64 replies to this topic

[JC Daxion]

I am not the best mech warrior by far.... But i do know that talking, and focusing, and making a plan is always better than not...

So why is it, 80% of the time, no one even responds to chat in group box??? I get it when the crap is going down.... But before?? Or even later when people are running around by themselves, and still never listen to chat input??

I just dont get it...

[Alaskan Nobody]

I feel you with that one, I really do.

Sometimes it is them not noticing what you typed
Sometimes it is them deliberately ignoring the chat (not always maliciously - Gwilliy reads slow, so he usually won't bother)
Sometimes it is the chat not popping up on their screens (sometimes until later, sometimes not at all)
Sometimes you never know why.

Only real solution I know of, is to try and get a group together that you know you can coordinate with.

I will say not to get to disheartened - and thank you for at least making the effort!

[Koniving]

Sometimes... people feel they can't type fast enough to say anything meaningful. Some are afraid of backlashes.
Some don't care what you say; they'll do their own thing.

Whatever the reasoning, there will always be some people who just won't listen. Make a check at the beginning. "Hey there." Or "Who can type?" "Plan?" Or simply say you have a plan. If someone plans on giving you a chance, they will say something.

[Parliment]

Pug life is hard .. finding a team is nice
I never drop with teams but my son plays with a team and does so much better with a premade and voice coms

[Modo44]

Noobies with no idea how to chat (literally), kids, people who type slowly, people who do not speak English (!), players tired of getting ignored by teams. All of those are factors.

[King Arthur IV]

if hot keys where in the game it would alleviate some of these problems.

simple commands like
"attack my target"
"push"
"flank left/right"
"defend my position"
"cap"
"return to base"
"assistance needed"

a lot of us just can't read and type fast enough during the heat of battle.

Edited by King Arthur IV, 10 April 2014 - 11:13 PM.

[The Basilisk]

If hotkeys where in game it wouldn't be the chat that was ignored
No seriously the only difference in peoples behaviour would be "the focus of ignorance"
Problem is there are too much trolls and people around that realy dont know it better.
So most of my buds and me as well just ignore command symbols and chat going on because half the time its just nonsens anyway.
Its the sad fate of a puggers life.
In a TS group at least you hear if someone is joking or just talking trash.

[Garegaupa]

King Arthur IV, on 10 April 2014 - 11:12 PM, said:

a lot of us just can't read and type fast enough during the heat of battle.

Guilty as charged... I can read it fast enough, but when I start to type a reply while in combat things usually turn out bad for me...

So, if you ever meet me in-game and I don't reply to a request the above is likely to be the reason - but even if I don't reply, I will do my best to help those who ask for help, or follow sensible tactical requests.

[wanderer]

JC Daxion, on 10 April 2014 - 10:32 PM, said:

I am not the best mech warrior by far.... But i do know that talking, and focusing, and making a plan is always better than not...

So why is it, 80% of the time, no one even responds to chat in group box??? I get it when the crap is going down.... But before?? Or even later when people are running around by themselves, and still never listen to chat input??

I just dont get it...

This is how the majority of your team sees themselves. That's what your problem is.

[Gasoline]

Shar Wolf, on 10 April 2014 - 10:39 PM, said:

I feel you with that one, I really do.

Sometimes it is them not noticing what you typed
Sometimes it is them deliberately ignoring the chat (not always maliciously - Gwilliy reads slow, so he usually won't bother)
Sometimes it is the chat not popping up on their screens (sometimes until later, sometimes not at all)
Sometimes you never know why.

Only real solution I know of, is to try and get a group together that you know you can coordinate with.

I will say not to get to disheartened - and thank you for at least making the effort!

Sometimes the chat fades out too fast... (so annoying sometimes)
Sometimes it got spammed away too fast...

Hate that there is no chat log and no possibility to scroll up...

Koniving, on 10 April 2014 - 10:43 PM, said:

Sometimes... people feel they can't type fast enough to say anything meaningful. Some are afraid of backlashes.
Some don't care what you say; they'll do their own thing.

Whatever the reasoning, there will always be some people who just won't listen. Make a check at the beginning. "Hey there." Or "Who can type?" "Plan?" Or simply say you have a plan. If someone plans on giving you a chance, they will say something.

And this!

Although sometimes you won't even get a response to this.

[Turist0AT]

PUGs need to be led not askted bunch of questions like Plan? what is our plan guys?

Just take the command and lead! (No, i doesnt matter that you are new)

Good PUG leaders are men of few words and they dont ask they do.

Edited by Turist0AT, 11 April 2014 - 01:36 AM.

[Duncan Aravain]

The lead mech seems to act like a bell; the sheep in the herd tend to follow whoever is in the lead. This is usually not a good thing if PUGing, since in those matches the headstrong/intellectually challenged tend to have "an ideal plan" which leads a large number of your group into a probably bad spot. You, of course, can be that lead mech. Just start your mech toward your destination, type quickly your idea (holding d3 (or) defense line tower hill) and hope that some of your company knows locations/concepts and are willing to give your plan a try. Just try not to make any stupid plans nor be too aggressive. Alternative is to mill around like...........

[Macksheen]

Missing decent in-game VoIP sucks.

In the absence of that, the fact we can't manipulate in-game text chat appearance is sad.
- Party chat is near invisible to me when I'm focused on what I'm doing.
- Lance chat is SLIGHTLY better
- General chat is good on some maps, invisible on others.

The ability to move chat, warning messages (incoming missile, critical damage) and change the colorization of them would need to be included before they can really be usable. Include in this the ability to add an audible tone on inbound chat (again, by channel and by user preference).

[CG Chicken Kn]

I try to suggest something on certain maps, mostly Terra Therma where I'll say something like " please don't all go die in the door to mid".
And then they do it anyway.

For the most part, there is not anywhere close to enought time to type anything meaningful. And people wouldn't listen anyway.
Most of the time I am fast enough to head for a tactically advantageous spot, and my small group will come with me since I told them to on TS. Sometimes this is enough to get the team to follow. Getting the rest of the team to take up positions close to get to cover while providing converging fields of fire is like herding cats though.

In game VOIP seems like it would help, but many years of internet gaming tells me otherwise. There will ALWAYS be one person who will spend the entire time telling us how much we suck and are noobs. Or do various other things I have no desire to hear.

If in game VOIP was enabled, the FIRST setting I would change would be to disable it. Before I ever launched in to a game.
For the most part, MWO is too fast to lead pugs, though I try to answer basic questions from obviously new people when I can, and if spectating a new player, suggest tips to them in a polite manner if I see them making mistakes, mostly about LRM and ppc range or other weapon limitations, such as firng med lasers at a target 1000 meters out.

The command functions with map markers are a good idea, and I have seen them used effectively. I hesitate to use them though, especially in the spawns where the lances are far apart. If I don't get my group moving immediately, lights might be swarming us in the 10 or 15 seconds it takes to put rally point info up.

Once we can launch private matches, I would go over the maps more thoroughly and with that info be able to put rally ponts and other info up using command functions in a timely manner.

This is a bit of a problem in pug games though, since some mechs are incredibly slow compared to others, and a lot cannot jump jet. So getting the group to decent positions in time is almost impossible.

Being able to change the chat colours as suggested above would be very helpful.

[TheCaptainJZ]

I will listen to someone if someone makes a plan. The best PUG games are those where people at least try to coordinate. I suggest making a plan at the beginning. Just don't sound too pushy. Even if you only get your lance on board, it's better than nothing.

[Alaskan Nobody]

King Arthur IV, on 10 April 2014 - 11:12 PM, said:

if hot keys where in the game it would alleviate some of these problems.

simple commands like
"attack my target"
"push"
"flank left/right"
"defend my position"
"cap"
"return to base"
"assistance needed"

a lot of us just can't read and type fast enough during the heat of battle.

I wonder if it is possible to set up a macro to mimic that?
Not overly familiar with macros - but I could see there being a block (or whatever?) against that, to prevent troll-spam.

[NecessaryWeevil]

When receiving advice in PUGs, I'm much happier to hear "Let's do X" than "Don't do Y."

And kudos to those who do try to lead - I always appreciate having you on my team.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Play with a team. Even if you don't want to get into the whole competitive play thing, a lot of teams have social members--players that play a lot with their team casually, but not competitively. You're sure to learn a lot, you'll make some friends, and all the other great things that all multiplayer game proponents say will also come true.

[Unnatural Growth]

As I PUG 100% of the time, all I can say is, "Yup, it's a PUG's life."

I'll type "Plan?" Nothing. Or, for TT, "I don't care what we do, as long as we stay out of Center" Some 'mates will chime in with "I agree", etc, etc. And sure as anything, off they all go right into the center anyway. *facepalms*. But what do you do? Either you go with them, and get annihilated too, or you stay out by yourself and get pulled apart when the enemy survivors come for you. Or on Caustic, the lone assault in your lance does a "Right Face" march directly away from all cover and support. Typing something like "Hey Atlas, don't go out there alone, you'll get shredded." Nothing. And soon after you see "Lone Rambo was killed by Prettymuch Everyone". Sigh.

No one targets "R, what's that for?", No one says, "Look out, enemy lance pushing around corner D3." Even after they're dead (in D3), and surprise, here they come into our flank or rear.

But I still try most times to make contact, or at least send warnings, or alerts to movements, etc. Usually I just end up following the blob and hoping for the best. That's what us PUG's do man.

BUT--

For the constant hammering from all sides, including PGI, that this is "A Team Game", the built in game comms is a complete joke. Pathetic really.

No excuse not to have in game voip. None. Also add some customization ability, for lance, team, and general game chat. Give each user the ability to select or deselect all of the above. And the ability to MUTE individual players on either team. That would give the adults the ability to mute the children. Launch this all at once, as a finished comms suite.

Problem solved.

As far as text chat comms in game. Equally pathetic. Give us the ability to select or deselect general chat. Let us choose a "chime" sound or other "alert" sound when a text comes in from either lance mate or team mate. And for crying out loud, give us the ability to change font size, color, AND THE F'N ABILITY TO LEAVE CHAT UP ON DISPLAY! Don't have it just time out and disappear at some asinine # seconds time frame. Again, launch this all at once, as a complete, finished text chat suite.

For the game developers to actually lean on a 3rd party, out of game comms resource such as Teamspeak, as their "fix" for the in game comms failure is unbelievable. Like, "Yeah, we know we just can't get this done, see, programming is hard, and it's not really our thing, so here, use some other company's product instead. Thanks." Not a great way to build your product.

Hell, they can't even put in an ability to change HUD targeting reticle colors for us poor old color impaired folks.

So yeah, I hear you JC.

[Buckminster]

I'd love to see voice implemented so that you can only hear your own team mates. Doing that at a lance level would be even more awesome, but let's not ask for too much.

But for me, it's a couple things:

First, since I PUG 100%, I make sure that my builds can be self-sufficient. I'd love to be part of a well coordinated team, where I can focus exclusively on one role to the detriment of others. But in a PUG, you just can't reliably do it, depending on your team is just setting yourself up for a let down.

Although I will say something else about whether or not people use the chat - I've seen people get killed because they couldn't get out of the chat fast enough when a group of mechs came around the corner. And I don't always use it, because as a joystick user my throttle zeros when I start typing. I still try and call out enemies (if it isn't obvious), but truth be told I do most of my chatting when I'm dead.