4 replies to this topic

[StrikerX22]

Here's an event saturated with S7-themed rewards to encourage play. If it can be done, I'd like to see something close to this as a final 7 days event for this current Solaris 7 season, to try increase the number of players playing when there tends to be an uptick anyway. This is to help non-Solaris players have a better chance of getting a closer opponent in skill, and to also remind them that the End of Season Rewards exist, and how valuable they are.

As for the prizes, they include colors themed from the Solaris menu, a little more than enough CB and GXP to fully skill a mech, "salvage" you might find in each division (loosely, and for both factions), 405 MC, a certain bolt-on for chosen mech (if you can get that to work), and 7 days premium time to cover the event. The rewards are deliberately lopsided to the day-by-day missions to increase exposure to each division.

The most important difference between this event and the old Kick-Off events is that this does not require wins, nor terribly excessive numbers of games to grind. (Requiring wins is very difficult for most potential players in Solaris, since higher skilled players are generally who hang out there. It ends up encouraging win trading, so get rid of that requirement, requiring just a bit of damage to be dealt to help prevent abuse.)

Alongside the event, I'd like to see:

• Bolt-on Sale, Decal Sale, MC Sale (to encourage purchase of Bolt-ons/Decals).
  
• Put in Steam News, definitely at least its own page in the in-game news feed with picture.
  
• If possible, raise Accolade rate by 50% for event. Give them a taste of getting Bolt-ons.

"SOLARIS 7 END OF SEASON EVENT"
(Runs the last 7 days of Solaris 7.)

"PLAY 25 GAMES IN A 1V1 OR 2V2 DIVISION TO RECEIVE A LEADERBOARD RANK AND END OF SEASON REWARD"
Play 1 Solaris 7 game.
-Reward: 7 days Premium Time.

"STICK AND MOVE"
Play 10 1v1 games (any division) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: Color Olive, 500,000 CB, 100 MC, 32,000 GXP.

"STRATEGY LEADS TO VICTORY"
Play 5 2v2 games (any division) and do at least 30 damage.
-Reward: Color Pineapple Yellow, 500,000 CB, 100 MC, 32,000 GXP.

"GETTING AN EDUCATION"
Take 2500 Damage and deal 1000 damage in Solaris 7 games.
-Reward: Color Sulphur, 100 MC, Bolt-On for mech of choice(Propane Tank [Back] or Damaged Car [Back] since they seem to cover more mechs maybe?)

"LEADERBOARD RANKS 101 AND ABOVE GET 2,000,000 CB, 50 MC, AND 65,000 GXP PER DIVISION RANKED"
Play 1 Division 2 games (1v1 or 2v2) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: 500,000 CB, 15 MC, 1,600 GXP, 3 AC2, 3 cAC2

(released the 2nd day)
"LEADERBOARD RANKS 26-100 GET 3,000,000 CB, 100 MC, AND 80,000 GXP PER DIVISION RANKED"
Play 2 Division 2 games (1v1 or 2v2) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: 500,000 CB, 15 MC, 1,600 GXP, UAC20, cUAC20

(released the 3rd day)
"LEADERBOARD RANKS 11-25 GET 6,000,000 CB, 250 MC, AND 100,000 GXP PER DIVISION RANKED"
Play 2 Division 3 games (1v1 or 2v2) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: 500,000 CB, 15 MC, 1,600 GXP, 2 LPL, 2 cLPL

(released the 4th day)
"LEADERBOARD RANKS 4-10 GET 8,000,000 CB, 500 MC, AND 150,000 GXP PER DIVISION RANKED"
Play 2 Division 4 games (1v1 or 2v2) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: 500,000 CB, 15 MC, 1,600 GXP, LB20, cLB20

(released the 5th day)
"LEADERBOARD RANK 3 GETS 12,500,000 CB, 1000 MC, AND 200,000 GXP PER DIVISION RANKED"
Play 2 Division 5 games (1v1 or 2v2) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: 500,000 CB, 15 MC, 1,600 GXP, 4 MPL, 4 cMPL

(released the 6th day)
"LEADERBOARD RANK 2 GETS 20,000,000 CB, 2500 MC, AND 225,000 GXP PER DIVISION RANKED"
Play 2 Division 6 games (1v1 or 2v2) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: 500,000 CB, 15 MC, 1,600 GXP, 3 SRM6+Art, 3 cSRM6+Art

(released the 7th day, final day of season)
"LEADERBOARD RANK 1 GETS 25,000,000 CB, 5000 MC, AND 250,000 GXP PER DIVISION RANKED"
Play 2 Division 7 games (1v1 or 2v2) and do at least 40 damage.
-Reward: 500,000 CB, 15 MC, 1,600 GXP, 5 SPL, 5 cSPL
____________________________________

Other Potential Rewards:
-That red decal named "Solaris 7".

-Colors (can be released in 2s or 3s for each season for a while):
--Based on GUI top button colors (yellows, used in above event):
---Olive
---Sulphur
---Pineapple Yellow
--Based on other GUI aspects, like camera button at bottom (good colors):
---Jade Falcon Gold (oranger yellow)
---Modro (very dark bluegray)
---Polygon Black (middark gray with slight blueish tint)
--Less important, but Reds based on Solaris 7 decal (under "Faction Details" in decals):
---Hotrod Bright Red (Plain red)
---Kurita Black (very dark red)
---Camo Light Pink (Offwhite with significant reddish tint; looks whiter on large portions.)

-Solaris Trophy? (gives 5% accolades boost, get from Solaris 7 pack)
-A mech decently meta for a Solaris division?
____________________________________

For Future:

• It would do wonders if you actually posted the rewards in-game for all to see in the Solaris menu. It's a shame so few people have seemed to know about it in my experience.
  
• Also, 25 games to get ranked is a bit steep across 14 divisions (7 for 1v1 and 2v2, 350 total games). At this point, *even 10 games* would probably be acceptable (adjust the rewards how you wish).
  
• [New] If you make it 10 games to rank, or even 7, you could make the time available in a season 30 days instead of 90. This would make the rewards more at hand. 7 games in 1 division in 30 days is equivalent to 21 games in 90 days, and may still be reasonable. Reduce the rewards by 1/3 accordingly, probably.
  
• I also think the rank 1-3 rewards are pretty excessive, primarily in MC. I don't really have a clue how many good players it attracts, but 5000 MC per each of 14 divisions is pretty extreme in my opinion. Maybe lowering it a bit, and raising the incentive for the lesser skilled/experienced players to actually play would be good. If you don't want to scare off the higher skilled players by dropping top 3 rewards, just ignore my suggestions for top 3:

• Raise accolades for losing. Maybe include total damage as a source. It would be good to raise it some in general as well.
  
• Make combined Solaris 7 queue with priority order checkboxes or something to that effect, so it knows which one to pick in case of a "tie". Give us the choice.
  
• --GUI: The visual could be a list of divisions that you can drag and swap slots, and then click a checkbox on them to enable. Vertical order is priority order.
  
• --Alternative GUI: Have dropdowns for each priority slot (probably easier than above). If there is a duplicate selected, put a red mark or something next to the clone (one highest up doesn't need to get marked). Or, if you select one already used in another slot, it empties the other one so you have to reselect it (probably better). Either way, have checkboxes to enable/disable each slot. It should be fine to disable, say, the 2nd slot, making the 3rd have the next priority instead.
  
• --It would be very helpful to have a combined queue with QP, FP, and S7 all in one like this, with priority selection. Just make sure they have settings correct to enable the checkbox (same code logic as the launch button). In a group of 2, this would mean checking if both players have their sponsors selected, and preferably, if they both have that division checkmarked (ie. both are willing to play Solaris). Groups of 3 or more would gray out the checkboxes for S7, and 5 or more would gray out QP. Once a queue in your mix takes you, you simply exit the other queues as if you had done it manually. As such, you can show that the player is in every queue, bumping the numbers in a reasonable way.

[Edit: Typo, changed 1 game to 2 games for div 1 1st day part. Forgot to add mech as potential prize.]

[Edit2: Updated MC proposal into 2 versions, 2nd preferred for current times. Included GXP gained (unchanged). Can bump the MC/CB rewards for this season with any cuts set for after this season (since they've already worked for this one).]

[Edit 3: Added note on 2v2 Solaris as part of combined queue on last paragraph, and for groups of 3+ and 5+. In same part, I discuss handling queue numbers and exiting upon one selecting the player. 3b: Added note on reducing season to 30 days, near the top of For Future suggestions.]

Edited by StrikerX22, 03 August 2021 - 03:24 PM.

[SorryNotSorry]

A lot of these suggestions sound extremely reasonable. I never knew the awards for Solaris are this high... Considering not too many players active in S7, I probably should take a look. C-bills are always welcome

On the topic of mixed queue: yea, that's where you got me hooked. It might just be the answer to the average/low playerbase. I never got into faction precisely because I've once spent 4 timer countdowns in a row, not resulting in a drop. Ragequit, sleep angrily, wake up and back to the populated QP we go.

Also - the other modes are a mess in terms of representation. It's nice to see the galaxy map and so on, but I'm friends with players who never even knew there is anything other than QP, and when they found out - they were overwhelmed with UI and gave up momentarily.

Another option for QOL improvement - making the menus (Inventory, mechlab) available during game search. Blankly staring into the timer or search window becomes stale very fast. I swear, sometimes I start to believe that PGI keep us for fools

[Fae Puka]

Feed me more seals so I can increase my fanboi score . . . . event.

Nope

[Rosarius]

MummyPig, on 09 August 2021 - 03:34 AM, said:

Feed me more seals so I can increase my fanboi score . . . . event.

Nope

Solaris has this catch 22 situation where huge skill disparity between players can occur due to a lack of population, and there is a lack of population due to the skill disparity that can occur. The more people queued up, the more even the matches become.

I personally would love for PGI to implement some or all of Stryker's ideas (or any kind of attention, even if it's just an empty "we're working on it") to create more interest in the game mode, but I do not see PGI investing the resources due to, again, the catch 22 situation of PGI doesn't want to invest in dead game mode and game mode is dead because PGI doesn't want to invest in it.

At this point, the only way I see players becoming interested in Solaris again (PGI input aside) is if the community (eg, streamers, discord groups, MWO units) create the interest. I'll do my part, but the last time I tried to do a Solaris stream I spent 30 mins queued up for zero matches (AP primetime is a wasteland )

[StrikerX22]

The thing is a lot of those suggestions are not really "investments" at all in terms of time spent. They're small, quick tweaks.

• Lower season intervals to increase engagement,
  
• lower games required to rank in a season to not feel overwhelming especially in current state,
  
• alter rewards to be more enticing,
  
• raise accolades, especially for losing.
  
• While they're at it, increase the bonuses from each level of patron (including level 1) to make it feel more interesting,
  
• and make it easier to get sponsors and increase their rewards. Very easy and quick stuff.

The slightly harder stuff would be making a graphic in-game (and an extra button probably,) for displaying S7 rewards, which is very necessary for motivation. I can't understand why this hasn't been done. I've had so many players I've got to play S7 with me that didn't know anything about end of season rewards, which are a big draw.

From there, make the Mixed Queue. Also should be very easy to program, as I went over. Make a simple GUI for it, using the dropdown scheme that erases the other dropdown if the same contents get selected. Very simply coding logic, easy to understand for the player. They already have graphics for the dropdowns for Store. Just need to make a checkbox and a frame. This would benefit FP as well (which obviously is important to MWO's survival), as many players don't want to queue up for FP because of the "wait times", creating a self-fulfilling prophecy as a community. Small, tiny investments, great gain.

Edited by StrikerX22, 18 August 2021 - 05:34 PM.