322 replies to this topic

[CrashieJ]

I drop solo because the rewards suck unless you constantly jump out the matches into a fresh battle

[Kilo 40]

Craig Steele, on 22 April 2014 - 12:35 AM, said:

Here's my prediction, over coming days word of this thread will spread amongst group players (because they talk to each other see) and the ratio will change because if any solo players do come across the thread they will see their fore runners got short shrift and why would they put themselves out there to be mocked as well.

And in a few days time, we will have maybe 100, 200 maybe 1,000 people expressing a view that represents a tiny fraction of the player population yet we will unashamedly hold the ratio demonstrated as indusputable proof of ...... what?

I will be keeping a close eye on this thread, because I have a feeling you're going to be correct.

areyouawizard.jpg

[Spawnsalot]

I drop solo because I have 11 team mates not 3 and I shouldn't have to jump through 3rd party hoops to communicate with them.

[LegoPirate]

for the record, 16% of launches are groups yes, but if you actually do a body count rather then a launch count, it breaks down to like 50% of players in 2-4 man groups and 50%ish in solo. pgi skewed their stats (on purpose or not idk) to make it seem like groups arent such a huge portion of the playerbase.

[ArchMage Sparrowhawk]

Yeah maybe 10% of my friends list still plays MWO anymore. This wasn't supposed to be a PUG game, that was a self fulfilling prophecy when they futzed up the goddam team making mechanic.

[Craig Steele]

LegoPirate, on 22 April 2014 - 01:09 AM, said:

for the record, 16% of launches are groups yes, but if you actually do a body count rather then a launch count, it breaks down to like 50% of players in 2-4 man groups and 50%ish in solo. pgi skewed their stats (on purpose or not idk) to make it seem like groups arent such a huge portion of the playerbase.

The problem here is that originally, the data was identified as actual activity. So in that case, if there are 12 players doing a 12 man drop and that is 1% activity, then there are 1,008 players doing solo drops (84%) at the same time.

Subsequently both PGI and Forum users have talked over the initial presentation and now no one really knows what they mean (although we hope PGI do as they use the stats as the reasoning for them to pursue certain accommodations)

It's hard to imagine a scenario though where PGI would want to misrepresent the data, I mean why would they want to break their own business? I suspect it's more likely miscommunication.

[Evil Ed]

My name is Evil Ed, I have played 10.000 matches and I solo because:

- I'm grinding XP and leaves a match when I die.

- I find solo play relaxing.

- I train and want to focus on my performance.

- I only want to/can play a few matches and don't want to join a group and quit after these few matches.

- I like conquest mode with my COM-TDK and no one wants to join me...

I still find 4-mans and 12-mans to most fun way to play this game and would probably not play MWO if it was solo only.

Edited by Evil Ed, 22 April 2014 - 02:46 AM.

[RavenKnight86]

Ok, I logged in mostly to reply to this topic. I have joined a group but still find most of my matches to be done solo. I'd say the two biggest reasons I drop solo is because I have erratic play times which is mostly very late in USA therefore most of the people I joined with aren't up that late. Secondly it seems when I do drop with my group mates it's inflating my ELO and therefore I'm dropping with a lot better players. I consider myself an above-average player and it seems my better matches come when I solo so I'm thinking I'm getting on with more players around my same skill level, whereas if I drop with my groupmates I'm facing people at a higher skill level. Which facing people at a higher skill level is challenging and helps me better my skills, soloing allows me to have more fun and feel like I contributed more.

[Tahribator]

I have about 8500 drops total, and I'd say about 98% of them were solo. I can think of a few reasons:

Solo matches are random and challenging. You made a positioning mistake? You're dead. You didn't read the enemy team and ran into a 4-man? You're dead. Your team randomly took the wrong route? You're dead. The matchmaker randomly put 11 assaults against you? You're dead. 6 champions in your team? You're dead.

But after a couple of hundreds of matches, you start reading your team. You start reading the enemy team. You know what mechs are capable with which builds. You know what will happen when which team goes where or which mechs they bring. You realize the potential in builds and playstyles that "competitive" players dismiss. You start climbing the Elo ladder and get similar players who think like you, who went through the same thing. Suddenly you coordinate without communication and win impossible matches. You become a better player simply because you're prepared and trained for any possible situation after a while. I regularly get into matches with competitive 4-mans and fail match searches, so it's possible to be in high-Elo by purely solo-dropping.

On the other hand, I find 4-mans, especially formed from "competitive" players the easy mode. You have your lancemates to "carry" when you make a mistake. You always have the upper hand of skill and coordination against lesser opponents, it's stomp after stomp, you just don't lose. You can even take goofy builds and make them work. You can be an average player, but get carried by others and think you're god. The only losses happen when the matchmaker randomly puts another competitive lance against you, which doesn't happen often. I don't like this type of play, it's simply not challenging and also not fair to solo players.

Then comes dealing with other players. I do use the dropships in Public TS' like NGNG and Comstar once in a while and most of the time I don't enjoy the company. Players who are not willing to coordinate yet still jump in a dropship, players who are just obnoxious, players who are just hopeless in MWO and so on. Most of the time I feel like I'm better off solo.

I also feel like I understand my mechs and their quirks better when solo. Solo-queue is like a torture machine and it instantly exposes the strengths and weaknesses of your mech/build since you're subjected to random variables each match.

Edited by Tahribator, 22 April 2014 - 02:20 AM.

[Leartes]

I have never dropped in a group because:

- there is no ingame lobby to spontaneously form a group
- I mainly grind and it is faster without a group
- I can't use voice communication (PC in the living room), this leads to:
=> I don't want to listen to trashtalk without participating
=> I don't want to let seriously playing teammates (who don't trashtalk)
- Often I only have time for one or two games before taking a break, ties back to the first point

What I would love:
A game mode where I get an experienced commander assigned that actively orders his team around. To do so the pro-game probably need a bigger overhead, e.g. select role for your mech and allow planning on the map before the round starts as well as a system to acknowledge orders. - (possibly a system to mark players that ignore orders/ commanders that give bullshit commands ...)

tldr as a dedicated solo-player I want coordinated play in an hop on/hop off fashion where I don't have the voip and organization overhead.

Another idea:
Perhaps a "stay in group with for next game" checkbox at the end of a round would also greatly improve team-building.

[Soulscour]

I drop solo because I enjoy a greater challenge and a element of unpredictability.
I drop solo because sometimes I'm too lazy to socialize.
I drop solo because It puts me in a better position to troll people.
I drop solo because I do not care about stat padding.

[Triordinant]

Tahribator, on 22 April 2014 - 02:15 AM, said:

On the other hand, I find 4-mans, especially formed from "competitive" players the easy mode. You have your lancemates to "carry" when you make a mistake. You always have the upper hand of skill and coordination against lesser opponents, it's stomp after stomp, you just don't lose. You can even take goofy builds and make them work. You can be an average player, but get carried by others and think you're god. The only losses happen when the matchmaker randomly puts another competitive lance against you, which doesn't happen often. I don't like this type of play, it's simply not challenging and also not fair to solo players.

I believe this. Some players suck by themselves and only win when they have a group to carry them. There are also groups that suck and only win against PUGs (they almost always lose to other premades).

[Jacob Side]

I solo drop because PGI runs Faction Pride contests that then force us to play solo.
Other then that I never ever solo drop.

[Swinebeast]

I prefer solo to relax and have fun, I used to use TS for squadron flying which worked well, but for MWO I'm happy to pug it.
Maybe if there are mature people out there who wanna grab a bourbon, kick back, talk BS, while having fun winning....or not, I'm there:)

[Barantor]

I play solo now because the majority of the 300+ people I have on my friends list do not play anymore.

I play solo because the way elo works with groups sucks for those of my friends that aren't well versed in the game to group with me.

I play solo because it rewards you more.

------------------------------

Reasons why I even bother playing anymore:

PGI has free crap to give away.

I can catch up with some of the Marik folks on TS.

See if the game has improved.

[Joseph Mallan]

Ghost Badger, on 21 April 2014 - 12:45 PM, said:

I drop solo for the following reasons:

1) No one in my group is online.
2) My friends list is grey and sad.
3) I'm testing myself in my go-to mechs to make sure I'm not letting my evil premade boogie-brothers carry me.
4) There's a solo-only competition with a tangible fluff reward for X amount of wins.

5) There are 1 or 2 4 Lawmans on and I am left as a 5th wheel. No this isn't a complaint, it is accepting reality.

[Dark Aura]

I play solo 99.5% of the time. I do so because I can't find a group that I am satisfied with. I wandered around various community groups for months, and never clicked with any. Call me anti-social I guess. The tools for community building are sadly lacking in MWO. I am surprised that even 16% have found reliable team mates to lance with.

[BINDLETORC]

i drop solo because it is considerably more challenging. If I feel the need to be a strategic control freak I take command which adds an additional level of tactical play.
I think every player drops solo most of the time for the reasons above. Not that team play isn't important, actually crucial but i like to play the wildcard personally.

[IceCase88]

The only reason I solo drop the majority of the time is it is faster to grind cbills by myself and I bet the vast majority of players who play in organized groups do the same. Once your mech is destroyed you can leave the game and start another one up without waiting for anyone to finish. Since the grind is so bad it is the only reason organized players do solo drops. This skews the stats which shows why there are more solo drops then organized drops. I prefer to drop in an organized match because I am dealing with known quantities on my team and not hoping against hope that I get a good pug team. Plus, all the players on my team are over 21 years old and mature. Playing in a PUG you don't know what the age or mental capacity of the players are going to be let alone their skill level.

Most of the time PUG matches feel like online poker. You are on a winning streak for a little bit until the house decides to change the players around by moving you to another table. The whole dynamic changes and the losing streak ensues. The best way to get people to rage quit the game forever is to cater community warfare to PUGs. The best way to handle it is to let teams of any size drop into games and fill the remaining spots with PUGs. Should not be hard to implement. More players will return, they will have a more loyal fanbase, and the game will overall feel better. However, PGI seems to operate like an authoritarian government where despite how an idea goes against common sense and conventional wisdom they are going to do it anyway. This is why I believe community warfare is going to be dead on arrival. PUG matches for the most part are infuriating. Then when you complain about being on bad teams and having a losing streak the idiots respond by saying, "Well since you are always on the losing team it appears you are the problem."

Edited by IceCase88, 22 April 2014 - 06:00 AM.

[Phlinger]

Craig Steele, on 22 April 2014 - 01:25 AM, said:

The problem here is that originally, the data was identified as actual activity. So in that case, if there are 12 players doing a 12 man drop and that is 1% activity, then there are 1,008 players doing solo drops (84%) at the same time.

Subsequently both PGI and Forum users have talked over the initial presentation and now no one really knows what they mean (although we hope PGI do as they use the stats as the reasoning for them to pursue certain accommodations)

It's hard to imagine a scenario though where PGI would want to misrepresent the data, I mean why would they want to break their own business? I suspect it's more likely miscommunication.

The problem lies much higher than this, but I think you are on to something. What most MMO developers and well, video game developers count on, and frankly outright depend on, is the ignorance of their fanbase. In this capitalist economy, having stupid consumers is a win/win for any and all companies, because stupid consumers do not step back and ask themselves "Why?" they just continue to consume and everyone is happy.

MWO does not have that problem. The majority of players who stick to the FASA/Mechwarrior name like glue and started out liking it in the 80's were the geeks and dorks of their time, which are now the math majors, nasa engineers, satellite maintenance/builders, writers, artists, graphic designers, intellectual and creative minds basically, and frankly, I don't think PGI realized that when they signed up for the task of developing the game. And, very few of them ever wanted or wished to play sports, but playing with stompy robots is/was cool.

The fanbase for MWO has several higher per average IQ points than say, World of Warcraft. (Doubt me? Open a random thread on these forums and read the contents, then do the same with WoW /bow, you're welcome) PGI, through their track record have always released crap games that only sell because of BIG deals and people not researching their value. Here they have a chance to really shine, and show us they are capable of creating something great, but instead, I get the feeling with every command chair post that Russ simply thinks he has to 'Speak with the sheep" so he can sell more 'Mech-O-the-Week" deals. He still hasn't realized that his fans have brains, and brains that are equal or greater than his. Treat your fans like people, and people who can do some things that you can't. Treat people like you want to be treated, and communicate with them like they are more than numbers raising your revenue, and you may notice things get better /shrug, it may be too late already.


Ok, done ranting-- I solo drop, because When I group, I have to deal with competitive *******'s and life is just too damn short to worry about that crap.