80 replies to this topic

[Galahad2030]

At 114 loot bags at the moment.

[D V Devnull]

Hello, everyone... I'm looping multiple people in here with Quotes, in order to allow a reasonable chance to clarify on earlier thoughts... I'm even sure that some people will automatically notice & read just due to how large this post is... Please head down below to see my reply?

Matt Newman, on 20 October 2020 - 02:35 PM, said:

Fixed - Loop Baps
Fixed - UAV challenge Reward
I'll am willing to extend the event if folks are having a hard time hitting the goals.
I will do an MC Sale and Color sale soon. I will be posting the Annual Rewards program first (today or tomorrow)

Kodyn, on 20 October 2020 - 03:00 PM, said:

Personally I like the MS requirement staying where it's at. It's easy enough, yet will require the complete tater tots to at least try to do the things you should be doing anyway.

Lower it to 100 or something, as they've done in the past- most matches will devolve into people just trying to get in a bit of damage and then on to the next match- resulting in total **** gameplay. Making people actually have to try makes it at least slightly more likely that players will be trying for kills and assists and not just gaming the event.

Besides, let's be real, 150 MS is already pretty freakin' low, especially on an event of this length. No point in having these things if every time the community just begs Matt to lower requirements and basically hand out free stuff for zero effort. You should have to at least put in minimal effort, and 150 MS is on the low end of minimal effort for any given casual match.

FallGuy0815, on 20 October 2020 - 03:02 PM, said:

We know you have. Every. Single. Time.

There have been events (like the inital deal x damage with flamers) where the goal was indeed to steep and you noticed first, kudos for that. But _always_ crying wolf before the event even starts makes your voice less noticable when there really is a problem.

This time, i see none.

BTW @Matt: "Loop Bags" Roflmao

Worthog AC, on 20 October 2020 - 03:25 PM, said:

Thanks Matt and the PGI team, I always look forward to the loot bag event - it is a bit of a hard slog to get the time to play enough matches but I do agree that it is enjoyable - even if I do need a few days off the game to recharge.

Galahad2030, on 20 October 2020 - 06:00 PM, said:

So the math works out like this if I calculated correctly:

22500 match score = 1608 match score per day (14 days).
15000 damage = 2143 damage per day (5-15 matches a day) for most players (7 days).

Lockheed_, on 20 October 2020 - 06:29 PM, said:

for match score that's about 5 average matches per day for 14 days straight. That looks a bit steep, same with the dmg.

Matt Newman, on 21 October 2020 - 09:59 AM, said:

Sales are coming. Just waiting to launch the Annual Rewards Program (should be today)
then the sales will start happening. It will have a separate News post for the sales ETC. I will take requests on C-Bill mechs to put on sale ETC. Again this will be in another thread starting tomorrow.

I will be keeping an eye on this thread and am already considering extending the event for those that have limited time.

chevy42083, on 22 October 2020 - 11:44 AM, said:

Thanks for the event!
Its hard to set event goals when players have such WIDE damage, match score, etc per match. As well as play anywhere from 1 to 8 hours per day.

As an average T3 player....
I played for less than 2 hours and am at 10 loop bags (1644 match score), so ~7%. Right on track if I played this much EVERY day. I probably won't. But hopefully I'll have days that I can play 2 or 3x as much.
Also, I'm ~50% or higher on the other objectives.

The challenges are much easier to accomplish than the sheer volume of loop bags.
The loop bags are the gift that keeps giving.
The mech is a reward.... not a participation trophy.

First off, to our friendly Matt Newman, I'm giving a big Thank You for the fix-up on the UAV-related Challenge because that will properly reimburse many players for the frustrating cost of spending a lot of UAVs when people will be out to rabidly shoot them down quickly.

Also, an extra Thank You for remaining ever-friendly and keeping the communication channels with the Community in a wide-open state. It will ALWAYS be extremely appreciated. Keep it up, and stay awesome!

However, I did discover by a grave accident (e.g.: tripping over it the hard way ... and pun not exactly intended here...) that the Tournament Page Links worded as "Phase 1" and "Phase 2" are still pointing to Last Year's 2019 ToT5 Event at this time. I'm guessing that was due to a copy-pasta that didn't get a full update to the current year's stuff?



@ Everyone, now I get down to the mess with Match Score... I'm going to make this very clean and clear, and leave zero room for misinterpretation. In my earlier posting, I was explicitly NOT speaking about any reductions to the Match Score needed per single Loot Bag being acquired in any way/shape/form of the thought. I actually think 150 MS is fine and will get people to participate properly. I also think that 14 Days for 'Phase 1' of things is also fine, specifically because both weekends are allowed here and therefore would give some the extra time which they need, even with an average of about 1610 Match Score Per Day being requested, and likely should not actually need to be altered.

Some would then go further ask me what I think about Damage and how it factors... I don't think we need to change how much is needed per Loot Bag either. But that said, I DO think that the Damage (and therefore the Loot Bag earning) for 'Phase 2' needs to be allowed to start 3 Full Days earlier, particularly because of how wildly that people can end up with their Damage amounts swinging. Asking for around the vicinity of 2150 Damage Per Day over a mere 7 Days is rather on the steep side, but I think we can avoid reducing how easy that it is to get a single particular Loot Bag from that set. Giving a total of 10 Days for 'Phase 2' would create a more reasonable average of 1500 Damage Per Day being requested, and an average of 10 Loot Bags Per Day earned, which is more within human limits for many within the Player Base which we have at this time. Therefore the best approach here is to boost the allowed time to complete 'Phase 2' within, and would be my suggestion/request/recommendation for improving this.

Well, Everyone, this then brings me to the Grand Prize Pick-A-Mech part... As you can see above, I DO think it should be a Challenge to earn this Heavy-Class Mech for everyone. Where my thoughts differ is that requiring ALL 250 Loot Bags is a tad steep for completing and earning this Reward Item at the end, and may cause some unnecessary Completionist Syndrome that simply should not happen here and/or unnecessarily frustrated Lower Tier Players who might give up too easily before they really try to succeed. Therefore, to avoid causing unnecessary Completionist lunacy and/or unnecessary frustrations in the Lower Tiers of the Player Base we have, there really should be an overhead beyond the point at which this item is earned. Here, I only suggest/request/recommend a maximum reduction of 10 to 25 Loot Bags being required, resulting in a Loot Bag Total of only 240 to 225 being needed for unlocking the Grand Prize Pick-A-Mech options for redeeming. It really can not be too much to ask to be mentally reasonable about this, but avoid making it either too tough (or belittle it like a participation trophy) in the final result, and result in an improved overall fun factor, right?

@ Matt Newman -- Fast summary so you won't have to spend too much time referencing the above three paragraphs in detail, as I'm trying to make it easy to shift the Event into a state of being totally awesome...

• MS Requirements are fine... Same as some others, I don't happen to see any issues here either.
  
• Damage Requirements seem steep due to natural wild swings in player capability... Suggest starting 'Phase 2' of the Event at least 3 Days Earlier than currently set up, so that the Requirement for earning each Loot Bag should not have to change.
  
• Grand Prize Pick-A-Mech Requirement of ALL 250 Loot Bags also seems steep... Suggest changing this Requirement to only a maximum of 240 to 225 Loot Bags to unlock this final item, as to prevent unnecessary Lower Tier Player frustrations, and stop Completionist Syndrome from others.

...and I'll wish you a fine time relaxing with whatever drink you consider your favorite!



As an extra thought to have conversation over for those who really have to be hardcore about it (and given something I saw in reading prior to typing this post), what does everyone think after those adjustments to the Event of perhaps asking Matt Newman to add a Second Pick-A-Prize of a Camo like...

• Tiger
  
• Woodland
  
• Digital
  
• Fractal
  
• Buccaneer
  
• AppleJack
  
• Dazzle
  
• Cobra

...or something for getting ALL 250 Loot Bags earned? Maybe on this one you could say I'm totally crazy, and it's explicitly NOT necessary to have this too, but I thought it would make an interesting final touch.


I'll see you all out on the battlefields, everyone.

~Mr. D. V. "currently trying to help the 2020 ToT6 Event to reach complete awesomeness" Devnull





(p.s.: In case anyone's curious, I do hope you find the read of my post to be enlightening. I was running on a serious case of insomnia, and it took me over 2 Hours to type this out and put it up.)

[Kalimaster]

Been looking forward to this, time to "ghost" a few guys as Riddick would say.

[D V Devnull]

Kalimaster, on 23 October 2020 - 07:35 AM, said:

Been looking forward to this, time to "ghost" a few guys as Riddick would say.

I would not be at all surprised if Pac-Man said that too. Look what he does to his opponents every time he collects a Power Pill while running about. Nothing but those Ghost Eyes left.

Anyway, see you out on the MWO battlezones. Hopefully we will land up on the same side, instead of opposite each other.

~D. V. "you had to figure that I look forward to good puns, particularly during 2020's ToT6 Event happening" Devnull

[Lith Dael]

Hey, do any of you guys get connection issues RN?

[D V Devnull]

Lith Dael, on 23 October 2020 - 02:39 PM, said:

Hey, do any of you guys get connection issues RN?

Yeah, I've been having connection issues too in the last while. I don't know who's attacking PGI's Servers, but they managed to cause one of my rounds to go without having VoIP available, and another one made me have to re-attempt the connection for playing. I am extremely angry right now because of that, as it means that someone is having some success at their hack attempts, and it's having a detrimental effect on overall gameplay at this time. Hacker attacks are seriously NEVER a way for someone to respond when they're displeased about something, and it makes me wish that we could throw that person and/or group in jail for what they're doing. I make it a point to always play fair, and it really gets me torqued when outside hacking causes unnecessary punishments that should not have happened. Heck, it even means that PGI has some security work to do, just to protect things from having issues again.

At this rate, our friendly Matt Newman will definitely have to implement both of my earlier requests/suggestions/recommendations (whatever you want to call them) in order to prevent the 2020 ToT6 Event from being horribly destabilized by these unwanted outside actors. I suppose it would provide some help to people whose PSR is currently below the 2500 Point Line at this time, as in Lower Half of 'Tier 3' or further below, but I didn't expect a need from having the situation forced by hacker attacks.

~Mr. D. V. "a tad worried that somebody being a jerk will now ruin the 2020 ToT6 Event for everyone" Devnull

[Lith Dael]

D V Devnull, on 23 October 2020 - 03:32 PM, said:

Yeah, I've been having connection issues too in the last while.

It's been wonky for me all day today. It never happened this way before - I can enter a match, then get kicked out back into the mechlab, and any attempt to rejoin the match results in more of the same. I even went as far as restarting Steam, then the MWO Client would not let me log in (!) stating issues with MY network connection (everything else was working fine, including this page).

Happened three times already in the last couple of hours, always the same scenario.
The first two times the game let me log in after a while and I could play a single match (greeted by the penalty timeout, OF COURSE), then it went to hell again.

Good thing I don't care about my ELO rating...

[Kodyn]

Um...no connection issues here. Guess that must mean it's not a problem, if it's not happening to me, right? Because if it's happening to you, it must be happening to everyone seems to be the logic here...

I highly doubt PGI is being hacked. It's most likely packet loss or other issues on your end, or between you and the servers. Tons of people have had connection issues with MWO for years, and I've never been one of them, nor anyone I know- so this isn't some universal thing. Different people are in different locations, have different ISPs, could be being throttled, etc.

During a DDOS or similar attack, first of all the company will usually announce such a thing- to avoid their servers taking the blame- secondly there would be much more widespread issues. In this case I don't think the sky is actually falling, little chicken.

I do wish if they made any changes it would be to add to the event or increase the challenge however. I've been having utterly horrible matches, and am still way ahead of schedule to finish this before it's done. Not very rewarding when you're pretty much done with the event aside from loot bags after the first day or two and forget it's even going on.

[D V Devnull]

Anyone else unable to ping the Oceanic Servers? Been happening to me for at least five days now. I have literally no idea why I am left unable to connect during this 2020 ToT6 Event to the Oceanic Servers area.

EDIT :: For reference, I can still connect to North American & European Servers still, so at least I'm not totally blocked out. However, I would still really like to know what would knock out a third of PGI's MWO Game Server connections for me when I do not make changes my stuff.

~D. V. "not seeing the usual Oceanic ping meter, and getting no Match there during 2020 ToT6 going on" Devnull

Edited by D V Devnull, 26 October 2020 - 09:48 AM.

[Lithology]

I have enjoyed these events in the past (as well as in the present) because if you don't have time to finish 250 bags and pick up the 'grand prize', you still get to pick up as much free stuff as you have time to do. Tracking loot bags up until now... presently at 110 bags of 250 possible; here is what I have received:

825 MC
8 GSP
2,800 GXP
4 days of Premium Time
4,087,500 C-Bills
20 assorted C-Bill consumables (interestingly, only 2 of those are UAVs)

All I can say is thank you Matt Newman, and thanks PGI!

<edit> it sure gets a bit easier when both events are running concurrently... although now, LRMS are everywhere, because folks are damage farming...

Finally, 250 out of 250 bags in hand, and a shiny new Nova Cat in my dropship:

1,405 MC
45 GSP
10,900 GXP
10 days of Premium Time
8,175,000 C-Bills
36 assorted C-Bill consumables (only six were UAVs)

Thanks again for the Event!

Edited by Lithology, 29 October 2020 - 08:44 PM.

[Lithology]

D V Devnull, on 26 October 2020 - 09:36 AM, said:

Anyone else unable to ping the Oceanic Servers? Been happening to me for at least five days now. I have literally no idea why I am left unable to connect during this 2020 ToT6 Event to the Oceanic Servers area.

I have always had to keep the Oceanic Servers out of the loop because of the abysmal ping rates (for me, always in the 350-550 range, so barely playable). When I first started playing, I would have thought that people living in Alaska might have a better ping for Oceania than the rest of the United States, but that's where I was wrong. Isn't there a pinned Oceanic Server thread?

<edit> yep... found it. But it hasn't had a comment since June 2020, so I don't know what is up.

https://mwomercs.com...-perth-edition/

Edited by Lithology, 26 October 2020 - 09:52 AM.

[D V Devnull]

Lithology, on 26 October 2020 - 09:50 AM, said:

I have always had to keep the Oceanic Servers out of the loop because of the abysmal ping rates (for me, always in the 350-550 range, so barely playable). When I first started playing, I would have thought that people living in Alaska might have a better ping for Oceania than the rest of the United States, but that's where I was wrong. Isn't there a pinned Oceanic Server thread?

<edit> yep... found it. But it hasn't had a comment since June 2020, so I don't know what is up.

https://mwomercs.com...-perth-edition/

In my case, I've always had to deal with a ping between 200 & 300 when connecting there, but I found that to be reasonably tolerable to at least be able to play with the widest range of players. What upsets me is that as of only a few days ago, I now flatly find the Game Client can not ping or connect to Oceanic at all, and that should not ever be happening. This means either...

• the Internet is having a major problem that is cutting off paths to the Oceanic Game Server location
  
• there are bad actors giving PGI trouble with making their MWO Game Servers available to play on, such as of a DDoS Attack
  
• people are now experiencing problems from their ISP (possibly one or more) being stupid and filtering traffic in such a manner that perfectly valid destinations are being wrongfully cut off
  
• there is a problem with PGI's MWO Oceanic Server itself, putting it in need of some form of maintenance because it may have gone down

...and any which way, it's unfair, but I've no idea whether PGI has an idea of what's going on and/or whether they can even do anything about it. They don't seem to keep their Server Status Details Page in an up-to-date state for reference, and it doesn't seem to be auto-update enabled for quickly telling anyone if a Game Server has gone down. Heck, all I can do in the meantime during this 2020 October ToT6 Event is to try and raise the alarm while I pop out to the battlezones on the other two Game Servers which remain.


In fact, I'm left to ask... Does anyone know the URLs of the MWO Game Servers so that I can run TraceRoute to see who is messing up the connection? At least then I could put forward some diagnostic work at my own end to try and help with forcing things to work again, instead of being stuck sitting idle & confused!

~Mr. D. V. "itching for an opportunity during this ToT6 Event to help immediately repair what went wrong" Devnull




[Edit by the Post Author for some unclear wording...]

Edited by D V Devnull, 27 October 2020 - 08:57 AM.

[BahBahFeet]

So what Heavy Standard Mechs are worth getting?

I've been meaning to try a linebacker.

[martian]

Thanks for the event.

Edited by martian, 27 October 2020 - 09:34 PM.

[Aidan Crenshaw]

BahBahFeet, on 27 October 2020 - 07:09 PM, said:

So what Heavy Standard Mechs are worth getting?

I've been meaning to try a linebacker.

Solid choice, if you like mobile combat. Other than that, Marauder 3R, Warhammer 6R, Grasshopper 5H, Hellbringer, Ebon Jaguar, Orion IIC-A, are all solid choices (from the top of my head).

[Lithology]

BahBahFeet, on 27 October 2020 - 07:09 PM, said:

So what Heavy Standard Mechs are worth getting?

I've been meaning to try a linebacker.

I only have the loyalty LBK-H(L) and the LBK-RL Hero. Having said that, I guess I just don't understand them that well. They are quick and nimble, but feel hardpoint/damage starved to me. If I were to rate them, I would say 'average' to 'meh'. But, I don't know your playstyle... I am just a casual who happened upon the game a few years back.

Personally, I think I am going with a Nova Cat... probably the -B variant. The only two Clan Heavies I don't have at least one variant of are the Nova Cat and the Hellfire. And from what I have seen of the Hellfire during game play... hard pass.

[D V Devnull]

Lithology, on 26 October 2020 - 09:50 AM, said:

I have always had to keep the Oceanic Servers out of the loop because of the abysmal ping rates (for me, always in the 350-550 range, so barely playable). When I first started playing, I would have thought that people living in Alaska might have a better ping for Oceania than the rest of the United States, but that's where I was wrong. Isn't there a pinned Oceanic Server thread?

<edit> yep... found it. But it hasn't had a comment since June 2020, so I don't know what is up.

https://mwomercs.com...-perth-edition/

Hi again... Since my last post to you, I went searching (more like bumbling... at least that's how I see it in retrospect... I should have just gone right to what you linked to the first time) across the web, and tripped back across the thread which you linked to. I then copied the IP Address to clipboard which is displayed there, ran a Ping & TraceRoute against it, and now MWO's Game Client is finally able to ping the Oceanic Servers once again. However, it's still puzzling that this problem ever cropped up in the first place, just on the basis of how it beginning to work again simply doesn't make sense.

~D. V. "looking forward to more fun on the Oceanic Server's battlefields" Devnull

[w0qj]

Is this a typing mistake?
Treat or Treat 6 Phase 2 only lasts seven (7) days?
ie: Ends on Nov 3rd, 2020?

==> It should last 2 weeks, not 1 week as it is currently.

MWO expect you to play average 100 games over 7 days!
(15,000 damage = 150 dmg X 100 games).

May we feedback that this requirement is much too high for newer players (unskilled mechs, new to game, non-optimal mech weapons layout, etc.).
And I've seen a number of newer players in-game.

==> "Treat or Treat 6 Phase 2" should last 2 weeks, not 1 week as it is currently.

[Krovakon]

w0qj, on 30 October 2020 - 01:23 AM, said:

Is this a typing mistake?
Treat or Treat 6 Phase 2 only lasts seven (7) days?
ie: Ends on Nov 3rd, 2020?

==> It should last 2 weeks, not 1 week as it is currently.

MWO expect you to play average 100 games over 7 days!
(15,000 damage = 150 dmg X 100 games).

May we feedback that this requirement is much too high for newer players (unskilled mechs, new to game, non-optimal mech weapons layout, etc.).
And I've seen a number of newer players in-game.

==> "Treat or Treat 6 Phase 2" should last 2 weeks, not 1 week as it is currently.

I did it in about 8 hours of play, though I did pick chassis focused around dealing damage. I'm a Tier 2/3 player. I'm actually bummed that it's only 15k damage (100 bags) and not 22.5k damage (150 bags) because I've wrapped up the entire event and bought everything I wanted. Now I need to wait for an Engine sale so that I can begin retrofitting all the mechs I purchased since the price of engines is usually more than the mechs themselves and will run me something like 40,000,000 C-BILLS without a sale. Plus another ~25,000,000 C-BILLS in order to DHS and Endo-steel everything. I then need another ~80,000,000 cbills so that I can afford to skill the mechs. Honestly the worst part about buying new mechs isn't the retro-fitting nor the engines, it's the skill points because it's a flat.. 4,100,000? C-BILLS each mech and there's no discount for it. That 610,000 C-BILL locust costs 5m for the engine + DHS+Ferro, and then another 4.1m for the skills, bringing it up to almost 10m C-BILLS and you can't reuse the skill-points for another variant or mech like you can with the engine.

[chevy42083]

w0qj, on 30 October 2020 - 01:23 AM, said:

Is this a typing mistake?
Treat or Treat 6 Phase 2 only lasts seven (7) days?
ie: Ends on Nov 3rd, 2020?

==> It should last 2 weeks, not 1 week as it is currently.

MWO expect you to play average 100 games over 7 days!
(15,000 damage = 150 dmg X 100 games).

May we feedback that this requirement is much too high for newer players (unskilled mechs, new to game, non-optimal mech weapons layout, etc.).
And I've seen a number of newer players in-game.

==> "Treat or Treat 6 Phase 2" should last 2 weeks, not 1 week as it is currently.

They are trying to find a happy medium for everyone. Some people do 1,000 dmg.
Hopefully, you can get more than 150 dmg. Personally (as an avg T3 player), I have some matches that are 150, some that are 600-700. Above that is freak coincidence and excellent timing.
Play your best mechs... your damage dealers.

Ironically, I quit playing during phase 1 thinking I'd finish it up in phase 2 double dipping. Now, phase 2 is flying by and I'm gonna have to push to finish phase 1.

I ALWAYS watch a game finish if/when I die. You can learn a LOT that way. And Its nice to see the conclusion. I WANT to see the outcome of my efforts. As I'm cramming in more games now... I'm giving it my best shot, but if I die... I'm exiting and hopping into another match.

Edited by chevy42083, 30 October 2020 - 09:56 AM.