45 replies to this topic

[KoalaBrownie]

LordNothing, on 29 June 2018 - 03:40 PM, said:

wait times are the biggest buzzkill in this game. even just getting into quick play, with a light mech even, seems like its taking way too long.

Are they? It's probably about a minute average for me to find a game, just the roster & loading screens take a long time. Mind you I have both EU and NA servers selected so maybe that's why.

[LordNothing]

KoalaBrownie, on 29 June 2018 - 04:54 PM, said:

Are they? It's probably about a minute average for me to find a game, just the roster & loading screens take a long time. Mind you I have both EU and NA servers selected so maybe that's why.

those minutes stack up. you dont play one qp match you usually play several and the wait times can vary a lot. you also have load times, voting time, waiting for people to connect time and so on. if you are working on leveling something then you have to wait for the match to conclude or go play something else in the mean time. unless you schedule your life around your mwo time you are not going to hit peak hours.

many matches resolve long before the game clock expires. so you end up with absurd wait time to play time ratios. its better in fp provided fp is active (and it usually takes an fp event to get it that way), since many of those games use the entire clock. solaris is probibly the worst with wait/play ratio very close to 1:1 if you account for all the artificial waiting thrown in while duncan is announcing.

Edited by LordNothing, 29 June 2018 - 05:08 PM.

[KoalaBrownie]

LordNothing, on 29 June 2018 - 05:04 PM, said:

those minutes stack up. you dont play one qp match you usually play several and the wait times can vary a lot. you also have load times, voting time, waiting for people to connect time and so on. if you are working on leveling something then you have to wait for the match to conclude or go play something else in the mean time. unless you schedule your life around your mwo time you are not going to hit peak hours.

I almost never wait for a match to end unless I'm one of the last to die and the game is close enough to be interesting. But yes the load time and the connection time is a lot- the connection time in particular. Also I still fail to understand why people bother hitting the "Ready" button when from what I can tell, it does absolutely nothing. Theoretically it may jump start the match if everyone is readied up but the counter goes to 9 when everyone's connected so I've never seen a match with everyone ready

Edited by KoalaBrownie, 29 June 2018 - 06:58 PM.

[LordNothing]

wait times likely contribute to the afk problem. the game gives way too much of an an oppritunity to sneak off and forget what you were doing. like getting up to pee, but coming back with a sandwich. that and a dead mech. i afked 2 matches to play with a kitten. pgi make a game thats better than kittens.

Edited by LordNothing, 29 June 2018 - 08:15 PM.

[Dragonporn]

I never afk, probably because I don't have kittens. Somebody, please, gift me a kitten?...

[Jay Leon Hart]

Asym, on 29 June 2018 - 06:19 AM, said:

As the population has been seriously dropping since May of 2017,

Citation needed. Last time I checked (some time last year) the month-to-month population was in the mid 40,000s. Halving that to simulate an IS/Clan account split, that's 20,000+ players.

Looking at last month, the numbers are in the mid 60,000s. Halving that, we get 30,000+ players.

Now, when I learned maths, 60(30) were bigger numbers than 40(20).

We do need more players, that's true, but to say the population has dropped since last year is demonstrably false.

[Antares102]

Jay Leon Hart, on 29 June 2018 - 11:36 PM, said:

Citation needed.

https://leaderboard.isengrim.org/stats
Recently the population has actually increased.

Edited by Antares102, 29 June 2018 - 11:43 PM.

[Jay Leon Hart]

KoalaBrownie, on 29 June 2018 - 01:36 PM, said:

We do know because of the engine that they're using. The Unreal Engine...

...is not what MWO uses, it uses CryEngine 3.

Other games using CryEngine 3 include;
ArcheAge
Monster Hunter Online
State of Decay

Antares102, on 29 June 2018 - 11:42 PM, said:

https://leaderboard.isengrim.org/stats
Recently the population has actually increased.

Which is what I said

That "Players by Season" graph will look even weirder once the current season ends, with 64,000+ played accounts.

[Antares102]

Jay Leon Hart, on 29 June 2018 - 11:46 PM, said:

Which is what I said

Just wanted to support your statement
When one looks at the average match score the mood is dropping quite rapidly though.

[Asylum Choir]

It would only encourage even more ultra casual attitudes towards the game, we have enough if that already.

[Asym]

Jay Leon Hart, on 29 June 2018 - 11:36 PM, said:

Citation needed. Last time I checked (some time last year) the month-to-month population was in the mid 40,000s. Halving that to simulate an IS/Clan account split, that's 20,000+ players.

Looking at last month, the numbers are in the mid 60,000s. Halving that, we get 30,000+ players.

Now, when I learned maths, 60(30) were bigger numbers than 40(20).

We do need more players, that's true, but to say the population has dropped since last year is demonstrably false.

Numbers are funny things...It's like the W/L debate I've been reading since I joined int Feb of 2017... Or my Statistics in any list....

My first team, that recruited me into this game, left en masse in Late May 2017. They are permanently gone, closed their accounts. The Second team I asked to join was a very active, productive group of pilots that had at one point 57 members that played all of the time; had training sessions; trials; fought in FP, etc.... Now they are 49.....but, what does that number even say? Of the 49, only 8 have played at all since 2017; but, have not closed their accounts.... Of those 49, "many" and I don't know the exact number, have 2, 3 or even 4 alternative accounts.

On meeting pilots in this game, a large number of them have at least 2 or 3 accounts: an IS, a Clan and a Mercenary account.
So, let's talk about real numbers and to do that we'd need the unique IP numbers from PGI..... Want to bet we'll never see them? And, even they aren't finite....
Some games actually give the players a "real-time" server number so that you, as a customer, can make the decision to play during "low population" times where those MM's have two or three forms of match making......you have a choice. You know the actual player count, you know how population "will affect" MM and you can make a choice. There are times in my favorite game I "just don't play" because of the way that MM works......during those low level of population.

Ah, the "well. I looked up the numbers and they say"......really? You need "valid" information to make an accurate assessment.....otherwise, the numbers at some point just can't support the theory.

Yes, we have 60,000 names: of those 60K, how many are alternative accounts....?? Every event I long into I see my team mates in their alternative accounts......and they have 2, 3 or 4 different names and we joke about that....

What you are seeing are the overall population numbers vis-a-vis active player numbers.... And, you can't count the same customer more than once for any population discussion to have merit..... Food got thought.

[Jay Leon Hart]

Asym, on 30 June 2018 - 05:23 AM, said:

On meeting pilots in this game, a large number of them have at least 2 or 3 accounts: an IS, a Clan and a Mercenary account.

Yes, we have 60,000 names: of those 60K, how many are alternative accounts....?? Every event I long into I see my team mates in their alternative accounts......and they have 2, 3 or 4 different names and we joke about that....

It's almost like I knew that, and already said to halve the number to account for alt accounts.

Thing is, whatever the player numbers were, there's no evidence to show there has been a massive increase in the number of alt accounts, certainly not to support the claim that more than 20,000 "new" accounts are just alts, which they'd need to be for there not to have been an increase.

What mental gymnastics do you have to hand waive the 50% INCREASE in players?

No matter how you look at the breakdown of what is or isn't an alt, unless you don't treat the before and after equally, 65,000 is more than 45,000, not less.

[Rick T Dangerous]

adamts01, on 29 June 2018 - 03:32 AM, said:

This is the only salvation for this game. [..]

You suggest something that requires ambitious development ... after we had the release of the ambitiously developed Solaris 7 mode. And what the devs did to it within less than the first three months (aka. "season one").

"The only salvation for this game" is the devs stop breaking it. But they already made clear they have no intention to do so.

[KoalaBrownie]

Jay Leon Hart, on 29 June 2018 - 11:46 PM, said:

...is not what MWO uses, it uses CryEngine 3.

Other games using CryEngine 3 include;
ArcheAge
Monster Hunter Online
State of Decay

Ah I thought it was Unreal for some reason. CyryEngine I'm less familiar- though I think SoD is a SP game no?

[Jay Leon Hart]

KoalaBrownie, on 30 June 2018 - 08:46 AM, said:

Ah I thought it was Unreal for some reason. CyryEngine I'm less familiar- though I think SoD is a SP game no?

MW5 will be in Unreal (UE4? Or is it UE5 now?)

Yeah, SoD is SP, just wanted to list a game people may have played as well

[Asym]

Jay Leon Hart, on 30 June 2018 - 06:30 AM, said:

It's almost like I knew that, and already said to halve the number to account for alt accounts.

Thing is, whatever the player numbers were, there's no evidence to show there has been a massive increase in the number of alt accounts, certainly not to support the claim that more than 20,000 "new" accounts are just alts, which they'd need to be for there not to have been an increase.

What mental gymnastics do you have to hand waive the 50% INCREASE in players?

No matter how you look at the breakdown of what is or isn't an alt, unless you don't treat the before and after equally, 65,000 is more than 45,000, not less.

In the end, the real numbers will never be known....

What could change our population? Gosh, I work in new business innovation and what PGI should do is better define their "value proposition" within games that are in similar, small niche markets... What is it that make MWO better than..... Show me, don't tell me. As I have said before repeatedly, in the actual demo's I've run with University students, there is very little if any interest.... With the Angle and venture capitalists that visit those students on a regular basis, their interests are aimed at games that are "professionalizing e-Sports".... Where a venture capital group can actually buy the rights for City or State teams.... (10+ million per franchise and growing at last look...)

I'll keep playing events and keep an account open till whenever this franchise closes the door or, builds a new single player MW game that is quality: versus, "just get it done".... Right now, it's a tough market out there and there are a few games in 2018 that many of us are going to play full-time pretty soon.....

Hope to see you out there in events !!!

Edited by Asym, 30 June 2018 - 09:13 AM.

[Jay Leon Hart]

Asym, on 30 June 2018 - 09:09 AM, said:

Hope to see you out there in events !!!

Aye, I'm also pretty much just playing events again. I hoped the Fafnir & Blood Asp releases would rekindle my interest with the game. They did. Then PGI nerfed the Blood Asp and I'm back to not really wanting to play again.

[Nameless King]

adamts01, on 29 June 2018 - 03:32 AM, said:

This is the only salvation for this game. The wait time for matches, disconnects, terrible matchmaking, and lopsided fights have only gotten worse and worse.

Combine the dead CW and dead Group Que with Quick Play on some huge maps with tons of players and add new players to the side with less territory. Let the base on each side of the map be full of so many AI turrets that it can't be camped and let it be the last place that the losing team can regroup for a push. Repair/ream stations would need to be a thing. Lights could always be free and mechs could cost increasing resources based on tonnage.

The playerbase needs to be consolidated, and groups of 2 or 3+ need a fun place to drop for a few an hour or two. There really is no other option other than waiting for the game to continue to wither out and die.

The mode doesn't need to be fancy, just 3 or 4 lanes depending on the amount of players the server can handle, with ladders along the rails that lights can use to back cap heavy pushes.

No matchmaker, no tiers, just let players drop in to the mode with whatever they want and let players swap sides to make good fights happen, similar to games with private servers.

This game has a great community that would jump at something like this and make it fun. MWO players just need an area like this and they'll take on the challenge and make it work.

Hahahhahahahha NO lol what a horrible idea.

[Dragonporn]

Sorry to derail a bit, but can you guys explain why it may be useful to have more than 1 account?... Why would anyone have IS and Clan accounts separately, since there are no restriction on which and how many mechs you can have? If it is for grinding events for MC across 3 accounts, isn't it a masochistic MMO level of grinding, while extremely futile since events give very small amount of MC, while goals are simple but take time to achieve? All that considering MC is relatively dirty cheap, there are tons of sales (including mech bay ones) so there shouldn't really be problem with space? Plus mech packs one may buy are available on single account you bought it for, right?

I've seen folks mention multiple accounts several times already, just curious.

[Nema Nabojiv]

Dragonporn, on 30 June 2018 - 11:41 AM, said:

I've seen folks mention multiple accounts several times already, just curious.

That was FP thing back when loyalists lost 10 or something percent LP when switching factions