6 replies to this topic

[ice trey]

Hey guys. I've been working on my Quickdraws for a while now, and have been exposed to some really brutal matchmaking times exceeding 3 minutes. Now, that's not altogether unexpected, since I've got some brutal international ping, but it's much worse than when I'm dropping in a Griffin or an Oxide.

When I look at the drop button, more often than not, it looks like this.



That's a lot of focus on the big guns, and not very much of anything below the 55 ton mark.

Why is this, and what could be done to remedy this? More emphasis on light-heavy teamwork? Greater rewards for non-killing actions? Reduced difficulty for point capture?

Myself, I loved lights when I had better ping. These days I tend to find people rubber banding in front of me because there're no Japanese MWO servers, so I've veered more towards mediums. Still, I'd like to eventually hammer out the Awesomes, Victors, and Orions in order to complete my Draconis Combine themed hangar, but the thought of those matchmaking times is really off-putting.

Edited by ice trey, 11 July 2014 - 07:53 PM.

[Karamarka]

XP Incentive

C-bill Incentive

Role Warfare

Information Warfare

Non "Arena" maps where the biggest guy wins

Edited by Karamarka, 11 July 2014 - 08:24 PM.

[Roosterfish]

There is no balance in this game, it's not a rock-paper-scissors kinda game. Each weight class has it's strengths and weaknesses but they're not meant to be equal. The reason we have the 3 of each class deal now is to try to balance the game by balancing the teams.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

What you bring up sent me on a crazy tangent, what if 'groups' can be 'tweaked' for the four visual queues? We'd still keep to the 3/3/3/3 in matches, but tweak how we queue into that framework to reduce wait times?

Currently we have:
Lights - 20 to 35 (4 levels)
Medium - 40 to 55 (4 levels)
Heavy - 60 to 75 (4 levels)
Assault - 80 to 100 (5 levels)

So what if we have instead:
Small - 20 to 40 (5 levels)
Medium - 45 to 60 (4 levels)
Large - 65 to 80 (4 levels)
Huge - 85 to 100 (4 levels)

A third idea is to explore (if the devs really do find rather huge numbers from certain chassis, then what about):
Small - 20 to 45 (6 levels)
Medium - 50 to 65 (4 levels)
Large - 70 to 80 (3 levels)
Huge - 85 to 100 (4 levels)

Here's the table from where I got those values:

Spoiler

I might be off my rocker, but I might as well share!

Edited by Praetor Knight, 11 July 2014 - 09:57 PM.

[Ghogiel]

While solo it's basically required to carry. It's harder to carry in meds and lights while solo. So unless you are practicing or grinding xp.. why not take a TBR or DS?

To remedy it> implies it's not working as intended.

[ice trey]

Ghogiel, on 11 July 2014 - 09:32 PM, said:

While solo it's basically required to carry. It's harder to carry in meds and lights while solo. So unless you are practicing or grinding xp.. why not take a TBR or DS?

To remedy it> implies it's not working as intended.

Is it working as intended? I remember this game being founded on the principal that it wasn't going to be about an arms race for having the biggest mech with the most guns, but instead about teamwork and balance between all the weight classes.

While the matchmaker is working at keeping the drops well rounded, the cue is all clogged up with heavies and assaults. If Mediums and lights are somehow inherently worse than heavies and assaults, then the core objective of not creating an arms race has been botched.

[Scratx]

Those % numbers are a bit deceiving, however, because they represent what's in the queue at that exact point in time, not the distribution of weight classes that have joined the queue in the last X time. The latter gives a true representation of weight class balance in the queue, the former will always give the impression that the weight classes that are less popular are a LOT less popular than they really are because, *ding ding* they enter and leave the queue very fast.