Well, after completing the event and winning both grand prizes, I still stand by my initial observation: this event was extremely anti-social, explicitly promoting pugging instead of teamwork. A couple of examples follow:
- In the scouting mode, one of the popular tactics for gathering intel is to run 4 lights and gather intel as fast as you can while avoiding contact with the enemy, and then rush into the dropzone during the last few seconds. If played right, it's a very effective way to secure the victory, BUT it won't count towards your scouting victories, because the match score is predominantly based on damage. Therefore, to get the required score of 80, you have to ignore your DC's orders and seek engagement with the enemy, even if it's detrimental to the team's success. For pugs, this is a very uncomfortable choice to make. For us unit players, this isn't even a choice - since you can't screw your own unit, you must instead screw yourself
- In the invasion attack mode, another popular tactic is to rush turrets/o-gens on the first wave, finish o-gens and start working on omega during the second and third waves, and finish off omega during the third and fourth waves. Once again, this tactic works very well if executed properly, BUT the victory won't count towards your invasion victories, because your match score is based predominantly on damage dealt to mechs, and damage done to o-gens/omega gets ignored (and in case of turrets, only the killing blow counts). Therefore, those players who follow the DC's orders can actually secure the win for the team, but they won't get anything for it, and those who ignore the orders and wander off by themselves shooting enemy mechs end up getting credit for other people's work.
And these are just two of the most glaring examples. Other criteria that I would consider unfair and irrelevant are kill assists (which often mean you just fired a shot at an enemy mech, and then someone else killed it), C-Bills and XP earned (affected by premium time and/or playing special mech variants), and total match score (see above). Bottom line is, with the way these events are currently implemented, you can't just play and enjoy the game as you normally would, but have to chase specific event objectives instead, often to the detriment of your team's success. And this simply sucks. PGI really needs to do something about those challenge criteria...
Edited by DGTLDaemon, 09 May 2016 - 07:32 AM.