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Balancing teams on a LAN server

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Yaribz edited this page Feb 23, 2024 · 1 revision

Unlike online lobby servers, LAN servers have no account database and users can log in using any account name. Therefore, there is no ranking system on LAN servers and team balance must be managed differently. This document presents 4 ways to manage team balance using SPADS on LAN servers, arguably from the most efficient to the least efficient.

Depending on the selected method, following SPADS settings may need to be adjusted: autoBalance, autoBlockBalance and balanceMode. These settings can be adjusted dynamically using the !set command, and their default values can be edited in main SPADS configuration file spads.conf.

1) Using automatic balance with manually assigned ranks

SPADS administrators have access to the !chrank command, which allows them to manually assign ranks to players. These manual ranks can replace an automatic ranking system and SPADS can use them to perform automatic team balance.

In order to use this method, SPADS configuration regarding autoBalance, autoBlockBalance and balanceMode settings should be kept as it is by default:

  • autoBalance should be kept on advanced so that SPADS manages balance automatically using ranking values provided by administrators.
  • autoBlockBalance should be kept on 1, so that SPADS prevents players from changing team themselves once automatic balance has been performed.
  • balanceMode should be kept on clan;skill or skill, so that SPADS balances teams according to rank values.

For example, if we suppose the battle room contains 4 players named ProPlayer1, ProPlayer2, AveragePlayer1 and AveragePlayer2, an administrator could use following commands to use automatic balance with manually assigned ranks:

!chrank ProPlayer1 7
!chrank ProPlayer2 7
!chrank AveragePlayer1 4
!chrank AveragePlayer2 4

This could result in following automatic balance for example: (ProPlayer1,AveragePlayer1) VS (ProPlayer2,AveragePlayer2). But it could also equally likely result in following balance: (ProPlayer1,AveragePlayer2) VS (ProPlayer2,AveragePlayer1)

Note 1: once SPADS has chosen a way to balance a set of players into teams, it won't change this balance except after a game or if the !rebalance command is used.

Note 2: Manually assigned ranks are attached to the user names, they are persistent across SPADS restarts.

2) Using !force command to manage balance manually

SPADS administrators have access to the !force command, which allows them to split players into teams and perform balance manually.

In order to use this method, automatic balance should be disabled:

  • autoBalance should be set to off so that SPADS doesn't try to balance teams automatically.
  • autoBlockBalance should be set to 0 so that SPADS doesn't lock the teams if a player calls the !balance command.

For example, if we suppose the battle room contains 4 players named ProPlayer1, ProPlayer2, AveragePlayer1 and AveragePlayer2, an administrator could use following commands to assign teams manually:

!set autoBalance off
!set autoBlockBalance 0
!force * (ProPlayer1,AveragePlayer1)(ProPlayer2,AveragePlayer2)

3) Letting players manage balance manually themselves

The third method consists in letting each player choose his own team by himself, using the GUI of his lobby client. The weak point of this method is that it requires players to agree on teams and cooperate.

In order to use this method, automatic balance should be disabled:

  • autoBalance should be set to off so that SPADS doesn't try to balance teams automatically.
  • autoBlockBalance should be set to 0 so that SPADS doesn't lock the teams if a player calls the !balance command.

For example, following commands can be used to allow players to choose their teams manually themselves:

!set autoBalance off
!set autoBlockBalance 0

Note: When disabling autobalance to let players choose their teams manually, it is also important to check the players ID numbers. ID numbers are used to identify the players sharing same units: if two players have same ID number, they will control the same units in game. Team and ID are sometimes also referred to as Ally team and Team respectively, which might be confusing. When autobalance is enabled, SPADS takes care of using different ID for all players, but when autobalance is off players must ensure they all use distinct ID by themselves.

4) Using automatic random balance

The last method consists in letting SPADS auto-balance teams randomly. This method can be useful when most players have similar skill. Additionally, when players think the chosen balance is unfair, they can still use the !rebalance command to start over the auto-balance process and try another arrangement.

In order to use this method, SPADS configuration regarding autoBalance and autoBlockBalance settings should be kept as it is by default, but the balanceMode should be changed:

  • autoBalance should be kept on advanced so that SPADS manages balance automatically.
  • autoBlockBalance should be kept on 1, so that SPADS prevents players from changing team themselves once automatic balance has been performed.
  • balanceMode should be set to random or clan;random, so that SPADS balances teams randomly.

For example, following command can be used to enable random balance:

!set balanceMode random

Note: once SPADS has chosen a way to balance a set of players into teams, it won't change this balance except after a game or if the !rebalance command is used.

Useful SPADS settings and commands

Settings

Commands

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