Gears of War 2 Rankings Revised: A change is coming…

So this month is going to be a huge month for Gears of War 2 fans. We are getting some new systems introduced into the game that should mostly satisfy those that are not happy with the current true skill ranking system. We are also getting a new map pack with a winter theme (just in time for spring?), that includes what is probably the most requested Map from the original gears (Hint: There is some fuel, and maybe a depot…).

First lets look at some of the changes to ranking that are coming. Currently in Gears of War 2 the rank that is displayed next to your name is based completely on the true skill ranking system. This means that your rank is based mostly on your win loss ratio. Other factors contribute to it, mainly the rank of the players on each team determines how far up or down your rank moves based on who won or lost the match. Winning moves it up, losing moves it down, if your team ranks above or below the average rank of the other team it will affect how far up or down your rank goes as well.

There are some issues with this that most people have experienced, it can be really hard to move up in rank. This is mainly due to the fact that your win loss ratio is the contributing factor and that it is controlled for the most part by how well your team does. So no matter if you are the highest scoring player in the game, if your team loses, you lose rank. So the only sure fire way to rank up is by winning. Some people figure that the best way to control this is play a game with smaller teams like wingman, where you only have to count on one other person. The problem with this is that in wingman you have 5 teams so at best you start with only a 20% chance of winning. With elimination matches you have 2 teams so you start already at 50%. Some people have developed ways of cheating to rank up by lagging other players or by dropping out if they think they are going to lose.

The new system that will go into affect on March 24th (2009) will change the ranking system, and change the rank that you see next to your name in the lobby. Instead of 5 ranks, there will now be 100 levels. Similar to an RPG, or the ranking system in Call of Duty, you get points based on how you perform in game. Let me repeat… You get points only based on how YOU did, not the rest of the team. This means that at the end of each game, you get awarded points (Experience points) that go toward your next level. Now due to the way that some game modes score things, Epic has come up with a way of making it so that the points awarded are even across all game modes, that way those playing game types like king of the hill and Annex do not rank quicker than those who play game types that have lower average scoring options. So the score you get is not directly the points you will get at the end of the match towards your next rank. Most likely they will cap the number of experience points you can get in a game. This should stop people from gaming the system and coming up with exploits to increase there points per match. Also, there will be penalties enforced now for those that drop out of matches so that those who rank up by only staying in games they are winning will no longer be able to use that tactic. About damn time, if you have to cheat to rank up, your rank doesn’t really reflect your skill.

The trueskill system will still be used for match making, you just won’t see your true skill rank anymore, it will just be used behind the scenes to make teams even when matching them up. There will also be achievements related to your level going forward. Also included in the patch is logic to help identify those using lag/standby on their routers to cheat. I have been waiting for this for quite some time. I can’t stand it when I get some idiot who isn’t good enough to win normally and has to lag everyone to win and boost their rank. Your rank should reflect your skill, if you have to cheat, you don’t have enough skill to earn the rank anyway… so what's the point? Also to help balance out the game, when someone does leave, a bot player will be spawned in their place! Awesome, now when someone leaves the game won’t be as one sided. Here are some more notes on the patch from the GearsofWar.Xbox.com site:

• New experience-based ranking system: The new system gives you 100 levels of player experience, gained through scoring in Public matches. The game still uses TrueSkill to set up the most competitive matches possible, but skill ranks are now hidden. Players who quit matches early see their experience docked as a penalty.
• Public Match autobalancing: Bots now automatically join a Public Match to fill any slots left vacant by players who quit early or disconnect.
• Improvements: You get region preference for matchmaking, improved standby detection, playlist optimization, plus nine new achievements—six of which require the Snowblind Map Pack—worth a total of 250 points.
• Exploit fixes: Title Update 3 eliminates the ability to mantle greater distances by swapping weapons during cover slide and to melee attack through walls while holding an enemy weapon, plus adding many more fixes.
• General fixes: These include more reliable chainsaw interruption detection, improved headshot detection for certain character model heads, improved flag AI in Submission games, plus other fixes.
• Balancing: Title Update 3 makes changes to Subway weapon spawns for greater balance, reductions to smoke-grenade stun duration, an increase to the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels, and several other balance revisions.

Of course, that’s just some of what’s in store for players in Title Update 3. For the complete skinny, be sure to check out the complete patch notes.

Melting the Snow: Fuel Depot makes it’s return!

So on March 31st a new map pack is coming our way. This is the third map pack from Epic and like the previous ones, has some new and some new old! :) This pack is called the SnowBlind Map Pack. It includes three new maps and a remake of a classic. First the good news… Fuel Depot is finally coming to Gears of War 2. It is being redone to match the theme of the new map pack so it will have a winter slant to it. I am hoping that the new maps might actually have snow falling to make visibility a bit rougher, but you never know. I have been waiting forever for fuel depot to make a comeback and was pretty disappointed when the combustion map pack came out and the map Fuel Station was not a remake of Fuel Depot. But now my favorite map (outside of Mansion) has made it’s way to Gears 2 and I am very pleased. So besides fuel depot there are also three new maps coming along with it bringing the total to 4 maps in this package. Below is the description of the map pack from the GearsofWar.Xbox.com site: