134 replies to this topic

[Daelen Rottiger]

I work for an IT-company and I am aware of arising problems and uncertainties - but even here the "Patch, Hotfix, Patch, Hotfix, Patch, Hotfix" - pattern does not seem professional to our customers

[Fatal25]

You want to get a massive number of players to jump on the test server so you can properly test this new matchmaker? Put the clan mechs in on the test server. You will have no shortage of players to test the matchmaker on and you may actually see the sales of your clan packs skyrocket. Most people don't buy something sight unseen and take the used car salesman's word that it was driven by a little old lady. Kill two birds with one stone.

[Bulletsponge0]

Fatal25, on 21 May 2014 - 01:13 AM, said:

You want to get a massive number of players to jump on the test server so you can properly test this new matchmaker? Put the clan mechs in on the test server. You will have no shortage of players to test the matchmaker on and you may actually see the sales of your clan packs skyrocket. Most people don't buy something sight unseen and take the used car salesman's word that it was driven by a little old lady. Kill two birds with one stone.

Yeah..it's painfully obvious that their testing protocol is seriously flawed, if not completely broken.

Edited by Bulletsponge0, 21 May 2014 - 03:44 AM.

[Iqfish]

badkilik, on 20 May 2014 - 10:06 PM, said:

Love how you guys jump on praises. Was it even necessary to post this useless bit?

As far as 3/3/3/3 is concerned, just admit that you don't have the player base available to make it work. Just fix the matchmaker to match tonnage again everyone will have a much better time OR you could make public lobbies with tonnage limits.

[QuaxDerBruchpilot]

Fatal25, on 21 May 2014 - 01:13 AM, said:

You want to get a massive number of players to jump on the test server so you can properly test this new matchmaker? Put the clan mechs in on the test server.

"The Clan ... what? Uhmm, well, sorry .. errr ... they are finished soon .. well ... errr .... didn't we tell you Clan Mechs will be delayed a little?"

[Kotzi]

Just a little hint. If you have to test on the live servers you might get some more "data" if you wouldnt "test" it for some hours only. A couple of days would be much more valid than a couple of hours, just telling. 3/3/3/3 does not consider the pilot. Dont know how this makes a pilot better. No need for restrictions just make teamplay easier, quickcommands, shared targeting symbols etc.

Edited by Kotzi, 21 May 2014 - 05:29 AM.

[Lupin]

Can someone please tell me why this 3/3/3/3 was needed when closed Beta system of matching mech for mech (i.e. 1 light on this team = 1 light on other team) was not used?

Clearly current systems does not work and a lot of players have said system would reduce variety in battle.
I understand battles need to be balanced for weight but mech for mech system worked well in closed Beta.

[MischiefSC]

Lupin, on 21 May 2014 - 07:30 AM, said:

Can someone please tell me why this 3/3/3/3 was needed when closed Beta system of matching mech for mech (i.e. 1 light on this team = 1 light on other team) was not used?

Clearly current systems does not work and a lot of players have said system would reduce variety in battle.
I understand battles need to be balanced for weight but mech for mech system worked well in closed Beta.

Only if you liked a nicely balanced 8 Assaults, 3 Heavies and 1 light on each side.

Fewer Mediums and Lights means fewer viable jobs for Mediums and Lights to do, creating a downward spiral. Limiting assaults/heavies in each match creates room and purpose for other mechs in keeping with the games history and lore, since it can't really be facilitated by pricing and scarce availability. Assaults were rare in BT because there were physically few of them, they were stupidly expensive to operate and repair and they were valuable targets on the field. 3/3/3/3 creates a more BT-like environment and creates room and purpose for medium/light mechs. Mediums as light-hunters and skirmishers who can be confident of an enemy team at least half populated by lights and mediums are suddenly way more viable.

Conversely heavies/assaults can no longer count on a massive blob of similarly big, over-armed mechs to protect their lack of speed and maneuverability. 3 LRM boats are suddenly a significant weakness; you'll have 1 assault to cover you as the Heavies will likely be faster and more geared towards direct-fire. You'll also be assured of 8 mediums/lights on the other team who will, quite certainly, be looking to pay you a visit. Better hope your team is all good with hanging back and protecting you! Good luck with that in pugs

It will, by its inherent balance, broaden the viability of builds and their deployment. Jack-of-all-trades designs are more viable because you're guaranteed the whole range of targets. Conversely min/max builds have their vulnerabilities magnified because your weaknesses (be that low armor, low mobility, poor point-blank firepower or whatever) will be all but guaranteed to have someone built to exploit it every match.

Without that all the games pressure is towards big, slow, FLD PPC/AC, ideally with JJs. Maybe assault LRM boat, even an Stalker with an XL because you're likely to have 6 or 7 assaults on your team to protect you and generally 4 total mediums/lights, if not less, on the other team to come looking for you.

3/3/3/3 is awesome. It's a great concept, solves a lot of issues. It's worth some teething to get in.

[Nemesis Duck]

vortmax, on 20 May 2014 - 02:26 PM, said:

I'm a developer, and I understand the frustration of having to roll back a feature because it didn't work (had a release hard crash on low memory systems, hazards of developing on a 16 GB machine with latest OS). That said, I'd like to re-iterate my suggestion on the other thread regarding load testing and add something: - Turn off Premium time consumption during said load testing. - Announce ahead of time that said load testing will occur and for how long it will last.

This is a good idea. Work it into the culture that announced major patches need a day of testing after release to gather metrics. Users should understand the system might be wonky that day, but assured it's only one potential day of chaos.

Remember, these guys are pioneers of a new mode of game development, so there's no sense in expecting perfection.

[Felio]

So what is the current status of the matchmaker? Is 4/4/4/4 on? Is everything off and back to pre-patch? What's coming next, and when?

[Voranis]

Heffay, on 20 May 2014 - 02:28 PM, said:

They did do that. Karl Berg posted in his superthread that they ran the new algorithm through production data, and the average queue time was less than 50 seconds. In theory it was supposed to work, in practice it didn't. That unfortunately happens all too often.

The weird thing is my first match relatively soon after the patch was quick, and it degraded from there. The longer the day went on, the longer the delays became, and I was playing just medium mechs. In theory the short queue should have remained almost instant and the assaults would have had a long delay, but apparently there is an issue in the MM that didn't work that way.

AHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! Seriously ROFLMAO ... just .. cant .. HAHAHAHAA! .. stop ... laughing. 50 seconds? HAHAHAHAHAHA Someone needs a smack upside the head if they actually bought that when the wait time before restrictions was more then that.

[Bishop Steiner]

Voranis, on 21 May 2014 - 03:21 PM, said:

AHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! Seriously ROFLMAO ... just .. cant .. HAHAHAHAA! .. stop ... laughing. 50 seconds? HAHAHAHAHAHA Someone needs a smack upside the head if they actually bought that when the wait time before restrictions was more then that.

really? Prepatch I almost never had to wait longer than a minute, usually only about 30 seconds. But hey, what do I expect form someone who has to use a fresh troll account, because they are obviously too chickencrap to sign their own name to their QQ. Because if you did Legit join up 10 days ago, you are far too much a scrub to know what you are talking about, either.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 21 May 2014 - 03:59 PM.

[Wintersdark]

Bishop Steiner, on 21 May 2014 - 03:57 PM, said:

really? Prepatch I almost never had to wait longer than a minute, usually only about 30 seconds.

Depended on Elo with your weight class and time of day, to be fair. If you were very high or very low (new player, I'm assuming the later, no offense intended) you could have very long wait times. Personally, it was rarely an issue for me. My Assaults took 30-50s most days, but my mediums and heavies were all 10-20s.

No argument with the rest of your post, however.


Edit: Can't delete this for some reason; realised I'm stupid and just misread your post, then argued the same thing you said.

Edited by Wintersdark, 21 May 2014 - 04:24 PM.

[Bishop Steiner]

Wintersdark, on 21 May 2014 - 04:22 PM, said:

Depended on Elo with your weight class and time of day, to be fair. If you were very high or very low (new player, I'm assuming the later, no offense intended) you could have very long wait times. Personally, it was rarely an issue for me. My Assaults took 30-50s most days, but my mediums and heavies were all 10-20s.

No argument with the rest of your post, however.


Edit: Can't delete this for some reason; realised I'm stupid and just misread your post, then argued the same thing you said.

it's all good. I got where ya coming from, lol.

[Wildstreak]

I swear I recall some message 3/3/3/3 worked on the Test Server but something on the Live Server is different.
If it don't work the third time, give up.
My dream is still:
- We get Lobbies.
- We use Lobbies to agree on tonnage limits and choose Mechs by chatting with team members before even going to the Ready Screen.
- Figure out a fair way to allow XP and CB rewards to these Private Matches.
- Once done, the PUG Queue dies.

So this will not happen, will it?

Edited by Merchant, 21 May 2014 - 07:34 PM.