101 replies to this topic

[Voivode]

Onyxian, on 04 April 2014 - 08:05 AM, said:

Brother, your post is the first thing about this game that has actually made me smile. Thank you!

As far as joining a guild/clan/group... my experience in MMOs has generally been that guilds want power gamer type members, which I am not, not even remotely. Too much RL. I've only been playing a week or so, and frankly am embarrassed how bad I am. So, I haven't really looked for one yet or asked, thought I'd try and improve myself beforehand. But as it stands, I won't make it to the improvement, because I'm close to rage-uninstalling.

Ah, I can understand your reluctance. I experienced that sort of elitism in quite a few games. MWO is certainly different in that category. Most of the player base are older people who have lots of RL stuff going on. I myself work, go to grad school, and have a wife and soon some kiddies. You may find some super elite groups in MWO, but most are very accepting of new guys. Give us a try!

[Werewolf486 ScorpS]

To answer the question from a person who's been in since closed beta.....NO.

I have fun laughing with the group I'm dropping with, making fun of the tards in our drops, and cracking up at the pitiful excuse for a MW title. Some drops are fun, some are pure frustration, and some are just a case of getting the more ******** pugs. Basically those in my group are waiting for the DFM from Star Citizen and the rest of that game to come out and then MWO will be a bad memory in our past. We might check back in once in a while or make a single night dedicated to drops in MWO just to see how bad things get, but no this game is not fun for most people if they are honest about it. Russ and Bryan have ruined the MW title for a great many people and they just don't care about it, they want money and not loyal MW fans. This is why they don't cater to the MW fans and instead cater to everyone who plays COD and WoT and games like those. They just don't care about making a MW game for MW fans. The sad sad thing is that they can't even make a game that invites new players in and gives them a great experience they want to continue. New players generally burn out on the grind and stop playing.

[Denolven]

richie b, on 04 April 2014 - 07:57 AM, said:

For real? The matchmaking algorithim assumes that newbies are moderately skilled already?

Yes it does. I never understood why, but this is how most ELO-like system go. There might be math reasons (I recommend the Wikipedia article on ELO if you want to know more), but from a game design perspective it's stupid. There is always a way to give newbies some playing ground and making them climb up the ladder instead of just throwing them into the lion cage and let them get murdered brutally.

Quote

so, I guess, I have a choice between masochism and quitting. Yay!
You'll understand if I might not be spending much time and/or money here, I trust.

Yeah most of us do. I'm not entirely sure that the game makers do, though...

[PhoenixFire55]

MW:O ... NOT fun since 2012.

[Spleenslitta]

I'll be honest with you OP and anyone who is suffering just like him. I had a terrible KDR before the wipe. I know exactly what you are going through.
Here are my laughably bad stats to prove it.

At it's worst my KDR was below 0.19. Win/loss ratio was 220/283
Then i clawed my way to 0.56 ....then the stats reset. Now i managed to get to 1.4 and my win/loss is even after nearly a 100 matches.

Point is this. It is possible to learn from all of your mistakes and have fun doing it. It will be painfull for some but it can be done.

Give us information about what kind of mechs you use, which playstyle (LRM, sniping, brawling, skirmishing) do you prefer.
We will help you. If all else fails listen to a guy named Koniving. That guy is the most reliable veteran a rookie can turn to for help.

He always helps the rookies with heaploads of advice. Search for his posts here on the new player help threads if he is too busy.

[Denolven]

Onyxian, on 04 April 2014 - 08:05 AM, said:

As far as joining a guild/clan/group... my experience in MMOs has generally been that guilds want power gamer type members, which I am not, not even remotely. Too much RL.

Then welcome to MWO again. Most of those youngins play their fancy twitchy games. The MWO community is alot more casual, as most of us have own family to take care of or are otherwise limited in time.
In fact, you'll find alot more casually aligned groups here, because we all know that "playing seriously" is not exactly what we want, nor is it within what we can afford time-wise.

[CygnusX7]

Onyxian, on 04 April 2014 - 06:46 AM, said:

Huddling around the Atlas is what's getting team slaughtered constantly. At least, a big part of it

Thats just a bad atlas driver.

[o0Marduk0o]

Onyxian, on 04 April 2014 - 07:32 AM, said:

I don't mind losing as much as I am getting tired of getting rolled over like a bug. I just want to be in a game with players at my very low skill level. But at the moment, it seems like. Every. Single. Game. My opponents are far far far superior to me and my team. My match scores are usually around 10. I get it. I suck. Often about 6 players on my team have scores < 25, while the other teams lowest scores are around 50. How is that fair? I guess that's just naive of me.

You can't see it but another newbie can start the game and is in the winning team just because he had luck. It is random and you don't need to play good to be in the winning team.
You can have a K/D of 10+ and still lose more games than you win. Is this fair? No, but this is how it works.
The matchmaker is working with W/L ratio to rank players.
There is no respawn and when someone dies a snowball effect is starting. Even if both teams are full of newbies, someone has to die and then the odds are against that team. Don't think just because you lose 0:12 that all enemy players or some of them are demi-gods who like to slaughter bloody newbies. It's the very nature of no-respawn games that match results are lopsided.

[Malcolm Vordermark]

I almost exclusively pug. I occasionally have a friend on Skype with me but we don't actually worry about coordinating and I still have a lot of fun in the game. Occasionally it can be frustrating and I feel like I always lose but my K/D is usually around 1.5 and my W/L hovers just above 1:1.

When you're playing opponents of equal skill it should be a hard fight. But it is very easy to blame some imbalance for a loss. I suggest you create a mental trigger, every time you feel that your team is full of scrubs or that the other team had a four man of elite player you should take a deep breath and reevaluate your play during the match to see what you could have done better.

I have to do this a lot but I usually come up with one thing I could have done better or allowed me to survive longer. If you get just 0.1% better every game it won't take long to add up.

Edited by Rouken, 04 April 2014 - 08:41 AM.

[Saryonarve]

Some things that I feel should be kept in mind...

This is a game where your team lives and dies based on teamwork. It's not Call of Duty where a single player with good reflexes can destroy an enemy team themselves(although teamwork does improve your chances of success in that game, it's not actually required). You have to work together and watch each other's backs. And the problem isn't always you. Sometimes there isn't even anyone to blame, the other team just did it better.

You cannot expect to actually get better if you do not face tougher opponents. This is something that should be glaringly obvious, but I am surprised by the number of people I've met who don't understand this. It's all fine and dandy to play against people close to your own skill. But you'll never actually improve(and you may, in fact, get worse) unless you face someone more skilled than yourself.

I won't claim to be a good player. In fact, I suck rather horribly. But the difference between myself and many of the people who quit, I imagine, is that I didn't expect this game to be easy. I came in knowing that as a solo player I was at a severe disadvantage, and I expected to get stomped on. It's part of having a more mature mindset, I suppose. I don't look at my crappy scores and throw a tantrum and cry about how unfair the game is. I consider what I did wrong, and how I can do better next time.

[Modo44]

There are a few highly competitive teams, but many groups will accept any casual player with a good attitude. If you have no technical issues e.g. with voice chat, I encourage you to go looking -- either in the factions subforum, or on community Teamspeak servers.

Edited by Modo44, 04 April 2014 - 08:51 AM.

[Amsro]

Turist0AT, on 04 April 2014 - 05:30 AM, said:

Same here. Sounds like ELO workings, hang in there, let your elo go down a bit. You and your team are in to high of a bracket.

This is false, with a 1400 Elo variance in the MatchMaker, even I with 5000+ matches can be teamed up with or against new players.

We experienced players call this the PUG Lottery, some are better then others, sometimes I'm a pug.

Matchmaker is a complete disaster for new and experience players. Trolling in ways originally thought impossible. But indeed Matchmaker has decided that you will win or lose before the match starts. Essentially making a Roll/Stomp game.

The Elo "buckets" may curb this trend but at this current point in time matchmaker has NO INTEREST in a nicely matched game, only that you win/lose 50% of your games.

So no Elo is NOT working, it might be functioning as intended, but the intention was flawed.

Edit; Understand my extreme trolling is not a personal hit.

Edited by Amsro, 04 April 2014 - 06:27 PM.

[HighTest]

richie b, on 04 April 2014 - 07:57 AM, said:

HighTest, social gaming/groups aren't practicable just now for a variety of reasons, so, I guess, I have a choice between masochism and quitting. Yay!

LOL. I never thought of it being put quite that way, but note that I'm not going to disagree.

While most people think that a lot of MWO groups are particularly serious and competitive, there are a number of groups that really are not. Take us Golden Foxes -- we were founded to be a purely casual MWO group. Frankly, it's for that reason that I chose them in the first place. Now, as we continue to grow, we've acquired, and more notably developed, some very skilled players, so we've started to dabble in competitive leagues. But it's not at all a requirement, as most members are still happy to play casually. Since we have members from across the globe and many time-zones, someone is usually on TeamSpeak to hook up with at any time of the day.

I'm not trying to actively recruit you, but rather I wanted more to illustrate that there are options available to people that don't want to suffer through the meta or hook up with a competitive team. Just check out the "Merc Corps - Outreach" or faction forums to find a group that suits your style / needs / availability / whatever.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to suggest that you try joining a team, but frankly, doing so changed my MWO "life". And if that doesn't help make things more fun, then go ahead and uninstall-quit.

[Amsro]

Onyxian, on 04 April 2014 - 07:44 AM, said:

That's just an insanely stupid model. Force new players to endure getting the crap beaten outta them, until their score lowers enough that they're in the low bracket where they belong. Why in the world would they NOT START NEW PLAYERS IN THE LOWEST BRACKET?

Sorry, I've ranted far more than I intended. I made the false assumption that since every match I've been in has been a stomp that every match is a stomp and was curious if that was fun for the better players.

5000 matches later I can safely say that the matchmaker doesn't care about a fair fight.

even if you were a 900 Elo player you can still get jammed into a match that has a 2300 Elo player on the opposite side.

ggclose.

As well if you havn't already done this please PLEASE, go into your options and de-select 3rd person view and uncheck arm lock as well.

PGI thought it would be good to gimp you as standard.

There are a bunch of guides and build/mech ideas here. I hope you will get your experience up and come out on top!

Try and help your team out by doing 200+ damage, start with that minor goal and see where it takes you. Cover is good and not being in the open viewable to all the enemy team is also good.

Edit; Do not fear the groups as we don't bite and always encourage new players to join up and have fun. Browse here for many a great groups! No commitment team drops happen all the time. Open Teamspeak clients.

Edited by Amsro, 04 April 2014 - 08:59 AM.

[Jody Von Jedi]

richie b, on 04 April 2014 - 07:57 AM, said:

For real? The matchmaking algorithim assumes that newbies are moderately skilled already? That's not going to lead to problems at all... Especially in a moderately complex PvP game!
I had 12 reasonable games where I felt I learnt something, then the next 15 have been awful. There was a complete switch once I got my first mech.
HighTest, social gaming/groups aren't practicable just now for a variety of reasons, so, I guess, I have a choice between masochism and quitting. Yay!
You'll understand if I might not be spending much time and/or money here, I trust. As a veteran of a few PvP MMos, that's a real shame...

You actually have 4 ELO scores. One for each weight class, Light, Medium, Heavy, and Assault. If you were playing all of your matches in, say a Heavy Chassis, but bought any one of the other classes, then your ELO is at or near the default for the chassis you just bought. If you played each of the Trial Chassis equaly and were equally good (or bad) then your ELO would be about the same for each class.

Make sense? I know it is really hard on new players, but PGI is set on that middle ground for new players ELO.

Jody

[Midniteguard]

My first 2 months or so were just like what you are experiencing. For me it was just coming to the realization that in order to get better it would be a process that would take time. What I did was just focus on one or two small areas of the game to get really familiar with them and then add a few more. I lost a lot and died a lot, I did my best to figure out what I was doing wrong so that over time I would last longer and longer (sometimes I would even get a kill). By taking winning and loosing out of the equation it let me focus on actually learning the game. At some point between 2 and 3 months playing I realized that I was doing more damage, getting more kills and assists and winning significantly more matches. Despite this I am still learning the finer details of the game (and probably will continue to for some time to come).

Concerning premades dropping in PUGs... not all premades are going to be butt kickers. I have been dropping regularly with some friends that just started and even though we are a premade they are still learning the game and we would loose a lot of games. The nice thing is that by them being able to tap me for advice they did not need to spend as long learning the basics like I did on my own. They started putting up decent to good numbers most matches after just over a month playing as a result (so joining a unit/team is EXTREMELY helpful).

Getting stomped in a match is never any fun but always look for some tidbit of info that you can learn from and that makes it a bit more bearable. Sometimes though you just get a run of bad luck, when that happens its best to just go do something else for a bit and then come back and try again.

While the first few months were painful for me I have been having a blast playing overall. Hope you stick with it and find your niche.

[Onyxian]

Jody Von Jedi

Very distinctive name

You killed me twice last night.

[mogs01gt]

Onyxian, on 04 April 2014 - 06:46 AM, said:

Higher Elo? My Elo is apparently too high for some damn reason already. I don't belong in games with these kind of players.
So everyone seems to agree that the game not any fun to start out with. Just gotta bend over and beg for lube until I get to the point I can bend others over and make them beg for lube?

IMO I would rather be out played by better opponents which helps me more than having team full of fucktards who run around and get killed in less than a minute.

Also what Mechs have you been using? That was the biggest issue I had as a new player. I couldnt find a mech that suited me.

[Jody Von Jedi]

Onyxian, on 04 April 2014 - 10:49 AM, said:

Jody Von Jedi

Very distinctive name

You killed me twice last night.

Thanks for the C-Bills!

You'll get better. Hang in there. Like other have said, my K/D ratio was pathetic when I started playing. It was around .25 for a long time. I managed to slowly raise it until I got up to .85 before the stat wipe.

You'll get there.

Jody von Jedi (Onyxian killer, uh, I mean teacher)

[Onyxian]

mogs01gt, on 04 April 2014 - 11:01 AM, said:

IMO I would rather be out played by better opponents which helps me more than having team full of fucktards who run around and get killed in less than a minute.

Also what Mechs have you been using? That was the biggest issue I had as a new player. I couldnt find a mech that suited me.

I stink at anything light. They just move too fast and I cannot aim worth a damn while moving fast. Or moving at all, for that matter. I did a fair amount of damage with the trial Stalker that was up, Lrms are very newb friendly. When the trial Phract that was up i played quite a bit. But I haven't tried the new trial Cat because its missle only, and that worries me some. Played the new Victor some, but I've been trying to avoid the trial mechs now.

I bought a BattleMaster with my cadet bonus. And while I definately lean towards the heavier, the better, it was a huge mistake. So last wkd I shelled out some MC for the Hero Orion and have been playing that a lot. I also bought the trial Stalker, since I had fond memories of my cadet days in it. Unfortunately, my recent experiences with it are far different than my cadet days. I cannot hit anything with the Gauss, though.. It's laughable. Finally made enough last night to take the damn thing off and put an ac10 there. Still working on making enough to drop the ferro that came with it and get Endo.