20 replies to this topic

[Shifty McSwift]

I have always considered it (without further specific investigation, just based off how I play) to be the games equivalent of doing shady mercenary work, for the closest paying source, separate from any faction contracts or affiliations.

For this reason, it justifies the general craziness of QP games to me, in thinking that it is just some "merc brawl", or private war being fought by two or more parties, without true structural organisation to it.

This among a list of other reasons makes it weird to me that these games are ranked, and that they pay so well in comparison to FW modes.

But I won't get into notions of change here (yet at least). I wanted to see how other people view the quickplay game mode, or how they make sense of it vs FW.

[Savage Wolf]

I consider it the place where you quickly get to play the game and don't care about a reason why. It is also mechanically weak as all game modes are skirmish. It has however matchmaking.

FW is for the tryhards who also loves context and immersion into the universe, what little there is anyway. The game modes are a bit deeper, although primarily conquest and invasion. However the matchmaking is left to random instead.

[Scyther]

QuickPlay is, conceptually (for me) the 'seeding matches' for merc recruitment and tourneys like Solaris.

Practically, it's more like the punishment detail you send your troublemakers and bad apples to so they learn to listen to their commander better.

"You think it's funny to be a wildcat maverick, Rambo? Well here ya go, your life now depends on a whole TEAM of them!"

[Shifty McSwift]

Savage Wolf, on 08 June 2017 - 02:52 AM, said:

I consider it the place where you quickly get to play the game and don't care about a reason why.

Yeah from casual play, testing and grinding perspectives this makes sense, and I would always want a quickplay option for these and other reasons, though again from that perspective it is still weird it tracks your stats and ranks.

MadBadger, on 08 June 2017 - 02:57 AM, said:

QuickPlay is, conceptually (for me) the 'seeding matches' for merc recruitment and tourneys like Solaris.

Practically, it's more like the punishment detail you send your troublemakers and bad apples to so they learn to listen to their commander better.

"You think it's funny to be a wildcat maverick, Rambo? Well here ya go, your life now depends on a whole TEAM of them!"

LoL, yeah true, problem there is that QP has historically and still does in many ways promote rambo style plays, rather than provide training for comp team play.

[Savage Wolf]

Shifty McSwift, on 08 June 2017 - 03:03 AM, said:

Yeah from casual play, testing and grinding perspectives this makes sense, and I would always want a quickplay option for these and other reasons, though again from that perspective it is still weird it tracks your stats and ranks.

Why is that weird? I personally don't care any other than W/L, but ranking is needed for good fights. Not that PSR isn't a terrible ranking system, but that's another topic. But why is it weird?

[Shifty McSwift]

Savage Wolf, on 08 June 2017 - 03:10 AM, said:

Why is that weird? I personally don't care any other than W/L, but ranking is needed for good fights. Not that PSR isn't a terrible ranking system, but that's another topic. But why is it weird?

Personal stat tracking is one thing, and good for many reasons, I want to clarify I meant the public stats system that incorporates a disparity from a noob playing his first game in a stock standard no skills mech, to a roflstomp group fully skilled running metabuilds and mechs.

[Shifty McSwift]

Also it is a separate notion from the ranking system specifically, it is probably for the best that the ranking system does incorporate this, but for the public stat tracking it is strange to me.

[Savage Wolf]

Shifty McSwift, on 08 June 2017 - 03:13 AM, said:

Personal stat tracking is one thing, and good for many reasons, I want to clarify I meant the public stats system that incorporates a disparity from a noob playing his first game in a stock standard no skills mech, to a roflstomp group fully skilled running metabuilds and mechs.

The leaderboards? Yeah, those are weird. And more for e-peen than anything else. And encourages stats hunting instead of playing the game proper.

[El Bandito]

Solo-Q is test of your wits. GQ is test of your skill.

[LordNothing]

i prefer fp over qp. fp is the more honest mode that really lets you know how good or bad you are, both as an individual and your ability to work with others. you dont have some quasi-functional match maker fixing games trying to put people on even footing in the worst way possible. when your pug team encounters an elite unit, thats just the game telling you what you could be if you really wanted it. people go in expecting instant gratification only to be informed of the grim reality. then spew negativity as some kind of self imposed purgatory.

qp kind of punishes you for being good. how many games have you played with a huge score but ended up being a loss because you didnt carry hard enough. you tend to give those the blind eye because they tend to pay out pretty good. but in the end is it really different than fp?

as for how i make sense of qp in a lore context. i kind of think of it as some kind of reality show, you know, solaris.

[Vellron2005]

For me, QP is "arcade mode"..

If you ever played Need For Speed in any newer iteration, you know there's "story" or "campaign mode" - that's Faction Play.

And then there's the "arcade mode" that is just racing for the sake of racing, instant action without lots of thinking and fuss - that's Quickplay mode..

Now with the addition of Comp Play, that's gonna be like racing with friends on split screen to see who's going to go buy more booze at 3AM and pay for it all - highly competitive

Edited by Vellron2005, 09 June 2017 - 01:45 AM.

[Appogee]

Savage Wolf, on 08 June 2017 - 02:52 AM, said:

It has however matchmaking.

Bwahahahahahhahahaha!!!

[Savage Wolf]

Appogee, on 09 June 2017 - 01:49 AM, said:

Bwahahahahahhahahaha!!!

Didn't say it was good. And it's still better than no matchmaking. Like Faction Play.

[Helene de Montfort]

Quick play is where you'll find the most challenge, trying to adapt to your team and/or carry it to victory.

Group play is where you will find all kind of people that are interested into winning at any cost, resorting even to blatant exploits (synchronized drops for one), and not so blatant cheating.

From a lore POV, none have sense, but faction play doesn't have sense either. Clans never employed mercenaries, and there was never any reason to have clans and IS fight alongside.

[Appogee]

Savage Wolf, on 09 June 2017 - 02:15 AM, said:

Didn't say it was good. And it's still better than no matchmaking. Like Faction Play.

YMMV, but the "matchmaking" in QP is effectively "no matchmaking", for two reason:

1. The matchmaker has its "release valves" open almost all the time except NA peak, mixing the tiers together so much that it may as well be random. (I am regularly dropped on QP teams which include a high proportion of Tier 4 and some Tier 5 players. Yes, that's not how it's supposed to work. But it's the way it is working, verified many times over by many people.)

2. The whole PSR system the matchmaker "uses" has a fundamentally-flawed, upwards bias. Unskilled players are relentlessly propelled towards Tier 1, just by playing. Now, Tier 1 is full of players who aren't in any way "good" players. (And I'm not talking "Proton-level good". I'm talking "good" to the level that they know to torso twist, understand the rules of the different game modes, have decent aim and positioning skills.)

[Savage Wolf]

Appogee, on 09 June 2017 - 02:41 AM, said:

YMMV, but the "matchmaking" in QP is effectively "no matchmaking", for two reason:

1. The matchmaker has its "release valves" open almost all the time except NA peak, mixing the tiers together so much that it may as well be random. (I am regularly dropped on QP teams which include a high proportion of Tier 4 and some Tier 5 players. Yes, that's not how it's supposed to work. But it's the way it is working, verified many times over by many people.)

2. The whole PSR system the matchmaker "uses" has a fundamentally-flawed, upwards bias. Unskilled players are relentlessly propelled towards Tier 1, just by playing. Now, Tier 1 is full of players who aren't in any way "good" players. (And I'm not talking "Proton-level good". I'm talking "good" to the level that they know to torso twist, understand the rules of the different game modes, have decent aim and positioning skills.)

I mostly agree with what you are saying, but it's still better than no matchmaking. That's why I stay away from Faction Play. Solo QP is not nearly as random as faction play.
Yes PSR is broken and tiers are mixed way too much, but I still enjoy matches more with this limited ineffective matchmaking than none at all.

[Wyald Katt]

El Bandito, on 08 June 2017 - 03:37 AM, said:

Solo-Q is test of your wits. GQ is test of your skill.

FALSE! HA HA!

I'm good in solo-Q and it sure as hell ain't cuz of my wits.

[Almond Brown]

Shifty McSwift, on 08 June 2017 - 03:03 AM, said:

Yeah from casual play, testing and grinding perspectives this makes sense, and I would always want a quickplay option for these and other reasons, though again from that perspective it is still weird it tracks your stats and ranks.

LoL, yeah true, problem there is that QP has historically and still does in many ways promote rambo style plays, rather than provide training for comp team play.

So technically, QP is good in the fact that there is a place for said "Rambo's", those who will just never be a Team player, to go and blow off steam, literally. Never seen a true "Rambo" who also didn't blame the other "Rambo's" on their QP Team for their untimely and quick Death's, while they "Rambo'd" up a storm, as usual.

[Snazzy Dragon]

Quick play is where I go to watch people snipe with LB-X cannons and fire LRMs within 180 meters. It's also the prime place to see the fabled LRM atlas in the wild and where to complete challenges for events when group queue is dead.

[Mystere]

Shifty McSwift, on 08 June 2017 - 02:45 AM, said:

What Is Quickplay Really?

It's the "originally just a filler until Community Warfare gets done but is now officially THE GAME".