831 replies to this topic

[BROARL]

how would this affect faction, may i ask?
still waiting for the results of the effort that was going to be put into faction war after the Solaris release...

[Pain G0D]

The more , the merrier .

A fire burns brighter , not with less wood but more .

[Brain Cancer]

I do hope they're checking where the votes are coming from. It's kinda odd that the "Yes" votes barely crept up while hundreds of "No" votes showed up to make it nearly 50-50...



If we're seeing bunches of newly minted, barely-to-not played accounts tossing votes in, something is awry.

[BrunoSSace]

I said maybe, its kinda no from me.
I feel less people in a match makes the matchs simpler. You make less C-bills, experience and the matches would be shorter. Less mech variety, and stomps and single person carrys would be more prevalent.

The problem is not that the 12vs12 is too unstable. Its that maybe you used a bad game engine for the game. Id play it but, don't think id enjoy. Don't want the game dumb down.
Bruno.

[Looming Dementia]

Absolutely not, if 8 v 8 is going to be the only quick-play option. That will basically make it impossible to run 12 v 12 solo. Dropping solo into faction-play matches is an exercise in frustration and rage-induction. Almost every time I've done it, I've ended up with a bunch of pugs versus a team of 8 - 12 from one clan.

When you drop solo into quick-play, you always have a pug v pug or only organized, well-communicating groups opposing each other. Plus, as other people have mentioned, if you find yourself in a 7 v 8 due to a disconnect, you might as well all suicide and be done with it. The loss of one from the beginning will cripple you, when you only have 8 on a team. It's rough, with 12 on a team, but not insurmountable.

I hear people talking about low-activity periods. I don't know about everyone else, but I never take more than a minute or so to get a match, even at 4:00 - 6:00 AM, Eastern time, on the NA servers. If we're going to have both 12 v 12 and 8 v 8, it should be an option during peak times, if anything, when we won't be splitting the population into groups too small for easy matchmaking.

Edited by Looming Dementia, 07 June 2018 - 03:35 PM.

[InsouciantSloth]

I voted maybe.

I have never played an 8v8 in MWO so I can't say it's a good move or not. Reading through the posts, there are very good arguments regarding 8v8 and 12v12. I find myself leaning towards the 8v8 game mode. It seems interesting to me and would like to see how the game is impacted.

I suggest that there is a 8v8 public test server or a temporary change to quick play to monitor how the game performs before making any final discussion. This will give MWO players an opportunity to experience 8v8, and see the impact of matches to determine if 8v8 or 12v12 is best for the game.

[Imperius]

Brain Cancer, on 07 June 2018 - 03:22 PM, said:

I do hope they're checking where the votes are coming from. It's kinda odd that the "Yes" votes barely crept up while hundreds of "No" votes showed up to make it nearly 50-50...



If we're seeing bunches of newly minted, barely-to-not played accounts tossing votes in, something is awry.

Dude people are scum for crap like this. Honestly I have a feeling the same happened with the Mad Cat MK II votes a long time ago. I saw lots of 1 post accounts saying Kodiak.

[Mechydian]

I wish we had an open world with spawn points. xD I know, I know, I'm dreaming too big. xD

Back to the main topic:

I'd like to see 8v8 and old/new maps for that, it would be interesting. And since people wouldn't be able to play 12v12 in Quick Play anymore, maybe some more people would join Faction Play, who knows. But on the other hand I fear that having an 8v8 could also mean that we might lose some of the variety during a match that a 12v12 offers.

[Looming Dementia]

Dracol, on 06 June 2018 - 04:48 PM, said:

Um, sorry to spoil your point but this wasn't cause of 8v8. It was cause of poor hit reg and lower damage alphas.

My feelings, keep solo qp 12v12 (love the chaos) and change group qp to 8v8 to encourage the bigger groups to fight it out in FP.

If there's going to be a change, then THIS ^^^^^

[Nameless King]

Brain Cancer, on 07 June 2018 - 03:22 PM, said:

I do hope they're checking where the votes are coming from. It's kinda odd that the "Yes" votes barely crept up while hundreds of "No" votes showed up to make it nearly 50-50...



If we're seeing bunches of newly minted, barely-to-not played accounts tossing votes in, something is awry.

I have been wondering how many alts already voted.

[P0607]

I voted maybe. At first you should actually improve faction play experience and then you will be free to experiment with quick play.

QP how it is right now is alright, but FP isn't. I can't say for sure if I think 8v8 QP is a good idea or not, but if something goes wrong after the change or just will not feel right, people will want to get in 12v12 again. And what will be their options? Getting stomped by some good units in FP?

I understand that nobody pugs FP because of it's current state, but that can't be an excuse to never improve the mode and leave it be as it is right now. Without fresh pug blood it will die out (maybe it's already dead, I've only played scouting in the recent past) even if some units are having fun right now (I don't think that they do, they just farm random pugs for cbills).

You can make experimental changes to FP matchmaking or even changes to the invasion mode itself. To incourage the testing of new matchmaking by both units and pugs you can announce a HUGE EVENT with A LOT of rewards. Everyone will be happy to try out this new stuff even if they kinda stay away from FP. And if you are to have success with those changes people will actually stay in FP! So you will not only create a place for people to be in if they won't like the changes to QP, but also possibly revitalize FP, which will be pretty damn awesome on it's own.

[N0cturn]

I voted No. Coming from the Battlefield series background, I always used to filter my games to find the 64 player servers. The more players the better imo. It kind of saddens me to think the the dev team are looking to reduce the number of players per match instead of increasing it, as this was what I was hoping for in future updates, 24 v 24 or more would be great and 32 v 32 would be the pinnicle! So this thinking to me suggests they must have reached a stage where they think this game can't be optimised anymore to allow for bigger drops, which is sad as I love this game and would have wanted to see this game contend with the big AAA titles one day.

[Dopebear]

Brain Cancer, on 07 June 2018 - 03:22 PM, said:

I do hope they're checking where the votes are coming from. It's kinda odd that the "Yes" votes barely crept up while hundreds of "No" votes showed up to make it nearly 50-50...



If we're seeing bunches of newly minted, barely-to-not played accounts tossing votes in, something is awry.

Imagine being so desperate and blind that you take 4chan this seriously.

[TK 42one]

Ehhh not a fan of smaller team fight games so it will be a hard pass for me. I would be more thrilled to hear about 16v16 and 32 v 32. Though I doubt the game would be doing well if it suffered another loss of a paying player base walking away at one time. Look at what the Solaris play taught us. People clamoring for 1v1 and 2v2 and now several weeks later it is a nearly empty wasteland more quickly forgotten than faction play as bruised egos and armchair generals just walked away.

The money used to make the changes is better spent on upgrading the engine and fixing long known bugs and issues with the game.

[Boyka]

I'am for both options, I'm here from 2012 and I remember well 8v8, I had fun at the time and I'm positive with this change.
That said I remember also well 8v8 in maps like Alpine Peaks or Terra Therma and was no fun at all, simply too big for only 16 people, you have to mix the thing a bit to make all viable, 8v8 for medium and smaller maps, 12v12 for the big ones, alternatively you have to limit a portion of a big map for an 8v8 match.
Too many time to walk doing nothing until you reach the center of the map simply kill the fun (it's true now in 12v12 it was damn true in 8v8).
..Or yust add some (good) AI vehicles to interact with: tanks, helicopter and mechs..

[Jet Warrior]

let solo QP as is or as an option to 8v8
Group QP with an option for full team of 8v8 seems very interesting.

[Mikayshen]

Brain Cancer, on 07 June 2018 - 03:22 PM, said:

I do hope they're checking where the votes are coming from. It's kinda odd that the "Yes" votes barely crept up while hundreds of "No" votes showed up to make it nearly 50-50...



If we're seeing bunches of newly minted, barely-to-not played accounts tossing votes in, something is awry.

If they were waiting years, wouldn't that indicate they were wanting to vote to change from 12v12 to 8v8? Kind of like how the vote for 'yes' got a big boost last evening?

[GBxGhostRyder]

Paul Inouye, on 01 June 2018 - 01:22 PM, said:

It’s been a while and there have been many discussions surrounding 8v8 for Quick Play and we communicated that we would cast a poll on the subject and here it is.

From a logistics/match making perspective, 8v8 has numerous advantages including faster team creation for both solo and group play in the match maker, faster connection times (less ‘Mechs being loaded), improved framerate, improved memory usage and less taxing on your local CPU.

From a player organization perspective, 8v8 means less management headaches getting 8 players together rather than 12, deck building would have a much higher impact in terms of what ‘Mechs are fielded and how they’re played. The ability to be carried through to victory is less likely due to the fact that in an 8v8 scenario, every ‘Mech matters more.

The drawbacks affect the game in a different way and are just as important. We would be losing the feel of full divisional combat (12 ‘Mechs in 3 lances). Switching to 8v8 will not be a simple switch and team size reduction. UI, Match Maker, Economy, game mode adjustments, map adjustments, etc. A switch to 8v8 will also impact on our ability to address other parts of the game such as Faction Play.

Overall, we would be looking at covering all team size areas via the following:
* 1v1 and 2v2 are covered in Solaris 7.
* 4v4 in Scouting
* 8v8 will be covered in Quick Play and Comp Play.
* 12v12 will be covered in Faction Play.

So the big question is, and the reason for this poll, would you like to see Quick Play switch to 8v8?

I don't think changing to 8v8 rather than 12 v12 is going to fix the issue of player retention or more balance. For 5 years I have played MWO and enjoyed it from many aspects of the game so I will list below what I would think might be fun and enjoyable to play.

#1 Make drops for QP 12v12-3 assaults 3 heavy's 3 mediums 3 lights or 8v8 break it up 2 assaults 2 heavy's 2 mediums 2 lights.

#2 Make a Stock game mode for QP 12v12 or 8v8.

#3 Make more game modes that are immersive and challenging.

#4 Please remove game map and game mode voting go back to random selection for both so we get to play all the maps new and old.

#5 Rename all the old QP maps and place them back in a random map rotation system.

#6 And for the love of god please place more rear and back armor on the mechs so your not cored out in 5 seconds even torso twisting.

#7 Please balance mechs who boat to many machine guns or any weapon system.

#8 Remove the alpha strike from game play on every mech and go to chain fire with longer weapon cycle for longer game play.

Anyways just going to 8v8 will not solve the player retention problems or low player population so the actual QP MM could do its job right .Or just place this on the front of the MWO steam page (MORE PLAYERS NEEDED NOW!!!!!).

Edited by GBxGhostRyder, 07 June 2018 - 04:51 PM.

[Valyknir]

Pretty torn here.

A switch to 8v8 seems like the healthy choice for QP, but as I play light mechs mainly I really enjoy the chaos of 12v12. Less big mechs on the field = more eyes on my frail 30 ton harasser.

The game performance aspect definitely seems like a huge plus in my eyes. Never really have an issue with load times, but I typically play during peak times and I always have North America and European regions selected. I don't have a bad rig, but even on low settings I get frame drops at really inconvenient times.

I kinda feel like the smaller battle size will take some of the epic war feeling away from good matches. Y'know, the ones that really feel like every action you make has an impact on the outcome of the game. Not sure if I want to switch to Faction Play to get that experience.

And as far as balance goes, I'm not too worried about any high performing mechs getting even more of an edge with less people shooting at them. Every mech and weapon combo can be dealt with if you approach it properly.

Just my 2 cents...


I guess if this goes through I'll put on my social pants and join a unit?

[Naduk]

why does everything have to be so freaking binary with you guys , on/off, all or nothing

at the end of the day, the question is largely irrelevant, the button says "quick play"
this means, get me in my mech shooting at something as fast as possible

i propose something completely different

why not let the match maker decide whats appropriate
instead of trying to solve these age old problems with hard rules, give the match maker more options instead of limits
lets say the match maker is trying to deal with a few players who are potential edge cases and its having a hard time filling a 12 man for them
then dont keep trying to fill a 12man, just get them a game
instead of waiting
give them a 8 man game or a 4 man game or a 1v1 if things are that desperate

what is the true core problem with match making in MWO is its focus on mechs killing mechs
if you play battletech or even look at what you are doing with MW5 or even watch Death From Above
you will see that Mechs are sent to take out objectives and sometimes other mechs are sent to stop them but not always do they kill each other

instead of worrying about if quick play should be 8v8 or 12v12
you should be designing missions suitable for 1v1, 2v2, 4v4, 8v8, 12v12
this way, the match maker could simply just place its perfect groups of warriors against each other in order of convenience instead of trying to put square pegs into round holes

then once you have that setup
you could do away with killing being the objectives as a whole and give each lance their own mission
this is how you could truly truly capture the feel of Company Vs Company mech combat
because in the world of battletech, a single mech is valued as an entire army of classic troops and is given important tasks
when you have 12 of them, you DO NOT SEND THEM INTO ONE PLACE IN A GIANT BLOB OF DEATH
you send them in small groups to capture and control a large variety of objectives and take ownership of the planet or area

but i digress
allowing the match maker the freedom to build games instead of being so limited in match size could then have added benefits for the current game as this change would drastically improve the group play experiences as well

i would lobby for an additional change that the group play searches be allowed to search for all group game types including faction and scouting
there is nothing more frustrating about this game than when you convince your mates to come play Mechwarrior
they all log in
you all group up
then you spend 45mins trying to find a game in each of the modes desperately searching for a game
you get nothing but waiting around
everyone gets disheartened because of no drops and they all log off or go to quick play
and every time it gets harder and harder to convince them to try again

change group-quick play to drop deck mode
let it search for all games types

Russ has always known the great enemy is buckets
instead of feeding the monster by creating lots of separate Queues
kill it completely by allowing the match maker to place people who do not care what match they play (the very definition of quick play) to fill the ranks of all buckets