189 replies to this topic

[Henry Morgan]

Sean von Steinike, on 18 December 2013 - 03:19 PM, said:

Why? This is what whiners wanted remember? They didn't want a mechanism to end the match (base cap) and raged when someone did that. Whiners deserve to hunt for that last mech. Don't like it, play assault.

And, I recall a lot of forewarning predicting this sort of thing that was quickly shouted down by the whiners. If they were too lazy to defend their base in Assault, what did we think they'd be like in having to play "hunt the spider"?

[Junkman7mgte]

xhrit, on 21 December 2013 - 11:29 PM, said:

Win or lose, I tend to not bother taking screen pic of a scoreboard unless I have ~5 kills, or ~1k damage.

I checked my folder to see if I had a pic of a time over on skirmish, but that was the only match I had with less then 2 min remaining.

Trust me tho - I run the time out a lot. I will start taking screencaps of when I do, just for this thread.

The difference is, you are actually trying to win still, even in skirmish. I've spectated several light pilots that do the same. I've seen a couple of those pilots, win by killing the last 4-6 heavy's and assaults. Those matches, whether I'm spectating in the light, or watching my team mates get eaten up, one by one, are amazing to watch. I personally have yet to see anyone actually just run and hide, in months it seems like. They all seem to end in a shoot out someway or another.

[Butane9000]

I feel there's any easy fix. Someone else suggested it on the forums ages ago when we first were discussing TDM. Is have the out of bounds area shrink inwards towards the center of the maps as players die. Leaving a smaller arena at the end of the match. This reduces the various lights ability to run away and grief.

The other option is with PGI's boasted tracking systems to implement kind of a shut down mechanic of the mech or ecm in question if they try and flee and force heavy mechs to find them.

I'm sure they'll come up with something.

[Ghogiel]

I've only had 3 hunt the ecm light games on skirmish in 30+ matches. I don't understand people talking about fixes, there is nothing to fix lol.

Even if it was an issue, which it's not, the solution is to wait for the game to finish like normal. If you don't want to watch it, press esc and quit match. :\

[Sandpit]

Ghogiel, on 22 December 2013 - 08:58 AM, said:

I've only had 3 hunt the ecm light games on skirmish in 30+ matches. I don't understand people talking about fixes, there is nothing to fix lol.

Even if it was an issue, which it's not, the solution is to wait for the game to finish like normal. If you don't want to watch it, press esc and quit match. :\

Actually, the solution is don't play it. Play a different mode. People act like they're forced to play in this mode. It's just like when they were complaining about Assault mode. Don't like it? Don't play it. Stop trying to "fix" it just because you don't like the mode.

[MischiefSC]

Agreed to no changes in skirmish. Rumors of 'powered down spiders' are hugely overblown. I've still never seen it. If you're not keeping track of roughly where all the enemy lights are on the map and you don't know where people can hide you deserve to lose a couple minutes learning those lessons the hard way.

Never really happens though. Skirmish is perfect as it is. It's hardcore mode, devoid of cheap tricks and fallback plans for when you lose the battle. If you didn't plan ahead you deserved to lose or at least lose some time.

[Bilbo]

Ghogiel, on 22 December 2013 - 08:58 AM, said:

I've only had 3 hunt the ecm light games on skirmish in 30+ matches. I don't understand people talking about fixes, there is nothing to fix lol.

Even if it was an issue, which it's not, the solution is to wait for the game to finish like normal. If you don't want to watch it, press esc and quit match. :\

So, about 10%. That is, coincidentally, about the same percentage of matches won by cap in assault and the reason everybody moaned about the need for a death match mode. I Didn't understand the need to "fix" Assault mode either.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Bilbo, on 23 December 2013 - 08:09 AM, said:

So, about 10%. That is, coincidentally, about the same percentage of matches won by cap in assault and the reason everybody moaned about the need for a death match mode. I Didn't understand the need to "fix" Assault mode either.

Totally different, because in Skirmish you can actually utilize the whole map. Whereas you always have to be cognizant of staying in position to fight off a cap in Assault, thus limiting your movements greatly.

That's the main different. Skirmish unlocks the full potential of the maps.

[Bilbo]

Nicholas Carlyle, on 23 December 2013 - 08:23 AM, said:

Totally different, because in Skirmish you can actually utilize the whole map. Whereas you always have to be cognizant of staying in position to fight off a cap in Assault, thus limiting your movements greatly.

That's the main different. Skirmish unlocks the full potential of the maps.

Not totally different if the team consists of more than heavies and assaults. In skirmish it doesn't matter what the team consists of because 9 times out of ten they'll be in one mass anyway no matter how much of the map they use.

[Egomane]

Please note, that this is one of the last threads about this topic I left open, because when I last checked the discussion between those involved was somewhat construcitve.

I now checked again and found a lot of unconstructive or even insulting content. I'll clean that up now, but if I come across it again in this thread I'll close it just like the others. Play nice on the forums!

In advance: Sorry, to those interested in a constructive conversation.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Bilbo, on 23 December 2013 - 08:29 AM, said:

Not totally different if the team consists of more than heavies and assaults. In skirmish it doesn't matter what the team consists of because 9 times out of ten they'll be in one mass anyway no matter how much of the map they use.

I am not seeing this as much. I'm seeing more of a spread. It was super pronounced when I was playing on Crimson Strait, people were all over the place.

[Lyoto Machida]

Bilbo, on 23 December 2013 - 08:29 AM, said:

Not totally different if the team consists of more than heavies and assaults. In skirmish it doesn't matter what the team consists of because 9 times out of ten they'll be in one mass anyway no matter how much of the map they use.

Purely anecdotal evidence.

I wish the devs would release some stats and heatmaps regarding Skirmish but we all know they won't and will instead let the playerbase argue back and forth about things that aren't true. Not saying that what you're seeing isn't true to your situation...just saying.

[Bilbo]

Lyoto Machida, on 23 December 2013 - 11:19 AM, said:

Purely anecdotal evidence.

I wish the devs would release some stats and heatmaps regarding Skirmish but we all know they won't and will instead let the playerbase argue back and forth about things that aren't true. Not saying that what you're seeing isn't true to your situation...just saying.

It's the only evidence to be had, so yeah, all I can do is play and report on what I see.

[Lyoto Machida]

Bilbo, on 23 December 2013 - 11:37 AM, said:

It's the only evidence to be had, so yeah, all I can do is play and report on what I see.

I've seen the blob in Skirmish also but it doesn't seem to be as effective as in other modes. Time will tell though...people tend to adapt. Well, smart people, anyways...

[RickySpanish]

You need to structure your contribution to the team in a way that stops this from happening. Understand that lights with sniper weapons are super dangerous and must be dealt with before the endgame when they can either retreat or pop you at a distance. If you run a slow Mech solo you run the risk of encountering this result.

[Roland]

Lyoto Machida, on 23 December 2013 - 11:19 AM, said:

Purely anecdotal evidence.

I wish the devs would release some stats and heatmaps regarding Skirmish but we all know they won't and will instead let the playerbase argue back and forth about things that aren't true. Not saying that what you're seeing isn't true to your situation...just saying.

Yeah, I wonder why they seem to have stopped updating the heatmaps... Looks like they only go up through week 24 of this year.

[Lyoto Machida]

RickySpanish, on 23 December 2013 - 01:10 PM, said:

You need to structure your contribution to the team in a way that stops this from happening. Understand that lights with sniper weapons are super dangerous and must be dealt with before the endgame when they can either retreat or pop you at a distance. If you run a slow Mech solo you run the risk of encountering this result.

That would require people to adapt their tactics to different gametypes...not sure its possible with some.

[xhrit]

So I ran the timer out on 2 skirmish matches last night.

First match I was able to score 3 kills after my entire team was dead and I was the last one alive. 1v8, and I downed 3 of them, by kiting the fastest mech away from the rest, killing it, then circling back around to kill the slowest mech. Once the slowest one was dead, I repeated the maneuver and kited the fastest one out and killed it. I 'prolly could have taken out the whole team if I had enough time.





The 2nd match I was not so lucky, as the enemy team pretty much stayed together the whole time, which was compounded by the fact that members of my own team were giving away my position, making it extremely hard to set up any sort of ambush, like I did the first match.

Edited by xhrit, 06 January 2014 - 05:42 PM.

[Roland]

xhrit, on 06 January 2014 - 05:41 PM, said:

So I ran the timer out on 2 skirmish matches last night.

First match I was able to score 3 kills after my entire team was dead and I was the last one alive. 1v8, and I downed 3 of them, by kiting the fastest mech away from the rest, killing it, then circling back around to kill the slowest mech. Once the slowest one was dead, I repeated the maneuver and kited the fastest one out and killed it. I 'prolly could have taken out the whole team if I had enough time.

Yeah, gameplay suffers from the short game timer... We used to have games quite often where a lone mech was able to pull off some epic heroics in MW4, but it was generally a situation that you describe...at that point, you're outgunned, so you need to resort to guerrilla tactics...but such tactics tend to require time to execute.

When the whole game is only 15 minutes, there's only so much you can do.

[Navy Sixes]

Butane9000, on 22 December 2013 - 07:52 AM, said:

I feel there's any easy fix. Someone else suggested it on the forums ages ago when we first were discussing TDM. Is have the out of bounds area shrink inwards towards the center of the maps as players die. Leaving a smaller arena at the end of the match. This reduces the various lights ability to run away and grief.

The other option is with PGI's boasted tracking systems to implement kind of a shut down mechanic of the mech or ecm in question if they try and flee and force heavy mechs to find them.

Sorry, but I disagree. Look, I hate lights (not personally; "relax" to any friends who drive them!) I mean on the battlefield. I hate them because they are "time tanks." It takes more time and effort to kill a well-driven light than any other class of mech in the game. You spend a whole match bringing down 3 lights, and you will wind up with no assists, no damage, and therefore less points, less xp, less C-Bills, even though you arguably put in more work than someone who teed-off on a herpy-derp fatlas and milked 300 points of damage out of it, then went on to take some pot-shots at other enemies. It's frustrating.

All that said, we make choices in the mechlab and in the pilotlab before we drop onto the battlefield. You chose to run a slow heavy/assault. That choice has consequences that should not be compensated for by the game. When you chose to run slow, you close off a lot of the map that you will never get to. You make yourself vulnerable to fast moving lights in the end game when it's harder to group-fire. You chose to pack in more weapons so you make yourself vulnerable on "hot maps" and to heat-management issues in general.

Heavies/assaults are dangerous because of their firepower. Everyone's OK with that. Lights are dangerous because of their speed and manuverability (as well as the ECM capability of many varients). That is most apparent in the endgame (it's the same in assault as well as skirmish; I don't know why many skirmish-fans thought that would somehow magically change). It sucks, but those are the choices everyone made.

Asking the game to make your choices foolproof for you is lame.

Edited by Tycho von Gagern, 06 January 2014 - 10:37 PM.