MummyPig, on 31 December 2020 - 03:11 PM, said:
You do understand that this had become a self fulfilling prophesy in that the strong group teams dominated FP/CQ and drove the solo/new players away; this led to a reduced queue and lack of FP drops because of the diminishing population. FP teams dropped into QP and lo and behold, the herding started again - but it was still the solo or new player's fault. There is common denominator here, just as OZHomerOZ pointed out.
The long matchmaking times in group play were a problem from the start, getting worse over the years.
The main problem with groups was the bad matchmaking.
Groups sized from 2-12 players (10 possible group sizes), with one unmatchable groups size (11 players) and 2 hard to match sizes (10 & 9).
That's lead to some "interesting" problems like impossible team building:
The matchmaker isn't able to start a match with 2x 9 and 2x 2 player teams and has to wait for at least 2 groups of 3 players. Same problem with 10 player groups and groups bigger than 2.
So there is no good reason to allow bigger groups than 8 in 12 vs 12.
The 10 possible groups sizes also created a balancing problem in Group Quickplay, as the "balance by tonnage" mechanic didn't worked, and a balancing by "Group Tier" isn't possible with them either.
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Although I hate the idea, bring back 8v8 but only for FP/CW until numbers hopefully grow again with the new input that should be driven from the change in ownership.
In 8 vs 8 the matchmaker has the same problem:
7 player group is unmatchable, 6 & 5 player groups are hard to match.
So groups bigger than 4 players aren't sensible for matchmaking in 8 vs 8.
And with 4 players per group as max it's also possible to build up 4 vs 4, 8 vs 8, 12 vs 12 matches...
IMHO PGI should try out something like a "Faction Quickplay" mode for groups & solos.
- Dropdecks for Faction Selection, less Mechs & tonnage than siege for shorter matches
- Max group size 4 players
- Min group size 1 player (Solos)
- 4 vs 4 / 8 vs 8 / 12 vs 12 depending on the aviable group numbers
- 4 vs 4: Scouting, Skirmish, Domination, Assault (1 base only)
- 8 vs 8: Skirmish, Domination, Assault (1 base only), Conquest
- 12 vs 12: Domination, Assault (1 base only), Conquest, Incursion
- Siege as 12 vs 12 mode after a "call to arms" during daily / weekly events?
Edited by Alreech, 01 January 2021 - 05:00 AM.