268 replies to this topic

[Matthew Craig]

Throet: Sorry you think microtransactions are baloney, as both a developer and a consumer I think there is a lot of merit in microtransactions though its still in its infancy and there are both good and bad implementations. The standard box product model just means you have to put down 50-60 dollars and hope the game delivers what you want. Not entirely a bad option after all its got us this far but its quite all or nothing.

I think its nice to be able to play for free and then decide what things I value and want and/or am willing to pay for to add to my experience. As I heard someone mention earlier they went back to EQ2 to check it out when it went free to play as the barrier to entry was removed. I stopped playing EVE primarily as I kept paying for a subscription that on some months I was barely making use of. If nothing else I think its nice to see payment models evolving and trying new things. Though ideally the more options the better.

[DEMAX51]

Matthew Craig, on 19 September 2013 - 02:46 PM, said:

Yes it's something that will be discussed if we can do that behind the scenes. Something that was noted internally is that if you were able to continue to make changes in mechlab to other Mechs (not the one dropping) while you wait that would potentially help ease the strain of longer wait times?

That would be really cool.

[Xandre Blackheart]

Matthew Craig, on 19 September 2013 - 08:00 AM, said:

Yes there is a seperate Elo rating for each weight class
.

Ahh so it's just weight class? Would it be necessarily any more server load to move it to Elo based on the specific chassis instead of weight class?

Cause I can tell you, there is a huge difference in my effectiveness piloting a stalker and say an awesome.

One interesting side effect of this might be that you would see games where people using "competitive" chassis are grouped together and games where ... fun? We'll say fun chassis are grouped together.

[Siriothrax]

We failed to find match for half an hour tonight with a group of four. We finally managed to get one by putting a second group from our team together and syncing, which got us on opposite teams. However, some of our subsequent attempts failed even when syncing, or our new team would get a match and the original one was left out to dry.

Overall...it's been an hour, and one match. Seriously?

EDIT: Second match on the hour mark. Same as before, had to sync against our own 4 man to get similar ELO.

Edited by Siriothrax, 19 September 2013 - 06:35 PM.

[FunkMasterTaco]

Siriothrax, on 19 September 2013 - 05:38 PM, said:

We failed to find match for half an hour tonight with a group of four. We finally managed to get one by putting a second group from our team together and syncing, which got us on opposite teams. However, some of our subsequent attempts failed even when syncing, or our new team would get a match and the original one was left out to dry.

Overall...it's been an hour, and one match. Seriously?

Hopefully PGI doesn't consider this to be "working as intended".....or we have a serious issue.

[Skadi]

Matthew Craig, on 18 September 2013 - 07:52 AM, said:

Please feel free to post your feedback on how long you are willing to wait to find a good match,

I can tell you now im not willing to wait the 30 mins I am now for a crappy match....

[Inkarnus]

ppl like villz boostet there elo with always going group and cheese builts
tramping with feet on non abusiv players
with there team
let them die in elo hell no excuses ....

He got what he himself createt
he has no right to complain in anyway

Edited by Inkarnus, 19 September 2013 - 06:11 PM.

[ShinVector]

Lol... Kept meeting the same people over and over last night... FunkyTaco and his jenner D, Icebank in his ERLL raven, Netherdawn and his group, Kirisame and his victor...

We used to be able to see an active player pool of was it.. 9000 ? in the past...
I wonder how many players are there really now...

[Skadi]

Inkarnus, on 19 September 2013 - 06:05 PM, said:

tramping with feet on non abusiv players

what else would he tramp with...

[JagerXII]

First time I have had time to drop 4s since the patch went in on Tuesday and spent an hour in game. In that hour I had I believe 16 failed to find matches and only got into 2 matches.

2 matches in one hour, with the 2nd match being right on the hour mark. That is completely unacceptable.

[FunkMasterTaco]

At least testing grounds doesn't fail to find match

[SpuriousLogic]

I'm pretty sure I a middle ELO player. While I did not have any issues with finding a game tonight, they were almost always total routes. 12-4, 12-3, 10-4, etc. I had a single close match tonight. When I was dead, I saw many, many more new players on my team then I had ever seen before.

I love the game, but tonight was the single most frustrating experience I have had with MWO.

[Rina Fujimoto]

It's probably cause all the veteran players quit, god knows I've stopped playing. I've seen the same thing happen in other ELO based f2p games (SMNC for example), if this keeps up it'll eventually just lead into PGI broadening the ELO matching values and next thing you know you'll get matches like people are starting to see now, completely new players being matched up with seasoned ones and getting completely stomped until everyone gets frustrated, quits, and all that's left is the vets and no influx of new players.

[Modo44]

I think a lot of the recent issues are due to many new players with wildly varying skill levels, and ELO not settled. However, the loosening of the parameters brought back the frustrating walkovers/stomps.

I really hope the idea of different bracket ranges depending on player numbers is implemented.

I would also suggest not building teams, but building matches. Instead of 12, look for 24 players of similar skill. When you have that, simply break people up based on mech weight. This should eliminate the currently most annoying issue of mostly veterans facing mostly noobies.

[Deathlike]

Modo44, on 19 September 2013 - 09:47 PM, said:

I think a lot of the recent issues are due to many new players with wildly varying skill levels, and ELO not settled. However, the loosening of the parameters brought back the frustrating walkovers/stomps.

I really hope the idea of different bracket ranges depending on player numbers is implemented.

I would also suggest not building teams, but building matches. Instead of 12, look for 24 players of similar skill. When you have that, simply break people up based on mech weight. This should eliminate the currently most annoying issue of mostly veterans facing mostly noobies.

Just understand that this becomes complicated when there are premades, as it is easier to deal with solo PUGs.

[Modo44]

Deathlike, on 19 September 2013 - 10:48 PM, said:

Just understand that this becomes complicated when there are premades, as it is easier to deal with solo PUGs.

You mean it would be a good idea to finally separate the solo and group queues?

[Doc Andrews]

Rippthrough, on 19 September 2013 - 01:46 PM, said:

Personally, I would prefer for the extreme ends of the spectrum, rather than broadening the search massively and still ending up with unbalanced games, if the matchmaker simply balanced the players on either side and launched after 3 minutes, even if it means a 6 vs 6 or similar.

I would rather a close match between 6 skilled opponents than a steamroll on a 12 vs 12 because it grabbed 4 lower elo guys 3 minutes in.

This is technically possible, as I've described above. By stubbing fake players and then making them 'disconnect' after the process has launched but before the match starts, you have a quick but not-too-dirty hack that allows for drops of under 12 players. PGI should really consider this.

Once they're perfected that system, they need to look at the system that Global Agenda implemented: Reinforcements. If any player fails to show up for the match or disconnects within the first 60 seconds, and that causes an imbalance, the game drops the disconnect and searches for players in the right ELO range who have opted in for 'hot drops'. They get a pop up on their screen saying: "They need reinforcements, would you like to hot drop?" The first player to say 'Yes' gets dropped into the field of battle!

This will require a bit more flexibility from the current matchmaking system. But some day.

Edit: Oh it should be noted that some players felt that hot dropping put them at a slight disadvantage, so they got +10% xp and cash for doing so that match.

Edited by Doc Andrews, 20 September 2013 - 12:13 AM.

[Khan Ignotus Kotare]

Villz, on 18 September 2013 - 11:13 PM, said:

Still failing to find match solo queing even with the extended wait times ....

wtf is my elo ? 10 billion ?

Ours f*cking failed 5 times in a row the other day. LOL.

[ohtochooseaname]

I have had some long wait times, but I don't have the failed to find match problem anymore.

Edit: spoke too soon. Still much better than a few nights ago.

Edited by ohtochooseaname, 20 September 2013 - 12:51 AM.

[Exoth3rmic]

For the integrity and legitimacy of creating a competitive pug match waiting a few minutes is ok.

That said, given there's no meta game or reason beyond mechs to play a pug match failing to find a match at all is completely unacceptable.

If I have to wait 2 mins to play a 6 min game then it's not comparable to the wait times in other games that can last 5-10x as long.