Johnny Z, on 27 July 2016 - 03:40 AM, said:
No offense. But if your not just trolling, whats the top thing you want to see in faction play, and the worste thing in faction play. In a core kind of way.
I realize this wasn't directed to me
... however, I thought I could toss in an appropriate answer.
As someone who tried FP briefly and doesn't play it now ... though I keep up with reviews and opinions and have watched a few videos of the current version ... here are my biggest concerns with it in no particular order.
1) Time to get a match ... I play casually and for fun. WIth work, family and other commitments my gaming time is very circumscribed. As a result, although I could sometimes manage the longer match play times of FP, long waits to get a match in which I am doing nothing fun are a waste of my limited resources.
2) Long Tom artillery. Having a random "you are dead" button that randomly hits your forces every 2 minutes aimed at wherever your mechs are most concentrated is simply, in my opinion, a bad game mechanic. It isn't fun for either team since the ones being hit by it can't coordinate their attack properly and the ones who have it can't claim any skill in winning a match where it is a factor. As long as the Long Tom is in FP in anything like its current form, I will probably never play FP ... it just isn't the kind of random death gaming experience I am looking for.
3) Match balance. Due to limited play time constraints I am not a part of a unit. I have only grouped up a few times when playing MWO and although the experience was generally good there is added overhead in terms of time to find and organize a group and additional time waiting to drop as folks decide to change mechs or make mechlab changes. This means that when I drop in FP, I am dropping solo. In order to obtain more enjoyable matches for this demographic, the matchmaker needs to aim to have roughly the same number of solo players on each side.
Yes, it requires some matchmaker coding and I am concerned PGI may have lost the people who actually understood how it works. However, tweaks to the FP matchmaker that aimed to match group size or at least solo count on each team might go a long way to generating better matches. Team coordination is a very big factor in effectiveness. Probably more than individual player skill in general. The number of solo drops on each side significantly affects the ability of the team to coordinate ... so I would consider tweaking the matchmaker to make putting the same number of solos +/-1 on opposing teams and see how that works.
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Possible SOLUTIONS:
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1) As other have said, one of the big reasons for the long wait times in FP is the fractured nature of the allegiances. Each player is aligned with a sub-faction of clans or IS. This gives a huge number of possible battles between clan vs is, is vs is and clan vs clan. Often there are insufficient players in one or another of the queues to form a match. This just results in a generally poor matchmaking situation.
In addition, spreading the available FP player base over multiple fronts and letting them choose which battle to join (is vs is, clan vs clan or clan vs is for specific factions attacking and defending) just further splits the available players.
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To address this, I think you need to create "alliances" of players that can be grouped together for specific battles.
For example ... in a clan vs is battle ... any clan aligned set of players can be faced off against any is aligned set of players ... individual factions don't matter. Yes it breaks lore but it does allow for matches to form more quickly. The battle itself could be for a specific clan vs a specific IS faction but the "Call to Arms" feature would basically include anyone else in an allied faction queuing for FP at the same time. Earning or retaining control of planets would require some specific level of participation in the fight by members of the specific factions designated as attacking and defending. This would prevent one faction from gaining control of a planet on the efforts of allied factions.
The focus could be on clan vs is battles ... however, is vs is and clan vs clan are at least occasionally REQUIRED in order to balance queue numbers. Without the ability to kick off intra faction battles there is no way to manage the queue lengths for each of the opposing factions given unequal number of players queuing at any point in time.
Solutions like this should address the time to form matches at the expense of elements of the lore in terms of which sides might work together and which never would even if they were about to be over run
.
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2) Remove Long Tom. It was a bad idea. Replace it with intel or other non-combat based advantages or maybe give additional defences like turrets if a combat element is desired. Perhaps the defending team can specify where to place a limited selection of defenses or fortifications so that matches become a bit more dynamic. However, the long tom as it stands right now is a deal breaker for a lot of people.
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3) Revise the matchmaker to put the same number of solo players +/-1 on opposing teams. This should improve matchmaking or at least give both sides similar levels of team coordination.
Edited by Mawai, 27 July 2016 - 06:25 AM.
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