159 replies to this topic

[Gemini 10SR]

What is it that you like about the Launch Module

I very much liked the cancel button included now

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

Wait times for me weren't TOO bad, I really didn't like that in one of my matches it felt like I dropped into a match already going.

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

My impressions are exceedingly favorable. Matches seem to go quicker, things feel more 'fair' as I know I'm not dropping into a 7 light 'wolf pack' or against an unbeatable wall of Assault mechs. I also like that it made me think more strategically as I knew when I died (or killed someone) that the balance of power had a DIRECT change.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

I've included the notes I made based on your original things to think about list.

On trying to remap keys, remapping not showing up on list (GUI does not reflect changes made by user)
Match #1
Solo/Group:Solo
Weight Class/Mech:Med. Shadow 2D2
Wait Time: 2 minutes to HPG Screen (3:28 to 3:30)
Weight Class Restrictions: Met on our team
Full match (12v12): 12 v 12 with a Disconnect on each side
Fairness: LOUSY, Enemy drop placement had us greatly outnumbered from start.
Comments: Short of bad drop placement, wait time not too bad. Some questions from other players about SRM's being 'fixed' unsure what that means


Match 2
Solo/Group: Solo
Weight Class/Mech: Heavy. Ilya
Wait Time: 3:38 - 3:43 to Forest Colony Snow
Weight Class Restrictions: Met on our team
Full match (12v12): Yes
Fairness: SUPER FUN INTENSE MATCH
Comments: Quite a bit of testing/experience related chatter at the top of the match.
After long wait dropped RIGHT INTO ACTION, no startup animation


Match 3
Solo/Group:Solo
Weight Class/Mech: Light: Raven 3L
Wait Time: 3:53 - 3:54 to Tourmaline screen
Weight Class Restrictions: Met on our team
Full match (12v12): Yes
Fairness: Pretty fair
Comments:


Match 4
Solo/Group: Solo
Weight Class/Mech:Assault, Atlas DDC
Wait Time: 8:37 - 8:40
Weight Class Restrictions: Met on our team
Full match (12v12):Yes
Fairness: Felt very fair
Comments: Had some very bad lagging in the middle of the match


Match 5
Solo/Group: Solo
Weight Class/Mech: Light Com 2D
Wait Time: 1 minute
Weight Class Restrictions: Met on our team
Full match (12v12): Yes
Fairness: Felt fair
Comments: Some complaints of lag halfway through the match. A general note was made that a slight FPS boost was seen by nearly all players


Thanks,
Gemini 10SR

[MuonNeutrino]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)

SRMS ARE BACK! They might still need a bump back to 2.5 damage/missile, but let's see how they settle out at 2.0 for a few weeks first.
Private matches are looking good, it's not a feature I'm personally interested in but I definitely know how important it is for the community.

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

The queue times are very inconsistent. I've had several times where I had to wait over 20 minutes, and many other times where I got in within 1 or 2. I'm hoping this is an artifact of the low population on the test server, though the fact that twice it seemed to be resolved by quitting the client and restarting is a bit worrisome.

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

3/3/3/3 is the best thing to happen to the game in at least 6 months. Not running into kiloton-range walls of armor every match is so refreshing, and it makes playing a medium mech much more pleasant. It really changes the dynamic - there's so much less sheer firepower on the field that brawlers can actually get in close, and when you combine that with SRMs being functional again it really feels like a while new ballgame. Note that it's the class restrictions that actually do it - tonnage limits instead would just lead to light+assault spam with no real change.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

You may want to consider allowing the matchmaker to make matches that flex by 1 in any given class - i.e. allow it to pick whatever class is most overrepresented in the queue at the moment and make matches with 4 of that class. I'd personally find the inevitable plethora of matches with 4 assault mechs annoying, and I'd *definitely* still prevent groups from dropping with 4 of any one class, but it may be necessary to keep the queue times in check.

[DrunkenGrenndel]

I only did Public Matches

1) Found matches and only 1 of 7 matches was a total roll. Most felt pretty balanced. Cancel button is nice.

2) Early on in the day my wait times for matches were 6+ minutes but after about 3:30 pacific the times dropped to about 60 seconds. Waiting for more than 3-5 minutes and I will likely start looking for something else to do.

3) I liked that there seemed to be a diverse number of mech chassis. For the most part the matches felt fairly balanced and even saw some nice come from behind wins.

4) An average queue time by weight class would be really helpful. If I only have an hour to play and want to get in as many drops as possible let me know what weight class to pick and I can grab my favorite mech from that class. I think it would also tend to balance out the queues as people will find mechs to drop in underfilled roles.

Edited by DrunkenGrenndel, 24 April 2014 - 08:06 PM.

[SniperCon]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
I like the idea of 3/3/3/3

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?
The wait time

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?
My drop didn't have 3/3/3/3

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?
I solo dropped a little before 8:00 pm eastern in a Blackjack (ERPPC+Gauss). I dropped into a match at 8:45. I repeatedly shot 2 catapults, a cataphract, and a jagermech without damaging their armor below orange. I got 12-15 solid red reticule hits with my ERPPC+Gauss at ranges ~400m. I finished the match with 86 damage and the class matching was not 3/3/3/3 on either side.

[SirLankyIII]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)

Knowing that you'll have reasonably balanced teams.
The cancel button on launch.

The private match window is very sleek, the mech select screen is simple and effective and the ability to change consumables without going into the mechlab is excellent.

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

Not knowing what wait times to expect

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

It's a welcome change, but we'll need to wait until it's live to really see what sort of effect it has. At the very least it's a welcome change to having lopsided team balance.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

It might be nice to have the private/public mode selection as separate buttons on the main UI rather than a second popup window before launch. Maybe slot it in next to the social button. Additionally the social tab (at least the friends list) should open up when the private lobby opens up.

For public games, it would be nice to have an indication as to what the wait times are for each class. It could be average time, or something as simple as "very short, short, medium etc.

On another note, srm hit registration seemed to be very good at first glace. Firing off 3 srm6s all seemed to strike with few passing through the target and with damage registering effectively, especially on large targets.

Edited by SirLankyIII, 24 April 2014 - 08:17 PM.

[Bilbo]

Bilbo, on 24 April 2014 - 04:14 PM, said:

The private match is pure awesome. Duels for the win!!!!!

[Javenri]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)

I did like the "CANCEL" button. It was useful for long waits.

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

In some cases wait times seemed long but that probably was situational (check my report at the end of post)

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

Great. Really loved it. Sure, sometimes we got rolled or we rolled the enemy, but that was due to team performance rather than weight balance. Many matches ended with very close kill score. It seems PGI got it right.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

First I include my report with the notes I took during drops. I played from 12.30 to 14.00 PDT and all matches were public cue, solo, any game selected. My efforts in this time frame with chronological order:

1. Assault mech, found game after 3'
2. Heavy mech, canceled after 15' of wait time
3. Medium mech, found game after 1' 35".
4. Medium mech, canceled game after 12'.
5. Light mech, found game after 30".
6. Light mech, found game after 22".
7. Light mech, found game after 14".
8. Medium mech, found game after 2'.

I would like to suggest:

I. The introduction of a "demand" list for players that want fast drops. That would show pre-launching which mech class is in demand (i.e. there are 4 groups waiting for heavy mechs, 3 groups waiting for light mech, 0 groups waiting for assault mechs). That way someone can launch faster with a "demanded" mech rather than waiting longer to drop with his prefered class.

II. With weight restriction being a success (from my PoV at least), I believe PGI can safely allow larger group sizes in public que, by maintaining the +/-1 rule. This would result in premade groups being matched against other groups with maximum 1 player difference (a 5-mech group would be matched with anything from a 4-mech to a 6-mech group with the rest of spots being filled by randoms). The larger the group, the bigger the waiting of course (this will be the downside of forming large groups). I doubt anyone would form something bigger than an 8-mech group, knowing that they would need to find at least a 7-mech group in order to play.

Edited by Javenri, 24 April 2014 - 08:57 PM.

[Corbon Zackery]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Looked neat and clean ready to go. Easy to get into and easy to bail out of.


2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?
There is no notification system in place to invite people into a private match. So unless you know one is going on your never really going to use it.

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?
Unimpressed with it. It didn't solve any of the current matchmaking issues. Public test matches were taking 3-30 minute to load. I had one public match were 3 players did 0 damage 4 did less than 100 damage.

So I still fully support a level based system to weed out disconnects, Players who need more time to practice, and what I call minimal effort money grubs or bottom feeders. These people would be on the lower level. While veteran players would be having competitive matches against competitive teams of players who want to be team players and win at all costs.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

We need a level based system to weed out players who are screwing around, and are not up to par in skill.

We need to be split up into public faction's. I can't stress this enough this is MechWarrior online not will do whatever we feel like doing.

We need to see Clan logos for the forums. Faction decals for Mechs. You got 3 month to roll out clan tech, and mech and explain it all to us. So we can decide if we even want to continue to play your game.

Were waiting on community warfare updates. Once UI 2.0 was out of the way all this stuff was suppose to roll out on a monthly bases as quickly as it could be made possible.

We haven't seen the new March Jungle map yet.

Concept drawings for the Vindicator that's coming out.

We haven't seen any new marketing to get more people to join in on the fun.

Some concept art of the area that community warfare going to take place in.

We've had these Loyalty Medals for 4 to 6 months now are they going to do anything.

Can we get more C-bill based customization and some cockpit items that can be bought with c-bills.

I would also add a entire graphics overhaul needs to be done to balance detail and frame-rate out

Your so secretive to the community as if this was still a closed beta game under development.

Screwing with a weapon system that in the past has caused a mass community bans during closed and open beta. along with mass forum protests. Oh yes were talking about the LRM! Is ill advised dumb and plain stupid. Especially since you haven't cleaned up the last mess you made when you twicked the angles of launch to the point that cover is worthless especially when spotted by a light mech.
We can't touch the damage on the LRM weapon but you can screw up any other aspect don't worry will review it all in month after we see all the negative results.

Destroyable terrain please.

[UnknownHero]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?
3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?
4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

1) The best addition was honestly the search cancel button, it was just insane to not have it before. These little improvements make a bigger deal than most people realize
2) No particular thing jump out at me, its just a sum of a lot of badly needed little things that make it really great.
3) 3/3/3/3 is such a desperate fix it makes me want to cry. While I like everyone else is desperate to play a game with less than 8 victors in it, it makes me really sad that there aren't any real balance changes being made. All 3/3/3/3 does it make a game where the 3-6 guys in the good mechs get to prey on the guys that think mediums and lights actually can compete in a skirmish or assault game (or even conquest on most maps). People were playing heavier mechs because they are BETTER. As long as heavy mechs are so much stronger, all I see 3/3/3/3 doing is forcing people unwilling to wait 10 minutes for a match to be second class citizens for victors to blow up.
4)Please please PLEASE roll out some real balance changes to help out low weight mechs. If you are going to force us to play them at least make them useful, all this patch looks like to me right now is a huge increase match search times.

[Osric Lancaster]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.

The cancel button sounds nice.

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

You know. . .

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

There have been smarter suggestions on how to deal with class balancing. In general it sounds like wait times are going to suffer.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

1 - Let people select a chassis from each weight class with which they'd be willing to launch.
2 - Slot players into available games with whichever of the chassis they selected meets the matchmaker criteria.

There, I just fixed your wait time issues.

Spoiler

Look, let me be honest here - I didn't play your test server. I'm not a masochist and it's up for too short a time for the effort to be worth it for me. I'm a solutions guy. I'll get plenty of time to ruminate over the problems with this build when you push it out. You'll get my feedback on bugs and such then.

Edited by Osric Lancaster, 24 April 2014 - 08:41 PM.

[firezx]

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1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)

Ability to cancel. At least on the test server, matches were fairly long and engaged. Some were stomps though.

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2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

Inability to tell which weight class is most needed at the moment. This may be less of an issue when there are more people playing and wait times are shorter.

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3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

They seemed fine.

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4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

[Jonathan Paine]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
Private, uneven matches against my merc buddies! 2 Mediums against one assault was glorious!

Balanced teams! Most matches (apart one where lots of players DC'ed) were cool and interesting. Such a relief to be out of the "6-8 assaults every match" setup!

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?
Launch times taking between 45 seconds and forever - with no way to know what we could do to lessen the wait (running a 3 man, then a 2 man)
Less clicks to do things would be great!

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?
L O V E them! Excellent work!

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?
Might want to consider stricter restrictions for bigger teams - getting to bring 3 of a class is too much and too easy to exploit (hint: 3 victors and a 3d - 3 ECM lights + 1 ECM Cicada)

Did I mention that the private server was amazing? Finally a reason to have premium time!!!

[Antzs]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)

Private matches!, Weight Class restrictions

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

Too many DC players, unstable server, hit detection is bad

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

I like it. Seems like the game is more balanced.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

I love private matches, wish we could make C-bills in private matches

[Tomcat0815]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)
See below.

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?
Well, I consider calling it a Not-Launch-Module. Since either I could not connect to MW:O test servers due to "An unknown network error" that "occured" (I tried launching MW:O in between which worked) or could not join a game due to high waiting times. This may be my fault, though, because I closed the game after waiting for 10 minutes since I assumed the launcher crashed somehow.
I wanted to try my light mechs within the new weight restrictions, so probably this is what everybody else was doing which caused such high waiting times for players of light mechs?

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

[Dirk Le Daring]

1) The new features look to be a good thing. I like the lobby, though will have to actually use it to be sure. I like the 3/3/3/3 more than expected.

2) Hard to say. Probably wait times for matches. (thinking that there were so few on) When will we be able to build using the mech details page ? Would have liked to play with the lobby.

3) I like the restrictions. Made for better matches in my opinion. Ran solo and with four, was good.

4) Long wait times, but probably due to a low population (not all want to test, or can). I think there may be issue with instances where there will be people unable to work on the mech they are focusing on due to that space being already filled (this would mean huge wait times). Just a thought. Overall, looking good.

Edit:

I did see two (2) two-man teams on the same side a few times. Our group of 5 managed to be two teams of two on the blue team. May be a bug , but reproducable.

Edited by Dirk Le Daring, 24 April 2014 - 09:43 PM.

[Gryphorim]

To reiterate: PTS was promising. However, the public games should connect the 24 players, then allow them to veto the next map. It could use a similar UI to the Private matches.

Second, I would like to be able to select map in FREE private matches. I understand the other constraints being limited to Premium, but this?

All in all, I would like to see more freedom in where we drop.

[Mechwarrior807015]

love this 3/3/3/3 thing. no overpowered teams. much more fun!

[Ian Grahame]

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module?

I'll join the cancel button fan club. I liked 3/3/3/3, it ensures a mix of mech types. Very nice not to have 0 or 1 assault and the other team 3 Atlas and a Stalker. In general it seems to have good appearance and functionality. The ability to make changes without having to go back to the Mech lab.

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

The wait times were insane. Several times I used that cancel button (see above) and closed the game completely and restarted in an attempt to shake loose. 10-15 minute wait times tested my desire to test and comment. ` key is my push to talk and now opens a console.

I know you stressed public drops, and all but one of the six or seven I made were public, but you could have included some MC in the test account to be used in testing private.

Institute a vote for map system in publics, or at least a vote for one map that will be taken out of rotation... Terra Therma, River City Night, g'bye for now!

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

In general I liked it a lot. I suspect that it was also a contributor to wait times. I got in faster in mediums in particular. It would be tremendously helpful if in public groupings there was an indicator of which weight class was needed and which was over supplied.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

For the love of all that's holy, find a way to reduce the sheer mind numbing number of clicks it takes to do virtually anything in this game, particularly the mechlab. The pull down for consumables was lovely, and anything similar you can offer to clean things up would be much appreciated. Now its click to do something, click if you are sure you want to, click if you are no kidding really certain. Click back to get out of what you just finished, then click back again to get to the mechlab, and now you can click on what you want to do next. Yeesh.

[Cerulean Knight]

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1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)

I love the 3/3/3/3 match making. Stomps could still happen, but in all those cases it was more about teamwork that determined the match results (followed closely by player skill). The cancel button is a nice (and needed) addition to the que system, though I only used it once during the test. Another thing I liked was a small change to the mechlab: item opacity. This subtle change, in my mind, made the mechlab look much better than what is currently in the live servers.

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2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

Although the que times were not bad for me in most cases, I would have liked an indicator to know which class of mech was needed the most rather than guessing.

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3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

Excellent, so far. Due to que times, I suspect this will make people leave their comfort zones and, at least, try a few other chassis that they might not have considered. I know it did for me. I play mostly medium and heavy mechs, but this time around I was playing light and assault mechs and heaving a blast in 'em.

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4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

In concern to que times, I would like to make a suggestion. In the game World of Warcraft, it features three roles that one can play while in a dungeon, tank, dps, and healing. The dungeon finder in that game has a unique way of suggesting to players to play a different role by offering a small reward at the end of the dungeon for a role that it most needed. For example, if the tank role is needed, that role is highlighted when you pull up the dungeon finder, informing the player that this role is most needed and that you'll get a small (sometimes large and rare), random reward at the end of the dungeon. In addition, it also reveals the average wait time of each role when qued. It should also be mentioned that if que times for all classes are roughly the same, no bonus is offered

To that end, I suggest for MWO to adopt a "bonus salvage" system for weight classes that need to be filled. Whenever someone is about to que for a game (e.g. as they are selecting game type and match type), simple icons display the four respective weight classes (like say, an Atlas outline for assault, Jenner for light, etc…) and their wait times displayed just below the icons. Examples of the statuses would be as follows:

“Low” for below 2-minutes.
“Fair” for between 2 to 5 minutes.
“High” anything above 5 minutes

The icons would also use color to indicate status as well, green for low, yellow for fair, and red for high. An average actual time can be seen if the player hovers their mouse over the icon. If any class is low in comparison to the others, the icon that represents that class will have a white glow or border around their icon, alerting anyone that queing for that class will receive bonus salvage at the end of the match (regardless of win or loss). The reward itself should be something small in most cases, but with a small chance to receive a major reward, too. A few examples of “bonus salvage” rewards are as follows:

Average/Common Bonus Salvage (75% chance)
-50,000 c-bills + 1 Small Laser
-50,000 c-bills + 1 Flamer + 1 ton MG ammo

Uncommon Bonus Salvage (50% chance)
-50,000 c-bills + 2 AC/10 + 3 STD Heat Sinks

Rare Bonus Salvage (25% chance)
-50,000 c-bills + 200 STD Engine + BAP

Ultra Rare Bonus Salvage (1% chance)
-50,000 c-bills + sub-500 MC item (no mechbays) + UAC/5
-50,000 c-bills + 300 XL engine + 2 ER PPC + 3 tons LRM Ammo + AMS

The 50k c-bills is to make sure the player gets at least enough to cover consumable costs no matter the package. The addition of an inventory item adds some more excitement and accomplishment by giving the payer a tangible, useful item that they can either use or sell for extra c-bills. Bonus salvage is also supposed to be random, with the only preset item being the 50k c-bills. The random nature of the reward also adds a source of anticipation, since the player knows they might be getting a nice engine, or maybe, if the RNG is nice to them, that special cockpit item they always wanted.

I realize a system like this might be a little tricky to implement, but I think it would add some excitement to even a normally droll process of queing for a game.

[jag rip]

Sorry if some things were mentioned already, did not read through the other comments yet, maybe edit things later today after reading through.

1) What is it that you like about the Launch Module? (Please enter as many items as you wish.)

• Cancel Button while searching
  
• Auto Ready
  
• Seeing which friends are already grouped up
  
• Lobby is very nice with the dragging and dropping of players, visuals are very well made

2) What do you like least about the Launch Module?

• Still a lot to click and acknowledge. Mouse travels a long distance, lower left corner to check out, top center to go back to Homescreen, bottom center to switch to social tab, upper right corner to launch, center screen to select game mode
  
• Launch, select public/private, OK, select gamemode, OK. Could easily be in one window.
  
• Lobby is a bit hidden, no explanations why non-full group is not selectable until the other teamcommander has premium
  
• Social functions are still treated like a stepchild, its an online-only teamoriented game, so I dont understand why those features are not a primary function like the mechlab and always visible? Constantly switching between outfitting a mech while chatting to your teammates is exhausting

3) What are your impressions of the Weight Class Restrictions?

• Error comes after hitting launch. No warning before. No big changes in the matches. I like it though.

4) Any other comments, concerns or suggestions?

• I really like where this is going, great start with the lobby system but please bring online features and player-player interaction more to the center of gameplay. Pugs are mostly pugs because it takes triple the time and effort to get a match going by inviting friends and setting up a normal public match.
  
• I really miss a in-match function to add a player as a friend that I just loved to spectate or had a good time teaming up
  
• I really miss a in-match function to ignore abrasive chatspammers (thanks for the support stupid team, worst team ever, L2P etc, you know those.)
  
• I really miss a in-match function to report players that are abusing the game and badmouthing back at other players that call them out.
  
• Can we get slide-in Notifications for invitations and messages instead of only the social tab glimming? Maybe even in-match??
  
• An vote-option at the summaryscreen to play another game with the same two teams that just got matched? So matchmaker only needs to replace a few players that did not opt in on this. Insta-rematch kind of.