Navid is right, instead of dismissing a new player's feedback or offering unpractical suggestions (Just get this meta mech, join a group... well, if you could donate to every newbie 10 mil, nay, 30 mil for the CHANCE to grind the xp to elite it, sure, or maybe make grouping up basically automatic/required, sure), the community should really reflect on how brutal this game is for new players. When steam launch hits, this story will be repeated over and over. Actually, most players will likely give up way before 100 games, because they were not here for the mechs or any love for Battletech, but because MWO was something they wanted to try, to see if it is fun.. With the current setup (almost zero tutorial guidelines about strategy and position, dropping into mid tier 4) they are most likely going to be hit by a wall of frustration and leave before the game can grow on them.
With 12 on 12 matches, the key to survival and doing well (at most levels) is positioning. You have to be at a place where you can do damage while not be shot at by more than one or two mechs. Skill in aiming and other technical skills are really secondary. Yet basically none of this is taught in the tutorials. There's no current approach to ease a player into difficult , highly complex battles. What really should happen is new players play small, e.g. 3 on 3 battles where positioning is less key and they get a chance to practice the technicals. Then they can move up to larger, maybe 8 on 8. Last they can learn the complexity of a 12 on 12 battle. It's like soccer. You don't drop a new player in a full 11 v 11 game and expect the new player to play well. They have to get the fundamentals down in practice first, and maybe play small sided games where complexity is lower.
Back in the day on Battletech MUXs with the equivalent of community warefare (as opposed to "sim sites" which were like the pug queue), new players could not even hit the battlefield without joining a faction. They would join the faction and be sent to the training officer. The training officer would go through the basic battlemech manuals and newbies would have to pass 3 to 5 simulated tests before graduation from the cadet school. The tests would be along the lines of: piloting obstacle course, symmetric duel, asymmetric duel, small group on small group combat. The last test was the most realistic, with factionmates helping out to flesh out the teams. Teams would have designated OP leads and operate as in a real fight. The new player would have to follow orders and fight with his team, with the training officer watching over his shoulder (instead of in the opponent mech). If the cadet passes this, then they go on probation and get a low tier mech for realspace. MUX was a real time commitment, but it was also near a military simulation. The simsites dropped you into battles like pug queue, and produced completely different warriors. I know, I cut my chops at a sim site. I was technically proficient but still had to go through cadet school to learn the strategy, positioning, and teamwork aspects.
Multiplayer battletech is really complex and unforgiving. It has a very steep learning curve (even on the dueling level it is steep). Throwing newbies in with tier 4 is a huge mistake. Tier 4 is filled with skilled casuals and veterans who don't play well in a win/loss or point system sort of way. A new player will be completely overmatched in terms of the fundamentals. I've spectated newbies who haven't gotten their aiming down trying to fight the average tier 4. It was a slaughter. And then there are the tier 3s . New players need their own tier.
Edited by RedMercury, 09 October 2015 - 05:53 AM.
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