137 replies to this topic

[Ultimax]

Roland, on 29 April 2014 - 02:59 PM, said:

If people are farming to earn money, the solution is not to try and create barriers to farming, but instead to make it such that actual gameplay is more fun and rewarding than farming.

Automation is the kind of thing that you'd likely see during the downtime when players would not actually be playing.

School, work, out at a party etc.

If every single member needed premium time PGI might turn a blind eye to it.

But in a free to play game?

They're hands are a bit tied on this one.

[Scandinavian Jawbreaker]

Dozier, on 29 April 2014 - 02:33 PM, said:

Sure, then let us drop with 7 players in our group. Hell, we are removing ourselves from the public que just so it is "fair" and now its just to be competitive or for videos? really? btw, what is the core gameplay you speak of... Joining as a team to communicate and out strat the enemy? Well sir that is not what you have in pugs, so are you actually playing the core gameplay?

You can do whatever you want with private lobbies, it's not just for competitive or video makers. Premium time gives you the option to do this. Private matches cost money, alot more than you think. You should think it as a privilege.

Joining as a team? I drop 12-mans four times a week, I know a thing or two about "out stratting the enemy". I also drop in pugs alot and I'm well aware of the chaotic nature of that queue. Sometimes we are 9 guys waiting for the missing 3 and forced to drop in pugs in 4-4-1 /4-3-2 / whatver groups because we have no option. Yeah it sucks.

I know what you're pointing at, but I think you are looking from the wrong place and do not understand the big picture here. You just have to wait for 2-10 (I'm hoping they change it to 1-12) queue to get to drop with your six buddies. You're not the only one waiting for it...

[-Natural Selection-]

Its ok, with the disaster turned off back to trolling

[Flaming oblivion]

normal rewards? nope guys would abuse it, However what your suggesting but with a flat cap on the reward of say 50k since people could still abuse it send there mates in with no armour for quick turn over , the sad thing is however unlikely theres always that guy and once the trend begins. I think the only chance of it going in is with the maximum cbill gain at around 50k , its nothing if your buying consumables , don't buy em simple. 80-120k is to high 100 is around my average in the public matches and I cant chose who I face there , or how shafted I get by the MM and until 3/3/3/3 that's generally royally shafted.

Edited by Flaming oblivion, 29 April 2014 - 04:48 PM.

[focuspark]

Bront, on 29 April 2014 - 02:52 PM, said:

Now you have to wait 15 minutes, do it in public where people can report you, and you can't really participate, so it becomes obvious if your macroing. It's hard to do, and not consistent, and it could take 15 minutes per match plus other time.

Macroing a 2 player private match is significantly easier, because you could script one mech to self destruct effectively.

... but you'd have to do that with 24 mechs and 24 accounts... and I believe that pattern would be pretty easy for even the dumbest data mining tools to detect.

[-Natural Selection-]

Dozier, on 29 April 2014 - 03:05 PM, said:

Come on now guys think about it....... You would have to pay REAL money to farm cbills that you could just buy with REAL cash to begin with. If that kinda logic is what is being avoided, what does that say about the people trying to prevent it?


2 people would have to pay REAL cash so the one could benefit from farming.. yea, that's logical

Hell that keeps 2 players with that special kinda stupid out of real matches, and pgi gets money to boot. let um farm away!

^^^^^^^ think about it ^^^^^^^^^^^ not rocket science

[Agent 0 Fortune]

We know the premium cost is temporary until pgi implements an MC charge per match. If we assume a match costs 20MC, which is 1/40th the 800MC cost of buying 1.1 million c-bills, you can expect a match reward of 25,000 c-bills.... Total, divided by up to 24 players.
Meaning if PGI awarded more than 1,000 c-bills per player the system could be abused farm c-bills. Of course PGI cannot offer free consumables for the same reason.
So what can they offer? Essential nothing if they want to keep the charges low. and they do want to keep prices low, because tournaments are going to be a major driver of this games community and economy. (of course that is its own Pandora's box because it essentially side-lines community warfare, but maybe that is a good thing, for PGI)

[Scandinavian Jawbreaker]

Agent 0 Fortune, on 29 April 2014 - 05:27 PM, said:

We know the premium cost is temporary until pgi implements an MC charge per match.

Source please.

[mogs01gt]

get 1/4 bills in private matches IMO.

[GalaxyBluestar]

Bagheera, on 29 April 2014 - 02:58 PM, said:

Mode selection is only out for public matches temporarily. There are like 4 different posts by mods explaining that and why. Basically because players selecting all were not getting matched with players who selected a specific mode.

it's bad enough that a solo player can only public queue {odd numbers in your private match too bad a filler isn't allowed to get your match going faster} but forced to play a game mode you don't want to play when they made the effort to give selections only a moth back. game isn't worth playing until the mode selection comes back.

overall the patch has decreased the solo experience and has made a lot of faffing about compulsory for groups larger than 3. le sigh

[Agent 0 Fortune]

ugrakarma, on 29 April 2014 - 07:52 PM, said:

Source please.

Quote

Command Chair Post by Paul Inouye
specifically:
Special Note: The use of Premium Time to get access to the more advanced options is currently a temporary implementation. The plan is to eventually move to a pay-per-use model which will fit much better into both the player experience and business model requirements.

Personally I do not see a problem with this.
It allows players to engage in "private campaigns", player-scripted events, 3025 clashes, asymmetric battles. And I think it is fair that players who want to isolate themselves from the rest of the community should be allow to do so at a modest fee. And if/when they need additional equipment they can purchase it, or engage in public matches.

While players who will occasionally engage in large scale tournaments, will see very little impact from the loss of C-Bills/Xps. These tournament matches are the exception to their regular gameplay, and PGI wants to encourage these tournaments (hopefully?), so the real-money (MC) cost has to be low.

However if PGI offered C-Bill and Xp rewards, you could see players who solely engage in these private matches, which would have a negative impact on the public community, and ultimately hurt the recruitment and retention of new players, who start in public matches.

TL:DR
Players who want C-Bill/XP rewards are players who will spend a lot of time in private matches, which does not benefit the community as whole. PGI's solution to sell MC or require them to participate in public matches is a fair compromise.

Edited by Agent 0 Fortune, 29 April 2014 - 10:09 PM.

[Appogee]

We need to think of a way to pay CBill rewards in private matches which also prevents farming,

[EvilCow]

We could make the reward proportional to the number of players in the match: 24 players = full reward. Below 8 players no reward at all.

It is hard to farm when you have to bring in a lot of people.

Edited by EvilCow, 29 April 2014 - 10:55 PM.

[ArmandTulsen]

EvilCow, on 29 April 2014 - 10:52 PM, said:

We could make the reward proportional to the number of players in the match: 24 players = full reward. Below 8 players no reward at all.

It is hard to farm when you have to bring in a lot of people.

This is good.

Best way limit the farming is to have a minimum player requirement for payment. That could also encourage more players to buy MC and set up their own private matches.

[-Natural Selection-]

As it stands right now, I can get in by spider and in a 4 man drop make OVER 200k every match. This is with no hero mech and no premium time. So say an average round being 10 mins, 20k per minute.

If private match required a 1 minute minimum to receive rewards, and you received 5k per enemy mech if you loose and 10k per if you win that would suit me just fine. heck that's half of what I can normally earn if I was farming cbills in pug matches.

Edited by Dozier, 29 April 2014 - 11:25 PM.

[Vercinaigh]

The only thing i care about is not LOSING money on consumables, paying cbils for the right to play can kindly go **** itself.

[Curccu]

Free consumables and 50k reward for each round... Imo not worth "macro"farming anymore.

[EvilCow]

The risk is that without rewards in private matches people who play mostly private will use the public queue for farming without bothering too much about a good game.

More points, why have premium time if I do mostly private? apparently premium will no more required in order to use advanced private matches, also, why bother with Champion and Hero mechs if I cannot get the bonuses?

This approach is removing value from the above three sources of revenue.

Edited by EvilCow, 29 April 2014 - 11:53 PM.

[Curccu]

EvilCow, on 29 April 2014 - 11:52 PM, said:

The risk is that without rewards in private matches people who play mostly private will use the public queue for farming without bothering too much about a good game.

Exactly this.. let us play "meta" in private matches and even train that in private matches without huge CB loss... and we might play less serious business builds in public queue..

I think this would be win-win.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

What if i would suggest that pugger w/o premium will get a higher payout if they get invited and drop in privat matches?
Doesn't have to be much. Somewhat like 10%more then in pug-matches would probably do.