100 replies to this topic

[MiZia]

Paul Inouye, on 06 June 2019 - 09:55 AM, said:

Lobby prep time has been increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds. If this is still too short, we can bump it up to 120. We can change this value real time, however, it is not persistent between patches until we lock down the duration you are all happy with. Just remember, 120 seconds (2mins) is a lonnnnng time if you've launched with a pre-prepared drop deck.

Since u got lobby only on Game u actually dont have Time to swap if u have only the 2 Std Decks. But 2 minutes should be fine.

[Captain Caveman DE]

Paul Inouye, on 06 June 2019 - 09:55 AM, said:

Lobby prep time has been increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds. If this is still too short, we can bump it up to 120. We can change this value real time, however, it is not persistent between patches until we lock down the duration you are all happy with. Just remember, 120 seconds (2mins) is a lonnnnng time if you've launched with a pre-prepared drop deck.

thx Paul. this helps A LOT.
and just to help you see why 2 minutes isn't long at all, here's an example why:
-not always are grouped-up people on a ts, or the same ts. so you communicate dropdecks and tactics ingame many times.
typing stuff, reading stuff, adjusting decks.. it takes time. especially if not everybody is okay with things, has the mechs and loadouts wanted/needed etc.
2 minutes practically are gone in a blink of an eye.

player1: hey gents, I call the drop. pls get your urbies wave one.
player2: yup.
player3: yup.
player4: yup.
player5: yup.
player6: roger.
player7: I'll bring my lurm-urbie
player2: ..
player3: ..
player4: That thing's gonna have an accident as soon as we drop. bring sth else.
player3: yup.
player6: roger @accident
player9: yup.
player10: ... I'll bring a LurmAtlas, if that's alright.
player2: ..
player11: that's already TWO accidents at drop
player12: yup
player1: *head -> desk repeatedly*



see how little time that is to type all this?

Edited by Captain Caveman DE, 06 June 2019 - 10:45 AM.

[Nightbird]

Sigh, funny that 60 seconds is a problem now when this is the time given ever since FP started all those years ago.

[Captain Caveman DE]

Nightbird, on 06 June 2019 - 11:18 AM, said:

Sigh, funny that 60 seconds is a problem now when this is the time given ever since FP started all those years ago.

funny that it bugs you enough to post such a comment, when an easily adjustable numbers thing such as that gets mentioned - and corrected.

[Aidan Crenshaw]

this prep time adjustment seems to have influenced QP map voting section, too. It's now 90sec.

[Captain Caveman DE]

Aidan Crenshaw, on 06 June 2019 - 12:18 PM, said:

this prep time adjustment seems to have influenced QP map voting section, too. It's now 90sec.

...

[Remover of Obstacles]

16/6

[Danjo San]

your team is next in queue... read that for 60minutes... saw the queue fill up, empty out, fill up, empty out, fill up, empty out....

waiting times are worse
quality of matches has not improved
I can't be loyal to the faction I was loyal to for 6 years...

[Danjo San]

that was productive .... waited 60min for this.

What is the point of scouting anymore? What do you collect the Intel for? This Game-Mode makes absolutely no sense anymore. there is no "Team" to support during Invasion Matches.
This was the worst waste of time ever. Back in CW 1+2 I found more meaningful matches in Ghostdrops against Davion.

[Paul Meyers DEST]

Nightbird, on 06 June 2019 - 11:18 AM, said:

Sigh, funny that 60 seconds is a problem now when this is the time given ever since FP started all those years ago.

And i complain since i play mwo. What now?

Thx for the update.

Edited by Paul Meyers DEST, 07 June 2019 - 12:48 AM.

[ThirdWorld]

I think part of the problem here is PGI trying to create a story then force the players into it instead of taking the players and forcing a story from them.

Faction play is nice. I like the idea of it. I just don't like it as it currently stands.

You got 1 conflict and force people to pick sides without knowing who is on what side. I don't think that is great.

Now this isn't happening since it would require you to change the whole system but I would prefer a system where you chose a faction and entered the match maker where the story was based on who was in queue and not what was determined ahead of time.

Let people pick their preferred factions.
If they queue up, choose what faction is fighting what based on a similar system to how you have map voting. Is this team mostly steiner? Guess steiner is team A. Do the same for the other team. If your faction doesn't get picked, congratulations, you are a mercenary in the fight.

Got a queue that is mostly IS? Welp, clans are invading, not all the IS see eye to eye, guess you are getting an IS vs IS fight.

Got a 1 clan and 49 IS in queue? Make it a low chance for cross faction mercs since some mercenary groups would have clan mechs from time to time.

Have people earn points towards the factions that got chosen for the fights as well as the one they pledged to even if they played as a merc.

[Yondu Udonta]

Nice to hear that we can finally switch sides at will.

60s used to be enough for most people before the change in matchmaker. Previously the timer would start ticking after you loaded into the lobby but now the timer starts ticking before you fully load into the lobby. For the slower players, I could see how having 5-10s less could be an issue prepping decks. So I suppose 30s more waiting time is fine for higher quality of matches.

Edited by Yondu Udonta, 07 June 2019 - 05:30 AM.

[Paul Inouye]

While there's a newer update thread pinned in this subforum, I'll leave this one pinned until the June patch goes out as discussion/feedback are still relevant in this thread.

[BROARL]

could siege please be part of MWO again?

[-Mean Machine Angel-]

Whats siege? that's a silly looking word.I think you made it up.

[ThirdWorld]

I mean the old problem still exists even if you can switch sides at will. I don't want to play not IS. So I just won't be playing on the days that have scouting or clan vs clan or high IS pops.

[Rexxxxxxxxx]

You need to force everyone to choose Merc and the matchmaker will distribute everyone evenly between the two factions in the conflict. Let us continue to accumulate LP for the factions we've been assigned. Most of us have or will soon complete the Merc LP anyway. Let us drop with mixed IS and Clan drop decks. If someone likes only IS or strictly Clan mechs, this would let them do so. The majority of matchmaking and queue waiting issues will be solved by doing this.

Also what ever story line you've implemented is just a small set of text that no one reads. If they do it is merely for a moment. It doesn't make us feel better about having to play scouting or conquest for many hours at a time. It's like being stuck in "Ground Hog Day". Mix it up. And while waiting have the story line displayed with some images. We should then launch the second the matchmaker puts two groups together. Eliminate the counter.

[BROARL]

we wait for hours for a game then get polar highlands three times in a row...
perhaps if the maps were clustered snow map, different snow map, another ****** snow map, snow siege map, etc, then the planet could have a frivolous snow story and a picture and you could mix up the modes and we would ...?
rotfl let's be honest, we would still b*tch about something

*i would b*tch less if there were siege matches to distract me
*i would pull my wallet out if i got to shoot someone on a new map, even a quickplay map.

[Charles Sennet]

BROARL, on 08 June 2019 - 03:25 PM, said:

we wait for hours for a game then get polar highlands three times in a row...
perhaps if the maps were clustered snow map, different snow map, another ****** snow map, snow siege map, etc, then the

Polar, Alpine, Boreal, and Caustic (albeit for different reasons) should be on very low rotation.

[tenchugecko]

Paul Inouye, on 24 May 2019 - 04:46 PM, said:

So, the podcast delay didn't help out here but I'm not going to wait for it to update you all on what we're planning for FP post patch. First I'm going to copy and paste my comment from the hotfix thread about rolling back:



Now... on to the next steps...

[color=orange]Terminology:[/color]

Conflict – Considered as a campaign
Phase – The missions that make up the campaign

[color=orange]Pressure Points in the Community:[/color]

• Cannot select Loyalist and never have to play anything other than a Loyalist.
  
• Do not like having to play a singular game mode for the duration of a Phase
  
• Do not like Scouting to be a dedicated Phase. This is actually split because there are people who love Scouting and people who hate it. One point raised by the community on this is that Scouting would force a large group to break apart to meet the 4v4 requirement of the mode.
  
• Do not like being locked to a Faction for an entire Conflict. Requesting every match, but that is not possible as it would completely mess up the Match Maker and swapping frequently like that will lead to chaos in between matches as overbalancing becomes an issue. We can however, allow a switch every Phase.
  
• RP is not being earned. This is a bug and is being addressed as of this post and is scheduled for a hotfix early next week.
  
• MC Coffers not working for distribution purposes. This too is a bug and has been fixed and will be included in the hotfix early next week.

[color=orange]Can and Cannot Do’s[/color]




[color=orange]Cannot:[/color]

• Have multiple conflicts running simultaneously
  
• Split the MM queue
  
• Completely eliminate Scouting

[color=orange]Can:[/color]

• Reduce the length of Phases within a Conflict
  
• Reduce the usage of Scouting to only be a very short starter Phase if and only if the story needs it.
  
• Allow multiple game modes to be part of a Phase
  
• Allow switching Factions between Phases (Currently only available between Conflicts)
  
• Show a graphical representation of current Phase Faction balance (How many players are currently in each of the Phase’s Factions. This will allow players to balance the Factions prior to making their selections)

[color=orange]Roadmap for FP Fixes and Updates (In priority order):[/color]



1) Phases will be shortened drastically so a singular game mode won’t be played for 24hrs or longer. This is an immediate fix after this second conflict has run its course.

2) IF Scouting is a Phase, it will be reduced to a very short Phase window and only occur at the very start of a Conflict. This is an immediate fix after this second conflict has run its course (although Scouting is not part of this second Conflict).

3) The very first thing to be implemented but requires development time, will be the ability to switch Factions between Phases. This will help alleviate Faction imbalance if it happens during the first Phase. Engineering is working on this as of this post and there is a possibility that this can be patched prior to the June patch dependent on testing.

4) The next thing will be multiple game modes per Phase. The plan for this is when a conflict is created, a subset of game modes will be included in each Phase. The game will randomly pick from these modes during the Phase. Scouting will only be used in a dedicated Phase and as mentioned above as long as the story requires it and it will only be a short Phase. Scouting will not be included in subsequent subset Phase game modes. For example, a Phase will never have a subset of modes like Assault, Skirmish and Scouting. This update will be approximately a week in development and then followed by testing. This puts it in the realm of being part of the June patch and not earlier.

5) The third thing is getting a visual indicator as to the current population of each Faction during a Phase/Conflict. This will allow players to visually see the current population balance before making their selection as to which Faction to align to. Ideally this would go out with the ability to switch Factions, but we are also wanting to make sure the ABILITY to switch takes top priority right now with a potential to be released before anything else. This update is also targeted to be part of June’s patch.

Note: There are a few smaller stretch goals that will be targeted for June's patch as well but will not be worked on until points 3-5 above are completed. If they get included, I'll update on what they are and their status.

Note 2: This is not an all encompassing list and once done we wash our hands... as development moves forward, we will be addressing other items such as the leaderboards and other items that come up in discussion threads.

[color=orange]The Big Issue[/color]

Playing as a Loyalist means you cannot earn LP unless your Faction is part of the current Conflict. This in turn also means the grind up the Loyalist ranks is going to be significantly longer.

There is a solution to this but it’s very robust and will need development time. It goes back to the old matrix of playing for Faction X will still earn you LP (at a reduced level) for your Faction as long as the Faction X is part of your ‘alliance’. (Davion,Steiner,FRR vs Kurita,Liao,Marik for example).

This elephant is going to have its own discussion thread because there are a couple stall points that happen and we want you the community to help make a decision on what happens in these cases.

The post will happen as soon as I get the documentation done with a few info-graphics to help show exactly what’s being planned. This is going to take a bit, it's a big information/design post that needs a lot of detail. The plan is to make the post today or tomorrow and have a follow up discussion Monday onward.

Please do not post your feedback on this particular point in this thread as it will not help keep feedback focused in one area. Not trying to squash feedback/concerns, just trying to keep things in one area to facilitate discussion and organization as per previous posts regarding the FP Update.

If this is PGI's comprehension of the Problem, the Que will stay empty.
I want to click and play a respawn Mode with my mechs. The rest of the Factionplay stuff is a fancy Click Button
If your FP-Menu-Game cant do stuff, get rid of it completely. FP never failed but the FP-Menu-Game fails miserably.