54 replies to this topic

[White Bear 84]

More elaboration is needed... ..do one of those fancy chalkboard graphics or something - give some detail!!

[Armored Yokai]

Liking the news but is there any ETA till this update is released?

[Void Angel]

Looks good, except for one thing: the way I'm reading this, we're gonna set up a "dropship" and launch into a Ready Screen - really a pre-match lobby. Once in this lobby, we'll be able to talk to each other and set up our team, a lot like League of Legends and similar games. Then we drop, run the match, and then come back to a match summary screen before either finding a new group or going back to the lobby to repeat.

Sweet - but why do I have to wait a full 60 seconds on the end-of-match summary before I get back to the lobby to start playing some more? A full minute seems a long time to stare at my match results while possibly being trolled before I can get back to the action. Having the match summary stay around I like - but how about letting us leave early?

Edited by Void Angel, 02 December 2013 - 04:32 PM.

[Tekadept]

This just seems like a whole lot more waiting to me, new cbill nerf system?

[Void Angel]

The phases will end when all players ready up, so it's not necessarily more waiting - and it's not really waiting if we're actually doing something. Since we'll be assembling our 'mechs and such, it's not gonna be like staring at the ready screen at the start of current matches.

[Wintersdark]

Wait, each player can bring 1-8 mechs (I assume a War Thunder style limited respawn system), and the 240-480 tons is per player?

[Wintersdark]

Also, the ready bonus I REALLY hope is calculated per player, not per team.

If you reduce everyone's bonus because of one troll, you'll create a system with way more rage than the original Ready system.

But, if the bonus is per player, so those who Ready up right away get the full bonus even if there are slackers on the team, that'll work really well.

[Joseph Mallan]

[color=#959595] [/color]

Quote

The DropShip will feature up to [8] slots and needs to be preconfigured before a player joins the ready screen. A player cannot add a `Mech to the the DropShip in the ready screen. The player will start with [2] DropShip slots and be able to put any owned or Trail `Mech into a slot. Players can customize add or remove consumables to their currently readied `Mech. If a player does not have any consumables, they can purchase them with CB or MC.

So I get two lives per drop? Am I reading this right? I hope I am reading it wrong.

We should only get one life to give per drop.

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 02 December 2013 - 07:11 PM.

[A Man In A Can]

Nifty. I'm sure there'll be some tweaks here and there but overall sounds good.

[Solis Obscuri]

So, when you say "The DropShip will feature up to [8] slots and needs to be preconfigured before a player joins the ready screen." do you mean a player can have up to 8 'mechs, or that a player can have up to two 'mechs and the other 6 are for three additional members of a 4-man premade team?

[627]

What do you do if no one has "light" mechs to get below the drop limit? I think about free players, usually having 3 mech variants from one chassis in there bays. So everyone of those come with their cataphracts, how can you get ready? or will you have the trial mechs for that?

I see situations with some stubborn atlas drivers who refuse to take a lighter mech... what's happening when the timer gets to zero and you're team (or the other) fails to get into the drop limit?

[Morang]

Bryan Ekman said:

Players can select and ready [1] `Mech from their DropShip and launch into a match with it. The DropShip will feature up to [8] slots and needs to be preconfigured before a player joins the ready screen. A player cannot add a `Mech to the the DropShip in the ready screen. The player will start with [2] DropShip slots and be able to put any owned or Trail `Mech into a slot. Players can customize add or remove consumables to their currently readied `Mech. If a player does not have any consumables, they can purchase them with CB or MC.

It's gibberish. Please explain the meaning of "The Dropship will feature up to 8 slots" and "The player will start with 2 DropShip Slots". Does that mean that there will be four players, or that a single player have 8 readied mechs total but can only "spend" 2 of them in each single match, or that players can upgrade their dropships to bring more mechs (default dropship have 2 slots, and fully elited dropship have 8), or what?
Just tell us please: how many players participate in the match on each side? How many mechs could each player bring? How many mechs can player use in a single match, if respawns are allowed? If he can bring more mechs than he can use in a match, when selection of the mechs for particular match occurs?

Quote

A pre-made group can lock their ranks and prevent players from moving players from within their group around. A group is unlocked by default.

To eliminate possible issues I suggest to allow premade group to select their default status (locked/unlocked) BEFORE they click the Launch button and enter Ready Screen.

Edited by Morang, 03 December 2013 - 02:07 AM.

[John MatriX82]

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

1. The "Launch Module" will dramatically increase the amount of time required to play a match, further lowering the already weak return rate for these things. Will CBill / XP / etc rewards be increased to compensate for this?

This. Time is going to drain a lot. Earnings must be increased by far, yet I'd still like not to have to wait so long before setting up a match.. even now the wait (mostly for the match searching time) is extremely high and annoying, without even accounting the number of fails the matchmaker runs into before finding a match (and I'm talking even while launching solo) this is a serious concern.

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

2. Will there be a time limit on the "Ready" screen? There needs to be one to avoid people griefing by doing nothing and not readying up.

Nicely pointed out. It should be like now, ready isn't necessary once all the 24 players are into the match, 10' countdown and go doesn't matter if anyone is not ready.

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

3. What is it going to take for PGI to *finally* dump end of round stats / info into a .txt file on the local machine? This needs to be done. It's like a two hour project for a half competent programmer.

End of round "visual" stats should be done, all in one damn screen and not splitted in two like it is now; but having txts can be extremely good for team stats, especially when talking about competitive 12mans that would like to track them, rather than do it all manually compiling excel sheets using screens for reference, that you have to remind to stamp, and then consume a lot of time. It can't be that hard!

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

4. In this quote "These include their full name, faction association if any, rating, currently selected `Mech, their DropShip contents, ping, and ready state." What is meant by the term "rating"? Are you exposing ELO rating here?

Another nice question, I second this.

[MustrumRidcully]

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

Questions:

1. The "Launch Module" will dramatically increase the amount of time required to play a match, further lowering the already weak return rate for these things. Will CBill / XP / etc rewards be increased to compensate for this?

2. Will there be a time limit on the "Ready" screen? There needs to be one to avoid people griefing by doing nothing and not readying up.

3. What is it going to take for PGI to *finally* dump end of round stats / info into a .txt file on the local machine? This needs to be done. It's like a two hour project for a half competent programmer.

4. In this quote "These include their full name, faction association if any, rating, currently selected `Mech, their DropShip contents, ping, and ready state." What is meant by the term "rating"? Are you exposing ELO rating here?

As I understand it, the initial setup will be slower, but unless you decide "Screw that, I am going home", you will return after the match to this screen with the same team and you don't need to organize all that much. Could actually make for a much faster turn-around.

Especially since you can also drop into spots of players that left.

If it works out, you should drop into games about as fast as now, but you will have the advantage of more steady teams so that over time, cooperation has a chance to improve as team members know that they'll see each other again and learn about each other. And if someone leaves and someone else drops in, its faster to get them up speed. This could turn random PUGs into PUGmades.

Or it will all be horribly clunky, take lots of time, and lead to a lot of conflict and anger as people complain about the "constant shuffler" or rage-quit the ready screen because the last match didn't work out as they hoped.

We'll see.

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 03 December 2013 - 08:45 AM.

[Pwnocchio]

Requests:

1. Please display damage cause with Artillery/Airstrike separate from other damage in the final scoreboard.

2. Please allow players got back and review the final scoreboard of the most recent 3 to 5 games they participated in. I hate not being able to do that.

3. Please, somewhere in the UI or drop ship, allow players to automatically rebuy consumables. Stop making me waste time on this.

Edited by Pwnocchio, 03 December 2013 - 09:49 AM.

[Kraven Kor]

Requests:
1. Please include "Friendly Fire" damage in the end of round screen. Preferably visible only to yourself to avoid some drama. A stat just to know how you are doing so far as this goes.

2. Please make all players READY by default and then teams who wish to do further coordination of their company / lance can click UNREADY.

[Heffay]

Kraven Kor, on 03 December 2013 - 01:09 PM, said:

Requests:
1. Please include "Friendly Fire" damage in the end of round screen. Preferably visible only to yourself to avoid some drama. A stat just to know how you are doing so far as this goes.

2. Please make all players READY by default and then teams who wish to do further coordination of their company / lance can click UNREADY.

I like these ideas. Of course people who are griefing the countdown timer will just click unready and make you wait the full countdown anyway. And those who are actually unable to drop right away may end up sitting a bit in the base, but it's not a bad default option.

[Kraven Kor]

Heffay, on 03 December 2013 - 01:52 PM, said:

I like these ideas. Of course people who are griefing the countdown timer will just click unready and make you wait the full countdown anyway. And those who are actually unable to drop right away may end up sitting a bit in the base, but it's not a bad default option.

Tracking someone abusing the "Unready" button is possible. Tracking someone for abusing the "not push button" mechanic is, while something that PGI could see in player stats, in theory, harder to call "griefing."

If someone is un-readying in PUG matches to be an arse, people can report them, and PGI can say "Hey, look at this ******* right here."

Oh, forgot a request:

3. IN-GAME REPORT PLAYER BUTTON.

[3rdworld]

What happens if you quit the match while in a 4 man?

Do you leave your group? Are you now in perpetual wait mode until the match finishes? As you are not allowed to modify mechs between matches, do you have to wait for the group to invite you again?

[Deathlike]

Kraven Kor, on 03 December 2013 - 02:59 PM, said:

Oh, forgot a request:

3. IN-GAME REPORT PLAYER BUTTON.

That should also come with the in-game bug report feature.

However, it's unimportant I guess.