484 replies to this topic

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Alreech, on 01 January 2021 - 03:38 AM, said:

I have realistic expecations and expierience with teams of strangers.

It works with big teams and plenty respawns in games like Battlefield because the teams are not dissolved after each match, and a team building process over multiple matches improves coordination & teamwork on squad level.

Yeah I still think you are overestimating how much that feature actually ends up being used but like I said, I'm not necessarily against it those features just like I'm not against a better LFG system, I just don't think the are a top priority.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 01 January 2021 - 03:59 PM.

[DAEDALOS513]

Tongo Rad, on 31 December 2020 - 07:25 PM, said:

Workable flamers would be a good addition. Flamers should not shut down the attacking mech before the enemy's. Also, some type of points should be added for flamer use, since they don't do damage. For example, extra points for causing an enemy to shut down. Or if you cause an enemy mech to shut down, you should get a share of the damage that results while the enemy is shut down. These changes would lead to more use of this weapon and new strategies.

Brilliant.

[Necromantion]

Im not sure what this would fall under but optimization of the client load times - idk if its because i have almost 170 mechs but loading into the game/out of matches is so slow.

[SlightlyNoobish]

Just came back to the game after a very long break. Was one of the original founding competitive scene players winning the first RHOD tournament during founder days. Formerly known as KaoS Hugster.

At first glance seems the META game has come back full circle. The game is really fun.
1) SRM Brawling is back
2) Long range is pretty dead in Quickplay, so it's actually fun to play
3) Poptarting is minimal
4) LRMs are minimal

One negative thing that remains, and I understand this more now as I see how statistics have been implemented in other games; is terrible player stat management.

Stats have become a critical part of the game and they drive very poor behaviour.

Being a DevOps exec, this is something that is critical for the Product team to foster. At least that's the coaching I give to my team.

There has been a larger shift to open, accessible statistics to players in all games but the way they are calculated in MWO still bewilders me. Time and time again you see posts on the forums and discussions on VOIP during matches about Stats and mental health. Yes your current stats model is negatively impacting mental health of players in the game to the detriment of your player base and thus your income. Let me explain why.

========================================================
Observation:
========================================================
KDR Calculation
---- Kill scraping is anti-competitive, and punishes performers because it effects their morale
---- Kill scraping works to the detriment of the player actually trying to progress due to multiple mechs crowding the kill
---- This causes heavy friendly damage, and causes players to focus heavily damaged targets even though they may be useless and other targets of much more valuable to the overall win scenario
---- Instead you see Kill diving, people running in, just to get the Killing Blow and then subsequently die themselves to maintain a positive KDR.

Assists
---- Why is this not displayed on Stats page?
---- You are recording this statistic and can easily pass through to Website and record in a db

Damage Done Per Match

---- Why is this not displayed on Stats page?
---- You are recording this statistic and can easily pass through to Website and record in a db
Support Mech Bonus "aka Healer Recognition"
---- Why are the "Healers" not rewarded with visible stats?
---- There is no metric to show that you are great at Scouting/AMSing/Base captures/Arti Strikes etc
---- You have these stats, average them and display them. Teamplay should be fostered. Right now those players look like they have terrible scores and bad KDR.


========================================================
Recommendation:
========================================================
KDR Calculation
---- A kill should either a) be recorded based on highest damage landed or Posted Image split from a Killing Blow into a separate visible statistic. You are already recording these under Most Damage Dealt

Assists
---- Should be recorded, on a per match average and total

Damage Done Per Match
---- Should be recorded, on a per match average and total

Alternatively open up the API attributes for 3rd party guys to look at it and compile in a 3rd party tool

========================================================
Conclusion:
========================================================
---- Foster team play behaviour through these stat changes
---- This is a quick and easy patch, should take no more than 1 iteration to build with 1 developer for UX and 1 developer for back end API
---- Announce and implement within 1 month and see how this positively impacts Morale across the game
---- You should also advertise these global changes to players via email, to capture old player base
---- For example the positive match maker changes were not advertised and as I read more about them, they actually are really good. That should have been an email to all old players. I would have checked the game out then too.

Edited by SlightlyNoobish, 04 January 2021 - 10:39 AM.

[DAEDALOS513]

A running tally of damage inflicted displayed on one of the cockpit monitors.

Edited by DAEDALOS513, 04 January 2021 - 12:40 PM.

[Vlad Ward]

New Feature: UI Scaling outside of matches. Without the ability to upscale text and the UI, the lobby and Mechlab become unusable at 4k and similar high resolutions.

[Bistrorider]

Some constant progress bar (not reseted every season) in Solaris would be nice. Something like in Faction, also with prizes. But even longer bar with more than 10-20 levels.

[Katrina Steiner]

I'm sure its been stated already but no matter which side I am, IS or Clan at least let me be able to setup both sides drop decks. If I am IS I cant see Clan mechs and vice versa.

[Lims Cragma]

Daeron, we, the few remaining loyalist players, are in dire need of a FW conflict schedule to know when our clan/house fights ahead of time (preferably a week in advance)!

[DAEDALOS513]

Give players more reason to be in a unit.. please implement unit based achievements.. for example:

As a unit achieve:
-1000 QP matches in a week for 25mc
-1000 kills in a week for 25mc
-2000 kill assists in a week for 25mc
-play 50 faction warfare matches for 25mc

Make the mc reward small so that you can have a myriad of achievements.. GIVE US AN ONGOING REASON TO PLAY YOUR GAME. MAKE US FEEL LIKE WE'RE PROGRESSING.. it's so simple..

Edited by DAEDALOS513, 05 January 2021 - 12:07 PM.

[50 50]

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 12:54 PM, said:

In this thread, lets discuss ideas for adding new features to MechWarrior Online, such as:

• Special Event Queue (Possible Faction Play/Solaris and 8v8/12v12 Solution)
  
• Advance the Timeline

Have to say I'm completely against the idea of a 'special event queue'.
Might have been something that could have been tried a a few years back, but definitely not now.
I can only see this as giving minimal results for probably a lot more effort than it's ever going to be worth.
If the objective is to get more people to participate in Solaris and Faction Play we would be better off looking at addressing other points rather than having some one off events that need to be organised manually.

Advancing the timeline.
I see this as being a better use of time spent.
If the whole timeline was shifted forward to something like the Dark Age period around 3139 at the end of the timeline.
It allows the introduction of pretty much any mech, a bunch of new tech to play around with, additional faction options and might generally be a bit of a boost for the game and interest in 'new stuff'... a bit of breath of fresh air.
Bound to be a heap of balance things to go through, but, that's fine.

[Sare204]

Solaris: Simplify Solaris to ease new players trying out the mode, as it sits right now its a little daunting for new players and experienced players to drop in without doing research online to understand how to get into a match.
Add 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 12 Player Free for all. All as their own Queue. release all as a test and check player usage. remove less populated Queues if they are consistently less populated after lets say 6 months

Timeline advancement: Only after ensuring existing Mechs are Tuned for Fun/ Role.
There should be no reason certain mechs are never used or are outclassed by other mechs (I see this as wasted art assets and development time)

Edited by Sare204, 06 January 2021 - 10:12 AM.

[Vercors]

Add news shortcuts to modify brightness and gamma in game (and no more have to go in setting).

Edited by Vercors, 08 January 2021 - 01:54 AM.

[Magic Pain Glove]

pbiggz, on 26 December 2020 - 02:28 PM, said:

Just poking my head in to remind everyone that punishing people for wanting to play with their friends is extremely stupid, and "causing lots of other problems to come up" is not a valid or helpful excuse for entirely banishing groups from the already fairly low population queue.

Just saw you mentioning me now. I did list all the things that got broken , straight up broken with the addition of the soup queue . For example spawn points on maps now need to be redesigned , because with the addition of soup especially when it comes to small maps you just screwed over every slow assault , because ( + tonnage imbalances that didnt use to be a thing before) now someone is always gonna be put in a place that's not suited for his class . But for people like you not even PGI's own statistic ( stomp increase ) and indirect admission that the new PSR was implemented to COMPENSATE for the degraded match quality is enough.

Even Russ in the latest townhall mentioned that they will consider going back to separate queues. You had streamers , when the queue launched and post launch go on crazy Win Loss streaks just because the influence a 4 man has on the queue is more than people give it credit for. A good 4 man can influence a match as much as a bad 4 man group .And due to lack of population even if the matchmaker had the ability it would still be harder to balance groups vs groups as opposed to solos vs solos .

But I absolutely love the fact that you focused on my line "causing a lot of other problems to come up" while I explicitly listed some of problems above it .How funny you didn't bother to address any of them , or even disclose if you participated in the 8v8 test queue. "You are not being specific enough man" ... I guess .

The only argument You, Deadlos , Larsh and others who were adamantly pushing for this have ( including the ones who relentlessly spammed Russ over this on twitter have ) is that shortening the group wait times at the cost of degrading the solo queue is a better choice in terms of player retention . Because in your mind most of the people playing this game are playing with a group (which is a myth) .

And whats even worse is that I am getting these comments from people who didnt even participate in the 8v8 test. That didnt need to sacrafice or bring any of the problems the solo queue has now because of the way it was implemented. I will give you a a list of all the things that got worse with the soup if you try to dissect my post once again . And then you can address each and every one of them.

[DAEDALOS513]

Magic Pain Glove, on 10 January 2021 - 05:40 PM, said:

Just saw you mentioning me now. I did list all the things that got broken , straight up broken with the addition of the soup queue . For example spawn points on maps now need to be redesigned , because with the addition of soup especially when it comes to small maps you just screwed over every slow assault , because ( + tonnage imbalances that didnt use to be a thing before) now someone is always gonna be put in a place that's not suited for his class . But for people like you not even PGI's own statistic ( stomp increase ) and indirect admission that the new PSR was implemented to COMPENSATE for the degraded match quality is enough.

Even Russ in the latest townhall mentioned that they will consider going back to separate queues. You had streamers , when the queue launched and post launch go on crazy Win Loss streaks just because the influence a 4 man has on the queue is more than people give it credit for. A good 4 man can influence a match as much as a bad 4 man group .And due to lack of population even if the matchmaker had the ability it would still be harder to balance groups vs groups as opposed to solos vs solos .

But I absolutely love the fact that you focused on my line "causing a lot of other problems to come up" while I explicitly listed some of problems above it .How funny you didn't bother to address any of them , or even disclose if you participated in the 8v8 test queue. "You are not being specific enough man" ... I guess .

The only argument You, Deadlos , Larsh and others who were adamantly pushing for this have ( including the ones who relentlessly spammed Russ over this on twitter have ) is that shortening the group wait times at the cost of degrading the solo queue is a better choice in terms of player retention . Because in your mind most of the people playing this game are playing with a group (which is a myth) .

And whats even worse is that I am getting these comments from people who didnt even participate in the 8v8 test. That didnt need to sacrafice or bring any of the problems the solo queue has now because of the way it was implemented. I will give you a a list of all the things that got worse with the soup if you try to dissect my post once again . And then you can address each and every one of them.

Just like you I already listed all the pro's and the reason why soup queue was a no-brainer for the time being.. don't feel like rehashing..but I do want to point out that there is no need to separate the queues.. matchmaker just has to make sure that if there is a 4-man or 3-man on one side there should be a 4-man or 3-man on the other.. and if mm can't find two 4 or 3-man groups to put on each side (due to low pop'n or what have you).. then what makes you think there is enough pop'n to viably separate the queues in the first place?

Stomps are being blamed on soup queue.. before soup it was mm's fault.. even with perfect mm, separate queues and lotsa population.. you can minimize stomps buts they will always exist due to the myriad of variables that go into each match and you can't control that..

Edited by DAEDALOS513, 11 January 2021 - 08:21 AM.

[Vlad Ward]

DAEDALOS513, on 10 January 2021 - 06:01 PM, said:

matchmaker just has to make sure that if there is a 4-man or 3-man on one side there should be a 4-man or 3-man on the other..

Why tho? Being in a group is not as OP as people make it out to be. PSR matching and, to a lesser extent, weight matching are far more important to match quality than group matching.

DAEDALOS513, on 10 January 2021 - 06:01 PM, said:

Stomps are being blamed on soup queue.. before soup it was mm's fault.. even with perfect mm, separate queues and lotsa pop’s.. you can minimize stomps buts they will always exist due to the myriad of variables that go into each match and you can't control that..

Before group drops were allowed, people just blamed "sync droppers". It's all just a runaway blame game. Anything to avoid admitting that red team played better.

Groups had very real advantages in the early, early days of CB/OB when MWO had no integrated voice chat and deathballs were king. Teamspeak integration, proper hit registration, arty/air strikes, and better maps have largely mitigated these issues.

Auto-grouping teams after a match barring an opt-out (a la Overwatch) would help blur the lines even more. This won't appeal to the current fanbase very much, but it's a shocking omission for gamers under 35.

[DAEDALOS513]

Vlad Ward, on 11 January 2021 - 08:01 AM, said:

Why tho? Being in a group is not as OP as people make it out to be. PSR matching and, to a lesser extent, weight matching are far more important to match quality than group matching.

Before group drops were allowed, people just blamed "sync droppers". It's all just a runaway blame game. Anything to avoid admitting that red team played better.

Groups had very real advantages in the early, early days of CB/OB when MWO had no integrated voice chat and deathballs were king. Teamspeak integration, proper hit registration, arty/air strikes, and better maps have largely mitigated these issues.

Auto-grouping teams after a match barring an opt-out (a la Overwatch) would help blur the lines even more. This won't appeal to the current fanbase very much, but it's a shocking omission for gamers under 35.

Agreed.. the losing side will rarely admit that the other side outplayed them due to skill and teamwork.. they'll say the weight imbalance was at fault (even tho i've been on both sides plenty of times where a light team outplayed a far heavier one, and vice versa); or they'll blame the map not working with their weapon loadout; they'll blame their team (but not them-self mind you) for poor play or not coordinating; then you have random disco's.. and on and on.. bottom line, there are toooo many variables to end stomps.

Anyway, you must agree that it's always good to try and meet in the middle of two sides of an argument whenever possible.. that's why I posted what I did.

Edited by DAEDALOS513, 11 January 2021 - 04:23 PM.

[Free Rasalhague]

Special Events: Grunt birthday party MWO edition(?), Flip weapons and speed(?) (IE, King Crab going 140 KPH and AC/20s doing AC/2 damage. Just something stupid and funny to me), Janky Physics(?) (During a game, gravity may turn off randomly for about 3 to 5 seconds), Laser Whips(?) (Lasers are not solid beams, but bend around and do wierd things). Lances VS Stars! (Clan mechs only VS IS Mechs only) 12 IS mechs VS 10 Clan mechs. Clan mechs need some adjustments for this event since they are not very strong anymore. Lance Vs Lance(?) saw an idea above this post. 4v4 (IS) or 5v5 (Clan)

Timeline: Eh, Would like it to impact the game play. This can range from mechs available due to build time, and weapons. Otherwise it really does not mean anything.

Edited by Free Rasalhague, 12 January 2021 - 10:15 AM.

[Semyaza]

eddieb, on 16 November 2020 - 05:16 PM, said:

So even without advancing the timeline, from what I'd suggest and others have requested, it's more about introducing new weapons systems, armor types and equipment. Seems like this could be accommodated even within the existing timeline.

For new weapons, to save effort, it's more important to have bullets/beams/etc look different and have unique sounds. But less important to have the mech's mounted weapons appear visually different, as we know that would be much more expensive and time consuming to implement.

Could add to all the above you said. another easy way to make the game more interesting would be to have more than two teams fighting each other. 3 different groups trying to take over same area or bigger areas or multi level areas like a under ground mine.

[Captain Vine]

Make the mechs in the store sortable. I'm not a new player but my friends that are find the way they are presented overwhelming. You can't sort by equipment, IS vs Clan, etc. The Mech DB page is often kept open in a separate window.