33 replies to this topic

[Angus McFife VI]

I can understand that there are too many divisions, but besides that, why doesn't anyone play Solaris?

[RickySpanish]

Because losing endlessly in 1v1 is no fun since all you can do is blame yourself. Also, because the rewards were bad, so PGI decided to fix them by making them worse. I occasionally equip my season 1 warhorn just so people can go "Jesus Christ where did that awful tune come from? Was that a warhorn? Why would anyone want *that*??"

Edited by RickySpanish, 09 October 2021 - 08:38 PM.

[martian]

I like Atlases, on 09 October 2021 - 08:17 PM, said:

I can understand that there are too many divisions, but besides that, why doesn't anyone play Solaris?

You can check this dedicated section of this forums: Solaris.

I find it quite ironic that the top post of that section asks Why Nobody Plays Solaris?

Edited by martian, 12 October 2021 - 06:08 AM.

[Therax]

Because wining a 1v1 where I outskill my opponent to the extent where they never stood a chance against me is almost as boring as losing a 1v1 to an opponent that I never stood a chance against.

Factor in the relatively low player count of MWO, the percentage of those players who feel the same way about a 1v1 game mode, the games large possible skill gap due to the complexities of the mechlab and players mechanical skill sets, and this becomes the default experience for nearly every single Solaris match. If the outcome of a game is known before it is played, why play it at all.

Edited by Therax, 09 October 2021 - 09:01 PM.

[MrMadguy]

They promised, that Elo MMR and tiers would make this thing balanced, but it boiled down to having one best Meta 'Mech in every tier pretty fast.

[Gagis]

Too many divisions is the main thing really. A bit stale metagame too but I imagine there'd be more life in that if there were active players trying to counter each others expected designs in the queue.

[PocketYoda]

Because it was boring and was completely unfair balance wise... Also because they never added 12vs12 deathmatches.

Edited by MechaGnome, 12 October 2021 - 03:39 AM.

[crazytimes]

Dead mode. It's a noob trap, anyone who downloads MWO and tries solaris is going to uninstall.

[East Indy]

Gagis, on 10 October 2021 - 12:58 AM, said:

I imagine there'd be more life in that if there were active players trying to counter each others expected designs in the queue.

Indeed. Since you invoked it, here's my old saw again:

FASA's tabletop Solaris was based on a misunderstanding of historical gladiatorial games, and PGI carried it into their design.

Roman games were on the whole not like the common perception where it's fugitives and criminals tossed odds and ends and forced/paid to survive. There were sharply defined (and named) fighting classes with standard equipment that were specifically matched with only certain other classes for maximum competition and survivability.

The lie of the Mechlab is that more freedom is always better. Worrying about players who reflexively complain about restrictions really limits a lot of potential. Without getting too much into that, what Sollaris needs are seasons with "rosters" of 6-7 designs total: same/adjacent weight class, builds created by community leaders for maximum fun/variety and approved by the community like champion sets. Contestants pick from that set only. With some wise leadership, this would preclude dumb and bland builds while allowing players to personally identify with even premade builds -- while making the actual fights more interesting.

[D A T A]

broken matchmaker that matches closest elo first rather than top to bottom, leading best elo to always face worst elo, broken divisions, lights abusing assaults hiding under their legs and killing them, abusers on alt accounts trading elo, abusers on alt accounts finding you on purpose with exact counter builds, abusers on alt accounts taking 20 tonners and powering down for 10 mins to get a tie and suck your elo with an alt to save their main............

Edited by D A T A, 10 October 2021 - 05:38 AM.

[Curccu]

Yes pretty weird that they did all that effort to create solaris but then decided not to update/finetune it to work well, would have been quite small task to make it a lot better.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

because typical PGI-behavior;

they invested a lot into that mode, including all the UI, new maps etc - only to f*ck up the VERY BASICS that were needed to make this mode enjoyable, populated and thus sustainable in the long run:
"fair fights".
the playerpool is empty, thus it throws excellent pilots in excellent builds against bloody beginners in bad builds. which in return empties the playerpool more, which of course .. you see where this is going.


a pity; some hours of thinking beforehand could have made this a great mode. but as already said: that's kind of a PGI-tradition.

Edited by Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie, 10 October 2021 - 06:42 AM.

[Moldur]

Nobody plays Solaris so nobody plays solaris.

It's such a sidelined mode, I'd be in favor of turning it into something people will at least touch. Lets just admit there is negligible opportunity cost by ditching the current mode, and give people free stock mechs to 1v1 in. I'd take that or I'd take flavor of the week 1v1 in mechs with bizarre modifers or something. Like 1v1 with the 1000% cooldown Quickdraw lol

[LordNothing]

1v1 is boring. no lazy foo matchmaker for 2v2. no ffa. no 4v4. no one-click solution to joining games. solaris mostly failed because the community wanted x, and pgi delivered y,

i think 4v4 has potential. but you need the one click join solution and lazy foo match maker for setting up groups out of random pugs. otherwise it will be just as underutilized as 2v2 and no-one will play it.

Edited by LordNothing, 12 October 2021 - 01:24 AM.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

LordNothing, on 12 October 2021 - 01:16 AM, said:

1v1 is boring. no lazy foo matchmaker for 2v2. no ffa. no 4v4. no one-click solution to joining games. solaris mostly failed because the community wanted x, and pgi delivered y,

i think 4v4 has potential. but you need the one click join solution and lazy foo match maker for setting up groups out of random pugs. otherwise it will be just as underutilized as 2v2 and no-one will play it.

we HAD a 4vs4 mode; "Scouting" and it had a small, but faithful little group of followers. "we" had a lot of fun in that mode UNTIL PGI AXED IT, FOR NO REASON AT ALL.
so.. not gonna see a return of 4vs4 anytime soon.

and no, 1vs1 and 2vs2 could actually be fun modes; I know I had quite a few fun duels when Sol7 was new; problem are -and were from the beginning- those other 9of10 games where it's just horribly matched and both people lose (1 the match, the other the interest).

Edited by Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie, 12 October 2021 - 03:41 AM.

[w0qj]

Just make it a random matching queque, so you can fight against anyone else in Division 1 through 7, as decided by computer pairing!

Love surprises

Oh, and please reinstate the Solaris Leaderboard *participation* rewards.
If I'm gonna stick my neck into the Solaris meat grinder, there's gotta to be more rewards, not less. Thanks.
https://mwomercs.com...-rewards-ending

Edited by w0qj, 12 October 2021 - 04:12 AM.

[LordNothing]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie, on 12 October 2021 - 03:40 AM, said:

we HAD a 4vs4 mode; "Scouting" and it had a small, but faithful little group of followers. "we" had a lot of fun in that mode UNTIL PGI AXED IT, FOR NO REASON AT ALL.
so.. not gonna see a return of 4vs4 anytime soon.

and no, 1vs1 and 2vs2 could actually be fun modes; I know I had quite a few fun duels when Sol7 was new; problem are -and were from the beginning- those other 9of10 games where it's just horribly matched and both people lose (1 the match, the other the interest).

yes we did, and it featured:
bunny fights
smoke diving
meaningless objectives
skirmish flavoring
huntsmen, lots of huntsmen. and bushies.
SHOOOT THE FLEA!!!!12
weird dustoff mechanics.
kcom, et al.
oh ****, im legged my team is dead the enemy is dead and i dont have enough time to get to the dropship

if solaris 4v4 happens:
no ********
all the mechs
skirmish

i think solaris can deliver this experience much better than fp ever did. scouting was still more fun than any solaris mode and it might be the thing you need to make solaris great (i was going to say 'again', but that didn't seem fitting). scouting also doesnt fit the fp format either. i also wouldnt mind having my scouting decks refunded or converted into trudecks.

Edited by LordNothing, 12 October 2021 - 06:25 AM.

[martian]

w0qj, on 12 October 2021 - 04:11 AM, said:

Oh, and please reinstate the Solaris Leaderboard *participation* rewards.
If I'm gonna stick my neck into the Solaris meat grinder, there's gotta to be more rewards, not less. Thanks.
https://mwomercs.com...-rewards-ending

Your linked post expressed PGI's opinion quite clearly:

InnerSphereNews, on 24 August 2021 - 12:44 PM, said:

Greetings MechWarriors,
...

• We do not believe adding more rewards is the way to attract players back to the mode.

[w0qj]

I actually played 25 games in each of the 7 Divisions, lost most of my games (unskilled pilot, unskilled mechs, not optimised for Solaris7 fight, etc.), and I actually consider the participation rewards adequate compensation for the feeling of going to the Dentist by playing Solaris7, and losing most of my games.

Actually wanted to play a 2nd set of Solaris7 fights x7 Divisions, but then the April+ 2021 Cauldron/MWO patches came, and I've spent most of my time fiddling with tweaked new mechs (and having a great time too)!

I still want to do my 2nd (3rd, 4th, etc.) set of Solaris7 fights x7 Divisions.

[GoodTry]

Every once in a while the mood strikes me to try to play Solaris again. Here is what happens:

- How do I get into that mode again? Oh right
- Oh crap now I have to pick a sponsor. How do I do that? What did I pick last time? Which ones are better?
- I have to do it for each division??
- How do I select the mech?
- Which mechs were in each the divisions again? Maybe I can google it
- Ok, I have a list of mechs in divisions. But is this still up to date?
- Ok, now I need to get mechs set up. I wonder what the Solaris meta is this days?
- Ok finally. Mech set up, sponsors fixed. Time to drop!
- Oh look, no one is in the queue.

They just made it so painful to play, I'm amazed anyone ever played it at all.

It really needed to be a "Solaris" button next to "Quick Play," where you click it and you are dropped into a 1v1 or 2v2 with your currently-selected mech.