With the May patch the queing time was raised to 180 seconds (3-minutes) from 60 seconds (1-minute) in an attempt to “increase the pool” of players who would queue up. Unfortunately, this has not been my experience. While this change did come with C-Bill and XP boosts, the wait time in between matches has really dragged on the experience. Additionally I feel the pool of players has thinned because of this time suck. There is an irony
So I would make the following 4 suggestions to make the Solaris Game Mode both vibrant and quick again:
Queue Time Reduction - While I understand the reasoning behind the queue time increase, tripling it seems a bit too much. While I would like to see a return to the 60-second queue time, I think a 90-second queue time would also be fine. While a 120-second queue time may seem also in range, I just think that is again about 30-seconds too long BUT it would still be an improvement over the current situation.
ELO Penalty for “Dirty Legging” - One of the behaviors/tactics used be a number of Mechwarriors is the practice of “legging” an opponent, winning through focusing on a mech’s legs. While some of this is accidental, the majority is purposeful and undoubtedly displeases the Solaris crowds as much as it does the honorable Mechwarriors.
To help deter this abhorrent behavior, I suggest an ELO penalty for winning strictly through leg destruction. If all you do is shoot the legs, and fail to at least open up one of the other six components to structure, I recommend a -75% ELO penalty. In the same vein, the victim of these hollow low blow victories will only be penalized the reduced ELO amount. For example, if Mechwarrior Victor legs Mechwarrior Kai, Victor’s ELO win is reduced to 4 and Kai’s ELO loss is similarily reduced to 4.
This penalty will NOT get rid of legging, but I think it is a better solution than a lot of the other ones I’ve seen and does not penalize for the single “dead leg” strategy. Considering the palty Solaris payouts, I don’t necessarily think that penalty should extend to C-Bills or XP but definitely to Accolades.
“Any Division" Button - I saw this suggested elsewhere in the forums, and I think it’s a great idea to have a button that if you press it, regardless of the Division you are in, you will be matched somewhere across any of the Solaris Divisions if there is no one queuing in yours. I have seen “Drop Deck” suggestions made for Solaris, but honestly if you look at the mechs in the Solaris screen they already are in a “Drop Deck” format. This button would allow you to voluntarily go to whichever Division has a single person in queue so you can have a match. For those who may not have Mechs readied for every Division, they probably shouldn’t use this button or be prepared for a drop in a Trial Mech.
Shorten Solaris Seasons - Currently the Solaris Season is set for 90 days, but the Quick Play Season is set for 30 days. I would suggest that the Solaris Season be reduced to 30 days to align with Quick Play. If you really want something with a 90-day “Season”, then perhaps Quick Play should be the game mode.
These are, as mentioned above, just my suggestions and I am totally open to hearing more and working out what will be best for my absolute favorite game mode, Solaris.
Edited by Av3 M0rt3m, 03 June 2018 - 06:51 AM.