3 replies to this topic

[Haroldwolf]

We all see that PGI is trying to achieve balance so drops favor the better skilled team and at the same time PGI is, IMHO, falling into the nerf trap that many online games have faced and failed at. But why so much trouble in achieving game balance? FASA faced the issue early on by developing first Combat Value and then Battle Value 1 and Battle Value 2. Combining BV with the Clans’ lore of bidding, FASA created the basis for believable novels and playable scenarios for IS Vs IS, IS Vs Clan and Clan Vs Clan. Battle Value continues to work even with the Catalyst Labs timeline advanced to 3145.

I looked at 12 vs 12 and tonnage equivalent with optimal Clan and Inner Sphere drops and then a table of more typical drops. Considering the wide difference in mech builds in MWO, the BV2 in the tables was taken from the typical mech variants on Sarna. You see that equivalent drop weights (with 3/3/3/3) don’t achieve balance with the Clan BV2 10737 greater than the IS BV2. Worse is a comparison of an optimal Clan drop against a more typical IS drop which yields a difference in BV of 11505 in favor of the clans.

Going to 12 Vs 10 (2/2/3/3) drop yields a BV difference of 5288 in favor of the Clans. Better but still unbalanced; however a well-run IS team could prevail. More could be done by also favoring tonnage towards the IS which may help balance. However without a BV comparison you will NEVER know if a drop is reasonably balanced or not.

I don’t know why PGI didn’t implement BV from the start and I suspect that now they have painted themselves in a corner that they can’t code out of very easily. What that means for us is continued complaints about balance and likely endless rounds of nerfing.

I didn't add the tables to the post since I can't seem to add the spreadsheets.

Edited by Haroldwolf, 30 November 2014 - 03:02 PM.

[P H O X]

Uh...whats in the Spreadsheets about the Battlevalue of a complete imbecile roming around in a Madcat?

Please dont throw excel sheets...that may work for TT, but not for an action Game.

[Khobai]

if you pick players randomly and assign them to both teams, odds are both teams will get roughly the same number of experienced and inexperienced players. ELO, while nice to have, was never really necessary IMO. The priority shouldve been on battle value instead.

What we really needed was battle value or at the very least some type of tonnage matching. Without tonnage matching, ELO doesnt matter... because you get tonnage mismatches which completely skew the game anyway.

If you have two equally skilled players and ones in a locust and ones in a jenner... thats NOT equal. A jenner is easily worth two locusts. Theres something very wrong with a matchmaker that equates a garbage mech like a locust to an awesome mech like a jenner.

Edited by Khobai, 30 November 2014 - 08:07 PM.

[Haroldwolf]

Polarphox, on 30 November 2014 - 07:59 PM, said:

Uh...whats in the Spreadsheets about the Battlevalue of a complete imbecile roming around in a Madcat?

Please dont throw excel sheets...that may work for TT, but not for an action Game.

You miss the whole point. I created spreadsheets to help me see the extent of the Battle Value mismatch. Don't get your panties in a knot.