83 replies to this topic

[zagibu]

Most challenges result in a weekend of frustrating matches. You also see a lot of players you don't see on normal days. Maybe the two things are connected.

Edited by zagibu, 28 February 2015 - 02:27 PM.

[Herr Vorragend]

Very f(rustrating)unny challenge:
After a lot of hiding in the beginning people often simply wait until an enemy mech is ready for the final strike to take it down. Why is that so?
To get the achievement you need to play "efficient" in terms of the challenge-mechanic (wait, let others do the dirty work, fire from time to time to get assists and finally get your kill)
Possible Solutions:

- set the points you need lower for certain achievements
- encourage proper playstyle by giving additional rewards or increase the number of side-goals (e.g.: you need 1 kill and 5-6 assists)
- any other ideas, dear co-mechers?


I don´t want to call it "kill stealing", because sometimes it´s like lottery, when many mechs focus fire on one. After the event everything will be normal again.

[z3a1ot]

OP try to forget about everything else except that 3 days of premium time. Play your game as you usually do and earn as much cbills as possible. That is pretty much what I do most of the time.

[waterfowl]

Novawrecker, on 28 February 2015 - 01:48 PM, said:

Neither does anyone else. Last I checked, there is no "Kill stealing". This was the team based game MWO, not any single player games of a platform like DS Pokemon

you know what I meant, and you're just nit picking semantics

[luxebo]

FupDup, on 28 February 2015 - 12:44 PM, said:

I don't like the "all or nothing" style where a match either counts or it doesn't count. Instead, I think they should have a more granular system where each individual activity by itself gives you a point, and then when you reach X points you unlock a challenge tier. Kills, assists, wins, survival, and maybe other things would be potential conditions.

Somebody should be able to finish the event even if they only perform in one of those areas, but obviously someone who does well in every area will complete the event a lot faster.

I would pay for an event like this. No kidding.

My response to "challenges" aka which nerd can play 50 hours straight: http://mwomercs.com/...99#entry4135099

Edited by luxebo, 28 February 2015 - 03:08 PM.

[Xmith]

waterfowl, on 28 February 2015 - 12:42 PM, said:

Right now I'm getting 2 failures for every success. And it's not because I'm bad, it's because I don't play to kill steal. Right now you're rewarding people who play like idiots, who don't play to win, with free stuff. And you're punishing people who don't play like idiots, who try to win the match rather than kill steal, by withholding free stuff. Unless I pilot some stupid high burst damage mech that I hate driving and then fight my own team for kills, I won't get to 50 within 3 days. It will take upwards of 150 games. Almost 13 hours if I spend 5 minutes in each game (lol). Over 3 days.

This is unacceptable and it destroys the quality of the game for the duration of the event. I think we can all agree that everyone has been playing like an idiot for every single tournament with kill requirements. Moreover it also fatigues players who grind it out, making them not want to play for a month. You could argue that the event is optional, but a free mech & bay will make it appear non optional to most people.

REPLACE THE KILL REQUIREMENT WITH A POINT SYSTEM! IT'S NOT OKAY TO MAKE YOUR OWN TEAM A BIGGER OBSTACLE THAN THE OTHER TEAM! IT'S NOT OKAY TO SHOEHORN EVERYONE INTO STUPID MECHS LOADOUTS!

AND IT'S NOT OKAY TO CALL EVERYONE AN IDIOT

[thesleepyslam]

i'm not havin' a problem with this challenge and I'm not even getting points as fast as I was last challenge.. I've get a point 3/5 matches.

That said, we've seen a lot of different ways of holding the contest already. No matter what sort of reward structure you set up, there will be an optimum way of doing that, and players will start doing that thing more; just because people respond to incentives.

What you're asking for is a system which rewards the type of play you're accustomed to seeing, that is that it's most important to win the round because winning the rounds is what gives you the greatest rewards (c-bills) when a tournament isn't running. Realistically the only sort of incentive for that sort of thing would just be a general c-bill boost for all games being played during the weekend.

That criticism aside, there have been contests where it was just "earn more than 30 match score". I think that might be the best way to do it using points; if you do not want people to adjust how they play the game at all.

Consider the following, though: maybe PGI actually wants to reward players who get kills over those who don't.

Edited by thesleepyslam, 28 February 2015 - 03:34 PM.

[Dale Grible]

Novawrecker, on 28 February 2015 - 01:48 PM, said:

Neither does anyone else. Last I checked, there is no "Kill stealing". This was the team based game MWO, not any single player games of a platform like DS Pokemon

I disagree. There is a big difference between weekend events and standard playing days. Less meta high alpha. We all have that go to mech if were havin a bad day and weekend events make players go to those mechs to farm the kills. The team dmg goes through the roof cuz somebody wants their laser to be the last to graze the enemy to get that precious kill

Edited by Dale Grible, 28 February 2015 - 03:27 PM.

[waterfowl]

Whelp, now I'm getting harassed for playing normally and not thinking about the tournament. Got 5 kills with my 4G and half the team started raging at me.


I can't win

[LT. HARDCASE]

Like I said last weekend, it'd all be solved if scoring a certain amount of damage and/or assists would preclude you from needing a kill.

It's that simple.

[Fate 6]

waterfowl, on 28 February 2015 - 12:42 PM, said:

Right now I'm getting 2 failures for every success. And it's not because I'm bad, it's because I don't play to kill steal. Right now you're rewarding people who play like idiots, who don't play to win, with free stuff.

The objective of Skirmish is to kill the enemy. I'm a good pilot, so I kill enemies. I play to kill enemies, because that wins me the game. Generally I end up getting assists while doing this too. Seems reasonable to me.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

All they need to do is void your point for a match if you TK someone. That should be a condition of EVERY challenge. And make it a three-strike rule- on the first offense, you lose a point. Second offense, you lose your progress towards the next reward tier. Third offense, you lose your progress towards the next tier and get a 24-hour temp ban.

You should also lose your point if you do significant damage to a teammate (say, 20 points or more) and they are then killed by someone else, or if you do in excess of 100 damage to any number of teammates combined over the course of the match.

Since most of us manage to make it through these events without getting any TKs at all, I should think that's not too excessive as far as punishments go.

[Pjwned]

Soy, on 28 February 2015 - 12:43 PM, said:

Ever stop to think that your struggle is PGI's opportunity to study data and metrics of why you're struggling?

And that could potentially have good impact down the line in terms of netcoding, client optimization, map design, weapon balance, matchmaker, Elo, etc?

This is what the original tournaments were for. Stress testing and brute force encouraging more guinea pigs/numbers.

While that is fair, I question how much more data like this they would need now because there have been a pretty big number of challenges like this at this point.

Kevjack, on 28 February 2015 - 03:35 PM, said:

Like I said last weekend, it'd all be solved if scoring a certain amount of damage and/or assists would preclude you from needing a kill.

It's that simple.

As in a "kill most damage" reward like the one that already exists? Yes, I agree.

Edited by Pjwned, 28 February 2015 - 03:51 PM.

[CRIMSONSUNNY]

PGI should just stop giving us challenges if they aren't challenges ffs.

[ROSS-128]

I find the points are easier to get in this challenge, but I wouldn't say they're easy enough to cover doubling the number needed. After all, if I'm racking up a lot of kills chances are I'm going to win anyway, and games where I lose I usually didn't manage to get both a kill and an assist anyway...

So the change only affects the relatively small number of games where I get a kill, get an assist, but still somehow manage to lose. Which does help me earn points a little faster, but not enough to send me all the way to 50.

[Mudhutwarrior]

I tried not to alter my play style in this but I have had to. As soon as I know I have a kill I will back off and only try and incapacitate the others letting teammates close the deal. Lost and almost lost a couple of matches because of that.

There is no way to avoid getting sucked in by this challenge one way or another unless I just log off which I have already tonight.

[KraftySOT]

Seems fine to me. Its nice to have a challenge thats challenging for a change.

[Greenjulius]

I started off only qualifying for 1/2 of matches because I tried running the panther, just to get it leveled finally. After switching to my Arrow and FS9-A, I'm qualifying with 2/3 matches. I'll probably have all the games around the 110 mark if I can endure it. For reference, the last challenge took me 106 or 108 games; I can't remember which.

I don't mind the point system; it's WAY TOO HIGH however. 80 points for the top reward is insane. Minimum of 80 games in a weekend to get them all? That's so stupid.

Edited by Greenjulius, 28 February 2015 - 04:36 PM.

[ibex230]

Struggling to get a kill? Jesus, must be a fun place down there in ELO hell.

[Darlith]

PS WrathOfDeadguy, on 28 February 2015 - 03:43 PM, said:

All they need to do is void your point for a match if you TK someone. That should be a condition of EVERY challenge. And make it a three-strike rule- on the first offense, you lose a point. Second offense, you lose your progress towards the next reward tier. Third offense, you lose your progress towards the next tier and get a 24-hour temp ban.

You should also lose your point if you do significant damage to a teammate (say, 20 points or more) and they are then killed by someone else, or if you do in excess of 100 damage to any number of teammates combined over the course of the match.

Since most of us manage to make it through these events without getting any TKs at all, I should think that's not too excessive as far as punishments go.

The 20 damage is too excessive given weapons damage. That's a light running into your AC/20 round after all, which has happened to me after firing sometimes, and I've watched people jumpjet up into friendly double guass rounds before.