35 replies to this topic

[Ted Wayz]

How about PGI fix CW so it is both accessible and fun for all? My guess is wait times would be lower because people might actually want to play it.

Unfortunately for Steam players this garbage will be their first experience. Instead of spending money improving the game we have changes to changes, changes to things we did not want changes to, and cockpit items. I give PGI a product development PSR of 5. But don't worry PGI, after 5000 more patches, if people stick around that long, you will have a PSR of 1.

[Lyoto Machida]

Ted Wayz, on 06 December 2015 - 11:39 AM, said:

How about PGI fix CW so it is both accessible and fun for all? My guess is wait times would be lower because people might actually want to play it.

Unfortunately for Steam players this garbage will be their first experience. Instead of spending money improving the game we have changes to changes, changes to things we did not want changes to, and cockpit items. I give PGI a product development PSR of 5. But don't worry PGI, after 5000 more patches, if people stick around that long, you will have a PSR of 1.

How about increasing c-bill/XP rewards in CW by 1.5x-2x? That way, pugs are more willing to get stomped by organized groups (and other pugs). Queue times drop and everyone is happy.

Of course, this idea is too simple to work here...maybe someone can "Paul" it up and give it a convoluted PGI twist on things.

[Ted Wayz]

Lyoto Machida, on 06 December 2015 - 11:48 AM, said:

How about increasing c-bill/XP rewards in CW by 1.5x-2x? That way, pugs are more willing to get stomped by organized groups (and other pugs). Queue times drop and everyone is happy.

Of course, this idea is too simple to work here...maybe someone can "Paul" it up and give it a convoluted PGI twist on things.

Because 1.5 or 2 or 3x of a small number is still a small number?

Most people do not play games to learn, they play to have fun. If they are having fun they tend to want to learn more. CW is garbage so increase the reward all you want it won't make people play.

[Lyoto Machida]

Ted Wayz, on 06 December 2015 - 11:51 AM, said:

Because 1.5 or 2 or 3x of a small number is still a small number?

Most people do not play games to learn, they play to have fun. If they are having fun they tend to want to learn more. CW is garbage so increase the reward all you want it won't make people play.

When the CW earnings per hour exceeds pug games by a significant margin, some people will play it more...

[Ted Wayz]

Lyoto Machida, on 06 December 2015 - 11:54 AM, said:

When the CW earnings per hour exceeds pug games by a significant margin, some people will play it more...

Have you ever heard of the phrase "So bad you can't give it away?". Welcome to CW.

[Lyoto Machida]

Ted Wayz, on 06 December 2015 - 11:57 AM, said:

Have you ever heard of the phrase "So bad you can't give it away?". Welcome to CW.

What happened to that lance vs lance idea that was thrown out there?

[MischiefSC]

So the solution is to make CW work almost exactly like another game queue next to pug/group queue, just maybe with a scoreboard for which faction is winning the most?

That is beyond horrible. Which makes it way more likely than actually fixing cw to have rewards, faction identity, a purpose to playing.

Because a purpose to playing, in the end, just doesn't jive with anything else about mwo.

[Sandpit]

Simply adjust which units can attack and how.

If PGI wants to add depth, then only thing they have to do is go back to the newsfeed style headlines they used to use a lot and were quite popular. They tracked the daily events and such and gave intel and information. PGI then opens and closes allied avenues as they tell a story.

"Today in Comstar News":
The Steiner and Davion Houses allied to ensure mutual defense against the new clan threat. This marks a great day in the Inner Sphere!

Then PGI simply opens and closes some avenues of attack, Gives Steiner and Davion mutual attack and defense points along with shared dropship locations. In the queues Steiner and Davion start playing more together in a regular basis. They get known to one another and you get coerced cooperation and teamwork built in almost subliminally.

Then on the clan side
"Hail Warriors! Khans Joe and Derp agreed to a batchall of (insert tonnage here) for the honor of attacking Planet A!" Operations will commence at 0600 hours. All warriors are ordered to report to the frontline. Then PGI simply does the same thing and opens avenues of attack.

It drops wait times, it adds story, it adds different strategies, it adds depth, and it takes them nothing extra other than typing up fluff and controlling the IS map. Then us merc units can take contracts as we please. It also ensures that they tell an actual story, prevents any single unit from going extinct, helps smaller units get more involved, ensures all factions have ample action to deal with, and provides absolutely no downside other than someone getting in a tizzy over "fairness" of who attacks who or doesn't like the story.

Then PGI plays all the way through one season of CW and tells the IS war story. We become the heroes of the clans and IS. Top players and units get badges and such for that season. We all have joyous times. It prevents big units from just rolling up the map anywhere they please. It makes it easier for solos and small groups of friends to play and have impacts on the game. It's exactly what we used to do with player run leagues. It's how you still give "free reign" to the players, but still help maintain balance in a subtle manner without making players feel forced.

That's how you improve CW. That's how you help smaller units and solos get involved. That's how you create a storyline for your game. That's how you help maintain balance in your game. You actively help guide it and let players feel rewarded and accomplished.

I've had some heartbreaking losses this weekend. I still enjoyed every one of those games because the guys I played with were having a blast, we would laugh and have fun, we would clear battle comms when it came time to focus, and we had a good time. The few stomps weren't much fun but didn't occur often. The only time they were even being described and not being enjoyed were when you'd get some of those tryhards who think one bad match mean your team suck and want to mouth off about it instead of trading light hearted jokes to one another while playing a video game. But those people will soon stop when they get reported enough times.

Anyhow, that's my .002 on CW and how to improve it. I may add this to my CW thread in a bit more depth...

[Dukat281]

Jun Watarase, on 06 December 2015 - 12:38 AM, said:

Tukkayid Should Be The Regular Cw Experience

This. 'Nough said.

Edited by Dukat281, 06 December 2015 - 05:06 PM.

[Barantor]

Sandpit, on 06 December 2015 - 04:12 PM, said:

Simply adjust which units can attack and how.

If PGI wants to add depth, then only thing they have to do is go back to the newsfeed style headlines ...(snip! see above)

They could then do the planets just like they are doing Tukayyid now to draw out the time that things move around. This week, Planet XYZ is being fought between Davion and Kurita! Then both those factions fight all week for that one planet. Once that one is done the results are scored and the line is moved one way or another.

This would let PGI dictate the speed and the course of the war, but that is a good thing as they can add in elements easier and we get fewer resets or one faction making huge drives in small amounts of time. It makes each planet more important.

I would go further and have one planet that it groups only and one planet that is pugs only per battle line. This way pugs aren't stomped by big groups and discouraged from playing. I would go so far as to say you wouldn't need 'quick play' if you did it right and smaller one shot games could be played for smaller planet %s as well with pugs.

Dunno though, I think CW as it is though is pretty crap.

[Sandpit]

Barantor, on 06 December 2015 - 06:22 PM, said:

They could then do the planets just like they are doing Tukayyid now to draw out the time that things move around. This week, Planet XYZ is being fought between Davion and Kurita! Then both those factions fight all week for that one planet. Once that one is done the results are scored and the line is moved one way or another.

This would let PGI dictate the speed and the course of the war, but that is a good thing as they can add in elements easier and we get fewer resets or one faction making huge drives in small amounts of time. It makes each planet more important.

I would go further and have one planet that it groups only and one planet that is pugs only per battle line. This way pugs aren't stomped by big groups and discouraged from playing. I would go so far as to say you wouldn't need 'quick play' if you did it right and smaller one shot games could be played for smaller planet %s as well with pugs.

Dunno though, I think CW as it is though is pretty crap.

exactly I"m going to put up an in-depth post on this when I have time.

[Chuanhao]

The current format, event though queue times have improved significantly, cannot be the main stay as it would mean that there is no depth. It will be just heavy-duty "Assault" with actual IS vs Clan differentiation. (not actually a bad idea).

We know that "regular" CW is just too open with many planets seeing no action, and queue times for those that do being extra long.

A possible middle ground was attempted by PGI which I support.

For every border that a faction has with another, there should only be one objective. That way, the limited number of players can be pooled to a single front. (Anyway, CW in its current state would see most players joining only the planet with the most players in order to secure a shorter wait time)

The choice of planet can be made by a council of players (or just PGI) from those large groups that are allied to the faction on a fixed schedule (start of week). The rest of the week will see players slug it out, with final ownership decided at the end of the week.

I like fighting for a faction and seeing that faction progress and with appropriate seasonal results and rewards. Not just once-off IS vs Clan deathmatch on a planet that does not take into consideration the progress of whatever regular matches has been played.

TL:DR

Regular CW should still be faction-based, but only have one objective per faction border, rather than multiple, leaving players with too much choice. Regular CW game should also have an impact or end-of-season events, so that regular game play would mean something. rather than just grinding for bonus cbills, mech bays, and vanity ranks.

Edited by Chuanhao, 06 December 2015 - 06:36 PM.

[Deathlike]

Sandpit, on 06 December 2015 - 04:12 PM, said:

Simply adjust which units can attack and how.

If PGI wants to add depth, then only thing they have to do is go back to the newsfeed style headlines they used to use a lot and were quite popular. They tracked the daily events and such and gave intel and information. PGI then opens and closes allied avenues as they tell a story.

"Today in Comstar News":
The Steiner and Davion Houses allied to ensure mutual defense against the new clan threat. This marks a great day in the Inner Sphere!

Then PGI simply opens and closes some avenues of attack, Gives Steiner and Davion mutual attack and defense points along with shared dropship locations. In the queues Steiner and Davion start playing more together in a regular basis. They get known to one another and you get coerced cooperation and teamwork built in almost subliminally.

Then on the clan side
"Hail Warriors! Khans Joe and Derp agreed to a batchall of (insert tonnage here) for the honor of attacking Planet A!" Operations will commence at 0600 hours. All warriors are ordered to report to the frontline. Then PGI simply does the same thing and opens avenues of attack.

It drops wait times, it adds story, it adds different strategies, it adds depth, and it takes them nothing extra other than typing up fluff and controlling the IS map. Then us merc units can take contracts as we please. It also ensures that they tell an actual story, prevents any single unit from going extinct, helps smaller units get more involved, ensures all factions have ample action to deal with, and provides absolutely no downside other than someone getting in a tizzy over "fairness" of who attacks who or doesn't like the story.

Then PGI plays all the way through one season of CW and tells the IS war story. We become the heroes of the clans and IS. Top players and units get badges and such for that season. We all have joyous times. It prevents big units from just rolling up the map anywhere they please. It makes it easier for solos and small groups of friends to play and have impacts on the game. It's exactly what we used to do with player run leagues. It's how you still give "free reign" to the players, but still help maintain balance in a subtle manner without making players feel forced.

That's how you improve CW. That's how you help smaller units and solos get involved. That's how you create a storyline for your game. That's how you help maintain balance in your game. You actively help guide it and let players feel rewarded and accomplished.

I've had some heartbreaking losses this weekend. I still enjoyed every one of those games because the guys I played with were having a blast, we would laugh and have fun, we would clear battle comms when it came time to focus, and we had a good time. The few stomps weren't much fun but didn't occur often. The only time they were even being described and not being enjoyed were when you'd get some of those tryhards who think one bad match mean your team suck and want to mouth off about it instead of trading light hearted jokes to one another while playing a video game. But those people will soon stop when they get reported enough times.

Anyhow, that's my .002 on CW and how to improve it. I may add this to my CW thread in a bit more depth...

I kinda like the idea in theory.

I simply don't think that PGI would put in that kind of consistent error. I mean... "Tukayyid" is essentially all PGI said for the event (in other words - they didn't make me feel anything about it outside of mass grind, bribe/rewards, and reset CW map).

Then again, there was Luthien (but at least that was an accident and totally spontaneous). It was one of the only random events that had meaning (even w/o any context). People played it (from all of the IS factions) just for the "lore-ish" implications (real or imagined). That's "almost" how an event is truly done.

Edited by Deathlike, 06 December 2015 - 06:43 PM.

[Jun Watarase]

Ted Wayz, on 06 December 2015 - 11:39 AM, said:

How about PGI fix CW so it is both accessible and fun for all? My guess is wait times would be lower because people might actually want to play it.

Unfortunately for Steam players this garbage will be their first experience. Instead of spending money improving the game we have changes to changes, changes to things we did not want changes to, and cockpit items. I give PGI a product development PSR of 5. But don't worry PGI, after 5000 more patches, if people stick around that long, you will have a PSR of 1.

Its too difficult for PGI to do that, we have to lower our expectations.

[Mystere]

Jun Watarase, on 06 December 2015 - 12:38 AM, said:

Tukkayid Should Be The Regular Cw Experience

That is even more repetitive I'd rather the servers just shut down permanently.

[Troutmonkey]

Chuanhao, on 06 December 2015 - 06:34 PM, said:

The current format, event though queue times have improved significantly, cannot be the main stay as it would mean that there is no depth. It will be just heavy-duty "Assault" with actual IS vs Clan differentiation. (not actually a bad idea).

We know that "regular" CW is just too open with many planets seeing no action, and queue times for those that do being extra long.

A possible middle ground was attempted by PGI which I support.

For every border that a faction has with another, there should only be one objective. That way, the limited number of players can be pooled to a single front. (Anyway, CW in its current state would see most players joining only the planet with the most players in order to secure a shorter wait time)

TL:DR

Regular CW should still be faction-based, but only have one objective per faction border, rather than multiple, leaving players with too much choice. Regular CW game should also have an impact or end-of-season events, so that regular game play would mean something. rather than just grinding for bonus cbills, mech bays, and vanity ranks.

This. + "queue for any game button" that puts you into the first available game. This would make queue times better for everyone while still allowing lore players to go for any planet. Those who care about which planet they attack choose a planet, and those who just want to play get sent to whatever planet they're needed for. Win win for everyone.