for the rampant smurf issue in DE? after playing another stack of 4 smurfs with 75+% winrate im kinda at a point where i consider quitting matchmaking.

I already quit matchmaking.. Only playing with friends in lobby.

 

[XDDXOXO]

No, because smurfing is not only an issue in AoE but also in several other online mulitplayer games. As long as the game developers accept or even push smurfing in general, it will not go away.

 

[Rgeadn]

Remoev elo boosting eg high rated players playing with low rated players to stop the system being abused. High rated players winning with low rated teammates should not get 20 points and vice versa.

Consider not allowing 4 people to queue together in the first place to make MM more playable, maybe 2 max in 3v3 and 4v4.

Don't tink smurfing in tgs was that bad before the elo adjustments.

 

[oozkan]

You don't need to worry about it a lot to be honest. If you check top50, you can see last match played 10+ days ago for many users, I don't know when ladder decay will kick in, but most of the guys with good smurfs are already on AOE4 and looks like they are not coming back soon. We will probably see those guys only Memb tourney to Memb tourney if Microsoft keeps sponsoring.

I have just counted, there are 20 players played ranked game in last day, and 4 players in last hour in top100.

 

[SouFire]

Well i don't think smurfing is an issue than only involves the top 100.

In my experience in order to avoid certain stackers and all the awful matches i was having in 2700, i found out better matches at 2200 level, it wasn't noob bashing at all, there are +17XX players now at those levels, probably trying to dodge stackers at higher levels, before a 1700 in 1x1 was like 3200 tg, but that moment didn't last either, after the punishment patch, idk if there are less players interested or if they are using even more smurf nicks to jump the punishments but the matches are way more imbalanced than ever.

This feels exactly like voobly when lots of smurfs decided to stay in NPL camping, they didn't care anymore for their elo which resulted in a heavy player loss and depreciation of the ranks in medieval siege, a 1900 1x1 was like 1500/1600 in tg if playing solo, the same is happening to DE and i fear like more players will likely choose to have lower ranks in order to get better chances of winning, like 4/10 games vs stackers with awful teams but the rest of games with winnable conditions, while it might decrease the silly inflation created by the devs, the experience is going to be terrible and the ranks will lose their purpose.

Honestly if they remove family share it will drecrease smurfing for sure but it will kill the game cause there are no other options to dodge their silly system created to boost stackers/premades ego, with little to not choice to choose the map or the team you are getting.

 

[jacobchip]

Probably an unhelpful take, but at where I am ~1450 there isn’t a smurf issue. I’m sure once you get much higher then there is, but I don’t know what you can actually do to stop it — you can’t stop people from buying two copies of the game, or having two accounts…?

 

[doacid]

Steam family sharing is such a great feature. The problem is that people with good intentions aren't the only ones using it. There are also griefers, smurfs, alt+f4ckers, cheaters...

The Devs must have decided that the pros outweigh the cons (for them) and leave family sharing on. Cause the normal player facing these assholes every day probably doesn't enjoy it too much.

 

[majklinho]

If you ever think smurfing is not an issue, just look at aoe2.net on ongoing games sorted by rating, usually more than half the games have sandbaggers in them above 2k tg rating, looked right now, seems like some of the well known british turkish and other stacks still sleeping. At this point smurfing being this frequent on 2k+ tg level you have to disable family sharing to make those sad disgraces of human beings at least pay for more copies. You can talk about problems that the game had or has but these people sandbagging are destroying the game way more than any bug, crashing or cheating that appeared in game. Not getting matches for 5 minutes before you get random matchup that is basically the same skill difference to sandbagging is no excuse to using smurfs in tgs

 

[Biz]

it's only going to get worse

more legitimate players try aoe4 = percentage of legitimate players in aoe2 gets reduced

and most of the time, their matchmaking procedure doesn't even work when all the accounts are legitimate ones. so many games with one team's average rating being different from the other by hundreds of elo

 

[IYIyTh]

Eh, I'll be playing a good game at even the 16/17xx level, have everything in control, then the person somehow comes back with a miracle comeback doing everything right miraculously, which isn't super common at the elo. Drop the GG, look at their rating, and something like 30 wins and 3 losses.

Just really odd.

It's about 1 in 3 games recently where their win rate is > 58%

 

[LowEloNobody]

Eh, I'll be playing a good game at even the 16/17xx level, have everything in control, then the person somehow comes back with a miracle comeback doing everything right miraculously, which isn't super common at the elo. Drop the GG, look at their rating, and something like 30 wins and 3 losses.

Just really odd.

It's about 1 in 3 games recently where their win rate is > 58%

I agree. The other night I played an arena game against some player who doesn't understand how the alphabet works (name was lyyyth or something). Anyway, he has great game sense and counter trushes my trush, has great vil micro and GGs me by minute 20.
I look at their rating and they have like 98 wins and 72 losses (58% win rate) (in unranked)

Just really odd.

It's about 1 in 3 games recently where my Yolo Fuedal trush against stone walls on Arena doesn't work

 

[Ophelia]

If you ever think smurfing is not an issue, just look at aoe2.net on ongoing games sorted by rating, usually more than half the games have sandbaggers in them above 2k tg rating, looked right now, seems like some of the well known british turkish and other stacks still sleeping. At this point smurfing being this frequent on 2k+ tg level you have to disable family sharing to make those sad disgraces of human beings at least pay for more copies. You can talk about problems that the game had or has but these people sandbagging are destroying the game way more than any bug, crashing or cheating that appeared in game. Not getting matches for 5 minutes before you get random matchup that is basically the same skill difference to sandbagging is no excuse to using smurfs in tgs

TG elo is so wrong.

I used to play only TGs with my rather skilled friends, so my elo seems higher than my own skill level. They used to carry most of the time. But I was a noob. Once I started playing without them, my elo began to drop as it's supposed to. This is another mistake in the ranking system as was mentioned before on different platforms. So I stopped playing TGs altogether. I believe this might be happening a lot more than family sharing.

 

[Tocaraca]

Just stop playing teamgames they suck even at the expert level

 

[SouFire]

Just stop playing teamgames they suck even at the expert level

Bro there has never been team games at expert level on DE 11111 (at least not ranked)

It is just now a dead game mode, people asking to remove family share, it is like the guys asking for punishments, their proposals will backfire us all, without smurfing as an alternative to dodge stackers or team islands, people will just stop playing once and for all.

 

[lecracheursagacite]

Bro there has never been team games at expert level on DE 11111 (at least not ranked)

It is just now a dead game mode, people asking to remove family share, it is like the guys asking for punishments, their proposals will backfire us all, without smurfing as an alternative to dodge stackers or team islands, people will just stop playing once and for all.

I had fun for a bit after DE was released but it really started going downhill once the devs refused to do anything about Khmer for far too long after their nonsensical magic farmers were implemented (like adding bans so every Arena game wasn't insta gg or actually admitting they made a mistake and reverting the ridiculous change in favor of a different buff that actually had some semblance of skill expression to it or at the very least didn't compromise core gameplay mechanics).

 

[King_Boo]

Eh, I'll be playing a good game at even the 16/17xx level, have everything in control, then the person somehow comes back with a miracle comeback doing everything right miraculously, which isn't super common at the elo. Drop the GG, look at their rating, and something like 30 wins and 3 losses.

Just really odd.

It's about 1 in 3 games recently where their win rate is > 58%

I have taken some time to watch a few of your replays and you seem to often forget to drop that ‘gg’ - maybe try loosening your grip on it or take it out your pocket first?
Alternatively, maybe you drop the wrong line and accidentally mix up ‘gg’ with ‘1 TC garbage’ or similar complimentary comments towards aggressive players.
Some opponents also seemed to get bored of you picking Teutons - is placing 6, 7 or maybe even 8 villagers inside of your towers really the strategic diversity you are looking for in this game?
The real time cost-benefit analysis required to pull off such skilful switches between strategies, all whilst using just one civ must be indicative of your amazing conceptual understanding of the fundamental design and inner workings of this game! I am impressed!
It’s just really odd that no one else has picked up on such a hidden gem in the community or tried to learn your unique strategic play style for their own benefit.
I know It’svery difficu to fathom the level of understanding you have, but please enlighten us further

 

[Aten]

I have taken some time to watch a few of your replays and you seem to often forget to drop that ‘gg’ - maybe try loosening your grip on it or take it out your pocket first?
Alternatively, maybe you drop the wrong line and accidentally mix up ‘gg’ with ‘1 TC garbage’ or similar complementary comments towards aggressive players.
Some opponents also seemed to get bored of you picking Teutons - is placing 6, 7 or maybe even 8 villagers inside of your towers really the strategic diversity you are looking for in this game?
The real time cost-benefit analysis required to pull off such skilful switches between strategies, all whilst using just one civ must be indicative of your amazing conceptual understanding of the fundamental design and inner workings of this game! I am impressed!
It’s just really odd that no one else has picked up on such a hidden gem in the community or tried to learn your unique strategic play style for their own benefit.
I know It’svery difficu to fathom the level of understanding you have, but please enlighten us further

*complimentary

 

[King_Boo]

*complimentary

STFU :duck: :willdbeastrage: :ghost: :carrot:

 

[IYIyTh]

Eh, I'll be playing a good game at even the 16/17xx level, have everything in control, then the person somehow comes back with a miracle comeback doing everything right miraculously, which isn't super common at the elo. Drop the GG, look at their rating, and something like 30 wins and 3 losses.

Just really odd.

It's about 1 in 3 games recently where their win rate is > 58%

I have taken some time to watch a few of your replays and you seem to often forget to drop that ‘gg’ - maybe try loosening your grip on it or take it out your pocket first?
Alternatively, maybe you drop the wrong line and accidentally mix up ‘gg’ with ‘1 TC garbage’ or similar complimentary comments towards aggressive players.
Some opponents also seemed to get bored of you picking Teutons - is placing 6, 7 or maybe even 8 villagers inside of your towers really the strategic diversity you are looking for in this game?
The real time cost-benefit analysis required to pull off such skilful switches between strategies, all whilst using just one civ must be indicative of your amazing conceptual understanding of the fundamental design and inner workings of this game! I am impressed!
It’s just really odd that no one else has picked up on such a hidden gem in the community or tried to learn your unique strategic play style for their own benefit.
I know It’svery difficu to fathom the level of understanding you have, but please enlighten us further

Takes post about smurfs, interjects off-topic rant about playstyle preferences. Creepily implies one stalks my recorded games, decides to interject things that would not be evident in them.

Did I hit a nerve calling out smurfing or something?

Are you upset that I almost beat you while you were smurfing?

Guess I found them!

 

[IYIyTh]

I agree. The other night I played an arena game against some player who doesn't understand how the alphabet works (name was lyyyth or something). Anyway, he has great game sense and counter trushes my trush, has great vil micro and GGs me by minute 20.
I look at their rating and they have like 98 wins and 72 losses (58% win rate) (in unranked)

Just really odd.

It's about 1 in 3 games recently where my Yolo Fuedal trush against stone walls on Arena doesn't work

Was this supposed to be a sick burn of some sort and/or funny, or any way related to what you quoted from my post -- or just low effort trolling?

Either way I'm not quite sure you have the hang of it just yet.

 

[z3us]

Takes post about smurfs, interjects off-topic rant about playstyle preferences. Creepily implies one stalks my recorded games, decides to interject things that would not be evident in them.

Did I hit a nerve calling out smurfing or something?

Are you upset that I almost beat you while you were smurfing?

Guess I found them!

Wow! Back so soon from the hospital after treating the 3rd degree burns your received?!

 

[IYIyTh]

Wow! Back so soon from the hospital after treating the 3rd degree burns your received?!

Yes, absolutely phased or rekt, or something. Is that the proper lingo/response I'm supposed to give when one user rages/engages in an off-topic rant at another for having the audacity to suggest that smurfing is quite prevalent at multiple ELO ranges?


Hospital. Hm. Perhaps you meant asylum. This place certainly has a few folks who belong in one.

 

[LowEloNobody]

Was this supposed to be a sick burn of some sort and/or funny, or any way related to what you quoted from my post -- or just low effort trolling?

Either way I'm not quite sure you have the hang of it just yet.

Just a random reference to our game the night before, but go off I guess