20 replies to this topic

[Vlad Ward]

Obvious grammatical weirdness aside, is there any particular reason we still have this?

It feels like one of those old school incentives to buy more mechs and mech bays that hasn't really kept up with the spirit of the game circa 2021 but also hasn't merited enough attention to be removed.

Edited by Vlad Ward, 22 April 2021 - 12:01 PM.

[Meep Meep]

Locked as in you left a match after dying and still have to wait for the match to end before you can use it again?

[pbiggz]

Meep Meep, on 22 April 2021 - 12:17 PM, said:

Locked as in you left a match after dying and still have to wait for the match to end before you can use it again?

I believe that is what is being referred to here.

[Vlad Ward]

Meep Meep, on 22 April 2021 - 12:17 PM, said:

Locked as in you left a match after dying and still have to wait for the match to end before you can use it again?

Yup, that message. You can freely hop out of matches, grab another Mech, and go play. It's not an effective check on people spamming matches. It feels like it's only really there to say "Hey, you can go play another match right away, but only if you buy another Mech and Mech Bay! Buy more Mech Bays!"

[GARION26]

Vlad Ward, on 22 April 2021 - 12:29 PM, said:

Yup, that message. You can freely hop out of matches, grab another Mech, and go play. It's not an effective check on people spamming matches. It feels like it's only really there to say "Hey, you can go play another match right away, but only if you buy another Mech and Mech Bay! Buy more Mech Bays!"

Probably is an incentive to newer players to spend real dollars - not pertinent to a long term veteran but might be to someone else.

Also forces people to shift up their mech choices which might be good in terms of being on tilt mode and being forced to switch it up, and forces some diversity in the field if someone's 'best' mech is sidelined they have to try something different.

Edited by GARION26, 22 April 2021 - 12:34 PM.

[Meep Meep]

Having your vehicle(s) locked till the match is over is pretty much a staple of every game like this. Plus you get four free mech bays right off the bat and can get more with events so who doesn't have a few extra mechs to play with if you bail early from a match? That doesn't even count all the trial mechs.

[Vlad Ward]

GARION26, on 22 April 2021 - 12:31 PM, said:

Probably is an incentive to newer players to spend real dollars - not pertinent to a long term veteran but might be to someone else.

Also forces people to shift up their mech choices which might be good

Oh that's almost certainly the intent. I'm just not sure those sorts of incentives still make much sense 9 years later. 2021 is the year of 50% off sales, free MC, and free love for all weapons everywhere.

I have hundreds of Mechs so I'm not the target audience. It's still an annoyance, though. I wanna play my new Warhammer. Let me play my new Warhammer, dammit!

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

it also discourages suiciding and dropping anew ASAP, which I'm sure quite a few people would abuse - see events where ppl just had to drop X games. (2017?ish) - so many people yolo-ing back then during events.. it was unbearable.

locking up the mech at least puts a little dent into that.

[Vlad Ward]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie, on 22 April 2021 - 12:40 PM, said:

it also discourages suiciding and dropping anew ASAP, which I'm sure quite a few people would abuse - see events where ppl just had to drop X games. (2017?ish) - so many people yolo-ing back then during events.. it was unbearable.

locking up the mech at least puts a little dent into that.

I mean, in theory? If I wanted to suicide and drop again, I'd take one of my ~200+ other Mechs out each time. It's not an effective deterrent. Hell, if I wanted to be really posh, I could just build 2-3 identical 'Mechs a la Faction Play and roll that way.

It's not an effective check on behavior. It's just a QoL nerf designed to encourage spending.

[Meep Meep]

Vlad Ward, on 22 April 2021 - 12:35 PM, said:

I have hundreds of Mechs so I'm not the target audience. It's still an annoyance, though. I wanna play my new Warhammer. Let me play my new Warhammer, dammit!

Live longer then? Plus you could always get another one.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

Vlad Ward, on 22 April 2021 - 12:42 PM, said:

I mean, in theory? If I wanted to suicide and drop again, I'd take one of my ~200+ other Mechs out each time. It's not an effective deterrent. Hell, if I wanted to be really posh, I could just build 2-3 identical 'Mechs a la Faction Play and roll that way.

It's not an effective check on behavior. It's just a QoL nerf designed to encourage spending.

same here mate, but it stops those with fewer mechs (and yeah.. I remember ppl from back then unhappy by that, as they already had 3 or 4 mechs locked up - which makes you think..)

[Vlad Ward]

Meep Meep, on 22 April 2021 - 12:45 PM, said:

Live longer then? Plus you could always get another one.

But I suck with my new Warhammer .

Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie, on 22 April 2021 - 12:47 PM, said:

same here mate, but it stops those with fewer mechs (and yeah.. I remember ppl from back then unhappy by that, as they already had 3 or 4 mechs locked up - which makes you think..)

Why does that matter? It affects such a tiny segment of the population in any meaningful way. For everyone else it's just annoying.

[w4ldO]

propably technical limitation on how your client actually joins a match.
think of your mech as a physical item thats not going anywhere until the match is over.

[VeeOt Dragon]

honestly even back in my newbie days i never had more than one mech locked out of availability at one time. unless you are doing as someone above already said and simply jumping into a match getting that required match score for it to count and getting yourself killed to repeat then you should never realy have more than one maaybe 2 if you got really unlucky out of rotation.

then again i am always trying new builds so i almost always have something that might need a little grinding for Skill points.


(side note--- TMNU your banner made me laugh, thanks. i'm old enough to remember when new episodes of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were first coming on TV)

Edited by VeeOt Dragon, 22 April 2021 - 03:34 PM.

[justcallme A S H]

I believe it's for server/match/mech stats and rewards.

It is constantly saving to the database until the match is completely over as things like win/loss conditions are not known until the end and thus resulting XP can't be worked out. Also after you die things like KMDDs and stuff can still roll on 2-3mins later.

So basically the record is locked until the mech is out of a game. Old way of coding by todays standards but then it is all 10 years old.

[PocketYoda]

I assume its a hard coded thing to stop game errors imagine dying taking it back in and dying how would the game keep up with your rewards or the matchmaker etc.. its a pretty old game.

[Vlad Ward]

justcallme A S H, on 22 April 2021 - 03:39 PM, said:

I believe it's for server/match/mech stats and rewards.

It is constantly saving to the database until the match is completely over as things like win/loss conditions are not known until the end and thus resulting XP can't be worked out. Also after you die things like KMDDs and stuff can still roll on 2-3mins later.

So basically the record is locked until the mech is out of a game. Old way of coding by todays standards but then it is all 10 years old.

As someone who builds data solutions, this is a little disheartening but I can imagine it having been set up that way ten years ago

[crazytimes]

I see it as a reminder to be less bad, for myself anyhow.

The main reason matches drag out is actually shadow cats. Without them, many matches would end several minutes sooner and you would almost never see the mech locked warning unless you are going full YOLO every match.

[LordNothing]

its still incredibly lame when leveling up a new mech. not so much a problem if you level several at a time, but that might not be an option for some players.

[VeeOt Dragon]

honestly when i am leveling a mech i simply go from one match to the next and when i leave a match early (after death of course) i use that time to spend my XP and skill points. most of the time by the time i'm done that mech is ready to go again. you'll rarely get enough XP to add more than one or two skills so it works out rather well doing it that way.

Edited by VeeOt Dragon, 24 April 2021 - 10:49 PM.