14 replies to this topic

[Duncan1dah0]

What are your thoughts on our houses performance?

[DaniBot]

Liao sucks....

[Duncan1dah0]

I'm disappointed to see us dropping in the overall.

[Duncan1dah0]

Wow, i am surprised there is no opinions out there or is everyone too busy gaming?

[Hoax415]

The only thing I'm paying attention to is the total drops figure and I occasionally look at the Marik pilots in the top15 so I can pay my respects when I come across them.

I'm pleased that it doesn't look like we'll be too badly population under-powered hopefully judging from the results.

Except there's still the massive question mark around what happens when all the mercs and all the LNW's have to take sides.

Afterall the population of unaffiliated looks to be roughly 30% of the total IS population participating. So where those guys decide to throw in will definitely be enough to tip what appear to be closely balanced sides out of whack.

Beyond that, I don't really care if our guys aren't grinding as furiously as their guys. I also haven't done the per-capita math to figure out if our number is low or if we're just running a couple hundred less drops.

[Saobh]

Have to say I'm a bit disappointed on our faction house placement in the different tournaments, and this 6 place (9th if you take into account the clans) isn't good. The scoring system this time meant that you kinda had to game it to have a good score, but this also tends to mean that the top 50 players of the other houses have enough discipline to play according to the stakes at hand rather then "how its supposed to be played" so in the end this means that our house is less able to adapt to the rules of war on the ground as other houses.

I was playing for the c-bills anyhow and only marginally for the MC so I can't throw the blame unto others.

[Hoax415]

I don't read that much into it.

It was worth playing for the cbills, there's zero reason to grind for the MC unless you feel like grinding for the MC. Most of the guys who were played solo drops I believe because you wanted bad teammates so you could get a higher % of team damage.

Our population rank (total drops) is 7th out of all factions.

Our average score rank is 8th out of all factions. Higher than Steiner (12/13) and Davion (11/13) but lower than Liao (3/13).

None of this is surprising. As a whole Marik wouldn't be expected to have the zerg of the FedCom houses but with great zerg comes a lot of low-talent hangers on which can also hurt them in CW since all matches are worth the same points.

Liao is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Looks like it will be one of the smaller houses but on the flipside average pilot ability is dragged down a lot less because you have to be pretty hardcore to want to be a space commie.

I think we are in an ok position...

BUT, everything comes down to the currently unaffiliated (its like real politics!). Its safe to safe most of the guys who dropped as LNW or Merc aren't swapping to Clan mechs in a month so that means that still 30% of the IS drops were made by those who will aren't "faction loyalists" or however you want to think of it.

So the most meaningful thing you could take from this was whichever House(s) put in better efforts to provide infrastructure and support and reasons for the more organized and talented merc units to sign on will be able to greatly shift their outlook going into that first month of CW (since contracts are 1 month minimum).

Edited by Hoax415, 17 November 2014 - 08:04 AM.

[Butane9000]

I enjoyed it. Dropped with a Davion group once that blamed us for the loss. Then the next match had them again and they got completely rolled and left us to roflstomp clean up the remainder. Needless to say our group didn't see them again.

On an individual note the last tourney before this for the Mug, Hamster Wheel and War horn I had a 60% qualifying rate overall in terms of performance. I had less than 30% in terms of qualifying matches this weekend. Either I was really off or everyone really stepped up their game.

Overall I placed in 191st position on our ladder with a score of 2,162.

Edited by Butane9000, 17 November 2014 - 06:20 PM.

[BADMAN56]

You probly had too many kills trick was to just scratch everyone on the opposing team...wasnt my favorite thing to do but finished 52 on the davion ladder with 2600 something and made 4100000...it was an interesting event did have me checking the scores and following my team..and c bills dont hurt...as for affiliations dont be suprised to see a lot of ppl jump around..i just went davion for fun but missed playing a clan mech...knowing now id be married to my mech side i might go wolf maybe im not alone thinking id switch....still somthing to be said for winning in "underdog" tech(not denying the quirks helped my dragons like crazy)

[Duncan1dah0]

I ended with 36 on the Marik ladder.

I agree that you had to play a certain way (scratch everyone and add damage), so it was not a true measure of great players. It just measured those who could play to the point system. I think the real purpose was to find out the balance of the players related to factions. As someone else mentioned, 30% of IS are merks. No one is surprised with Stiener's results. I am however encouraged with the balance demonstrated. The point spread, populate, and matches played between houses were not completely out of whack. What I read into the numbers is the houses are mostly balanced within expectations concerning the houses backgrounds. The Clans are not uber compared to IS. To me it looks like CW will not be a landslide victory for one side or house (at for the first month) and and things are going to be fun.

Edited by Duncan1dah0, 19 November 2014 - 11:13 AM.

[Hoax415]

It will be if the small population advantage FedCom houses have now is compounded by most LNW/Mercs joining FedCom houses.

So of the 6 IS Factions:
18% of players are in both FedCom Houses: Steiner and Davion.
17% of players are in both FWLM and DCMS
15% of players are in both Liao and FRR

That's pretty close and you could def say, good enough.

If the huge mercs/LNW population also picks 18% steiner and 18% davion then what was a not so bad population imbalance between FedCom and Liao/FRR will get a great deal worse.

Liao, FRR, Kurita and yes even us in Marik really need to make sure that the leadership makes a honest and good outreach to facilitate merc units taking Marik contracts and when they do feeling welcomed and included in the overall war plan.

Either that or someone just needs to put a good thread with funny jokes and great pictures that advertises how awesome the purple eagle in the IS Merc Faction Forum is so that merc units who are on the fence think of us and join the FWL when CW drops.

Edited by Hoax415, 19 November 2014 - 01:43 PM.

[Prussian Havoc]

Hoax415, on 19 November 2014 - 01:40 PM, said:

...Liao, FRR, Kurita and yes even us in Marik really need to make sure that the leadership makes a honest and good outreach to facilitate merc units taking Marik contracts and when they do feeling welcomed and included in the overall war plan.

Either that or someone just needs to put a good thread with funny jokes and great pictures that advertises how awesome the purple eagle in the IS Merc Faction Forum is so that merc units who are on the fence think of us and join the FWL when CW drops.

Much can be said for employing both strategies...

A populist approach tailored to the "Individualism" and "Anti-establishment" / "Apathy" which just might be central to a Lone Wolf gamer. Forum posts and Unit websites might not be the best way to reach this market segment. Taking an hour or so a couple nights a week and dispersing a Unit(s) throughout the Solo Public Queue with attempts (and text Macros) to "Find, Fix and Furnish" Lone Wolf Gamers with a "Good" Marik encounter (hopefully a Win!), that encourages them to seek out Marik for their first contract come Dec.

This aspect will is very akin to a Political Party's "Get Out The Vote" campaign. Make it personal for the Lone Wolves. Let them thinking on the Eve of 15 DEC, that "House Marik contacted ME."


In a different vein, select Mercenary Corps Units would likely be receptive to a unique set of engagement / recruitment / retention tactics. While there are indeed a number of Mercenary Corps Units that regularly field one or more 12-man teams, IMHO the vast preponderance of Mercenary Corps Units field just one or two Lances during any one or two-hour block of gaming. Offering opportunities to incorporate these Quality but "Less-than-12-man-Teams" with complimentary sized House elements, could serve two purposes: entice small but Quality Mercenary Corps Units to House Marik employment AND ensure an increase in the number of practiced and integrated House/MERC 12-man teams, as some House/MERC combinations will become regular associations as the MERCs come to enjoy FWL camaraderie, gameplay and the thrill of being on the winning end of a 12-man Team on a roll.



And just as pointed out earlier, this process will be a lot like politics, with no guarantee of ANY return on invested time and effort.

But please consider, I seriously doubt if there will be an apportionment of Mercenaries in perfect proportion to the current population distribution among the houses...

...just based on an informal, small-sample poll, a disproportionate number of Mercenary Units and Lone Wolves will go the way of so many BattleTech novels...

...IMHO the FEDCOM is about to get a large influx of Mercenaries. That too is factoring into my Unit's contract decisions.

Edited by Prussian Havoc, 20 November 2014 - 12:44 PM.

[PhoenixNMGLB]

To be fair I think there are a lot of people at the moment who changed to merc or lone wolf to form a unit and aren't showing their true faction allegiance at the moment. I think this shows in the fact that the merc corps won overall.

[Barantor]

Who is to say what will happen till CW actually shows itself. We have some ideas on what it is going to be, but no hard facts yet about how things are done.

We also don't know what percentage of LNW and Mercs will want to fight the clans. Marik space is not the place to be lore-wise to fight the clans, so we might suffer from other IS houses in that regard if it ends up that way.

Wait and see is still the name of the game, I know I will be wearing the Purple regardless.

[KucaPaca2]

Dont worry we got some really outstanding players comparable to the top players in MWO that are ussualy ranking in top 5, or in top 15 in tournaments.

And were actively training for CWs and such.

But more is always better since no one can be online during the whole cw for a planet.