First, I appreciate the efforts that have been made so far to reward various aspects of game play rather than just kills/assists/damage. I think there could still be improvements made, though.
I just played a game in my CDA-3M (solo queue). I got Caustic Valley and I was the sole ECM on our team. LRM's are probably more dangerous on that map than any other since the terrain around the caldera that all the fights revolve around provides no hard cover. I spent the match shooting down UAVs and running around putting ECM bubbles over whoever started taking LRMs. The other team put up at least 5 UAVs ... I was surprised they had so many.
I ran through the enemy's rear just as they were massing for a push and disrupted it enough for my team to organize and break them. I lost all my armor to that diversion.
I still managed a little bit of harassing fire. I ended up with 86 points of damage and 6 assists.
Even though I feel like my actions were instrumental to the victory and I played my role well, I got very little compensation. Just over 100K cbills after premium time bonus.
I can earn a lot more with that mech if I'm a bit more selfish. If I focus more on dealing damage I can do a lot more that the 86 I delivered this match, but almost never enough to carry a match. If I compare the paycheck at the end of a well-played damage focused match to that of a well-played support focused match, the damage focused paycheck always wins.
I know things like 'disrupting an impending charge' are impossible to quantify, but the other things like dropping UAVs that are actively being used for indirect fire and breaking active locks with ECM can be measured and I think they, along with all the other support actions, should get just a bit more love at the end of the match.
Thoughts?
1
Reward Teamwork Differently?
Started by HammerSmythe, Jan 18 2015 08:51 PM
2 replies to this topic
#2
Posted 19 January 2015 - 02:13 AM
Heres a random idea... Man of the match, voted by the rest of the team? An additional 25k cbill and 500 xp. Subject to premium time bonus.
Surely needs touching up since I thought of it in a whim.
Surely needs touching up since I thought of it in a whim.
Edited by Matthew Ace, 19 January 2015 - 02:14 AM.
#3
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Posted 19 January 2015 - 02:31 AM
(Straight Copied/Pasted from Light Mech Thread)
Just had a game where I NARC'd pretty much the entire time (with 100% hit rate), put most of our 'mechs under ECM cover for the entirely of the match, and provided AMS cover for the entire fight where needed. I got less than half of the score that the worst damage dealing 'mech got, even though I had the other (PUG) players thanking me at the end of the match for my contribution.
Based on the scoreboard I was a total dead weight, significantly worse than the bozz-eyed idiots who can't shoot straight, shot their teammate in the back at the start of the match, and then proceeded to overheat and get pummeled before dying half way before the end of the match.
Apparently the game values those people three times as much as a good support game. If I NARC somebody and our LRM boats pummel the target they would have otherwise neverwise have had, who gets rewarded by the game? I'll give you a hint: they have lots of tonnage.
I notice a lot of the discussion in this thread is about damage dealers, but I think the biggest reason we're seeing only ~5% of people playing lights is that the support roles many of them are built for are completely unrewarded. It doesn't matter what quality of support you provide, even if you turn an entire game around and perform your role perfectly you will never get the XP/CB rewards that even a passively crap damage dealer gets.
Note that I'm not saying all support players are guaranteed to always get worse scores, but the level of effort required to achieve equivalance in the eyes of the game is absurdly skewed.
I play light 'mechs because I enjoy being functionally useful to the team and I'm acutely aware of the help it provides. I accept I get crap XP/CBs as a result. But I'm not even remotely surprised that the large majority of the players see it as a fail.
At the end of the game you won't have any kills, your score will be crap, and it's hard to feel like you're contributing when the game's metrics are all telling you "you're the weak link". You're not the weak link, at all, but the game bloody well tells you that you are every time you finish a match.
Meantime the people who are contributing to the win by getting the most kills are lavished in XP, C-Bills, and the stats to prove it. They get positive feedback, but support players don't. That's what most players thrive on, especially in PUG queues, so it's no surprise people choose to play in a way where even their mediocre performances are well rewarded.
What amazes me is that after three years this is still a thing. Do PGI think that all support pilots should be stoic, quiet team players every single game, whilst damage dealers deserve the honour of the win every single time? I don't see any reason for this. Apparently neither do almost all other players. Yet this is the status quo.
---
Sigh: https://www.dropbox....2/sigh.jpg?dl=0
(No identities were harmed in the making of this screenshot)
I apologise for winning the game for you, getting a kill (unlike you), covering you with ECM, AMS, NARCing your targets, capping more objectives than anyone else, and still getting 1/3rd of your damage output even though my build is entirely utility and not built to do damage at all. Boy I suck. The score agrees, so it must be true right? Enjoy your extra C-Bills.
Just another game as a light support. I can't possibly imagine why people get fed up with this.
Just had a game where I NARC'd pretty much the entire time (with 100% hit rate), put most of our 'mechs under ECM cover for the entirely of the match, and provided AMS cover for the entire fight where needed. I got less than half of the score that the worst damage dealing 'mech got, even though I had the other (PUG) players thanking me at the end of the match for my contribution.
Based on the scoreboard I was a total dead weight, significantly worse than the bozz-eyed idiots who can't shoot straight, shot their teammate in the back at the start of the match, and then proceeded to overheat and get pummeled before dying half way before the end of the match.
Apparently the game values those people three times as much as a good support game. If I NARC somebody and our LRM boats pummel the target they would have otherwise neverwise have had, who gets rewarded by the game? I'll give you a hint: they have lots of tonnage.
I notice a lot of the discussion in this thread is about damage dealers, but I think the biggest reason we're seeing only ~5% of people playing lights is that the support roles many of them are built for are completely unrewarded. It doesn't matter what quality of support you provide, even if you turn an entire game around and perform your role perfectly you will never get the XP/CB rewards that even a passively crap damage dealer gets.
Note that I'm not saying all support players are guaranteed to always get worse scores, but the level of effort required to achieve equivalance in the eyes of the game is absurdly skewed.
I play light 'mechs because I enjoy being functionally useful to the team and I'm acutely aware of the help it provides. I accept I get crap XP/CBs as a result. But I'm not even remotely surprised that the large majority of the players see it as a fail.
At the end of the game you won't have any kills, your score will be crap, and it's hard to feel like you're contributing when the game's metrics are all telling you "you're the weak link". You're not the weak link, at all, but the game bloody well tells you that you are every time you finish a match.
Meantime the people who are contributing to the win by getting the most kills are lavished in XP, C-Bills, and the stats to prove it. They get positive feedback, but support players don't. That's what most players thrive on, especially in PUG queues, so it's no surprise people choose to play in a way where even their mediocre performances are well rewarded.
What amazes me is that after three years this is still a thing. Do PGI think that all support pilots should be stoic, quiet team players every single game, whilst damage dealers deserve the honour of the win every single time? I don't see any reason for this. Apparently neither do almost all other players. Yet this is the status quo.
---
Sigh: https://www.dropbox....2/sigh.jpg?dl=0
(No identities were harmed in the making of this screenshot)
I apologise for winning the game for you, getting a kill (unlike you), covering you with ECM, AMS, NARCing your targets, capping more objectives than anyone else, and still getting 1/3rd of your damage output even though my build is entirely utility and not built to do damage at all. Boy I suck. The score agrees, so it must be true right? Enjoy your extra C-Bills.
Just another game as a light support. I can't possibly imagine why people get fed up with this.
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