188 replies to this topic

[Black Ivan]

CW Phase 3 was a failure from the start. Bad implemenentation of separate Ques and not enough incentives to bring people out of Quic Play. Personally I had high hopes for CW3, but they all were lost the first time I started the game after the patch.

[Mochyn Pupur]

Main gripe about CW/FW is the queue, not bothered about massive scores, meta builds or who is good/bad; the queuing system is the main problem. I regularly check to see what the waiting numbers are like and drop with 1 - 4 friends depending on time of the day. It's just so frustrating to see yourself move towards the front of the drop queue then - boooooom, back to the bottom because a 12 man moves in and takes precedence or MM decides that it's going to take smaller groups from behind you to make a match leaving you high and dry.

As a solo CW/FW player, this is further aggravated by usually not even getting to the front of the drop queue.

Let's face it, if you had be waiting outside a cinema to watch a show and as you got to the front a group of 12 people pushed their way to the front and bought the last tickets, you are going to be hacked off - guess what, the same has happened in CW/FW and folk have stopped trying and are sticking to quick drops or even worse, dropping the game.

Perhaps it would be possible to allow 12 v 12 challenges on CW/FW so the bigger units can fight the way they prefer to (no complaints then about poor players with no experience and far less chance of stomp matches) or if they are not so bothered, split 12 men into lances and match make from there adding in other people who have been waiting longer - that way the new to CW/FW player has a chance to learn from the more experienced and co-ordinated players and make the drop enjoyable whilst attracting more players back into this mode?

As an aside, while levelling up my new medium Mechs from the recent event in quick play, I've noticed a lot of names that were common throughout the Scouting/Invasion drops - wonder how this matches player demographics atm?

[Appogee]

PGI burn people out by setting event challenge levels too high.

[Speedkermit]

Population population population.

Too few players + too many factions = broken game mode.

[Ghogiel]

Speedkermit, on 17 May 2016 - 03:08 AM, said:

Too few players + too many factions = broken game mode.

broken game mode + too many factions = too few players

[Daidachi]

Btw, before someone sneers and says a clan wouldn't take another clan along on their attacks, look up contract bidding.

Every clan has done it at various points.

[Carl Vickers]

I think what PGI needs to do is allow other factions to beef up attacks. We can already do it for defense why not attack. Keep it strictly Clan V IS spread just like defense though.

I think this would help keep the queues churning over, specially from the Clan side of things.

[Commander A9]

Well, I can tell you Phase 3 is inherently flawed and there's no motivation to play it.

MercStar tonight waited almost an hour, an HOUR, for a match on a Jade Falcon-attacking-Steiner planet. Jade Falcon only has one attack option and no defense options.

And with no one cuing up to defend, our people were stuck waiting in line for damn 54 minutes, because opposition factions voted to attack Inner Sphere instead of Clans for this phase, and no one wanted to fight us until a bunch of randoms decided to check out the Steiner option.

The match is in progress right now because the opposing Inner Sphere pilots refuse to engage us.

So, when you get a planet to 100%, there's no reason to play anymore, and remaining defenders leave, which costs an entire faction the opportunity to play Community Warfare since on one lines up to play on the only planet that we can drop on. So, what's the point of playing if no one wants to play?

Your ability to get matches is now dictated by your enemy, and no, we didn't get a ghost drop.

Edited by Commander A9, 18 May 2016 - 06:52 PM.

[dervishx5]

Commander A9, on 18 May 2016 - 06:50 PM, said:

Well, I can tell you Phase 3 is inherently flawed and there's no motivation to play it.

MercStar tonight waited almost an hour, an HOUR, for a match on a Jade Falcon-attacking-Steiner planet. Jade Falcon only has one attack option and no defense options.

And with no one cuing up to defend, our people were stuck waiting in line for damn 54 minutes, because opposition factions voted to attack Inner Sphere instead of Clans for this phase, and no one wanted to fight us until a bunch of randoms decided to check out the Steiner option.

The match is in progress right now because the opposing Inner Sphere pilots refuse to engage us.

So, when you get a planet to 100%, there's no reason to play anymore, and remaining defenders leave, which costs an entire faction the opportunity to play Community Warfare since on one lines up to play on the only planet that we can drop on. So, what's the point of playing if no one wants to play?

Your ability to get matches is now dictated by your enemy, and no, we didn't get a ghost drop.

You created this situation yourself. No one should pity you.

[Joey Tankblaster]

Pro tip.

If half of the mercs currently with CJF change to steiner now they can get insta drops.

[Lyoto Machida]

Cizjut, on 28 April 2016 - 08:39 AM, said:

FW Invasion mode right now is just not that fun.

The faster devs accept it, the better. An infernal wait to queue in too many factions with too many planets and too few people to fill them, only to be dropped in big *** and frankly ugly canyon maps with enforced chokepoints kills any creativity you could have with surrounding. Every match is attack rush and defending camp with high alphas, preferably lots of lasers pointing at a single entrance. lots of walking and few actual action. No variety in gameplay.

Quick match maps and modes are pretty fun. If they were 4drop they would be pretty cool and hectic. Also faster.

I mean when you think about it, FW wants to feel like a military campaign with positioning and execution, that's why the maps are big, but still nothing warrants trying new things since the best build for a team are pinpoint damage mechs and few chassis perform well in this matter.

4vs4 scouting mode IS pretty fun, but only because it's a 4vs4, not because the objective is interesting. There's a meta game to evolve in high level play in scouting mode, but it's just not that well designed to warrant the audience's attention to it, more so in the bigger maps.

The weapons, logistic options and features of the game are still barebones to advanced gameplay and only work in Quickmatch because they're basically an arena style of shooting. When you try to implement more advanced objectives it becomes obvious they're not enough.

No repair trucks or bays/refueling systems in FW for example, make some mechs completely unusable after their payload is used. This obviously never will happen with energy based mechs, who can fight and camp all day every day. People obviously will pick the Black Knight to the end of the world. No clever outposts to capture and monitor advances of the enemy. No real usefulness for lights in FW maps. No alternative ways of winning a match but to rush through the trenches in waves. NO NEW WEAPONS. No alternative of defending /attacking with NPC tanks or defense points or aircraft that could cost CBills making the War Economy WORTH SOMETHING FOR WAR.

Simply put, the game has never been ready for the Faction Warfare mode at its core. It's a good arena shooter, and it was designed at the beginning to be that with the promise of something more but it's not going to get there.

I loved the game and came late to the party actually, but now i understand the mountains of salt around here. Most of these are simple things and concepts and seems it's never going to get implemented.

Late to the party? Says you've been here since May 2012. Maybe you left for awhile...either way, PGI deserves much of the displeasure being expressed regarding the state/progress of the game.

I mean, even the simple fixes like weapon heat/range/etc changes take months/years. From what I understand, this isn't complex coding...more like spreadsheet tweaking or whatever. And yet, nothing for periods at a time. MGs, LB ACs, LRMs, etc could all be worked but the weapons just stay the same. To me, that implies that they are either comfortable with game balance as is, don't see an issue with the way the weaker weapons sit in relation to more commonly used ones, or don't have the technical capability to fix an issue they identify (guy who coded it left the company, etc). I get they're a smaller operation but some things not being touched are inexplicable to someone looking from the outside.

[Gigashot]

Banditman, on 20 April 2016 - 09:57 AM, said:

Keep in mind you are not seeing both queues. If you are a Freelancer, you aren't seeing the unit queue. If you are in a unit, you aren't seeing the Freelancer queue. GJ PGI on further segmenting your community.

Wait WHAT. So ...wait...what. What what what what. So the reason I see 0/0 on all but one FW queue is because I'm in a 8 man Unit with my friends? If we disbanded I would actually be able to play FW?

This changes everything. Also why tf would they do that. Why would they make it so I need to not play with my friends in order to play FW. What is life.

[Moebius Pi]

Gigashot, on 19 May 2016 - 06:47 AM, said:

Wait WHAT. So ...wait...what. What what what what. So the reason I see 0/0 on all but one FW queue is because I'm in a 8 man Unit with my friends? If we disbanded I would actually be able to play FW?

This changes everything. Also why tf would they do that. Why would they make it so I need to not play with my friends in order to play FW. What is life.

The queues got merged. When they had the lone-wolves separate, PGI also had the "brilliant" idea of giving the Loners no rewards outside of basic match XP/GXP/C-bills. As there were no mech-bays and Rep/LP rewards, go figure, the Lone wolves all went to make 1 man Merc units so they weren't shafted for the time invested.

Go figure, there wasn't really anyone in those queues you weren't seeing. Enough so that they re-merged them again for pug-stomping hijinks to resume, kinda, you know, ignoring the entire reason why the queue went from the majority (that is solos making up the vast bulk of FW to the time), to struggling to find matches (go figure, folks didn't like getting the short end of the stick).

PGI set it up for failure from the get go. Unitless or with a Unit, Gigashot, you're seeing the nature of the beast regardless. It's 0/0 flat out. You never hit the point where going unitless was the preferable option, it got ****-canned rather quickly.

Edit: Some grammar that made my eyes bleed; don't post right after waking up folks!

Edited by Moebius Pi, 19 May 2016 - 08:09 AM.

[Gigashot]

Moebius Pi, on 19 May 2016 - 06:57 AM, said:

The queues got merged. When they had the lone-wolves separate, PGI also had the "brilliant" idea of giving the Loners no rewards outside of basic match XP/GXP/C-bills. As there were no mech-bays and Rep/LP rewards, go figure, the Lone wolves all went to make 1 man Merc units do they weren't shafted for the time invested.

Go figure, there weren't really anyone in those queues you weren't seeing. Enough so that they re-merged them again for pug-stomping hijinks to resume, kinda, you know, ignoring the entire reason why the queue went from the majority (that is solos making up the vast bulk of FW to the time), to struggling to find matches (go figure, folks didn't like getting the short end of the stick).

PGI set it up for failure from the get go. Unitless or with a Unit, Gigashot, you're seeing the nature of the beast regardless. It's 0/0 flat out. You never hit the point where going unitless was the preferable option, it got ****-canned rather quickly.

Thank you for the explanation. I only returned from alpha a couple weeks ago and still trying to make sense of it all. I love FW. I want to play FW. But all my queues come up 0/0 half the time, or take 15-30 minutes to find a match, and then as you said, it's always pugs vs. their 12 man Unit.

[Garuda4711]

Commander A9, on 18 May 2016 - 06:50 PM, said:

Well, I can tell you Phase 3 is inherently flawed and there's no motivation to play it.

MercStar tonight waited almost an hour, an HOUR, for a match on a Jade Falcon-attacking-Steiner planet. Jade Falcon only has one attack option and no defense options.

And with no one cuing up to defend, our people were stuck waiting in line for damn 54 minutes, because opposition factions voted to attack Inner Sphere instead of Clans for this phase, and no one wanted to fight us until a bunch of randoms decided to check out the Steiner option.

The match is in progress right now because the opposing Inner Sphere pilots refuse to engage us.

So, when you get a planet to 100%, there's no reason to play anymore, and remaining defenders leave, which costs an entire faction the opportunity to play Community Warfare since on one lines up to play on the only planet that we can drop on. So, what's the point of playing if no one wants to play?

Your ability to get matches is now dictated by your enemy, and no, we didn't get a ghost drop.

Why should we confront you? Right now there is MS, 228, DSx, EVIL, KCom etc. once more altogether at the same faction. Currently CJF. And usually they have Long-Dong after a while. I know better things to do with my time than dropping against this bunch of power-houses: I can drop against Wolves, have a beer, or simply j3rk 0ff!

You can enjoy your ghost-drops!

[Commander A9]

Then what's the point of playing Community Warfare?

Unless the whole point is to force big teams out of the game. :/

Edited by Commander A9, 19 May 2016 - 08:46 PM.

[Vickinator]

Commander A9, on 19 May 2016 - 08:44 PM, said:

Then what's the point of playing Community Warfare?

Unless the whole point is to force big teams out of the game. :/

Oh noes MS is complaining there is no pugs to roflstomp and killed CW, whatever shall we do.

[Commander A9]

I'm complaining that there's no matches period and/or the match times are unacceptably long. :/

The system handicaps all factions regardless.

MercStar didn't create this situation because we can't vote who to attack or defend. :/ And we had no idea about the lack of matches on the Jade Falcon side to begin with, thanks much.

Edited by Commander A9, 19 May 2016 - 09:02 PM.

[Vickinator]

Commander A9, on 19 May 2016 - 08:53 PM, said:

I'm complaining that there's no matches period and/or the match times are unacceptably long. :/

The system handicaps all factions regardless.

MercStar didn't create this situation because we can't vote who to attack or defend. :/ And we had no idea about the lack of matches on the Jade Falcon side to begin with, thanks much.

Really you have no idea that Kcom is almost always jade falcon, and when 228 goes clan then go JF as well, whereas i remember wolf being MS clan of choice, odd how you decided to switch over. And MS is partially to blame for this problem, massive units like MS are simply a cancer for CW with its low population anywhere you attack you just zerg rush until the enemy cant be in multiple drops at once and you take the planet. Those people see that and just decide that Quick play is less effort and now look what has been crated you cant get drops because your massive unit scared away all the smaller guys.

[Commander A9]

Vickinator, on 19 May 2016 - 09:06 PM, said:

Really you have no idea that Kcom is almost always jade falcon, and when 228 goes clan then go JF as well, whereas i remember wolf being MS clan of choice, odd how you decided to switch over. And MS is partially to blame for this problem, massive units like MS are simply a cancer for CW with its low population anywhere you attack you just zerg rush until the enemy cant be in multiple drops at once and you take the planet. Those people see that and just decide that Quick play is less effort and now look what has been crated you cant get drops because your massive unit scared away all the smaller guys.

Yes, we had no idea because we don't constantly monitor other units. We're not Nostradamus you know. :/

We may have 360 members, but we can hardly get more than 1 or 2 12-man drop teams per night. We'd be lucky to field one a night.

It sounds like your argument is pinning the blame on MercStar and other major units for their skill set. I do agree with the notion that no one likes getting consistently smashed, but I can't accept the belief that MercStar is to blame for the current mechanics of Community Warfare because these changes were devised by developers, not us.

We didn't create this, and we certainly weren't malicious about it.

What do you want? Do you want MercStar and other units to stop playing?

Edited by Commander A9, 19 May 2016 - 09:14 PM.