31 replies to this topic

[Namouche]

Quickplay is fun, but pointless. Faction play has an objective, but it is underpopulated.
The proposal is:
a) to forget faction play
to keep faction's play allure (the aim and the benefits in credits)
c) to make quickplay the new faction play

Faction play is something that has always divided the population. If it is populated, then there are fewer players in the QuickPlay. And vice-versa. The thing is that Quickplay is the first welcome gate to this game (new players are needed) but offers no psychological rewards (other than the tier, it is pointless, and being so drives away the new+old players).

This proposal needs the following steps:
- all maps become available in Quickplay (a mystery why not already)
- the entire area of the map becomes available (the entire square)
- there are objectives to attack or to defend, scattered around the map or in either side of the map

How does it work:
- you chose the planet where the action is taking place (different planets = different benefits you want to fight for)
- instead of ready button (a useless implementation), you choose a side (p.e. Nova vs Davion, all mechs accepted)
- instead of battle mode, you choose attack or defend
- the drop place is chosen by me during an available period (lets say 30 sec)
- each objective has a fixed number of drop places (2, 3, 4?)
- wins bring benefits to the player (my team won, so I get a multiplier increment of x% plus normal winnings, and a decrement if the team loses. Anyway, the x% is mine alone, also the planet where it belongs is registered)
- being destroyed permits a respawn with the same mech or other one. Anyway, 30 secs to do the selection, plus 30 secs of waiting after that before rejoining. Same drop place.
- quitting opens a vacant slot for someone else to enter the on-going game.
- the game ends when the objectives are completed (p.e. destroying 24 attackers or losing all defendable stations).
- remember the x% multiplier? on login, there is a message stating "Your income at planet XYZ is under attack, defend it now!" or "You lost your income at planet XYZ while you were away. Fight to get it back!"
- the planet in question has quirks of its own (industrial = (a lot) cheaper equipments, backwater and others = more or less money).

[Vlad Ward]

Iirc Quick Play was supposed to die when FP was properly launched. People threw a fit because they would rather keep doing the exact same thing they've been doing for 7 years running.

[John Bronco]

Tier is not a reward, and FP meta objectives were removed from the game a couple years ago.

Hate it or love it, for most people MWO is QP.

[LordNothing]

we need modes like my tower skirmish concept. no game ending objectives, just things that help you kill robbits better and encourage better map use.

Edited by LordNothing, 01 February 2021 - 01:51 PM.

[crazytimes]

People can't co-ordinate any existing QP mode and just pick a central map point and rotate around it. Aside from premade groups, even people opting in to FP seem to struggle a bit. My last match FP match had more trial mechs than real ones on the OF.

How on earth do you see any complex game model working?

[martian]

Namouche, on 01 February 2021 - 12:18 PM, said:

Quickplay is fun, but pointless. Faction play has an objective, but it is underpopulated.
The proposal is:
...
c) to make quickplay the new faction play

People do not want to play the Faction Play, so you have decided to force FP on them.

I do not know if you have noticed, but all those thousands of past and current MWO players have had the opportunity to jump into the Faction Play ... and they have refused.

The vast majority of MWO players is - and always has been - interested in one thing: Quick Play. A fast 'Mech-on-Mech action without commitments or sophisticated objectives.

And as for your idea of forcing the players to care about some objectives: The objective-based game modes are the least played game modes. Just compare what is more often voted for: Skirmish, or Conquest, Incursion and Domination?

[The pessimistic optimist]

martian, on 01 February 2021 - 02:22 PM, said:

People do not want to play the Faction Play, so you have decided to force FP on them.

I do not know if you have noticed, but all those thousands of past and current MWO players have had the opportunity to jump into the Faction Play ... and they have refused.

The vast majority of MWO players is - and always has been - interested in one thing: Quick Play. A fast 'Mech-on-Mech action without commitments or sophisticated objectives.

And as for your idea of forcing the players to care about some objectives: The objective-based game modes are the least played game modes. Just compare what is more often voted for: Skirmish, or Conquest, Incursion and Domination?

Objectives hard! I have to think about more then just shooting mechs too much thinking. People play the brain dead mode well because people

Edited by SirSmokes, 01 February 2021 - 02:35 PM.

[Handley Page]

QP and FP have very different appeals to them to the point where there people who will only ever play one or the other and thats fine. Forcing them to merge will only drive away players.

[Kazgruta]

I'd love to play faction play but it doesn't seem solo friendly and mwo doesn't really have a system where you can find incomplete units easilly.

I think most people just join quickplay because it's easier and quicker to join and most people aren't in groups

[PocketYoda]

Most people prefer to play online games Solo.. I know how that sounds but it makes sense these days. People do not have 8 hours to waste in queues and dealing with 12 others to be online and on time.. Families, work and real life affects teamed content.. We aren't all kids or teens with no life outside of school.

Removing QP would kill MWO overnight.. Being forced into Faction war toxicity would make many customers leave.. I know personally i would, i like the odd FW but daily listening to toxics tell me how i should play competitive.. no chance.

Also people leaving would kill sales.

Edited by Samial, 01 February 2021 - 08:53 PM.

[InvictusLee]

This. I want this.

[Ken Harkin]

I have played plenty of both. While FP can be fun I play mostly with a group that has a large population of newer/casual players. That means not everybody has 200+ mechs in their garage and can put together IS or CLAN decks for every occasion. Odds are all many have are IS so that is how we drop...

and we get slaughtered. Again, and again, and again...

The fact is the most hardcore competitive groups in FP are running pure meta Clan builds. If you run IS you are going against them 75% of the time and even worse you are almost always on the offensive. So all those slow, shorter range, IS mechs need to plod towards and objective, or better gate which you poke away at with a sacrificial mech while clan quad ERPPC shred you. Then you get the pleasure of opening that gate and entering a choke point where you are shredded. By the end of the second push like this the clan starts rushing the drop points and slaughtering mechs while the drop. Welcome to FP.

I would rather just stick with QP.

[Vorpal Puppy]

FP matches take too long. I rarely have the luxury of 45+ minutes to devote to uninterrupted gaming. With QP, I can drop in 3-5 matches randomly as my schedule allows in the evening.

[Wolfos31]

Vorpal Puppy, on 02 February 2021 - 04:34 PM, said:

FP matches take too long. I rarely have the luxury of 45+ minutes to devote to uninterrupted gaming. With QP, I can drop in 3-5 matches randomly as my schedule allows in the evening.

Also, devoting 45 minutes to a session just to lose can be a bit demoralizing. Bigger risks, bigger rewards. With QP if I lose a match I'll probably win the next. So if I have 1.5 hours to play on a given night I am PRETTY sure to have at least a couple of wins where I felt in the zone. And that's where the fun is to me.

[Wildstreak]

You want to fix QP, you have to fix a portion of the playerbase.

[The pessimistic optimist]

Wildstreak, on 03 February 2021 - 05:23 AM, said:

You want to fix QP, you have to fix a portion of the playerbase.

DING DING DING DING DING

[Aidan Crenshaw]

You can't ever hope to fix stupid. Not with humans involved.

[The pessimistic optimist]

Aidan Crenshaw, on 03 February 2021 - 05:30 AM, said:

You can't ever hope to fix stupid. Not with humans involved.

Why I always have a head headache monkeys playing hand grenades

[LowSubmarino]

Vlad Ward, on 01 February 2021 - 12:45 PM, said:

Iirc Quick Play was supposed to die when FP was properly launched. People threw a fit because they would rather keep doing the exact same thing they've been doing for 7 years running.

QP is fun, why would ppl stop playing it because of FP? One doesnt exclude the other.

The reason FP failed to gain any meaninful traction was a truly abysmal balance in match making. And instead of a 3 to maybe 5 mins stomp in QP you would have 30 mins of utter annihilation of one side of pugs that got slaughtered by premade teams/skilled players. It was brutal. I checked it out for a while. It was no fun.

[Vlad Ward]

LowSubmarino, on 03 February 2021 - 10:17 AM, said:

QP is fun, why would ppl stop playing it because of FP? One doesnt exclude the other.

The reason FP failed to gain any meaninful traction was a truly abysmal balance in match making. And instead of a 3 to maybe 5 mins stomp in QP you would have 30 mins of utter annihilation of one side of pugs that got slaughtered by premade teams/skilled players. It was brutal. I checked it out for a while. It was no fun.

By that I mean that FP was the original vision for the game, while QP was just the AGILE minimum viable product slapped together to keep the lights on for the first half decade. The goal was always to replace QP with something more robust and interesting than team deathmatch. Unfortunately, change is hard. People got used to team deathmatch. QP may be derpy but it's home now for a lot of people.

Edited by Vlad Ward, 03 February 2021 - 10:31 AM.