191 replies to this topic

[Kyle Polulak]

You can see the latest Command Chair post from the Dev Team here: http://mwomercs.com/...rivate-matches/

Spoiler

Bryan Ekman, on 02 December 2013 - 11:53 AM, said:

The goal of a private match is to allow two groups of players to challenge each other to a custom match of their own design and at their own leisure. We have identified a need from our user base for supporting competitive play between groups of players, and by guilds wanting to practice or train. They currently use 12 man groups and synch dropping to achieve private match functionality. Reducing the friction of this complex coordination by supporting the concept of two competitive teams engaging in offline competitions can be solved with private matches.

Creation

The process of creating a private match begins in the Front End UI. A player has two options, Public Launch or Private Launch. Selecting Private Launch triggers the creation of the Private Launch Ready Screen. If the match creator is also a group leader, he will bring his group with him into the private ready screen. If a player is part of a group and not the leader, they will first need to leave the group in order to launch a private match.

Inviting Players

When inviting a player, the match creator can do it 1 of 2 ways. First, the match creator can click “Invite Player” button and manually type in the player’s name. The second is to click a name on their friends list and select Invite Player. This alleviates the need to have a player on a friends list before being able to invite them. Anyone in the private match can invite another player, unless the match creator has locked the match. A match is unlocked by default.
A message is sent to the invited player, if they accept the invite they automatically join the ready screen. In order for a player to accept an invite they must have at least one `Mech readied and in a good launch state. If a player is inside a group, and not the group leader, they will need to leave the group first before accepting the invite. If the player is a group leader, they can accept on behalf his group which adds all of the players within that group to the ready screen. If for any reason a player fails to receive or declines and invite, the invitee should be notified of the reason.

Private Ready Screen

The ready screen allows the creator to invite or remove players, organize them into lances and teams, assign leadership roles, and customize the match parameters. Moving players around should be easy, ideally by dragging them from a list of unassigned players into team A or team B. Once on a team, players should also be able to self-organize, unless the match creator has locked out player organization control.

Basic Match Parameters:

• Game Mode (Skirmish, Assault, or Conquest)

Premium Match Parameters:

• Map
  
• Tonnages Rules (Min, Max)
  
• Even Teams (Yes/No)
  
• Match Time ([5-25] mins)
  
• View Mode (1PV, 3PV, or Both)

Launching


Once all of the conditions for launching a match have been achieved, the match owner can elect to trigger a launch into the game. Since there may be a limited number of dedicated servers available for use as a private match, a queuing mechanic needs to let players know their estimated wait time before the match is kicked off. The queue should be sorted by first come first server into two tiers. Premium Users and Basic Users. Within the premium user queue, matches are ranked and order based on their aggregate Premium User Score. This is defined as the sum of all players current active premium booster time left.

Premium Match

If the match creator has a premium booster (premium time or some other new booster), they will have access to the premium ready screen options.

Note: Any numbers or words found with [ ] are for demonstration only and subject to change.

Please share your thoughts!

[Deathlike]

I guess that sounds OK, except, this should've been done with UI 1.5 long ago.

[Roadbeer]

All sounds great, how soon until new mode and test?

[Tolkien]

I can't wait to need a premium booster to get that 1pv option we were told would be called hardcore.

Classy.

[Siriothrax]

Will mech choice be visible to the other team in the private lobby?

If you know what the enemy team is bringing, you can shape your game plan accordingly, and it reduces the importance of scouting. This has a big effect on competitive play. I've only had a chance to read the posts once over, so I might have missed the detail, but I'm hoping that my concern has already been addressed.

Edited by Siriothrax, 02 December 2013 - 01:41 PM.

[DeathofSelf]

Charging money for private match options? Not cool guys... It had better be C-Bills and not MC (if that, really it shouldn't be anything)

Edited by DeathofSelf, 02 December 2013 - 01:44 PM.

[pbiggz]

DeathofSelf, on 02 December 2013 - 01:43 PM, said:

Charging money for private match options? Not cool guys... It had better be C-Bills and not MC (if that, really it shouldn't be anything)

Servers cost money, they really dont have a choice, either you pay up front for the game or you pay in different ways. Hopefully it wont be too major.

[DeathofSelf]

pbiggz, on 02 December 2013 - 01:44 PM, said:

Servers cost money, they really dont have a choice, either you pay up front for the game or you pay in different ways. Hopefully it wont be too major.

As you can see I have paid money, I understand that they need to make money, but charging for options in private matches is a pretty crappy way to do it

[Arkadash]

The "Even Teams (Yes/No)" option seems necessary once the clans invade, at least according to lore.

[Banditman]

Observations and questions:

1. If a player who is not the group leader creates a private match, send a message to the group leader saying "Player_0023 has created a private match, do you wish to join your group to this match? (Y/N)". If "Yes", in goes the group. If "No", Player_0023 is removed from the group and put into his own private match. != rocket science.

2. If I invite "Player B", who is in a group led by "Player A" to a private match, just forward the invite to Player A and let him choose to accept or not accept.

3. Why not just allow a player or Merc corp (or whatever player run entity) to rent their own server? This works so bloody well in Tribes Ascend (and other games), it doesn't have to be this bloody hard. I'm sure you're using virtualization, store the parameters for the server and only spin it up when the player or a designated player within the owning Merc corp launches a private match.

[Silent]

Siriothrax, on 02 December 2013 - 01:41 PM, said:

Will mech choice be visible to the other team in the private lobby?

If you know what the enemy team is bringing, you can shape your game plan accordingly, and it reduces the importance of scouting. This has a big effect on competitive play. I've only had a chance to read the posts once over, so I might have missed the detail, but I'm hoping that my concern has already been addressed.

For just 500 MC a round you can hide your choices from the other team.

[SirLANsalot]

DeathofSelf, on 02 December 2013 - 01:46 PM, said:

As you can see I have paid money, I understand that they need to make money, but charging for options in private matches is a pretty crappy way to do it

Stop trying to get {Scrap} for free you leech.


They never did say it will cost to make a match, just that if your a premo you will get prioritized on the servers for a slot. As there will be a limit to how many privet matches they can have going on at once in there server. Basic people will need to wait, people with premo, will get in first since they are paying for the game before freebies. If you don;t like it, tough, every server for EVERY game out there dose that with donation slots ect ect, this is no different.



Those still whining about 3Pv and 1Pv being together......shut up already, its not going to change, and its not a game breaking feature like it was in the ages past in other MW titles. Get you head on straight and understand that PGI actually did 3PV CORRECTLY.

[Heffay]

DeathofSelf, on 02 December 2013 - 01:43 PM, said:

Charging money for private match options? Not cool guys... It had better be C-Bills and not MC (if that, really it shouldn't be anything)

You have free private matches. Why shouldn't they monetize the advanced options?

Not to mention that each of the premium options will have default values. And if you're in a private match, you can enforce whatever other values you want through policy. Sheesh...

Edited by Heffay, 02 December 2013 - 02:15 PM.

[Dihm]

Sweet, you found a way to monetize to still get the cash when people use private matches to create the community warfare that keeps being promised.

[DeathofSelf]

SirLANsalot, on 02 December 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

Stop trying to get {Scrap} for free you leech.


They never did say it will cost to make a match, just that if your a premo you will get prioritized on the servers for a slot. As there will be a limit to how many privet matches they can have going on at once in there server. Basic people will need to wait, people with premo, will get in first since they are paying for the game before freebies. If you don;t like it, tough, every server for EVERY game out there dose that with donation slots ect ect, this is no different.



Those still whining about 3Pv and 1Pv being together......shut up already, its not going to change, and its not a game breaking feature like it was in the ages past in other MW titles. Get you head on straight and understand that PGI actually did 3PV CORRECTLY.

Did you actually read anything? Or did you just want to yell at people on the internet?

Heffay, on 02 December 2013 - 02:13 PM, said:

They didn't say they are charging money for private matches. They said that some features of private matches will be available for the match creators if they have a premium booster.

That is what I said, "private match OPTIONS"

[Heffay]

DeathofSelf, on 02 December 2013 - 02:14 PM, said:

That is what I said, "private match OPTIONS"

I realize that, and edited my post. Reread it, since you're whining about nothing.

Dihm, on 02 December 2013 - 02:13 PM, said:

Sweet, you found a way to monetize to still get the cash when people use private matches to create the community warfare that keeps being promised.

There is zero need to get the premium booster. If you're in a private match, you can enforce whatever restrictions you want. Including a 12v12 hunchback only match.

[aniviron]

pbiggz, on 02 December 2013 - 01:44 PM, said:

Servers cost money, they really dont have a choice, either you pay up front for the game or you pay in different ways. Hopefully it wont be too major.

Yes, well, maybe PGI should have thought about the fact that servers cost money when they decided on a free-to-play model. Charging people for basic game options on launch is pretty scummy. Not going to give my final judgement on this until I see how things end up, but really, if they want to go with the "servers cost money argument," maybe they ought to be charging all those terrible freeloaders a subscription fee.

Or, we could assume that this game works like every single other free-to-play game and note that the costs of an imaginary currency that costs them no money to make should rake in enough money to keep the servers running, which in turn nets them more cash selling more imaginary spacebucks because there are more people playing the game.

Edited by aniviron, 02 December 2013 - 02:21 PM.

[DeathofSelf]

Heffay, on 02 December 2013 - 02:18 PM, said:

You're welcome. I do what I can so that the average forum browser doesn't read your post and get confused about what is being offered.

In other words: Some people will complain about anything. And by anything I mean EVERYTHING.

And some people will defend anything... Seriously, heaven forbid anyone disagree with anything you or PGI says

[Deathlike]

aniviron, on 02 December 2013 - 02:19 PM, said:

Yes, well, maybe PGI should have thought about the fact that servers cost money when they decided on a free-to-play model. Charging people for basic game options on launch is pretty scummy. Not going to give my final judgement on this until I see how things end up, but really, if they want to go with the "servers cost money argument," maybe they ought to be charging all those terrible freeloaders a subscription fee.

Or, we could assume that this game works like every single other free-to-play game and note that the costs of an imaginary currency that costs them no money to make should rake in enough money to keep the servers running, which in turn nets them more cash selling more imaginary spacebucks because there are more people playing the game.

Many units are MORE THAN WILLING to shell out the money for their own private server. That's what happens for MANY games like Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (a completely aging F2P game).

Doing any other method seems silly by comparison.

In theory, it should be a win-win for PGI, people paying them (on a recurring basis) for server usage and people still getting what they want (their own server). I think the last of the MW4 Mercs guys did that (although, virtually anyone could host it themselves for free).

Sometime the easiest solution is the simplest one. It's odd that PGI wants to continue reinventing the wheel.

Edited by Deathlike, 02 December 2013 - 02:24 PM.

[Dymlos2003]

aniviron, on 02 December 2013 - 02:19 PM, said:

Yes, well, maybe PGI should have thought about the fact that servers cost money when they decided on a free-to-play model. Charging people for basic game options on launch is pretty scummy. Not going to give my final judgement on this until I see how things end up, but really, if they want to go with the "servers cost money argument," maybe they ought to be charging all those terrible freeloaders a subscription fee.

Or, we could assume that this game works like every single other free-to-play game and note that the costs of an imaginary currency that costs them no money to make should rake in enough money to keep the servers running, which in turn nets them more cash selling more imaginary spacebucks because there are more people playing the game.

Since it IS a private match, just tell the people on your TS the restrictions. Pretty easy actually, you don't need to pay if you don't want to. If you play with idiots that don't listen then that's your fault.