9 replies to this topic

[Shanrak]

Its pretty clear at this point anyone who has previously enjoyed FP dislikes the current changes a lot, and also that its impossible to revert back to what we previously had.

Here are a few suggestions that I think will drastically improve the enjoyability.

Problem: Current phases are too long. 24 hours of forced scouting and 48 hours of conquest only is long and boring.

Fix #1: Shorten the scouting phase to 4 hours, all other phases to 8-12 hours. If you do a 4-8-12 hour rotation you can have a new 'story' every day that resets at UTC 0:00. If you want to rotate the schedule around so everyone in a timezone has a chance at a different portion of the story, make it 4-10-12 or 4-8-10 so it slowly shifts.

Problem: Do not force players into specific modes.

Fix #2: Being forced to play scouting only is a terrible idea. Allow Skirmish to be playable during scouting phase where victories contribute to the intelligence bonuses that will carry over for the rest of the phases.

Fix #3: Instead of having a conquest only phase, make it a conquest/domination/skirmish phase as they all kind of align. Also, instead of a forced incursion phase, make it incursion/assault/skirmish.

Fix #4: For Invasion either allow both sides to attack/defend randomly OR you must give bigger incentives to the side that is forced to attack all the time. The attacker side, especially with pugs, is always at a significant handicap compared to siege defense.

Problem: Units cannot play with each other if they pick the wrong side.

Fix #5: Each member of a unit should not be able to pick a faction on their own, this is just ridiculous. Let the unit leaders pick the faction for the unit like before.

Problem: Populations between sides are unbalanced.

Fix #6: Incentivize the side with lower population by offering them bigger rewards that can be seen at the faction selection screen before having to pick a side. Another idea is to allow freelancers to switch sides at will, but they will earn lower winnings.

I think the overall idea behind the latest faction changes is a good one, but it lacks proper execution.

Edited by Shanrak, 25 May 2019 - 04:21 PM.

[Gun Tuv]

Problem: Everything.

Solution: Put it back the way it was but leave the Solaris timer and the new group-size matchmaker.

[Charles Sennet]

"MEDIC!"

It is CRITICAL that these things get fixed ASAP and BEFORE/WHILE we are debating longer term changes to FP. As a unit leader I'm very concerned that once people give up on FP (which has already started to happen) that it will be difficult to get them back.

We're losing the patient.

[Appogee]

• Shorten the different combat phases to an hour.
  
• Feature the story more. Don't bury it in a tab where people can't see it. Make it a big splash screen, with a big battle graphic, in the same way MWO events are promoted.
  
• After the battle, feature the outcome. Show which Mechwarriors were the greatest Heroes for their side. Give them some extra Loyalty Point rewards, or a title like "Saviour of Cerebes" or "Liberator of Lokos".
  
• Enable players to switch between factions when there is an imbalance in the queue.
  
• Mute the countdown timer and task bar notifications until a drop is actually going to happen.
  
• Lengthen the pre-drop lobby to 3 minutes so that we can get our drop deck sorted out for the map. The current 50 seconds isn't nearly enough.

Edited by Appogee, 28 May 2019 - 07:39 AM.

[GoodTry]

Appogee, on 28 May 2019 - 07:39 AM, said:

• Enable players to switch between factions when there is an imbalance in the queue.

Why not let people switch at will? I said it in the other thread, but I think what we need is an "I don't care" option where you can just set up IS and Clan drop decks, click a "Play FP" button, and fill in whatever side needs filling in right now.

A lot of people don't have patience to work through the UI or to make informed decisions about committing to one side or the other. I just want to shoot stompy robots in a mode with respawn.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

Charles Sennet, on 28 May 2019 - 07:28 AM, said:

"MEDIC!"

It is CRITICAL that these things get fixed ASAP and BEFORE/WHILE we are debating longer term changes to FP. As a unit leader I'm very concerned that once people give up on FP (which has already started to happen) that it will be difficult to get them back.

We're losing the patient.

patient was in a bad spot before the patch. now, those stabs into the back sure didn't help.
neither does that the guy who still holds the knife btw, obviously has no intention to get the patient back into a stable state in the forsee-able future.

well, we had some fun times here, didn't we? see you at the funeral I guess.

[Bjorn Coston]

Appogee, on 28 May 2019 - 07:39 AM, said:

• Shorten the different combat phases to an hour.
  
• Feature the story more. Don't bury it in a tab where people can't see it. Make it a big splash screen, with a big battle graphic, in the same way MWO events are promoted.
  
• After the battle, feature the outcome. Show which Mechwarriors were the greatest Heroes for their side. Give them some extra Loyalty Point rewards, or a title like "Saviour of Cerebes" or "Liberator of Lokos".
  
• Enable players to switch between factions when there is an imbalance in the queue.
  
• Mute the countdown timer and task bar notifications until a drop is actually going to happen.
  
• Lengthen the pre-drop lobby to 3 minutes so that we can get our drop deck sorted out for the map. The current 50 seconds isn't nearly enough.

I definitely like the Awards for pilots idea in conjunction with the story mode. Maybe expand that to units so that promotes large team-activity in the FP realm. Would definitely add more substance to partaking in the new story-mode concept that apparently is more important than a viable working FP experience. Since I know for most of us, we genuinely don't care about the story.

[LordNothing]

seems like i read this before.

if pgi cant improve the drop rate, fp is doomed.

Edited by LordNothing, 29 May 2019 - 06:07 PM.

[Appogee]

LordNothing, on 29 May 2019 - 06:06 PM, said:

if pgi cant improve the drop rate, fp is doomed.

I try to play twice a day. But due to the stacking of teams and the inability of anyone to switch factions to even it out, I've only been able to play 4 matches in the past week.

The ball is in PGI's court. I hope I'm still interested enough in MWO to play it by the time they get around to fixing it.

[LordNothing]

Appogee, on 29 May 2019 - 11:59 PM, said:

I try to play twice a day. But due to the stacking of teams and the inability of anyone to switch factions to even it out, I've only been able to play 4 matches in the past week.

The ball is in PGI's court. I hope I'm still interested enough in MWO to play it by the time they get around to fixing it.

i tried to play some fp today but i was a little late and i did get one game but after that i didnt want to sit in queue again when i could finish leveling my mw5 variants. i did finish the la malinche and vapor eagle today, but the loyalty varients dont have much xp on them. also fp being clan clan i cant really run my mw5 variants there. and i really don't want to level a kgc in qp *shudders*. maybe tomorrow il finish the catapult and one of the others.

its really a buzzkill that fp is borked especially with qp being really bad right now. next month the hatamoto chi and charger come out for cbills and that's the last 2 cbill mechs for awhile (already having corsair whammy iic and marauder 2s in my inventory). looks like i can take the whole summer off until the rifleman iic comes out for cbills. of course that changes if fp gets fixed.

Edited by LordNothing, 30 May 2019 - 01:43 AM.