Posted 29 September 2014 - 09:09 AM
Update for PGI:
I can't thank you enough for implementing the 1/1/1/1 rule!
I finally got my friends to get their act together and that's how we ran. I even played in my IV4, something I haven't done yet, and it was beautiful. It felt so good to put my 2xAC5s and have my friend join me with his 2xUAC5s on a Direwolf and just completely tear him apart... It was like sweet poetic justice for all of those Direwolf builds that have nothing but UAC5s.
Anyway I'm rambling.
3/4 of us managed to get to the first tier, which is honestly all we care about, so later tonight we will try to wrap it up for our 4th friend. I don't think we would have made it this far in the points without the 1/1/1/1 rule, and I have to say I noticed almost everyone else doing it! It was great to see properly mixed teams instead of running into the 6x Atlas (Steiner scout demi-lance) that I ran into last time. I hope you include the 1/1/1/1 rule or something similar to it if you do another challenge like this, it allowed those of us with mixed schedules or not a lot of free time the ability to catch up on points.
I didn't have a problem with "lrmageddon" like other people are having... Sure there were a few LRM heavy matches, but that's why we had ECM with us, watched the skies (UAVs), told each other when we were narced, etc. After I reached the goal I switched over to my LRM boats so my friends could get more points, so only 1/4 of us had LRMs at any given time.
There were actually quite a few times where the enemy would single me out to neutralize the threat of a LRM boat, which encouraged tactics both on their side and on my own as team mates actually tried to help me! Yes that's right! Instead of my allies running off to go play CoD shooter elsewhere on the map, thereby leaving me to fend for myself, they were actually supporting their LRM boats! I wish I would see this cooperative behavior more often even when there isn't a challenge going on...
It was nice to see team tactics play a key role in the matches that we played.
I observed a few people complaining about how cLRM boats are pay to win, blah, blah, blah, but in actuality it was because our team didn't use any kind of tactics and didn't help each other. I've observed IS 'mechs dueling Clanners and I can tell you that it really is up to the skill of the pilot. The only time I see pay-to-win come into play is when a Direwolf has 6xUAC5s that he can continuously shoot... But it's a moot point now since they are now available for c-bills. Even then it's easy to surround a D-wolf with faster 'mechs and confuse the pilot if he isn't skilled enough to focus down one target or cover his rear.
I'd still like to see some kind of LFG system in the game though PGI. I think you would dissolve a lot of the criticism I've seen if you manage to implement that.
As always; thank you for taking the time to read our comments and feedback, and thank you for actually listening to your player-base.