22 replies to this topic

[Soultraxx]

Ive been bobbing up and down between T3 and T4 today and based on my experiences Ive come to the following conclusions.

1) I dont really belong in T3 - the standard of play is above me unless I run T1 mechs (which I dont want to HAVE to do to get a good score)

2) T3 matches have lots of whining when things dont go well.

3) T4 matches are pure fun - Ive had 63 dmg blowouts to 900/5 kill extravaganzas

Ive seen the Lances scatter to the far corners.
There are Stalkers packing flamers (I have a screenie but dont know how to post it)
FF all over the place
Lots of funny comments
Very little whining

But most of all, everyone seems to be having fun.

No back biting, blame gaming or childish tantrums in any of the T4 games Ive been in.

There was a post recently about new player experience and the big step into T3 and now having bounced between the tiers I agree that its going to be a shock for newbs. You could say "git gud" but the truth is not everyone can.

The answer? I honestly dont know. Luckily I have a full set of mastered top tier Clan mechs to fall back on if need be, but the new players wont.

I wont say T3 blows, but I will say T4 seems to be where the fun is at.

[Speedy Plysitkos]

T4 is target....

[Durant Carlyle]

Was recently at the same place bobbing between highest Tier 4 and lowest Tier 3, but now I have a several-pixel cushion in Tier 3. Thankfully, I haven't had the same experience. Still having fun in my lights, except when I dual-Gaussed from halfway across the map and die having done nothing at all (only happened twice in all of my playing time, but both times within the last four days).

[Soultraxx]

Titannium, on 03 October 2015 - 12:28 PM, said:

T4 is target....

I envy you Titannium as you have a ways to go before T3.
That match I saw you in today was my first T4 match and it was like a breath of fresh air. You will see a marked difference when you make it to T3. Enjoy the fun and laughter whilst you can my friend.

[SolCrusher]

You don't have to run meta, just toss 6 AC2 on a crab and have some fun.

[Durant Carlyle]

lol

Your experience is not everyone's Soultraxx.

Just like that thread in the New Player section about our "toxic community".

Exceptions, rather than the rule.

[Percimes]

I was in tier 4 for three days or so then "leveled" to tier 3. For the week I've been in tier 3 I'd say it games were somewhat less enjoyable.

Not sure if leveling my Maulers makes that much of a difference, but main difference I saw was in how much more racing there was. I was left behind all the time, the front changing all the time. It wasn't strategic, it was simply trying to do the most damage or kills... to the point it goes against the chances of the team to win. Horrible matches all week long, and not because people were better, if I saw some tier 1 it was in the better games, those that made sense.

Sampling is too low to make a fair judgement at this point anyway. My "XP bar" has been stable at the very beginning of the tier 3 so far.

I usually play in the non prime time of the day. Another factor that play in my case.

[Bawbagzz]

I myself prefer t4,my main is on t3 and it is pretty different.
Maybe psychological but I definately prefer it in t4.More fun,less meta cause I hate having to be forced to play meta mechs ie TW's etc.I also hate laser vomit.It is so ******* boring.

[TWIAFU]

Last few days been doing the same myself, between T3 and T4.

Decided to just say "Fu*k it" and play as I will not be a lemming and metagame.

Showing tier info has done far more harm then good and refuse to be apart of it.

[jss78]

From a smattering of comments, I get the feeling that T3's where no-one's quite happy. Tryhards in their meta-mechs hoping to get up with the big boys, some of the rest of us hoping to sandbag our way down to T4 where anything goes.

Although honestly it's not so bad. You see quite a bit less of truly ******** stuff, yet you can just about manage with fun/non-meta builds. Maybe T3's the golden medium.

[Percimes]

I think many people have made it their goal to climb up the tiers. Nothing bad about getting better and improving your skills, but I think too many are going at it the wrong way. They try to game the system. "How can I get the most 'points' the fastest". If they played to win matches instead of getting a score they would probably get a better score in the long run as winning is the biggest influence on your PSR.

But people are people.

[VirtualSmitty]

Tier 3 is the worst tier. It's like this horrible middle ground of the meta tryhards combined with the worst of the pugs.

[Yosharian]

Soultraxx, on 03 October 2015 - 12:08 PM, said:

Ive been bobbing up and down between T3 and T4 today and based on my experiences Ive come to the following conclusions.

1) I dont really belong in T3 - the standard of play is above me unless I run T1 mechs (which I dont want to HAVE to do to get a good score)

2) T3 matches have lots of whining when things dont go well.

3) T4 matches are pure fun - Ive had 63 dmg blowouts to 900/5 kill extravaganzas

Ive seen the Lances scatter to the far corners.
There are Stalkers packing flamers (I have a screenie but dont know how to post it)
FF all over the place
Lots of funny comments
Very little whining

But most of all, everyone seems to be having fun.

No back biting, blame gaming or childish tantrums in any of the T4 games Ive been in.

There was a post recently about new player experience and the big step into T3 and now having bounced between the tiers I agree that its going to be a shock for newbs. You could say "git gud" but the truth is not everyone can.

The answer? I honestly dont know. Luckily I have a full set of mastered top tier Clan mechs to fall back on if need be, but the new players wont.

I wont say T3 blows, but I will say T4 seems to be where the fun is at.

Oh yeah?

I played earlier today and virtually every game I was in the players were amicable and sportsmanlike. (Amazing considering I was playing in them =p)

Only one of the games featured a T1 player insulting his team.

Anecdotal evidence really doesn't prove anything. Comments regarding specific matches are only applicable... to those matches. You need a much larger sample to prove anything more.

Percimes, on 03 October 2015 - 12:38 PM, said:

It wasn't strategic

NASCAR is a strategy... just one you (and many assault pilots) dislike.

Edited by Yosharian, 03 October 2015 - 01:23 PM.

[Osteo2001]

Soultraxx, on 03 October 2015 - 12:08 PM, said:

Ive been bobbing up and down between T3 and T4 today and based on my experiences Ive come to the following conclusions.
...

I wont say T3 blows, but I will say T4 seems to be where the fun is at.

Exactly same experience. I'm much more satisfied with the T4 games as I play only non meta IS mechs. I can get away with machine guns on my IM and still get by with ER PPCs on a Tbolt (the "old" meta) and not get any odd comments.

[Brizna]

Yeah T4 is comprised of true newbies and people who just play for fun so it is a really friendly atmosphere, on the other hand T3 is made of people who are getting the hang of the game and most of the time think they are better than they actually are leading to disappointment and angriness, I know because once I was in that position, took me a few extra months to actually become a decent player.

[Vxheous]

Just because you are suddenly Tier 3 does not mean your match-making is that much different than tier 4, as teams are made out of a combination of different tiers on both sides. The only difference is at tier 3 you *may* run into tier 1's when in tier 4 you will only see tier 2's. Tier's do not just play within their tier.

Edited by Vxheous Kerensky, 03 October 2015 - 02:53 PM.

[Capt_Kobalt]

The whole tier thing is stupid. WHY? Cuz there are very VERY good players that only play CW. And almost Never play pub matches unless they are framing c-bills for a event. This means the poor noobs are going to be matched with guys that will in effect OWN them cuz of there MASTERD meda mechs, and expericance to boot. CW play is not counted at all in the Tier system. So there is going to be a lot of crying noobs when they get owned fast.

[Percimes]

Yosharian, on 03 October 2015 - 01:21 PM, said:

NASCAR is a strategy... just one you (and many assault pilots) dislike.

It is. Not a particularly good one for winning, it's more like gambling. But I wasn' referring to Nascaring only, more to chasing whatever mech was visible at the time, like squirrel chasing but on a grandeur scale, also a strategy I guess, strictly speaking, and still not a good one team-wise.

I'm not an assault pilot. I'm a lowest % mech category pilot. So I play mostly light, medium and assault. In that order, depending on the new mech released (which is why I'm playing my Maulers now and not when they released)

[El Bandito]

In this thread: People find it too much work to play in T3 and content in staying in the "fun" tier, smashing newbies.

[Parmeggido]

Now, keep in mind that these are things I assume to be true, and may be entirely incorrect.

Yes, there is a big difference between matchmaking between tier 4, and tier 3. The tier system is supposedly structured so that you can only fight people up to 2 tiers away from you. I assume that most people are tier 4, 3, and 2. So, a tier 1 player can only face pilots from tiers 1-3, and a tier 5 pilot can only face tiers 3-5. As a tier 3 pilot, if there is even 1 tier 1 player in the match, all tier 4 and 5 pilots are excluded, and the opposite is true if there is even 1 tier 5 pilot. Again, assuming that there are less tier 1 and 5 players in the game to match up against each other than there are the other tiers, they would naturally pull in more players of the tiers they can be matched up with in order to play, leading to wildly different games for the people in tier 3 as they are pulled from one extreme to the other, since a single tier 1 or 5 player could pull in up to 23 of the tiers closest to them to get a game.

Does this really happen that often? I don't know. I'd certainly say I've experienced it here and there, games where I blew away almost the entire enemy team, and games where I see names I know are going to blast me like I'm locust standing still. As I said, it's based on my own assumptions and anecdotal evidence.