102 replies to this topic

[Rakshasa]

Haven't tried it. Solaris takes what is frustrating for me about MWO's combat mechanics and distills them to a purer form out of need. Limited meta, point and click alpha vomit gunplay - these things are rewarded by the underlying game systems. Some players enjoy them, but for me the shine wore off a while back, and with Solaris adding a layer of urgency in exploiting the most tried-and-tired of those tropes the desire just hasn't sparked.

I've said I wish the mode well though, and I still do. Different courses for different horses and all that.

[RickySpanish]

I just hopped on to division 2, and aside from a brilliant rematch against a light pilot who deserves a much higher Elo than he has, the matches were rather hit and miss. For a start, I lose 2x the points I can gain because all the players are 1400-1500, and to top it off the queue time is 3 minutes. Am walking away with a +1 total change in Elo and an unopened supply cache for an hour's worth of play. I did at least learn how to fight 1v1 in my Kodiak, which isn't nearly as much better than my Boom Hammer than I thought. You have to submit all relevant paperwork 2 business days before beginning a torso twist.

[Mechwarrior1441491]

Relying on your own skills in Solaris needs to be the big gain pushed on players. You learn your mech and improve your skills more rapidly than you will in Quick play or with a team propping you up. Sure it feels good when your team is rolling over people, but you aren't getting better at the game for the most part. Get face stomped a few times in Solaris and you need to stop and evaluate what is going on and solve the problem. Is it the mech or is it you? Is it how you are playing it?

[Cloves]

Mechwarrior1441491, on 24 May 2018 - 07:51 PM, said:

Relying on your own skills in Solaris needs to be the big gain pushed on players. You learn your mech and improve your skills more rapidly than you will in Quick play or with a team propping you up. Sure it feels good when your team is rolling over people, but you aren't getting better at the game for the most part. Get face stomped a few times in Solaris and you need to stop and evaluate what is going on and solve the problem. Is it the mech or is it you? Is it how you are playing it?

I love this idea, but the skill set is not 100% transferable, neither are the builds. But it will make you a better brawler in a 1 v 1 fight, and is an easier place to learn skills like shielding and rolling damage.

[Mechwarrior1441491]

Rolling and brawling make up most of the game. Jump jetting damage spread etc.

[Cloves]

Mechwarrior1441491, on 24 May 2018 - 08:06 PM, said:

Rolling and brawling make up most of the game. Jump jetting damage spread etc.

I find positioning and teamwork dictate more of my wins/losses in QP, but maybe it’s my lack of patience. I got yelled at for brawling in my SNA-A yesterday.

[RickySpanish]

Cloves, on 24 May 2018 - 08:29 PM, said:

I find positioning and teamwork dictate more of my wins/losses in QP, but maybe it’s my lack of patience. I got yelled at for brawling in my SNA-A yesterday.

There's a fair bit of positioning in Solaris as well, so your remark certainly has merit. Despite the maps almost inevitably ending as a brawl unless one or both 'Mechs are *very* fast, the moments spent closing the gap are crucial. If you've got any medium range weapons for example, you will absolutely need to position yourself to use them before your opponent does, or before they close on you if they are a brawler. Steiner coliseum is the perfect map for this, it's deceptively well constructed to allow for a mix of ranges, but even an Atlas can close the gap from one bridge to the other quickly.

[EasyPickings]

Whenever I decide to play Solaris, if the matchmaker takes more than 2 minutes to set me up (because of lack of players) then I leave for quick drop.

It's just not worth it to have to wait too long unless you're really into the Solaris one-vs.-one/two-vs.-two scene. I don't have much time to play, so anything that takes too long to get me into mech vs. mech action is something to avoid.

Edited by EasyPickings, 24 May 2018 - 09:02 PM.

[Beaching Betty]

Played twice.

Did not had fun.

[Papaspud]

There are people still playing? I have played a few games, but it was pretty much deserted, ok at best. A total waste of resources,in my opinion.

[RickySpanish]

EasyPickings, on 24 May 2018 - 08:50 PM, said:

Whenever I decide to play Solaris, if the matchmaker takes more than 2 minutes to set me up (because of lack of players) then I leave for quick drop.

It's just not worth it to have to wait too long unless you're really into the Solaris one-vs.-one/two-vs.-two scene. I don't have much time to play, so anything that takes too long to get me into mech vs. mech action is something to avoid.

Papaspud, on 24 May 2018 - 11:28 PM, said:

There are people still playing? I have played a few games, but it was pretty much deserted, ok at best. A total waste of resources,in my opinion.

Matchmaker now cycles every 3 minutes instead of the original 1, so players tend to join in bursts every couple of minutes. It's frustrating because all that appears to have happened is longer queue times, once the matchmaker cycles, it's still just no more than 6 players waiting to play.

[Snowbluff]

Anjian, on 04 May 2018 - 10:34 AM, said:

I suck at it so I quit playing it.

This is me.
I'm a bushwacker at heart. I thrive on the chaos in quickplay, using it to sneak up on enemies to ambush and back stab them. This doesn't work as well in Solaris.

[El Bandito]

I'm dead set on getting rank 10 crate--so that's why I am playing it.

[- World Eater -]

What's in a rank 10 crate?

[Nightbird]

Not, because I don't like how it takes exponentially more matches to get a cache and that's the only real reward. Cbill earnings are 1/4 that of FP for the same time investment.

[El Bandito]

- World Eater -, on 25 May 2018 - 07:14 AM, said:

What's in a rank 10 crate?

Dunno and don't really care. What matters is that I want to be able to say that I won one.

[Thorqemada]

Still playing Battletech and if not Battletech i play FM2018 - occasionally testing MWO QP after a patch or when a new GPU Driver is out.

Have watched 1 Solaris match but it was a guy farming an afk/dc Player or whatever…did not bother to watch more of that...

[BIOHAZARD]

I never cared for Solaris. Wasn't looking forward to this at all. One on one is the narrowest possible slit of a game-play available in MWO. The proper way of winning is exactly the same every time for every 'mech chassis you play. Just not interested.

To be honest I would never make a game-mode like this in my online game. To divide player base into even smaller pots - not smart at all.

[Unit 86]

Because the queue time has been put to 3 minutes.
Because my SR is too high so I often get left out in the queue which makes it 6 minutes.
Because I gain +1 SR on a win and -30 SR on a loss AND a DRAW (despite Russ saying on twitter "they are looking into it")
Because they shuffled divisions despite promising they would only shuffle them at the end of each season and not every 3 weeks like total spergs.
Because despite making it "the new face of MWO" they didn't even bother making it t he default game mode in the client.
Because there's absolutely no incentive to climb anymore. It took 3 weeks of me not playing a single game to even drop below top 5. Probably will end the season in top ~20 without ever playing another game for the next 2 months.

I could go on but the bottom line is - Solaris was FINE and ACCEPTABLE at launch (with only people complaining being complete bottom tier "LRMbrawling" boomers) and PGI somehow managed to make it worse. How? I don't know, PGI I guess. One factor I can point out is them breaking a lot of promises but that's not unusual, they do that all the time.
I guess I'll play again when new season starts, to climb to the top in few weeks and will just leave it there again.

Edited by Unit 86, 26 May 2018 - 06:32 AM.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

the 3min totally kill the "quick&dirty, in between" mood of the solaris-mode. sadly, that was the whole point that made it preferable to "pugging it out" in QP.

waiting 6+ minutes most times? a QP-match is DONE in those 6min..