Poll posted on SEGA messageboards

Syzygy, I'm glad that you have identified yourself as a Sega employee, because there are a couple of issues that have affected VF5's online play that I really hope Sega will address in a future patch. I understand that telling you the issues won't guarantee that a fix will come, but at least someone in Sega will be aware of them and maybe be able to do something about them.

First, Sirlin, designer of Puzzle Fighter HD and the upcoming Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix, wrote a very good post regarding some of the problems VF5 has. I recommend you take the time to read it (it's not long), since they provide a good context regarding my questions.

1) Can Sega patch the game so that if you are fighting in a public match, you can rematch your opponent without being kicked back into the lobby? I understand why this was done in Ranked Matches (to prevent stat boosting), but there's no reason why this is done for player matches.

2) Can Sega patch the game so that if you rematch your opponent in a private (and hopefully public) match, you have the option to return to the character select screen? Sirlin already stated why Sega Japan only allowed you to stick with one character, but online fighting isn't a tournament, and I would like to switch between El Blaze and Eileen without having to return to the lobby.

3) Can Sega patch the game so that when a rematch takes place, it doesn't happen in the same stage over and over again (even if I selected Random for Stage Select)? It's bad enough that I can't switch my character in private matches (which I hope Sega fixes), but it's worse that when I rematch someone, it's the same exact stage. If a person selects "Random" for stage select in the lobby match parameters, the rematch should take place in a different stage.

4) Can Sega patch the game so that droppers are penalized with a loss? According to Sirlin in a Puzzle Fighter thread on his blog, he states that Xbox LIVE has a fantastic system of handling droppers.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Next point, Microsoft has something called an arbitration server that resolves conflicting info if each side claims it won or each side claims the other disconnected. Microsoft’s multiplayer backend is good, and as far as I know it never takes longer than 15 seconds to receive an answer from the arbitration server to update your leaderboard. It usually takes much less than that.</div></div>Is there any chance Sega can use this to handle the Virtua Fighter 5 droppers, considering that it's built into the Xbox LIVE system? I haven't played any Ranked Matches because I don't want to deal with the frustration of fighting players who drop right before they lose and are never penalized.

5) If the game is patched so that droppers are penalized, can Sega reset the leaderboards so that everyone (especially cheaters) can have a fresh start with the new, fairer ranking system?

6) Will Sega consider implementing a chess-like ranking system for their rank instead of a win/loss ratio? I think a chess-ranking (or even Dan-ranking!) system is a better gauge of a player skill than how many wins and losses they have acquired. If a higher skilled player beats a lower skilled player, then he shouldn't receive as many ranking points as a lower skilled player beating a higher skilled player. If Sega wants to go above and beyond what's expected, it should be a decaying rating system, where everyone loses points after a set amount of time (a week or two). That way, people with good records who abandon the game don't remain at the top of the leaderboards after a month or two passes.

7) Will Sega patch the game so that if a player plays on the 2P side in an online match, it will still use the button config for 1P instead of 2P?

8) Will Sega patch the game so that when a user starts a Ranked match, they will be unable to set any match parameters? You also should not be able to see a fighter's name, rank, and win/loss ratio in the lobby. It prevents people from dropping before the fight with a "better" opponent starts to preserve their record. They should not appear until the Vs. screen right before the match begins.

9) It's probably too early to ask this, but are there initial plans to port Virtua Fighter 5 Evolution with online play to both the PS3 and Xbox 360 months after the 2008 arcade release (late 2008/early 2009)? The PS3 owners will finally have an online version VF5. I would like all items from Ver. A through D to be readily available in this port. Also, GGPO is considered the best online algorithm for nearly lag-less play in fighting games. Would Sega consider licensing this system in the home port of VF5 Evo for nearly flawless VF online play?

Caj's post regarding the Ver. C items and being able to mix and match costume variants is good, so I hope you answer that as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read my questions. Hope you answer them.

 

i just wanna say that if you guys are gonna adress the problem with droppers then add a connection filter or something. Becuase if i join a match and i see that there is really bad delay, i'm gonna leave at the beginning, because there's no point in playing in a connection like that. It just infuriates people. If you're not gonna add a filter, then leave the system the way it is. I don't want to get penalized because some random guy with no bars in his connection thing keeps joining my match.

 

Would it be possible to create a connection filter that would filter who is able to challenge you? The filter could be based on either ping or geographic location or both. Preferably the filter would apply to searching for match as well but quite frankly a filter for the host is more important since currently there is no control whatsoever (other than pulling the plug) over who challenges you. The person searching for match is at least able to see the latency icon, but the host cant see anything.

As annoying as the costume item unlock and cablepuller issues are, Im afraid they pale to insignificance compared to the connection speed filtering, which, if left unaddressed, will make me stop playing vf online.

 

This is what the other fighting games do on live. They filter by region, and if you want to fight foreigners, you can do so by changing the filter to everyone/world/etc.

But if it's left unaddressed why would it make you stop playing?? you can always do player match or play people from here.

 

Because playing new people other than the few I know is important to me, and succeeding in ranking gives important motivation to me. It is all thrown to trash if vf online is not improved.

edit: And because voting with my wallet is the only remotely effective method of voting.

 

I agree with KoD about the little-if-not-none importance of bunny ears and such. A proper filtering for online gaming would be better, as manjimaru explained.
Also, a chess ranking system is very auspicable.

Regards!

 

PLEASE don't do the thing with the filter that would allow people to only have someone from their region challenge them. I personally have great connections to people from MANY different regions, and I want to be able to challenge them too! I don't want to be stuck playing some crappy Americans instead of the best comp out there.

Before the Japanese came online, at 12-3 am I'd either see a bunch of crappy American Kyuus, repeats of the same fighters who were good, or "no opponents found". Now I NEVER see "no opponents found" in ranked. Always a wealth of people to play, all great connections.

Manji, haven't we also had a great connection, where you raped me? =)

 

I do the same thing. Best solution is to allow people to drop in the first round within a certain time limit. That way we can still leave "too laggy to play" matches.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">6) Will Sega consider implementing a chess-like ranking system for their rank instead of a win/loss ratio? I think a chess-ranking (or even Dan-ranking!) system is a better gauge of a player skill than how many wins and losses they have acquired. If a higher skilled player beats a lower skilled player, then he shouldn't receive as many ranking points as a lower skilled player beating a higher skilled player. If Sega wants to go above and beyond what's expected, it should be a decaying rating system, where everyone loses points after a set amount of time (a week or two). That way, people with good records who abandon the game don't remain at the top of the leaderboards after a month or two passes.</div></div>

Ranking is not based on win/loss ratio. A 6th dan who fights kyuus can make his win/loss ratio 90% and he would still be 6th dan. A person who has 40% win/loss from only fighting great players, but then keeps fighting people at his own rank and beating them, can also be a 6th dan. It is based on how well you do against people of similar rank. Also, I haven't been able to tell, but will like a 7th dan lose rank if he loses to a kyuu?

 

It should be players decision who they want to play. I understand that in arcade-sense the champion cant decide who challenges him, but some measure of common sense should be exercised.

I dont remember, whats your tag? I havent had any "great connections" to US. At best they have been "passable".

 

One more thing:

It's safe to assume that Sega will port Virtua Fighter 5 Evolution to the home consoles in about two years time. I would like to request that they bring back Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution's superlative training mode for the home port of VF5 Evo.

 

I don't think playing people FAR from your ranking effects you much. For example, if a 3rd dan plays a 3rd kyu and 3kyu has a ranking match and he loses his bar only goes down a little bit. If 3rd kyu loses to 3rd kyu in a ranking match he'll lose half his bar.

 

Maybe a special option when both players have to accept quiting the math would solve the problem?

I don't host games because I'm looking for players with at least two connection bars.

 

They need to fix the shit where you can bring you character data over... My cousin brought over his character data on the MU... He COPIED the game save and moved his profile over on it. He forgot it at my house and when he went home and downloaded his profile the game save wont allow him to play. Also if you guys can fix it so I dont have to sign out everytime players change their character data. It sucks that i have to go back to the dashboard cuz i want to load up my character. But since it only loads 2 profiles at a time i either bother everyone by going back to the dashboard or just play with out the character data... Sorry for the run-ons and if i make no sense.

 

The DLC so far totally sucked, next time have real DLC content like This.
Thanks.

 

Hi Syzygy,

Tell you what, I despise VF’s online because of the no-lobby/ spectator option. I could care less about rank and I want to invite my mates in player match to a one big happy room a la DOA/Tekken. In addition, adding lobbies will leverage the VF experience for all players since they will be watching other fights and learning new techniques and strategies. Is it possible to be added?

Will Sega also add the ability to “quickly†change a character and stage?

AND please add an option to reset your online stats since it’s already separate from the offline stats.


Finally, filter by connection is a good option as well.

 

would cause lag

 

If you are afraid of lag, close all slots, easy, ya?

 

Then what's the point? /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif j/k

 

Can Sega patch the game and give an option to record online fights?

DOA4 has that.

 

Hey, Syzygy. Just wondering if you had the chance to review the questions posted on this thread. I know it will take some time because you have to clear your answers with Sega, but I was wondering where you're at regarding this.