First: For some retarded reason, the developers implemented a quit command in the start menu for the PSP version and NOT in the DS version. That means while a DS user who wants to quit has to turn of his/her DS, a PSP user can just simply press Start and Quit anytime they want. I have no idea why the hell you would put this in the PSP version only but it's not the biggest thing wrong with the online feature since people will always leave games no matter what.

Second: Here is where the big problem is. In the DS version, if everyone but one person leaves the online game, whoever is left automatically wins since they lasted the longest and therefore are rewarded with not leaving or disconnecting. HOWEVER, in the PSP version, there is absolutely NO REWARD for whoever is left in the game from everyone leaving.

Third: The three online schemes that you are able to use in ranked matches (Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert) that mostly everyone will use all require that you win 3 rounds in order to be rewarded your points. Not 1, not 2, but 3. That means even after you have already won 2 matches and the miracle that someone ACTUALLY is still in your game and hasn't already quit, you need to win another. Who the HELL would actually waste their time to play another game with you, only to have you win no matter what? It's stupid and doesn't make any sense and isn't fair to the losing player.

With the combination of all those problems, here is the aftermath and what the online mode is like for this game.

Since anyone can drop out of a match anytime, you can end playing all 3 rounds then at the very last second have everyone drop out, leaving you with a "No longer is this game available" error message. After all your hard work, everyone leaves and you are rewarding WITH NOTHING. Every single game I have played online so far has been this outcome. Every game out of the 40+ games I have played. Do you know how nerve racking that is to have all your hard work be a flamboyant waste of time?

You wonder why GarGas is complaining in the other thread? It's because hes confusing round wins with "winning enough rounds to win the entire game". In reality, he actually has never won a game yet because he's never finished one entirely. All he has done was win a ton of rounds, but no actually game completion.

With all of that said, I declare the online mode for this game a complete failure in terms of playing with people around the world and attempting to get onto the leader boards. The only usefulness of this mode is playing with a select group of friends.

It's extremely easy to think of a solution for the seemingly endless problems contained in the PSP Online Mode. Rewarding whoever is left in the game would satisfy the needs of the actually legitimate players. Punishment for disconnecters by detracting points and not a stupid connection % that no one even knows about would also be nice.

In the end, I suggest you try harder next time and actually making an online portion of a game worthwhile. I have no problems whatsoever with the connectivity rate, but everything else is just in shambles.

Well said!

Thats why im getting the DS version :cool:

oh dear, team17, if what this dude says is true you've really dropped the ball here haven't you. Luckily i haven't got into the points system yet and just doing the for fun online games, which is what i think i shall stick to!

Meh, I have the PSP version and it is easily the best Worms game ever.

I have played about 8 online matches and only had one person disconnect but I don't really mind, it is all about fun for me.

Although, for people who like the "competitive" side of thimgs, I can see how annoying it is when you have won two out of three rounds and the person disconnects.

That being said, at least its free!

i agree with you completely... every game i've played on the PSP so far has ended up in the other person quiting... it's annoying

First: For some retarded reason, the developers implemented a quit command in the start menu for the PSP version and NOT in the DS version. That means while a DS user who wants to quit has to turn of his/her DS, a PSP user can just simply press Start and Quit anytime they want. I have no idea why the hell you would put this in the PSP version only but it's not the biggest thing wrong with the online feature since people will always leave games no matter what.

Quitters have always been a problem with online Worms, and in fact pretty much every online game ever (just ask any of the people who play Civilization IV with me - I get bored easily!) so this is nothing new. DS users can still quit mid-game, as you said, by switching their DS off.

Second: Here is where the big problem is. In the DS version, if everyone but one person leaves the online game, whoever is left automatically wins since they lasted the longest and therefore are rewarded with not leaving or disconnecting. HOWEVER, in the PSP version, there is absolutely NO REWARD for whoever is left in the game from everyone leaving.

Dropping the game does count against the people who dropped, though.

Third: The three online schemes that you are able to use in ranked matches (Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert) that mostly everyone will use all require that you win 3 rounds in order to be rewarded your points. Not 1, not 2, but 3. That means even after you have already won 2 matches and the miracle that someone ACTUALLY is still in your game and hasn't already quit, you need to win another. Who the HELL would actually waste their time to play another game with you, only to have you win no matter what? It's stupid and doesn't make any sense and isn't fair to the losing player.
Did you know that Worms is well-known for its customisation? I'm jes' sayin'...

With all of that said, I declare the online mode for this game a complete failure in terms of playing with people around the world and attempting to get onto the leader boards. The only usefulness of this mode is playing with a select group of friends.

Fariswheel, King of the Internet, decalres the game a failure! Oh, by the way, did you nkow that each player online has their own rank and percentage? You can simply avoid msot of the problems you've mentioned so far by, y'know, not playnig against unreliable people.

It's extremely easy to think of a solution for the seemingly endless problems contained in the PSP Online Mode. Rewarding whoever is left in the game would satisfy the needs of the actually legitimate players. Punishment for disconnecters by detracting points and not a stupid connection % that no one even knows about would also be nice.

Or punishing quitters, which the game actually does.

@fariswheel

Firstly: As the player can power-down their machine, whether or not there's a 'Quit' option in the menu is irrelevant.

Secondly: Rewarding the "last" player is bad form as it is impossible to determine who the "last" player is. It is also a gaping cheat vector.

Thirdly: there is no "win no matter what" before the end of the game, it *IS* the end of the game.

Looking at the database on the servers, it's evident that thousands of people around the world are completing ranked matches and, given their points, they seem to be enjoying themselves (many, many repeat plays).

@fariswheel

Firstly: As the player can power-down their machine, whether or not there's a 'Quit' option in the menu is irrelevant.

Secondly: Rewarding the "last" player is bad form as it is impossible to determine who the "last" player is. It is also a gaping cheat vector.

Thirdly: there is no "win no matter what" before the end of the game, it *IS* the end of the game.

Looking at the database on the servers, it's evident that thousands of people around the world are completing ranked matches and, given their points, they seem to be enjoying themselves (many, many repeat plays).


why is it impossible to reward the 'last player'. I don't understand. Are you saying you cannot reward the winner?

Also seeing as having a quit option in the menu is irrelevant, then the question remains - why have it there?

Also seeing as having a quit option in the menu is irrelevant, then the question remains - why have it there?

If you switch off your PSP, you have to switch it on again. If you're running homebrew apps like screenshot-grabbers, you have to start those up again. Depending on your settings, you may have to choose the UMD from the menu. Then the game has to load, which takes a while particularly if you're using the original "fatty" PSP. Then you need to sign in to online play again, if that is your intent.

A "Quit" option allows you to quickly exit the game if you need to. Last night I was playing a game, and I was experiencing network trouble so I made my apologies and left the game. I disconnected myself from WormNET, reconnected, disconnected again, all the while testing my network from the PC. It was a temporary glitch with my wireless router but the point is without that "Quit" option it would have taken longer for me.

The "Chat" option does include the message "I have to go now, sorry!" (or thereabouts). I would say anyone with a genuine reason to drop from the game will use that first before leaving.

Just pointing this out, but some newbs don't even know about the chat system. And even if he did say he had to go, the person(s) who he said Bye too probaly wouldn't be able too read it in time before the damn thing came up.

Just pointing this out, but some newbs don't even know about the chat system. And even if he did say he had to go, the person(s) who he said Bye too probaly wouldn't be able too read it in time before the damn thing came up.
Well when I do that in other games I usually wait a couple of seconds so other people can read it before I disconnect, and even sometimes I wait for an answer.

...newbs...
Er, technically aren't we all "newbs"?

@parsley

@fariswheel

Firstly: As the player can power-down their machine, whether or not there's a 'Quit' option in the menu is irrelevant.

I'm sure powering down the system, having to boot it back up again, selecting Worms, navigating to the infastructure screen, and logging back online compares perfectly with pressing Start and quitting.

@fariswheel

Secondly: Rewarding the "last" player is bad form as it is impossible to determine who the "last" player is. It is also a gaping cheat vector.

Usually the last player is, you know, whoever didn't Quit, Disconnect, and is the last worm standing. Although I follow you on the fact that people could just make a game with a friend, quit, and then have the other person be rewarded for not even playing the full game, you should have implemented a way that would check if a sufficient amount of time has passed for the game to be declared actually legit. But you screwed any chance of that happening as well since anyone can play any rank game with whatever scheme they want. People can just make 1 round, 1 minute round time and have everyone dive off into the ocean, leaving the last player with 4 points in the matter of like 3 mins. You should have tweaked the Beginner, Intermediate, and Pro schemes to only be 1 round and for them to be the only possible schemes to use in rank. It sucks when you waste around 3 hours playing 3 rounds and having everyone leave when you could have just played 1 round for the equal amount of points. People rarely leave when it's 1 round, so I had to make my own scheme for that purpose.

@Squirmanator

It's hilarious how you try to justify the punishment of quitters connection percentage's being lowered. You probably didn't know this since you seem to be ignorant of a lot of the problems in this game, like how you said

The line of sight is fine. I think people are just confused by the fact that the reticle rotates the wrong way when they aim up and down. It's the way your brain is processing the visual information and if you're aware of the wonky rotation it doesn't particularly imapct your aimign ability.

Kudos on the completely wrong and idiotic explanation for the cross-hair misalignment. The cross-hair is a few pixels lower then the actually imaginary line of fire, making a HUGE difference in where you are aiming and where your shot will actually go. I have seen countless misses from people online who were aiming directly at me. Also, just saying "Just aim a little lower then usual, or use the 12 oclock part of the cross-hair" doesn't help all of the people that haven't realized this mistake yet and who will always be asking themselves "Why the hell am I missing?". A blind retarded monkey could have easily seen how messed up the cross-hair is. Nice work Team 17 Testing team, you're really doing your job well.

Oh, and if you didn't know, Squirmanator, guess what? If you sign off and sign back on WormNET, your percentage is revived. Yup, simple as that. There goes your only justification for punishing disconnecters down the drain. Maybe next time you can actually form an argument with something to back it up with.

I don't even see why I should be responding to you now, considering you're being abusive, rude and borderline-trollish, but here we are.

Kudos on the completely wrong and idiotic explanation for the cross-hair misalignment. The cross-hair is a few pixels lower then the actually imaginary line of fire, making a HUGE difference in where you are aiming and where your shot will actually go. I have seen countless misses from people online who were aiming directly at me. Also, just saying "Just aim a little lower then usual, or use the 12 oclock part of the cross-hair" doesn't help all of the people that haven't realized this mistake yet and who will always be asking themselves "Why the hell am I missing?". A blind retarded monkey could have easily seen how messed up the cross-hair is. Nice work Team 17 Testing team, you're really doing your job well.

I haven't had any problems with the aiming, personally. Maybe that's just me. The aim is off for the Ninja Rope but I've had absolutely no problems with any of the other weapons. Maybe it's an optical illusion, or maybe it's a very real problem with the crosshair, but either way I haven't had any issues.

Oh, and if you didn't know, Squirmanator, guess what? If you sign off and sign back on WormNET, your percentage is revived. Yup, simple as that. There goes your only justification for punishing disconnecters down the drain. Maybe next time you can actually form an argument with something to back it up with.

Well then the decision is quite clear. You can either a) go on a murderous rampage, killing anyone who dare drop out of a game with Fariswheel the Almighty, or b) play against people you actually know. Either option sounds good but I would personally recommend gonig for option B. It's a lot less messy for a start. My details are in my signature, so if you want to play against someone who won't drop out of the game simply because they've been distracted by something shiny I'm more than happy to fill that role.

And again, you're being very rude and abusive. There's no call for it. Take a time out, have a hot chocolate or something, then come back and try not to be such an insufferable recis monkey.

actually he is NOT being rude and abusive, this is just someone who is serious about compter game fun who has spent ~£30 on a game, brilliant as it is, has some issues that could be tweaked.

...you seem to be ignorant... idiotic... A blind retarded monkey...

...Maybe next time you can actually form an argument with something to back it up with.

That, to me, is rude, abusive, and borderline-trollish. There's passion (which I understand), and there's aggression (which I also understand). And then there's what Fariswheel is doing. He's being rude and abusive, and that's no way to get the response he's after.

Speak to people how you expect to me spoken to. I only show respect to people who treat me with respect, and is Fariswheel wants to be a disrespectful, abusive hobgoblin then he's going to get what he's giving.

Don't worry Wave, me and you are both right. Squirmanator is just trying to make me seem like a bad person because he has absolutely no rebuttal to anything that I have said. All of his arguments have crashed and burned so now all he can do is defame my character.

The greatest part of all of this is that while Squirmanator finds what I'm saying to be "abusive and rude", he has had to resort to childish insulting and name-calling by calling me an "insufferable recis monkey" and an "abusive hobgoblin". Hypocrisy at its finest. Not once have I insulted him directly throughout this entire thread, all I have done was commented on how what he was saying was completely wrong, illogical, and idiotic.

Also as a warning to all of you board users, there is a chance Squirmanator will disconnect on you purely from his own selfishness and carelessness, like he did after he joined my game when I was under the handle "TheAnalJoust". He foolishly dynamited 2 of his worms and then immediately disconnected, completely wasting my time.

It's not fair to the legitimate people who play this game Squirmanator, so just because you make a stupid mistake doesn't mean its right to leave the game. I thought you would know this since you have been telling people on this forum that

Domovoi - feel free to add me to your Friends List. My details are in my sig. I like to play the game properly, so you won't get any idiocy with me.

You're really living up to being quite a fake, Squirmanator, and no that's not abusive and rude, that's a fact and you deserve those titles from how you have acted in that game we just played.

Anyways, my job here is done in informing the people of this board about the problems and mistakes in this game. Hopefully I have brought some insight to the people here that truly deserve their moneys worth in buying this game.

Hell, I could even go on and on about the other annoyances relevant in this game, like the fact that when you play in a game online you have to personally select your custom made team every single time and that when you host a game, the landscape theme "Ice, Space, Desert, etc" that is in the background originally before you make the game is the one that will be used, so if you want to pick which landscape theme to use online you have to restarting Worms.

Either way, I will be leaving this forum for now with the mindset that I have helped you all understand the plethora of problems in this game. Squirmanator will probably respond with his arrogant attitude like usual with absolutely nothing helpful to say whatsoever but oh well, sometimes you just can't change people.

However, I'll probably be back to complain when more nuisances result which seems to be inevitable.

Don't worry Wave, me and you are both right. Squirmanator is just trying to make me seem like a bad person because he has absolutely no rebuttal to anything that I have said. All of his arguments have crashed and burned so now all he can do is defame my character.
Er, have you actually read my posts? I've been, if you'll excuse the phrasing, rebutting my arsе off.

The greatest part of all of this is that while Squirmanator finds what I'm saying to be "abusive and rude", he has had to resort to childish insulting and name-calling by calling me an "insufferable recis monkey" and an "abusive hobgoblin". Hypocrisy at its finest. Not once have I insulted him directly throughout this entire thread, all I have done was commented on how what he was saying was completely wrong, illogical, and idiotic.
Oh, right. Sorry. I'd forgotten that The King of the Cosmos appeared before all humanity and declared words like "ignorant" and "idiotic" to no longer be forms of abuse.

The fact at hand here is that you have been excessively abusive in this thread. I'd compare you to Maddox, only for all his abusiveness he at least can back up what he's saying with sensible, well-thought arguments 60-70% of the time.

Also as a warning to all of you board users, there is a chance Squirmanator will disconnect on you purely from his own selfishness and carelessness, like he did after he joined my game when I was under the handle "TheAnalJoust". He foolishly dynamited 2 of his worms and then immediately disconnected, completely wasting my time.
Oh, that was you? That would explain the slew of abusive messages you sent me prior to the game started. I decided to ignore them because, hey, it's The Internet™, and that's how some gamers choose to behave.

It's not fair to the legitimate people who play this game Squirmanator, so just because you make a stupid mistake doesn't mean its right to leave the game. I thought you would know this since you have been telling people on this forum that

You're really living up to being quite a fake, Squirmanator, and no that's not abusive and rude, that's a fact and you deserve those titles from how you have acted in that game we just played.

I did blow my own worms up, but this is because I was a little confused - I usually play with normal coloured worms and hats switched off. I have no idea how I ended up playing as the Pirates team. Chances are I selected the wrong one by mistake.

As for dropping out of the game, I did send you a message saying "Sorry, I have to go now." And I did have to go. So I did. Some things are more important than playing online. I'm quite happy to play a game with you properly, provided of course that you're willing to be civil.

Hell, I could even go on and on about the other annoyances relevant in this game, like the fact that when you play in a game online you have to personally select your custom made team every single time

Which explains why I was green, and why I mistook my own worms for yours.

Squirmanator will probably respond with his arrogant attitude like usual with absolutely nothing helpful to say whatsoever but oh well, sometimes you just can't change people.

If trying to correct misinformation is arrogant then colour me arrogant.

Fariswheel, please keep this civil or you will not be allowed to continue posting your opinions. You're obviously in complete disagreement with all of the game's reviews. That's fine. We even provide you with a place to shout about it. But you MUST keep it civil.

We like to hear constructive criticism, but if you insult me or any other member of the development team I will simply ban you.

And that's why I know when I'm spoken too and stay In Bounds.

I'll be quick here:

2 players A and B.
Some link on the route between A and B fails and the game is halted.
Who's the last one in the game?

I'll be quick here:

2 players A and B.
Some link on the route between A and B fails and the game is halted.
Who's the last one in the game?

well, thats a tricky example, but how about the one with the most health points (ie the team thats winning) gets to be the winner? Or perhaps in this specific example the game is drawn?

how about the one with the most health points (ie the team thats winning) gets to be the winner?

In your example whoever does the first damage to his oponent can just pull his connection and get an automatic win?

Whilst it wouldn't work everytime, surely its possible to detect a disconnection, since the game calls the person left in the game "The Victor"? Just let them have the win?

Whilst it wouldn't work everytime, surely its possible to detect a disconnection, since the game calls the person left in the game "The Victor"? Just let them have the win?

It says that on every players screen whether they caused the disconnection or not.

I think this method would've been better. If the connection to your opponent breaks, report to server that you won. Whoever reports first is the winner (if both report within 30 seconds or some short limit then both results could be ignored). If the user turned off their PSP or selected quit then their client would never report a result. If your modem exploded then your result would be delayed by a few days and would be ignored. It could still be exploited (opponent could use a firewall to disconnect you) but at least you would still get a win if they quit.

Another idea would be for both players to send a keep alive/ping packet to a Team17/THQ server and the player that stops sending that would be the loser.

Dedicated servers and the ability to resume a game after a disconnect are other possibilities but more complex/expensive.

I totally agree with everything fariswheel has said. I love worms but man the online is BROKEN! And come on, you wouldnt have so many people complaining about the crosshairs if there wasn't something actually wrong. Its really a shame too. This could have been a great game. Everything was all there, but online (the meat of any worms game IMO) is frusturating and broke. *Sigh* Maybe a patch is in the works?

Another idea would be for both players to send a keep alive/ping packet to a Team17/THQ server and the player that stops sending that would be the loser.

Dedicated servers and the ability to resume a game after a disconnect are other possibilities but more complex/expensive.
Gaping cheat vector: think firewalls.

I totally agree with everything fariswheel has said. I love worms but man the online is BROKEN! And come on, you wouldnt have so many people complaining about the crosshairs if there wasn't something actually wrong. Its really a shame too. This could have been a great game. Everything was all there, but online (the meat of any worms game IMO) is frusturating and broke. *Sigh* Maybe a patch is in the works?

It's not perfect but it's hardly game-breaking now, is it? I do think people are over-reacting somewhat.

It's not perfect but it's hardly game-breaking now, is it? I do think people are over-reacting somewhat.

Yup - welcome to company hosted forums :) No matter what we do we'll fail in someone's opinion.

At the end of the day Open Warfare 2 is chuffing great, simple as.

Kel

Yup - welcome to company hosted forums :) No matter what we do we'll fail in someone's opinion.

At the end of the day Open Warfare 2 is chuffing great, simple as.

Kel

indeed, well said my lord.

Yup - welcome to company hosted forums :) No matter what we do we'll fail in someone's opinion.

At the end of the day Open Warfare 2 is chuffing great, simple as.

Kel


No disputing that its a fun game. But com'on why can't I recive a win when everyone else quits? Why does it affect my %? If it wasn't for these two things I would enjoy this game 100 fold. Don't get me wrong, I do really enjoy single player.

So let me get this straight. The fact that your rank gets affected when other people drop, largely because there's no accurate way to track who's dropped from who and distribute percentages accordingly, has recuded your enjoyment of the game by a power of 100? Is that not, perhaps taking it to extremes? I mean we're not looking at game-breaking stuff, here. This isn't "your worm will sometimes fall through the terrain and drown for no reason" territory as in WOW1 on the DS. This is "Other people disconnect because they suck, oh noes." If you don't like it then my advice is stick to playing against people who you know aren't going to bugger you about,. Isn't that what friends lists are for?

...here's to hoping that W:aSO won't have rankings! (or, at least a non-serious ranking, such as in Mario Strikers)

No disputing that its a fun game. But com'on why can't I recive a win when everyone else quits? Why does it affect my %? If it wasn't for these two things I would enjoy this game 100 fold. Don't get me wrong, I do really enjoy single player.
There is simply no way to detect the "everyone else" has quit. From everyone else's point of view, it could be "everyone else" that's quit as well.

@fariswheel
Secondly: Rewarding the "last" player is bad form as it is impossible to determine who the "last" player is. It is also a gaping cheat vector.

how? if you quit then YOU dont get anything for quitting because the game is now in the quitting phase.

the other player who DIDN'T quit would enter the victory phase because there is now no one to play.

the only problem i can see is lag but that can be countered by awarding no victory to both players if lag occurs.

to earn points from a quitter the quit command should first send a code to the other player telling that the client is quitting. then it waits for a reply confirming it received that code. then it quits.


as was spoken before, powering down is NOT a likely option due to the time needed to get back online to join a game and what i've said would make a vast improvement to online play.

to earn points from a quitter the quit command should first send a code to the other player telling that the client is quitting. then it waits for a reply confirming it received that code. then it quits.

as was spoken before, powering down is NOT a likely option due to the time needed to get back online to join a game and what i've said would make a vast improvement to online play.

Yes, but switching off the WLAN switch is. Unlike the DS, the PSP requires a particular switch to be on for wireless signals to be sent and received, and it's very easily to switch that off during a game to cancel all wifi signals and thus dropping from the game without the inconvenience of having to start the game up again.

ah ok, and that would induce lag and a timeout that would still result in no win. i see your point.

the only solution is to punish the loser by a good percent. If his server fails or both servers fail they both take a hit. Im tired of losing and taking the lost only next round to be one shot away from winning and the other person quits.Punish the loser and make him/her not want to quit. Making the losing penalty less than than quitting one. Or give some points to the loser for finishing the game.

A good suggestion until you realise that there's no way of tracking whether someone has genuinely lost their connection or if they've just turned their console or, or flicked the WLAN switch. It's just not workable.

I think this idea would basically work:
Making the losing penalty less than than quitting one. Or give some points to the loser for finishing the game.
Of course, then you'd have the same exact people here shouting about why they get punished more for a server fault or their opponents quitting than they do for being rubbish at the game, but that's life.

This is quite an old thread, though, and this amused me:
...here's to hoping that W:aSO won't have rankings!
Check!

(or, at least a non-serious ranking, such as in Mario Strikers)
I think that's down to the players.