17 replies to this topic

[Grease Monkey]

First off, excellent work PGI and Russ with winning back some goodwill. The increased communication along with your willingness to change based on feedback has renewed my interest in this game. I hope you keep this up.

My only serious complaint at this point is the matchmaker, specifically the match maker in relation to small groups. I have a hand full of friends that I can occasionally get to play, all but one of them are total noobs, and the one that knows a thing or two isn't that great either but we have fun. It has been months since they played last btw.

This evening two of them were on and we got started and we got dropped with a 9 man team and got stomped hard, one of them quit. Next round me and the other guy dropped against a 9 man team and got stomped. He asked me, "So when does this get fun?" then he quit.

What I think we need is a way to opt out of the group que, I don't care if its restricted to accounts with <100-400 matches or something like that. Although I would say that it needs to reach well beyond the first 25 matches. Some other thoughts, force the accounts with more experience to play trial mechs to participate in "noob training group mode", obviously the max size would be at most 4, personally I would be happy with 3, but that's just my situation.

I know there are some "new player experience" things in the pipe but they are a while off and Id like to get my friends to play sooner. For those of us trying to introduce people to MWO we can help with teaching game play stuff but we need your help to make the matches fun for these people. It doesn't feel right to drop a player who HAS to have arm lock and 3PV on with serious, or at least experienced teams.

Just to preempt some of your arguments... No, we don't want to join a group, at least not at this point. Some of my friends are still being taught the controls. No, they wont play solo que by themselves. They aren't interested enough in the game to play without a friend.

[darkkterror]

Did you shorten your story for the sake of brevity or did your friends literally drop out after only two rounds? Because if that's the case then I honestly don't think there's anything PGI can do for them outside of spoon feeding them guaranteed wins.

Also, if PGI did add a way to opt out of the group queue, then every 2 or 3 man group on the face of the Earth would opt out, leaving 10 and 9 man groups SOL.

What PGI really needs to do is add in-game voice. Maybe then groups of different sizes that are matched up with each other would be willing to interact and coordinate with each other. People who form groups are already showing a willingness to work together, so just make it easy for multiple groups to coordinate in-game.

[Grease Monkey]

Lol no I did not shorten it. The first guy has a only a handful of games, the second is the guy that is most likely to play with me, he has 200-300 games under his belt. Ever since we've been more or less forced out of the solo que he hasn't played much he only got on to try the new reward system.

I recognize that everybody and their brother would opt out of the que if possible, which is why I said it should have some kind of restriction. Im still teaching controls and basic tactics here. I don't think its right to force them to play with far more experienced people, that's just going to make the learning process worse. and Im willing to take restrictions on myself to make the game better for them while they are learning.

I guess could ask a question. Is there anyone that has gotten a new person to join MWO, then trained them DESPITE the forced group que?

[Mr Beefy]

Grease Monkey, on 22 October 2014 - 08:37 PM, said:

Lol no I did not shorten it. The first guy has a only a handful of games, the second is the guy that is most likely to play with me, he has 200-300 games under his belt. Ever since we've been more or less forced out of the solo que he hasn't played much he only got on to try the new reward system.

I recognize that everybody and their brother would opt out of the que if possible, which is why I said it should have some kind of restriction. Im still teaching controls and basic tactics here. I don't think its right to force them to play with far more experienced people, that's just going to make the learning process worse. and Im willing to take restrictions on myself to make the game better for them while they are learning.

I guess could ask a question. Is there anyone that has gotten a new person to join MWO, then trained them DESPITE the forced group que?

I have to be honest, I have tried to to get three friends to play the game, and they in general like the game, but the grind kills it for them. The sometime toxic game play styles that are due to a core issue with such low earnings makes it something they are not interested putting up with. They could afford PT and mechs for MC, even the packs, but they don't like the painful grind to advance and the tools/C-bill try hards it brings out in the matches. We have all been in TT and gamed since kids, it really is a shame.

[CocoaJin]

I can see the need for lance matches. Just 4vs4 in order to accommodate the apparently high level of 2-3 man teams of dads and kids, players recruiting friends. I know the MM needs these small groups to fill out matched, but perhaps these groups can multi-queue. Allow them to queue primarily in the lance matches for significantly lower rewards, but still be on reserve for the normal team queue(which would drill pay out like normal).

[N0MAD]

This is indeed a problem i have personally encountered, Small casual groups thrown to the wolfs.
MWO is not Casual group friendly, no where to play some chill games with like minded people.
Alot of my friends wont play it for this exact reason.

[Hades Trooper]

I've got 2 new pilots currently atm, with guidance and teaching there gone from below 50 damage to over 400 now a game in a under a week.

Maybe is just the calibre of pilot but the grind as you call it it is rather easy if you have premium time.

So if they want to play a game com,pletely for free then so be it, spend a few bucks and it becomes a lot more fun and i only use premium time from buying packs.

As for solo que, well duh, thats why it's called solo. if you don't like being in the group que as a 3 man join some groups instead of whinging

[Sergeant Random]

Well, since the matchmaker enforces 50% Elo, I guess maybe half the fun is in getting blown to bits? (That sounded bad...)

Maybe it's just me, but I find spectator mode to be mildly entertaining. (And slightly educational) (But of course, it may not be entertaining enough for others).

[Hades Trooper]

N0MAD, on 22 October 2014 - 09:05 PM, said:

This is indeed a problem i have personally encountered, Small casual groups thrown to the wolfs.
MWO is not Casual group friendly, no where to play some chill games with like minded people.
Alot of my friends wont play it for this exact reason.

then solo drop, and sync it

[cSand]

N0MAD, on 22 October 2014 - 09:05 PM, said:

This is indeed a problem i have personally encountered, Small casual groups thrown to the wolfs.
MWO is not Casual group friendly, no where to play some chill games with like minded people.
Alot of my friends wont play it for this exact reason.

Yea as a small group you just have to take the no-fun-zone matches against the sandbagger GG crews and hope the next match is a good one (ie, no large groups)

Edited by cSand, 22 October 2014 - 09:34 PM.

[Grease Monkey]

Getting them to spend any money is kind of a toss up. It does make for a better grind but I don't think its enough because a few of them have and its still not very fun for them to play in the big boys group que.

Also tried sync dropping, that's hit and miss because of timing and the elo match making. Mostly miss...

Edited by Grease Monkey, 22 October 2014 - 09:28 PM.

[WarZ]

As I've said before:

I have 11 friends who are local players in my area who do LAN parties and such. Avid gamers. Only one of them has played this game beyond the first 25-50 matches. Thats 10 players who were NOT retained after the newbie stage. The one player who I talk back into playing every 3-4 months, will only play a couple nights before he gets sick of the grind and stomps.

It is immensely unforgiving to new players. I dont think another "tutorial" is going to help at all. I cant imagine what they have in mind that would create a new player friendly atmosphere. And honestly isnt 2 years after the release date of the game, REALLY F'ing late to start talking about addressing this issue. Much less making it WAY worse with the ****** matchmaker.

The only reason I'm still here is I really enjoy the concept of piloting battlemechs. The game in my opinion has been on a steady downhill slide since closed beta. The experience gets worse and more brutal with each change they add in.

It delivers more frustation than fun most of the time. THAT IS NOT GOOD.

As for the matchmaker queue, I feel that allowing 2 man teams to participate in the solo queue, with the restriction of ONLY ONE 2 man group per team is fair. Thats significant enough for the try hards, but hopefully not overwhelming. While also allowing a pair of friends to have a relatively decent evening of games.

[Sadist Cain]

4v4 lance battles would be good, along with a command wheel of sorts.

I've always though it odd how you get spread between lances automatically, always thought it would be better to have people start outside a lance entirely and have to choose/form one to play in.

Would help out organising smaller groups in a short space of time methinks.

[Votanin FleshRender]

I've had both my brother and a couple of friends give it a go. Both friends quit after a couple of weeks (during which they played quite a bit), my brother has ragequit 3 times and is pretty much done with it again. And this time he sounds pretty serious.

I've suggested this before

Allow LOW Elo 2 mans back into the solo que.
Allow solo players to join the group que.

Done

[Sergeant Random]

Asking for more queue types to increase the player base is a chicken-egg problem. Which comes first?

You need a large player base to implement and maintain multiple queue types. But we need multiple queue types to grow the player base?

Don't worry about the game's growth. Ive read somewhere Russ saying the servers are close to capacity (so the game must be growing). But Im sorry about losing possible player-friends.

[DAYLEET]

Sergeant Random, on 22 October 2014 - 09:59 PM, said:

...chicken-egg problem. Which comes first?

Scientist says it had to be the chicken first because the egg need a protein that comes from the chicken.

[Salvag3]

You wanna make Groups in Solo Q not be a problem, it's really simple, add a Com rose like Battlefield 2 had. Not like the crappy one in the newer battlefields but one with useful commands, like follow me move to here, defend this location, I need support, target this mech with missles, I have a hard lock, I'm tagging this target.... I think you get the idea.

Want a even better solution add in game VOIP, let me talk to new players give then tips in battle, stop them from wandering into a trap, this would also fix the problems of small groups in the group q for the most part. It's not all player skill that's winning theses games it's team work. This game more than most games has to have team work for your team to work well and get the win. And making it so we can talk to each other will promote more team work and more fun, it will lead to closer fights and a loss that still feels like a win because it was a fun battle. Fun battles = more players and players that start the game and keep playing, more players playing means more people spending real money and the game getting even more fun as PGI can add more and cooler stuff.

[Sadist Cain]

Salvag3, on 22 October 2014 - 10:22 PM, said:

You wanna make Groups in Solo Q not be a problem, it's really simple, add a Com rose like Battlefield 2 had. Not like the crappy one in the newer battlefields but one with useful commands, like follow me move to here, defend this location, I need support, target this mech with missles, I have a hard lock, I'm tagging this target.... I think you get the idea.

Want a even better solution add in game VOIP, let me talk to new players give then tips in battle, stop them from wandering into a trap, this would also fix the problems of small groups in the group q for the most part. It's not all player skill that's winning theses games it's team work. This game more than most games has to have team work for your team to work well and get the win. And making it so we can talk to each other will promote more team work and more fun, it will lead to closer fights and a loss that still feels like a win because it was a fun battle. Fun battles = more players and players that start the game and keep playing, more players playing means more people spending real money and the game getting even more fun as PGI can add more and cooler stuff.

This.

Lance based tactics would help out with so many problems in the smaller group queue, matchmaker,new player experience, tutorials, mentors etc etc..

The lance formation reward is a small step in the right direction, there needs to be more than just that though to make it a more encouraging prospect.

Teamwork makes the dream work yo'