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Expirementing, Anyone Wanna Help?

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#1 MechWarrior319348

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 11:47 AM

Hey I have a theory. I usually play at a specific time of day, but occasionally i venture off and play if I end up with free time and nothing else to do. I always get my butt kicked when I play outside of my regular play time. I'm talking 7 in a row loss streaks, the stuff that really puts your head in the mud; but I'm not angry, just curious. If sticking to a schedule when playing this game helps, I wanna know about it, because I'm always trying to learn. And yeah, I've read about how the matchmaker works and all that stuff, but sometimes you can get machines to do things they aren't supposed to, mechanics should connect with that. Anyway, before I begin my research, I was curious if anyone has any insight into this before I begin?

#2 martian

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 12:33 PM

View PostDillion Harper, on 16 March 2020 - 11:47 AM, said:

Hey I have a theory. I usually play at a specific time of day, but occasionally i venture off and play if I end up with free time and nothing else to do. I always get my butt kicked when I play outside of my regular play time. I'm talking 7 in a row loss streaks, the stuff that really puts your head in the mud; but I'm not angry, just curious. If sticking to a schedule when playing this game helps, I wanna know about it, because I'm always trying to learn. And yeah, I've read about how the matchmaker works and all that stuff, but sometimes you can get machines to do things they aren't supposed to, mechanics should connect with that. Anyway, before I begin my research, I was curious if anyone has any insight into this before I begin?


In my experience the worst times are Europe evenings and weekends.

All those daddys who have never learned how to play MWO are out in force. I guess that they put their children in bed and decided to play MWO for one hour or so.
Add all those BattleTech fans (I can't say players because I doubt that some of the actually play BattleTech) who have never understood the difference between BT and MWO ...

All those players have moved up all tiers not by the virtue of being good or at least moderately competent, but by the virtue of playing frequently enough - we all know how it is practically impossible to move down with your PSR.

Sometimes it is physically painful to watch them play MWO:
  • All those Fafnirs who decided to "flank" and are eaten by enemy Lights.
  • All those Atlases camping in the open and being instantly vaporized by the enemy team*
  • All those players attempting to snipe with medium lasers on one kilometre.
  • All those players who have played for years and have never learned to scan enemy 'Mechs to find damaged sections.
  • All those players running away to cap absolutely useless bases (I do not know if they are really so stupid or if they are such cowards that they cap bases because it is safer than actually fight the enemy; I guess it is 50:50) while their team is being crushed by the enemy
  • All those true nascarers who are gradually losing their assault, heavy and medium 'Mechs while they kill just the one slowest enemy 'Mech in return
  • All those false nascarers who are running around the central map feature - while the enemy team is not even nascaring and is picking thm apart ...
  • etc.
Plus points if it is an Founders' Atlas.

They have had in some cases seven years to learn how to play MWO - and they have failed.

Do you know what is the worst thing? That you know that due to a small players' pool you are going to have them on your team in your next ten games, doing all those mistakes again and again, costing you game after game.

I often wish to have AI lancemates from previous MechWarrior games such as Alan Matilla or Aisa Thastus in my team. They were quite competent and did what being told ...

#3 MechWarrior319348

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 01:23 PM

Well I enjoy helping people, maybe I’ll drop into those time zones more often and just try to lead by example. I know people get annoyed when you try to tell them something because people are naturally skeptical. If they see before their eyes that something works, they tend to repeat it. If you can get just a few people doing this, it causes a cascading effect, and good behavior spreads. Interesting point though.

#4 RickySpanish

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 02:51 PM

View PostDillion Harper, on 16 March 2020 - 11:47 AM, said:

Hey I have a theory. I usually play at a specific time of day, but occasionally i venture off and play if I end up with free time and nothing else to do. I always get my butt kicked when I play outside of my regular play time. I'm talking 7 in a row loss streaks, the stuff that really puts your head in the mud; but I'm not angry, just curious. If sticking to a schedule when playing this game helps, I wanna know about it, because I'm always trying to learn. And yeah, I've read about how the matchmaker works and all that stuff, but sometimes you can get machines to do things they aren't supposed to, mechanics should connect with that. Anyway, before I begin my research, I was curious if anyone has any insight into this before I begin?


Oh yes, I have noticed this. Saturday all day is the worst for me, I don't even play anymore because I always end up on a team with cretins and meanwhile, red has several players who I know by name that are extremely good. On the other hand, monday to friday day time EST is the easiest time to play for me - the players are *all* braindead instead of just my team, and I can for e.g. pull 800 damage in my Warhammer IIC without breaking a sweat, because nobody knows to avoid ATMs below 300m. Meanwhile evenings EST are the best - even teams with players who are quite good, even if nobody wants to talk anymore.

Edited by RickySpanish, 16 March 2020 - 02:53 PM.


#5 Alan Hicks

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 03:01 PM

I agree that there seems to be a pattern you get more losses on weekends and near European evenings.

There are Sundays or Saturdays I completely avoid playing. Posted Image

#6 Kodyn

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 04:34 PM

Whenever the most Euro dudes and old US guys are on, usually Euro prime times and weekends- worst matches. If you main NA server and take side trips to EU ever, you'll notice a crazy massive drop in match quality as well.

These guys aren't necessarily bad at the game, I've spectated them- they have decent builds, aim well- they just do not care. About anything. All they want to do is sit in a mech and shoot. Winning is beyond what they want to bother with, not shooting teammates in the back is not worth bothering with, tactics are a foreign concept, comms are only used by one guy at the end to complain about the sub-100 dmg on every player on the team.

You see, I play at a lot of off-hours and have experimented with the EU server extensively, so I've learned to recognize pretty quickly when I've wandered into Europe or made the mistake of playing on a weekend. I don't hate these weekend-warriors and EU players, they're just casual and enjoying the game their way. I do however hate when I have more of them on my team than the OPFOR, because it's frustrating as hell to be trying to play well and win when you realize much of your team simply doesn't care in the least. These were the guys we all expected to move on to MW5 when it came out, since they never seemed to want to play PvP to begin with, but somehow they stuck around.

#7 HammerMaster

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 05:13 PM

Generally I have found Euro matches to be lacking unless a lot of UK and German dudes are on.

#8 MechWarrior319348

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 06:05 PM

If you guys really think that’s the case, then there are probably people who have your insight; and have no choice but to play during those times. With that info, I think I can decide that I won’t avoid playing off-times, I’ll drop in and die with some good pilots. Lost causes are fun if you know how to turn em around. I’ll just work some charm and convince them to follow my orders, without actually directly giving orders. I’m a manipulative ****.

#9 FRAGTAST1C

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 06:06 PM

I've played during the following times...

1. 7pm - 10:30pm PST

2. 2:30am - 5am PST

3. 7:30am - 11am PST

My losing streaks are consistent in all of them Posted Image

#10 Kodyn

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 06:20 PM

You can definitely turn playing on off-times into an advantage. The times I've taken a Light into matches on NA or EU at like 3-6am EST or on a Sunday and done incredibly well speak to that. When I tried to play normal, in say Heavies and Assaults, it was horrible, but if I knew what I was walking into and just played a Light and did my own thing, avoided getting caught up in bad team maneuvers, farmed damage and kills, etc- had some good matches. I used to know NA players who worked late or had overnight schedules that would abuse the EU passiveness to farm damage and MS with LRM and sniper builds as well. It used to be that you'd see less Nascar on EU or at those off-times, so everyone would just be camping and sniping. Lately I feel like the Nascar has actually spread everywhere, so it's probably less of a thing.

#11 MTier Slayed Up

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Posted 16 March 2020 - 07:09 PM

View PostFRAGTAST1C, on 16 March 2020 - 06:06 PM, said:

I've played during the following times...

1. 7pm - 10:30pm PST

2. 2:30am - 5am PST

3. 7:30am - 11am PST

My losing streaks are consistent in all of them Posted Image

Can confirm.

Love you buddy. <3

#12 OmniFail

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 09:51 AM

Early morning though late afternoon PST= Terri-bad
So terrible and bad you need to hyphenate two words to describe it.

It seems like the Europeans like to get off work and get loaded while they play with the American millennial kids that are to dumb to go to school.

You would think that you would still win about the same as you always would. But it's not true at all. Some how during this time bracket everyone loses all the time.

It boggles the mind.

How is this possible in a game were one team wins most the time and ties are rare.
How is it that everyone that plays during the day PST loses all the time?
How?

#13 PhoenixFire55

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 10:43 AM

Whats there to experiment on? ... If you usually play during low hours when few people are playing it means you are playing against whatever is left, i.e. steering wheel potatoes. If you suddenly try to play during hours when there are more players, it means you get better opposition and get your rear handled to you. You inflate your W/L and PSR by playing against weak players thus MM matches you against far better opposition than it should skill-wise. This imbalance leads to your team losing more often. Simple really.

#14 VonBruinwald

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 10:51 AM

View PostOmniFail, on 17 March 2020 - 09:51 AM, said:

It seems like the Europeans like to get off work and get loaded while they play


You almost make that sound like a bad thing.

What's the alternative? Get off work, go home and take the game super-seriously...

#15 Sniper09121986

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 11:22 AM

View PostVonBruinwald, on 17 March 2020 - 10:51 AM, said:

You almost make that sound like a bad thing.

What's the alternative? Get off work, go home and take the game super-seriously...


Work? What work? MWO is a well-known cybersport discipline, the devs themselves say so (at least they used to). It pays for itself, ergo the game IS work.

#16 RickySpanish

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 03:24 PM

View PostPhoenixFire55, on 17 March 2020 - 10:43 AM, said:

Whats there to experiment on? ... If you usually play during low hours when few people are playing it means you are playing against whatever is left, i.e. steering wheel potatoes. If you suddenly try to play during hours when there are more players, it means you get better opposition and get your rear handled to you. You inflate your W/L and PSR by playing against weak players thus MM matches you against far better opposition than it should skill-wise. This imbalance leads to your team losing more often. Simple really.


What is this MM that you speak of?

#17 JediPanther

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 04:59 PM

I don't even bother to check eu or oceanic. NA only just for the ping. When i'm really bored to the point of not even a troll build I'll go blow some xp or whatever on the aux tree and be that guy* in some lame mech like a spider 5v or some random lct-1v.

*that one guy who spent all the nodes on the "objective" based nodes like capture accelerator or enhanced spotting or all the extra uavs and uav time then goes to only do "the objective" whether it be stand-in-the-square mode,stand-and-shoot-base-mode,fetch-and-drop-off-the-thingy-free-money mode, or my favorite flashy-square-dance-mode. Yee haw.

#18 Kodyn

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 07:44 PM

View PostJediPanther, on 17 March 2020 - 04:59 PM, said:

I don't even bother to check eu or oceanic. NA only just for the ping. When i'm really bored to the point of not even a troll build I'll go blow some xp or whatever on the aux tree and be that guy* in some lame mech like a spider 5v or some random lct-1v.

*that one guy who spent all the nodes on the "objective" based nodes like capture accelerator or enhanced spotting or all the extra uavs and uav time then goes to only do "the objective" whether it be stand-in-the-square mode,stand-and-shoot-base-mode,fetch-and-drop-off-the-thingy-free-money mode, or my favorite flashy-square-dance-mode. Yee haw.



Oh so the guy who tanks everyone's match score by capping 2 mins into matches during events where everyone needs damage padding and MS? I don't know if you're actually that trollish, but I do see that happen, a lot, and it's irritating...yes, it's PGI's fault for giving us stupid things like Assault mode, but the population does bear some responsibility for choosing to troll ourselves at times.

That's at least one nice thing I can say about EU and off-peak players- they don't bother with the objectives, ever. I don't enjoy it so much on Conquest, the one objective mode I do like, but it's nice when they ignore Assault for example, or the entire enemy team forgets there's a circle in Domination and accidentally loses when they were winning on kills...

#19 RickySpanish

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 08:53 PM

Occasionally the objectives end up moving players around in interesting ways, like base caps or nobody wanting to enter the circle on frozen domination. But usually they are just a distraction. Like flags on 2fort...

#20 MTier Slayed Up

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Posted 17 March 2020 - 10:11 PM

View PostRickySpanish, on 17 March 2020 - 08:53 PM, said:

Occasionally the objectives end up moving players around in interesting ways, like base caps or nobody wanting to enter the circle on frozen domination. But usually they are just a distraction. Like flags on 2fort...

It's pretty sad that every game mode ends up being Skirmish.

If they had added something like a king of the hill ffa or capture the flag, I'm sure it would have broken up the monotony.





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