Kurvi, on 29 October 2015 - 04:23 AM, said:
I am by no means consider myself even a mediocre player yet, but I used to think I was steadily improving. My match scores were finally breaking 300 semi-semi-regularly, and I even got 4 kills in one match while getting my latest Firestarter to basic.
Then last night happened...
All of a sudden I can barely get a single solid hit, and every game a join was either a crushing defeat or was completely carried by my teammates (though watching them play after I died was really instructive).
I believe the reason for this is the Trick-or-Treat event. Obviously everyone is pulling out their best builds for the event (notice how the percentage of light mechs went back down to pre "ACH for c-bills" level), but more importantly (I think), everyone who normally plays in the highly competitive group queue is suddenly joining the PUG queue looking for easy pickings.
...The end effect was downright brutal.
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One thing to take away from this is that if I am correct, then the tier system is truly completely broken, and the only reason it worksat all in it's current form is because the good players all spend most of their time in the group queue when they are really trying hard to win. This in turn means that any plan to merge the two queues (e.g. by allowing a max of one 4-man group on each side) really requires having a non-broken tier system in place or the influx of all the better players will just crush the newbies.
Like the title says, it was a depressing evening.
Kurvi, on 30 October 2015 - 04:01 AM, said:
Tried again last night and things were much better. I'm not sure if the reduction in the requirements for the rewards meant the better players weren't trying as hard, or if the new armor comfiguration (only 2 in the back) is so much better, but I ended up having an average match score of 222 for the night, with 20% of my matches getting over 300. Managed to elite my firestarter too, so hopefully things will get even better in the future.
I know what you mean, but the tier system isn't broken, and it's not that "the competitive crowd" isn't properly seeded - the problem is players' reactions to the event that are causing your pain. Whenever an event like this comes out, players tend to play much more... "cautiously." They peek and hide, and your team on the minimap will often look like a flock of frightened sheep trying to all hide behind the same hillside. It's not a good way to play - players are too timid as a rule
anyway - and it tends to result in bad matches. Whether you realize it or not, you have an instinctive expectation of what your teammates will do - and the event scrambles that sixth sense badly. It's true that people will play more meta builds and such - my Shadowhawk isn't really meta, but I did stop skilling up my Cicadas in response to the event. They'll also play more LRM boats to farm damage - and therefor score.
Keep trying, and adjust your builds and playstyle to meet the distorted playing environment created by the event, and you should do fine.
PS: the game is not "broken," though there is a much-needed re-balancing in the works. This isn't because the game isn't fairly balanced right now, but because the current balancing scheme (quirks v. Clan weapons v. Omnimech flexibility v. Omnimech allocation restrictions) isn't sustainable and is creating some extreme unintended results.
2
but I have fun with that game!
