21 replies to this topic

[Nika Romanova]

I'm back after a long break, and I'm wondering if there's any way around the terrible queue times? I'm not trying to do anything super competitive, I'm just trying to duo with my son.

Thanks for your time,
Nika

[Ssamout]

Sorry, group queue is mostly dead. Most groups that still play are dropping in faction play.

You could try to sync drop into qp and hope to end up on the same side..

[SaXoN UK1]

I'm in exactly the same boat, haven't played for a couple of years and me and my buddy thought we would revisit (both founders), can't get in a game together as a group, which sucks.

Is Faction war now good, as it used to be terrible ?

[Paul Meyers DEST]

Join FP and try

[Dar1ng One]

Faction Play drop times have improved slightly, however, over our long weekend in WA, I did an experiment of time vs drops.

Quick play won out, but not as much as I expected.

So if you like to do a bit of cleaning, or a 10 to 17 minute workout in between Faction drops, Mech-cellent!

Otherwise, quick play will be your jam.

[justcallme A S H]

SaXoN UK1, on 30 September 2019 - 11:31 PM, said:

I'm in exactly the same boat, haven't played for a couple of years and me and my buddy thought we would revisit (both founders), can't get in a game together as a group, which sucks.

Is Faction war now good, as it used to be terrible ?

Depends on a number of factors

• Timezone
  
• Group Size
  
• Side Chose

Larger groups tend to find matches fast. During the US Phase in a group of 8+, it's basically instant matches at the moment during weekends as the Queus are 20/20 or so (20 players each side). 12 needed to kick off a match.

I went back-to-back matches for near on 8 hours.

EU is a bit quieter but still flows.

Oceanic is a bit of pot-luck, sometimes you'll get a game and sometimes you'll wait hours for nothing.

[Brizna]

Currently small not hard core teams are a lot better trying Community Warfare than QP. This is valid for EU and NA peak times.

[Dar1ng One]

Paul Meyers DEST, on 01 October 2019 - 12:18 AM, said:

Join FP and try

Do....or do not..... there is no try..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Tesunie]

Nika Romanova, on 08 September 2019 - 09:14 AM, said:

I'm back after a long break, and I'm wondering if there's any way around the terrible queue times? I'm not trying to do anything super competitive, I'm just trying to duo with my son.

Thanks for your time,
Nika

SaXoN UK1, on 30 September 2019 - 11:31 PM, said:

I'm in exactly the same boat, haven't played for a couple of years and me and my buddy thought we would revisit (both founders), can't get in a game together as a group, which sucks.

Is Faction war now good, as it used to be terrible ?

Since PGI announced that they were pausing work on MW:O to finish MW5, which also was the same announcement that said that MW:O only had a few years left of life (unless something changed) and that they were experiencing financial problems..., it's been harder to find matches in group queue.

Groups of two always have had a little bit of a wait to find matches, as the MM prioritizes larger groups over smaller ones. This is to get as many players into matches as possible as well as as many matches as possible being active at a given time (which does make sense).

If you want better luck finding matches, you have a few options.
1. Form a larger group and see if that does the trick. Groups of 5+ tend to find matches much faster and easier.
2. Check out the queuing numbers for FP, if you don't mind longer matches. If they are busy over there, then drop there.
3. If your PSR tiers are close enough between accounts, you can try to time your drops so you search for matches at the same time. You can still find yourself in matches together, though not always on the same team. However, if your PSR ranks are too far apart, this will be very hard to impossible to work. (Ex: I'm T1 and my girl friend who plays is T5. There is no way I can drop with her unless I am grouped up with her. However, I have another friend that is also T1, and another that is T2. I can attempt to see about synk dropping with them instead.)

If you try to do option 3, the MM primarily focuses on matching exact PSR ranks, but as it takes time looking for a match for the seed player (the first one selected to the server) it will expand this requirement. Typically, it will end up quickly looking for people who are two tiers apart from each other. This means T5, 4 and 3 can drop together if the seed player is a T5 player. On the other side, a T1 player can drop with T1, 2 and 3 players.
In very rare cases, during extreme low population times, T1 and T5 have been known to drop together in matches. However, this tends to be such a rare example that it isn't the norm. So consider you and your partner's PSR rankings before attempting to drop together in this manner.

---

I find your best option typically is to just find 2-3 additional players to group up with. I know in many cases, this doesn't work out with your own friend's list. I've never used the Looking for Group feature in the game, but it is something you can consider if you don't mind whom else you could have in your group.

The other option is to join an active unit that matches you preferred gaming environment you wish to be under. There are teams set up for competitive building. There are casual units. There are even some that like to be training units. My own unit is the Seraphim. We are mostly a casual unit who uphold to the Christian concepts. You do not need to be a Christian to join (though it does help), but it does mean we like to have our comms more censored than others. No harsh language or curse words. If you give advise, we expect it to be proposed in a more uplifting manner, rather than deconstruction way. We also consider ourselves a family friendly guild due to our strictures on language usage. Depending upon your own beliefs and how old your son (in the case of Nika) is, we might be a reasonable fit for you. (If interested, we use primarily Discord, but also use TS3 as well.) We are also typically more active in the evening (for my area). If you are US based, we as a unit tend to be active around 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, etc. (We also play more than MW:O together as well.)

[MechaBattler]

This is a big part of why the game didn't grow as much as it should have. Everything is better with friends. Except getting stomped by bigger groups of more experienced and better equipped players. Now you can barely get a match. PGI messed up huge not addressing this early on. I've tried to get friends into the game and not being able to reliably play together is a big problem.

[Tesunie]

MechaBattler, on 01 October 2019 - 10:00 AM, said:

This is a big part of why the game didn't grow as much as it should have. Everything is better with friends. Except getting stomped by bigger groups of more experienced and better equipped players. Now you can barely get a match. PGI messed up huge not addressing this early on. I've tried to get friends into the game and not being able to reliably play together is a big problem.

The problem with groups has always been either how to implement them, or player population levels.

I'll also comment that some of your issue has been an ever growing one in this game. Skilled players tend to want to play with other skilled players, so they make units together. These "skill units" play together. This isn't a problem on the player's part, but it does create problems when so much skill sit in a single place.

For example, if you were playing GP, even with a large group of friends, and you see a full team of Emp, 228, CWM, etc... You already know you've got a tough fight against you that match. It's no fault of those units, but by having so much good skill consolidated to a single spot, it's harder to play in those areas of the game for other people because... well... many of us aren't as skilled as they are and are more casual players.

It's a growing problem (with any PvP game honestly) with no real solution. You can adjust MM all you want, it wont solve that problem. Unless you start to restrict the players (bad idea), then this will always remain an issue.

The other half of the issue is kinda how PGI implemented features of the core game. Matches must always have the same number of players per side (12v12), and the match starts at the same time for everyone (no drop in and drop out, which I find hard to do anyway in a PvP game such as this). This limits finding matches into those number sets, so an 11 man team can't happen unless a solo player can drop in the group queue.

PGI also, understandably, designed the system to place matches together starting with largest groups and working it's way to smaller groups. This does mean more "invested" groups (aka: more people) find matches sooner, but it leaves smaller groups on the sideline.

Only suggestion I think PGI could do is to permit two man teams into Solo play, maybe three mans at the absolute limits. However, this can lead to it's own problems, much like the days when 4 man teams were permitted in the solo queue. Those premade sections in the solo group dominated the battlefield with their teamwork and communication. So it's been tried before, and it's not easy to pull off. Two man teams may still throw the system out of wack in solo queue... but it should have less of an impact than the four mans from the past.

[MechWarrior1258203]

Queue times suck for late night NA, aus prime time.
(I'm only making this post so people can get linked to it to see the Tier 3 badge)

Edited by testing the tiers, 02 October 2019 - 03:31 PM.

[Tesunie]

testing the tiers, on 02 October 2019 - 03:29 PM, said:

Queue times suck for late night NA, aus prime time.
(I'm only making this post so people can get linked to it to see the Tier 3 badge)

I was in 2-3 man groups last night after 9pm eastern and was dropping into matches fairly easily right up till midnight (when I got off). And that was group queue.

What queue are you trying to go for? Solo? Group? Faction?
What times are you trying to do these searches for? What time zone?
As T3, you should have the easiest time finding matches, as the MM can place you into any match it's forming, but that only implies you are dropping in solo. In Group queue PSR tier has far less of an impact, and in Faction it has no impact on match searching.

PS: You haven''t even hit NA prime time. Not sure about Pacific prime time. NA prime time will hit in about an hr from this post.

Edited by Tesunie, 02 October 2019 - 03:57 PM.

[Mr D One]

good questions Tesunie, but if testing posted today, that would have been his experience on a wednesday night, maybe.

The population definitely picks up on weekends.

[Tarl Cabot]

testing the tiers, on 02 October 2019 - 03:29 PM, said:

Queue times suck for late night NA, aus prime time.
(I'm only making this post so people can get linked to it to see the Tier 3 badge)

(chuckles) I had a brain freeze from trying to look you up on the Leaderboard when I realized players need 10 games to show up each month and you had only played 4 games, going from Tier 5 to Tier 3... haha...

[Tesunie]

Dar1ngOne, on 03 October 2019 - 04:18 AM, said:

good questions Tesunie, but if testing posted today, that would have been his experience on a wednesday night, maybe.

The population definitely picks up on weekends.

According to the web profile, his account wasn't even 24hrs old at the time of his posting. Thus, he hadn't hit the prime time hours I am aware of at this time. I know the game picks up after 9pm my time zone (US Eastern), and I know there is a surge of players for Europe prime time. I don't know how "prime time" Pacific players get, nor what that time zone is.

The fact he's already T3 tells me a few things:
- He's a natural at games like this.
OR
- This is an alt account, which makes you wonder why he hasn't posted with his main account and why he posted with his alt instead...

As Tarl Cabot mentioned, Testing's only played four games (provided his information is correct, which I assume it is). As an added note, you can get into T4 after a single match (done it). So I'm not to surprised if someone's alt account managed to get to T3 within four matches. It's the main reason new accounts get a PSR boost.

[justcallme A S H]

MechaBattler, on 01 October 2019 - 10:00 AM, said:

This is a big part of why the game didn't grow as much as it should have. Everything is better with friends. Except getting stomped by bigger groups of more experienced and better equipped players. Now you can barely get a match. PGI messed up huge not addressing this early on. I've tried to get friends into the game and not being able to reliably play together is a big problem.

Up until FP3.0 patch dropped - There were 100s of units, 1,000s of active players in peaks times. 1,000s of players literally gave up within a 2 week window when that patch dropped. That was strike 1 - Mid 2016.

Then came Skill Maze - That saw a further exodus of 1,000s more and at that point many units that were left, also died. My old unit 54MR was a prime example. Went from 120 active, 3 competitive teams - 5 weeks after skill maze? 15 active and no comp teams. That was strike 2 - Mid 2017.

Desync and balance was strike 3. This happened from mid 2017. Repeated LRM buffs and nerfs to cERPPC nerfs, cMPL nerfs, cSPL nerfs, SRM nerfs, Artemis nerfs... The list goes on and on. The game became a stale mess. That was 2017 (desync) and then the patches all the way to end of 2018.

It was about Skill Tree when GroupQ started to really feel the pain and then it was a spiral from there.

The game was plenty active and healthy enough to get near instant matches no matter what Q you were in, back in 2016. But then all the decisions above NUKED the playerbase into oblivion and with it - increased search times. And of course the more people wait? The more people leave to play something they don't have to wait in.

Oceanic QP alone has taken, on average, 7-10mins to find a game for me. It's been like this most of the year where in 2018 I could get games thick and fast 24/7. Any wonder people are leaving. Hell I've barely streamed QP because I can't bare to wait 7-10mins and play ~3-4 games of QP per hour. It's horrendous.

[skellr]

Nika Romanova, on 08 September 2019 - 09:14 AM, said:

I'm back after a long break, and I'm wondering if there's any way around the terrible queue times? I'm not trying to do anything super competitive, I'm just trying to duo with my son.

Thanks for your time,
Nika

Try playing light mechs? Light mech pilots are usually in highest demand.

Just something I've noticed. When I group drop and most of our group is in lights and meds we get in quick. When we have mostly heavy and assault it's a long, long wait...

[Horseman]

Nika Romanova, on 08 September 2019 - 09:14 AM, said:

I'm back after a long break, and I'm wondering if there's any way around the terrible queue times? I'm not trying to do anything super competitive, I'm just trying to duo with my son.

Thanks for your time,
Nika

Two-man groups have always historically had the worst matchmaking times.
You can always do 1v1 using Solaris or private lobbies, or look up another group forming on one of the voice hubs and join them for drops.

[Vxheous]

Tesunie, on 03 October 2019 - 07:55 AM, said:

According to the web profile, his account wasn't even 24hrs old at the time of his posting. Thus, he hadn't hit the prime time hours I am aware of at this time. I know the game picks up after 9pm my time zone (US Eastern), and I know there is a surge of players for Europe prime time. I don't know how "prime time" Pacific players get, nor what that time zone is.

The fact he's already T3 tells me a few things:
- He's a natural at games like this.
OR
- This is an alt account, which makes you wonder why he hasn't posted with his main account and why he posted with his alt instead...

As Tarl Cabot mentioned, Testing's only played four games (provided his information is correct, which I assume it is). As an added note, you can get into T4 after a single match (done it). So I'm not to surprised if someone's alt account managed to get to T3 within four matches. It's the main reason new accounts get a PSR boost.

Sorry, it was a facetious post meant only so that that account would "show up" on the forum. I refer you to this thread for reason(s) why: https://mwomercs.com...ost__p__6293806