Swamp Monster, on 29 January 2021 - 06:49 AM, said:
I have noticed that Tier 1 matches do Nascar to an extreme extent.
While lower tier matches more often tend towards other playstiles.
My hypothesis is that nascar dictates the tier rating system.
Let's have a look at why Nascar is so prevalent in the game now.
Several factors contribute to this.
Firstly: It's easy.
It requires no deeper understanding of the game, or of the specific mech, or of the mech meta overall.
Secondly: It's powerful.
This is no new strategy, it was applied in the second world war and has been ever since.
When a defence is designed to handle assault from multiple avenues of attack.
Focus all power and one point, and that one point will crumple, instantly giving the aggressor a (amongst other things)numerical advantage, that will often carry them to victory.
Thirdly: It punishes non Nascarians.
When Nascar becomes the prevalent strategy, the players who do not participate, will be the ones at the back of the Nascar, and thus will be the ones overrun by it.
Fourthly: It punishes size.
The bigger mechs are the slower mechs. They will at some point be the ones at the back of the Nascar. And thus, overrun by it.
Fifthly: It destroys attempts to counter it.
Because Nascar is the prevalent go-to strategy. To counter it you need the entire team to participate, if you fall short of “the entire team”, the Nascar will usually win.
Sixthly: It can be played on any map.
There is no map in quickplay that can not be Nascared. Not a single map was designed to force players to think, not one.
OK, so because Nascar kills anyone who does not Nascar, and rewards everyone who does. Players who Nascar will be given a higher match rating. Thus landing them at a higher tier.
This speaks to what I have noticed in the game. Higher tier games have more and heavier Nascar than lower tier games.
Moreover, it is killing assault mechs. In higher tier matches ppl more rarely play the bigger slower mechs, of course because they are the ones that will be killed by the Nascar.
Is this what pgi wants?
As newer players tend towards bigger Mightier more awesome and amazing mechs, they will quickly experience numerous bad games because of the Nascar.
This drives a lot of newer players away and is in the long and short term detrimental to the game as a whole.
I am interested to hear your thoughts. 
1. Yeah, it's easy. Most ppl are followers and need a leader they can follow. As you said, that's easier. Certainly plays a role.
2. No, it isn't powerful. Its a predictable, regular push into the same areas and around the same areas. It only appears strong cause the other team is stretched more than their opponents, has more stragglers that fall behind or fail to see the deathball coming. Any organized team will give you a crude awakening. They will hit your 2 to 3 mechs advancing front by bitc* slapping them hard with a firing line when you just expected team reds nascar tail.
3. No, it doesn't punish those that dont nascar. It only appears to work well vs teams that are even less organized and that are stretched, without los cover, feeding into team reds death ball single file.
4. Bad slow heavy and assault pilots are actually one of the major contributors to the nascar style. One of the major reasons why many ppl simply rush to where they assume red's nascar end to be is that there is basically always slow heavies and assaults that join the match but then go afk for 20 to 30+ seconds. It is actually advantageous to run to where team reds nascar end will prolly be located at a given time in a match. Precisely because especially the slow mech pilots just fail to understand that it is suicide to be late in an assault. Or in a slow heavy. You can almost always farm those players. No matter the tier. Ergo, they themselves provide a considerable incentive for faster mechs to begin a wider or not so wide flank to that presumed nascar tail end. And sind 8 out of 10 players like to follow the mech they see in front of them (see Nr. 1) this alone will result in a number of mechs that arent really built for flanks to follow the flankers. And piffpaff, abrakadabra, you immediately see the beginning of a huge rotation.
5. Again, nascar only appears to be a solid strategy because that particular opposing team has a less tight death ball, is (even) more indecisive and fails to grasp certain aspects of the game. Take HPG or Mining for instance. Pug teams' probability to win e.g. HPG drops by 90 % if they fail to take the top center before team red does because (see all above mentioned points) now all they will do is rotate around the elevated center platform and team red can rain down brutal destruction on a stretched line of mechs that are running. Shooting them in the back. Picking them apart when they try to run up the ramps single file. Trying to take top when the entirety of team red is already there and basically has a major 360 firing line is one of the dumbest moves in the entire game. And yet pug teams try to do that (way too late) right now, in basically every pug heavy HPG map throughout all tiers of mwo. At the same time, most players will hesitate to take center when it matters most: right at the beginning and before team red does. What usually happens in the team that gets completly annihilated is that they run up close to one or two of the ramps....then they stop....they turn around, desperately looking for leader ship....and then they start rotating. Avoiding a direct confrontation. Doesnt really work to tell them to take center either. Sometimes it works, but if you type 'take center before they do' in 7 or 8 out of 10 matches the team doesnt really understand or react accordingly. I stopped saying it cause its wasted energy.
6. No. It can played against bad and inexperienced players because of all above mentioned points. It has nothing, absolutely nothing at all, to do with the maps. It is the natural consequenced of all the points mentioned above. As stated, bad assault players are one of the greatest contributors. Because they come late and dont understand that they sipmly cannot waste even one nano second or they will fall behind. And also because of the simple understanding that the best defense is a good offense. Allocating mutlple lights or heavies to chase away to locusts or jenners that harass 2 big fat assault mechs is the very worst and dumbest thing you can do. You will have allocated almost half your team and those two light mechs will be celebrated as genius war heros. As they should. They alone copmletly split your team. All the while, your main front gets copmletly destroyed as they simply do not have enough mechs to stand against the ten mechs team red will smash into you.
The only alternative is to actually launch an attack against team reds slow, split, and isolated mechs in the back. The ones that were afk and lag behind or the ones that poke with their assaults and are way too slow to ever catch up. It is much more effective to hunt them, than to try to cover your bad assault pilots. Thats how you lose.
The main points are that most ppl like to follow, they are shy to really communicate (just like in RL), they are a bit naive or not so bright and cannot understand concepts such as high ground (vs a rotating team on lower ground), and most ppl are rather scared. They will rather wait and give up a major initial advantage cause they fear for their virtual lives, and trade that fake feeling of security in that moment for a much, much greater chance to actually lose the game. That fear, even in a game, is the reason, while so many heavy and assault pilots do not like to take the center of hpg or mining for instace.
Its just fear and being insecure. But this has nothing to do with the maps or mechwarrior online in general. You would have the same dynamic, maybe slightly differently, in very differently designed maps. And you do have that nascar on basically all maps of mwo. Even those that do not really have a single center platform or formation. You see it almost every where. Because it has nothing to do with the maps.
Edited by LowSubmarino, 29 January 2021 - 04:03 PM.
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