322 replies to this topic

[GalaxyBluestar]

why do i solo...

well i'm a very random person, my post history bares this out. so are my log on times, i would hardly be suitable for unit legues etc. {that and the forum history has gotten me rejected admission}

i'm not an exclusive soloer, however very rarely are friends on when i am and when i have premaded {memesters!} there is a fair amount of time taking up organising. time i don't have so when i have premaded i got 4 matches where i usually get 6-10.

i like friends but the system has always been poor to organise i've used TS and stuff but really the whole thing is a time consuming hassle especially for a random casual.

i support the team groupies to the hilt, in the carry harder and bragging thread in baracks i've faced premades, win and lost against them, highlighted the resons for this, it's simply skill and organisation. very skilled pugs can read the battlelines and are awear, can use teamchat etc. when VOIP arrives it won't be a problem, with a mute button of course.

the 84% won't matter cause only two things seperate them from ANY GROUP, these are SKILLS and ORGANISATION. the only reason anyone lost was skill {okay some meta humpers of course stick their nose in} if/when we get voip intergrated PGI will have no balancing excuses because everyone will have equal organisation ability and skills will be the only thing left to blame. or elo.

so don't worry groupies and soloists, pgi will have to face it, stick us altogether and have a more inviting fun game experience or admit elo needs a rethink.

[Darth Futuza]

I drop solo because sometimes I play at weird hours and none of my friends are on.

[Kilo 40]

Problem Child, on 22 April 2014 - 08:55 PM, said:

2. Community.
I only post here when there's something that really gets me worked up, so I'm not a common sight on the forums. But I read them, oh yes I do. I know what people say about those of us who solo-drop, or PUG exclusively. I think you're wrong, but it doesn't matter. Because to be entirely honest, I don't want to associate with most of the people I see posting here. The arrogance, e-peen stroking, snobbery, petty bickering, willful blindness to opinions, unwillingness to accept valid points, rudeness to other posters and a host of similar things all combine to make these the least pleasant game forums I have ever visited.
This thread is a prime example, if a bit more civil than most. The usual suspects have appeared, having already decided what the correct answer is to the topic of the thread, and by now it has degenerated into the usual situations where they spend all their time talking at members of the opposing camp. I have no expectation that anyone is actually listening any more.

I don't want to be a part of any community that acts like that, and so I drop solo.

*golf clap*

this is seriously one of the most childish forums out there at the moment.

4chan acts more adult than this place.

[GalaxyBluestar]

Kilo 40, on 23 April 2014 - 12:19 AM, said:

*golf clap*

this is seriously one of the most childish forums out there at the moment.

4chan acts more adult than this place.

oohhhhhhh you haven't seen the star citezen threads ^.^ fufufufufufu

[Kilo 40]

GalaxyBluestar, on 23 April 2014 - 12:43 AM, said:

oohhhhhhh you haven't seen the star citezen threads ^.^ fufufufufufu

i figured they would be pretty bad

[Lyoto Machida]

smokefield, on 22 April 2014 - 09:45 PM, said:

i actually dont find any more reasons than the original post listed.

when my friends are online we drop as a team.

this is a team game ffs. and should be a tactical team game. who in the hell would want to drop solo ?

Socially inept people?

[DemonRaziel]

I drop solo when:
1. Noone on TS, or
2. All groups on TS are full, or
3. The group I am going to join is currently in a drop and I am doing a solo drop before I join them, or
4. I died at the very start of a game that seems like it's gonna take a while before it's over, so I leave the group, get a solo drop in and rejoin
5. When I play for the solo-tournaments
6. When I only have time for a few drops and don't want to search for a group, or form a group only to leave it after 2-3 games
7. When, for one reason or another, I don't feel like socializing at the moment and just want to play for a while and focus on 'Mech-slaughter

That said, a vast majority of my drops is with a group of at least 2 more players.

[Galenit]

Aym, on 22 April 2014 - 09:28 PM, said:

There is no way to poll opinions other than to ask on the forums, hopefully this thread will get honest opinions from players, not trolling and de-railing.

There are some problems with this:
1. only a few players are using the forums and less post there
2. mostly organized/hardcore players use the forum
3. pgi know that and thats why they talk about the island

If you want some representative outcome, you need to convince pgi to make a survey that pops up after log in for all players.
If not, then the opinions come from a very small part of the playerbase that does not represent the average playerbase.

Edited by Galenit, 23 April 2014 - 02:01 AM.

[Soulscour]

Lyoto Machida, on 23 April 2014 - 01:03 AM, said:

Socially inept people?

I've been in a lot of TS groups where certain people don't say anything. I don't have a problem with that but it demonstrates that being social is not always part of the premade experience for some people. I find myself chatting it up when soloing as well a lot of the time. Premade groups maybe more social in general but its also easy mode.

[Jae Hyun Nakamura]

I'm dropping solo because:

9 to 5
Wife
Cat 1
Cat 2
Puppy (10 Week)
Mother nature wants me to eat, sleep, p!$$ and s&!t
Friends RL
Family
Studies
House
Cars

...as my friends can say the same we only Group maybe 5 hours a month but 84% of our playtime we drop solo.

[Demuder]

Kaldor, on 22 April 2014 - 07:45 AM, said:

This is the nature of the game. In Closed Beta, when grouping was its peak, the forums were no more or less active in all reality, but generally those in Closed Beta, played to join a unit, group up and provide feedback via the forums.

Enter Open Beta. At this point the flood gates open, and everyone can get in, and alot of those people have little to no interest in grouping or posting on the forums. There is your silent majority. They dont generally join units, dont post on the forums, and beyond playing from time to time, dont really care.

Guess which group builds communities that help games stand the test of time?

Actually, there's just one community. The Players. The fact that poor design choices on PGI's part have managed to make the Players funnel their frustration against themselves, and create the illusion that there's a couple of different player bases, does not change the fact that there's just one community.

I've played EVE online and World of Warcraft. I was a competitive player in both, being in a 0.0 Alliance in the former and a guild with very decent heroic progress in the latter. Guess what, half my time in both games was spent tooting my own horn and doing my own thing with minimal interaction with my "co-pilots" and "guildmates". The other half of the time was spent in excruciatingly complicated PvP and PvE team efforts. Does that make me a solo player or a team player ? The answer is neither.

Harathan, on 22 April 2014 - 08:36 AM, said:

But the current system is exactly that, the current system, not something group players are trying to force on solos but something that PGI implemented.If we're going to be completely inclusive, there actually needs to be 3 queues:

Solo only queue
Solo and groups queue
Groups only queue

We can dream, right?

A concept so simple and self-evidently beneficial to everyone, the lack of which can simply not be justified by anything other than PGI's inability to cater to the player base's needs.

However, in light of the upcoming changes to the MM, which will do a 3/3/3/3 class segregation and ensure that both sides get a premade or none, I have another explanation. Based on PGI's comments about UI2.0, I suspect that implementing said changes was put in the back burner because it would have to interact (even a simple checkbox) with the new interface. One would think that a dev team would inform the player base about it instead of letting them tear apart at each other month after month...

Lyoto Machida, on 23 April 2014 - 01:03 AM, said:

Socially inept people?

While getting on a TS server and playing a game with strangers is a excellent measure of social... aptitude.

If you believe that the game should be played in a team and on TS against another team that is also on TS, excellent, go bug PGI for allowing anything other than that to take place. Calling people playing a game the way it was designed socially inept though, is a prime example of what I describe in the first paragraph of my post.

....


As for replying to the OP:
I solo-drop most of the time. Sometimes my play time coincides with the play time of a couple of friends and we drop together.

I don't feel the need to join a unit, nor search to form a premade with strangers. I don't feel such a need because given the game's setting, there is none. I win some, I lose some. Sometimes I drop with solo players that can coordinate without saying anything, sometimes I am amazed at how fast my team gets obliterated. It's all good. The rewards are not that different either way, and I do get to shoot at robots either way. All the while, I can listen to my favorite music, chat with my girlfriend, chat with someone on Skype or take a break whenever I want and stream the daily news, then take the frustration said news create on some clueless mechwarrior in my next drop. It's all good. When I drop with friends, we do exactly the same thing, although our main priority is talking about who is going out with whom, and then covering each others' backs in game.

If the game setting changes, as in a persistent campaign, with faction gains and rewards, where my track record of winning and losing actually means something, then maybe I will consider joining a unit. Or maybe I will remain a happy puppy, content to just shoot at robots. Oh god, I hope the latter doesn't turn me into a socially inept person....

[Joseph Mallan]

Jae Hyun Nakamura, on 23 April 2014 - 02:10 AM, said:

I'm dropping solo because:

9 to 5
Wife
Cat 1
Cat 2
Puppy (10 Week)
Mother nature wants me to eat, sleep, p!$$ and s&!t
Friends RL
Family
Studies
House
Cars

...as my friends can say the same we only Group maybe 5 hours a month but 84% of our playtime we drop solo.

Unless you count me helping my son with HIS studies I have all the same issues (but I'm 7-3 not 9-5)... none stopped me from joining the Law. Just sayin.

[Kaldor]

dimstog, on 23 April 2014 - 02:35 AM, said:

Actually, there's just one community. The Players. The fact that poor design choices on PGI's part have managed to make the Players funnel their frustration against themselves, and create the illusion that there's a couple of different player bases, does not change the fact that there's just one community.

I've played EVE online and World of Warcraft. I was a competitive player in both, being in a 0.0 Alliance in the former and a guild with very decent heroic progress in the latter. Guess what, half my time in both games was spent tooting my own horn and doing my own thing with minimal interaction with my "co-pilots" and "guildmates". The other half of the time was spent in excruciatingly complicated PvP and PvE team efforts. Does that make me a solo player or a team player ? The answer is neither.

Im not disagreeing with you, but I will say this. In both EVE and WoW what did you have that that we dont have here?

The freedom of choice

You chose to lone wolf in EVE and WoW, and thats fine. You had the choice to group which from what you are saying you participated in that as well.

In MWO there is indeed 1 community. But within that community there are basically a couple factions. There is the Lone Wolf PUG crowd. There is the house oriented guys who want to just play with their friends without arbitrary group size limits. Finally there is the hard core competition crowd that wants to do nothing more than 12 man at the best skill level they can muster.

The issue right now is that PGI is clearly catering to the Lone Wolf PUG crowd the most due to what is very likely skewed and misinterpreted data, after all statistics = lying with numbers. Then you have 12 man, which PGI basically threw them a bone, and created a pure 12 man queue just for them. Who is left in the cold? The previous largest group of players, which is the guys that are in a house, and just want to play with their friends.

Like I said before:

Quote

Which group of players builds communities that help games stand the test of time?

[Joseph Mallan]

Lets go in the HOUSE and discuss this further Kaldor.

[Soloun]

I drop solo because there's nothing in the game to warrant grouping, to me at least. I watch peeps like the NGNG guys on youtube and can see why they enjoy dropping as a group, but I don't see the point at this stage. Once we have community warfare or something similar I'd be likely to change, atm though I don't see the point, other then having fun, each to their own.

However I don't have fun when a premade team rolls my Pug team and would prefer better grouping options were in the game for those that want them so Pug's would drop against Pug's and pre mades against pre mades, the sooner this happens the better for everyone Pug and pre made alike I feel.

[Priest4357]

I drop solo because I keep getting booted out of matches into the mechlab, and no one (not even PGI) knows why.

I'm not the only one, but there is no solution yet.

[Demuder]

Kaldor, on 23 April 2014 - 05:47 AM, said:

In MWO there is indeed 1 community. But within that community there are basically a couple factions. There is the Lone Wolf PUG crowd. There is the house oriented guys who want to just play with their friends without arbitrary group size limits. Finally there is the hard core competition crowd that wants to do nothing more than 12 man at the best skill level they can muster.

The issue right now is that PGI is clearly catering to the Lone Wolf PUG crowd the most due to what is very likely skewed and misinterpreted data, after all statistics = lying with numbers. Then you have 12 man, which PGI basically threw them a bone, and created a pure 12 man queue just for them. Who is left in the cold? The previous largest group of players, which is the guys that are in a house, and just want to play with their friends.

Like I said before:

I am afraid you are totally missing my point. There's no factions. There's player that drop solo or group up and drop. Players will do either, more of which is a matter of choice and circumstances. I will agree with you, that those circumstances currently make the 5-11 group choice unavailable. The reasons most people posted here regarding how they choose to drop reflect this.

So what could be the reason for PGI doing that ?

Case 1, they are right about their numbers (something that only PGI can know right now) and they are only catering to their larger player choice, which is rather logical. The players that would prefer 5-11 are angry in their own right, but since PGI decided that it's not worth to put the effort in to make a balanced experience for everyone involved... they just removed it. By balanced, I don't mean just being able choose to drop with a 5-11 group as a solo drop but also with in game communication tools (VoIP or command wheel), lobbies, in game guilds/units, factions, leaderboards, end game, choice of queues, etc etc. However, the only people that are not to blame are the players that like to drop solo. Neither are the people that want to drop in a 5-11 group.

Case 2. they are lying about their numbers (something that only PGI can know right now) and they are removing the 5-11 choice, only to monetize later on it with the private rooms with premium time. In that case, they chose the worst way to go about it, that is pretending to try to create a balanced experience for players that want to drop solo. I am going to go on a wild speculation here, but from what I can deduce about the wild phantasies I heard on NGNG podcasts about MWO having excellent spectator tools and how it can become a prime time streaming competitive game a la League of Legends, that might very well be the case. However, the only people that are not to blame are the players that like to drop solo. Neither are the people that want to drop in a 5-11 group.

I understand your pain, but in either case, casual players and solo droppers are not the ones limiting your choices, and it's certainly not because they are unsocial or because they whine on the forums.

All that being said, if there is one thing PGI or IGP know, is who is going to support their game financially. Unfortunately only them have the metrics to know about that for certain, we can only speculate.

[Kaldor]

Soloun, on 23 April 2014 - 06:16 AM, said:

I drop solo because there's nothing in the game to warrant grouping, to me at least. I watch peeps like the NGNG guys on youtube and can see why they enjoy dropping as a group, but I don't see the point at this stage. Once we have community warfare or something similar I'd be likely to change, atm though I don't see the point, other then having fun, each to their own.

However I don't have fun when a premade team rolls my Pug team and would prefer better grouping options were in the game for those that want them so Pug's would drop against Pug's and pre mades against pre mades, the sooner this happens the better for everyone Pug and pre made alike I feel.

Trust me, most pre mades dont want to roll PUGs either. I learn nothing, and certainly dont get to be a better player by steam rolling PUG players. This is MM problem that can be resolved by putting in a queue for groups of 2-8 to drop in, using PUG players that want to opt into this queue perhaps for better rewards and challenge. This queue would also probably have to consider 11 vs 12 to be a full match as well to speed up MMing process. ELO might become a problem as well, so widening the gap in ELO for MMing purposes may need to be increased.

[Dimento Graven]

I don't always drop solo, but when I do:

1. It's because I'm exp grinding a 'mech and don't want members of my unit to have to suffer through sub-par playing.
2. No on available to drop with (either no other person to group, or no other pre-made has a slot)
3. I'm playing a quick match while waiting on something else, and only plan on playing THE ONE match
4. I'm experimenting with an untried build, again, same as one, slightly different flavor.

I'm guessing I'm roughly 50/50 in pug drops vs. pre-made drops.

My preference is to drop in a group whenever possible.

[Agent of Change]

*or a sync drop, or drop while in a VOIP client trying to play with my friends

because i find solo pug dropping is akin to driving nails into my eyes

while holding a hammer whose handle is covered in broken glass.

Stay part of the 84% my friends.

Edited by Agent of Change, 23 April 2014 - 07:32 AM.