16 replies to this topic

[sycocys]

Especially for newer CW players choosing for the first time what you get is just a line of flags to choose from with no information on the status of the map, no way to be able to chat with active players, and if I recall (don't have it open at the moment) it doesn't even discern between Clan and IS factions at that initial selection screen.

Problem is that if you select the wrong one, ie no population or full of troll players, you at the very minimum are stuck with it for 3 days before you can make another blind choice. Most people don't track the forums to have an idea where might be a decent place to go, so there just need to be more stuff built in for that.

Not really sure on the solution, maybe some global chat features and more information (being able to see the map, faction history/units present,# of players present) presented in-game for players?

[Red Legs Greaves]

I agree that more information and communications are needed but PGI won't do this. Because if they did they'd have to show us how small the population has actually fallen.

[anonymous161]

Pretty much would be the end of the game you would see truly how pathetically low the population is in the game.

Which I wouldn't really care.

[Havyek]

IMO Loyalty Point bonuses(and penalties) should also be showing in the UI

[Moldur]

What if we all decide to only join one of two factions, excluding all the others in the game. Would it help CW population, and the problems in OP's post?

[slide]

I agree that it is a problem and to a degree explains why Davion (being the first choice) seems to get a disproportionate number of new players or seems to have the highest population figures. If you know nothing why not choose the first option.

I think each faction shield needs a pop out with a basic rundown of the factions history, morals and goals, rulers characteristics and any other fluff that might appeal to someone looking for a cause to fight for. You will never stop the "ah who cares type player" who just clicks the first thing they see on the way to a match. Although a possible solution to that would be to have the faction selections come up in a random order each time it comes up.

As for population, never going to happen due to "reasons" from PGI. Largely irrelevant anyway as faction population and active population would be very different.

Rewards might help but as of right now could make peoples decisions worse. Example: All clan factions just got pumped up to 125K. If a new player picked CSJ for example who are largely inactive and have only one world, they would be thinking holy crap I just picked the worst faction on the map and would likely find it hard to even get a game.

This game seriously needs a person dedicated to inject some lore and fluff and instructions into the UI, to get those that might be interested involved in the game, it would help new players and would keep players longer. Fighting for a cause IMO is more interesting than just grinding Cbills/XP/LP.

I would even go so far as to having specific mech variants and rewards for each faction (like they said they would long ago) to give each faction a somewhat unique flavour which might also appeal to some people. The only difference between any of the 6 IS factions or the 4 Clan factions is the people/units who play in those factions which is something that has evolved over time. There is no way that PGI could quantify the troll/friendliness factor of a faction.

[Red Legs Greaves]

Moldur, on 20 May 2015 - 05:40 PM, said:

What if we all decide to only join one of two factions, excluding all the others in the game. Would it help CW population, and the problems in OP's post?

I've kind of done this myself. I've decided to only play Jade Falcon for Clans because they seem to be the competent without being up their own A** and Davion for IS because I really like a lot of the perma contract units there. I think if everyone did this it would help keep the population atleast stable if not equal.

[sycocys]

Moldur, on 20 May 2015 - 05:40 PM, said:

What if we all decide to only join one of two factions, excluding all the others in the game. Would it help CW population, and the problems in OP's post?

Well that would actually help CW for the players that want to play CW. Even if its 3 factions so the ISvIS guys aren't thinning it out for the sake of lore in an undeveloped game mode.

Wouldn't really do anything for the blind choice so much though. Its just something that I noticed after I started faction hopping, and really stuck out like a sore thumb after Tukaayid because the population has tanked to a ridiculous low.

And I agree it would put up the numbers probably to PGI's dismay, but regardless it is information that players do need to know when choosing factions. Especially players that are new to CW and/or don't get on the forums or TS. Its either that or get rid of the break contract penalties until they figure out a way to make the mode interesting enough that more players want to play it so the down time doesn't feel so brutal when you get stuck in a faction that you didn't want.

[sycocys]

Red Legs Greaves, on 20 May 2015 - 06:14 PM, said:

I've kind of done this myself. I've decided to only play Jade Falcon for Clans because they seem to be the competent without being up their own A** and Davion for IS because I really like a lot of the perma contract units there. I think if everyone did this it would help keep the population atleast stable if not equal.

Davion and Falcon would have to ghost drop for 2 weeks to get a border with each other though. It really doesn't matter what two factions so long as 90%+ of the remaining active population goes to them and they have a border between them. Swap it out after a while if people want so the rewards keep building. But stop having no fights because you are too "dedicated" to having a particular shield next to your name, that's just foolish.

Edited by sycocys, 20 May 2015 - 06:20 PM.

[slide]

sycocys, on 20 May 2015 - 06:15 PM, said:

And I agree it would put up the numbers probably to PGI's dismay, but regardless it is information that players do need to know when choosing factions. Especially players that are new to CW and/or don't get on the forums or TS.

I don't see how knowing the population numbers or not changes what decision a player makes when choosing a faction. Lets take a fictional FPS you know nothing about except that you get to shoot stuff. There are 2 factions.

Team Purple - population 5000
Team Green - population 500

What can you conclude from this information? I would argue it comes down to the person that you are. I have 4 possible answers from the info given.

1. I like purple I will play for them
2. I like green I will play for them
3. Purple has more players, they must be better and I want to win I will play for them
4. Green has fewer players, I like the underdog and they could use my help, also it will be easier to get a match.

Answers 3 and 4 are probably more relevant to this conversation, but even knowing the numbers doesn't help you unless you have some context. Davion for the longest time had the highest number of players yet at Tukayyid were the worst performing faction. Numbers without context are useless. It's why Statisticians can make numbers mean anything and make living doing it.

Edited by slide, 20 May 2015 - 06:52 PM.

[Red Legs Greaves]

sycocys, on 20 May 2015 - 06:19 PM, said:

Davion and Falcon would have to ghost drop for 2 weeks to get a border with each other though. It really doesn't matter what two factions so long as 90%+ of the remaining active population goes to them and they have a border between them. Swap it out after a while if people want so the rewards keep building. But stop having no fights because you are too "dedicated" to having a particular shield next to your name, that's just foolish.

Why do they have to share a border? I just like them. And switching factions constantly does nothing to help with the population problems. It just overloads the team that is winning at the time and everyone leaves the faction that is getting hammered.

I am however not a fan of the self-imposed ceasefires. If green and purple both have a bunch of people and none of the other factions are playing green and purple should not play themselves because they have a "ceasefire". If you do that you are just limiting an already limited amount of potential matches.

[Augustus Martelus II]

I miss MWLL...

[sycocys]

Knowing the numbers gives players a much better sense of how active or inactive a given faction is, if they want to play CW it doesn't make sense to join a faction with 50 players when there is 5 with 500.

As for people that are currently playing choosing 2 factions that share a border is just common sense - so they can fight rather than be spread across the map not fighting.

If people would rather complain about not having fights opposed to simply coordinating to all dump into 2 opposing factions there's really not much to be said or done about it, you really can't help them and they earn the limited matches.

[sdsnowbum]

There should be a 'contract difficulty rating' added to the UI. It could be calculated by some formula involving the faction's current population, change in planet count over the last week, and maybe how many Clan/IS borders there are.

Then people could pick hard or easy fights.

Maybe then they could even limit how many people can join a faction with easy fights. Right now you can pick any contract with any faction, which leaves too much randomness.

That's all I really want to see changed as far as contract selection - I don't want new players to get thrown into the hardest fights without realizing it, and I want experienced players to see where the hard fights currently are.

[Apnu]

sycocys, on 19 May 2015 - 02:54 AM, said:

Especially for newer CW players choosing for the first time what you get is just a line of flags to choose from with no information on the status of the map, no way to be able to chat with active players, and if I recall (don't have it open at the moment) it doesn't even discern between Clan and IS factions at that initial selection screen.

Problem is that if you select the wrong one, ie no population or full of troll players, you at the very minimum are stuck with it for 3 days before you can make another blind choice. Most people don't track the forums to have an idea where might be a decent place to go, so there just need to be more stuff built in for that.

Not really sure on the solution, maybe some global chat features and more information (being able to see the map, faction history/units present,# of players present) presented in-game for players?

The solution is DEPTH.

Which means all the stuff you thought about and more.

Most importantly, the game thrives on may players playing. They should not be divided between the public queues of meaningless, yet fun, games and CW where there is a hint of meaning, but none of the fun.

All games should related to the IS map in some way and they should all matter toward the player and the faction they are fighting for.

Then if a player is undecided about a faction, they've got something else to do while they wait out the contract and try else where.

But in all the other games I've played that have factions, its always blind selecting a faction in the beginning. Newbies need to be able to float around a bit and have things to do deep in the underhive until they get the feel of the various factions and figure out which one suits them best.

[sycocys]

It wouldn't be so bad, but a new player to select a faction and be locked in for the bare minimum of 72 hours is pretty H.S. if their blind choice dropped them in an empty one with no CW presence.

[xX PUG Xx]

The population illustration doesn't have to be an actual player count, it could be something as simple as a bar graph or percentage but it would at least give an indication of the population level for a given faction.

I agree with Apnu and have posted my ideas elsewhere that all games should be linked to a form of CW, essentially MWO should BE faction warfare.