LMAO

Welcome to my world!

Make some friends.

ya.. apparently I show up as online to a lot of ppl when I'm offline as well...

I have the same problem, and I don't think I can play this game anymore.  "OH SHIT YOUR #1, teams are unbalanced".. I've been kicked out of premade lobbies.. I've hosted pugs that take 30 minutes to merely crash because 6 ppl instantly join wanting to be on my team, everyone is over 300 games played and 60% wins, and the bottom team drops out immediately.  Then 10 people join and quit, join and quit, join and quit, join and quit.

Same thing playground said.. ppl want balanced teams, but they want them balanced in their favor.  I recall a recent game, someone came in to a premade lobby alone, and asked for balanced teams.  So.. pacov dropped down and the person left.  Why? Probably because 2 parts of the premade were still on the other team.  You're never going to find balance by asking a 3 man premade to split up in a lobby.. but you WILL find balance by bringing in your own premade.

Oh, then the fact that almost all of the veterans of this game don't play anymore... 2-3 nights ago, every game in the lobby was "under 300 games played" "noobs only" "all welcome <40% win" .. SWEET, all noobs in the lobby.. brand new people to the game.  So I host a game.. nobody stays.. then 30 minutes later, game is full but as I close one last slot, the lobby crashes.  Then I wait another hour sitting ... getting no game in.

Edit:  I forgot to make a reference to Futile's post.. :  We have friends.. we play together in premades often.  Yet we struggle oh so hard to find other premades willing to play, or pugs for that matter.

Reading this thread reminds me of everything I went through.  It shows that this game is really a fun game and lots of people are willing to wait long time for a game.  I would sit in lobbys for countless minutes.  sometimes I alt tab to surf the internet, sometimes I surf on another notebook.  Games don't get started, crashes, no one joins, or someone ragequits in a few minutes.

There's really nothing stardock/gpg can do.  The multiplayer engine is set in stone.   Hopefully 2 new demigods will double the current playerbase which might help with finding games.

If over time that decreases your win%, this could cure your problems.  Granted, looking at your record, you'll need to 'lose' around 200 games this way.

Also, have you considered opening a new account? (Although then you may have hard time convincing experienced players to play you).

...
Well, if you guys ever catch me hosting a game, I welcome everybody. Cookies are provided.

I know what you mean. While I am miles farther down the ladder from where you are, people will still leave almost all the games that I host with my friends. There is nothing else Stardock can do...people need to just quit being so OCD about win rates. Hopefully Ready to Play can solve some of these issues....Demigod is just so fun when I actually get to play it, I just wish people would do the game instead of lobby stacking and then quiting, etc.

Actually I joined a game you made just to see that you werent even in there, so I left lol.

QFT

The overlay isn't a problem.   It's just information.   You can't justify keeping information from people who, if they had the information, wouldn't want to play with you.

Its supply and demand.  The results from the overlay show that (1) most PUG players don't want to face teammates who are highly ranked and have high familiarity with each other and (2) there aren't enough highly skilled teams that want/can face other. 

You can interpret that as the community sucks.  Or you could interpret that as games where there are highly skilled preformed teams on one side, and random PUGs on the other side, lead to dissatisfying games (read: curbstomps) for people on the losing end. 

My own thought is that people are too timid, but if you are PUGing, you have a better chance of a fair fight if you are with all PUGers than against a team with high familiarity and win %s.  My other thought is that, unfortunately, there aren't enough "premade" teams in the community, because the multiplayer options in the game are stunted and have been since inception.   

no, most puggers don't want to face ppl who have a high win % + high number of games period.  Regardless of familiarity.  Unless that person has someone on their team who is 10 games 0% wins to "balance teams".  The high win % doesn't mean we're amazing.  It just means no one wants to face us.  imo, after a certain point in this game, the skill level caps off.  Sure, there are interesting tricks to pull.. and strategies blah blah blah.. but if you know the following you're on equal footing with that 85% wins 1000 games played guy / team:

1.) Know each demigod and the abilities they have.  Know different builds and spot them early so you know what to expect.  Plan accordingly.

2.) Know all the gear and what it does.  You should be able to judge roughly what gear your opponent has (i.e. you're getting crit for 2x the guy's aa.. slayer's wraps.  that's 3300g; let's assume he's lvl 7, with no kills - This means he has no helm.. I will win a long fight if I have mana).

3.)  Know how much damage you can do in a given timeframe and how much your opponent can do.  This is key to the "fight or flight"

4.)  Expect sigils, gadgets, caplocks, and teleports.  ALWAYS.  This is a no brainer.  Be wary of traps.. EXPECT them to happen.

5.)  HELP your teammates.  But don't teleport only to serve no purpose.  Let your teammate lure them, then you teleport where they can't run.  This usually takes a little coordination.. but doesn't have to. 

6.)  Don't do stupid shit without a plan.  i.e. Oak running through 2 towers and an enemy flag to try to take enemy portal @ lvl 7.  Stupid idea, unless he thinks he can get away with it AND get out... he needs rank 3 shield, a teleport scroll, and a caplock.. otherwise it's just a dumb idea.

7.)  Situational awareness.  If you're not watching the whole map all the time, you're wrong.  You need to be hovering over enemy and allied demigods to check their health, see what's going on.. this allows you to do the above.

that's it.. those 7 things.. not that hard to do.. simplified.. "know all demigod abilities and items and what they do.  help teammates.  set up your own traps and avoid enemy traps.  Help teammates.  Have a plan before you attack 3 ppl.  Watch the board."  If you can do this, you can easily match up against the 85% win ratio people.  They aren't super amazing, they just know these 7 things.  There is a little strategy beyond this with how to level and maintain warscore advantage.. but mostly it's the above.

This.

I understand what you are trying to say, however, i disagree. I PUG alot, more than i play premade, and i find it very difficult to get a game the majority of the time for no other reason than ppl looking at % win and they leave lobbies.

Unless that person has someone on their team who is 10 games 0% wins to "balance teams". <-- this is pretty much what it come down to, which i dont mind every second or third game but as is it is starting to get frustrating for reasons in the OP (ie. It's not that I don't like a challenge, but oak's who fight 4v1 and beasts who buy more mana helms than HP and proceed to chase people past towers does not make for a fun experience).

 Additionally, there is no reason for ppl to not get better anymore. We now have replays that allow you to watch EVERY move that a demigod makes in a round, every item purchase, every citadel purchase, the use of skills, builds etc. Wouldnt this make you want to go against better players? i know that if i lose i ALWAYS save replay and watch what went wrong.

Now dont get me wrong the overlay would be a very nice feature.... if we had a community big enough that the vets could play against vets on a regular basis and the noobs could learn playing with other noobs. however, with the state of the game as it is, i feel like it has split the tiny community we have. I think that if you want to detect premade thats fine and the overlay illustrating farmiliarity is a nice touch and prevents SOME of the noob stomping, but the % win and games played is game breaking. If you really want to let players know approximately how good they are in comparision to others it would be alot more efficient if the overlay simply stated the order of skill levels with a simple number system...

ie. a game consisting of 4 different players, 2 vets +100 games, and 2 noobs <100 games:

1. vet A

2. Vet B

3. Noob B

4. Noob A

We would then be able to balance teams in the same way that we do now, but it wouldnt involve a subjective number that really means nothing. Hell you can get your % wins up by just playing AI on panth if you want to....

anyway my rant over, i am going to go and sit in a lobby and hope that someone connects...