44 replies to this topic

[Leeroy Mechkins]

After Trying 7 Different Factions, Here is what I Discovered:

• Its bad to have population imbalance between Clans and IS, because it leads to difficulty getting CW matches.
  
• Its bad to have all the units going to certain factions, leaving certain factions mostly PUG. For example the FRR vs Ghost Bear right now is a joke. Many units on Ghost Bear side, very few on FRR, so its always PUG vs UNIT and loss.

What I mean is that there needs to be movement of players towards the less populated factions.
And there needs to be incentives for units to move around to the factions with less units.
Otherwise its a very unbalanced experience.

Yes, I know many players and units want to role-play a single faction and never change.
But its actually very bad for the CW matchmaker.

Edited by Leeroy Mechkins, 03 February 2015 - 09:16 AM.

[Zeece]

The current 'incentives' system doesn't really seem to make a difference in populations... dropping FRR for instance you get twice the rewards for dropping CW.

[Rahul Roy]

Zeece, on 03 February 2015 - 09:17 AM, said:

The current 'incentives' system doesn't really seem to make a difference in populations... dropping FRR for instance you get twice the rewards for dropping CW.

Well slight correction, it doesn't get you anything extra unless you win.

Which I think is the right idea - in theory it would make 'winners' (aka the best units) go to wherever they are needed the most (aka places where nobody is 'winning' b/c the best units are not there).

I just think there should be tweaks made to this system. For various reasons the intended results are not happening.

I wonder what if the system limits how much total payout a faction can give? The faction has a war chest, paying so many elite units has used up all their available funds. So they succeed but now they can no longer afford the premium mercs who got them their win and they will end up fighting for the other side rather than fight for free.

And people who stay faction permanent (or at least on the longest term contracts) would not draw from the war chest. They are volunteering to fight out of love for the faction.

Edited by Rahul Roy, 03 February 2015 - 09:24 AM.

[Leeroy Mechkins]

Yes, the incentives don't seem to work well for players to move factions.

Also, there are no incentives for units to go to the factions with less units.
For example Draconis Combine and FRR are seriously devoid of units now.
Its usually PUG vs UNIT, the units are simply farming for creds.

Even worse, units may fight the weaker factions to farm them, making the imbalance worse.
Not to mention, plenty of role-players want penalties for moving factions.

So these are bad factors for CW matchmaking.

[Gyrok]

Leeroy Mechkins, on 03 February 2015 - 09:14 AM, said:

After Trying 7 Different Factions, Here is what I Discovered:

• Its bad to have population imbalance between Clans and IS, because it leads to difficulty getting CW matches.
  
• Its bad to have all the units going to certain factions, leaving certain factions mostly PUG. For example the FRR vs Ghost Bear right now is a joke. Many units on Ghost Bear side, very few on FRR, so its always PUG vs UNIT and loss.

What I mean is that there needs to be movement of players towards the less populated factions.

And there needs to be incentives for units to move around to the factions with less units.
Otherwise its a very unbalanced experience.

Yes, I know many players and units want to role-play a single faction and never change.
But its actually very bad for the CW matchmaker.

Welcome to a portion of the game that the developers cannot force to be what you want across the board.

This is a WAR controlled by the COMMUNITY, hence the odd name...COMMUNITY WARFARE.

Not to be too blunt about it, but there are entirely too many undedicated players that drop for both sides, making the current scenario pretty much garbage for the dedicated players.

As for FRR...the issue there is everyone saw the writing on the wall last week and left a sign up by the edge of Clan space that says "Last PUG out, hit the lights please..."

[Koniving]

Agreed.

There simply isn't a large reason to join one side or another.

I had a thought last night. What if homeworlds could be attacked, and until a "reset" akin to some of the other games I've been playing with faction based warfare (where they have something akin to a Cease Fire session. Both sides play, a 'battle' has x amount of real life days attributed to it and whichever side has the most headway at the end of the battle 'wins' that battle. Another game of a similar nature called them 'Wars'.)

Whatever the case, say there is X time (days, months) to try and take over the Inner Sphere. At the end of that time, the side making the most headway wins. (What they win, who knows?) Anyway, if your side is completely defeated, you get absorbed. For example if Ghost Bear defeats Rassalhague, then the FRR is absorbed into Ghost Bear (but limited to FRR units) and forced to fight as Bondsman for the Ghost Bear.

In turn, what if Kurita defeated Smoke Jaguar and forces Smoke Jaguar to fight on their behalf? Etc.

Just a random thought.

[Xyroc]

Contract incentives for Houses on the front lines of the Clan invasions. Bonuses for defending / attacking planets on strategic borders.

The houses should be "steering" the mercs to attack / defend areas that would benefit the house itself.
Example:

Contracted with Steiner. There should be very little / no incentive to attack FFR but a lot to defend the border VS. the clans / attack clan occupying worlds.

Even If you are aligned with Davion you should get a bonus for going up to Kurita and helping defend a clan bordering world. Now I wouldnt expect you to get much incentive to help attack a world for Kurita because it would be against the interests of Davion to expand Kurita's domain.

[Harathan]

Rahul Roy, on 03 February 2015 - 09:24 AM, said:

Well slight correction, it doesn't get you anything extra unless you win.

This.

This single factor is crippling the economy of Community Warfare.

Edited by Harathan, 03 February 2015 - 11:58 AM.

[Jonathan Paine]

CW is just inheriting the same problem we saw in the public queue: there is absolutely no disadvantage to grouping up with 11 other top players and rofle-stomping smaller teams. Regardless of how inherently unfair a match is, the winning side gets full credit for the stomp. On the losing side, the worse you get stomped, the less you get rewarded.

[Felbombling]

You would think that the incentives, in combination with boredom and pride, would lead to the better units migrating to low population factions or some form of mutual agreement in an effort to find each other for the challenging matches they have been pestering PGI for.

[Yokaiko]

Jonathan Paine, on 03 February 2015 - 12:35 PM, said:

CW is just inheriting the same problem we saw in the public queue: there is absolutely no disadvantage to grouping up with 11 other top players and rofle-stomping smaller teams. Regardless of how inherently unfair a match is, the winning side gets full credit for the stomp. On the losing side, the worse you get stomped, the less you get rewarded.

One might even call that, motivation.

[Kookieslayer]

AKA too many factions for the number of active players. Not very surprising... there is faction imbalance in big MMOs when they only have 2 factions... so with the 10 it's always going to be imbalanced.

[Gyrok]

Jonathan Paine, on 03 February 2015 - 12:35 PM, said:

CW is just inheriting the same problem we saw in the public queue: there is absolutely no disadvantage to grouping up with 11 other top players and rofle-stomping smaller teams. Regardless of how inherently unfair a match is, the winning side gets full credit for the stomp. On the losing side, the worse you get stomped, the less you get rewarded.

You can win with numbers against a few skilled teams. The problem is, while the IS is VASTLY more populated than the Clans, by a large margin, they cannot muster the numbers to overcome skill.

[Abivard]

Gyrok, on 03 February 2015 - 01:19 PM, said:

You can win with numbers against a few skilled teams. The problem is, while the IS is VASTLY more populated than the Clans, by a large margin, they cannot muster the numbers to overcome skill.

ROFLMAO

The Clans have both the over all numbers and the majority of the top comp teams.

[Leeroy Mechkins]

Abivard, on 03 February 2015 - 01:34 PM, said:

ROFLMAO

The Clans have both the over all numbers and the majority of the top comp teams.

Right now it does appear the top teams are mostly in the clans, leading to continual IS PUG steamrolls.
There is no mechanism to encourage some of these teams to move to IS to have exciting team vs team matches.

[Johnny Z]

Zeece, on 03 February 2015 - 09:17 AM, said:

The current 'incentives' system doesn't really seem to make a difference in populations... dropping FRR for instance you get twice the rewards for dropping CW.

I bet after logistics is in playing for the highest paying and rewarding faction will add even more incentive.

[ZenFool]

Hey OP, how many mechbays did you just get? Probably more than me. Isn't THAT incentive to keep changing factions?

[Karl Marlow]

Kookieslayer, on 03 February 2015 - 01:19 PM, said:

AKA too many factions for the number of active players. Not very surprising... there is faction imbalance in big MMOs when they only have 2 factions... so with the 10 it's always going to be imbalanced.

and tehy are planning on adding 3 more.

[Livewyr]

Your problems stem from one:

There is no point in being or staying anywhere.

[Belkor]

Abivard, on 03 February 2015 - 01:34 PM, said:

ROFLMAO

The Clans have both the over all numbers and the majority of the top comp teams.

Didn't see you whining when the FRR had most of the top comp teams alone which completely stalled most of the clan offensive. Payback is a ***** isn't it?