13 replies to this topic

[Jaegon]

Hey all, I could use some constructive advice.

I've been playing about a year, probably get at least a couple matches in 2 out of 3 days it seems. I've had a handful of 1000 point matches, and I've had a handful of sub 100 point matches. I'm not a bada**, but I think I'm overall a benefit to whatever team I'm on, usually in the top third scoring in my Tier 3 games.

I have about 40 mechs maybe 15 elited, and they're all over the classes. I love playing lights, I love playing Assaults. They're all good. I've probably dropped $250-$300 on the game, haha.


I'm growing a little tired of the pug life, over and over, pew pew volcano, pew pew frozen city, watch that saddle... repeat. I've gotten to the point where I am actively trying really different mech loadouts to get me out of my comfort zone and try different styles of play. (I'm on the Jenner SRM kick right now) To keep my interest going, I need a little more than what solo pugging has to offer.

But, I really can't stand CW either. The queues are nuts, it's a longer ordeal to just hop in and play a match when I have 30 minutes, the whole faction system is just 8 layers more complex than I can care to parse... etc.

What's between pugging and CW?

So, I'm thinking I should suck it up and try and find some group to play with. Hey, I'm a friendly dude, sign me up! Then I watch these streams and vids of really organized matches and it honestly looks like many of these matches would completely bore me to tears. They generally seem to play CW of course, and I see these hour long matches of these crazy defensive positions and everyone boats medium or large lasers, spending 40 minutes in menus between actual mech time.

I play all the mechs, clans and IS, and could really care less about the lore and specific factions. I've been playing Battletech for 30 years, since 6th grade, all the MW games, the Battletech location pods, Crescent Hawk's inception, etc... and never once thought "man, these are some awesome stories, I just love the fiction so much!". I play this as a game, for the mechanics, and I'm fine with that.

Anyway, what am I looking for? Is it a thing? Are there groups that just get together, play the basic game types in whatever mechs they want? Groups who just fire up team speak and play, have a good time being constructive and cheerful?

When I try to look this stuff up on the forums I pretty much see discussion about faction play for CW, and it just shuts me down.

Any good advice out there? Love to hear it, thanks!

[Khobai]

Quote

What's between pugging and CW?

well pugging shouldnt be a dismal experience... sadly it is.

the problem with one-life gamemodes is that theyre suited mostly for competitive teams that wanna face off and find out which team is better. like in counterstrike. And theyre GREAT for that.

but for pugs the one-life gamemodes are a !@#$ experience. basically when you lose you either feel like crap because you caused your team to lose or you feel like crap because some noob made your team lose. one-life gamemodes are way too punitive for pug teams to handle and theres absolutely NO WAY AT ALL that matchmaker can guarantee both teams have a 50/50 shot at winning, the game outcome is almost always a predetermined landslide victory for one team.

Other games have had these problems in the past. Thats why they invented respawns. They desperately need to add a ticket-based respawn gamemode like battlefields conquest gamemode. PGI needs to focus more on making the game fun to play regardless of whether you win or lose. Bad players shouldnt feel terrible for being bad. And good players shouldnt feel like bad players wasted their time. Bad or good, win or lose, the game should be rewarding...

Edited by Khobai, 18 December 2015 - 06:02 PM.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

Between PUGging and CW there is always group queue, though that requires a group. I hear that there are a good amount of groups that don't play CW and stick mostly to the group queue, though I don't know their names. You could maybe advertise in one of the merc halls or something asking what they do or just snooping around.

[Ted Wayz]

Join a good team and drill OP. Private drops with teams that are drilling for competitions are fun and educational. You can learn a lot even if you are on the "practice" squad.

[Jaegon]

Khobai, I don't mind the pug play experience that much, at least the matches are short, so, win or lose, it's kind of a throw away experience. If it goes to hell, well, next match is another start. It's just getting old is all.

I wish there was a mode that was like the existing pug matches and modes, but players had that deck experience of bringing in a couple mechs... but without the CW complexity. It would counter my previous comment, but still force people to change up their styles some by building decks.

Edited by Jaegon, 18 December 2015 - 06:25 PM.

[Ted Wayz]

Jaegon, on 18 December 2015 - 06:24 PM, said:

I wish there was a mode that was like the existing pug matches and modes, but players had that deck experience of bringing in a couple mechs... but without the CW complexity. It would counter my previous comment, but still force people to change up their styles some by building decks.

Let's try this again.

Join a good group and drop in private matches. You can try out all sorts of roles, practice taking the lead, learn map strategies, etc. all while playing in the current "pug" modes.

But keep in mind CW has only two roles; massive alpha build and really fast cap build. Big reason why CW is garbage.

[Cabusha]

Join us at Ars Technica. We're a casual group that plays regularly, busiest Thurs to Sat after 7PM Pacific. Below is the Ars Tech forum we haunt. Anyway, we get together, hang out on TS, laugh, B.S. and shoot big stompy robots. Occasionally we do C.W., but it's maybe every 6months. And pretty much everyone is friendly/helpful.

Anyway, feel free to browse the thread below, and if you dig it, register/post and we'll get you the TS info. Or send me a PM here and I'll get you the stuff next time I'm at my pc.

http://arstechnica.c...731&start=17320

[Deathlike]

Group play is the "step up" from solo play... where your opponents are more likely to attack and focus fire you in bulk. Hopefully, you'd learn about drop calling (mostly listening, maybe eventually actually calling one yourself) and understand what's happening on the battlefield instead of hoping your teammates in solo randomly get a clue.

There's no easy way of learning outside of "trial by fire", but mainly you have to learn the pace you need to play at to do stuff effectively.

CW is still going to be a step up (mostly some basic strategies to learn and understand)... but really... it's not that complicated... it's mostly something you have to get used to.

[Mawai]

It's one of the issues with MWO that there aren't many options between PUG play and CW. The only other experience to try is group queue and some sort of organized team. This can actually help your interest in playing quite a bit if you find a group of folks that you like playing with.

There is a wide range for group queue as well from dedicated competitive folks to large casual groups. The large casual groups can either be quite organized or more focused on having fun and socializing while playing MWO. Your best access to the more organized groups is probably through their websites, the community forums on this website and their teamspeak servers. More casual groups can often be found on some of the community team speak servers or possibly through the in game looking for group tool.

In any case, I'd give it a try and see what you think. Personally, I get bored with MWO simply because it is the same procedure leveling every mech no matter what class or variant. The only real enjoyment comes from the individual matchplay which can be hit or miss depending on your personal performance and that of your team. A better XP system would alleviate the boredom a bit by allowing you to select XP unlocked quirks for each variant differently but PGI has ignored that suggestion for more than three years so I don't expect anything to happen with it soon.

[Jaegon]

Massive thanks to all you helpful guys (n gals?), it's really appreciated.

Sorry you repeated yourself there, Ted Wayz, I was typing my response to the earlier message at the same time yours came in, didn't see it and ignore it

[Johnny Z]

I like the current faction play a lot, but I also realize its 1/3 done using a very few half done maps and a single game mode.

Its been like that a long while but I remember how great it was seeing the dropships at first and the new maps and being able to eject even without and animation yet.

Now after way to long the phase 3 is nearly in and that's something to look forward to.

Anyway, I suggest ranking up for a faction of your choice and take the rewards from that and wait for the next updates.

[Mordale]

[Ted Wayz]

Mordale, on 19 December 2015 - 06:14 PM, said:

Jaegon, PL is a good group. Had good times in group queue and CW those guys. Of course if you want to switch to a real House, House Liao, the best are TCAF.

[Jun Watarase]

I dont know what davion queues are like, but i thought there would be a lot more people in it playing CW. I usually only need to wait 5 minutes or less to get a match in CJF....up to 10 minutes during off peak times i guess.

Im bored of the solo queue too, especially since we cant choose to play our desired game mode anymore.

>skirmish
>alpine peaks
>ridge camping for 10 minutes