4 replies to this topic

[Jagdpanther MechWarrior-117-ZULU]

This has been posted on A LOT recently because I'm guessing the declining player population has caused this problem to become ever more apparent.

One of the main reasons people return to playing the same game is because their friends are playing and they play together. However, putting small groups into a separate queue ACTIVELY PROHIBITS new players from returning to MWO because of the outrageous wait times for getting into games.

One of the most effective ways games gain new, long-term players is by friend referrals:
Personally, I persuaded friends to try out MWO in the past, but they quickly stopped playing because they didn't want to wait 10-20 minutes each time to get into a game when you're in a 2 player group.

Another friend that just started playing MWO last week is also losing interest when she found out the long wait time for playing with me in a group.

Any game is a lot less fun when you can only solo-queue and play with strangers. Even older/loyal players (like me) will move on to other games if they cannot effectively play with IRL friends whom are actually interested in trying MWO.

FIX: Taking inspiration from World of Tanks: if smaller 2-4 player groups experience overly long queue times, move them to the regular queue. There can be restrictions like up to 4 players in groups on each team, and both teams have the same number of groups. Smaller groups are overly less effective in battles anyways, and this is drastically more welcoming to new and old players alike who play with their 1 or 2 friends, and thus will keep the game alive.

Edited by SSJagdpanther, 08 July 2019 - 11:04 PM.

[Insignus]

I've personally wanted to bring in people to try out MWO, but this sort of thing has always warned me off the few times its happened to me.

[Tarl Cabot]

Quote

FIX: Taking inspiration from World of Tanks: if smaller 2-4 player groups experience overly long queue times, move them to the regular queue. There can be restrictions like up to 4 players in groups on each team, and both teams have the same number of groups. Smaller groups are overly less effective in battles anyways, and this is drastically more welcoming to new and old players alike who play with their 1 or 2 friends, and thus will keep the game alive.

https://mwomercs.com...43#entry6275243

Tarl Cabot, on 11 July 2019 - 03:25 AM, said:

Likely quite a few at first then it would fade. It would still need restrictions. Think of it as Faction Play without respawns....

-- Max 3 solo per side

-- Opt into GroupQ but can not opt out of SoloQ



Now turn that around to add some spice.

-- Allow duo to opt into SoloQ but can not opt out of GroupQ

-- Only 1 team/side, nor can the drop happen w/side with a team.

-- Use higher Tier lvl for selection, no avg for SoloQ

-- Weight classes would not be ignore, only that the duo on each side would not require matching weight class.

-- Weight class - likely would need to restrict a duo to drop in different weight class, no double assault, etc.

-- Additional restriction for duo. Players, not mechs, are locked out of dropping into another match until the current match has ended. A timer penalty would not be a preventive enough to discourage suicides/running into the enemy to end the game quickly due to being selected to drop into GroupQ instead of SoloQ

The above could potentially add more grouped players to the system.

Previously, when the game had the ability to actually form groups the game only had that one queue. No unit tags, no in-game VOIP (thus grouped players had a huge advantage majority using external VOIP, and max team size was 8vs8....and it started off with max group size of 4....in an 8vs8 environment with VOIP advantage, sync dropping, etc... some other things

[MechTech Dragoon]

Pretty simple. Use the same system as FP uses.
Groups get qued first, groups get filled out on each side with highest tier solo players if it cant find enough small groups to fill the space.
MM still attempts to create x tonnage game using those parameters, evening out psr on each side.
Match kicks off.

This also fixes the fact that theres no tier based matchmaking for low tier groups, who get thrown into the ******* grinder.

[targetpractise]

Agree that this is the most serious problem in MWO currently (which may even be an understatement)!
On the previous weekend during European prime gaming time I managed to persuade few old MWO players to come play a few (quick) matches with me (as a 2 and 3 player groups), or at least that was the plan.
After spending an hour (and then two) waiting for the game being in "Searching" state, and even attempting the Looking For Group (LFG) -approach in order to create larger groups to improve matchmaking chances -- in this case we managed to form 3-5 player groups -- we did not get into a single group match. Solo quick matches work/worked just fine.
In the end everyone was tired and pissed (well we might have had a few beers 'swell).

Seems that many other players have had same kind of experiences. I gather that those two old MWO gamer friends of mine will not come and try to join in for another game any time soon...
I seriously hope PGI does something about this and quick! Fix the group matchmaking algorithm, revert it to some previous not-so-balanced version, whatever. Any possible solution than the current one is probably welcome! People don't care about slight problems with team balancing if they can continue playing the game in comparison to the current alternative.
Cheers