119 replies to this topic

[Mack1]

I started a brand new account this week because I was really wanting to see if the new matchmaking and cadet bonus was going to keep new players...playing. I am sorry to report that my experience was utterly dreadful.

First up let me say that I know I am not the best MWO player but my K/D ratio is very good, I am very experienced and I am certainly classed as a decent player.

So I went with the Awesome trial mech with 3 PPC and a Small Laser, I am used to using 4 x PPC's in one of my stalkers so I am pretty good with this weapon. I was quite amazed to find a elite founder in pretty much my first battle. I was even more suprised to find a 4 man premade on the other team (yes I asked after every battle). Infact one group of 4 players were turning up all the time, two of them were in Hero mechs

So to cut a long story short I played the 25 Cadet bonus matches, got a Stalker 3F after about 18, kitted it out as much as possible with my limited budget and my final stats were:

K/D 13/17
Win/Loss 5/20 Yes I only won 5 games
Premades faced 25/25 That's right guys, every single game was against 4 man premades, sometimes we had some but quite often we never. I also noticed players who were vets, they had been playing for months, their Mechs were all pimped out while I was in a lousy trial mech.

No wonder so many people quit, I found the whole thing very frustrating as I was facing off against good players with good mechs while I was in a little toaster with 3 PPC's, I just got annhilated, I am amazed I even got 13 kills tbh.

I can honestly say that in years and years of gaming MWO is by far the toughest and most brutal introduction to a game for new players that I have ever seen. I would like to invite the Devs to roll a new account and play the first 25 solo and see for themselves.

This game needs a solo queue system asap to stop this premade v pug slaughter.

[ThinkTank]

I support cadet vs. cadet only queue.

[Tie Ma]

the thing is they need a queue that matches only cadets together.

and if it can't find cadets after a certan amount of time it gives the new player a fake elo of 700 and matches them that way.

Edited by Tie Ma, 11 April 2013 - 05:19 PM.

[BladeSplint]

its not the mech, its the pilot. Just take the time to hone your skills and make sure your positioning is good relative to your team. Yes the trial mechs suck but they aren't unplayable if your heat management is good.

[Tie Ma]

BladeSplint, on 11 April 2013 - 05:19 PM, said:

its not the mech, its the pilot. Just take the time to hone your skills and make sure your positioning is good relative to your team. Yes the trial mechs suck but they aren't unplayable if your heat management is good.

i've found that the3ppc trial awesome is one of the better trial mechs... managed to get 3 kills and top charts on my first game with it.

Edited by Tie Ma, 11 April 2013 - 05:20 PM.

[One Medic Army]

I support cadet vs cadet as well.

Or at the very least start new players off at a lower Elo than average, perhaps include a negative Elo modifier for being in a trial mech (at least until all the trials are custom builds like the Dragon).

[Eddy Hawkins]

Mack1, on 11 April 2013 - 05:10 PM, said:

I can honestly say that in years and years of gaming MWO is by far the toughest and most brutal introduction to a game for new players that I have ever seen.

i am guessing you have never played EvE Online....

[One Medic Army]

Eddy Hawkins, on 11 April 2013 - 05:24 PM, said:

i am guessing you have never played EvE Online....

Or counterstrike. Didn't play FPS games for 10 years after I tried CS...

[XFactor777]

I can completely agree with the op, I just recently got a computer again and MW4 was one of my favorite games so I had to have this new version. But to be honest if hadn't bought a stalker (with mc cause I was dumb and blew all my money on a dragon that never really panned out) after my cadet bonus ran out I would never have stayed. It's nearly impossible to save up for a decent mech when you only get 35,000-40,000 a match for a loss, and I know it's not supposed to be easy but it shouldn't take 4 days to save up for a new mech and another 1 to save up for all the weapons and upgrades needed to make that mech viable in combat

[Parnage Winters]

One Medic Army, on 11 April 2013 - 05:27 PM, said:

Or counterstrike. Didn't play FPS games for 10 years after I tried CS...

Or Ultima online, or Lineage 1&2

Kinda wondering how you knew everyone was a premade..or for that matter if half the teams you played against did have premades against you then it goes to reason the other half they where on your side.

Didn't they put in a trial mech designed by people so people would stop bitching about the woes of trial mechs?

Edited by Parnage, 11 April 2013 - 05:34 PM.

[Zylo]

Mack1, on 11 April 2013 - 05:10 PM, said:

This game needs a solo queue system asap to stop this premade v pug slaughter.

No, this game needs to stop mixing new players with the default Elo rating into games with other players to produce a balanced average. You are seeing the effects of new players with lower Elo ratings being used to balance teams.

New players should only be matched against other new players which is the problem with the current system.

Also I should add that if you were losing often, it's unlikely that the premade on your team would admit they were a premade if you asked.

Edited by Zylo, 11 April 2013 - 05:38 PM.

[Zombie Gandhi]

Having played since closed beta, I've piloted my fair share of mechs. I know starting out can be a hassle (I've read up on the cadet, as it doesn't apply to me; xp/c-bill bonus?), are there are quite a few mechs to choose from. There are many mechs that require DHS to perform really well (energy heavy, usually). I've not piloted one in a good while, but I do suggest the Dragon, for the newly started.

The Dragon DRG-1C, was my Dragon of choice when I piloted it. It doesn't need DHS or Endo, or any of the upgrades to do well. Gauss in the arm, and I rolled with 4 medium lasers and an SRM 6. Heat was hardly an issue, fantastic speed (81 with stock engine), and good armor. For the newbies, I'd save for a Dragon. It gets you in a good all around mech, with plenty of variety for either Fire Support (Gauss and Large Lasers), or close range.

[Vermaxx]

PGI has never denied people need VOIP to do well.
PGI has never denied that their in game VOIP needs work.

There are literally dozens of ways to meet people, and create four man teams (glorified pugs) even as a brand new player. While I recognize not everyone wants to do this (I hate playing with all strangers, but I will if constantly losing), it is the only way to really level the playing field.

I don't really know if C3 will ever be as useful as Teamspeak servers, because AT BEST it puts the ad-hoc group into one VOIP channel. That doesn't help if a lot of the people in the team are still uninterested in working together. At least if you are in a four man VOIP, all four people somewhat intend to work together.

Yes, there should be some kind of separate queue for the new people, but in all liklihood "Mystical Community Warfare"® is going to have traininer worlds for new people to fight on. Who knows. A lot of shart simply isn't a priority in this game mode right now because it is a high functioning demo of a mystical finished product.

[One Medic Army]

Zylo, on 11 April 2013 - 05:36 PM, said:

No, this game needs to stop mixing new players with the default Elo rating into games with other players to produce a balanced average. You are seeing the effects of new players with lower Elo ratings being used to balance teams.

New players should only be matched against other new players which is the problem with the current system.

Also I should add that if you were losing often, it's unlikely that the premade on your team would admit they were a premade if you asked.

How many times do the devs need to say that isn't how they do Elo balancing for people to get the memo?

[Caleb Lee]

Mack1, on 11 April 2013 - 05:10 PM, said:

This game needs a solo queue system asap to stop this premade v pug slaughter.

This game needs a cadet only queue to give them a chance to learn the game first. By then they should have some Elo rating and that will help as it should be a very low Elo if they are truly new to MW:O.

I would also then support another 25 games in a 'Graduate' mode that gave them a Premium account for those matches and also kept them to solo matches.

After that, they are considered standard players with 50 games under their belt, have experienced Premium and should also have their own mech or multiple mechs at this point. They can join the rest of us in the normal queue system at that point.

Part of the reason you're seeing pre-mades in every queue is well duh... this is a multiplayer game, the player population isn't as active right now as many are waiting for more content, leagues and/or meta-game. If they're smart, they are on comms, either their own server or one of the MANY public servers available and posted in the forums.

Why you people refuse to join a unit or at least PUG with others on comms, then complaing/cry about how hard it is solo, demand your own queue and continue to play the game the hard way simply astounds me.

Multiplayer game... nothing has changed since the old days of Quake/UT, units working together, especially on comms, will always do better and roll solo/lonewolf players. The only exception is the more twitchy a game is some very exceptional players can 'swing' the battle more in their favor but even then will lose the majority of the time. This game isn't very 'twitchy' so I'd suggest you adapt or move on, or simply wait for the inevitable Solaris down the road... albeit very FAR down the road given their timetables and priorities.

[Zylo]

One Medic Army, on 11 April 2013 - 05:43 PM, said:

How many times do the devs need to say that isn't how they do Elo balancing for people to get the memo?

Link to the post then. I want to see this evidence.

[Caleb Lee]

Eddy Hawkins, on 11 April 2013 - 05:24 PM, said:

i am guessing you have never played EvE Online....

Eve is a second job... and yes, a much more brutal game that MW:O ever will be. Not to mention it takes months if not years to try and catch up with the best implants tech wise just so you stand a real chance in a fight.

[Roland]

Instead of the queue separation we have now, we should have a solo queue and everyone else.

New players could play in the solo queue, and would be far less likely to run up against premade partial teams who stomp them.

Additionally, new players really should start with a lower than average Elo rank, because very few new players to this game are going to be even remotely average.

[One Medic Army]

Zylo, on 11 April 2013 - 05:44 PM, said:

Link to the post then. I want to see this evidence.

http://mwomercs.com/...43#entry1935843
Go wild.

[LordBraxton]

BladeSplint, on 11 April 2013 - 05:19 PM, said:

its not the mech, its the pilot. Just take the time to hone your skills and make sure your positioning is good relative to your team. Yes the trial mechs suck but they aren't unplayable if your heat management is good.

BladeSplint, on 11 April 2013 - 05:19 PM, said:

its not the mech, its the pilot. Just take the time to hone your skills and make sure your positioning is good relative to your team. Yes the trial mechs suck but they aren't unplayable if your heat management is good.

yes but starter mechs shouldnt require the better pilots to be functional.

trial mechs should be balanced but competitive

e.g. they keep doing community trials untill they can just run those