1 reply to this topic

[Capsaicin]

DISCLAIMER: I do not assume that I am an expert on this subject nor do I think this idea is a new one or a perfect one. I also do not assume I have any idea of how ELO works.

How many times have you played a match to find that you participated in a completely off balance match. Whether you were on the time with all the tonnage or you were stomped on because you were vastly out numbered. it isn't fun is it? This doesn't always happen, but when it does it feels like you just wasted your last 10-15 minutes.

The following (probably not original) idea is something I have thought about and think it would be a fun and fair replacement to the current system.

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I would like PGI to think really hard about implementing tonnage limits into MWO through group classes.

Before the ELO system, matches were made by trying to match weight class to like weight classes. Although it wasn't perfect (Awesome vs Atlas), it made for some fun and close matches and seemed pretty simple in design. The ELO system we have now seems to have over complicated MM and makes for more unfair matches.

What I propose is similar in it's execution to the original formula, be not much more complicated and should hopefully be vastly more fair.

Four man groups as we know it should be completely overhauled. I suggest that they get replaced by 3 different group types. Each group type is allowed to have a minimum of 2 players and a maximum of 4. They also set a limit of the maximum number of combined tons across each mech within the group. The three types of groups I suggest are the following:

Leopard - max 150T
Lion - max 225T
Union - max 300T
Overlord - ??? (perhaps save for 12 man groups)

If you know your Battletech canon (and I absolutely do not - thanks Sarna for filling those gaps), the above classifications are named off mech capable dropships from the BT universe.

When you create your group, you choose your dropship or group class instead of just chooseing 4 or 8 man like you do now.

Within your group, you choose your mechs as you normally would, but you are NOT allowed to launch until you are under your tonnage max and when everyone has readied up.

When you do launch, the Match Maker takes over and creates the game.

It looks at all groups. It'll randomly choose a class based on the % of that group type. So if you have 25% Leopard, 50% Lion, and 25% Union, it has those % chances to pick that class. When a class is chosen, it actually picks two groups as they match up and will face off. It'll then (for 8v8) randomly pick another class type and two groups from it for a total of 4 groups and a possible maximum of 16 players. For 12v12, it'll choose a third time.

The major difference between group choosing now and what I propose, is that it won't try to fill the game lobby to it's max 16 player (8v8) capacity. It only matches group to group. The assumption is that within your weight limit, your group has hopefully optimized it to make it fair enough when matched against a like group type.

This means you won't always be playing 8v8. It could be 6v8 or 7v7 or any combination with a minimum of 4v4. This might mean that match scoring will need an overhaul but who knows.

Now I'm sure many of you are thinking, what are you going to do to the pubbies since you aren't using them to back fill lances? Well, if there are problems finding a match and it'd help to upgrade a Leopard to a Lion or a Lion to a Union, it'll back fill with pubbies there. Maybe your group is a few tons shy of it's max; it could use a pubbie to fill it in without upgrading you to the next class.

Another question that I can probably hear is, "What about ELO?" Well frankly, since I don't know how it works, I don't know how to integrate it into this system. Perhaps your group gets an average ELO and when the MM tries to match your with a like group, it finds one with a similar ELO.

Right now I do not think this is a perfect system. I do think that it would make games more fair and also vary them more since you never know what the max tonnage will be for a given match.

I do think that it sort of gives pubbies the cold shoulder and I think that needs improvement but right now, I'm not sure how to accomplish that.

Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks for reading.

[Liquid Leopard]

Capsaicin, on 30 June 2013 - 12:42 PM, said:

DISCLAIMER: I do not assume that I am an expert on this subject nor do I think this idea is a new one or a perfect one. I also do not assume I have any idea of how ELO works.

Yeah, you wrote it in all caps as if it's an acronym.
v Here's an explanation of where the term "Elo" comes from.
http://en.wikipedia....o_rating_system

...Not that it explains how the system (supposedly) works in MWO.

I used to think the matchmaking system was supposed to match people so all 16 people in the field had similar Elo ratings, but that's obviously not it. I know my stats suck a$$, because I started off with no skilz, and when I upgraded my computer, I upgraded from 3 frames per second to 11 fps. I shouldn't be in a match with Founders.

Maybe you're right and it's going by the average or the sum of Elo ratings on each team. That would explain how someone who's actually good at the game can end up on an otherwise noobtacular team.

If the matchmaker is going by average Elo rating, I think there should still be an upper and lower limit for a given match. That way new players, or players with a steeper learning curve, don't have such difficult opponents, and people who are actually good don't have to deal with the frustration of teammates who split up or chase squirrels.

I think matching tonnage should be more like old-school BattleTech, where the sum of each team's tonnage should match (+/- a certain range). That would prevent fiascoes like I saw last night where my team was trying to bring a balanced variety of mechs and the other team decided, "We heard you like Atlas, so we put some Atlas in your Atlas, so you can Atlas while you Atlas."

The drop ship idea is actually kinda nifty, and would add depth to the game.

I don't know how you can balance the teams' mechs and account for how some people bring better builds than others. C-Bills? A whole new "Battle Value" system, that's even more complicated than Elo?

Edited by Liquid Leopard, 02 July 2013 - 04:11 PM.