121 replies to this topic

[Bubblewhip]

The other day I was queing for a game and found that light mechs were making up 7% of the matchmaking.

Really?

I know this will be fixed temporarly when the Urbie is released but I'm pretty sure everyone will find it to be very temporary.

Unlike other Mechwarrior games, I find lights and assaults to be almost on the same playing field. It seems the rock, paper, scissors tends to go the following

Light<Medium<Heavy<Assault<Lights

I cant tell how many times a single jenner or commando would take down an Atlas or Warhawk with no support simply because those big heavy things cant turn fast enough.

Why does no one like piloting these things?

I personally run Ravens, and while the 2x was an unfortunate experience, the 3L and even the 4x have found to be incredibly entertaining with their high mounted guns and fast speed.

[Vandul]

Quad LBX10 Dire Wolves is why.
Triple ERPPC Thunderbolts is why.
Streak Stormcrows is why.

Seriously, a lot of the latest released mechs are Heavy and Assaults, which is driving it to some degree. Ive been having a pretty good time in my lights lately.

[STEF_]

I think it's because ppl likes firepower over maneuverability.

It's a pity, because position, maneuver, fast flank, backstab are so important.
But, it's ok, so I can drop fast and have fun

[Metus regem]

Well that percentage is in referance to how many Lights are waiting for a game, in MM, not the percentage of pilots. When I pilot lights in PUGlife, it's back-to-back-to-back games, as fast as I can click the que button.

[Zordicron]

You have to be in the right "mood" to play lights. That mood is "sneaky, and run away". If you want to blast other robots with a giant smashbot robot, lights won't give you that fix. Even a faster medium can carry enough armor to survive an alpha(normally) and still contribute without going into "almost dead safe mode"

Lights are, IMO, in a similar situation to clan mechs right now. A few of them are almost broken(FS9, your hitbox/HSR is totally f'd up and you know it) while some of them are downright masochistic.

Further, clan lights arent really lights. They arent fast, but they have no armor, trading for more firepower. Except the poor, poor myst lynx, I give everything a try and usually make it work, but that poor thing is just messed up, worse then original LOLocust IMO. Sure, people have good matches with them. But from what I have seen, there are only a very few chassis in the light section that regularily perform well. And some of those same chassis have dud variants.

So, taking a class that needs special playstyle considerations, adding to it that the clan side of the equation doesnt really even fit the bill, and some of the mechs are special needs cases and adding that all together = a low % of player base at any given time.

that said, i think lights are good to have in the game, having a fragile but nimble/fast/smaller class is very nice to shake things up and prevent boredom. If the devs want to bring the % up, they need to do a pass on all the lights as a group, and not against the bigger boys either, and try to bring up the lesser used ones and, unfortunatly, bring down some of the semi-broken one(s). If you are like me, and have pokemech syndrome, having a significant chunk of the light class be on a whole lower level then the rest of the light class is quite the bummer.

[topgun505]

7% is average now. I saw it at 3% yesterday.

[Nori Silverrage]

Metus regem, on 26 January 2015 - 09:00 AM, said:

Well that percentage is in referance to how many Lights are waiting for a game, in MM, not the percentage of pilots. When I pilot lights in PUGlife, it's back-to-back-to-back games, as fast as I can click the que button.

Methinks this is the case. Whenever I run lights I get into matches pretty much instantly, whereas a heavy can take a minute or two.

[Joseph Mallan]

Bubblewhip, on 26 January 2015 - 08:43 AM, said:

The other day I was queing for a game and found that light mechs were making up 7% of the matchmaking.

Really?

I know this will be fixed temporarly when the Urbie is released but I'm pretty sure everyone will find it to be very temporary.

Unlike other Mechwarrior games, I find lights and assaults to be almost on the same playing field. It seems the rock, paper, scissors tends to go the following

Light<Medium<Heavy<Assault<Lights

I cant tell how many times a single jenner or commando would take down an Atlas or Warhawk with no support simply because those big heavy things cant turn fast enough.

Why does no one like piloting these things?

I personally run Ravens, and while the 2x was an unfortunate experience, the 3L and even the 4x have found to be incredibly entertaining with their high mounted guns and fast speed.

Got up to 13% while I was grinding my Commandos. I will go on record that the Light Mech invulnerability appears to be a Myth to my experience.

JENNER-D(Archive) 31 9 22 0.41 2 24 0.08 3,169 14,168 02:04:01
JENNER JR7-D 13 4 9 0.44 1 13 0.08 403 4,143 00:33:11
COMMANDO-2D 5 2 3 0.67 0 4 0.00 496 2,310 00:28:55
COMMANDO-3A 3 1 2 0.50 0 3 0.00 89 1,025 00:16:18
COMMANDO-1D 32 11 19 0.58 0 27 0.00 1,023 11,740 02:52:59
RAVEN 3L(Archive) 13 4 9 0.44 4 11 0.36 3,051 5,528 00:52:32
SPIDER-5D(Archive) 1 1 0 1.00 0 0 0.00 22 311 00:06:39
SPIDER -5K(Archive) 4 2 2 1.00 1 4 0.25 152 1,293 00:10:53

Combined
Matches;102
Wins: 33
Losses; 66
ERA: 0.323
Kills;8
Deaths: 86

By right My record in lights should have me in the, How is that said, "Underhive Steering Wheel" league when PUGging. I'm not.

[Rhaythe]

I can find a PUG match in less than ten seconds now with my lights. No complaints here.

[Metus regem]

Joseph Mallan, on 26 January 2015 - 09:25 AM, said:

Got up to 13% while I was grinding my Commandos. I will go on record that the Light Mech invulnerability appears to be a Myth to my experience.

Depends if they can aim and know how to lead a target or not Joe... When I first started leveling my Locust, it was nearly invulernable, now running it, I have to be extra careful and skim around the out skirts, not to catch Gauss in the sides...

[Bobzilla]

The worst is when you wait as long for a match in a light as you do in a med or assult, then when you say 'f this ******** bs pgi mm crap' and hit cancel, it says cancelling and drops you in a match.

[Monkey Lover]

I was told lights are op and firestarter needed nerfed lol

[Joseph Mallan]

Metus regem, on 26 January 2015 - 09:39 AM, said:

Depends if they can aim and know how to lead a target or not Joe... When I first started leveling my Locust, it was nearly invulernable, now running it, I have to be extra careful and skim around the out skirts, not to catch Gauss in the sides...

As you can see by my totals in a Light... I have not even had a chance to be invulnerable yet.

[Artgathan]

Bubblewhip, on 26 January 2015 - 08:43 AM, said:

I cant tell how many times a single jenner or commando would take down an Atlas or Warhawk with no support simply because those big heavy things cant turn fast enough.

Well part of the problem is that this statement isn't true. A mastered Atlas (using a stock engine) can turn fast enough to engage any target in the game (as long as that target is more than 25m away).

[Joseph Mallan]

Artgathan, on 26 January 2015 - 09:43 AM, said:

Well part of the problem is that this statement isn't true. A mastered Atlas (using a stock engine) can turn fast enough to engage any target in the game (as long as that target is more than 25m away).

I'll take an extra 50m if you don't mind.

[FupDup]

It's partly because of this:



And also partly because they tend to be disadvantaged in many situations anyways.

Edited by FupDup, 26 January 2015 - 09:45 AM.

[Metus regem]

Joseph Mallan, on 26 January 2015 - 09:43 AM, said:

As you can see by my totals in a Light... I have not even had a chance to be invulnerable yet.

Well you did all the lights, that are known for having teeth, a Locust, not so much... There is a reason why they are called a Lolcust....

But let me tell you a LCT-1V like this one, can turn heads, and go largly un-noticed, yet still has some bite, do to the quirks for the ERLL, it fires like a ERLPL!

Not to mention it can live with both ST's gone.

[BourbonFaucet]

Simply put, lights are a high risk, high reward Choose Your Own Adventure, where one bad choice means death, typically for a pants-on-head stupid reason.

List of reasons:
- Game lags out
- Twin Gauss
- Boomjager
- Doomjager (Also Twingauss)
- AVG AntiLight 2015 (Streakcrow)
- Streaktaro with pilot on red bull
- PPC Spam
- That One Guy Who Always Spots Your UAV And Kills It Instantly Making You Want To Punch Him In The Dong

However, if you DO make good choices, and if your enemies DO get distracted by your friends, you can:

- Backstab like crazy
- Scratch away at armor and components indefinitely with ER Larges
- Fling PPC's at people (ECM Spider)
- Give everyone a free NARC (and a puppy)
- TAG things for more C-Bills
- Get a large amount of XP from a good UAV drop

For a lot of people in games, high-risk, high-reward just isn't worth it. But right now, if you drop in a hero light, you will find matches quickly and rake in the c-bills.

Edited by Techorse, 27 January 2015 - 12:34 PM.

[KodiakGW]

Rhaythe, on 26 January 2015 - 09:37 AM, said:

I can find a PUG match in less than ten seconds now with my lights. No complaints here.

Lucky you. During this busy weekend it was rarely 10-15 seconds. Most of the time MM/Elo had me sitting for 45 seconds to 1.25 minutes, with below 10% queue.

Then add 80 seconds to launch the match.

I seem to be doing best when taking Large Lasers and contiously flanking and drawing enemies to me. When MM puts me on the "winning" team, teammates notice what I'm doing and move in to kill the ones I draw. When I've been put on the "losing" team, they like sitting still and let themselves get surrounded and pounded.

[0bsidion]

Metus regem, on 26 January 2015 - 09:00 AM, said:

Well that percentage is in referance to how many Lights are waiting for a game, in MM, not the percentage of pilots. When I pilot lights in PUGlife, it's back-to-back-to-back games, as fast as I can click the que button.

While this is true, it is also pretty indicative of population/popularity of a weight class. The more popular the weight class is in general, the more people are going to be wanting to play them, and consequently the larger % the wait queue is going to be. Since heavies tend to offer the best balance of firepower, survivability, and mobility, more people tend to want to play them, which is why they have the highest population/wait times.

Lights are not very forgiving of mistakes, and not many people like feeling so vulnerable. Being one shotted can be somewhat discouraging. That said, PGI should consider increasing the rewards for playing underrepresented weight classes.