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Much has been made of the prevalence of one-sided matches ("stomps") and the resulting blame on the ELO matchmaker. But the job of balance never rests solely with the developer. What can they do about (for example) premades of Spiders or DDCs? Slice the queues even further? A developer can only safeguard so many things before the safeguards start getting in the way of each other and cramping the game. Players will always be able to generate some degree of imbalance by exploiting or emphasizing something.
The job of balance lies with the community to a degree as well, with presence of mind and full awareness of all the features in the game. People are swarming the forums to complain about the matchmaker while in the same breath doing very little to actually enable balance themselves or spread word on how to do it. I personally feel that this is an irresponsible approach. There are all kinds of little things you can do to avoid ROFLstomps in a match.
Here are five very simple tactics that require little to no skill, that actually seem to be widely neglected tactics (though they're obvious to others).
1. Pick "Any" for your game mode. By doing this, you are giving the matchmaker a much wider pool of teammates and opponents to choose from. This makes it much easier for the matchmaker to fill a match with skill-matched players. Many players have testified that selecting "Any" for the game mode drastically reduces the number of "stomp" matches they experience.
Regardless of how you feel about tonnage matching, you have to admit that if the matchmaker can pit someone who's brilliant in a Hunchback against someone who's brilliant in a Victor, there's more potential for an even match. It's reasonable to assume that a pilot with a brilliant medium ELO has probably proven themselves in that mech even through tough conditions. (And while I have your attention, let me make a prediction on the side: tonnage matching will involve players being forced to give up their preferred mechs and will only initiate a new wave of complaints.)
2. Target your enemy mechs. I have lost track of how many times I've spotted a lone enemy mech on radar tangled up with a single teammate and rushed to assist, only to find OH **** THERE ARE SEVEN OTHERS I DIDN'T KNOW WERE THERE and die horribly. You ARE aware, aren't you, that if an enemy mech is not actively targeted by anyone on your team, then nobody on your team has any way of knowing they're there???!!!
When I turn a corner and run smack into a cluster of bogies that nobody is aware of, even while I'm turning to run while screaming like a little girl, I tap my target key repeatedly. This cycles through all the targets I've just blundered into and at the very least informs my team "HEY, THERE'S LIKE FIFTY MECHS RIGHT HERE, USING THIS RIDGE FOR COVER, THOUGHT YOU OUGHTA KNOW". Call it a UAV Lite, for free. It won't help much if they have ECM, but typically there will be a chump or two who's outside the bubble and can be targeted. At least then you'll get SOME teammates rushing to help, instead of circling the map like lemmings looking for the enemy.
Also, targeting an enemy is of great value for any friendly LRM boats or snipers. They can actually assist you in a one-on-one if they know your opponent is there. Otherwise, all they can see is your blue arrow on the radar circling and meandering for no apparent reason. For snipers, having that red box around the opponent assists with their manual aiming. Energy/ballistics boats: target your opponent and give your team's boats/snipers something to shoot at!
Finally, there is a very simple, intuitive "focus fire" mechanism built into the game that doesn't require you to type a single word. When an enemy mech is targeted by you or a teammate, the red triangle above them will be solid. By choosing to shoot at a solid red triangle, you are focusing fire. If it's hollow, that means no teammate is paying attention to them. Yes, you could engage a hollow red triangle yourself, but you'd be the only one doing so. That means your team's firepower is spread out. That in turn means that unless the other team is a cluster**** in equal measure, your team is the one about to start losing mechs, and thus both firepower and targets. Remember, the fewer targets on your team, the easier time of it the enemy will have.
By not targeting opponents, you are cutting your team's situational awareness, coordination, collective weapons loadout, and effective range all in half. I cannot believe people forget to do this. Yes, it takes presence of mind, but I think you will pleasantly surprised how much more team combat this generates - again, without a single word typed or needed.
3. Stay with the group. How often have your victories in this game begun with some {Dezgra} Stalker on the opposing side making a Leroy Jenkins suicide run by himself right into the teeth of your team? I'd wager a lot. Unless you're faster than 90 KPH and lighter than 50 tons, you should not be wondering around on your own. Even if you have a brilliant plan for your lance, your plans will end horribly every time if the other team decided to stay together and runs into your lance. Now your team is down four, and honestly, you guys probably had time to take out ONE enemy at most. These diminishing returns, and not tonnage, are why matches snowball.
Fair or not, MWO currently favors blob warfare. It's not even because of ECM; it's just because there are twelve mechs on each team, and with that much firepower focused on fewer targets, solitary mechs will die very quickly while dealing a disproportionate amount of damage to their executors. This is a game of big, slow, lumbering targets that cannot nimbly dart into cover upon making a bad maneuver; one mistake costs you. And once two or three mechs have died in this way, there are fewer targets on that team to pick off, and the enemy can focus more easily. Tonnage isn't the culprit; it's merely the thing that will kill you once you've already made the bad decision. Fight the stomp; stay within firing distance of the group.
That said, there's a difference between staying in a group and staying in a confused knot. Spread out your formations (think a wedge) so that people can target what you're targeting.
4. Don't chase lights. I know they can freak one out, but keep your head when swarmed by these buggers. Remember that 90% of the time, the light will not be what kills you. If it is, they probably just got the final random killing shot, while most of the damage was done by that AC40 Jagermech that snuck up on you while you weren't looking, or by that wave of assaults that you found while chasing the Jenner across half the map.
If you're spinning in circles trying to kill a Spider, you're expending a lot of time and effort on a very small percentage of the enemy's firepower. Obviously, this is bad. It's one thing if you're a dedicated light-killer, brandishing a supple mech equipped with streaks, an LB 10-X AC, or plenty of energy weapons. Otherwise, you're not the best person to hit lights. Besides, if you're following #2 and staying in a group, whatever light harassment you pick up will have to deal with your teammates as well, from multiple angles. Not good for them.
Unless they're capping, leave the lights alone and don't let them lure you away or distract you from hitting their bigger guns.
5. Prioritize targets. So my team is up 5 survivors to 3 on Forest Colony Snow, and I'm spectating a teammate as he heads into open water (first mistake, but I digress). He has two targets to decide. One is an AC40 Jagermech; the other is a Griffin boating SRMs. He knows both are there, but does not bother to analyze either mech and just runs after the Griffin. Sure enough, the much more powerful AC40 Jagermech goes on a killing spree, rips through four of our last five guys, and the last guy happens to be a Streakcat who runs out of ammo and has to hide. We lose on kills.
Why oh why does nobody prioritize targets? Certain mechs deserve a lot more attention than others, because they carry the disproportionate share of the firepower. Jagers, Cataphracts, Victors, and Highlanders should generally be targeted first. In the current meta, they represent the biggest threat to your team. They can also represent, believe it or not, the easiest targets, because many of them have installed XL engines in order to boost your firepower. (Pro tip: Many of the smarter such XL'ers will be hanging around the horizon in order to take shots from under cover.)
On the flipside, look for weak spots in the enemy lineup to prune away; usually, again, this has to be done by targeting. So many players just shoot at whatever's in front of them at the moment, instead of following and concentrating damage on a single target. With 24 players in a match, most surviving mechs are usually one or two shots away from getting cored by the time the match ends. That last laser to the red center torso could swing an entire match. One less target on a battlefield makes a huge difference. Instead, people just...shoot at stuff. Randomly and without any analysis.
Once again, the only way to survive as a team in this game is to reduce your opponent's actual damage output. Only killing mechs does this, so kill mechs quickly. That means DON'T waste your time chewing on that fresh Trebuchet while an almost-cored Cataphract is stumping around unloading triple UAC5's into your team's heavy hitters. Take the time to quickly cycle through your options and find the guy whose armor is gone. Smoke pouring out of a mech is a real strong hint that his internals are ready for cooking. Matches can swing on a hair's trigger; stack your side. One shot could be the difference.
TL;DR in "don't form":
1. DON'T pick a specific game mode. Stick to "Any".
2. DON'T forget to target things. It gives your lancemates enemy locations and strengths, as well as allowing focus fire.
3. DON'T leave your group.
4. DON'T waste effort on lights (#3 will take care of them for you).
5. DON'T just shoot anyone; target meta mechs and wounded opponents (though not zombied ones).
I personally believe that these five simple gameplay habits have the potential to balance matches better than asking for any excessively rigid system or interfering adjustments from PGI. These are five no-brainers that should be shared with every newbie.
Once these are widely observed and the full potential of the game explored, then we are in a better position to approach PGI about potentially game-altering changes. If we ourselves could transition the matchmaking experience from "barely tolerable" to "occasionally irritating", perhaps it doesn't even need to happen.
Edited by Rebas Kradd, 28 February 2014 - 02:13 PM.
(Some sarcasm included.)
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