285 replies to this topic

[Kin3ticX]

A lot of mercstar regulars are scaling back on CW playtime. There are some positives but I am focusing on issues here for simplicity. There are few reasons I think this is happening. Unfortunately I don't think there is much of a community driven solution so we are depending on PGI.

Some of phase 3 is just phase 2 with handcuffs: the loyalist penalty is a big one but there are others like faction lane voting and recruit fees. I get it that the 1 attack lane for each faction was meant to consolidate some of the queuing, but it also partially hamstrung us from accessing each other.

Space nerd politics is nearly dead: This is a big one and needs to be addressed. Without the spacenerd politics, there is nothing for our unit leader to do anymore .

• Its harder to get access to hotspots from a single home faction due to single attack lane voting
  
• Im told loyalist power blocks like the FRR hub can't even influence the vote. Its dumb (dane, back me up here)
  
• no feature like unit-unit coffer wires was created so we can hire each other and make deals. How something like this didn't make it into phase 3 just boggles the mind
  
• locking down loyalists prevents anyone from hiring each other via switching units and donating (pain in the *** BTW)

Remove the LP penalty from Loyalists: Such a crazy handcuff do I need to say more?





Phase 3 was delivered with no tweaks to combat issues in invasion mode that we have gone over a million times: Tbh, a lot of these issues have been eclipsed by issues with phase 3, but if you care you can see a lot of them here
https://www.reddit.c..._topics/d1ihvac



For me, all FW roads ultimately point to one simple fact, too many factions for the size of this community. We need to be able to access more fights from each faction BUT more lanes for 10 factions is again too many.....sigh....

The only community driven solution I can think of is to pack everyone we have left into Jade-Wolf-Steiner-FRR. However, with the new population mechanic perhaps that isnt even possible to pull off.

Edited by Kin3ticX, 20 May 2016 - 03:05 PM.

[dervishx5]

Yeah at this point it might as well just be two factions of is vs clan. The population doesn't justify 10 factions.

[Carl Vickers]

The only simple fix I can think of is allowing peeps to reinforce attacks, just like defense. While it doesnt fix the core issue of too many factions for small populations it would open up more matches.

[Livewyr]

CW/FW was DoA.

Queue driven algorithmic hamster wheel system was never going to be a success. Even now with attack "voting" players still cannot necessarily attack the planet they want to.

(And no MM either, because in an actual community driven CW/FW... the MM would be whether you decided to attack -MS-holdings, or whoever hired -MS-)

Now -MS- along with a few other units *is* community warfare, so you can hop on that hamster wheel/grinder or sit in queue for a year.

This died in design, it's just been decaying over 18 months.

Edited by Livewyr, 19 May 2016 - 08:32 PM.

[Jman5]

Kin3ticX, on 19 May 2016 - 08:24 PM, said:

• no feature like unit-unit coffer wires was created so we can hire each other and make deals. How something like this didn't make it into phase 3 just boggles the mind
  
• locking down loyalists prevents anyone from hiring each other via switching units and donating (pain in the *** BTW)

What we really need is some sort of Mercenary Hiring Hall that merc units could choose to put themselves into.

There are lots of ways you could do this, but here are a few ideas.

1. bid war with a buyout price set by the Merc unit

2. Opening price set by unit stats

3. Price based on unit size.

Bids last all week. At the end of that week the winning faction receives their merc units for the next week when it starts again.

You could make it even more interesting by adding contract stipulations like have your Merc Unit play X number of games (based on unit size). Or win X number of games. Failure to live up to the contract would result in refunding all the money.

[Kin3ticX]

Jman5, on 19 May 2016 - 08:48 PM, said:

[/list]What we really need is some sort of Mercenary Hiring Hall that merc units could choose to put themselves into.

There are lots of ways you could do this, but here are a few ideas.

1. bid war with a buyout price set by the Merc unit

2. Opening price set by unit stats

3. Price based on unit size.

Bids last all week. At the end of that week the winning faction receives their merc units for the next week when it starts again.

You could make it even more interesting by adding contract stipulations like have your Merc Unit play X number of games (based on unit size). Or win X number of games. Failure to live up to the contract would result in refunding all the money.

sure im all for that, but a simple financial transaction would do worlds of help right now

[Davegt27]

Quote

Phase 3 was delivered with no tweaks to combat issues in invasion mode that we have gone over a million times: Tbh, a lot of these issues have been eclipsed by issues with phase 3, but if you care you can see a lot of them here

pgi told you for 6 months there would not be any major changes to game play

[Hydrocarbon]

I think the biggest change has to be within - force PGI to actually play their own game mode. Have alts in all factions so they can experience it all. When they realize 90% of their time is playing WaitWarrior, they'll get a whiff of a hint.

Their rediculous "2% ghost drop" number or whatever doesn't reflect the fact that you're waiting around for 15+ mins before finding a match. It's like referring to someone who started smoking at age 83 as a lifetime smoker...

[Black Ivan]

IMOthe problem is that CW was already dying when it was implemented in the first case and it kept dying since then.

Too bad design by PGI and no very well outthought ideas went into it.

[crustydog]

The general point of the OP is exactly right.

Case in point, the Jade Falcon log jam: without faction switching penalties, contract breaking penalties, unit joining penalties, single attack lanes, and all the rest of these FOOLISH restrictions, it becomes a simple matter of players moving around to where they can find games.

Remove ALL of the penalties. Install Global FW chat to help locate games, and the players will do the rest - PROBLEM SOLVED.

[Contrex]

Or just split those super bit units into max 50 member units. So if 2 units switch faction, none realy cares.
MS has 360 member + a sub unit. They might play together the first days after the cut, but time after time they gonna seperate.

Actualy there is no need at all for those super big units. I think, that even 50 is mutch. U cant know everyone if u have a unit that big, so who cares if he is with you there. The only reason is, to get planets, but its bad for the populationchanges.

[Helsbane]

I still hold to the belief that PGI's collective incompetence will result in this game stagnating and dying as the larger units finally get bored with the same thing phase after phase. Thus far they've shown that their 'vision' for the game is severely underwhelming in scope and features. They may have had a great big crazy idea of all the neat-o keen things they thought they could include, but they don't have the talent to get the basic aspects of the game working. Their key 'pillars' upon which this game was supposed to stand are kinda like short stacks of cinderblocks holding up a rusted out F150 behind the garage that they swear runs and drives. "When we get the new rims and wheels, you'll see. It's gonna be AWESOME!"

PGI's customization system and the art department are the only saving graces of this game. The leadership has shown they are clueless, and until another company tears to MW IP from their talentless hands, the MW universe will continue to slowly, painfully, fade.

But hey, buy a mech pack!

[Randy Poffo]

There was no chance of fixing CW's problems without providing a gateway to bring more people into the game mode. Higher populations make a lot of problems easier to solve.

But PGI doesn't want to do any of the work to facilitate the social side of the game to make joining units a more central part of the game and something that happens naturally through a player's progression. And on the community side people pretty much universally oppose any measure that would give new players a taste of the mode that didn't come with an aftertaste of manure.

So really, this is the system that you collectively wanted.

[RustyBolts]

Here is my opinion on PGIs top 5 goals for success in this game:
1) Throw the players a new mechpack and a little FW change.
2) Throw the players a new mechpack and a new Quick que map.
3) Throw the players a new mechpack and a little FW change.
4) Throw the players a new mechpack and a new tutorial.
5) Throw the players a new mechpack and put game on Steam.

Edited by RustyBolts, 20 May 2016 - 11:34 AM.

[fbj]

We are all just going insane trying to fix a problem we will never be able to truly affect.

So here we are debating the what ifs.

But we are stuck with what has been done.

So thats all we can work with. You can see in some of the numbers just within MS itself how disappointed player base is with the turn of Phase 2.3 aka Phase 3 for everyone else.

Hell even someone such as myself who plays none stop is getting bored of the lack of game play and evolution of Community Warfare.

The fact that PGI keeps handing out Participation awards to those who whine the most is taking any fun out of the events. I have come to expect any all events will be extended by 3 days from now on. That any new change in the game will be proceeded by a random Mech Pack Release. That the expectation of anything for new maps will take 3 years. That Townhalls have turned into Massive Informercials for the next released MechPack with screened questions and if a difficult questions comes up the answer is 'We covered that Last Town Hall Informercial or We won't be discussing that at this point'

The real question the most of us have to ask yourselves, 'Why are you still playing this game?'

As for me, its the Community that MercStar has built, the other units I have gotten to know and mechlabing.

If MercStar as whole left MWO, I wouldn't be bothered. But we are still here for the time being.

Maybe the great exodus is gonna start? Whos going to lead it?

[Helsbane]

I stick around because of the friends I've made in LoB, and the new folks we're getting to know in MS. As soon as there's another outlet for shooting big stompy robots, I'll likely head that direction and encourage my friends to do likewise.

[MischiefSC]

Remove distinct factions you kill it as anything but new maps/modes for QP.

Best solution is one workday per lane. Attack/defend all the same. Winner moves the next world into losers space. This eliminates all the problems created by who attacks, who defends, etc. One queue per front. One scout queue per front.

Second would be the ability to open a second front when population allows. If first front meets criteria and there's population for it whatever the runner up was in the faction vote opens.

Davion loyalists control our fronts and switch the regularly and intentionally. I'm surprised to hear anyone is struggling with that.

[FallingAce]

Kin3ticX, on 19 May 2016 - 08:24 PM, said:

Our leader, Antonius Rex, is taking a step back because phase 3 didn't pan out and is a bit of a let down.

fbj, on 20 May 2016 - 12:18 PM, said:

Maybe the great exodus is gonna start? Whos going to lead it?

If the leader of the largest, most successful unit in the game finds no satisfaction in his/units accomplishments imagine how the leaders of smaller units feel. There will be no great exodus, just a slow bleeding. Unfortunately the community is about out of blood.

[DeathlyEyes]

How to alleviate long queues:

1. Release an IS and Clan mech pack simultaneously so people can't chase released mechs.
2. Do away with all the fronts, unified clan vs IS front until player numbers are sufficient. Possibly in an operation bulldog campaign. Let individual factions take planets for their faction.
3. Increase the number of attack and defense slots per planet dynamically to match player activity.

[gimmie]

Have to agree with a lot of the points made above, MWO seems to be dying a slow death, and the only ones who see it are those who have been here long enough to realize PGI is the cancer at the heart of this game.

As the leader of a smaller unit of mercenaries I have watched my players fall out of the game, one by one, as they realized that the only things that change in this game is which faction is getting shafted by "Balance" and which mechpack is next in the queue.

PGI constantly wonders "why are we losing players" and "why dont people try out our game" this is mainly because there is no "new player experience" and the few who stick around realize that the devs are so far out of touch with their playerbase that they may as well be absent.

I for one will be moving over to the next StompyRobotSimulator™ that drops onto the market.