113 replies to this topic

[DEMAX51]

Marack Drock, on 01 May 2014 - 07:16 AM, said:

I found the launch module to be an issue. The Private match system needs to be reworked.
First off- Give people who aren't Premium time some more possibilities than just gamemode.
Second- We would like to be able to do 1 on 1 matches without both of us being premium (kinda the point of private matches with Clanners).

Just these 2 things would be fine! We can live with random maps and tonnage. But not being able to play or challenge our friends to 1 on 1 sucks.

They've quite emphatically stated that this will not happen, and it's simple business. Serves cost money to run, and if they allow matches of fewer than 24 people, their cost/match goes up. They have to offset that loss somehow, and they've settled on requiring premium time. Personally, I'm fine with it. It may be a free-to-play game, but you can't expect to get everything you want for free.

[Mofwangana Bogogono]

Zolaz, on 01 May 2014 - 11:41 AM, said:

No, what would be sad news is the 4th time PGI tells us it will be 2 weeks. So, buck up little camper, it could be worse.

You weren't supposed to say that out loud. Now we're jinxed and it's all your fault.

[MischiefSC]

I have no doubt there will be several refinements after 3/3/3/3 comes out. That's fine.

For now, just put 3/3/3//3 out. It'll have some warts and bugs, that's fine. It's expected. It's a new drop module system. Just let it be soon.

Sooner than that even. Today would be cool.

[Mystere]

Xarian, on 01 May 2014 - 02:00 AM, said:

Imagine, if you will, a status screen. It says, "Mechs currently queued for match:", and then it has a list of weight classes. Next to those weight classes are numbers. Numbers that say how many of that type of mech is queued.

Then imagine, if you will, a player who is trying to queue for a match as an Assault. He notices that there are 35 players queued as Assault, 23 players queued as Heavy, 5 players queued as Medium, and 18 players queued as Light. He gets tired of waiting, so he cancels his match and switches to his Hunchback.

Now imagine, if you will, all 81 of these players trying to join matches. They aren't joining at the same time. Some are joining earlier, and some are joining later. Some have to wait more time, and some have to wait less time. At some point, there will be enough of every class to play.

Now let's further imagine that people don't play the classes equally. Say - 27% Assault, 27% Heavy, 27% Light, and 19% Medium. This means that, on average, you've got 24% of the available players waiting for a match. Of course it might be a little more because we've got to wait for 6 players of each type.

Now, I want you to do something for me. Go to Wikipedia, and look up the term 'impossible'. Then feel shame.

I think you missed that fact that PGI does not want to reveal online numbers. There is a reason why the player counter was removed in the first place.

[Pale Jackal]

Yeah, 3/3/3/3 was something I was looking forward too. For a while, I switched to playing Conquest only just so I'd see something besides heavies and assaults.

If there's a lack of lights or mediums, give a +25% C-bill bonus to players who use them.

[Kraven Kor]

I think 3/3/3/3 is going to need the functionality to select several mechs as ready and then sort out who is in what, somehow, after a match is formed up.

Dunno.

[StealthSlicer]

Sky Hawk, on 01 May 2014 - 03:53 AM, said:

I think, they should cut the public matches in two half (when just for provisionally for try out that this idea works or not.)

1. "Group A": MM with Rules of 3.
2. "Group B": Old MM.

If someone wants play 3/3/3/3 in any case, then he could choose "Group A". OK, he must perhaps wait a bit more, or (in the worst case) change his Mechs-class after some try, but if he really want 3/3/3/3, then he should receive it.

But if someone just wants a quick game, or for any reason can't change his Mechs (example: leveling), then he should be able to play "Group B". Yes, perhaps he becomes some strange, unbalanced team, but the search-time is minimal and he could play anyway.

The 3/3/3/3 rule is too strict, it shouldn't be used for every public matches. It's the same, as for example everyone must play in 3PV mode the whole time...


PS. OK, it is an other way to 3/3/3/3: when the MM choose out the Mech you could play from your own+trial Mechs... But who would like play such a game?

Sense, this post makes it.

[smokefield]

Quote

I think you missed that fact that PGI does not want to reveal online numbers. There is a reason why the player counter was removed in the first place.

o.0 .... Didn't you heard, that 84% of the "silent majority" from where pgi gets its "feedback" are actually bots that pgi implemented so you think you have a populated game. Thats' why you get stomped all the time . but there is a catch...they will add the 3.3.3.3 so you can win from time to time and feel better. now off I go, i said already too much.

[Wildstreak]

So as I understand OP, the new 3/3/3/3 and other changes caused problems where people Failed to Find a Match?

If so, I expected that. In a Public Queue with 3/3/3/3, you have people taking what they want with no knowledge of the larger picture.

Say I take a Medium and look for a match. At that time, 50% of the Public PUG population is looking for one with Mediums. Under 3/3/3/3, the odds of Medium Pilots getting hangs and rejections will be higher in this case.

Same thing except 50% of PUG-town is using Heavies. Medium Pilots get in easy but now a bunch of Heavy Pilots get delays and rejections.

Other similar situations will happen with any weight class. Now the problem of 3/3/3/3 in addition to a few others I read about is known. In the Public PUG Queue, we blindly look for matches and run the risk of delays and rejections in finding one based on what the larger PUG population is picking for their rides.

Private matches do not suffer this because they can talk to each other and set up the team to meet 3/3/3/3 limits much easier.

3/3/3/3 in this manner will not work. I still would prefer a tonnage limit per team and when someone looks for a match, there is a +/- 10 ton window. Example, a 55 tonner can fill the slot of any of the following tonnage: 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 matched against. But that's just me.

[Mawai]

I think the only problem with 3/3/3/3 is that it will likely generate immense queues and waiting times for certain mech classes and you can't expect the player base to change their mech choices in order to get a game faster.

If I come to the game and want to play a heavy or assault mech then I should be able to play that mech without having to wait 10 minutes to an hour or more.

Aiming for 3/3/3/3 is a good idea but the matchmaker has to be designed and built in a flexible way to allow for other specified distributions so that the matchmaker can be responsive to queue times.

Here is how it should work in my opinion:

1) Track wait time in queues for each mech class (light, medium, heavy and assault).
2) Matchmaker starts at 3/3/3//3 distribution
3) If the queue time in any weight class exceeds 2 minutes the matchmaker dynamically adjusts the mech distribution to include more of the excess mechs and reduce the number of mechs from queues with no wait time. At least one queue will always have almost zero wait time. So if the heavy and assault queues are large you might get matches with 2/2/4/4 distribution or 1/2/5/4 or some variation. These assymmetric matches would continue until all queues are less than 1 minute (or 30 seconds or some other value) at which time the matchmaker would switch back to 3/3/3/3.

This approach does several things:
1) At least some of the matches formed will be 3/3/3/3
2) Queue times are managed so that no one waits more than 2 minutes for a match on average (hopefully there would not be many outliers).
3) Every match formed will have balanced weight class and possibly tonnage.
4) There will be some variety in match composition so the game play doesn't get boring ... but at least some of the time there should be 3/3/3/3 matches forming.

(Note: All of this assumes that the matchmaker is capable of forming matches significantly faster than the players enter the queues ... if this is not true then the entire 3/3/3/3 idea is broken to begin with since the matchmaker MUST be able to form matches faster than players join or the system is truly hosed).

[Vermaxx]

Change it to No More Than Four. No more than four of any class.

Then you don't even NEED all weight classes, you just need 12 people who aren't 8 Atlases. Sure, some matches can still end up skewed toward one team what with a lot of rushers on a cap map, or 4 assaults / 4 heavies on a defense map.

Whatever, it still lets small teams play exactly what they want to play, it still avoids the MAJOR portion of team disparities, and it doesn't require people to queue in mechs they don't want. It also should improve match creation timers.

[Zolaz]

Mofwangana Bogogono, on 01 May 2014 - 11:52 AM, said:

You weren't supposed to say that out loud. Now we're jinxed and it's all your fault.

PGI doesnt need any help cursing themselves. Sad but true. All you have to do is sit under a tree and watch PGI bungle walking and breathing.

[L Y N X]

hmm... wonder what is going on within PGI studios? Anything besides artists animating clan mechs?

[Sagamore]

Do we have an implementation date yet on this or is it still TBA?