450 replies to this topic

[D V Devnull]

===== Event Review Rebuild =====

Okay, Everyone... I don't normally do this, but it's time for me to rebuild my Event Review from scratch. This has become necessary because I 'jumped the gun' initially a few too many times. Over the course of this First Phase, I've seen...

• various changes in the Event Structure
  
• some Bug Fixes
  
• a few Hidden Caveats
  
• things that even remain as Outstanding Problems

...and my Previous Reviews just went totally out-of-date and useless. Frankly, nobody needs that, and I need to get back to doing a better job of catching things that are too likely to stay consistent. Things that could flux too easily shouldn't have become items of scrutiny under my own magnifying glass.

Also of note, this Review is coming from someone who is a "Completionist-class, Casual-type Player", and this Review is geared only in regard to anyone of the "Above Average"-type or lesser Skill Levels... If you're a "Competitive-Type Player", I can't properly cover you in my Reviews at all as I've never hit that level... Try not to read too much in, would you?!?!?

Anywho, the Positive things that I've seen so far (and a few sub-notes to go with them)...

• Scouting DID get allowed, which stopped many possible problems with people having time-limited situations
  
• Scouting being allowed might not be the solution that many wanted regarding the Constant Skirmish in the Invasion Queue, but it was better than nothing
  
• Thanks to Scouting being allowed, People with Old Computers were NOT left unable to take part in the Event
  
• Where we could have ended up with only 5 Days for the Faction Warfare, we got 6... (Having 7 Days WOULD have been desirable, but it was at least good to not see "Labor Day" used as some sort of Terminating Factor)
  
• PGI repaired the Camo Pattern Redeem (Albeit NOT quite as players would expect of such a fix...)
  
• If you jumped back to a Faction after finishing it, then at least your progress would reappear. (At least, this is what I heard from someone else. I haven't had the chance as of now to double-check it.)

Now, for the pile of Conditional Negatives (and MORE sub-notes)...

• PGI's Event Team deciding that Constant Skirmish Game Mode on the Invasion Queue was a good idea. After 6 days of this (which I decided was something I needed to avoid, so I've been Scouting the whole thing myself), some people must be totally burned out by now on it. They REALLY should have taken up and used their Player Base's suggestions on adding in the flavoring of Conquest in the mix. (Fair Tip: If they DID change this, I'm not aware... Please kindly let me know ONLY if you saw something OTHER than Skirmish on the Invasion Queue!)
  
• If the above item remained true (and Conquest was NOT added from Player Base Suggestions), then Spawn-Camping likely happened as well. Anybody with a sense of Fair Play has no taste for that, and I've even been a direct victim before, so I know how people feel if that happens to them.
  
• If the 1st item in this section remained true, then people were being pressured to get Premium Time before they played at all in the Invasion Queue. That only really works out if people have the time to spend on actually using some. Otherwise, Premium Time and playing in the Invasion Queue both ended up an unusual waste in unwanted ways. My instincts tell me that's rather bad.
  
• Again with regard to #1 of these Conditionals remaining true, Mechs that were NOT Medium/Heavy were severely devalued during this period of Constant Skirmish. In order for Lights to have any value, players had to get really lucky in Scouting Queue. Assaults were left totally devalued, as it's hard to bring one without potentially leaving a team short on power at some point in a Match due to having to bring a Light Mech in one or more Drop Deck Slots.

And then there's a pile of Still-Present (yeah, really) Non-Conditional Negatives (some with sub-notes)...

• PGI's Anti-Unit Behavior with regard to this Event's Faction Warfare Phase. By restricting to "House Kurita vs. Clan Smoke Jaguar" ONLY, instead of allowing Full "I.S. vs. Clan" access, there were undue penalties placed against anyone in a Loyalist Unit (in some cases, a Mercenary Unit as well) who had a Leader that was unwilling to change the Contract for some reason. Should the Unit in question be large enough, then beyond any Unit-Specific Rules that would cause a Unit Member to be in trouble with their superiors, there was also the effective losses of any (C-Bill) Rewards from the Loot Bags and Challenges on this Event. Add to that the Penalty of 10 Probationary Matches against Loyalists who left their Faction temporarily, and that's really overkill against anyone who's in a Unit larger than just a mere handful of people. A player pretty much gets stuck as a One-Man Unit just to avoid problems in this regard, and that's NOT funny. Frankly, I can't find any subset of people not affected if they're trying to get everything that they could from the Event this time.
  
• While we DID need additional players in Faction Warfare, the Experienced Players should NEVER have had to suffer the pressures and problems placed upon them by Newbies who were incapable of communicating or working with a Team. Sure, everyone's got their own preference of Combat Style, but being unwilling to make it work with the rest of a Team helps nobody... and particularly it works against the non-communicating Newbie to go off on their own for sure, regardless of what they think of how people should play. While some have no ability to play what others want them to play, PGI needs to set up measures to get everyone to just work together somehow, and respect the Combat Styles that other players prefer to use even if it's not their own or the Community Standard.
  
• The Kill/KMDD Meters for several of the Challenge Indicators are failing to stay properly filled due to constant regard to the choice of Faction. PGI's Event Team could have kept the indication of which Faction you're currently affiliated to as a separately-displayed item. As of when I'm posting, this effectively means that even if someone does complete everything and redeem all of it, they'll never see certain displays of their efforts all properly continue to show as completed. That just ain't right for someone to see their Kill/KMDD Counter look like it reset and disappeared just because they switched what Faction which they're linked to. For some, this makes their efforts feel flatly disappointing and worthless, and I think that's NOT nice to do to those people.
  
• The upcoming Quick Play Phase of This Event is still showing in the Events Browser as only running for 4 Days, where 5 Days has been originally shown as what was meant to be allocated. Let's hope PGI adds that last day back in, or 25 Kills/KMDD is going to be rough for some to do in a 4-Day Period.
  
• PGI's must be slightly off their mental rocker with the expectation of people to do 500+ Match Score in one single game round in Quick Play. This STILL seems extreme, as it's very likely that most of the Player Base will be unable to do this. As I noted once before, with the grinder effect that people will likely have already experienced in Faction Warfare, stressing people out over (C-Bills) is unnecessary overkill. It would have been better for PGI to not exceed asking for 400+ Match Score at this point, as having that higher minimum is disillusioning abuse of their Player Base.
  
• PGI expecting people to actually make it to all 150 Gameplay-Linked Loot Bags in order to get a Pick-A-Prize Heavy Mech... Yes, it's FREE, and I get that! However, there should have been a margin of error for the F2P Player Base that helps to keep the queues loaded so that anyone is even able to play MWO at all. My recommendation to PGI would be to set the Pick-A-Prize Access to 10 below whatever the Maximum Loot Bag Count available without 'Real $$$ Purchases' is on an Event. In this case, with 150 Gameplay-Linked Loot Bags being the maximum available to all with no usage of 'Real $$$ Purchases', then 140 Gameplay-Linked Loot Bags is where the Pick-A-Prize Access should have been set. Therefore, heavy effort (>93%!!! That's between 90% and 95%, and is quite reasonable!!!) is still needed, but it would NOT take total perfection to gain the Final Item. Put simply, if it takes total perfection after more than 100 to 125 Matches Played (an estimate of how long it might take some people, should they be aiming for getting everything) across BOTH Phases, it could push some people who fall like 1 or 2 counts short into thinking MWO wasn't worth their time and leaving over disappointment with MWO in general. Anyone still active on MWO doesn't need the Player Base to get any smaller than it currently is right now, as we've already had too many recent exoduses. (Sorry this one's a little long-winded... That happens to me when Math gets involved! Also of personal note, I would have enjoyed seeing some people coming at me with their Pick-A-Prize Heavy Mech shortly before both they and I had all of our Gameplay-Linked Loot Bags, which is something I know some people could be capable of.)

Things which I did NOT encounter...

• Heat Issues that were rumored to be happening to some players, particularly Clan combatants. Frankly, I think this might be linked to some people's internet connections.

Things which are NOT in the Rating Consideration this time, but are STILL noteworthy...

• Hanging Cockpit Items --- While I would have enjoyed seeing some in this Loot Bag Event, it's not touching the Rating in ANY way now. However, I do hope that PGI will make some more available in Future Events. If we're getting Standing and Mounted things, it helps to be able to complete the layouts. Heck, I appreciate when PGI throws Hanging things our way! Please don't construe this the wrong way (even though I know some of you would), but Cockpits get to feeling a little bare when they lack Hanging things.

With all this noted and gone through, broken down into separate pieces and sections, I am now left with one thing remaining to do. That thing is giving this a Rating Number. Unfortunately, I'm still fighting off the mental skewing which I had from encountering one issue after another. I am glad to see a fair bit fixed. But, I'm just as negatively bothered by things that were not looked at by PGI, then handled and/or corrected. Maybe I just expect too much. I don't know.

I think for now, I'll start a little toward what feels low to me with a...

6.5/10

...but note that this Rating Number is merely tentative and rather much NOT set in stone. I might actually raise it some, and soon, depending on my first-hand experience with what remains of this Event.

~Mr. D. V. "Trying to post a better Event Review & Rating here..." Devnull




(p.s.: If anyone wants to know it, feel free to ask what I've gained from the Event thus far.)

(p.p.s.: This post just took me more than 3 hours to build. You would be surprised how many times I had to go back over the darned thing! Please, enjoy the read!)

[Clint Taurus]

The game is not tabulating kills and KMDDs correctly today? Anything I've gotten since I've started playing today isn't adding up. Like some matches count and others don't.

I'm only playing IS side as Kurita, not switching back and forth or anything. (I have over 20 kills and/or kmdds today, but the game says I got 14. It is giving me credit for match score.)

Edited by Clint Taurus, 05 September 2018 - 02:51 PM.

[Tekamen]

Xaat Xuun, on 03 September 2018 - 08:15 PM, said:

Am I reading this correct,
I can only earn up to 75 loot bags in faction ?
if so guess I'm not getting a free mech ,
I can't handle more then a couple matches in Quick Play, I mean I will try, but damn, not enough blood pressure pills

Scouting is the answer. FP long form takes too long even with a week long event.

[Tekamen]

wlad955, on 01 September 2018 - 12:28 AM, said:

Got 25 KKMD for SJ yersterday but it's zero today...

If you swapped sides to farm Kurita KMDD as well for pattern, you will have to swap back to Smoke Jaguar and drop once in scouting and your 25 Smoke Jag KMDDs should pop back up on the website without having to redo all the work.

Just make sure you redeem your Kurita or Smoke Jaguar pattern before you change factions. The KMDDs will zero out if you're not part of the faction and you won't be able to select your prize on the web page until you swap back and drop at least one scouting match.

Edited by Tekamen, 05 September 2018 - 03:22 PM.

[Tekamen]

Clint Taurus, on 05 September 2018 - 02:47 PM, said:

The game is not tabulating kills and KMDDs correctly today? Anything I've gotten since I've started playing today isn't adding up. Like some matches count and others don't.

I'm only playing IS side as Kurita, not switching back and forth or anything. (I have over 20 kills and/or kmdds today, but the game says I got 14. It is giving me credit for match score.)

As near as I can tell the game is counting kills and KMDDs correctly, but there might be a delay if you leave a match early from death to when it shows up on the website.

[Sixpack]

After being rudely awakened by Kurita forces landing on turtle bay and making a rucus Clan Smoke Jaguar can now announce that Kurita disturbers have been thrown off the planet and nap time has been restored.

All CSJ forces are welcome to take a nice long fall nap on the smouldering, yet warm, wreckage of Kurita mechs and enjoy the summer rays of the sun.

CSJ forces going back to their natural state depicted here:

[Jonathan8883]

Wow, 571 match score in my first mach. Orion IIC, 870 damage, 1 kill, assists, 12-5 victory with me dead at the end.

[Xaat Xuun]

Tekamen, on 05 September 2018 - 03:16 PM, said:

Scouting is the answer. FP long form takes too long even with a week long event.

there is no scouting in quick play, it's just if I want that free mech , I'll have to do 50 matches in QP, less if I bought one of the packages

haven't been too bad so far, for me alt

[Aramuside]

NUMBERZero1032, on 01 September 2018 - 01:41 PM, said:

HEY, can Kuritan pugs who normally have a KDR of less than 1 just not, please?

Easier said than done with all the 12 mans I've faced over the event. I thoroughly appreciate every one of the handful of warriors that stuck it out despite being farmed.

[Ninjah]

What I've noticed lately is that all pugs like to clump together behind a big piece of cover and just sit there while enemy takes good positions without any resistance. I've managed to break that behaviour a few times using VOIP and my... they are actually very capable of fighting, they just need a kick in the butt to start poking, flanking and basically playing like they should - putting enemy under pressure, disrupting reinforcements, doubling on the isolated mechs, etc. All they need is 2-4 pro players to look up to and voila! There is hope!

Edited by Ninjah, 06 September 2018 - 01:20 AM.

[Aramuside]

Not sure what I felt about the FW side of that event. On the good side it persuaded me back to the game after a year due to the lore side and as always I found it far more intense/tactical than QP. I also got to level up 4 new mechs through the skill tree because I really don't play mechs like stalkers as I prefer mediums and lights. On the bad side, getting farmed throughout the event by 12 mans, 8+4 mans ... and supposed pugs (with 12 identical mechs/fits..) reminded me forcibly why FW regulars are their own worst enemy. Being spawn farmed by a 12 man unit group for 2-2.5 entire drops in a game ... three games in a row sent me to bed intensely frustrated one night. I also never saw the Kuritan bar come even remotely close on kills to a 1.0 K/D ratio which made that reward utterly unattainable unless I wanted to flip sides. Overall there seemed very few DC pugs until the end of the period when people switched sides as I kept dropping with the same players through the week in random assortments during EU times.

I did end up with some quite amusingly bad W/L ratios on my brand new mechs... poor Stalker STK-3FB(L) with its
amazing 0.58 W/L ratio ... despite having a 1.21 K/D ratio. Not great but getting focused by a 12 man ends lives quickly...

Reminds me... I'd just like to thank every pug that stood up to call, even when we lost, it was appreciated (particularly the handful of times we ended beating the farming 12 mans).

[Horseman]

Ninjah, on 06 September 2018 - 01:18 AM, said:

What I've noticed lately is that all pugs like to clump together behind a big piece of cover and just sit there while enemy takes good positions without any resistance. I've managed to break that behaviour a few times using VOIP and my... they are actually very capable of fighting, they just need a kick in the butt to start poking, flanking and basically playing like they should - putting enemy under pressure, disrupting reinforcements, doubling on the isolated mechs, etc. All they need is 2-4 pro players to look up to and voila! There is hope!

Yeeep. That is often my experience as well. Following calls can make even an otherwise awful player into a useful asset - this is why I argue that comms (team chat, in-game VOIP) either should be mandatory to queue in FP, or queueing without them should periodically produce a nag screen.

[Ninjah]

Spawn farming is a way go get things done quickly. The losing team doesn't stand a chance so why make it long and painful? That's the logic I hear over and over. Don't really agree with that. On the other hand...

Units are used to battle each other like rabid gladiators and they apply the same attitude towards pugs by default. We tend to bring max firepower in case we run into another maxxed out unit so we can fight on equal footing. And then we get pugs. They are sometimes so stunned after the first wave they just give up or start derping cause they know it's already over which makes it even quicker.

Bottom line: I agree that spawn farming sucks so I'd like to see drop zones protected by dropships + LONG TOM. So if farming takes place... BOOM/RIP

[Aramuside]

Ninjah, on 06 September 2018 - 02:39 AM, said:

Spawn farming is a way go get things done quickly. The losing team doesn't stand a chance so why make it long and painful? That's the logic I hear over and over. Don't really agree with that. On the other hand...

Units are used to battle each other like rabid gladiators and they apply the same attitude towards pugs by default. We tend to bring max firepower in case we run into another maxxed out unit so we can fight on equal footing. And then we get pugs. They are sometimes so stunned after the first wave they just give up or start derping cause they know it's already over which makes it even quicker.

Bottom line: I agree that spawn farming sucks so I'd like to see drop zones protected by dropships + LONG TOM. So if farming takes place... BOOM/RIP

I will say some of the matches we lost were still exhilarating as they were so desperate. We had a match on River City which were mostly HHPG and 5BMR on your side and 12 varied no unit/solo unit players on ours. The first wave ended up with us down 1-13 so almost game over already. Four of us pugs dug down in the buildings with overlapping fire lines shooting everything approaching from slightly different angles. Not a word spoken. Time flew by and suddenly the timer ended the match at 34-43. Our 4 pugs got 24 kills between us. Gratifying as you know you did well but still a loss.

It almost made up for all the spawn camping.

[BumbaCLot]

D V Devnull, on 05 September 2018 - 02:12 PM, said:

===== Event Review Rebuild =====

• PGI's must be slightly off their mental rocker with the expectation of people to do 500+ Match Score in one single game round in Quick Play. This STILL seems extreme, as it's very likely that most of the Player Base will be unable to do this. As I noted once before, with the grinder effect that people will likely have already experienced in Faction Warfare, stressing people out over (C-Bills) is unnecessary overkill. It would have been better for PGI to not exceed asking for 400+ Match Score at this point, as having that higher minimum is disillusioning abuse of their Player Base.

The 500 match score reward is 5 MILLION CBILLS.
Do you have such disdain for good players that they should receive nothing for being good?
I haven't hit it yet, but I've played 13 matches and broke 250 6 times. I know people may have a hard time getting the 1 Million for that.
I know when I read these forums they say a lot of the top skilled player to ever play the game have left, and when the game dies true top level talent will be even rarer, so mid skill players will eventually end up being the best.
I will be very excited and happy if/when I get a 500 match score game.
For me it will be at Tier 3 getting a Tier 5 match on a favorable map in an assault mech I can play well in (Madcat II B, Scorch, Warhawk 4xERPPC) or I will most likely not get it.
Others who play LRMs can sit back and most likely break 1000 damage from cover if their teammates hold locks.
I don't feel entitled to that 5M, but if I do get it over the next 4 days I will feel great about earning it.

[BumbaCLot]

Ninjah, on 06 September 2018 - 02:39 AM, said:

Spawn farming is a way go get things done quickly. The losing team doesn't stand a chance so why make it long and painful? That's the logic I hear over and over. Don't really agree with that. On the other hand...

Units are used to battle each other like rabid gladiators and they apply the same attitude towards pugs by default. We tend to bring max firepower in case we run into another maxxed out unit so we can fight on equal footing. And then we get pugs. They are sometimes so stunned after the first wave they just give up or start derping cause they know it's already over which makes it even quicker.

Bottom line: I agree that spawn farming sucks so I'd like to see drop zones protected by dropships + LONG TOM. So if farming takes place... BOOM/RIP

So imagine a unit who runs weight top down, against a pug group that doesn't. Maybe that pug group is intentionally running mediums/heavies and have a few very skilled players in their group. Even if it's 12-6 on the first run through, if damage is done to the main group, they need to get way above 13 kills on their first run if they brought their tonnage on first drop. If not, the enemy team can bring their assaults wave 2, wipe out any damaged mechs and then dent the enemy team's 2nd wave.

That's another reason why groups push spawns when tonnage is not equal. Each mode has it's own challenge, and skirmish 13+ is required and if the opfor doesn't reinforce, makes it harder to take the win.

I was on groups of 6-10 where the 1 or 2 players not in group would die and reinforce and die again, against what looked like a group of random players but were all high level friends grouped up and in different units.

As soon as they got the 13 kill lead, it made it very hard / impossible for our team to win, and we would be pressured to gain the kill lead, push spawn, pull back once the kill lead was in favour, etc.. and sit back. Skirmish mode had many many games where 48 kills wasn't done (mostly on snow maps). But I am thankful I wasn't in the 0-0 tie game someone posted on a different forum.

[Tom Sawyer]

I got mine with a 8pml ebon jag. Got 11 assists, 890 damage, and even died when the last enemy mech manged to blow my remaining leg off. 501 match score achieved

[BumbaCLot]

Tom Sawyer, on 06 September 2018 - 05:47 AM, said:

I got mine with a 8pml ebon jag. Got 11 assists, 890 damage, and even died when the last enemy mech manged to blow my remaining leg off. 501 match score achieved

Nice! and you probably will remember that game. I don't remember any of my 250 match score matches, or the 7 I didn't get it in either out of the 13. None were that memorable enough for me to know if I did 400 or 200. I did 5-6+ without my unit, and 5-6+ with. I will definitely not be with them if I do get the 500 MS, as they are going to carry me or beat me to the punch every time.

Looking at my screen shots from the past week, I had the worst match ever in a Deathstrike with a match score of 7, and my best at 565. I remember both matches because they are outliers. The 7 match score I alpha'd 2 of my teammates in the back (accidentally) and then walked into a firing line (the same one they kept poking a corner and then backing into my shots while not firing.
The 565 I got my (probably not) first Double Gauss shot against a light and multiple hits with it on every single mech, was legged for 4 minutes (I just noticed that my leg armor is not maxed out on this build) and center cored for the next 3 minutes. 1 kill, 11 assists and 839 damage. I have an awful KDR, but am sure my damage to every enemy mech while legged won us the match.
Outliers make for great memories, good or bad. Average everything makes everything average.

[Clint Taurus]

Tekamen, on 05 September 2018 - 03:24 PM, said:

As near as I can tell the game is counting kills and KMDDs correctly, but there might be a delay if you leave a match early from death to when it shows up on the website.

It never corrected. I played a couple more matches after my post and got 4 more, so I should have had 26. Game still says today that I got 18 and no prize.

NBD but still lame.

[ShooteyMcShooterson]

Just run an NTG with 2x UAC10 and 2x UAC5. Shave armor for 5 tons of ammo and skill it for a ballistic poke build.

If you can't get a 500 match score in that mech in pug drops, then git gud and quit whining.