33 replies to this topic

[Aresye]

So...had an interesting situation tonight in Clan Wolf. We had about 30-40 solo Wolf players defending a planet from Davion. They kept it down below 7%, so they did a good job there.

Then the planet was at 0%.

Meanwhile, 2 teams of CWI are attacking a Davion planet and making progress. Multiple, and I mean EXTENSIVE calls were frequently made over faction chat to get the solo players to come there, but all were ignored.

At one point there were 30 Clan Wolf pugs sitting in the defend queue against Davion, on a planet at 0% that had (at max) a single attacking team.

Meanwhile, our 2 teams are running into nothing but teams of solo players, and since we were in a rush to end these matches as fast as possible, we ended up giving some teams some extremely rough and poor matches.

Long back story and context, but it got me thinking.

A BIG problem in CW: Automatic Notifications

See, we didn't get the pugs to switch over because we were never at risk of being outnumbered on the planet we were attacking, so I doubt there were any, "Reenforce Attackers" notifications to help steep some of our numbers to the new target. They keep dropping on the planet at 0% because as long as somebody's attacking it, they get the notifications.

Meanwhile, on the IS side, their solo players are getting notifications to defend this new planet that's under attack, which pits entire teams of uncoordinated solo players against our 12mans.

We've had a lot of complaints about the pugs vs groups problem in CW, but these automatic notifications promote it, and that's a problem. We know and we ADVISE solo players to go on the ATTACK instead of DEFEND because attacking teams can only be from a single faction and are therefore more likely to be an organized group.

If we could have gotten those 30 or so solo players that were sitting on a 0% planet, most of them would have been matched with solo IS players, and all of them would have likely had a much better time than sitting in queue and/or getting rolled by organized units.

Proposal:
- Organized teams rarely follow the "Call to Arms" notifications. They select their targets and coordinate with other large teams to time their attacks and ticks.
- Make it so "Call to Arms" notifications' behavior promotes solo vs solo matches, by calling to arms one side to reenforce attackers, and calling the other side to defense.
- Make it so "Call to Arms" notifications disappear for players in a CW group.

It doesn't completely fix the issue of solo vs group matches, but it would help facilitate more solo vs solo matches without the need of implementing a matchmaking function. Solo players follow these notifications, so why not take advantage of that to help promote better matches?

Edited by Aresye Kerensky, 15 July 2015 - 11:02 PM.

[SeventhSL]

Wow I can't tell you how many times I've run into this. So frustrating. Grrrr....

Once I even watched 2 full teams of PUGS sit in defence of a 0% planet, without an enemy, while an 8 man premade tried desperately to get just a couple of them to help attack a different planet.

The call to arms messages are defiantly a problem that would help this. I also think if we could see the numbers on other planets while in queue it would help too.

Also have the faction chat visible so that people who sit in one of the other chat tabs can't miss the messages from other players asking for support. I see PUGS having problems with this all the time.

Edited by SeventhSL, 15 July 2015 - 11:51 PM.

[Anjian]

Interesting situation. With Jade Falcon pugs its the opposite. Everyone seems to go on the offense, leaving planets on the defense by mixed clan pugs.

[BSK]

Maybe the alerts need an update on calling for arms.

[Scoops Kerensky]

'Making progress' is a charitable way of putting CWI's progress on the Fedcom front last night, ha ha ha.

[Sputty]

keep on running, clanner

[thinkn bout thos Beans mans game]

*twleve man of CWI gets stomped multiple times by NKVA

Stupid pugs! If not for you we would hold luthien!

*farts

Edited by ilKhan Judge Dreddrensky, 16 July 2015 - 03:37 AM.

[Lily from animove]

how do you know those defenders were wolves? maybe they were other clanners just defending.

[Necromantion]

The games UI is f-king ATROCIOUS. There should be no pop up windows there should be a streamlined interface where faction chat is defaulted to and always up and you can swap tabs between. Think Diablo 2 kinda deal.

The devs for this game are so short sighted and eat so many lead paint chips you cant say that youre really surprised by this though. Also combining that with the amount of glue sniffers in society today just compounding stupid with more stupid. But thats how the gaming industry has gone, plug in and point and shoot is how most things are these days, MWO is not that as much as some people like to think it is.

[Antares102]

Defending is easier than attacking. It's as simple as that.
If you are PUG getting ROFLstomped regularly you obviously pick the easier way to play.

[Koshirou]

Necromantion, on 16 July 2015 - 07:09 AM, said:

The games UI is f-king ATROCIOUS. There should be no pop up windows there should be a streamlined interface where faction chat is defaulted to and always up and you can swap tabs between. Think Diablo 2 kinda deal.

The devs for this game are so short sighted and eat so many lead paint chips you cant say that youre really surprised by this though. Also combining that with the amount of glue sniffers in society today just compounding stupid with more stupid. But thats how the gaming industry has gone, plug in and point and shoot is how most things are these days, MWO is not that as much as some people like to think it is.

Thanks for posting that Necromantion. I sometimes think my own posts may be a bit too snarky-ranty, but then I see something like yours and know I'm on the safe side.

[Necromantion]

Koshirou, on 16 July 2015 - 07:14 AM, said:

Thanks for posting that Necromantion. I sometimes think my own posts may be a bit too snarky-ranty, but then I see something like yours and know I'm on the safe side.

I like to think that im just pointing out how things are. The amount of poor design and foresight coupled together that has already been "Fixed" with little to no success in this game since its inception is staggering. Im willing to bet the % time/resources invested in this game to fix things that were poorly thought out and implemented is much higher than on many other recent titles in the last 3 years.

[meteorol]

Ever attacked on boreal against a even half decent 12 man with 12 pugs? Those matches are the reason why pugs want to defend and not attack.

[Monkey Lover]

People are still playing cw?

[Davegt27]

lol yeah got our butts kicked by the 228th a few times last night

[DarkMetalBlade]

Monkey Lover, on 16 July 2015 - 10:20 AM, said:

PUGs are still playing cw?

Fixed it for you.

Antares102, on 16 July 2015 - 07:10 AM, said:

Defending is easier than attacking. It's as simple as that.
If you are PUG getting ROFLstomped regularly you obviously pick the easier way to play.

Actually, it isn't necessarily easier to defend, especially considering that most 12-man groups tend to be on the attacking side. Matter of fact, 12-man vs PUG matches will always end up being a victory for the 12-man, whether the PUG is defending or attacking. Thus, it makes me wonder why there are solos still playing this mode (I'm certainly not one of those people.)

Of course, if all the solos stopped playing CW altogether, you'd probably have nobody to defend, so it'll be ghost drop city.

Edited by DarkMetalBlade, 16 July 2015 - 11:23 AM.

[Felio]

[Skarlock]

Aresye Kerensky, on 15 July 2015 - 11:00 PM, said:

- Make it so "Call to Arms" notifications disappear for players in a CW group.

Maybe things have somehow changed since I last played CW when an event wasn't happening, but it was kind of a ghost town to begin with. I guess PGI could change it but I think you might have issues where you get nothing but ghost drops in a coordinated group if only pugs are available to play against. Maybe this is a non-issue but maybe it will be.

As a solo pug myself, I don't care so much about working towards a planet, I just care about getting a game. I have no problem following orders in faction chat *unless* it means I have to wait 30 minutes for a game when I could be getting a game in 1 minute... However, CWs main appeal to me is that specifically, if a lot of people are playing it, I don't sit there waiting for the search wheel to spin ten thousand times before I find a game in single or group queue. I get fast games and I spend a lot of time actually playing and very little time waiting. Since that really only happens during events... I tend to just not do CW at all outside of them.

[Leone]

Attacking is easier than defending. It's as simple as that, but no one thought to tell the pugs.

Sadly, therefore, pugs do not often go the easy route. Normal matches teach them that they need to have a defensive mindset to do well, and so when choosing their CW battles they choose defense, thinking it'll be easier.

~Leone.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

Leone, on 16 July 2015 - 11:48 AM, said:

Attacking is easier than defending. It's as simple as that, but no one thought to tell the pugs.

Highly depends on loadout, matchup and map. I would not say attacks are easier per se.