5
Survey ended, here's the results!
Thank you everybody who filled out the survey, all exactly 400 of you! That's nearly 100 more responses than last time, a pleasant surprise.
I'll probably do this again some time around January 2018 or so, after Escalation mechs have had time to settle into the game. Then we can compare pre-civil-war to post-civil-war.
> Simple results, the averages
Lights: The Arctic Cheetah was voted the top light at this time, with an 8.0 average vote. The WLF, LCT, JVN, and JR7-IIC all came in around 7.0, and the remainder of the lights fall "below average". Although the WLF tied for second best light, there was a lot of disagreement over its placement, only the Commando had a higher standard deviation. The Mist Lynx was voted the worst light by far with a 3.3 average.
Mediums: The Hunchback IIC reigns supreme with a 8.7 average vote, with the HMN and NVA at its heels. People agreed very strongly that those were the top three mechs. The SCR, GRF, and BSW all rest "above average". The VND and KTO were voted the worst mediums, but the TBT, IFR, and PXH all fell below the average.
Heavies: The Night Gyr sits at the top with an 8.9, but it doesn't win by a large margin. The EBJ is strongly agreed upon with an 8.1, and after that it's a bit of a wash between the WHM, HBR, and TBR, and then a load more closely packed together. Falling below average were the DRG, QKD, RFL, ARC, and ON1, with the CTF being voted the worst heavy. People strongly disagreed over the DRG, however, more than any other heavy. I guess that's what happens when you have a chassis that's largely terrible but has one niche build that works quite well (DRG-1C with 3LPL or 3ERLL)
Assaults: Sweeping the top spot is the Marauder IIC with a 9.1 average vote. The KDK came second with an 8.2 and the BLR not far behind. Above average were the MAL, SNV, then CP and WHK. Of the five lowest averaging mechs, the HGN is the most agreed upon with a 4.1, and while the AWS had the lowest average (4.0), votes on it were all over the place. The GAR, VTR, and ZEU make up the other three that settled at the bottom.
> Boxplot version, more detailed information
Google Sheets doesn't support boxplots... so I had to make my own. Hey, don't judge, it works!
Breakdowns!
> Clan vs Innersphere
Surprisingly, nothing really stands out! Clan and IS loyalists appear to agree on just about everything. It's actually the apparently "neutral" party that really seems to diverge here and there on certain mechs. Very curious indeed.
> Casual vs Competitive
This is where we finally see some very interesting results. The casual crowd and competitive crowd disagree quite a bit on some mechs, and the "in the middle" group conveniently often sits... in the middle! It's a little too consistent to be just noise in the data. More often than not, the competitive crowd see more value in a mech than the casual folk. Examples include the FS9, WLF, HBK-IIC, DRG, NTG, GAR, SNV. It's a bit less often that the casual peeps vote a chassis higher than everybody else. Examples of that include the BJ, JM6, WHM, ZEU, KDK. Intriguing choices... most of those can run ballistics. Is it that casual players love their dakkadakkadakka with less regard for how effective it is? Mayhaps, but just a guess.
> Split up by Match Score
This is kinda where it mattered if you put in your actual MWO name.
While I appreciate the effort from --PooShooter--, Puѕѕy Crusher, How About No, noneofyourfuсkingbussiness, and taragatosmokesatonofpeniѕ... unfortunately I couldn't find any of your names on the leaderboard.
Here is chart showing the distribution of players that partook in the survey:
The global average matchscore is somewhere around 210, so I used that as a cutoff, and arbitrarily decided to also separate players who average above 320 match score. Those in between, ranging from 210 to 320 matchscore inclusive, while considered above the game's global average, made up the majority of my respondents.
> Solo vs Group vs FP vs Comp
I was hoping to see some differences here, but all the groups voted pretty much the same. Disappointing. The only thing that stands out to me is that the comp/private lobby group thinks more highly of the WLF and FS9, and doesn't value the RVN and CN9 as much. Other than that... only subtle fluctuations, indistinguishable from noise. I'd like to analyse the overlap between groups here, but I'm really not sure how to approach that, so... yeah.
> Last year vs This year
Lights: The Commando soared! While it's still only considered about an average light mech, it saw a big jump from 2.7 to 5.8. The Skill Tree had a big part in this, because the Commando is now about 30% tankier. It was probably underrated before, being a slippery little bugger that's notoriously hard to kill, but the new durability gave people the balls to hop in and wreck havoc with the little man. Aside from the Commando... the Wolfhound also gained a lot of ground compared to last year. Did it even get any buffs? I suspect that it's less about buffs and changes and more about people just finally realising the potential of the thing - with so many other lights receiving nerfs, not many bothered to give the WLF a fair shake before because it was always third fiddle. (does that make it a viola?) The Arctic Cheetah went down by wee bit, but it's still on top. It's hard to beat a 30-tonner scaled light mech that goes 130+ kph and has Clan XL with 5+ energy hardpoints.
Mediums: Not a lot changed. The HMN has come into proper vogue, the BSW turned out a lot better than people expected it to last year, the PXH got a few buffs, and the SCR got hit a little by the engine desync.
Heavies: The TBR dropped by a bit and as a consequence people voted the EBJ a tiny bit higher. Interesting to note that the TBR was strongly agreed to be best heavy before, but now people don't agree as much - some think it hasn't dropped much at all, while some do. The ON1-IIC got durability buffs and is more valued now, the LBK turned out a lot better than people expected, and we found a hidden gem in the DRG, which rose noticeably and is no longer considered the worst heavy.
Assaults: Most people underrated the MAD-IIC in last years survey, as it hadn't been released yet. Since then, gauss got a huge explosion chance nerf, and the engine desync hit - both of these dragged the Kodiak down by a ... little bit. The Skill Tree also introduced Super Double Coolshots and the MAD-IIC took the KDK's place. People seem a lot less sure of the DWF now, but one thing they agreed on is that it sits lower than before. The Victor rose from being the the worst rated assault... to being one of the five worst rated assaults. Wouppee. But as is the theme... people don't agree on it as strongly now as they did before. I really suspect a lot of people are still voting by how mechs used to be as much as 2-3 months ago, without fully being caught up on how they actually are today.
Edited by Tarogato, 17 July 2017 - 03:34 AM.
