259 replies to this topic

[Ahasver]

And what an elaborated Mode!
I understood right from the first drop why this needed over a year and some real good Testing before it could be released.

Well done, this is a major step towards game depth just like 12vs12 was. Time to Party and to open the Champagne once again.

[anonymous161]

Cant believe it took them 2 years to release this simple game mode which honestly isn't much different from the others other than you have to kill the other team or have the most kills, which is good I'm glad, but matchmaking still sucks so...still needs a million hours of work.

[MischiefSC]

I've already thrown up my recommendations to fix the MM elsewhere (gaussian distribution for Elo, match same to same not high/low for a target) and I wonder how much the Elo target affects the quality of the matches. I've had a couple of 'people being stupid' matches but far less common than I get in Assault/Conquest.

Blob is no longer the best tactic. I've been on the winning and losing side of blobs getting out-maneuvered now. Blobs are terribly vulnerable to flanking, which I've seen far more often. No need to worry about some twit running off for a quick cap - you can coordinate flanking maneuvers now. Your blob turns into a deathtrap when suddenly you're taking fire from 2 or 3 directions and there's not a safe place to put your back anymore. Now you're tripping over your own team and when the Arty starts to fall you don't even know where to run to.

It'll take people time to fall into the new feel of it but suddenly defense is the suckers trap and sticking to AC/PPC meta a good way to get your face humped. I'm finding meta-heavy builds to be dangerously slow. The mechs that before would go for the cap rush are now finding it better to wolf-pack around and wait for those meta build snipers to get left a bit behind.

It's not the panacea to the worlds ills but I find the experience measurably superior to Assault/Conquest.

[mekabuser]

im all giggity... came here looking because it was such a game changer.. never imagined it would be this! different.
can we haz the comms rose now?:

i highly suggest pgi listens to its skirmish fanatics..
theyre the ones who want to fight..
THis is BATTLEtech right?

pgi needs a combat liasion with skirmish players

while were at it.. can we get a 4 map package.. flat maps.. the inclines in this game are orders of magnitude more severe than mw4 or mwll.
there is no joy in fighting on a steep hill generally. Add to that various terrain/collision problems and its a pita that can be dealt with but takes away from the joy of the tactics and combat..
Its fine if there is a hill, but on most every map its your closed in on all sides..
cauldron is a decent example of how to do it right.


btw.. I highly suspect how many devs are combat junkies.. I might be 100% wrong, but if it were otherwise, wouldnt ONE of them been so excited for skirmish that they made a post or tease about it.
I think theyve said as much, I think most of their testing is with bots?or scripts?

AL the more reason why they need a combat liason. they just dont know, cause there aint any "hardcore" pilots in the lot. I know its hard to fathom, but i think its the case.

any ways gonna read rest of thread now.. Spot on Mischief.

Edited by mekabuser, 18 December 2013 - 09:56 AM.

[mekabuser]

aniviron, on 17 December 2013 - 08:11 PM, said:

I agree, nothing says "This is Battletech" quite like a Jenner hiding somewhere in Tourmaline, undiscoverable and shutdown for ten minutes. Good times.

I'm guessing what you are experiencing is patch-day euphoria. Don't worry, it will wear off. It turns out that normally, one-legged Jenners don't kill Atlases very often. This is happening mostly because today is one of the two days every month when people come back to see if anything worthwhile has changed.

you are 100 percent wrong. I AM confident that they will implement pinging last player with vote system or automatically if its 4 on one plus. So problem solved.
THeres no doubt skirmish is awesome, if you dont get it then you just dont know.. period.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Good post to read, always like hearing from Mischief, very level headed and logical assessments tend to follow.

I'll have to start my desktop up this weekend and give it a whirl.

[Deathlike]

TBH, having played in Skirmish a few times, I think the IQ has actually been lowered.

In River City, everyone decided to keep moving counter-clockwise (both enemy and ourselves) and the problem was that people didn't realize that there were people "falling behind" because they were slower and it happened that the "slower end" of the blob slowly got killed, and by the time the blob stopped moving, 1/4 of the team died and eventually got murdered soon after.

The problem is that the blob isn't always smart enough and continues to "chase the 100 ton squirrel" instead, causing those that can't catch up to get crushed in the process.

There is a willingness to go kill for sure, but if a light is alone and the map is huge, the likelihood to be trolled by that light increases tenfold.

[Roland]

Quote

Blob is no longer the best tactic. I've been on the winning and losing side of blobs getting out-maneuvered now.

Exactly this, and folks don't seem to really grasp it.

By untethering teams from imaginary red squares, you no longer need to stay on the centerline of the map. You are free to maneuver the team around the sides.

Now, this doesn't mean that splitting up completely is wise... you need to orchestrate your movement so lances don't get isolated, but staying in a big blob tends to just get your face rolled in skirmish because you get surrounded.

[mekabuser]

wow. sad replies. IDont see how you guys didnt just feel! the difference. FOr one. the teams have to FIND each other.
two you KNOW there is no cap so deployment , coms , everything is different.. and BETTER>. only ten percent of caps attempts ever ammounted to anything interesting and onc e in a blue moon you would get a gem at the base. OTherwise it was a mosquito or just flat out lame.

Id be bored too if i went to the same damn spot EVERYtime and just wait or whatnot.
Maybe some of you high elo just need a random map to get ur tactical heads out of your fun hole. .

thats like saying.. Im a gonna play by hiding.. and then firing .ONLY when the enemy has his backto me..
Thats the greatest chance for success. . no fun.. but ill win..
who d *** wants that?

[Sandpit]

[MischiefSC]

There's going to be a shake out time and not every match goes well. I've lost more than I've won (admittedly I've been trying, stubbornly, to level up my Tbolts so that's my fault) but the matches are harder fought as a given rule. I've seen a lot more stupid and way more trolling on Assault/Conquest than Skirmish allows for. I've now seen 3 attempts to be the last guy hiding/running away, they've all ended with an entertaining slaughter. One guy got a leg blown off, then both arms, then both torsos, then teased and then finished because he'd tried to run away and hide.

It's self policing pretty well.

[w0rm]

Roland, on 18 December 2013 - 10:04 AM, said:

big blob tends to just get your face rolled in skirmish because you get surrounded.

Not in my ELO Tier: Same tactics, same loadouts, same people and without bases there is no need to move when you got into a superior position.

[KHETTI]

Skirmish needs respawns, with games lasting a full 15 minutes every game.
This will lead to the battle moving across maps back and forth, you know you all want it

[MischiefSC]

*BITTER IRONY*

So I'm enjoying MW:O more than I have in a while and.... client bug. Crashes every time I try to select a mech in the mech bay. Delete, go to reinstall... every installation attempt so far does the 10 minutes to get the patch loaded and then says file corrupt.

On my 3rd or 4th attempt. I opened a ticket with support but still, the irony of it is not lost on me.

[NRP]

Should have tried the repair tool before uninstalling.

[Chocolater]

I too have had some of the best matches I have had in a long time last night. Great teamwork (I only run typing and with pugs) intense battles, it was damn awesome. I have had several CTD's after quitting out of matches, that has never happened before (something function error). Anyway I didn't get to play much and only got the new map twice, but although this is just a little bit of goodness I am enjoying the new mode/map.

[mekabuser]

Lets put it this way. Im looking forward to playing tomorrow.

[Imzy]

I love skirmish mode. It's what REAL battletech, table top, is all about.

[Devayner]

Title says it all . Im so glad the caps are gone never shoulda ben in assult imo .Thank you MWO team !!

[GRiPSViGiL]

LOL at "tactical".

Skirmish is just Assault without caps. Same as it ever was...blob up proceed to known spot to poptart. Nothing tactical about it especially in PUGs.