79 replies to this topic

[TyphonCh]

Just sat in the Q for half an hour, no game. Gonna play something else I guess. Which is a shame because I really wanted into the PTS.
Someone get it over with and tweet Russ. lol

Edited by Team Chevy86, 16 October 2015 - 04:21 PM.

[sycocys]

I've been doing matches, but admit its always been an annoyance to me that games require an entirely different install to log on to test things like this...

99% of the processing of this game is on the server side, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me why I need all the maps/mech textures a second time when the only other actual change is in a bunch of text files.

[Duke ramulots]

Reasons for not doing PTS:

Quirks, if I had known of their existence I'd have never started playing and I'm pretty sure they're here to stay.

Ghost heat: As bad as the quirk system

New proposed changes: All of them so far have been really bad.

So instead of dwelling on these things I've decided to just derp about in the most arcade like "thinking mans shooter" ever made until the next battletech genre game comes out and I will play no more.

[Wintersdark]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 October 2015 - 03:34 PM, said:

yeah at least half my mechs had unassigned or wrongly assigned weapon groups.

I also figure it would be less data migration for them, if we just played on blank slate "Dev Special" accts.

Weapon groups are client side, and set by an XML file that will reflect your mech inventory from the last time you played on it (or be empty if it's a new PTS install). if you buy and sell mechs after the last PTS but before the account snapshot is taken for this PTS, then your mechs end up in a different order, which causes the groups to be pointed at incorrect mechs. The account snapshot only copies server-side settings.

Incidentally, you can copy the .XML's from (using default folders) your C:/users/windowsusername/saved games/mechwarrior online/profiles/mwousername/
into C:/users/windowsusername/saved games/mwo publictest/profiles/mwousername/

If you copy all four files, you'll get your game settings, weapon groups, keybinds, etc all copied over from the live client. Then the accuracy of the weapon groups and such is dependant on how much you've added/removed from your account after the snapshot was taken - typically a week or so prior.

The Public Test Installer should, IMHO, add an option to do this automatically.

God knows, this time, when I installed the PTS my first few games where complete losses because I couldn't do anything. I rebind everything, and often cannot remember (or reach) default controls. I unloaded into one guy at the start of a match because, for example, I bind the number keys (1-4 on the top of the keyboard, not the numpad) to 25/50/75/100% throttle.

Those being default weapon group fire keys. Woops.

TELEFORCE, on 16 October 2015 - 04:18 PM, said:

I was thinking about trying the PTS but I have premium time I don't want to waste. If they were to somehow compensate for that, though, then I'd be on board.

That's not a bad idea. Award a day of premium time for every day you log in and play at least one match on the PTS. That'd get people in, and not really cost them anything of note.

Duke ramulots, on 16 October 2015 - 04:27 PM, said:

Reasons for not doing PTS:

Quirks, if I had known of their existence I'd have never started playing and I'm pretty sure they're here to stay.

hahah the irony here is part of this PTS was the total removal of quirks.

Quote

Ghost heat: As bad as the quirk system

New proposed changes: All of them so far have been really bad.

But you haven't tried them. They SOUND bad, but in practice are actually pretty fun.

Edited by Wintersdark, 16 October 2015 - 04:28 PM.

[Fate 6]

True balance cannot be tested on the PTS. I did install it for the first time for the rebalance pass 1.

For this one the balance changes cannot be determined without extensive testing with actually balanced teams. The only issues are the lock-on to get optimal range lasers and hit markers and they're not something I need to test to know they're bad (I was hoping it would be lock-on to get MAX range lasers). The other changes are subtle enough that there is no obvious imbalance.

Other reasons I'm not on PTS include that I'm not even playing on Live right now because the game is pretty stale in a way that even a large rebalance like this won't change. I'm just tired of the same maps with the same deathmatch for 3 years I guess.

[Bishop Steiner]

Team Chevy86, on 16 October 2015 - 04:20 PM, said:

Just sat in the Q for half an hour, no game. Gonna play something else I guess. Which is a shame because I really wanted into the PTS.
Someone get it over with and tweet Russ. lol

Yup....just hit 40 minutes on mine.

[oldradagast]

AEgg, on 16 October 2015 - 03:40 PM, said:

Mostly because I have to redownload it. MWO is like 10 gigs, that takes like three hours on my internet connection.

Same here. And I have better things to do than play through the latest "throw crap at the wall and see what sticks" PTS mess.

We've been down this road too many times before, and it is brutally evident that PGI has no idea how to balance this game. The random, lurching all over the place nature of the first two PTS runs clearly shows that we're not on a development path to balance or improvements with successive, more refined iterations. No, we're in the "throw stuff out there and see what happens" phase. That's... very sad at this point in the game's development cycle, but fine... I can live with that for now. I read the PTS change notes, laughed, posted a few angry replies in the appropriate form, and will go on with my life.

If they actually listened, we wouldn't be in this situation now, so why waste the time with the huge download?

[Onyxian]

Incentivize the PTS with an event, with rewards consummate to playing on the real servers and PGI would get all the testing data it could want.

Lack of any real server rewards on the PTS = wasted time for me, when I don't have much free time anyways.

[Deathlike]

At this rate, I could be playing another game.

[Bishop Steiner]

Deathlike, on 16 October 2015 - 04:35 PM, said:

At this rate, I could be playing another game.

well, I just made dinner, cleaned the dishes, my kitchen, grabbed a beer.... so time was not totally wasted.....

Unless I was using it for say...recreation?

Just got told by the Boss Man to "grab a buddy and PM"...... lol SMH.

[Bishop Steiner]

The really stupid thing? After spending an hour buying Mechs, unlocking skills, unlocking modules, customizing mechs, etc... then another hour failing to find match....


Does PGI think I'm in the mood to even play the game on the normal servers now for the rest of the evening?

Very short sighted. Too many other options of things to do to retain players that way.

[ShinobiHunter]

AEgg, on 16 October 2015 - 03:40 PM, said:

Mostly because I have to redownload it. MWO is like 10 gigs, that takes like three hours on my internet connection.

That's it? It took me 13 hours to download the bloody thing. It's annoying to have to go through and unlock elites on everything, but it wouldn't be so bad if I could find a match...

I kinda wish they had left quirks in place for this round. After playing with quirks for so long, the mechs feel very different than they do on the regular server. It's hard to tell if things are different because of the PTS changes or just the lack of quirks.

[Lugin]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 October 2015 - 03:34 PM, said:

yeah at least half my mechs had unassigned or wrongly assigned weapon groups.

I also figure it would be less data migration for them, if we just played on blank slate "Dev Special" accts.

I actually figured this out a while ago: weapons groups are stored locally.
Specifially, C:\Users\"Login Name"\Saved Games\MechWarrior Online\Profiles\"Pilot Name"\weapongroups.xml

Test client's probably looking in a different spot.

[SkyHammyr]

I played a dozen games on PTS. I plan on playing more.
I do so because I don't want to be That Guy™ that lambastes a PTS proposal because of theorycraft or simple outright malice. That's just simply reckless hyperbole.
I actually want to see the changes in action, against live opponents, to see for myself what feels right, what doesn't and what has no real effect.

I also do so because I have hard earned money invested in this game. It behooves me to participate as much as I can to what I hope to be an effort to prolong the game, and my investment.

Of course, this is a first step, so I'm curious to see how all the upcoming pieces to the puzzle fit with the pieces we now have.

Edited by SkyHammr, 16 October 2015 - 05:31 PM.

[Wintersdark]

Lugin, on 16 October 2015 - 05:16 PM, said:

I actually figured this out a while ago: weapons groups are stored locally.
Specifially, C:\Users\"Login Name"\Saved Games\MechWarrior Online\Profiles\"Pilot Name"\weapongroups.xml

Test client's probably looking in a different spot.

Yeah, I posted this up a couple posts above yours. The PTS build looks in .../MWO PublicTest/Profiles/weapongroups.XML

The other XML file hold your game and graphics settings, keybinds, etc, so its easy to just copy them all.

[Lugin]

Wintersdark, on 16 October 2015 - 05:24 PM, said:

Yeah, I posted this up a couple posts above yours. The PTS build looks in .../MWO PublicTest/Profiles/weapongroups.XML

The other XML file hold your game and graphics settings, keybinds, etc, so its easy to just copy them all.

Gah, gotta stop reading the forums when I'm tired, makes me miss things.

Edited by Lugin, 16 October 2015 - 05:33 PM.

[CtrlAltWheee]

I couldn't get into a match. Tried for 15 minutes between 8:50 and 9:00pm thursday night.

[Bishop Steiner]

SkyHammr, on 16 October 2015 - 05:21 PM, said:

I played a dozen games on PTS. I plan on playing more.
I do so because I don't want to be That Guy™ that lambastes a PTS proposal because of theorycraft or simple outright malice. That's just simply reckless hyperbole.
I actually want to see the changes in action, against live opponents, to see for myself what feels right, what doesn't and what has no real effect.

I also do so because I have hard earned money invested in this game. It behooves me to participate as much as I can to what I hope to be an effort to prolong the game, and my investment.

Of course, this is a first step, so I'm curious to see how all the upcoming pieces to the puzzle fit with the pieces we now have.

I played a bunch the first night it was open. But I used the stuff I had in my acct...which was all IS. So while somewhat useful, it was less than Ideal. Spent yesterday diving, which meant I could barely focus on the screen last night, so no drops. Tonight, I spent an hour prepping clan mechs, specifically to test the furthest parts of the ideas.... and can't get a match.

It's not for lack of trying to test on my part.

[Khobai]

they need to give incentives for PTS. Like everyone who participates in X number of games on PTS within a certain timeframe gets cbills or maybe even MC on the live server.

I mean thats a bargain for PGI. Theyd basically be getting super cheap labor at next to no cost to test their game. Like cybermexicans.

Quote

-SRM HITREG BEING BEYOND STUPIDLY MESSED UP.

dont worry im sure SRMs will be fixed soon™

Edited by Khobai, 16 October 2015 - 06:16 PM.

[John1352]

For me, it's the same reason PGI didn't put the oceanic server in Australia. Internet is too expensive, slow and gets low data limits.

Also PTS would be totally dead at the times I play.