232 replies to this topic

[anubis969]

ThomasMarik, on 03 December 2013 - 04:30 PM, said:

I suppose the primary thing that would stop you from loading your dropship like that is the [480] ton limit you have on your dropship.

Seriously, did anyone read the post before raging?

The tonnage limit they talked about is for the team not the dropship.

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

When it comes to the dropship they said we will be able to load "any owned or trail 'mech".

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The player will start with [2] DropShip slots and be able to put any owned or Trail `Mech into a slot.

Unless I missed it they never mentioned a tonnage limit or any other proviso. Hopefully that is just an oversight on the part of the person that worded the announcement because if it's not and you really can take an all assault dropship then problems will occur.

[YueFei]

CapperDeluxe, on 03 December 2013 - 06:19 AM, said:

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.

The NFL doesn't impose weight restrictions on the 11 players on the field. You know what they did do? They made the field 160 feet wide and introduced the forward pass.

Instead of putting tonnage limits, they should deliver on Role Warfare, and create a variety of maps and mission modes.

As it is now, Assault mode on a small map is the equivalent of a short yardage situation: both teams will bring their jumbo package onto the field.

[ShinVector]

More interesting than the private match.. MC stuff..
ETA.. Hmmm 2015 ?

Edited by ShinVector, 04 December 2013 - 12:13 AM.

[Tyrnea Smurf]

It might be 2015, but I suspect the big release of 2014 is the Clans (Big release of 2012 was founders, 2013 was Phoenix) And it's looking to me from these posts (Public, private matches UI 2.0 going live bugs and all ect) that the over all plan is to have UI 2.0, the reworked/revamped/expanded game modes, and this version of CW in game before a delivery date on a Clan package (based off the other 2 announced march-may 2014 with delivery in sept-oct 2014) but even saying that, who know how much work PGI actually gets done in that time frame at their glacial development pace.

[SpiralFace]

In all honesty, Forcing a tonnage limit on your drop ship would prevent those people from gaming the system. Just prevent them from launching unless they both fill 8 slots with either the free trail mechs, or their own mechs, and force them into a slightly above average tonnage limit.

Even if you have only a full stable of assault mechs, you can split the difference in your ship with Champion lights.

That way, you are always going to have "something" that should fit within the tonnage limits of the match. So there for, there are no excuses when it comes to those that will cry in chat "I only brought assaults with me."

Otherwise yeah, I see this being heavily abused and just inciting a bunch of people just raging that they can't do their Steiner scout company.

[MischiefSC]

I'd say you need to have a 'weight limit' on a players 8 mechs they bring. This will easily help deal with the issues of people only wanting to bring assaults. Either that or have people que up based on the tonnage of the mechs in their bay. Someone wants to bring 8 assaults? Great, he gets to wait for an opening for someone with just assaults - as in several minutes.

This is a good idea but is going to need a lot of tweaking to make viable. It's also going to create a lot of player friction. A few unreasonable people can cause a disproportionate amount of irritation. I like the voting concept though, match selection is great. Management of tonnage limits is the place I see drama.

[Kanatta Jing]

Well if you put 2 Highlanders in your starter Dropship...

Either the game will researve for you your minimum weight or if your slow to click the ready button you won't be able to ready at all, in which case they should auto drop you and grab a new pilot.

[fil5000]

MischiefSC, on 04 December 2013 - 04:45 PM, said:

I'd say you need to have a 'weight limit' on a players 8 mechs they bring. This will easily help deal with the issues of people only wanting to bring assaults. Either that or have people que up based on the tonnage of the mechs in their bay. Someone wants to bring 8 assaults? Great, he gets to wait for an opening for someone with just assaults - as in several minutes.

This is a good idea but is going to need a lot of tweaking to make viable. It's also going to create a lot of player friction. A few unreasonable people can cause a disproportionate amount of irritation. I like the voting concept though, match selection is great. Management of tonnage limits is the place I see drama.

This probably makes a lot more sense than the current proposal. Handle the tonnage matching before the players get into the game, and allow them to choose between mechs of the same tonnage (or less) when they're at the ready screen. People with mediums will get matched faster because there's more of a need for them with the sort of limits they're talking about.

[stanley pain]

Honestly, this is the dumbest thing I've seen (and we''re talking about PGI here so the well is vast and deep). How do you continually come up with the most ******** insane concepts for things that could be handled in simpler and more elegant ways?

From the company that brought you GHOSTHEAT......

[Joseph Mallan]

NamesAreStupid, on 02 December 2013 - 01:33 PM, said:

2 buckets? So Concord of Kapteyn vs FedCom?


I'm not sure what it even shuffles. So what if you get matched up against Jaguars or some other pro competitive team you just pay to shuffle them and not play against them?
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Oh this will be fun...

Why on Earth would you pass up the opertunity to test you metal?

[Joseph Mallan]

ThomasMarik, on 03 December 2013 - 04:30 PM, said:

I suppose the primary thing that would stop you from loading your dropship like that is the [480] ton limit you have on your dropship.

Seriously, did anyone read the post before raging?

My Dropship would have An Atlas(or 2), A Battlemaster (after Feb)... and whatever Mech I am grinding. IF I brought that many. I only have one life to life for my House. And if I cannot be dead or >10 minutes I should not be playing a game like this.

[Sharg]

Can I offer a suggestion? And I hope this doesn't get lost in forum noise, since I am trying to offer useful feedback.

Here's the suggestion:

Have the match maker take care of the tonnage limit matching, not the players. The player would select a few 'mechs he is willing to drop in, and clicks "Launch". After that, the match maker attempts to find a match where one of his 'mechs would fit under the team tonnage limit. The player would join the match piloting the 'mech that successfully met the criterion. This can be extended to include the full tonnage of all 'mechs in the players dropship, if the game mode requires it.

This system wouldn't penalize players who don't own a lot of 'mechs, except maybe for an increased wait time every once in awhile. Players who choose to select nothing but assaults for their dropship would probably have longer wait times. Players who bring a variety of 'mechs or mostly mediums will have reduced or unaffected wait times.

Since I think you guys are doing agile development, like Scrum, I'll also offer some customer value:

- New player experience will be better, since they won't be feeling pressured to choose the "right mech" in the ready screen.
- Players who have limited time to play will enjoy getting matches quickly, without waiting in lobbies
- No arbitrary timer penalizing slow users with decreased rewards.

Edited by Sharg, 05 December 2013 - 01:37 PM.

[Mofwangana Bogogono]

My main concern is the opportunity for trolling. I see people purposefully taking their time in choosing their 'mech, just to grief other pilots and laughing while the CB bonus drops to zero. Adding an incentive for the majority of players will have the negative effect of incentivising grief.

I think this will work great with 90% of the pilots. The problem is That Guy who always seems to end up as one of the 24 mechs in the match.

I'm sure it will save a lot of grief if the process were automated. Before you launch, you list your [8] mechs in your dropship in order of preference, with a requirement to have at least [1] mech under [50] tons, assuming [50] tons is the maximum average weight allowed. When it comes time to choose a mech, the server optimizes for preference while staying under the tonnage limit.

[N0MAD]

As already stated, best way is to limit weight on dropship or have pre designed Mech slots in Dropship, eg, 1 light, 1 med, 1 heavy, 1 assualt bay in ship,, not really hard.

[Dawnstealer]

Not sure if someone mentioned this already, but pretty sure the arbitrary 40 ton weight limit came from taking the heaviest mech (100 tons) and subtracting out the lightest (20) and then dividing that by two (80/2=40)? Best guess.

Of course, the problem is that then you're a bit light. Your average mech should be around 50 or 55, I'd think. That would give you an assault lance, a scout lance, and then a strike lance that's filled out with mediums, light heavies.

Anyways - looking forward to the new mode and looking forward to CW, Soon™.

[Garamanus]

Aware, on 02 December 2013 - 01:35 PM, said:

If you are the last person to select your mech, what happens when you don't have a mech that fits in the remaining tonnage?

I hope that you would be able to pick your closest mech to that weight...

[Conductor Rarity]

If the minimum is 240, then its pointless because even a team of all locusts would fit the tonnage minimum.

and the maximum of 480 is ridiculous... lets do some math shall we? According to sarna the most common lance fielded is two heavies, one medium, and one light. Using your number (480) that averages out to about 160 tons per lance. Now, we add up the lightest mechs of each weight class: 60+60+40+20 =180. Using your numbers not even the most common lance in battletech could be fielded if it was the lightest possible for their class. I recommend upping the max to 660 allowing for an average lance weight of 220, which would allow for two 65 ton mechs, a 55 ton, and a 35 ton. And that gives a little leeway on mech choice as well; for example if your light player takes a spider and your medium player takes a centurion, then your heavies could take heavier mechs. Now I'm not saying add a lance minimum and maximum but make it so your lances can field an average lance if they wanted to. Also up the minimum to the previous maximum, 480.

[Kanatta Jing]

Mofwangana Bogogono, on 05 December 2013 - 02:54 PM, said:

My main concern is the opportunity for trolling. I see people purposefully taking their time in choosing their 'mech, just to grief other pilots and laughing while the CB bonus drops to zero. Adding an incentive for the majority of players will have the negative effect of incentivising grief.

The problem is that you are imagining malice where malice is unprovable and infact somewhat unlikely. People will freeze out of anxiety more often then anything else.

[Dan Nashe]

I have to agree with a system of something like:
2 lights, 2 meds, 2 heavies, 2 assaults, 4 free floating slots
You have to declare what you'll play when you click launch.
Matchmaker will mix it up.
If meds are unpopular, meds will have isntant queues, and assaults will have 5 minute queues.
Although it could be an issue with premades.

Maybe the game chooses any mech from your mechbay, but you choose your mechbay. So if you put a light, med, hvy, and assault in your bay, the game can put you in any slot (fast queue). A 4 man whose players put together dropships with variation will have a much higher chance to get a group. That kind of thing.

Just a thought. Granted, the algorithm might be tricky with shifting variables.

All I know is that any system where players are pressuring other players to play something (outside of the confines of your unit you voluntarily join) will ruin the game for me, and many others.

[Hellen Wheels]

I swear that if ONE MORE ***** complains about the "maximum" of 480 or the "minimum" I will smash this computer.

THOSE NUMBERS ARE MERELY PLACEHOLDERS YOU MORONS.