Alternative to kicking new players: tutorial voting

The ability for a brand new player to join and try to learn the game during games completely derails lobpot.

Propose: Give players a way to vote for a player into a mode where they can't play lobpot until they finish the tutorial. Say, 10 votes by 10 distinct players?

Like many things that look good on paper, this is too idealistic. If they are forced to complete the tutorial, they will just mindlessly go though it without any benefit to anyone and come back to the pot with vengeance.

Could just have zero-k set a flag that temporarily adjusts the player's elo down 500 for the purpose of balancing if the lobby finds they haven't finished the first couple of campaign missions.

(partially joking) I would rather have them answer 5 questions in English (and/or fill in what they can speak). I think it is nice to teach/share tips, but occasionally it is possible that they do not understand at all what we are trying to communicate.

On a more practical approach I feel we have a problem communicating clearly with some players (chat is too small and people can miss it, and same issue with map markers). There should be an easy an simple way to communicate with players concise actions (Ex: "move units front", "build me a con", "do not build more storage"). Things not great now: it is hard to know what is the current set of messages for you; there is no way to "acknowledge" (mark as read).

Maybe something like a small floating window with "messages to/from other players" with a "delete/don't care" and an "acknowledge/will do" (for incoming messages).

Bonus: if you can make an "team asks", something like "team asks not to build singu here but help existing one" and everybody that agrees can "check" such that the player in question sees "team mates A,B,C ask you to: ..."

no we need to kick more!!!

but player need to know exactly why he/she was kicked

and have some change to kick so ppl dont get kicked from room but kicked from battle to spec like they just resigned so they can wach and maybe ASK why they were kicked imo lots of ppl will see kick as personal attack so they dont wait 5 min how do u know u only banned for 5?

msg on screan for 5 min you were voted out do to example storage spam we can have some common things highlighted in kick window in dropdown menu so that player know why

he then see that for 5 min on screan so it will sink in

but if u just kick someone who is overwelmed with info new player is like wtf just happened and he is like fck this game and so on

also imo problem is with some old players doing bad stuff from start like 4 storages start or athena spam if im new i may try same but old play may have strat in mind that new player dont get or the old player is just bad and new player cant see that just yet

i do have my personal solution for that problem... i just spam singu so they can just throw metal on enemy and win from good eco but then if i dont do that i find myself at fron with no E and storage forrest at back with 3 SW being made at same time with no grid and lvl 4 commanders

this is frustrating im just average player so i do need my TEAM

but if i get some new player that i can gues what they will do and some old that i know will start with storage and athena rush u r -3 or 4 ppl from the start on top of that 2 go air and 1 making shield ball that take time other making domi ball and in 12v12 u play 12v6 and game last 5-10 min and all in lobby is like wtf happened

I've lost count of how many times some iteration of mandatory tutorial idea was proposed, but this one takes the cake by the tutorial being imposed by a lynch mob.

i just suggest a simple tutorial thats obligatory in the first log in the game.
The tutorial should be short ,no more than 30 min,it just needs to teach the bare basics like:
line move,economy basics (dont spam storages,dont excess ,allways use all youre metal,metal is shared) ,expand is win,basic controls.
Things that are simple to understand.This should also make smurfing more annoying to do.

Allmost all MP games have something like this!

seeing level 0 players figuring the basics out like movement and stuff does not make me happy to have them on my team,and actually results in kicks which does not help player retention.

Also

quote: I've lost count of how many times some iteration of mandatory tutorial idea was proposed, but this one takes the cake by the tutorial being imposed by a lynch mob.

The current state of things is that a single player can derail games to the point where everyone just leaves the lobpot. Kicks aren't allowed for new players and reporting does nothing. It really feels like there needs to be something in between.

When ten people complain, game after game over weeks about a single person, maybe it makes sense to find a fix.

Mind you, I never actually gave any specifics about how to implement this, so I'm not sure why this would necessarily need to be a "lynch mob" (who needs principle of charity anyway). For example, one way to implement this would be to have the votes forwarded to a mod if it goes over 10. That way we have mod discretion rather than mob discretion.

How can games get derailed? The train factory only exists in our imaginations.

quote: When does this happen? Can you show battles?

Recent games with Kids and Kids2504 are good examples. Around https://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/1273526, people were refusing to play with Kids2504, then went into spec. It's not the first time.

Not sure if it's a language difference or what, but no matter how many people ask them to play the tutorial, they just.. don't. It's about as tedious as it is ineffective.

Most of these issues are a direct result of balancing being broken where small games prioritize giving new players to the weaker team. When players like Kids2504 refuse to learn and can't take a hint, it directly leads to a cascade of players leaving and the lobpot dies for the night. It's a guaranteed loss that nobody wants to deal with. It happens regularly.