85 replies to this topic

[Datenight]

Community -
Twice this weekend I introduced new players to MWO. Both of them spent a goodly portion of their matches noobtarding it up, in spite of my gentle instructions and suggestions. Both players were then subjected to berating, whining, and otherwise off-putting commentary from their teammates.

It's bad enough I have to apologize for a UI (come on UI 2.0!) that's full of quirks and personality that we veterans know how to navigate without knowing we know how to navigate, but now I have to apologize for those guys too.

Stop this now before we turn this into League of Legends. That guy you're about to call a noob might just be, in fact, a new player, struggling to learn the interface and digest what's going on. It might've been Sarah.

Edited by Datenight, 18 August 2013 - 05:07 PM.

[Deathlike]

You have to understand two problems that generally crop up:

1) MM matches "high ELO players" with "complete newbies" by design. This has too many negative implications, and as such does not generally mesh (poor play becomes intolerable at times).

2) Teammates who tend to do newbish stuff as in not being part of the main group and/or shooting after spawning easily aggravates people. This practice of "testing your weapons" in the direction of your teammates has to stop. Also, being a true "lone wolf" tends to accelerate a team's downfall.

Pretty much... if you're not doing the basic minimum of doing the right things as a newbie (which includes targeting with 'r'), you're probably going to be easily picked out of the crowd. I'm not saying that the veterans shouldn't be less vocal (because being a newbie sucks), but it is worse when there's no tutorial to reduce bad newbie behavior.

[I am]

Deathlike, on 18 August 2013 - 05:42 PM, said:

Also, being a true "lone wolf" tends to accelerate a team's downfall.

[MonkeyCheese]

But the system is broken, I dont care how good or bad a player is if they have done a large amount of games 1k-2k+ and have leveled up mechs they should not be placed in matches with day one noobs in trial mechs.

Ignoring pilot skill the fact that these "experienced" players are taking their Fully tricked out mastered death machines vs day one/ week one noobs in trial mechs is just wrong.

E.G. world or tanks tiers or a newer games like star conflict or warthunder, they dont have these problems, I cant take my day one noob bi-plane and fight a team full of jet powered planes with rockets and missiles that all fly 300kph faster than me and bombers covered in several turrets better than the ONE peashooter on my bi-plane.

No it donst work that way elsewhere, so why should noobs be put against this hell and in turn why should the experienced players put up with the noobs?

[Primetimex]

Like monkeycheese said and I'm sure other experienced players knew as well, I have encountered newbies to the game - who's only played about 10 - 20 hours or so being paired up with veterans of MWO who's been in the game since closed beta started and had thousands of matches under their belt.

I try help them when I can - but often times this is where the stomping gets bad - either way - you know it will be 8-0, 8-1, or 8-3 at the best and it's not good for either side, not especially the newbies who'll also have to deal with the C-Bills nerf among everything else that's going on at the moment.

[Scryed]

I'm just tired of being put in a match where my team loses 12-0 and 4 guys do 0 damage


ZERO EFFIN DAMAGE WTF, AND THEY WEREN'T AFK.

Remove this ELOL crap for pugs, and put its for groups only. Cause it isn't working.

Edited by Scryed, 18 August 2013 - 06:20 PM.

[Devilsfury]

I agree with most of the posters above me. After playing almost 6,000 matches, I get teamed with new people. Again, I know that new people need to learn to play the game but should in no way be paired with vets. Nothing ****** me off more than someone shooting LRMs point blank while face hugging or shooting their med lasers from 900 m and then complaining that they arent doing damage. ELO is pure garbage and isnt working on here for sure.

[mack sabbath]

It's the ELEVEN morons on one team, I usually rail at....15-25 game losing streaks from derps who refuse to capture objectives, use cover, focus fire, or walk without swallowing their tongues is not uncommon.

The best is when someone politely says something like "Need a light back to base" ends in some child-man telling you to do pornographic things with your body parts.

And the three disconnects/ AFK's...when you are doomed to the short bus ELO, it gets hard not to express frustration. The game really isn't fun at this point. So sad I foolishly bought PP.

[MonkeyCheese]

Primetimex, on 18 August 2013 - 06:16 PM, said:

Like monkeycheese said and I'm sure other experienced players knew as well, I have encountered newbies to the game - who's only played about 10 - 20 hours or so being paired up with veterans of MWO who's been in the game since closed beta started and had thousands of matches under their belt.

I try help them when I can - but often times this is where the stomping gets bad - either way - you know it will be 8-0, 8-1, or 8-3 at the best and it's not good for either side, not especially the newbies who'll also have to deal with the C-Bills nerf among everything else that's going on at the moment.

I know everyone has their up and down matches where things go wrong, but I am finding myself frustrated even when I see a stock trial raven on the other team just rush in head first towards all 12 members of my team and they are turned to dust in seconds.

Die Primate Die, on 18 August 2013 - 06:23 PM, said:

The best is when someone politely says something like "Need a light back to base" ends in some child-man telling you to do pornographic things with your body parts.

Well I definitely haven't seen anything that drastic yet.

Edited by MonkeyCheese, 18 August 2013 - 06:26 PM.

[Master Q]

AAannd you got a bunch of elitist snobs giving you the finger in response.

I had to "test" a few weapons today. Reload of software from a few days ago left my weapon groupings screwed up (and there is no accounting for what "Mechlab" will do to them on a reload). Since I bind some of them to a left-arm or right-arm setup (to avoid firing an entire group and seeing half of hit blast a building or hill instead of my intended target) I have to make sure I have the right weapons on the right buttons.

Doing that, shooting high up a hill on Terra Stupid, and one of my teammates runs RIGHT IN FRONT of my crosshairs. Despite knowing I'm test-firing.

Remembering that stuff happens is part of the game. Emotions get high. People get upset. We all get upset at the stupidity of some of PGI's interface and design "decisions" (I personally think they just throw random darts on a "what to muck around with and change randomly this week" board). Playing this game is an exercise in masochism right now, at least to some extent.

But at the same time remember: if you drive away those other players, the ones just starting out and expanding the player base, then the game will fail and you'll have nothing to play.

[Profiteer]

As long as PGI insist on lumping newbs with vets via the ELO system, frustrations will lead to QQ on both sides of the fence.

Imagine if sports did this - putting professional stars with weekend club players to "make up" a balanced team. There would be very little sports, and a whole lot of fighting... actually that could be quite fun to watch

Edited by Profiteer, 18 August 2013 - 08:10 PM.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Datenight, on 18 August 2013 - 05:00 PM, said:

Community -
Twice this weekend I introduced new players to MWO. Both of them spent a goodly portion of their matches noobtarding it up, in spite of my gentle instructions and suggestions. Both players were then subjected to berating, whining, and otherwise off-putting commentary from their teammates.

It's bad enough I have to apologize for a UI (come on UI 2.0!) that's full of quirks and personality that we veterans know how to navigate without knowing we know how to navigate, but now I have to apologize for those guys too.

Stop this now before we turn this into League of Legends. That guy you're about to call a noob might just be, in fact, a new player, struggling to learn the interface and digest what's going on. It might've been Sarah.

Don't blame it on us. Blame it on PGI who in thier infinate wisdom, assigns new players an "Average" ELO score that places them in matches where they neither belong nor are wanted. New players need to play with other new players or at the lowest ELO levels, it is simple as that.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 18 August 2013 - 08:44 PM.

[CeeKay Boques]

It would be bad if we put a star next to guys still working on their first 25 matches right?

Because, if I saw one, I would help them...

You guys..probably wouldn't right. You'd say "OH LORDAY ITS A NOOBAY" or something...

I mean... if we all agreed to be cool, putting a "Noob" stamp a bona fide noob would be awesome...

but we can't agree to be cool. Oh well!

[hellcatq]

I remember back when it was 8v8. My poor atlas managed to make it to the fight after all other 7 on my team was killed. They had managed to kill 2 of the enemy. Not to worry though cause I killed the other 6 by myself after everyone else was dead. Yeah, they definitely had some noobs involved in that one.

[CrashieJ]

Noobs exist due to the fact that there is no real training area for them to get comfortable with the controls.

I hate to say it but "there needs to be some handholding" especially with games like these.

[ferranis]

First things first: pgi's new player experience sucks balls, big time. Since the very start and since the very start we were pleading to get at least a tutorial going.

But at least we came a small step forward: the matchmaker is not paring new players with vets, the elo range is for certain too wide in which new players are placed but at least it is better than before the matchmaker when new players had to deal with realy good players AND steamrolls in premade vs pugs.

The system needs improvement all over the place though.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Technoviking, on 18 August 2013 - 08:48 PM, said:

It would be bad if we put a star next to guys still working on their first 25 matches right?

Because, if I saw one, I would help them...

You guys..probably wouldn't right. You'd say "OH LORDAY ITS A NOOBAY" or something...

I mean... if we all agreed to be cool, putting a "Noob" stamp a bona fide noob would be awesome...

but we can't agree to be cool. Oh well!

Your missing the point. If they were asking us if we would help out the noobs and putting us in a special que it would be one thing. However what we get is stuck in a serious match where we would like to win, but can't because your teammates can't line up their torsos with their feet, fire LRMs at point blank range, shoot you a dozen times in the back because they can't figure out their weapon fire originates from their arm, not their crosshair, hide behind you thus preventing you from being able to back into cover, etc, etc, etc.

I know now that I have over 1800 matches under my belt I kind of except to be playing with guys on my team that at least know that LRMs need 180m to arm and can shoot without locking their arms to their torsos.

Also it isn't just dropping with one or two newbies, it seems like most of the time it is 3/4th the team kind of like the game expects me and a couple other players to carry them or something. I mean I had one match where me and my premade lance dropped and despite us being a premade and having voice coms our team just got annillated. One Lance, 4 mechs, had less than 200 damage between them and the other lance only managed to output about the same amount of damage as the best single player in my lance. Even a premade with good players couldn't carry that match with an obviously almost all newbie team.

The reality is, just like every other game out there, new players need a special que so they don't get shoved in the deep end and told to swim. It is not fair to the new players, nor is it fair to veteran players either.

[Kahoumono]

I would point the finger squarely at PGI. New player training/integration is something they have done nothing to improve and probably made worse with the newbie bonus. The new player probably wastes most of the newbie bonus on crap while experimenting expecting the funds to continue flowing in. Also, watching some high school project piloting video doesn't help you get to grips with this game. This game has such depth that I doubt many non-battletech fans have a full understanding before 100 matches. The devs have just assumed the casual player will go right into the forums or other online sources to improve their play. Worst yet they just dump relatively new players in with the veterans leaving both parties frustrated. There needs to be a queue with players having less than 250 matches under their belts. Or perhaps a newbie tag sort of like a founders tag which expires after so many matches. That way the vets who end up on a newbie's lance can pass on a little guidance or at the very least keep the insults to a minimum cause they are new.

[Sephlock]

Datenight, on 18 August 2013 - 05:00 PM, said:

Community -
Twice this weekend I introduced new players to MWO. Both of them spent a goodly portion of their matches noobtarding it up, in spite of my gentle instructions and suggestions. Both players were then subjected to berating, whining, and otherwise off-putting commentary from their teammates.

It's bad enough I have to apologize for a UI (come on UI 2.0!) that's full of quirks and personality that we veterans know how to navigate without knowing we know how to navigate, but now I have to apologize for those guys too.

Stop this now before we turn this into League of Legends. That guy you're about to call a noob might just be, in fact, a new player, struggling to learn the interface and digest what's going on. It might've been Sarah.

[Shadey99]

I've had several matches where I seem to have drawn a team considerably made from members of the short bus... This usually leads to me either carrying them or me dying... If I'm dead I'm bound to start 'correcting' them. "Don't lead with lasers", "LRMS don't work under 180m", "Don't fire the LRMs without a lock", "Don't fire LRMs into the side of a hill", "Lead your target with PPCs/ACs", "Twist your torso to get around that rock"... After the 2nd or third game in a row it becomes more like "For the love of god, stop shooting the hill!" or "Are you trying to overheat without hurting the enemy? He's too close for LRMs."

I agree with many others that ELO needs adjusted. I do often try to be nice, but after multiple matches I start wanting the ability to slap people with giant fish to beat some sense into them...