7 replies to this topic

[Heer]

Recently, (last few days) I started to take take command and then group mechs by lance.

Alpha gets all the lights and fast mechs
Charlie gets all the heavies
Bravo get the left overs.

The result has been startling.

Out of almost 30 games, my team (of pugs) has had 4 losses (most by less than 3 mechs)

I've now noticed some people doing the same (on my side) and again lots of wins.

IMHO, it causes people (the lance) to stay together and fight together. They can see (easily) what is happening to the other people in their lance (thus their weight class) and they respond together. Light "hunter" packs evolve and Assaults defend each other.

What is your opinion and comment?

[Kurkotain]

Insteresting and really useful. im still wondering why the matchmaker groups mechs as of now.

Good for your team, and your command experience. unfortunately, when on public matches, organizing pugs can be as hard as herding cats.

[Glenn Cain]

talk about herding cats, i wonder if players tend to respond better to computer generated objectives e.g. "this is your quest, do it or the game fails", as compared to a human issued command which translates to "i dun have to care a **** about what he says coz i wanna go rack up some kills and gimme a bigger ego".

then again if a game mechanism got more complicated and with objectives linked to players eg "protect this player", newbie will get flamed big time~

[Scav3ng3r]

You sir, deserve a special forum title! This title should be.... "Pug Herder" It's 1 step up from Nerf Herding, or one step down.... either way, you're definitely not scruffy looking!

[Wascot]

I was unfortunate enough to be placed on the same team as the OP twice and if I recall correctly our team lost twice. Not so sure about the colony game, but if we did win then it certainly wasn't due to the OP's "leadership." Your definition of 'commanding' is giving broad spectrum orders that people (myself included) ignore. I recall you specifically telling the 'light' lance to attack behind the ship in forest colony when it was swarming with heavy/assault mechs. I remember you placing allt he cicadas in one squad while the rest of the team got slaughtered in tourmaline. I remember you just placing taking command, switching squads around, then relinquishing the command role.

I also play with my buddy and I most certainly don't appreciate being removed from the same squad because someone feels like channeling his inner macarthur.

[mailin]

I too have dropped with three friends and gotten moved. Luckily it wasn't by the OP because I haven't played in a week due to computer problems. To the OP, you need to be very careful about moving people. If my friends and I drop together, we want to be together as a lance and we get kind of cranky when we get moved and someone tries to give us orders. A team of 12 may have 2 or 3 groups of 4 in it.

Edited by mailin, 10 September 2013 - 06:31 PM.

[Heer]

Some other observations;

1) When mechs died, they tended to die as a lance. (with the exception of the lights)
2) The Assault lance either died big time or lived big time.
3) Giving orders tended to be ignored as much as in a normal pug game. (ie mostly) In some games I just didn't even bother. I just grouped people and then shut up.
4) It become visually very easy to see what the other mechs in your weight class are doing and where they are..

In response to;
<mailin> It may not have been me, I've noticed others in my time zone now doing this, however I believe I advised what I was about to do and asked for objections.(I have done so every game)

<Wascot> I also believe I advised what I was going to do and asked for objections. I remember this game (the CDA's). I remember the lights being shot-up on the road and having no "eyes" at back of the ship for the LRM mechs in the team.
In the beginning (of this experiment) I did take command, move mechs and then resign command. I did this to allow someone else to command if they wanted to. I have since learnt that that was a waste of an idea.

Some notes;
If you are going to try this; Ask first. As you can see from the above comments teams may not like this. (However teams on voice have a tendency to ignore you anyway, I believe)

Edited by Heer, 10 September 2013 - 07:14 PM.

[mailin]

One problem with this occurs when the person who takes command is a poor leader. For example, the one drop where I got separated from my drop partners because of my weight, the commander then immediately sent the lights to the enemy base through the water in forest colony. (The enemy had the base up high and we were down low.) I hate capping immediately because it is tactically unsound. When I told my team mates we weren't going to that because the enemy had snipers covering the water, our "commander" became kind of abusive telling me I didn't know what I was doing. After that he lost any chance of credibility with my team and actually wound up being the first one of us to die. We lost that match, but we had to read a string of profanity from our former commander calling us a bunch of noobs. I told him how many drops I had in my Spider and how many I had in lights total, which actually shut him up, until I was the last one alive and he kept calling out my coordinates in all chat. That was a frustrating loss, that could have easily been a win had it not been for poor leadership. I guess my point is, if you issue a command and your team mates don't do what you want, don't get defensive, just politely ask them if they are working from a better plan.