19
Where: PTS Client in the MechWarrior Online portal.
When: 4PM PDT
It's been a long while since Faction Play has seen any kind of update and this PTS shows the first big step in that direction. This update introduces 2 major component upgrades including the Match Maker and a story driven conflict system. These two systems break down as follows:
Match Maker Update:
In order to balance out gameplay discrepencies between groups and solo players, the new Match Maker algorithm has a new prioritization feature which will put groups against groups at the very beginning of match creation.
What this means is that there is a set amount of time where people enter the queue and the Match Maker holds match creation until that timer expires. This creates one big queue of group and solo players combined. Once the hold timer expires, the Match Maker starts creating matches by putting the biggest groups against each other.
The Match Maker continues matching groups based on their size from largest to smallest until it has exhausted all of the groups in queue. Any odd sized teams are now filled with solo players based on their Elo. The idea is that higher ranked/skilled players will be used to fill the largest group matches first.
Once all group matches are filled, the remaining solo players are matched up using Elo from highest to lowest. This in turn balances out skill level in the remaining matches. Once this is complete, all of the matches are released to the dedicated game servers and the hold timer is started once again.
Story Driven Confict System:
This new feature is the first time that the game will drive conflicts happening in Faction Play. It will allow us to create story lines that play out over the course of a Conflict using a series of Phases. Basically consider a Conflict as a FP Event and that Conflict is make up of mini-events we can call Phases. For example, this PTS is playing out one Conflict consisting of 3 Phases (see image below). Once a conflict completes, the story arc ends and whatever the conflict was about will be resolved (planet switch, or story foretelling.)
What we need tested:
- Can you see the story unfold across phases. (You have a 6hr window for each phase for this test)
- Does the game mode change between phases?
- Play in various sized groups if possible. From 12-man to 2 man.
- Does the War Log counter increase with your faction's wins?
- Does the faction with the most wins actually win and the story progresses accordingly?
Some stuff we know about:
- If you encounter an "Error 63", retry queuing up.
- With a lower volume of people participating in a PTS, it's suggested that you try during your time zone's peak hours. For example, North America would be best played during the hours of 5-9PM PDT.
- Added 4:37PM PDT - The story text is not showing in the UI as planned. (Role Select and Mission description tab.)
Some stuff you don't know about:
- Rewards for all things CB and XP related have been increased by various amounts with a minimum of 15% increase. This includes winning by objective and all in-game activities that give rewards (kill assists etc).
Flow to get into a match:
When you first enter Faction Play, you will be asked to choose your role in the conflict based on the story. (Note: Story is missing, will include here.)
After selecting your role, you will be asked to choose which side of the fight (Faction) you want to fight on.
You are then asked to confirm that these choices are you want to make because you are locked into the Role/Faction until the end of the Conflict.
Phase 1 is all scouting, so you'll need to switch to your scouting drop deck and then click Fight Now. After that you'll be in queue.
