155 replies to this topic

[Alistair Winter]

I've recently started another alt account and while it's still in cadet mode, I'm encountering several of the people I've played against since 2012, in the solo queue. And yes, stomps are very frequent, but the best indicator of stomps I've seen so far is the number of ECMs and LRMs on each team. If one team has 2 ECM's and 2-3 LRM boats, and the other team has 0-1 ECM (sometimes the only ECM will be a light mech who is 1 kilometer away from the nearest teammate), a stomp is almost inevitable.

I just start every match looking around, counting ECM's. Then I try to see if the enemy team has ECMs. Usually, I can tell who's going to win within the first couple of minutes.

And in terms of skill level and ELO, the matchmaker in this game is a joke. How much fun do new players have, when they're facing people who have played for 2-3 years? How much fun do veteran players have, when their teammates don't know which button makes the laser go pew-pew?

I'd rather wait an extra 30 seconds for every match, if that means I can have people on my own skill level on my team and on the enemy team.

[ztac]

Funniest thing ever?

It is supposed to look at mech spread and so will deviate from what people expect if too many of a certain class , there is nothing really about it sorting ELO at all, it does not even compare loadouts .

In essence there may as well not be a matchmaker and it may as well just put first come first served in the matches , after all , lets face it you can't do any worse than 12-0! can you?

[DEMAX51]

I haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe the matchmaker is bugged, or that people are synch-dropping in the PUG-queue, but I'll say this:

PUGs have been a frickin' gold mine for me since the patch. Like, seriously, 200-300K c-bills per match, 550-750 damage and 3-4 kills per game in a Jenner.

I've never been able to consistently carry so hard in my MWO-life.

[Joseph Mallan]

Alistair Winter, on 09 July 2014 - 03:35 AM, said:

I've recently started another alt account and while it's still in cadet mode, I'm encountering several of the people I've played against since 2012, in the solo queue. And yes, stomps are very frequent, but the best indicator of stomps I've seen so far is the number of ECMs and LRMs on each team. If one team has 2 ECM's and 2-3 LRM boats, and the other team has 0-1 ECM (sometimes the only ECM will be a light mech who is 1 kilometer away from the nearest teammate), a stomp is almost inevitable.

I just start every match looking around, counting ECM's. Then I try to see if the enemy team has ECMs. Usually, I can tell who's going to win within the first couple of minutes.

And in terms of skill level and ELO, the matchmaker in this game is a joke. How much fun do new players have, when they're facing people who have played for 2-3 years? How much fun do veteran players have, when their teammates don't know which button makes the laser go pew-pew?

I'd rather wait an extra 30 seconds for every match, if that means I can have people on my own skill level on my team and on the enemy team.

We are playing a combat game, in combat Boots fight along side Salts all the time. Every time a Salt "retires" (for whatever reason) a Boot takes his place. So vets and Boots in a single drop is normal combat experience.

[Alistair Winter]

Joseph Mallan, on 09 July 2014 - 12:16 PM, said:

We are playing a combat game, in combat Boots fight along side Salts all the time. Every time a Salt "retires" (for whatever reason) a Boot takes his place. So vets and Boots in a single drop is normal combat experience.

I don't like arguments that deal with realism, because this is a game. In real warfare, it's very rarely a completely symmetrical scenario with equal number of forces on both sides, with an equal distance to their objectives.

But if you want to talk about realism: In real life, you very rarely put a pilot inside the most valuable and powerful warmachine in existence without showing him which button makes it go "bang, bang" first. There's usually some kind of training involved. Not in MWO.

[Joseph Mallan]

Alistair Winter, on 09 July 2014 - 12:28 PM, said:

I don't like arguments that deal with realism, because this is a game. In real warfare, it's very rarely a completely symmetrical scenario with equal number of forces on both sides, with an equal distance to their objectives.

But if you want to talk about realism: In real life, you very rarely put a pilot inside the most valuable and powerful warmachine in existence without showing him which button makes it go "bang, bang" first. There's usually some kind of training involved. Not in MWO.

And even then that boot pilot has to learn how to use all that training. Which normally means relearning how WE do things here vs what you learned in school.

[w0rm]

DEMAX51, on 09 July 2014 - 11:09 AM, said:

I've never been able to consistently carry so hard in my MWO-life.

This. Pulling out 1k damage/5-7 Kill games in a TBR almost every match now without facing even remotely capable opposition.

Edited by w0rm, 09 July 2014 - 12:51 PM.

[MischiefSC]

In rl you only get killed once. We should have permadeath - die, lose everything. That would be awesome.

[Sandpit]

Joseph Mallan, on 09 July 2014 - 12:16 PM, said:

We are playing a combat game, in combat Boots fight along side Salts all the time. Every time a Salt "retires" (for whatever reason) a Boot takes his place. So vets and Boots in a single drop is normal combat experience.

yes and no

You're leaving out some very important aspects of that.

In a military combat example those vets have the ability and authority to force those boots to follow their directives and orders. So while I agree with you, the real world example doesn't apply here really for a few reasons. It's a video game meant for entertainment so we've got to have some sort of balance in this regard.

[Joseph Mallan]

Sandpit, on 09 July 2014 - 01:01 PM, said:

yes and no

You're leaving out some very important aspects of that.

In a military combat example those vets have the ability and authority to force those boots to follow their directives and orders. So while I agree with you, the real world example doesn't apply here really for a few reasons. It's a video game meant for entertainment so we've got to have some sort of balance in this regard.

That is only IF those vets have rank. I joined Echo Company 2/5 with 20 boots, we were then broke up and mixed into existing fire teams. Only members with higher rank could give us orders, and of those only the sensible orders(read: Lawful Orders) were ever followed.

As for the game we have a balance its called a Bell Curve, Unfortunately to many people play like the want and to hel with whats best for the team.

[Sandpit]

Joseph Mallan, on 09 July 2014 - 01:08 PM, said:

As for the game we have a balance its called a Bell Curve, Unfortunately to many people play like the want and to hel with whats best for the team.

exactly

no amount of balance is going to fix that aspect of it though

[Joseph Mallan]

Sandpit, on 09 July 2014 - 01:19 PM, said:

exactly

no amount of balance is going to fix that aspect of it though

There is no reason TO fix it.

[Wintersdark]

Sandpit, on 09 July 2014 - 01:19 PM, said:

exactly

no amount of balance is going to fix that aspect of it though

Joseph Mallan, on 09 July 2014 - 01:20 PM, said:

There is no reason TO fix it.

These posts. Absolutely.

---

Understand that new players come in mid-ranked. Some feel these is a bad idea, but its not. Most learn quickly, and remain more or less in the middle, thanks to how the Elo bell curve works. Comparatively few players move to higher Elo ranges, its not where all players go with experience.

You want newer players starting roughly in the middle, so they can learn to play with players who can play. Low Elo is a terrible place, much worse than High Elo for pug matches. You think mid-elo matches are random? Try there. Once you get far enough down the rabbit whole (remember: bell curve, there's very few low-elo players, just as there's few high-elo players)you see why. New players there would only learn things that are objectively wrong, and play techniques that ensure they'll never improve.

[DarthPeanut]

Honestly I wish I could opt INTO group games instead... it has been rough solo pug tonight. One roll after another. I get a kill and a few hundred damage it seems consistently somehow but everyone is determined to go renegade on their own right from the get go. Naturally resulting in a total face palm match. I had to take a breather after 5 in a row.

At least group guys are not so erratic about their tactics. I can reference the mini-map and have a good idea what they are doing.

Edited by DarthPeanut, 09 July 2014 - 06:10 PM.

[TKSax]

No Groups in the Solo que period, so no mudhut you never did meet a 12 or 8 man in the solo que

http://www.reddit.co...tely_solo_only/

[color=#888888]
submitted an hour ago by SeanLang[color=#555555]No Guts No Galaxy[/color][/color]
[color=#000000]



As I don't know if this is widely known, but the 'Solo' que is strictly individual players, no groups of any size. We talked about this on the podcast tonight, but I did not know if it was public knowledge.
Group Que is 2-12 man groups combined.
If you are dropping solo just keep in mind to have a mindset that you may need to go at your match slightly different then normal. Good luck and hope this info was useful! [/color]

[Karamarka]

DarthPeanut, on 09 July 2014 - 06:04 PM, said:

Honestly I wish I could opt INTO group games instead... it has been rough solo pug tonight. One roll after another. I get a kill and a few hundred damage it seems consistently somehow but everyone is determined to go renegade on their own right from the get go. Naturally resulting in a total face palm match. I had to take a breather after 5 in a row.

At least group guys are not so erratic about their tactics. I can reference the mini-map and have a good idea what they are doing.

Yep, i have the same experience. It doesn't matter how many kills or damage I DO personally, it's a team effort and we aither stomp them or they stomp us. Only some games have been close and fair, well - interesting.

More often than not we will have 2-3 suiciders cause they are new

Edited by Karamarka, 10 July 2014 - 12:09 AM.

[Ozric]

TKSax, on 09 July 2014 - 09:18 PM, said:

No Groups in the Solo que period, so no mudhut you never did meet a 12 or 8 man in the solo que

http://www.reddit.co...tely_solo_only/


submitted an hour ago by SeanLang[color=#555555]No Guts No Galaxy[/color]




As I don't know if this is widely known, but the 'Solo' que is strictly individual players, no groups of any size. We talked about this on the podcast tonight, but I did not know if it was public knowledge.
Group Que is 2-12 man groups combined.
If you are dropping solo just keep in mind to have a mindset that you may need to go at your match slightly different then normal. Good luck and hope this info was useful!

Russ told everybody that this was the case during the stream on patch day, but it seems most people either forgot or just didn't believe him.

[Lynx7725]

Ozric, on 09 July 2014 - 11:36 PM, said:

Russ told everybody that this was the case during the stream on patch day, but it seems most people either forgot or just didn't believe him.

It's not that. It's that his twitter sort of went back and forth.

https://twitter.com/...338724058669057

Now I'm not even sure which is which.

[Ozric]

Lynx7725, on 09 July 2014 - 11:39 PM, said:

It's not that. It's that his twitter sort of went back and forth.

https://twitter.com/...338724058669057

Now I'm not even sure which is which.

Also, hurrah!

Edited by Ozric, 09 July 2014 - 11:51 PM.

[Zuesacoatl]

All it takes is one or two pugs that know how to work with the rest of their team that can turn a normal match into a stomp. I am happy that I am one of those guys, and have the luck to drop with at least one other, Just two mechs can herd the cats without even typing a single word, once the team sees the two mechs ganging up on single targets and decimating them, they tend to follow suit pretty quickly. It can happen when a premade drops in solo as well, you will see that if pugs get a hint that a team is on their side, they tend to follow those PMs and match their fire, turing a normal game into a stomp.

skill can be a mean thing if put to proper use, even without direct verbal communication. It is funny, when I drop with clan or with fam, the only talking on coms are jokes or normal everyday convos, unless we run across a big fish in the sea group, for the most part, we just follow and focus, no conversation about it happens all that often. I do that with pugs as well.