IllCaesar, on 14 June 2018 - 06:25 PM, said:
I'm sure it has been suggested but how about 8v8 for only certain modes. I'm sure Escort, probably the worst mode in the game, would benefit by reducing the amount of mechs that can kill the VIP from 12 to 8. I could see Incursion going either way. I think Conquest could work at both 8v8 and 12v12 if for the 8v8 mode you simply reduce the amount of tickets needed for victory.
8v8 would also probably be a good way to reintroduce older maps. I dunno about everybody else but I miss the classic Forest Colony, River City, and Frozen City. They were smaller and not suited so well for a 12v12 but for 8v8 I think that they would be just the right size.
Absolutely.
Right at the moment unless we organise a private lobby match, we don't know how the different game modes play out with different team sizes.
We do know from the WC and tournaments like MRBC which use the 8v8 format that conquest and domination play pretty well.
But other modes such as Escort, Incursion... even Skirmish... they would play differently with different team sizes and that in itself provides some potential variety to each match.
Personally, I don't think it should be a hard limit that will not change.
Having a system that is dynamic and flexible would allow the game to cater for fluctuations in the active playing population at any given time. We can't predict what might happen day to day so allowing the system to automatically adapt and adjust ensures we keep getting matches in a reasonable time frame.
Not only is it a bonus to cutting wait times, but we get the added bonus of game play variety.
It will unlikely have much if any impact on the solo quick play queue as it is the one spot a player can reliably get a game 24/7. Group quick play and Faction Pay are the two queues that would more likely benefit from having this flexibility but to make it work there, the groups have to be limited to a lance because we have to account for the lowest reasonable vs match.
It makes a massive amount of sense to have that minimum team size for these modes as 4v4 and allow the system to scale up to 8v8 and 12v12 according to how many players are ready at any given moment.
It therefore does not need a change to the UI or game modes or maps. It is simply a way for the game to cater for player numbers.
At least start with that and should we need to tweak anything a bit later, then ok.
This also works very well for group queue as per the other item of conversation about supporting limited group sizes of 2, 4, 8 and 12 as the functionality of the group screen could be changed to cater for combining groups and providing better group management.
EDIT:
Limit groups to a max of 4 so should you be missing a player it's either add one more, or lose one to keep a group of 2.
Add to that functionality in the group screen to link groups together so the system is modular and then provide a 'group drop function' when one or more group is ready and meets the player requirement.
ie. We put functionality into the UI for 'sync dropping' so we have the flexibility to cater for smaller groups/lances while still maintaining the larger collection of players under a company drop.
Edited by 50 50, 15 June 2018 - 05:42 PM.