76 replies to this topic

[Paul Inouye]

Faction Play Update - Weekly Report #1 - March 22nd 2019

As mentioned in the Global Update, the Faction Play Update will be delayed by a month (i.e. coming in the May patch).

The root cause was the extent of the Match Maker revision and how deep the code had to go to achieve what is required. The Match Maker revision has come along since the Global Update and is a few days from core completion so internal QA can look at it.

While this is happening, the code base for the Event System is being worked on sequentially after the Match Maker work is done. This is basically because the MM work needs to be completed for the Event System to work correctly.

I can take this moment to also announce that we are tentatively targeting the week of April 2nd to be a potential first pass of a PTS of the Faction Play Update. If we are unable to do it the week of April 2nd, it will be the following week.

"But Paul.. what about April 1st?"

Quit calling me "but Paul" and I don't want people to think this is an April Fools prank.

Since I'll be updating every Friday, knowing which week PTS will actually fall on will be clarified as we get completion of the systems involved.

-Paul

[Prototelis]

Thanks for the update;

You should totally do a PTS on April 1st where when everyone logs into PTS they can only use urbanmechs. That seems like a pretty good stress tester of the event system to me...

1st annual urbie derby.

[Greygor 727]

Paul Inouye, on 22 March 2019 - 04:23 PM, said:

Faction Play Update - Weekly Report #1 - March 22nd 2019

"But Paul.. what about April 1st?"

Quit calling me "but Paul" and I don't want people to think this is an April Fools prank.

… You don't want us to think this is an April Fool's prank … this soon.

[Alilua]

Glad to have communication.

[Alcom Isst]

Paul Inouye, on 22 March 2019 - 04:23 PM, said:

Quit calling me "but Paul" and I don't want people to think this is an April Fools prank.

I was thinking of adding another T.

Butt Paul!

[Fherot]

Thanks for the update, looking forward to it.

[Kuaron]

Appreciate the reports, especially since FP is THE big and important thing currently upcoming.

[GweNTLeR]

I really doubt It would be possible to play FP matches on PTS. There are just too few people who would be interested in it.

[D V Devnull]

Hmm... this thread draws my attention... at least I can help with something here...

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GweNTLeR, on 22 March 2019 - 09:21 PM, said:

I really doubt It would be possible to play FP matches on PTS. There are just too few people who would be interested in it.

Eh... They could throw an Event on the PTS that gives Rewards to the Live Account afterward. That would forcibly draw a lot of attention, unlike how Events were launched on the Live Servers during the Missile PTS that recently happened.

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Paul Inouye, on 22 March 2019 - 04:23 PM, said:

While this is happening, the code base for the Event System is being worked on sequentially after the Match Maker work is done. This is basically because the MM work needs to be completed for the Event System to work correctly.

Hello, Paul... I just had a thought for you, which would satisfy a lot of the Community in one clean shot. Heck, it might even help with making your Code-Writing Work easy, albeit that I don't entirely know that for sure. (I'm just trying to be optimistic, so please read on!)

You could potentially design the FW ("Faction Warfare", also referrable to as "Faction Play") Special Event Handling -- including Drop Deck Setup -- as being completely agnostic of a particular Pilot's current choice of Faction Affiliation setting. This would completely circumvent & remove the Issues that have been making Loyalists and Units angry over the current state of FW Special Events and how they're handled. All it would take is a couple pairs of the "Fight Now" & "Scout Now" Buttons, with one pair of them being for each side of the Battle that's running during a FW Special Event. Beyond that, stop limiting the Drop Deck configuration at any time by a person's current Faction Affiliation setting, as some have trusted that to their Unit Leader's choices and has its' own ramifications. With that done, that part would be totally out of the way, and the MatchMaker could be more easily focused upon without having to try to bend either it or the FW Special Event Handling around each other anywhere near quite so much.

So, what do you think of this slightly more loose-styled idea? I'm realizing that this could even allow for easy launch on some of those "Civil Wars" that were supposed to arrive with that Era's Weapons and such.

EDIT :: By the way, I almost forgot to mention... This idea would not be meant to affect the Drop Deck Restrictions on the Main Conflict Battles. We are pre-agreed on not allowing Clanners to take an Inner Sphere Drop Deck into the Main Conflict Battles, and vice versa with not allowing Inner Sphere to take a Clan Drop Deck into the Main Conflict Battles. This is literally only meant to diffuse the problem with Faction Affiliation when considered around Special Events.

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...and pardon me while I vanish into the shadows... for now.

~D. V. "just trying to build simplistic & hard-to-corrupt solutions where none may have seemed present before" Devnull

Edited by D V Devnull, 22 March 2019 - 10:32 PM.

[Appogee]

Thank you for the update and for the progress you are making on FP.

I play FP every single day... a lot of that is waiting for a lobby, ghost dropping and other symptoms of too low a player population.

So I think you will need to put in place incentives to get enough players onto a FP PTS. Please consider.

[Bravado]

Paul Inouye, on 22 March 2019 - 04:23 PM, said:

Quit calling me "but Paul" and I don't want people to think this is an April Fools prank.

Shirley, you can't be serious.

[GrimmigerPetz]

Hy there,

I am with Devnull and Appogee here. Get a nice Event on the PTS with the prices injected to the live account. Think u did something similar a while ago that worked pretty well.

#savecommunitywarfare
#makecwgreatagain
#idontknowhowhashtagswork

Grim out

[Gully D]

Dear Paul
Thank you for the update. I and my friends really appreciate this. Look forward to further updates eagerly. No buts about it.

[pacifica812]

GrimmigerPetz, on 23 March 2019 - 12:56 AM, said:

Hy there,

I am with Devnull and Appogee here. Get a nice Event on the PTS with the prices injected to the live account. Think u did something similar a while ago that worked pretty well.

#savecommunitywarfare
#makecwgreatagain
#idontknowhowhashtagswork

Grim out

I know I will sound irrational, but... snapshot accounts, stop the Premium Time passage, shut down live servers and go 100 % PTS Faction play only. I know it sounds crazy, but that would help populate the PTS server.

[Bishop Six]

But Paul....Thank you.

[T e c h 4 9]

Thanks for the update Paul.

You will almost certainly have to incentivize the PTS to get the numbers for FW, but then again, ALL PTS's should be incentivized by default. Why would someone spend time on the PTS if they get nothing in return?

This community is pretty good about being involved in the continued development of MWO, but it's also difficult to give up hours of regular play time where rewards are earned for nothing.

[Yondu Udonta]

Paul Inouye, on 22 March 2019 - 04:23 PM, said:

I can take this moment to also announce that we are tentatively targeting the week of April 2nd to be a potential first pass of a PTS of the Faction Play Update. If we are unable to do it the week of April 2nd, it will be the following week.

I agree with some of the others who said that PTS needs to be incentivized so that people will try it out. More people would mean a better matchmaker. I suggest that loyalty medallions (faction chosen by player) be given out to help alleviate how long it takes to grind a faction ladder, else maybe c-bills or MC.

[Tank]

Prototelis, on 22 March 2019 - 04:56 PM, said:

1st annual urbie derby.

But Paul hates Urbies...

[ZortPointNarf]

But Paul, thanks for the update, maybe I will be more interested in FW after the new changes, as it is now, for a solo pug its extremely un-fun.

[Bud Crue]

Paul, your OP implies that there will be a sequence of multiple PTS sessions. It is gonna be a real challenge to get even the dedicated FP crowd to participate more than once or twice in ANY of them let alone all of them. The greater population won't even do that. So echoing the others above, I gotta think you are going to need to hang out some serious incentives to get folks in, and get them in, in the numbers needed for any consistency. Consider the current Lucky Charms event as a possible guide...giving a free mech away, as well as lots of other goodies, as part of a long stretch of play. I think you ought to consider doing something at least as enticing for the planned stretch of PTS sessions, so as to encourage dedicated player participation in ALL of the sessions.


Also,if traditional PTS are 4v4 to make them viable, how is that going to work in an FP PTS, where the 12v12 aspect is kind of essential to the whole point of the mode and seemingly pretty key to the MM changes?