70 replies to this topic

[Riverboat Sam]

All I'm talking about is a lobby like my son uses for all the Rome games, Total War games, etc. Someone just posts an idea for a game with simple parameters and players either join or not. We would need the right parameters to choose from.

For example, one could post that they want a match; on River City, Conquest, 8 mechs with two of each class, maximum 400 tons, and players with a kill/death ratio of 1.0 or less. That would provide the matchmaker more than enough information to filter players that want to join. When all the slots are full on both sides the match is launched.

Nothing more complex. If kill/death ratio isn't a good measure of skill perhaps average damage per match could be used. Something. There are so many player stats kept I'm certain some sort of skill filter could be worked out.

This would not require VOIP, or a complicated lobby system with moderators, or anything too complex.

In fact, it could solve the VOIP thing because you could add a Teamspeak server address for each team, and during the match startup publish the password to your team for your chat group. PGI need not do anything. You could even use Steam Chat or Skype if you prefer, though those would be harder to coordinate.

[KingCobra]

I have been talking about a new live chat/lobby/private launcher system for 3 frigin years in over 100 articles and PGI has never even considered its use. But here is a guy at https://mwolobby.com/ that built a new MSN gamming zone in like 6 months. loll go figure.

A new live chat lobby launcher system should have been placed on the home tab right in the front of UI 2.0

Edited by KingCobra, 22 September 2014 - 07:25 AM.

[schmolz]

just a quick reminder ,its not PGI'S fault... stop blaming the game developers for the industry faults ,i have a whole bunch of games i could list you wich also have this random MM system.
its not PGI'S fault but more so the fault of the industry ,they just go with the flow.

so why do you think this system is in place?because most of the random players actually like it ,i remember very clearly how it was in bf2 for example to join a server where one team consists out of professional players who communicate and the other team gets facerolled EVERY ******* time.so in that light its actually a good thing for the majority of players(yes ,organized teams are not the majority)

it ******* sickens me when i look at these forums and see people gushing out random BS that has nothing to with MWO but more so with the industry of F2P.

sorry for my rant and my english

[1453 R]

A server browser/lobby system makes it almost impossible for casual players to find casual games. When I boot up MWO, I don't want to spend twenty minutes clawing through a list of three thousand games, constantly opening and closing, looking for the one match among them that says "Just dropping. Come and shoot." instead of setting up all manner of baroque and arcane requirements whose breach by any player results in instantaneous banning from the server.

I want to boot up, set up my 'Mechs, and then use those 'Mechs. Punch Launch, go.

This is all to say nothing of what such a system would do to skill matching, of course. No one would ever see a fair and balanced match-up in this game again, and I thought that was a priority with the player base? No, no. Some games are built for a server browser system, and those games are welcome to it. For my money? I'll take a modern matchmaker system pretty much any day. If I wanted to Get To Know my opponents, form bonds and relationships and forge them into a band of brothers...I'll go to the card shop and play something in physical person.

I ain't here to be your buddy, I'm here to be your opponent. Come at me, brah.

[Apnu]

Thorn Hallis, on 21 September 2014 - 01:10 AM, said:

Can't remember any F2P game of late to feature a lobby system.

That being said I think some sort of (moderated) general chat would do good to the game.

Dungeons and Dragons Online.

You can play solo, form a party of players, advertise that party, wait for it to fill up and go on your adventure. You can also make private parties and invte only your friends and/or guildmates.

[KingCobra]

1453R said (A server browser/lobby system makes it almost impossible for casual players to find casual games. When I boot up MWO, I don't want to spend twenty minutes clawing through a list of three thousand games, constantly opening and closing, looking for the one match among them that says "Just dropping. Come and shoot." instead of setting up all manner of baroque and arcane requirements whose breach by any player results in instantaneous banning from the server.

I want to boot up, set up my 'Mechs, and then use those 'Mechs. Punch Launch, go.

This is all to say nothing of what such a system would do to skill matching, of course. No one would ever see a fair and balanced match-up in this game again, and I thought that was a priority with the player base? No, no. Some games are built for a server browser system, and those games are welcome to it. For my money? I'll take a modern matchmaker system pretty much any day. If I wanted to Get To Know my opponents, form bonds and relationships and forge them into a band of brothers...I'll go to the card shop and play something in physical person.)
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Well 1453 you have your opinion which from your point of view you feel your right. But I have to say your totally wrong 50% of the matches on the old MSN gamming zone were open matches where a player could just drop into a match another player was hosting and they were varied skill players and just for fun or practice or for fine tuning a build you liked and wanted to test it on live competition.

So many new or young players to MWO never knew how these lobby systems really worked and what true benefits they had to all the MechWarrior player base. Like you say you just want to hop into a match and play competitively against other players when in fact MWO even in the private group Queue is not very competitive at all and totally meaningless as far as seeing h0w good you really are or on a team because you don't have leagues for competition.

Then you do have probably 80% of the player base that would like to drop with friends only in a 1v1-12v12 match or practice or play competitive games that only a true live chat-lobby-launcher system can provide.

P.S it would also be cool to have the same type of drop system we had in MechWarror4 were you could pick the map all the variables possible have saved mechlab configuration and drop into a game.

Edited by KingCobra, 22 September 2014 - 08:24 AM.

[EvilCow]

There would be an "easy" implementation for lobbies, I can also give a business rationale. I would make 2 kind of public lobbies:

Transient Public Lobbies

It is what we have now but I would give Lobbies started by a player with premium time a new option:
1) A check box "Advertise this game".
2) An editable field "Lobby Name".
3) An editable field "Lobby Password".

Lobbies with the "advertise" flag set would appear in a list, players can just join. Management is done by the lobby owner. The lobby disappears when the player starting it leaves (it may continue in private mode). More value for premium time is the business rationale. It would be the equivalent of the good old times "hosted games" without the bandwidth limitations.

Persistent Public Lobbies

For a monthly fee (payable in MCs) a permanent lobby can be created, it is always visible even if the owner is not present. By default it cycles maps/modes as setup by the owner. When the owner is present he can act as admin, the admin can also nominate transient moderators among players with premium time. Business case, all units would want one or more of those for visibility and prestige, PGI would be able to tap into the dedicated servers business. PGI could also setup a PGI-sponsored set of, BT-themed, public lobbies or have lobbies sponsored and paid by advertisers.

The main thing to add to the game is a lobbies list and a tracking server (which should not be a huge problems with all the backend PGI already have).

Does this make sense PGI?

Edited by EvilCow, 22 September 2014 - 08:36 AM.

[KingCobra]

Schmolz said (just a quick reminder ,its not PGI'S fault... stop blaming the game developers for the industry faults ,i have a whole bunch of games i could list you wich also have this random MM system.
its not PGI'S fault but more so the fault of the industry ,they just go with the flow.

so why do you think this system is in place? because most of the random players actually like it ,i remember very clearly how it was in bf2 for example to join a server where one team consists out of professional players who communicate and the other team gets face rolled EVERY ******* time.so in that light its actually a good thing for the majority of players(yes ,organized teams are not the majority)

it ******* sickens me when i look at these forums and see people gushing out random BS that has nothing to with MWO but more so with the industry of F2P.)
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First my friend I see no one in this topic or among the post criticizing PGI? All here are just expressing there opinions on the OP topic which has been around as a topic in one form or another for 3 years. It is only recently that PGI even wants to listen to new or old ideas that could help the game bring in new players and retain them.

Other games like BF2 are not MechWarrior and if a live chat lobby launcher system was made and implemented correctly what your saying would not happen much as you could start your own game based on the criteria you wanted to play Like map choice FPV or 3rdPV etc. Or even mech types or weapon choices to have brawler ,missile , or long range type games plus a lot more.

Plus you could always ask the host nicely for a change to game play and 90% would be glad to accommodate the players he was hosting the games for.

Edited by KingCobra, 22 September 2014 - 09:01 AM.

[schmolz]

KingCobra, on 22 September 2014 - 08:59 AM, said:

First my friend I see no one in this topic or among the post criticizing PGI? All here are just expressing there opinions on the OP topic which has been around as a topic in one form or another for 3 years. It is only recently that PGI even wants to listen to new or old ideas that could help the game bring in new players and retain them.

Other games like BF2 are not MechWarrior and if a live chat lobby launcher system was made and implemented correctly what your saying would not happen much as you could start your own game based on the criteria you wanted to play Like map choice FPV or 3rdPV etc. Or even mech types or weapon choices to have brawler ,missile , or long range type games plus a lot more.

Plus you could always ask the host nicely for a change to game play and 90% would be glad to accommodate the players he was hosting the games for.

"First my friend I see no one in this topic or among the post criticizing PGI? All here are just expressing there opinions on the OP topic which has been around as a topic in one form or another for 3 years." yes there are people blaming PGI ,wich is totally unjustified in this regard...and like i said ,a lobby system wont work for F2P titles like MWO WOT or War Thunder ,it would totally kill all the "balance" that has been established by the dev team.
a 100% customisable lobby system is impossible to balance and would shy away alot of new players wich is not good for F2P games.i dont say there should not be a lobby system ,just stay away with it for the public ,they dont appreciate it ,in other words ,they dont want it!
and sorry to say ,but the tryhard gamer(who plays CW's and posts activly in forums) is only a small portion of this game community.so dont pretend your speeking for the public here in these forums ,its just not the case , i know the truth is hard sometimes.

Edited by schmolz, 22 September 2014 - 09:43 AM.

[KingCobra]

schmolz said (yes there are people blaming PGI ,wich is totally unjustified in this regard...and like i said ,a lobby system wont work for F2P titles like MWO WOT or War Thunder ,it would totally kill all the "balance" that has been established by the dev team.
a 100% customisable lobby system is impossible to balance and would shy away alot of new players wich is not good for F2P games.i dont say there should not be a lobby system ,just stay away with it for the public ,they dont appreciate it ,in other words ,they dont want it!
and sorry to say ,but the tryhard gamer(who plays CW's and posts activly in forums) is only a small portion of this game community.so dont pretend your speeking for the public here in these forums ,its just not the case , i know the truth is hard sometimes. )
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Schmolz I think what your not understanding is a live chat lobby launcher system would not be a replacement for the MWO MM 12v12 FFA system but a alternate system for players that want a higher form of socialization and league based competition.

If players wanted to play in the MWO MM queues as is so be it let them if players wanted to play in leagues and socialize I see no reason not to let them it just makes sense for PGI to make it happen plus if it was successful and did fund the game by bringing in new players for the next 10+years and players could play either system what would it truly matter?

P.S you are right a community poll should be done on adding a live-chat-lobby-system but first a in-depth explanation of how they worked in past PC MechWarrior titles and how they helped the IP gain over 1,000.000 players annually.This is the truth an all past MechWarrior titles had the options included in the games to make a lobby system and private matches work and just because its a F2PLAY game does not mean this concept would not work well for MWO.

I wont criticize you like you have me I give you your right to a opinion on this topic and forum and don't see the point in retribution on my part.Hope to see you on the battlefield my MechWarrior brother.

Edited by KingCobra, 22 September 2014 - 10:20 AM.

[schmolz]

KingCobra, on 22 September 2014 - 09:51 AM, said:

Schmolz I think what your not understanding is a live chat lobby launcher system would not be a replacement for the MWO MM 12v12 FFA system but a alternate system for players that want a higher form of socialization and league based competition.

If players wanted to play in the MWO MM queues as is s be it let them if players wanted to play in leagues and socialize I see no reason not to let them it just makes sense for PGI to make it happen plus if it was successful and did fund the game by bringing in new players for the next 10+years and players could play either system what would it truly matter?

sorry if i understand something wrong ,english is not my native language(duh)but
"Why Doesn't Mwo Just Use A Gaming Lobby, Like Every Other Game Out There?" sounds like a replacement to me,wich will NEVER work.i dont want to be an ass ,and iam all for variety.but often times i read forums its just full of daydreaming and wishes wich will never come true.try to be realistic ,a lobby where you disable a complete branch of weapons? (lrms for example) YEAH gonna love that in my direwolf or jenner.all those weapon systems or map traits(heat,bad vision etc) are part of the games balance ,you cant just dismiss one and hope everything will work out fine ,because it wont.

and to your last part...how long are you waiting for a game in general?30secs to a minute maybe? thats a ******* long time for any F2P randomlobby based system ,now try and remove 20% of the most active players?how long are you gonna wait then?2min maybe 3 ,and how much people are going to put up with that?not alot -.- wich will result in even less players

i dont want to be a downer ,but most of the suggestions in this thread are just not realistic at this stage in the game.

sorry if i offended someone or someones opinions about how they want this game to be...

Edited by schmolz, 22 September 2014 - 10:18 AM.

[KingCobra]

Well Schmolz im glad were having this conversation almost in a live way as you can see live social chat only benefits the game as in my explaining why a system was used in past MechWarrior titles to us coming to a somewhat agreement on some issues about MWO MM game play.

Most topics and subjects are in fact not fiction that players talk about make topics and post about and a lot of them pertain to game systems or items in past MechWarrior2-MechWarrior4 PC games that this IP once had as actual playable things.

So if I were to say Schmolz I disagree with you but my friend lets grab a lobby room and play some 1v1 to settle our disagreements in a fun competitive way could we? No not as the MWO system is right now would it be fun and entertaining? im sure it would be plus we could always expand our game to include friends in 2v2-12v12 to settle a fun dispute or just for entertainment.

In other words this is how the PC MechWarrior lobby system worked it was not about so much balance it was about playing games you wanted to play solo or with friends in a fun competitive way.

[schmolz]

and i totally get that =) but you also have to understand that this is not mw2 (sadly ,mw2 is my childhood love 8[ )it is supposed to be a F2P arena type wargame ,and in this case the random lobby system only makes sense for the public queue's.
obviously there should be some kind of form to make a private game ,never wanted to argue against that!it just sounded to me like people want a server browser for this game instead of the MM right now ,like in most fps games ,and that ,would be totally unpracticall!
lets see how community warfare is going to play out ,and with what kind of maps pgi is coming up next(maps are the biggest flaw of this game IMO)i personally would love a total revamp/removal of some maps *cough* mordor *cough*

[KingCobra]

Schmolz said (lets see how community warfare is going to play out ,and with what kind of maps pgi is coming up next(maps are the biggest flaw of this game IMO)i personally would love a total revamp/removal of some maps *cough* mordor *cough)

And I could not agree with you more a lot more maps and new game modes would do wonders for MWO right now as well as a CW that is not to shallow of a concept that it dies upon arrival.Not to stray off topic but it does have some relation to a MWO lobby system as well. Do you know I have MechWarrio4 Mercenaries still installed on win 8.1 and have over 500 + maps , co-op maps,-and solo and co-op-team mission maps? and I still play on www.gameranger.com with friends ? which is a game lobby system

Plus mordor/terra is one of my favorite maps it is quite challenging to win and control heat issues.

Edited by KingCobra, 22 September 2014 - 10:58 AM.

[zagibu]

One reason might be that high pingers might find it harder to play at all when lobby leaders can kick them. Also, active player count would be assessable, which is something they don't want.

[KingCobra]

Zagibu said (One reason might be that high pingers might find it harder to play at all when lobby leaders can kick them. Also, active player count would be assessable, which is something they don't want. )

Im not going to say this did not happen from time to time on the MSN gamming zone but those same player could chat in the live chat lobby room and find players from there own time zones and close country's they had similar pings and latency open up there own lobby room and play games?

The older lobby systems did yes have a player count on the main lobby and there were 6 main lobby's with 100 sub rooms in each lobby I know I was a admin for the MechWarrior MSN gamming zone and a+ member.All stats were recorded at zone.stats it told all information pertaining to the game played in any sub lobby room in any lobby as long as you had the zone.stats option checked in settings and you were hosting the game.

That way players could keep track of statistics about there league games and post wins and loses on the league web sites that were 99 % accurate.

Edited by KingCobra, 22 September 2014 - 11:09 AM.

[zagibu]

Just a tip, instead of doing your manual quotes, you can hit the quote button bottom right of a person's post.

[KingCobra]

Just a tip, instead of doing your manual quotes, you can hit the quote button bottom right of a person's post.

Thankyou I would love to use the quote feature on these forums but for some that use Win 8.1 and Explorer11 this feature does not work and I will not install a3rd party Browser on my system.Plus all the work around methods posted in MWO help do not work as well. but thankyou for your concern.

[Coolant]

"Why Doesn't Mwo Just Use A Gaming Lobby, Like Every Other Game Out There?"


thank you...

Edited by Coolant, 22 September 2014 - 11:34 AM.

[General Taskeen]

KingCobra, on 22 September 2014 - 08:59 AM, said:

so why do you think this system is in place? because most of the random players actually like it ,i remember very clearly how it was in bf2 for example to join a server where one team consists out of professional players who communicate and the other team gets face rolled EVERY ******* time.so in that light its actually a good thing for the majority of players(yes ,organized teams are not the majority)

it ******* sickens me when i look at these forums and see people gushing out random BS that has nothing to with MWO but more so with the industry of F2P.)
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Whoa dude, let's back up the mwo truck.

In BF2/3/4 there were server plugins to balance teams. Those are the servers to join for close games, rather than "clan" servers where they all stomp on one team. At least in those games you can actually respawn and try again.

BF2 mp was actually like the previous MW2/3/4 dedicated server lobbies. A server admin could host a server and use a bunch of robust multiplayer features to make the game as realistic or arcadey as people wanted. Plus MW3/4 had the stock mode option, which is a staple of MW games for Lore/Realism/Hardmode BT players.

The standard for Triple A MW games and even MW:LL is a robust MP experience with tons of different options and dedicated servers to select from, which you are sort of mentioning too.

Heavy Gear Assault, a new game being made by the mod makers of MW4 and AssaultTech, is featuring dedicated servers. So the "industry standard" only applies to minimally viable world of tank clones.

Edited by General Taskeen, 22 September 2014 - 11:44 AM.