Ok I'm going to try and provide a direct un-biased translation of everything, feature related, he stated:
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We have stated that 5-11 man teams will not be supported for the Launch Module and we are not changing that.
Meaning, exactly how it reads. No support for 5-11 teams in the Launch Module.
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However, it does not mean that the 5-11 man conundrum was dumped off the plate and into the trash. It meant that we do not have the resources at this moment to get the Launch Module out on time and include a special rule set for odd number 5-11 man groups. As the numbers indicated in the previous post showed, group launches, no matter what size, were always going to be a smaller subset of the overall game population.
At some undisclosed point in the future there may be support for group sizes 5-11.
No promises made, no expected date of arrival given.
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Our design goal then became to ensure a much more even team build for the public matches and to add the private match lobby system for the competitive crowd. Even with that distinction, we added additional functionality in the private match lobby to somewhat address the needs for smaller group launches as well. It does not directly fix the issue of 5-11 man groups, but it does let them have SOME kind of option to play the way they want to play.
They've added some functionality that does something for smaller groups.
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We have in our backburner an idea for the Group Only queue. This system will allow groups of any size match against each other. It would probably replace the current 12-man public queue. The problem areas come around the groups that are 11 in size. There will not be single player groups to fill that 12th slot so the Lobby is now soft locked and players will not be able to launch. Some of you may suggest that allowing solo players the ability to drop into the group queue would be the solution. A solo player would have MUCH greater success at winning in the regular public match than up against teams.
This leaves us with yet more restrictions: the Grouping interface cannot allow teams of 11 players, the Match Maker cannot create groups of 11 players (5+6, 4+7, 3+8, 9+2, 5+2+4, etc). An additional problem that arises is the exact tonnage matching that happens in the public queue. We will not know what Mechs players are bringing to the lobby. The 3/3/3/3 rule still works but we cannot ask the Match Maker to match exact tonnage per weight class when players are already in a lobby.
At some point in the future, their may be a "group only" queue that MIGHT replace the 12-man public queue.
There are problems with the match maker when attempting to fill out these partial groups with single PUGs.
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Now that you know some of the edge cases, let’s look at what we can do, but you need to keep in mind these problem areas.
Public/Single Player Queue
•Solo players
•2-4 man groups. 1 group per team as it is now.
Group Queue
•Allows 2-10 man groups.
•Groups can only play against other groups.
•No solo players.
•Match Maker will not make a team of 11 players
•Probability of longer wait times for teams to be built.
•Cannot incorporate exact tonnage matching like the other queues.
Private Matches
•2-24 players by invite only.
•Can set game options/restrictions.
•Used for competitive X vs Y players
If I interpret this right, this appears to be a list of what is possible to in the new launch module we 'should' be getting on the 29th.
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Now that you see what is planned and the edge cases surrounding implementation of a group only queue, we’re still deciding when this important feature would fit into our development schedule.
Again, more confirmation they haven't made firm decision on a group only queue, or even how they want it to work.