215 replies to this topic

[Appogee]

If they'd introduce matchmaking, perhaps the mode would be fun enough for more people to want to play it.

You don't need to reorganise the buckets if all the buckets are full.

As an interim step, at least the proposed solution will reduce wait times for those wanting to play FP for now. But it can't be the 'whole' solution, because it's addressing the symptom and not the cause.

[iLLcapitan]

TWIAFU, on 08 September 2016 - 03:35 AM, said:

Well, since CW will now just be Red vs Blue and that will be the full extent of it's "depth", the only real "identity" a pilot will have is the 'Mech they drive, and lemmings do what lemmings do, where do you think they will gravitate? The location where they have a natural advantage, Clans.

Large bucket vs small bucket. Large bucket will complain that they have to wait so the next step will be to balance Clan/IS so there is no distinction between the two other then HUD and laser colors.

Anyone want to play some MegaMek?

And what was the most iconic (and gamebreaking) conflict in BT?
Clans vs IS - red vs blue.

'Identity' OMG yes of course: one does identify with the pilot you 'impersonate' in this game - and your unit if you have one.
I get that the factions loose soul here but the current state of affairs isn't working.

[justcallme A S H]

Yes but WHY is it not working?

Single planet attack lanes and LT. Two biggest factors for the Phase 3 flop - Big units stopped playing.
I mean aside from people like Danjo, who has a hard-on for big units that are "breaking" phase 3 (which they aren't, cause they aren't playing), big units is where the population came from.

I'd take a half educated stab in the dark and say at least 1,000 players as a whole, across the larger units, stopped playing 4 weeks into Phase 3. That right there is why there are issues.

It's not about buckets, it's not about QP maps in FW - it's all about admitting the fact that those two things (LT/single lanes) were bad calls and revert them or adapt them into it now.

Edited by justcallme A S H, 08 September 2016 - 04:57 AM.

[Count Zero74]

I actually think it isn't a bad idea. Half the active population is in Clan Douchebag, sry Jade Falcon, right now. Throw the rest together in a single faction and it might balance things a bit.

[AmazingOnionMan]

Making everything a giant bukkit of Clan vs IS with an occasional ISvsIS weekend sounds pretty awful. I can understand why they're looking at that final solution, but it doesnt make it any less awful.
On the other hand, no more Long Tom. "New" FW-modes and what sounds like PGI taking a hesitant step towards making actual campaigns a thing. And they even said something about faction rewards.
I'm not very optimistic, but will be happily proven wrong.

[TWIAFU]

iLLcapitan, on 08 September 2016 - 04:21 AM, said:

And what was the most iconic (and gamebreaking) conflict in BT?
Clans vs IS - red vs blue.

'Identity' OMG yes of course: one does identify with the pilot you 'impersonate' in this game - and your unit if you have one.
I get that the factions loose soul here but the current state of affairs isn't working.

And turning CW into QP with respawn won't work either.

CW will be worse after the change into vanilla R vs B.

[Javin]

I do not understand why everyone is upset about Clan vs IS? Right now it is Clan Jade Falcon vs all of the IS. We are already at Clan vs IS. Clan Ghost bear occasionally attacks but really? There is only one clan. No IS group ever attacks except Davion, and they do not have the population to take a planet.

I do not like the current direction of MWO. I vote with my wallet and no longer spend money on a game that no longer seems to care about the players. There are so many ways this game could be more enjoyable. PGI could:

Make faction wide awards like earn 10 C-bills a day for every planet your faction owns. Every player in the faction would earn the c-bills. PGI could make other factions more attractive by increasing the c-bills per planet to help adjust faction populations.

Give factions a reduction cbill cost on faction mechs. Perhaps even given a c-bill or experience bonus for using faction mechs while playing in that faction.

Give a cbill or exp bonus for attacking historical faction enemies.

Reviving the short lived faction vs faction mini events.

PGI could improve the general experience by:
Have a map building contest and get dozens of new maps.
Change the skills to help players pick roles. An example might be light pilot specialization and give a speed bonus, or maneuverability, or narc bonuses.
New weapons and or tech
Move the time line and allow mixed tech
Listen to the community.

There are so many ways to make MWO fun again. I am still hopeful PGI will remember if a game is fun, more players would play.

Edited by Javin, 08 September 2016 - 06:59 AM.

[justcallme A S H]

Because people also want Clan/Clan and IS/IS? Rather than just a flat IS v Clan (outside of "events").

But the crux is the same as all the other threads - why is there no population?

You're looking at it the same way PGI is - POST Phase 3, look to before it, what has caused the population to literally leave in droves?

Address that and fix FP (to a point).

Edited by justcallme A S H, 08 September 2016 - 07:03 AM.

[Count Zero74]

They can have my bucket, got a hole in it anyways

[Sable42]

Well as a Loyalist player who started a unit to draw like minded pilots together for camaraderie and good matches, I see this proposed change to FW as a dumbing down of the whole idea of the Clan vs. IS territorial battles, let's just throw the whole concept of the cannon that has made Battletech great out and piss on it. I'm not a die-hard stick to the novels, lore kinda guy, but it is this whole "identity" of a clan that drew me into the game all those years ago...and I'm sure that I am not alone here in saying that. PGI is taking away a giant part of why we play the game, the whole "faction" warfare identity. I'm sure the Mercs will crucify me here for this, and that's fine. I am all for them having their say in it as well, but they aren't really mercenaries if no one is hiring them to fight. They switch sides to get a payday, and to find battles. Yet they claim that there are no battles to be fought, no drops to challenge them. Maybe I am missing something here, maybe not. I expect to be crucified anyway for voicing my opinion, but at least I'm speaking out.

I don't mind waiting ten minutes or so to get a drop if it means a good fight. My unit and I have spent many a day contesting and defending Clan planets, full drops mostly with very few, if any ghost drops. We grow from our losses, and relish our victories, no matter the opponent.

Yes we may not be one of the larger units, but we have about 40 active players working hard to put together viable drop decks, and learning to work as a team, and now this means absolutely bupkis? I do hope this works out in the end, but for now, it seems that we as a loyalist unit will be reduced to just pugging it out sadly. I was hoping for more than this PGI.

[iLLcapitan]

Sable42, on 08 September 2016 - 07:13 AM, said:

Well as a Loyalist player who started a unit to draw like minded pilots together for camaraderie and good matches, I see this proposed change to FW as a dumbing down of the whole idea of the Clan vs. IS territorial battles, let's just throw the whole concept of the cannon that has made Battletech great out and piss on it. I'm not a die-hard stick to the novels, lore kinda guy, but it is this whole "identity" of a clan that drew me into the game all those years ago...and I'm sure that I am not alone here in saying that. PGI is taking away a giant part of why we play the game, the whole "faction" warfare identity. I'm sure the Mercs will crucify me here for this, and that's fine. I am all for them having their say in it as well, but they aren't really mercenaries if no one is hiring them to fight. They switch sides to get a payday, and to find battles. Yet they claim that there are no battles to be fought, no drops to challenge them. Maybe I am missing something here, maybe not. I expect to be crucified anyway for voicing my opinion, but at least I'm speaking out.

I don't mind waiting ten minutes or so to get a drop if it means a good fight. My unit and I have spent many a day contesting and defending Clan planets, full drops mostly with very few, if any ghost drops. We grow from our losses, and relish our victories, no matter the opponent.

Yes we may not be one of the larger units, but we have about 40 active players working hard to put together viable drop decks, and learning to work as a team, and now this means absolutely bupkis? I do hope this works out in the end, but for now, it seems that we as a loyalist unit will be reduced to just pugging it out sadly. I was hoping for more than this PGI.

Nothing will change for you really.
You'll keep your Ghostbear tag.

Will loosing the pointless vote option kill all your immersion?
You'll get lore-inspired war venues instead.

You will get faster drops and hopefully better fights.
More potential to grow your unit.

While I'm all for distinguishing factions and keeping a resemblance of the actual clan invasion and the setting,
I think some loyalists create too much drama here.

Edited by iLLcapitan, 08 September 2016 - 07:22 AM.

[Bud Crue]

Well, one good thing that will come out of this mess: Now there is certainly no reason to blow 2400MC on extra drop decks. So there's that.

[The Basilisk]

Realy do not care about buckets and stuff.
I'm IS merc anyways so what.

-- Bring 10x more maps

-- Bring missions on player-, unit-, faction level so you have something to fight for

-- Bring a reasonable expenditure of time/ reward ratio compared to quickplay

-- Bring the performance on FW in order or what ever it will be called in order so I don't have 10-20fps less than on QP maps.


Oh hey and when you're at it give me some more weapons and stuff for my 80 mechs to play with.

--> See me actually playing something other than QP again.

Edited by The Basilisk, 08 September 2016 - 07:26 AM.

[Husker Dude]

I'm surprised there's so much negative reaction; I think the changes are going to be good for the game mode, particularly where the groups will no longer need to be made up of exclusively one single faction.
I'd gladly trade seeing a solid wall of FRR icons next to player names I don't know and may never see again to being able to fill out a group with other players I've actually played with before and enjoy playing with, who happen to be on Steiner or some other IS faction, particularly when I may actually be able to get a match promptly (as opposed to alt-tabbing to play another game in the foreground while the CW lobby timer ticks up and then hopefully down).

I'm also still holding out hope that the tug of war system alleviates some of the "pugs only defend" problems, so that those teams can sometimes meet each other (and consequently groups can also match with a bit better frequency).

[Alteran]

The Basilisk, on 08 September 2016 - 07:24 AM, said:

Realy do not care about buckets and stuff.
I'm IS merc anyways so what.

-- Bring 10x more maps

-- Bring missions on player-, unit-, faction level so you have something to fight for

-- Bring a reasonable expenditure of time/ reward ratio compared to quickplay

-- Bring the performance on FW in order or what ever it will be called in order so I don't have 10-20fps less than on QP maps.


Oh hey and when you're at it give me some more weapons and stuff for my 80 mechs to play with.

--> See me actually playing something other than QP again.

This... this is what the CW/FP/FW people have been asking for. Maps, game modes, real rewards and in-depth system that's more than just a gain in Cbills. Things that we will draw us to the game.

What do we get, big bukkits to funnel players into and hope we get a game in. Right on...

The bukkits are not going to draw any more players into a match anymore than it does now. How many people were in FP last night? 40-50 total? Well hey, at least I got in one ghost drop while listening to the podcast.

But hey, Russ said it could be possible to add Drop Decks to QP. Anyone wanna buy a Drop Deck^TM or Mech Pack^TM?

[Gerwig]

If you are one of the people that purposely stifled activity just to screw over some mercs. You deserve this change. I hope it ruins the game for you.

[RaptorCWS]

Stormie, on 07 September 2016 - 10:55 PM, said:

You must have been listening to those who hear what they want to hear. Ghost bear just wanted to make the place as unattractive to mercs as possible, and didn't like the ghost drops any more than the next person. Notice now that the mercs are mostly gone we are back to attacking rasalhague?

not all of us wanted to make it unattractive to mercs.

[Gerwig]

I understand and we enjoyed grouping with you, looking forward to the next go round

[Spider00x]

NOW Im going to take a giant bite out of this Salt Sandwhich, and swallow the Whole-damn-thing,


CBGI and Stormie, your purposely aided in breaking the game by manipulating the game meta to serve your own interests by voting for a faction 'Kurita' that has no population in some sort of misguided attempt to get us to leave out of boredom... Your behavior has been detestable and has hurt the game in a time where people like myself, Ash, xX Pug, and Pat were trying to re invigorate game play and change the game play narrative. If this was ACTUAL mechwarrior Kurita would be this giant military force that steam rolled you. You would rather DENY all of Ghost Bear actual matches then play the game mode, what the hell man seriously... like why? LORE? LORE? This is a video game dude, of your some 300 people in your unit only about 12 to 20 play CW, you held your entire faction hostage using people who dont even play the game mode. NOW you vote for FFR as if that is some how going to excuse your poor behavior.

Since we moved on to Wolf and Pat moved on the Davion Ive recieved a number of PMs confirming that we moved so teams came safely move in and take your territory, and I welcome it. If you had actually moved your borders around on your own that would be one thing but it didnt seem like anyone over there was indeed activly interested in CW until mercs arrived and when I say mercs what I really mean to say is ACTIVE AND SKILLED PLAYERS. But you dont want that, you want the detestable option to play the game as you see fit and to hell with everyone else.

You made a post saying your going to quit MWO if Russ empliments these changes, well good! because its people like you that stand in the way of true progress. Jesus man I offered you my hand in friendship, and you slapped it away and thats after I apologized for getting upset that you didnt OPEN the gates on that Boreal attack, but honestly man how did expect us to respond?

I am beyond frustrated with the small minded people who play this game, either embrace the game mode and attempt to solicit matches or get out of the way of people like myeslf, 228, MS, COMA, 420, 2323, JFGG, Kcom, SRX, JGx, SWOL, 54MR, 22AL, HHoD, 12DG and countless more who want to play the damn game mode and keep it on life support!

Edited by Spider00x, 08 September 2016 - 09:39 AM.

[MischiefSC]

Kin3ticX, on 08 September 2016 - 03:13 AM, said:

I will try to push for a compromise (save 4 factions) but I suspect PGI already shot this down in meetings.

https://twitter.com/...838403091599360


https://twitter.com/...835879160754177


Podcast went pretty well otherwise. I completely understand why people are not happy with that 1 thing.

Just understand "that 1 thing" is a major reason why there's names and units on the Loyalist leaderboard.

If factions where never a big deal nor were you a big BT fan from before I get how it's not a major issue.

For everyone else though that's the only reason FW is relevant. There is absolutely nobody going to come BACK to FW because factions are irrelevant. All you'll do is drive everyone who did care out so that the fewer left get matches in a QP environment faster.

There is nothing about this idea to "fix" FW. Just close it as a segment of the game and make it maps/modes for QP.

Which will in turn reduce games overall population and do nothing to being people in.