25 replies to this topic

[jozkhan]

You queue up sometimes for 10 minutes or more...

The countdown runs for another 10 minutes...

Ghost Drop - 35K CBills

This has been going on since the outset of Faction Warfare was released and nothing has been done to address it by the design staff. This is a design failure and could be rectified through re-design.

In discussion last night (Friday night prime time during a Faction Warfare event) nobody could come up with another game that has such long wait times. Let alone a game that has such wait times and then a ghost drop type outcome! No other game out there does this, that should be ringing alarm bells surely?

Many players cite the waiting times and ghost dropping as the reason they won't return to Faction warfare and will only play quick play. It would seem that unless a redesign of the waiting times and ghost dropping is not implemented then it will bleed more players as it continues to be highly complained about in faction chat now in 'phase 3' and during the event.

Why isn't the compensation for a Ghost Drop more substantial? As it stands it just feels like a 'FU'

Surely the Design Team has a responsibility to increase player retention not decrease it. The playerbase wants to see Faction Warfare succeed but why have the waiting times and ghost dropping not been addressed by the Dev Team (and Design in particular) for so long?

Edited by jozkhan, 07 May 2016 - 08:12 AM.

[Talorien]

I don't see how FW can be saved without

• Consolidating into 2 factions (IS vs Clan, keeping sub-factions for flavour)
  
• Combining Quick Play and FW queues into one matchmaker

Full details here:
http://mwomercs.com/...ergalactic-war/

[jozkhan]

I think alot of ideas could work, for example if there are multiple factions ghost dropping then they could be combined into a match to play each other - call it 'secondary objectives' or something where no planet is in contention but at least let the players play the game and not let them wait, sometimes unacceptably long times, for nothing.

[vandalhooch]

jozkhan, on 07 May 2016 - 08:10 AM, said:

You queue up sometimes for 10 minutes or more...

You chose to drop solo or in a small group. No one's fault but your own.

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The countdown runs for another 10 minutes...

Less than that and we have factions zerg rushing planets. More than that and the complaints would be even worse.

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Ghost Drop - 35K CBills

Nope. What about your faction pay? You should net somewhere around 300K-500K for a ghost drop depending on bonuses from premium time, mechs, and such.

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This has been going on since the outset of Faction Warfare was released and nothing has been done to address it by the design staff.

Translation: "I don't like this, so I'm going to pretend it hasn't been addressed."

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This is a design failure and could be rectified through re-design.

In discussion last night (Friday night prime time during a Faction Warfare event) nobody could come up with another game that has such long wait times. Let alone a game that has such wait times and then a ghost drop type outcome! No other game out there does this, that should be ringing alarm bells surely?

Player pools are all the same size, at the same time, for every game out there?

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Many players cite the waiting times and ghost dropping as the reason they won't return to Faction warfare and will only play quick play. It would seem that unless a redesign of the waiting times and ghost dropping is not implemented then it will bleed more players as it continues to be highly complained about in faction chat now in 'phase 3' and during the event.

Tell us more about the imminent death of Faction Play. It's something new, we've never heard predicted before.

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Why isn't the compensation for a Ghost Drop more substantial? As it stands it just feels like a 'FU'

With premium time it is more than a typical player can earn in the quick play queue.

Quote

Surely the Design Team has a responsibility to increase player retention not decrease it.

Surely this sentence is the most passive aggressive dribble you could come up with.

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The playerbase wants to see Faction Warfare succeed but why have the waiting times and ghost dropping not been addressed by the Dev Team (and Design in particular) for so long?

Three attack cycles per day versus one during initial release.

MC rewards for taking planets to encourage Faction Play.

Call-to-Arms system to help fill in match queues.

Dynamic contract bonuses to encourage mercenary units to move to factions with lower populations.

Tell me again about how the developers have done "nothing" to address the problem!

[Void Angel]

Back-seat game design and talking - a failure in moral quality.

[DivBy0]

At this time Jade Falcon have scouted the [Long Tom]. No one (who is sane) will drop against it (at the time 36:0).
After this stupid event, when the stormcrow fodder is gone, [Long Tom] will not come so easily to the falcons. Maybe then you can play invasion mode again.

Phase 3 has brought some very good ideas. I have hope!

Edited by draiocht, 09 July 2016 - 10:43 AM.
edited out vulgarity

[Rexxxxxxxxx]

Talorien, on 07 May 2016 - 08:45 AM, said:

I don't see how FW can be saved without

• Consolidating into 2 factions (IS vs Clan, keeping sub-factions for flavour)
  
• Combining Quick Play and FW queues into one matchmaker

Full details here:



http://mwomercs.com/...ergalactic-war/

I agree 100%

jozkhan, on 07 May 2016 - 09:14 AM, said:

I think alot of ideas could work, for example if there are multiple factions ghost dropping then they could be combined into a match to play each other - call it 'secondary objectives' or something where no planet is in contention but at least let the players play the game and not let them wait, sometimes unacceptably long times, for nothing.

I agree 100%

If both of these solutions were implemented then that would easily eliminate ghost drops.
None of us really care about war planning or picking a path towards Terra. Most of that is out of our hands anyway. Soldiers never choose where they are deployed.

Getting a match as fast as possible should be the top priority. Anything that gets in the way of that is unnecessary.

Edited by Rexxxxxxxxx, 07 May 2016 - 01:00 PM.

[LORD ORION]

Phase 3 is terrible.
1/2 way through the attack phase attack planets are at 100% and people stop dropping.
1/2 way through attack phase, defense scouts have achieved [Long Tom], and enemy attackers stop dropping.

[Long Tom] needs to be removed so people drop into FP again.

Edited by draiocht, 09 July 2016 - 10:43 AM.
edited out vulgarity

[maniacos]

jozkhan, on 07 May 2016 - 08:10 AM, said:

Surely the Design Team has a responsibility to increase player retention not decrease it. The playerbase wants to see Faction Warfare succeed but why have the waiting times and ghost dropping not been addressed by the Dev Team (and Design in particular) for so long?

It's simple: PGI sucks at game development (yes, they really do, no sarcasm).

Edited by maniacos, 07 May 2016 - 01:17 PM.

[crustydog]

Saturday night Since 11:00 pm, EST, one match, 5 + crashes, including the entire team getting booted out, now waiting 16+ minutes so far.


Waiting in queues for Ghost drops warrior online:)

If I was a judge, I would condemn PGI employees to playing their own game.

[MischiefSC]

crustydog, on 07 May 2016 - 08:27 PM, said:

Saturday night Since 11:00 pm, EST, one match, 5 + crashes, including the entire team getting booted out, now waiting 16+ minutes so far.


Waiting in queues for Ghost drops warrior online:)

If I was a judge, I would condemn PGI employees to playing their own game.

Not kidding when I say this -

Come to Davion.

There's a reason Davion has the most units per faction on the leaderboard in the top 2 or 3 pages.

We have All The Drops. 2-3 enemies at a time, 1 of which literally has no other possible front but us.

Nobody else can give you borders with 24+ enemies waiting to ghost at 3 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. You're the only FW play available for hundreds of people throbbing for a taste of this hawt, hawt Davion action.

If you can somehow grind down all the Mariks and Liao who pile up on the border (and periodically desperate Dracs) you can go to the Steiner scout/defense queues which are starved for drops.

We have almost as many total faction matches as FRR and we have no Clan front so no skittles pugs clogging the queues and bleeding off enemies to easy wins. All our matches are filled either with loyalists of Davion puggles.

We are the party train. Everyone wants a ride.

[Mr Blonde]

MischiefSC, on 07 May 2016 - 08:57 PM, said:

Not kidding when I say this -

Come to Davion.

There's a reason Davion has the most units per faction on the leaderboard in the top 2 or 3 pages.

We have All The Drops. 2-3 enemies at a time, 1 of which literally has no other possible front but us.

Nobody else can give you borders with 24+ enemies waiting to ghost at 3 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. You're the only FW play available for hundreds of people throbbing for a taste of this hawt, hawt Davion action.

If you can somehow grind down all the Mariks and Liao who pile up on the border (and periodically desperate Dracs) you can go to the Steiner scout/defense queues which are starved for drops.

We have almost as many total faction matches as FRR and we have no Clan front so no skittles pugs clogging the queues and bleeding off enemies to easy wins. All our matches are filled either with loyalists of Davion puggles.

We are the party train. Everyone wants a ride.

I think there should be a pre-clan IS only run. Who wants to constantly go against huge odds facing superior mechs every game? Liao-Davion is the best action, that's true. Even matchups with IS-IS mechs. Maybe a 3025 server is in order...

In any case it's always fun to burn holes in Davion mechs. BT designers always favored them in everything from the board game to the novels and storyline so I naturally dislike them anyway.

[xe N on]

jozkhan, on 07 May 2016 - 08:10 AM, said:

Surely the Design Team has a responsibility to increase player retention not decrease it. The playerbase wants to see Faction Warfare succeed but why have the waiting times and ghost dropping not been addressed by the Dev Team (and Design in particular) for so long?

How should they fix ghost drops? Sure, they can reduce the time you need to wait until ghost drop, but ghost drops still remain. Reason: Population of FW is too low. Rewards cannot be increased because that could be exploited to create ghost drops intentionally to farm rewards easily.

Causal players will always prefer quick drop.
- less wait time
- no need for drop deck
- free mech choice
- quite short but intensive games
- matchmaker
- reward is better, especially much better for causal players

Edited by xe N on, 08 May 2016 - 02:23 AM.

[bayoucowboy]

I'm not entirely sure, but don't you make another 300k cbills (or 400k w/premium) at the end of even a ghost drop invasion match? So the total is more like 335k? Doesn't solve the core issue of boredom, but like Mischief said, come over to Davion, we always have a fight going on.

Not to hijack the thread, but I do wish they would reduce the countdown timer on scout mode. Haven't got a ghost drop yet, but waiting 15 minutes for a five minute match sucks (but I really like the mode)

[Willard Phule]

maniacos, on 07 May 2016 - 01:15 PM, said:

It's simple: PGI sucks at game development (yes, they really do, no sarcasm).

Hey, they almost had a successful bass fishing game, once.

[BattleBunny]

I absolutely HATE that , when a ghost drop occurs, I still have to go through motions. walk the map, shoot some beacons or gens. Why is this a thing? I just waited 10+ minutes to find nobody on the other side to shoot, and now I have to walk across a map shooting at things that dont shoot back.

Just give me the bloody c-bills and let me queue up again.

[Rexxxxxxxxx]

BattleBunny, on 08 May 2016 - 06:22 AM, said:

I absolutely HATE that , when a ghost drop occurs, I still have to go through motions. walk the map, shoot some beacons or gens. Why is this a thing? I just waited 10+ minutes to find nobody on the other side to shoot, and now I have to walk across a map shooting at things that dont shoot back.

Just give me the bloody c-bills and let me queue up again.

They should just keep us in line until we get a match, or route us to a location that actually needs attackers, whether it's IS vs IS, Clan vs Clan or Clan vs IS.

We should't loose our place due to a ghost drop.

[Omaha]

von Haudegen, on 07 May 2016 - 12:09 PM, said:

At this time Jade Falcon have scouted the [Long Tom]. No one (who is sane) will drop against it (at the time 36:0).
After this stupid event, when the stormcrow fodder is gone, [Long Tom] will not come so easily to the falcons. Maybe then you can play invasion mode again.

Phase 3 has brought some very good ideas. I have hope!

While I can understand your statement here, about not wanting to drop against LongTom. But I think this kinda mind set only adds to the problem at hand. The kinda mindset "If we cant fight in our favor then we aint gonna fight!"

For me LongTom is no issue to me. I just want to play FactionWarefare. Weither it be getting clubbed to death, or artillery. I find my biggest issue is indeed every screen says please wait, or searching. Even if I click on one of those call to arms notices. It's not an instant ticket to battle. Even when everything is perfect, you still have to wait, for, compounding ready screens, and loading, in matches or mechlab. Which only gets worse the more mechs you have. With being a Match by match style kinda game. It's very frustrating. Because your place in leaderboards, your economic gains, your actual fun mech combat , is based on how many matches you can get into and out of.

They can only hide behind the excuse niche category type of game for so long. The game may be "Niche" i get that. But it is a team based FPS. Sooner or later...... well I'm not gonna say it. Creating so much wait, to get ppl to do something else while playing your game, is bad design.

I can see only sticking to quickplay but then I only get to play half a game. It's kinda funny sometimes, though. You know all this action is taking place in the galaxy. You'll see notifications, you'll see flashes of planets under the siege of units. You'll see chat going berserk to coordinate actions. You'll even see white timebased matches happening on red or blue squares. Then you click on attack or defend, and you swear all you hear or see is crickets.

Edited by draiocht, 09 July 2016 - 10:44 AM.
Quote Clean-Up

[fbj]

Don't worry new mechs are coming out!

[Hydrocarbon]

LORD ORION, on 07 May 2016 - 12:35 PM, said:

Phase 3 is terrible.

But...but...we worked so hard on phase 3!! All praise! ALL PRAISE!!!

Honestly if CW code was rolled back one years time, 95% of the players would have 950% more fun. Remove ghost drops & make it IS v Clan.




But hey, wanna buy a mechpack??? They will solve all!!!