BLOOD WOLF, on 04 April 2014 - 10:33 PM, said:
Roadbeer, it's time for you to say.
"you know what, maybe there is more to it than i am seeing.
Nah brah, in what, 3 threads now, over a dozen different people have been telling you (and in this thread Craig as well),
"This is bad, and here are 15 reasons why, and here is the back story as to why it's even worse than what you're seeing"
And you just derp your way through the conversation "Hey guys, PGI has a plan, you're just not seeing it, it's all good"
Ok, fine. You know what PGI used to do, when they had a multi-phase implementation of a complex system. They would explain the phases.
Go back to the Matchmaker system posts from over a year ago. Everyone knew how it was going to be implemented. They weren't necessarily happy with everything about it, but at least they knew "Well, according to the roadmap, it's going to suck now, but by the time it reaches step 3, it won't suck so bad because (insert reason here)" (unfortunately, in regards to Matchmaker, it never got out of the suck, and actually, eventually, has gotten much worse after much tweaking).
This is the part where you say "Yeah, they stopped doing that because when they missed a benchmark, everyone yelled at them". To which, I have to say, it's not because they missed the benchmark, it's because they missed the mark and said nothing about it until they set another mark that they may or may not have hit.
Forumites: "PGI, why?!?!"
PGI: (crickets)
PGI: (crickets)
Forumites: "OMG PGI WTF!!!"
PGI: (crickets)
PGI: "Hey guys, next benchmark is XXX"
Forumites: "So, um, what happened?"
PGI: (crickets)
I can assure you, nobody who has invested a single penny in this game WANTS to be mad at PGI, least of all those who have spent hundreds of dollars on it. Many have a multi-decade love affair with the franchise, and it boils down to the lack of communication, the waffling, the hubris and some would say the contempt with which they interact with their customers that have us in the position we're in.
Now, as to your "We don't have an idea what their plans are for Community Warfare, it'll be fine by then"
Cool, I hope so too. But don't you think that after 2 years, the thing that the future success of this game is hanging on (if it wants to be anything other than a half-assed MW/BT Esport) and there is next to no information on it is a little disconcerting?
Before you point to the PowerPoint presentation at the Launch Party and the Command Chair post from late September, I'm just going to say, that as recently as December, it was stated that 2-12 groups would be returning, a position that was changed in less than 3 months. So any information that was stated as far back as September of 2013, I'm going to call... suspect.
So lets take what we DO know about Community Warfare, and for that, I'm going to refer to the NGNG podcasts #103 and #105. And I'm going to jump around with the referencing here because they ARE separate interviews.
In NGNG 105, Russ talks about the 3 types of play. PUB(lic) matches, Private Matches and Faction Warfare (ok, thought we were calling it Community Warfare, but whatever) and how the Launch Module is the first phase implementation of that.
Let's digest that for a second.
I thought splitting the playerbase was bad? This is why the "Hardcore" mode (1PV only, etc.) was nixed ,and one of the reasons there has been a delay in regional servers, because this sharding would cause longer wait times if the playerbase was split too much, but the future vision is to split the playerbase into 3 different play types. This means that the Public and Private matches have no bearing on CW(FW, whatever),
"But Roadbeer", you say, "this is just the groundwork for what will be the backbone for FW. Those other two play modes will just phase in to FW(CW, whatever)." Cool, that's great, I'm all for it. but if you're going to use the private match system as an
ad hoc test bed, then I shouldn't have to pay to use it.
NGNG #103c at the 29:00 mark, Bryan talks about two buckets IS vs IS and IS vs Clan.
"Yeah, Hi, Bryan. Roadbeer here from Free Worlds Press. When you say two buckets, do you mean that in IS vs IS bucket, that it will be the houses fighting against each other like Marik vs Steiner and Kurita vs Davion? or do you mean that it'll just be restricted to IS tech, and it'll basically be the same as it is now in the Public Match System. (Doing the Faction vs Faction thing splits it into at least 6 and potentially 12 buckets if each border has it's own bucket)
Does that also mean in the IS vs Clan does that mean that it will be the factions of the IS that border Clan territory will be fighting the Clan factions? Or does that mean that it will be combined IS forces against Clan forces? Or does that just mean that it will be restricted to IS tech vs Clan tech, but acting like the current Public Match System?
Also, Follow up question, that appears to be splitting the playerbase into two different buckets, I thought splitting the playerbase was bad?"
These questions have been asked a lot on Twitter and on the forums, you have an answer for those? I've searched a lot and I don't have the answer to that yet either.
Now, going from Paul's post about the Launch Module, players are going to be split into 3 Elo buckets as well. Now I don't profess to know how many buckets there are now, but it sounds more like an overlapping scale at the moment where say if you have an Elo of 1500, and the matching threshold is 1400, then that means you're matching with players having an Elo of 100 or 2900. But these buckets sound more like Elo ranges where if your Elo is between point A and point B, you'll be placed in one of three buckets.
So, with all of this information, I count 8 at minimum and up to 20 different buckets that players are going to being split in to. eight(20). Now remember, we couldn't have a Hardcore mode because it would split it into 2 different buckets, and one of the reasons given for not providing a group queue was because it would create longer wait times by splitting the player base into 2 buckets.
But, 8(20), that's cool.
Now, let's take the next problem.
NGNG #105a, Russ states that adding large group play isn't something that anybody want's worked on prior to Faction Warfare (CW, whatever), and will be something looked at after the launch of CW(FW, whatever). So, when we DO get FW (CW, whatever), IF the IS vs IS bucket is actually split into the front lines as advertised, but without Large Group support (which in NGNG 103, Bryan said was a necessary part Community Warfare [FW, whatever]) then the fate of the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere will be relying on 4 player groups mixed with Loyalist solo players and Lone Wolfs.
Let me say that again. The fate of House Marik will largely be placed in the hands of unorganized PUGs, until they get around to making large group support.
You know, I could keep going on, but after writing this much, I've realized who I'm explaining all this to, and that it's just going to fall on Pollyannaish eyes.
TL:DR
Absolutely nothing they've said so far in regards to LM and CW(FW, whatever) makes any sense, in either the short term, or the long term.
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