8 replies to this topic

[Quxudica]

Looking at my map statistic, the number of times I get certain maps seems rather out of proportion. I know it's a "small" sample size technically, but the difference seems large enough to raise an eyebrow.

Forest Colony 31
Frozen City 31
Caustic Valley 70
River City 48
Forest Colony Snow 44
Frozen City Night 35
River City Night 39
Alpine Peaks 88
Tourmaline Desert 83
Canyon Network 90
Terra Therma 69
Crimson Strait 87
HPG Manifold 79
The Mining Collective 11

I get Alpine, Crimson and Canyon more than any map and far more than the original maps. It seems to skew in favor of the larger maps in the pool. The problem is we have so very few maps, that this leads to such frequent repetition of an even smaller subset of maps that it really makes the game feel barren. I get really rather sick of seeing certain maps every time I launch (funnily enough I've gotten Canyon more often than Mining, since it's release, despite mining supposedly being weighted higher).


The solution to such a situation seems simple enough, and I've been imploring PGI to implement it since Closed Beta.. give us bloody map selection. I don't need a hidden dice deciding to stick me in canyon 9 times in a row, if I want to play canyon all night I can choose to do so. I am actually capable of deciding what I want to play, as is every other player. This is an unnecessary measure of automation that only servers to irritate your players when they get forced to drop in maps they don't enjoy playing, and annoys them further when the RNG chokes and spits out the same map 10 matches in a row.

The only possible downside to map selection is that certain maps may become less played. An issue easily solved by giving maps with low queue numbers reward bonuses, just give a multiplier for cbills and/or exp on a map that needs players. If a map is so undesirable to play on that such bonuses don't even encourage it's use, I'd argue the problem lies with the map itself and is something the devs need to look at.

The other night a mate of mine decided to do some drops, having not played the game before. We actually discussed several things but the most pertinent here was, after about an hour he asked me how many maps were in the game, when I told him it was eleven or so with some minor variants he said he was surprised and would have guessed around five and asked if he was missing an option to see the rest of them.

*edit* formatting

Edited by Quxudica, 27 September 2014 - 04:02 AM.

[TexAce]

We had this already, even compared and added numbers of a lot players together and the consensus was that everything is working fine. RGN is RNG

Sometimes its artifcially skewed when a new map is out to be featured more but only then.

Edited by TexAss, 27 September 2014 - 04:05 AM.

[Quxudica]

TexAss, on 27 September 2014 - 04:05 AM, said:

We had this already, even compared and added numbers of a lot players together and the consensus was that everything is working fine. RGN is RNG

Sometimes its artifcially skewed when a new map is out to be featured more but only then.

Whether or not the RNG is working correctly doesn't, to me, negate there is a problem with the system. Relying on purely random map selection is, in itself, a design issue that really needs to be addressed. There's no reason that at this point in the games age not to have player controlled map selection, not having it only leads to these kind of problems with no benefit. Sure you can have a Random Map option if you want, but players should be able to pick which map or maps they wish to drop on the same way we pick what mode we wish to play.

Edited by Quxudica, 27 September 2014 - 04:11 AM.

[Madw0lf]

Iirc, and your numbers show it, the different variants of river city, frozen city, and forest colony all count as one map to the system. So when looking at map selection, you need to add those together. So really your numbers are fine.

[TexAce]

Quxudica, on 27 September 2014 - 04:10 AM, said:

Whether or not the RNG is working correctly doesn't, to me, negate there is a problem with the system. Relying on purely random map selection is, in itself, a design issue that really needs to be addressed. There's no reason that at this point in the games age not to have player controlled map selection, not having it only leads to these kind of problems with no benefit. Sure you can have a Random Map option if you want, but players should be able to pick which map or maps they wish to drop on the same way we pick what mode we wish to play.

So apline is full of snipers and Caustic full of LRM spammers? No thanks.... Mechs should be build in a way they can react to the local conditions. You only want min-maxing to be even more present in this game.

Edited by TexAss, 27 September 2014 - 04:26 AM.

[Edustaja]

My numbers before the new map were very very close to 10% for every map.

[EgoSlayer]

Quxudica, on 27 September 2014 - 04:10 AM, said:

Whether or not the RNG is working correctly doesn't, to me, negate there is a problem with the system. Relying on purely random map selection is, in itself, a design issue that really needs to be addressed. There's no reason that at this point in the games age not to have player controlled map selection, not having it only leads to these kind of problems with no benefit. Sure you can have a Random Map option if you want, but players should be able to pick which map or maps they wish to drop on the same way we pick what mode we wish to play.

We will never have player map section because it will lead to entire teams of Min/Maxed loadouts specific to one map. Devs have stated that isn't going to happen.

Your map numbers are fine and show the RNG is working because:

Madw0lf, on 27 September 2014 - 04:20 AM, said:

Iirc, and your numbers show it, the different variants of river city, frozen city, and forest colony all count as one map to the system. So when looking at map selection, you need to add those together. So really your numbers are fine.

The Small maps are twins and count as one for map selection freqency.
Forest Colony 31 + Forest Colony Snow 44 = Forest colony 75
Frozen City 31 + Frozen City Night 35 = Frozen City 66
River City 48 + River City Night 39 = River City 87

The one exception is that new maps are raised in freqency, so The Mining Collective will be showing up more frequently than other maps for the next month or so.

BTW - a quick search would have found 20 other threads that say this about the map rotation.

Edited by EgoSlayer, 27 September 2014 - 08:56 AM.

[Malcolm Vordermark]

Seems pretty even when you add maps that are the same (river city + river city night). Only other point is you'll probably see a lot of mining collective now because the new map usually get a higher chance for a while.

[LauLiao]

Your map selection looks pretty damn even to me, within a reasonable margin of error for RNG. What's the issue?

Edit: In fact, Terra Therma is your second least common map after the Frozen City maps. You REALLY shouldn't be complaining

Edited by LauLiao, 27 September 2014 - 08:20 AM.