88 replies to this topic

[Xanquil]

The list looks good Apnu, except the poptart and pinpoint alpha issues are two separate but related issues.
Poptarts become much more of a problem because of pinpoint alphas, but have their own issues outside of pinpoint alphas. (some caused by trying to change anything but the pinpoint alpha problem)
Pinpoint alphas are also one of the leading causes of ghost heat. (which it failed to rectify)
In addition pinpoint alphas are also the cause of the short survival time some mechs have, and has exaggerated the prblems with mech size, and hitbox sizes.
Pinpoint alphas are also part of the reason DHS do only 1.4, because of the "6 second jenner". All weapons fired at the same time hitting the same location all the time every time with a heat neutral mech is frankly an issue.

So many problems caused by trying actively to avoid fixing one.

[IceSerpent]

Apnu, you got most of the current issues listed already, one that is missing is MM not creating fair matches:

- in both solo and group queues ELO brackets should be much smaller than they are (i.e. +/- 10% difference in terms of expected win chance at most).

- in group queue the difference in size between pre-mades matched against each other should be fairly small (probably something like +/- 2). In other words, a pre-made of 8 should be matched against pre-made of 10 at most and pre-made of 6 at least. Situation where we get full 12-man on one side and 3 groups of 4 on the other should never happen.

[Apnu]

MM good catch. I'll put it on the list.

[duragan]

one word lrms. http://mwomercs.com/...reamed-by-lrms/

[Aleric]

I failed to mention this in my post and several have said it in passing fashion but the most glaring part missing from MWO is the PILOT.

Mech WARRIOR Online.

Where is the MechWarrior? The person piloting the Mech. The one that should be punching out and rocketing up when his Mech is too badly damaged. Honing his skills and building his reputation with his Lance, Regiment and HOUSE. Earning his stripes in combat to command Mechs, Lances, and in time a full Unit.

Right now we have Robots fighting each other with no Human element to connect with and craft into an avatar of ourselves in game.

[Russ Bullock]

Wolfways, on 16 September 2014 - 12:41 PM, said:

For me personally:

Memory Allocation Error: Mostly every other match, but sometimes can go half a dozen matches or two in the same match.

Windows 7?

32 bit machine I am guessing?

Please PM me

[Moonlander]

As someone who doesn't use LRM's on any mech, I honestly have zero issues with LRM's during my drops. I'm aware they're up there and I just make sure when I'm moving at long range that I'm constantly headed for the next bit of cover as I make my way close to the enemy. Sure, I'm usually running a DDC but even when I'm not, I rarely find that I'm being rained down on, helplessly. Maybe I'm just getting better with torso twisting and finding a good cliff/rock/building to hug? Some things have a tendency to seem overpowered when they're countered poorly. Maybe a good look at NARC and TAG could help with the LRM support being so heavy? Keeping a TAG through rocks/mountainsides is a bit ridiculous, doubtful that is working as intended? Maybe even lowering the duration of a NARC by 3-5sec? Seconds often feel like an eternity.

Edited by Moonlander, 17 September 2014 - 11:12 PM.

[Russ Bullock]

IceSerpent, on 17 September 2014 - 07:23 PM, said:

Apnu, you got most of the current issues listed already, one that is missing is MM not creating fair matches:

- in both solo and group queues ELO brackets should be much smaller than they are (i.e. +/- 10% difference in terms of expected win chance at most).

- in group queue the difference in size between pre-mades matched against each other should be fairly small (probably something like +/- 2). In other words, a pre-made of 8 should be matched against pre-made of 10 at most and pre-made of 6 at least. Situation where we get full 12-man on one side and 3 groups of 4 on the other should never happen.

These are easy just let us know how long you are willing to wait to find that match.

[Moonlander]

Russ Bullock, on 17 September 2014 - 11:12 PM, said:

Windows 7?

32 bit machine I am guessing?

Please PM me

I had that Memory Allocation error a couple times today myself. Window 8.1, 64bit, Nvidia Geforce 750 ti... I don't think it was referring to video memory, however.

Also today, I got stuck in a constant flicker in-game. Had to end up ending the process and restarting. When I did so, it pretty much reset all my in-game settings aside from keybinds. All my chat, video, audio and even my weapon groups were reset.

[r4plez]

IN that order

ECM
Clan nerfs
Ghost Heat

[GRiPSViGiL]

TopDawg, on 16 September 2014 - 11:32 AM, said:

• The amount of C-bills earned per match in relation to buying new Mechs that come out (having to spend ~$60-$120+ every time a new set of Mechs comes out is ridiculous; I didn't realize the $75 I already gave them would be meaningless if I wanted to continue to play at another point in time);

This is the most pointless gripe you can have. Anything that has cost money aside from Hero mechs can be had due to waiting for CB release. I can't even fathom how people still cry about this. Just dont buy them and WAIT for the CB release.

So what makes you think you can't play unless you give them more money? *SMH* you realize it is F2P ya?

Edited by GRiPSViGiL, 18 September 2014 - 01:15 AM.

[Tastian]

This is a nice list. I can't help myself but to respond.

Ghost Heat. -- I agree that ghost heat is a band aid to the real problem. Ghost Heat DOES work and has rid ourselves of stupid builds like the 6 PPC Stalkers, SRM36 Catapults, and I'm sure others we would have seen if it had not been instituted. But the band aid feels like a band aid; not a reasonable solution. I would much preferred if we would have had hardpoint restrictions in the form of small, medium, and large hardpoints and/or a heat cap for alpha strikes or a better heat penalty scale.

Cbill Grind. -- Not an issue. Every game needs some kind of restriction or grind or leveling process. Not sure how else you should acquire mechs and weapons. You need something to work towards. Something to give you the satisfaction of getting a new mech. And something PGI can charge $ for (Because they have to make money).

Mech Leveling (and Skill Trees) -- I've always been fine with having to level 3 mechs to get to Master. Seems reasonable for me to be the master of a mech by learning to pilot a variety of that mech design. And I've personally discovered favorites among variants I may not have tried before. However, the Skill Tree is in dire need of an overhaul. It should be personalized for each weight class; and this could also help define role warfare.

Instant Convergence Pin Point Alpha damage -- This is one of my biggest gripes. As has been mentioned an aiming mechanic for convergence or cone of fire could fix this. Or look at how Clan autocannons work. Borderlands 2 does this nicely.

Arty and Air Strike -- I still hate these and refuse to use them. Reducing the damage a tad and limiting to 1 per player has helped but it still feels like it has no place on the battlefield. I'd love to see them possibly restricted to command mechs.

More Game Modes, Maps, and Mechs -- We'd all love to see more basic content like these. Game Modes and Maps are in dire need of additions. Mechs however... we are getting plenty. Keep it up PGI. I did a count of mechs in the mechwarrior games and here's what I came up with. (*Note, these counts include ALL expansion packs) MW2: 32, MW3: 24, MW4: 34. And MWO? It has 44 mechs thusfar (Including Clan Pack 2 and the King Crab). As you can see, MWO has plenty of mechs.

Some things I didn't see on the list:

Tighter standard mech (vs Omni mech) restrictions -- Standard mechs have WAY too much customization. I think what PGI did with Omni mechs was quite brilliant. But it really impressed upon me the fact that non-omni mechs had a much larger degree of freedom. Omni technology is suppose to be better. And yet, we can swap out our engine size and upgrade heat sinks and armor in standard mechs which is far more useful. I realize it would break many player's favorite mech builds, but I wish standard mechs had restricted engine sizes (swappable to XL) or at least a tighter range of engine size restriction (possible +/- 10%). This would make standard clan mechs (second line mechs) less threatening and would make Innersphere Omni mechs much more appealing.

Heat Sink Rule of 10 -- I would love to see the Heat Sink rule of 10 lifted for smaller mechs. Requiring 10 heat sinks on Locusts and Commandos is just silly and hurts them terribly. I would suggest all engines house their current heat sinks (up to 10 like it is now) but engines smaller then 250 would lot have the 10 rule.

[IceSerpent]

Russ Bullock, on 17 September 2014 - 11:13 PM, said:

These are easy just let us know how long you are willing to wait to find that match.

Russ, personally I am willing to wait as long as it takes. I'd rather have one good match per hour, than 4-5 lousy ones. I understand though that for some people short queue times are more important than good matchup, so perhaps make it optional? Create "tight" MM in regular queues and create a separate "no MM at all, everything goes" solo queue for folks that can't wait? That assumes that there is a substantial number of players who value quantity over quality - I know that there are some, but not sure how many.

[Hoax415]

Everyone has some special thing they want MM to do. The MM can't have 30 options for each and every player without slowing it down for all of us.

Unfortunately you are in the very minority position if you think waiting for 10 minutes to get a match is worth it for an unnoticeable elo difference between teams. The massive massive majority of players probably wouldn't opt to add 5 minutes to their queue time.

tl;dr you can't always get what you want.

Edited by Hoax415, 18 September 2014 - 09:45 AM.

[NextGame]

• hitting an evening where every single terribad on the internet gets lumped in on your team and there is no possibility of carrying them. Matchmaker really needs to group players around the same level instead of deciding that one or 2 players have to carry a team, basically ruining the game experience.

Maybe its just my perception, but win/loss seems extremely boom and bust, particularly in Rambo queue, and I put it down to some sort of mechanism that might be functioning like the above.

Edited by NextGame, 18 September 2014 - 09:58 AM.

[IceSerpent]

Hoax415, on 18 September 2014 - 09:44 AM, said:

Everyone has some special thing they want MM to do. The MM can't have 30 options for each and every player without slowing it down for all of us.

Not really - I bet most (if not all) people only want MM to create fair matchups. After all, that's the whole purpose of having MM in the first place.

Quote

Unfortunately you are in the very minority position if you think waiting for 10 minutes to get a match is worth it for an unnoticeable elo difference between teams. The massive massive majority of players probably wouldn't opt to add 5 minutes to their queue time.

That's a wild guess on your part. We don't have any statistical data on how long folks are willing to wait. One thing is you're absolutely wrong about is "unnoticeable Elo difference" - current range of ratings within a bracket and tendency of MM to average ratings within a team (i.e. from MM perspective 2 x 1500 Elo is the same as 1000 Elo + 2000 Elo) pretty much completely defeat the concept of Elo and make ratings invalid. You can check any description of Elo rating (i.e. wiki page) for background math on that.

[Apnu]

Lunch time bump.

Thanks for all the responses. As a reminder, I'm looking to get a poll of issues so the community can vote on what the importance of the issues are.

The finer points on each individual issue would be hashed out once a list of priorities is made. Then PGI can have an easy spot to see what the biggest issue are for the community and a window into the community's desires. From there, I figure, PGI will make its own internal decisions with the community's desires in mind.

[SaltBeef]

Would like drag and drop modules system from main module screen shows owned modules and they can be dragged and installed no matter where they are currently.

ppc......guass... weapons make it so only 2 can be fired at once 2ppc fired but nothing else will fire. 2 guass fired and you will have to wait to fire the ppc, s make it so they cannot be grouped together with any other weapons system. This will permanently kill ppfld one shotting. Guass charge mechanic can then be removed. Ac20, s also any more than 2 nothing else fires. No weapons can fire while jumping except for missiles or srms. Return jj to TT values.

need infantry support, tanks, trenches, inferno missiles, attack vtol or chopper, elementals, tag spotting troops. Calliope turrets, guass turrets, ac turrets. Vibro mines.

Edited by SaltBeef, 18 September 2014 - 11:34 AM.

[Hospy]

I think far and away the biggest issue is attracting new players and retaining them.

- The tutorial tells you how to move and shoot, but it doesn't tell you how to play.
- Have fun customizing your 'mech if you have little prior knowledge of MW/BT
- Getting tossed to the wolves with your 3025 machine with no efficiencies

The first two are somewhat addressed with the forum, but not all new players visit the forum.

The last probably wouldn't have been a problem when this game first came out and everyone is running the same tech, but with the advent of clans, and with most of the population already kitted out to the gills, it's just a massacre for new players.

Edit: Also the trial mechs are universally pretty bad and/or incredibly newbie unfriendly.

Edited by Hospy, 18 September 2014 - 12:06 PM.

[TopDawg]

GRiPSViGiL, on 18 September 2014 - 01:08 AM, said:

This is the most pointless gripe you can have. Anything that has cost money aside from Hero mechs can be had due to waiting for CB release. I can't even fathom how people still cry about this. Just dont buy them and WAIT for the CB release.

So what makes you think you can't play unless you give them more money? *SMH* you realize it is F2P ya?

You did quote my post, so I'm guessing that, at the very least, you must have seen it at least in glancing. I don't know whether you played during CB/shortly after OB, perhaps you did not. If you did, and considering the Unit in your sig, you must be aware that they changed the amount of C-Bills earned per match, yes?

Doing some simple math, let's extrapolate (I linked the definition for you just in case): If a Summoner is around 13 million C-Bills, and a Timberwolf is slightly more expensive than that, it stands to reason that it will likely be around 15-16 million C-Bills (when available for C-Bill purchase). So anyway, without premium time, I'm guessing with a Hero Mech and/or good performances, the value is going to come out somewhere around 200k C-Bills a match (I've been averaging about 150k with my poor Summoner).

So then, if it's 5 matches per million (assuming no losses and good performances), that makes roughly 75 matches to afford one Timberwolf (at 15 million C-Bills). Of course, and unless something has changed in my time away (or is different in regards to Clan Mechs), you need to have three variants in order to progress through the skill tree. So, the 75 games then becomes 225 games. If a match takes 8 minutes on average (although I have a feeling that's a bit low unless you have a large group to roflstomp with), that's 1,800 minutes, or 30 hours; for one Chassis, doing nothing but grinding C-Bills (in order to get more Mechs to grind more C-Bills - but slight digression (and again, just in case)).

Personally, I had ~85 million C-Bills (until I wasted ~15 on a DOA Summoner), and that's mostly from the opening months of open beta when I still played. I played a lot though, and used my premium time then as well; something like 3k drops or (or more). But, I don't think it's hard to see where the grind could be lessened for new players/player retention?

And finally, while I don't personally agree with having the lag time between buying Mechs for real world currency and them being available for in game currency, I understand that it's probably a good way to generate income with limited time P2W. However, that's not even what the point was about (as demonstrated above). Shall I take this time to commemorate you on your [failed] flame attempt? Would you like a pat on the back, perhaps?