367 replies to this topic

[J a y]

You know you ****** up when BCMC, ISMO, MS, ARC7, and KCom all agree on something.

Edit:

Now I understand why Pat Kell left to get cigarettes that one game and never came back.

Edited by J a y, 22 May 2019 - 08:33 AM.

[stoolsoftener]

Scouting sucks because smoke diving is annoying and effective, among other things. Before someone tells me that gen rushing is the same thing, no, its not, you know where the gens are, you spawn by them, dont be stupid. Also, i am at 99% to the next Kurita Rank, guess what? That's never going to happen. Also, why the **** does it take forever to get to maximum rank? Its ******* ridiculous. That being said, forcing a player base into such a strange format of game modes is one of the dumbest moves possible. I guess my only conclusion is stupidity or some sort of trolling to get the player base all riled up followed by a rollback. Either way, I seem to recall that Russ Bullock will be streaming live on the 24th? Hmm a convenient chance to let him know what we think of the changes.

[Ghastly]

I'm very much opposed to changes that effectively keep people from playing what they want to play. If I don't want to chase an Ice Ferret around Polar Highlands for 15 minutes, then I don't get to play faction warfare.

[vonJerg]

VonBruinwald, on 22 May 2019 - 07:42 AM, said:

Please allow us to see the population distribution before joining a side!

Before you select anything, click on "Inner Sphere map" first, there you will see the population and current game mode etc, then click back on "Select role and faction" button and then pick your side.

[MischiefSC]

I've said this elsewhere but I'll put it here too -

If you removed all the team identity from a sport you're going to drive most the fans away. FW always had this thick loyalist bench that got largely emptied by 1 Bukkit, costing us hundred or more players from FW. Now 5his is pushing even more out.

There's nothing, at all, in this that will bring back people who've left. The only thing even potentially possible is to maybe pull some people who play QP into FW. So losing players in the hopes of moving a few extant people from QP to FW.

Also limits on ability for players to move to find matches. So compelling another segment of players to leave and making it harder for those who remain to fill matches. You've eliminated any connection plays would have at all. And then tied players to factions that they no longer have any reason to carry about in inconvenient ways. At this point just make it a QP/GQ mode and call it IS vs Clan. Remove the loyalty stuff and just have scaling event style payouts. You've removed all relevance to factions and faction identity from FE in any form players can connect to. Clearly you're okay with cutting that population segment out. Not trying to be mean or judgemental but that's the reality of where we're at. Just double down on the simplicity side at least. This currently is the worst of both sides - you've managed to actually find a way to throw out the last remaining hardcore dedicated loyalist units while simultaneously tying 5hose who remain into factions they don't care about.

[OldSchoolCav]

J a y, on 22 May 2019 - 08:12 AM, said:

You know you ****** up when BCMC, ISMO, MS, ARC7, and KCom all agree on something.

So, it is just about 11 am in Vancouver right now. I know that when my team sh*ts the bed at work, we generally strive to at least acknowlege to our clients that we understand that they are unhappy as quickly as possible. If we are feeling charitable, we might let them know that we are working internally on a plan to better understand root causes, etc. and we provide them with a timeline for the correction process. But I am a director for a publicly traded company with stock price in the $130s right now, so maybe that's not the normal way businesses are run?

If I were in their shoes, I'd post something at least agreeing that the patch has made many people angry so I could stop the bleeding temporarily and restore a little confidence.

TLDR - when can we expect PGI to respond to the outpouring of salt on the forums?

Edited by OldSchoolCav, 22 May 2019 - 09:57 AM.

[Grus]

J a y, on 22 May 2019 - 08:12 AM, said:

You know you ****** up when BCMC, ISMO, MS, ARC7, and KCom all agree on something.

Edit:

Now I understand why Pat Kell left to get cigarettes that one game and never came back.

*slow clap*

[Darth Khan]

Return the ability to change fractions without restrictions

[MischiefSC]

So the idea of "phases" doesnt work in reality. I don't schedule my day and will never schedule day around when the mode I want to play in FW is available. It's enough of a struggle just getting a decent sized group of players on whenever just to queue up. If I manage to get 8+ people on for FW and it's scouting or Incursion the group will instantly dissolve and this will happen maybe 3 times and nobody will want to play FW again. Because I can go play whatever other game I want that isn't going to tell me I have to play it a way I hate.

Yell you what - put GQ and QP on a phases cycle. Certain times of day all QP is mixed in to GQ, sometimes GQ is closed and you have to QP. See what happens to the population.

This just feels so armchair. Look, end of the day I'm a MWO fan. I have creeping up on 300 me he and like 90% of those were bought for cash and no question 75% of them bought because of how FW WAS. If FW as it is now is how it was at release not only would I not have bought these mechs but I wouldn't be here. I don't think I'm alone in that. There's nothing to these changes to retain people, nothing to draw people back. Just reasons to quit. There's nothing to be excited or eager or engaged in or connected to.

Esports isn't a huge growing thing because everyone can go win in it. It's teams and factions and sides to connect to and with. Someone to cheer for or against you have a connection with. That was factions. It's why majority of players had faction tags. That's the only reason to have a FW and it's what people were engaged with.

12 v 12 with respawns is just a gamemode. Put it in QP. It is not and never was the basis for the FW experience that had so many thousands waiting in queue to play. People connect to "my unit" and to a larger degree "my faction". I always hated scouting but I played it to benefit my unit and faction. I hated ghost drops and waiting but, again, did it for unit and faction.

Quit ******* destroying those identities, they're why most people played. Lean IN TO FACTION IDENTITY AND BELONGING NOT AWAY FROM IT.

Or finish pushing everyone who likes team identities out and just go all in with disposable drop in drop out population. I'm sure that'll turn out well, I'm sure that's a group who's happy to stay thick and thin.

Or, you know. Go to a Warcraft forum and say "FOR THE HORDE!" Because theough countless **** balance Pat he's and missteps and monthly subs and expansions faction identity had kept millions in that game as it has with numerous other games.

[Paul Inouye]

Presented some improvements to the stakeholders... nothing is going to come for free so it will take time to get implemented but there will also be some give and take on what's going to be addressed asap. We need to get a timeline estimate done and that's going to take a bit.

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

There ARE other items but I will not be commenting on them until we get a clearer indication of the requested change and it's required development time.

[Telemachus -Salt Wife Salt Life-]

Paul Inouye, on 22 May 2019 - 10:38 AM, said:

Presented some improvements to the stakeholders... nothing is going to come for free so it will take time to get implemented but there will also be some give and take on what's going to be addressed asap. We need to get a timeline estimate done and that's going to take a bit.

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

There ARE other items but I will not be commenting on them until we get a clearer indication of the requested change and it's required development time.

Wrong, allow switching on the fly or we will have dead/lopsided queues for HOURS. Even if a phase is only ONE hour, not being able to switch to the side that has lower population during the phase means that it's an hour of almost no matches.

No one wants to go from being in a 12 man to having to break up into 4 mans, and then back to 12 mans because the game mode includes scouting in the phase as well. No one asked for scouting and invasion to be combined.

Also, need to allow people of all clans to count for the clan side, and all IS factions to count for the IS side, regardless of whether they are Loyalist or Mercs. No one asked to be locked into a PARTICULAR clan/faction for an entire phase. People want to grind the LP they wanna grind. Let them.

Sadly, what I get from this post is that we're stuck with these for a while . GG

Edited by Telemachus -Salt Wife Salt Life-, 22 May 2019 - 10:47 AM.

[Racerxintegra2k]

Paul Inouye, on 22 May 2019 - 10:38 AM, said:

Presented some improvements to the stakeholders... nothing is going to come for free so it will take time to get implemented but there will also be some give and take on what's going to be addressed asap. We need to get a timeline estimate done and that's going to take a bit.

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

There ARE other items but I will not be commenting on them until we get a clearer indication of the requested change and it's required development time.

Give us the ability to choose our faction and be loyal to it period ... or we wont care enough to wait around between phases or whatever to be a part time loyalist. Your driving away the loyalists with this patch. Wait to long and there is another segment of the population you will never get back.

[TinFoilHat]

Paul Inouye, on 22 May 2019 - 10:38 AM, said:

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

Appreciate the post Paul, but neither of these were new features - both were present in the game prior to yesterday’s patch to an extent, so is the perceived delay just how to merge the coding into the “new” iteration of FP?

Also, neither still addresses the problem that Loyalist units face - they want to represent their faction only, they don’t want to have to choose between other parties. Being locked out of that choice is a MAJOR source of grievance right now.

Edited by TinFoilHat, 22 May 2019 - 10:53 AM.

[OldSchoolCav]

Paul Inouye, on 22 May 2019 - 10:38 AM, said:

Presented some improvements to the stakeholders... nothing is going to come for free so it will take time to get implemented but there will also be some give and take on what's going to be addressed asap. We need to get a timeline estimate done and that's going to take a bit.

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

There ARE other items but I will not be commenting on them until we get a clearer indication of the requested change and it's required development time.

Which stakeholders? The devs who sunk so much energy into the story aspect? The players who literally want to pay you to play this game? You still don't seem to understand that three things must happen or it will be too little too late:

1) Allow loyalists to get LP for their chosen Faction if they are aligned IS with IS, Clan with Clan. I.e. make sure that the large percentage of loyalist players are in the queue.
2) Allow mercs and freelancers to switch sides at any time without probation. This prevents the lopsided queues we see. Please take a look at the numbers you've had stacked over the past 24 hours. It is never even - there is always a surplus on one side. Why not allow some to change so more games are played?
3) Do not lock players and units into scouting for any length of time. Many have said it - if they have to break up their group to fight 4 vs 4, there are plenty of other places to do that.

It might also be a smart idea to add information about phase and conflict duration to the UI. No one knew that this was a 24 hour scouting phase in a 96 hour conflict until you told us on the forums.

Thank you for posting something, but please, get this handled. If the next 72 hours of the conflict are Invasion, you might be OK, but there will be salt like you've never seen if 12 hours into the next phase the queue is stuck at 35/10 because people can't change factions.

Edited by OldSchoolCav, 22 May 2019 - 10:59 AM.

[Natural Predator]

Paul Inouye, on 22 May 2019 - 10:38 AM, said:

Presented some improvements to the stakeholders... nothing is going to come for free so it will take time to get implemented but there will also be some give and take on what's going to be addressed asap. We need to get a timeline estimate done and that's going to take a bit.

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

There ARE other items but I will not be commenting on them until we get a clearer indication of the requested change and it's required development time.

Thanks for responding Paul,
In my mind the biggest and most important update will be the ability to change sides as needed to balance the population. As an example yesterday during Euro time it was heavily in favor of IS. I could not even get match attempting to solo drop. It got slightly better when I grouped up in a 4 man. During NA prime time it was heavily clan so I was able to grab matches quickly. But there was at one point 16 people waiting clan side to grab a match. The ability to self regulated population was a critical step in the right direction that has vastly improved our ability to get games. Eliminating that seems like a step in the wrong direction. I think this should be if not the top priority, top 3 priorities to improve experience as the first step is to get a match.

[J a y]

HI PAUL
HERE'S MY SINGLE SUGGESTION

KEEP THIS CURRENT EVENT SYSTEM, BUT ALSO LEAVE THE OPTION TO DROP FW WITH NO STAKES INVOLVED ON THE SIDE.

PILOTS STILL GET LP AND CBILLS AND ALL THAT, BUT IT DOESN'T AFFECT PLANETS OR THE STORYLINE.

EX: WOLF AND DAVION ARE FIGHTING IN SOME STORY RELATED EVENT.

AS A KURITA UNIT, ISMO COULD JUST DROP FW AND BEAT ON MY FRIENDS IN ARC7 WITHOUT INTERRUPTING THAT STORY RELATED EVENT.

if you do that, steak dinner in vancouver on me, place of your choice

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

Paul Inouye, on 22 May 2019 - 10:38 AM, said:

Presented some improvements to the stakeholders... nothing is going to come for free so it will take time to get implemented but there will also be some give and take on what's going to be addressed asap. We need to get a timeline estimate done and that's going to take a bit.

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

There ARE other items but I will not be commenting on them until we get a clearer indication of the requested change and it's required development time.

sorry, but I just don't see why you don't ROLL BACK the changes you made to pre-patch. in it's current state, this is highly unplayable and people are pIssed off. and rightly so.
pls just roll it back and then try something like a dialoge with the community to... eh. I'll stop myself right there, cause we all know the chances of that happening. *biting my tongue on many, many clear words I have in mind*

[Willard Phule]

Watched the end of scouting count down. Queued up as as soon as it would let me....have spent 15 minutes watching everyone else drop. Working as intended, I suppose.

[OldSchoolCav]

Queue is 19/6. No matches. Too bad I can't switch to FRR with 5 friends....

Correction - it appears to be moving now. Ooohhh, perhaps it won't be as bad as I feared?

Correction v2 - I get an error saying "failed to find match". Interesting. What is driving this?

Edited by OldSchoolCav, 22 May 2019 - 11:35 AM.

[MischiefSC]

Paul Inouye, on 22 May 2019 - 10:38 AM, said:

Presented some improvements to the stakeholders... nothing is going to come for free so it will take time to get implemented but there will also be some give and take on what's going to be addressed asap. We need to get a timeline estimate done and that's going to take a bit.

The first two things to be addressed:
- Multiple game modes during a phase. The game will select from a subset of game modes to choose from during a phase.
- Switching role/faction between Phases instead of Conflict.

There ARE other items but I will not be commenting on them until we get a clearer indication of the requested change and it's required development time.

People are passionate about it because they're invested in it.

Please keep in mind we're pretty good at this point at self regulating to get matches. Please give us the tools to do so. Population is low enough now that the last thing anyone is worried about is people trying to dodge each other. We just want to get drops.

What we really, really need isn't to try and poach people from QP. I need something I can use to try and get people who left to come back. Saying "queues are not as bad but faction membership is gone" isn't that.