Khalcruth, on 15 October 2017 - 08:19 PM, said:
You know, you keep saying that, over and over again, but since
a) you know if you keep going clans, it's going to happen
and
you keep going clans,
it's pretty much completely impossible to believe in your sincerity. Your words say one thing, but your actions say the exact opposite thing. I just object to the dishonesty.
Edit - I hate automatic emoticons
I don't control where the unit goes.
KCom has gone both IS and Clans, repeatedly, before deciding to go Loyalist Steel Viper because everyone is maxed in just about every existing faction plus merc. The 3 new Clan factions are pretty much the only place we can go to still get LP and for some people that's better than nothing, as actual factions don't mean anything anymore.
Beside which there's not a lot of reason to play the side that's clearly at a tech disadvantage. KCom still won consistently when we were mercs and switching from Clan to IS regularly however most people don't want to play the inferior tech. Why would they?
So if I understand your logic, good players on good teams who want to practice what works best should... intentionally play with actively inferior mechs and builds, because.... reasons?
The myth that playing a game with a handicap makes you better is a myth. An exercise in ego. You practice what works best with the best tools. Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
Even if tech got balanced tomorrow a number of long time merc units will still stay Clans because the only way to get any LP while playing and the mech bays that provides (which many members of many units still need) is to play factions they haven't already maxed out (or close enough to be relevant) LP in. Which is why everyone has asked for a revamp of the LP system so that you're not punished for doing something like, say, being a faction loyalist or switching from Clans to IS just to get more drops even with a tech disadvantage.
The idea that teams switch factions to avoid playing other teams is simply wrong. I've played with many of the best teams at one point or another. Nobody there wants to avoid good fights - quite the opposite. The desire to once again try to attribute to everyone else some nefarious motive or level of coordination that isn't there (there's no coordination at all in any way between units. At all. Ever. Not since like FW 1 and 2, when they played Space Nerd Politics) to invent some evil conspiracy to play against pugs... it's pretty silly.
Teams go Clans because Clan tech is better. Game balance is off and has gotten worse since the nerf to IS tech around the KDK release. Then 3 new Clans with the associated new LP rewards came out. Look at how many matches KCom has played; same with all the big units. The players play a lot and as such already reached a practical limit on LP rewards for almost every existing faction.
There is a sort of an avalanche effect though - IS pugs at this point are so terrible that no one unit can win enough matches fast enough to actually tag worlds and get MC. The MC involved is pretty tiny, however there's so little depth and purpose to FW that people tend to look for whatever rewards you can get. So if for example KCom went to IS they literally could not win matches fast enough to tag worlds. It happened the last time we went IS, before the new Clan factions opened up. Won just about every match (though we did lose more often in IS than we do in clans. Not hugely, but a bit. Like I said, the tech is flat out inferior overall in a group v group environment) however we tagged nothing in that timeframe and it's disheartening to win every single match and still see the side you're fighting for losing 3 matches for every one you win.
If you've ever actually read anything I've posted or anything any KCom officer has posted you'd know there's few people in the game more interested in balanced tech and reworked FW to help fix population balances. We want big rewards for loyalists, we want IS to be just as appealing as Clans, we want LP stuff fixed and we want to feel like if we switch IS to Clan and back every single week we can enjoy both sides as much as the other.
At least half the unit as far as I would guess would enjoy playing IS, a lot of us like how IS mechs play overall, just there's a lot of negatives in that column right now. Inferior tech overall (which is annoying to play, not that you can't win but it's like walking up hill both ways all the time), the pugs have no interest in playing to the team most the time so we can only drop with 12 or you spend every match fighting half your own team being stupid (sometimes on purpose just to spite you), because of all the stated issues you'll never tag anything. Also not getting the 'new pool of LP reward' options in rewards, so not getting those 2 extra mech bays.
The pluses is getting to play the other half of the mechs you own, some change and variety and no wait time for drops.
While there's a few people in every unit who don't care about LP or XP or CBills or the like because they have a mountain of each (I'm one of those) not everyone does. Some are newer players, some never spend real $ on stuff so always need more bays, etc. So you go with what benefits the unit overall. I trust Pat to make the best decisions for the team, that's why he's a good leader and a part of what makes a good unit.
'Clubbing seals' never comes into it. Never has. I get that people want to pretend that any time they lose or someone else is consistently winning that it's done intentionally just to ruin their fun the reality is that everyone in every team that wins regularly is just wanting to play the game and have fun. Competitive players will always seek to play the good mechs, the good tech and where they can practice and improve with the best tools. Thus when balance is off (like it is now) you'll get a dogpile. That's something PGI needs to fix. The 6-8 drops a night KCom does isn't going to massively swing FW either way. It's flattering I'm sure that some people seem to think so but that's got nothing to do with reality.
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