232 replies to this topic

[A Man In A Can]

Interesting. Guess we'll see how this works eh?

[mekabuser]

you know, i feel like Ive been in a room full of lawyers and politicians the past hour reading these nuggets from the devs.

Im not going to even bother trying to figure it all out. Nor am i going to hold my breath, get my hopes up , nor look forward to santa coming as this is all just words from them . When i see it , ill believe it.

btw, I heard that we are finally going to get JS support.. You know, like the JS we see in every mech..
Its gonna be a two tiered system.
If you have a single joystick , you will be in the basic JS user group. If you have a HOTAS , you will be in the premium JS user group which is subject to a fee<still under discussion>

[RoboticRooster]

240-480 seems WAAAAY too light. I'm hoping thats a typo, or it gets fixed.

[Dungeon Keeper]

The worst idea I ever heard.
1) Highly skilled players ALREADY have troubles to join a game. It's a common situation that we have to drop 3-4 times before match maker will allow us to join a match. And now you are going to let our opponents to shuffle the match? And we'll have to start searching again?
2) Weight limit. How you are going to enforce players to get lighter mechs? How it will be decided who can take assaults and who will use lighter ones? Does this mean that if guy in my team is fast clicker and takes useless 100 tons of scrap metal (Atlas) I will not be able to take my Highlander?
3) More and more time wasting. We don't need timers everywhere! Just remove all of them, we want to start match ASAP. You already added possibility to shuffle our premade 4 players group by PUGs and enforced us to wait 30-60 seconds before match start. This should be stopped!
P.S. My English is not very good, sorry about that.

[Ryue]

There are a few things that came to mind when I read through the description for this feature:
1.) 8 mechs. I wondered why 8 especially as lore was mentioned. For IS 4,12,36 would make more sense lorewise (clan: 5, 15, 40 I think) as I never read of a dropship that can carry 8 mechs.

2.) Map voting,... when I first read about CW it sounded like you can battle for specific planets
with other ppl / guilds / whatever.
If that is the plan (would be nice to know btw if there is any plan to implement such a feature
really or not)
So if you can vote between 2 maps and can reshuffle.....is the reshuffle limited to 2 more
maps (appropriate to the planet in question)
then it would function but if all maps are possible with reshuffle.......that
would get quite a few laughs. I mean Tharkad having a hot vulcanic area as example?

3.) From how it read it sounded like a first draft that is built together by the programers after talking to the customer and then talked with to the customers for a final approval and possible changes?

4.) From what I counted together the times mentioned could compare to teh time it currently takes to find a match, does that mean that that time spent "with the finding match" would be reduced (somewhat) by the new screen?

[MustrumRidcully]

My concern is a bit that the shuffling and mech team building would make the start-up slow. but then, if the goal is to have the same people keep playing for a while if they want to, and have new players drop in if others quit, then this might work. I might have never realized it, but I think the dropping back to mech lab after a match is also a big time-stealer and can be a turn-off (a bit like advertisements which nowadays make me turn off the TV and watch DVDs.)

Kanatta Jing, on 02 December 2013 - 01:37 PM, said:

"Each team tonnage total must fall between [240] and [480] tons."

240/12 is 20 and 480/12 is 40. 40 tons is a little light.

Square brackets apparantly mean the values are only place holders. I agree, 20 ton to 40 ton average weight is a bit low otherwise.

I'd probabably ideally choose something that would allow somethnig like 4 lights, 4 mediums and 4 assaults or 8 mediums, 4 assaults or 4 mediums and 8 heavies. Whatever that works out to be? (about 700 tons? <= [4 x 35 + 4 x 50 + 4 x 90 =700] [4 x 45 + 4 x 50 + 4 x 80] [8 x 75 + 4 x 45]. (Or a team of everything: 3 x 35 + 3 x 50 + 3 x 65 + 3 x 90 => 720t. If we assume that all mech weight classes will end up being equally common, it's important that an equal distrubtion is possible)

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 02 December 2013 - 11:43 PM.

[D0hle]

Overall, sounds pretty good, although some things are quite vague, especially the voting stage. I feel there should be a limit for how many times a match can be shuffeled. In general, there shouldn't be too much waiting before a match. We've all seen the backlash on the countdown timer in the current ready screen when it was always 60 seconds.

As other people have said, a 480 ton limit is way too low but that is clearly in brackets and thus subject to change. I think the average tonnage of 'mechs should be maybe between 50 and 60 tons which would equal a max tonnage limit of 600-720.

A c-bill bonus based on the time it takes people to ready up is a good feature but binding the bonus to everyone readying up makes it subject for abuse and trolling. It would be wiser to give the bonus to individual players if they manage to ready up in time. I think it's abundantly clear this will speed up the readying process significantly.

[oldhasu]

[YueFei]

Frak tonnage limits.

Stop taking choices away from players. The NFL doesn't mandate that the 11 men on the field must total up to between at least 1800 pounds and no more than 3200 pounds. It doesn't have to. Because the sport of football is designed in such a way that a wide variety of weight classes have distinct roles in which they excel, and which are vital at securing victory! You'll see anything from lightning fast receivers, to stout and agile running backs, to a blend of power and speed in the linebackers, to the hulking brutes on the offensive and defensive lines.

As others have said before: there should be a job for every mech, and a mech for every job.

Deliver on Role Warfare, damn it.

Edited by YueFei, 03 December 2013 - 12:06 AM.

[Magicbullet141]

http://mwomercs.com/...public-matches/
Go ahead and read it if you have not already, its not long.

Quote

[color=#959595]Matchmaking[/color]

[color=#959595]A Mercenary player with no allegiance via the contract system will be placed in a random alliance bucket. Players with an allegiance will be place in their appropriate faction alliance bucket along with any other faction players. There will be [2] alliance buckets created. Once players are placed into alliance buckets, they are matched against each other by using their Elo score.[/color]

This means:
sync dropping groups vs pugs will get much easier to do, hooray for 12-0 stomps.
ELO already makes the wait for a match agonizingly long, splitting it down further to factions will only increase the wait.

Quote

[color=#959595]Public Ready Screen[/color]

[color=#959595]After matchmaking, players enter a game instance and are held at the ready screen. The Public Ready Screen has two phases. [/color]

Because we love to be held at ready screens after waiting 2-5 minutes just to get matched with other players.

Quote

Phase One – Voting [60+] seconds

[color=#959595]Players have three choices during the voting phase, and may only chose to vote for one option. Vote for a match, vote to shuffle the match selection, or abstain from voting. Voting options (match/shuffle) are represented by an image. To place a vote, the player needs only click on the image[/color]

Sounds good, I personally like this idea, lets continue...

Quote

[color=#959595]The current vote count is overlaid on top of the image. Once a player has voted for either a match or shuffle, that vote is locked in. Voting for a match has no cost, while voting to shuffle has a nominal escalating CB and then MC fee for each successful vote passed. This fee is collected from all players who opted to vote for a shuffle. If a shuffle wins, two new matches are randomly created and the voting process starts over again. [/color]

Why would there be a fee for voting to shuffle the match, why, WHY?!? This proposed fee makes no sense! Why should anyone pay CB or God forbid MC just because they don't want to play on a particular map or gamemode? This sounds like a ponzi scheme to milk MC from the players bosoms.

Quote

NOTE: the final design of the shuffle is subject to some other design considerations currently being reviewed.

They'd better take out the CB/MC fee, its a s**thead idea, that would be like Xbox/Playstation games charging you Microsoft points/PSN wallet to let you change the map/gamemode.

Quote

Phase Two – Ready Up [60+] seconds
[color=#959595]Now that the match is locked in, players can begin to organize and plan for the battle.[/color]

PUGs planning and organizing, pffft. Most public matches are populated with groups that have already organized and planned beforehand.

Quote

[color=#959595]The first order of business will be meeting the tonnage restrictions. Each team tonnage total must fall between [240] and [480] tons. Players can bring up to [8] BattleMechs with them to battle. For the purposes of lore, these are transported in a DropShip. Selecting a `Mech readies the `Mech and adds it to your teams total tonnage. The team’s tonnage will be displayed at the top of the team’s player list, showing each person’s `Mech and weight. The number will show total weight and the amount above or below the min/max tonnage limits.[/color]

This is the 960,000 pound weight that broke the camels back. A 480 ton weight limit allows only 40 tons per player 12v12 or 60 tons per player 8v8. Most people like to play mechs that weight more than 40 tons. you will have a bum rush to lock in your favorite mech first before someone else does and forces you to play a light. I really dislike being forced into a different role than I want to play in any game.

Total time to get into a game
60-300 seconds to find other players (will increase under current proposed system)
60+ seconds voting, shuffling
60+ seconds ready up, this phase will take forever....
15-30 seconds to load the map
10 second countdown clock

It will take anywhere between 3.5 to 7.5+ min just to get into a 'quick' public match, jeezus christ!!!

[BadOptics]

This will be amazing. Seeing how people already react when I optimize our lances by weight/affiliation, the rage and tears will be golden.

Edited by BadOptics, 03 December 2013 - 12:48 AM.

[Tekadept]

BadOptics, on 03 December 2013 - 12:48 AM, said:

This will be amazing. Seeing how people already react when I optimize our lances by weight/affiliation, the rage and tears will be golden.

Best way to stop that is to have it so you BID MC to be commander.. Then its golden

[Tyr Gunn]

BadOptics, on 03 December 2013 - 12:48 AM, said:

This will be amazing. Seeing how people already react when I optimize our lances by weight/affiliation, the rage and tears will be golden.

You shouldn't do that anyway. Premade 4-mans have a plan, and they shouldn't have to contend with your OCD when you start organizing things alphabetically based on callsign. Which is why I'm glad a premade will be able to lock their ranks in this new version. It might even more easily promote premade coordination when the lances lock up and everyone sees you're on a team with two other premades.

[Dungeon Keeper]

I dont understand why devs are trying to break the only working thing in MWO. We want to click launch and start playing ASAP. Leave random queue alone, plz! Put all complicated stuff to 12 player queue.

[Morang]

Bryan Ekman said:

Matchmaking
A Mercenary player with no allegiance via the contract system will be placed in a random alliance bucket. Players with an allegiance will be place in their appropriate faction alliance bucket along with any other faction players. There will be [2] alliance buckets created. Once players are placed into alliance buckets, they are matched against each other by using their Elo score.

Please explain the meaning of the "alliance bucket". If there are only two alliance buckets even BEFORE players are selected for particular match (which by design have two sides), does that mean that despite there are 6 existing IS factions, they will only be able to form a total of two alliances (for example, FedCom and FRR form one alliance bucket and Combine, CapCon and FWL form the other), without possibility for each faction to be hostile to any other faction (total war), for example? And if there are only two alliance buckets, does that mean that the arrival of the Clans is going to cease all hostilities among the IS factions (IS will then form one bucket and Clans the other)?

Quote

Public Ready Screen
Phase One – Voting [60+] seconds

Once a player has voted for either a match or shuffle, that vote is locked in. Voting for a match has no cost, while voting to shuffle has a nominal escalating CB and then MC fee for each successful vote passed. This fee is collected from all players who opted to vote for a shuffle. If a shuffle wins, two new matches are randomly created and the voting process starts over again.

Please explain the meaning of "successful vote" and "escalating"? Does escalation occurs during a single voting (each successive player voting for shuffle during current voting costs more) or during consecutive votings of a particluar player (each new voting for shuffle costs him more until he eventually drops in the match, then shuffle vote counter resets for him)?

Please explain mechanics of creating two new matches - does that mean that players are split and those voted for match go in one room while those voted for shuffle goes in other, of it's a random split?

Quote

Phase Two – Ready Up [60+] seconds

Now that the match is locked in, players can begin to organize and plan for the battle. The first order of business will be meeting the tonnage restrictions. Each team tonnage total must fall between [240] and [480] tons. Players can bring up to [8] BattleMechs with them to battle.

Does that mean that 12-man teams are abolished for public drops and we are back in times of Beta with only 16 mechs per match total? Why? And why is there a strong bias towards lighter setups (median mech weight = ((240+480)/2)/8 = 360/8 = 45 tons instead of 60, which is the median of the 20 - 100 tons weight scale, or 55 which is another approximation of the median of Light-Medium-Heavy-Assault classes median weights, taking in consideration that Assaults have 5 weights)?

Quote

For the purposes of lore, these are transported in a DropShip.

For the purposes of lore, mechs usually operate in 12-mech companies. And most numerous IS dropships are either lance carriers or company carriers (4 or 12 slots).

Edited by Morang, 03 December 2013 - 01:53 AM.

[Viges]

Penalty for shuffle - good.
Bonus for ready - good.

Everything else - will see how it works.

[White Bear 84]

anubis969, on 02 December 2013 - 03:24 PM, said:

Cuddles.....

[John MatriX82]

Hmm those placeholder tonnage restrictions are extremely low. This is the first concernt but they are bracketed so not much hassle.

Shuffle.. I didn't comprehended fully what does it mean. Like you enter a match, the server tells you "dropping on terra therma" I accept, but like other 8 players don't so go for a shuffle, and they are charged for cbills? or MCs? What? <- this isn't clear at all!

Then I feel it's going to be rather complicated and time consuming to set up a match, you'll have to deal with trolls too, or with those who don't care and don't even vote or set ready. It looks too complicated imho, and what happens when you don't have loaded your dropship with mechs that allow you to meet the tonnage drops limits?!

What about players that drop with 4 atlases and the rest is forced to use lights? Very unclear system.

[xengk]

Deathlike, on 02 December 2013 - 01:28 PM, said:

It's actually going to cost money to vote for a shuffle?

That makes literally no sense to me.

I think it shuffles the map and game mode, which make sense.
The increasing cost to shuffle is to prevent troll shuffling or players who doesn't like a selected maps from keep shuffling until they get their favourite map. Then the other player counter shuffle to get THEIR favourite map.

[Mechteric]

YueFei, on 03 December 2013 - 12:05 AM, said:

Frak tonnage limits.

Stop taking choices away from players.

sorry but tonnage limits are somewhat necessary, I personally get sick of seeing matches lost because the enemy team is 200 tons heavier due to so many assaults on the battlefield. They put all this work into making medium mechs and lighter-heavy mechs they should get a chance to see action (therefore taking some choices away while giving more choices). More importantly it can lead to better balance, which is better for player retention.

Edited by CapperDeluxe, 03 December 2013 - 06:29 AM.