92 replies to this topic

[Roadbeer]

GrizzlyViking, on 08 January 2015 - 05:28 PM, said:

heheheheh easy to say from the left coast Road. See my 9x9 post...it's a better solution.

Griz, c'mon buddy, my CW playtime has been screwed from day 1 because of when the CF hits, I'm currently inconvenienced by 3 hours, you're only being inconvenienced by one.

I say it's win/win for both.

And no, your 9x9 post is a Rube Goldberg Machine.

[GrizzlyViking]

Roadbeer, on 08 January 2015 - 05:31 PM, said:

Griz, c'mon buddy, my CW playtime has been screwed from day 1 because of when the CF hits, I'm currently inconvenienced by 3 hours, you're only being inconvenienced by one.

I say it's win/win for both.

And no, your 9x9 post is a Rube Goldberg Machine.

No it's not...it's as simple as the 8 hour plan. One match every 9 hours. It's the same thing that Russ posted with one hour added for each CF cycle. Just read my reply on the other post. It's not complicated at all.

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 08 January 2015 - 05:35 PM.

[Slepnir]

Doesn't help me a bit. I'm west coast but I work swing shift, which means my CW play starts after 1AM PST. that is why I end up playing mostly with Europeans and Australians.

Let me tell you CW is pretty darn empty at that time of night. sometimes I sit in lobby for up to an hour while I do other things and never get a game.

the 27 hour rotation cooldown is the only thing that will work to make sure everybody's efforts count.

[Kjudoon]

Roadbeer, on 08 January 2015 - 04:20 PM, said:

So, what's unfair about the system that's coming? Some people on the East cost have to decide if they're going to stay up an extra hour to see the planet resolve?
I lose 2.5 hours of CW gaming because of where the CF falls now, CF + the 2 hours after where you have a hard time getting 12 because the next 19 hours are pointless.

Nobody made a big deal about that, but add an hour to the East Coast players and all of a sudden, there's a couple threads with Rube Goldberg solutions to a problem that isn't REALLY a problem.

For me being central time, the change is fantastic for me really
. The complaints are mostly from euro and oceanic time zones, and as you rightly point out these are a bane for all mmo games. So, in an effort to make sure everyone has some time as BMOC I suggested a rotating time zone. Something IIRC was even being considered by PGI at one point.

So I am not doing this for my own benefit because I lucked into the NA time zone ending about my lunch time. If this is something people don't care about fine... I can ignore it and reap the benefits if I desire it. Btw, east coast is most likely the largest population in the game. That is why people who no longer have the ability to be there at the only 2 hours that matter are unhappy.

[Grendel408]

Well, living on the West Coast here in California and working a shift later than your average 9-5 grind... I'm shafted on CW. I'd be lucky to get a match in after wait time and hope it finishes before the Ceasefire. Then... back to Public Queue.

[Abivard]

One would think PGI would set CF times so that the majority of players could enjoy it instead of trying to set CF times so that only a tiny minority can have an effect.

The times proposed are Inconvenient to the majority of players in NA, Europe and Asia/Australia.

If there are to be three CF times, the NA CF should stay where it is at, the other CF's should also be set for the same time of day in each respective major Time zone, in other words primetime in your Timezone is when your CF happens. Not at what amounts for the midnight hour in each of the 3 main primetimes.

like for example, 1PM GMT, 9PM GMT,and 5AM GMT. that translates into (9pm hongkong-Perth/midnight Sidney), ( 9pm london/Midnight Moscow, ), (9pm west coast NA/12PM east coast NA). except for the european zone the other two zones have sparse west coast populations compared to east coast populations.

Russ proposes making each of the above times one hour later. that hour later will end up being the one that breaks the camels back I fear.
For every person that his times makes for a better CW experience I would estimate 3 people are made worse.

[Tarmok II]

bevor cring in forums people should read what was said

http://mwomercs.com/...anuary-roadmap/

3 battle phase "fair" distributed to the major player bases NA, EU and oceanic

[Banditman]

Jakob Knight, on 08 January 2015 - 03:01 PM, said:

I think the main problem is the over-importance of the last hour or so of CW play, which means pushing back the clock an hour has an unrealistic impact on the outcomes of battles. Many units simply don't fight earlier in the CW window because they feel their efforts won't have importance, and you end up with people in earlier timezones who can't be active near the end window appearing as though they lack commitment because their real life commitments prevent them from staying up till 1:00 AM.

A better system would have been to have each CW window be on a random window that would close unpredictably within a range of the last 4 hours of the CW battle timeframe, say in 15 or 30 minute intervals. That way, any battle fought within that 4-hour period could be the last, and no one would feel any battle during that period would be wasted effort. One day, the fighting might end at 21:15, the next day at 18:30, the next at 22:45. If a Unit tried to game the last hour, they might well find they had put themselves out of the battle entirely (this also is more realistic as a combat Unit well might find they arrive at a warzone too late to affect the outcome).

Eggzaktly. There needs to be a random element to the ending of the combat window in order to make all the battles seem important.

[Kjudoon]

Pushing back the clock does nothing to decrease the importance of the Hot Zone of 2 hours before cease fire. The only solution I know of so far for this would be to dramatically increase the amount of victories required to take a planet or the individual territories.

This is about math and the meta (since the meta is usually math based). If you know you can do X amount of drops in an hour and take a planet, or you can math out how many teams of 12 are needed to ghost drop your way to victory, all you need to do is follow the formula. That's what's happening.

Therefore, increase the # of victories, or find new ways to calculate victory that extend that period is what's needed.

[xWiredx]

I think a 10-hour attack window is sufficient, and just let it keep rotating. 9 would probably suffice, too, but I think 10 is better. It skews the window a little more.

[Felix7007]

all you guys talking about play times, NO ONE IS PLAYING.

[Kjudoon]

Almost nobody plays except in the 3 hours before cease fire. This will not change till it takes more wins than what can be mustered inside of 3 hours. Creating three 7:20 windows will only create 3 hot zones, of the same time, potentially, with the problem of accelerating planet turnover and front fluxuation by 300% rendering fronts far different in a single day than what is accomplished in 3 currently.

I think this is bad in the speed of turnover, but good in creating more important times. Of course, if yiou dont do changeovers, all that will matter is that last window rendering everything moot.

PGI needs to recognize the scale of war, and make planetary capture a multi day affair, and territory capture important as individual battles for the planet over time.

Think bigger PGI... think much bigger and make the conquest of a single planet more important by increasing the importance and difficulty of capturing a territory much more important.

[Rebel Ace Fryslan]

At this moment is see 2 players in a que, have been trying to get a drop for 30min. and my lobby didn't get above 6 players.


CW is uther uselles, it is the soul of mechwarrior and we get this flunked device and maybe a few tweaks next week.
PGI get your TEAM on CW for 2 monts and make it a game worth using, you have only made this game survive.
IT ISN"T LIVING YET.

[AlmightyAeng]

You're trying to get a match right now? Why would anyone play? It's the 90-120 minutes prior to cease fire that actually MATTERS in terms of flipping planets. So yeah...during the rest of the day CW is a bit of a ghost town.

We'll see if this new cycle of 3 cease fires changes anything...it'll make 3 segments relevant...but it'll still be only the 90-120 minutes before each cease fire that you see a decent server pop.

[Banditman]

Ghost Badger, on 09 January 2015 - 06:44 AM, said:

We'll see if this new cycle of 3 cease fires changes anything...it'll make 3 segments relevant...but it'll still be only the 90-120 minutes before each cease fire that you see a decent server pop.

Which is why the CF needs to be randomized. If you have an 8 hour attack window on a planet, and all you know is that the CF will happen at some point in the last four hours, it makes things a lot more interesting. Every battle matters because every battle could be the last.

[Roadbeer]

Ghost Badger, on 09 January 2015 - 06:44 AM, said:

You're trying to get a match right now? Why would anyone play? It's the 90-120 minutes prior to cease fire that actually MATTERS in terms of flipping planets. So yeah...during the rest of the day CW is a bit of a ghost town.

We'll see if this new cycle of 3 cease fires changes anything...it'll make 3 segments relevant...but it'll still be only the 90-120 minutes before each cease fire that you see a decent server pop.

I would go so far as to say the 4 hours prior to the CF are really the Hot Zone. You can actually see prime time as it happens across NA. (This is what it looks like from the Marik point of view)

East Coast comes online, starts knocking down the wins that were seeded on the defense planet
30-40 minutes later
Central comes online, attacks start forming on attack planet, East Coast switches focus.
30-40 minutes later
Mountain comes online, attack/defense queues go 60+ on one of the planets
30-40 minutes later
Pacific comes online, Both planets have LOTS of action on them
2 hours later Cease Fire.

Ideally I think 6 hours windows would be cool, but the thing I keep running int o with that is you are going to be putting a 40m Cease Fire RIGHT in the middle of someones primetime.

And no, you can't make the Cease Fire shorter, as that time represents the resolution of everyone in the Drop Queue and the active matches that are rolling once the Cease Fire begins.

So the question becomes, which Time Zone do you tell that they get to spend the better part of an hour doing something else?

This is also one of the problems with the Odd Hour Rotation and Random Rotation suggestions that are bandied about. You will be constantly be taking an hour out of someones playtime. Not a big deal if you get to spend several hours a day/week doing CW, but it's a very big deal to those who only get a few hours of play time a week.

[WarZ]

GrizzlyViking, on 07 January 2015 - 09:00 PM, said:

Dear Russ,

1:00 AM is not in any way, shape, or form, a good time for East Coast US players to end their gaming day! This new 1:00 AM CF time excludes every responsible player who works a day-shift job that lives on the US East Coast. I can assure you that I will not spend another penny on MWO if the CW CF time remains at 1:00 AM. I assume there are more than a few players generating revenue for MWO that live on the US East Coast and work first shift who would not stay up to play a game until 12:20 PM, even if they like it. It would be similar to buying a fitness club membership for a gym that is only open when you are sleeping.

GV

UPDATE:

Simple solution...three, 9 hour CF times...this keeps the rotation moving each day for everyone.

Why in the F do you need to play right up until the ceasefire ? You can get your matches and tokens in during your playtime. There is no requirement that you be logged in at the closing bell.

Stupidest complaint I've seen in a while.

[AlmightyAeng]

WarZ, on 09 January 2015 - 07:28 AM, said:

Why in the F do you need to play right up until the ceasefire ? You can get your matches and tokens in during your playtime. There is no requirement that you be logged in at the closing bell.

Stupidest complaint I've seen in a while.

Because some people want to see their wins secured, rather than playing early, winning a planet, then logging on the next day to see that while they were offline someone else capped it away from them.

That'd be my guess.

[Fox Kell]

Kjudoon, on 09 January 2015 - 05:54 AM, said:

Pushing back the clock does nothing to decrease the importance of the Hot Zone of 2 hours before cease fire. The only solution I know of so far for this would be to dramatically increase the amount of victories required to take a planet or the individual territories.

This is about math and the meta (since the meta is usually math based). If you know you can do X amount of drops in an hour and take a planet, or you can math out how many teams of 12 are needed to ghost drop your way to victory, all you need to do is follow the formula. That's what's happening.

Therefore, increase the # of victories, or find new ways to calculate victory that extend that period is what's needed.

Yep adding victories is a great way for everyone to contribute during the whole day.

[TiguriusX]

Ghost Badger, on 09 January 2015 - 08:14 AM, said:

Because some people want to see their wins secured, rather than playing early, winning a planet, then logging on the next day to see that while they were offline someone else capped it away from them.

That'd be my guess.

Well then just accept the fact that you are NOT one of the "people" who gets that chance when the new CF times go into effect.

Somebody else gets the chance now. As I told you the last time...PGI is not running MWO for the sole personal benefit of Ghost Badger

This is an INTERNATIONAL player base.

Now someone in a different time zone who WANTS TO SEE THEIR WINS SECURED will get the chance

Maybe you should start throwing your support behind a rotating CF schedule (7x7 is a decent plan being thrown around)

Edited by TiguriusX, 09 January 2015 - 08:28 AM.