9 replies to this topic

[Anjin]

So, tonight I had a network error, a game crash, and a frozen match loading screen. Each time, I came back into the game to try and reconnect (all were at match start) and help my team not be down a mech. Instead, I got this:

1st: Penalty System, 2 minutes.
2nd: Penalty System, 5 minutes
3rd: Penalty System, 10 minutes.

I think attempting to rejoin a match should be a good faith show that I'm not trying to game anything (really not sure why crashes/errors that are no fault of my own get penalized ANYWAYS), and not trigger the system.

I know for a fact that in the past I could rejoin if I had an early-match disconnect/crash, Now I can't.

Is the population of the game so overburdening the servers that they just don't want people to play?

Edited by Anjin, 07 April 2020 - 08:24 PM.

[Dee Eight]

Actually the first penalty is 10 seconds... next one is 2 mins... final level is 20 minutes. The problem is the 2 min time to rejoin a disconnected/crashed match without incurring the penalty is often less time than it takes to reboot the game and log back in, unless you happen to keep your game installed on an SSD. As the game got bigger and bigger with more mechs, more maps, etc to deal with on load up... the time to do so got longer and longer and they never made allowances for that and I guess just assumed people would drop money on SSD's instead of continuing to install to their hard drives.

[Anjin]

Dee Eight, on 07 April 2020 - 08:47 PM, said:

Actually the first penalty is 10 seconds... next one is 2 mins... final level is 20 minutes. The problem is the 2 min time to rejoin a disconnected/crashed match without incurring the penalty is often less time than it takes to reboot the game and log back in, unless you happen to keep your game installed on an SSD. As the game got bigger and bigger with more mechs, more maps, etc to deal with on load up... the time to do so got longer and longer and they never made allowances for that and I guess just assumed people would drop money on SSD's instead of continuing to install to their hard drives.

Regardless, there needs to be some "automated" way to "appeal" or something. Not a single one of these was anything I could have avoided, and kept me from playing for 17+ minutes (+, because, as you say, load times). I never saw a penalty for 10 seconds, but the first one was well over a minute once I was back in, the second something like 4:30, and the third I think was about 9:30. On all three attempts I could have rejoined a match. Whether I'd have still been alive or not is a different matter, but there's ZERO reason to keep me from playing due to things out of my control, ESPECIALLY when I return to the game and try to get back into the match as quickly as possible.

[Dee Eight]

The only solution is multiple accounts. If you're suffering disco penalties...change account until the penalty expires on the former account you were playing, then switch back.

[Nearly Dead]

You would think that the game server would be able to tell the difference between someone leaving the game via the commands Esc, Quit Match and the game freezing and crashing; which would eliminate 99% of the problem.

[Dee Eight]

Nearly Dead, on 08 April 2020 - 03:50 AM, said:

You would think that the game server would be able to tell the difference between someone leaving the game via the commands Esc, Quit Match and the game freezing and crashing; which would eliminate 99% of the problem.

It can actually. If you fail to connect as a result of a server error, essentially the 0 ping type of disconnect... the game relocates the head hit box to another spot on the mech than where it usually is for that chassis, to keep people from easy farming head shots (except for the timber wolf, apparently PGI's idea of making it harder to locate was moving it up one window of the cockpit). If you use the disconnect feature deliberately (which shows as a full disconnect and you still have a ping above 0) then the head hit box isn't moved and is in the exact same spot it normally would be. Thus you can head hit people who throw a tantrum and/or rage quit the match by disconnecting for example. But for whatever PGI reasoning they couldn't be bothered to apply the same feature to the time penalty for disconnects.

Edited by Dee Eight, 08 April 2020 - 05:45 AM.

[Anjin]

So, update. I mailed support before I posted here, finally got this reply:

"The automated system only triggers on repeated disconnects/team damage during a short period of time.
However, it should not prevent you from rejoining a currently ongoing match, I will forward this issue to the dev team to investigate."

[Brauer]

Anjin, on 08 April 2020 - 03:59 PM, said:

So, update. I mailed support before I posted here, finally got this reply:

"The automated system only triggers on repeated disconnects/team damage during a short period of time.
However, it should not prevent you from rejoining a currently ongoing match, I will forward this issue to the dev team to investigate."

What dev team?

[Knight Captain Morgan]

I've seen too many assault mechs go AFK in the drop zone for the 1st 2 minutes of the match for it to be coincidental. More likely they are trying to let their team soften up the enemy so they can come in later for some easy kills. If anything, the penalty should be increased.

Also, AFK reports should not only be looked at at the time of the report, but they should go back and look for inactivity at the beginning of the match and treat such inaction as AFK. Unfortunately reports do nothing.

Edited by Knight Captain Morgan, 11 April 2020 - 08:09 AM.

[LordNothing]

set video mode to full window, full screen mode is crashy.

the rejoin timer could use a little bit more time on it. even with a high end machine with a good ssd it could take a couple minutes to reload the game, wait for it to load the news screen, then reload the map and rejoin the game. i mean the game should detect if you have an active match and then automatically re-load the game with out all the bs in the middle, and if it cant do that at least increase the timeout by another 30-60 seconds. people who quit because they dont like the map or game mode dont try to come back.

that said pgi will change nothing. end of life.

Edited by LordNothing, 14 April 2020 - 07:48 AM.