55 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

Impromptu Dev Update with NGNGtv

Matt and Daeron had an impromptu discussion with Phil NGNGtv regarding the current matchmaker status and faction play discussion.

Brief Summary of the discussion

Groups in Quick Play

- Max Group Restrictions settings are currently not applied to QP matchmaker -

- The Max Group restrictions stopped being enforced in the June 21st patch -

- The issue has been found and will be fixed July 19th patch -

- As of July 19th patch The Max Group Restrictions Variable will be exposed for future tuning -

- The default setting will be set back to Max 5 people in groups as of the July 19th patch -

- Max Group Restrictions 5 means each team can have can have -

one 4-player group

or

one 2-player and one 3-player group

or

two 2-player groups

Event Queue and Quick Play

- Quick Play matchmaker settings and Event Queue matchmaker settings were decoupled as of June 21st -

- This means when we run Event Queue we will not have a negative effect on Quickplay Match Quality -

Improving Match Quality is a Q3 Goal

- Investigating the Match Quality, Groups, Soup ETC and what can be done is our Q3 Goal -

- Issues from Event Queue and Max Group Settings have helped Daeron and Matt get a better understanding of how MM is currently configured-

Faction Play Discussion

- Open Discussion of Faction Play Ideas -

[Vladokapuh]

just make quickplay solo 8v8, its better

[ApostleBerk]

For faction:

Make faction rewards for different stages stated clearly in easy to access areas, remove the loyalty pledge system as people freely switch even in the same night, there's no point to that. Make it so if people stick and stay with a faction they clearly are working towards specific goals for specific rewards with that faction.

[Reno Blade]

Thanks for the great talk !

For the Matchmaker, i would like to have a balance on both teams about teams (e.g. both sides should have similar team sizes and skills).
When we had ELO per weight-class, i thought we might even need to calculate the ELO rating differently in groups vs solo, or also unskilled mech vs skilled mech, as both have a larger impact on performance, even if in the same mech.


For Faction Play, i would love to have more interaction, goals, something else than just the wait/rush for the other team.

I could imagine that a flexible placement of Towers/Buildings/Generators with some kind of extra-UI (e.g. Artillery marker buttons for Turret placement ingame, or base-building ui before the match) could turn the game into a Tower-Defense game.
Or if you had repair bays in your Union Dropship, that could lead to some long-time strategies with retreat and rearm...

And if we had more AI creeps (e.g. tanks) it could feel more like a Moba game like LoL/Dota/Titanfall.
That would provide more chances to all players to contribute, even solos.

Also if all matches (including QuickPlay) count towards one faction/group, the whole IS-map metagame could be pushed much more into focus, even if mostly passive for QP players.

[LordNothing]

for faction play id like to see more players.

[Alreech]

ApostleBerk, on 01 July 2022 - 10:41 AM, said:

For faction:

Make faction rewards for different stages stated clearly in easy to access areas, remove the loyalty pledge system as people freely switch even in the same night, there's no point to that. Make it so if people stick and stay with a faction they clearly are working towards specific goals for specific rewards with that faction.

Make the faction rewards faction related.
Instead giving out stuff like "Cup of Pop" & "Hamster Huey" cockpit items give away faction medialions or even faction warhorns.

Maybe even give a c-bill discount to specific faction variants of mechs, like the Grand Dragon for Kurita, and increase that discount with faction rank.

[Alreech]

Vladokapuh, on 01 July 2022 - 10:31 AM, said:

just make quickplay solo 8v8, its better

I support that, remove the groups from solo quickplay and make it 8 vs 8 to adjust for the lower player numbers after the removal of group players.

For groups add a solo/group "faction quickplay" with 4 players max per group, list each group with less than 4 players automatically in the LFG.
With 4 player groups different match sizes are possible:
4 vs 4 (small maps, modes like skirmish, domination, scouting )
8 vs 8 (medium maps, modes like skirmish, domination, conquest )
12 vs 12 (big maps, all modes)

Use faction bound "quickplay drop decks" in that group mode: 3 mechs, 155 - 165 tons total weight.
Other drop deck sizes should be aviable too for scouting or invasion

The introduction of a faction quickplay should have 2 goals:
Seperate solo & group players to improve the solos players match quality.
Increase the number of faction play ready players with drop decks in the game.

Faction play ready means:
Players with drop decks ready for faction play, that can react to a call to arms.

Keep the old style of faction play for the bigger groups aviable, with the hope that players from the faction quickplay react to the call to arms.

[The Chancelor]

Please do not remove (small) groups from quickplay. U would loose many 40+-Dads with their friends. Like me...

[The Chancelor]

Alreech, on 02 July 2022 - 02:21 AM, said:

With 4 player groups different match sizes are possible:
4 vs 4 (small maps, modes like skirmish, domination, scouting )
8 vs 8 (medium maps, modes like skirmish, domination, conquest )
12 vs 12 (big maps, all modes)

Use faction bound "quickplay drop decks" in that group mode: 3 mechs, 155 - 165 tons total weight.
Other drop deck sizes should be aviable too for scouting or invasion

The introduction of a faction quickplay should have 2 goals:
Seperate solo & group players to improve the solos players match quality.
Increase the number of faction play ready players with drop decks in the

If I look at how many are online with me while playing, it should be a bit tight...

[Far Reach]

Your game has a serious low population problem.

[KentThuir66]

How to connect?

[Drake67]

I do not play faction anymore because 90% of the time I am playing solo. Faction was fun in the beginning with groups/units playing and your actions actually effecting the map. Although I have set up IS and Clan drop decks faction play has lost the appeal to me simply because 1. people from unit don't play much anymore so I left. 2. Faction play, at least to me, requires team tactics and following a leader. Quick play should too, but herding 12 people that don't have that relationship is akin to herding cats. Maybe allowing you to run Clan mechs even if you are fighting for the IS might be a good change.

Matchmaker, something that I have noticed when my mech has the x2 bonus I seem to have a better match. Drop in the same mech after winning a match and I get wiped. Don't know if that is me or something else. I am t4 the closer I get to t3 the worse the matches seem. If I drop with a group of t2 or t1 I do better, even better if one of the group calls tactics. I honestly don't have any answers. I just agree that that a better balance needs to be had, both tonage and skill.

[LordNothing]

The Chancelor, on 02 July 2022 - 03:22 AM, said:

Please do not remove (small) groups from quickplay. U would loose many 40+-Dads with their friends. Like me...

id actually like to allow more smaller groups.
1 4x
2 3x
3 2x

[PocketYoda]

Adding bigger groups will make it even more lopsided.. Groups are the problem not the size of them.. Yes i know its an online game but groups are killing this online game..

if you want large groups knock the teams up to 24x24..

Groups are the main reason i don't play often, getting slaughtered every match by coordinated high tiers isn't fun after a while.

Drake67, on 02 July 2022 - 05:38 AM, said:

I do not play faction anymore because 90% of the time I am playing solo. Faction was fun in the beginning with groups/units playing and your actions actually effecting the map. Although I have set up IS and Clan drop decks faction play has lost the appeal to me simply because 1. people from unit don't play much anymore so I left. 2. Faction play, at least to me, requires team tactics and following a leader. Quick play should too, but herding 12 people that don't have that relationship is akin to herding cats. Maybe allowing you to run Clan mechs even if you are fighting for the IS might be a good change.

Matchmaker, something that I have noticed when my mech has the x2 bonus I seem to have a better match. Drop in the same mech after winning a match and I get wiped. Don't know if that is me or something else. I am t4 the closer I get to t3 the worse the matches seem. If I drop with a group of t2 or t1 I do better, even better if one of the group calls tactics. I honestly don't have any answers. I just agree that that a better balance needs to be had, both tonage and skill.

I don't play faction wars because i'm also solo.. Joining a team thats usually pugs vs comp teams is again not fun getting slaughter 4 times.. That and the maps in faction play are atrocious.. getting funneled into kill boxes to get to objectives is asinine.. Faction play needed maps like quick play uses..

Edited by Nomad Tech, 02 July 2022 - 07:18 AM.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Would the matchmaker work better if it fired off at discrete intervals like the Solaris matchmaker did? Say, every minute, it will calculate the best matches based on who is in the queue at that time. Instead of launching matches on a continuous basis? This would maximize the pool of potential players and maybe it can make the best match decisions? Then it can place all the groups into slates of matches and fill the remaining players in based on PSR/tier and mech tonnage. Could the field for the Solaris Division be repurposed into a sort of mech tier system and also used to try and match pilot PSR and mech tier instead of only tonnage? Maybe cut the number of tiers down to 3 for this purpose.

[C E Dwyer]

The fastish fix of the broken parts of MM very welcome.

I do wonder how much tuning can be done without a larger player base.
This has always seemed to be the major issue

[katoult]

Can i just note that i really appreciate that there's a "brief summary" ?

[LordNothing]

katoult, on 02 July 2022 - 11:09 AM, said:

Can i just note that i really appreciate that there's a "brief summary" ?

im just glad they kept it under 40 minutes. if they could cut that in half that would be better.

[Roodkapje]

katoult, on 02 July 2022 - 11:09 AM, said:

Can i just note that i really appreciate that there's a "brief summary" ?

+1

ApostleBerk, on 01 July 2022 - 10:41 AM, said:

For faction:

Make faction rewards for different stages stated clearly in easy to access areas, remove the loyalty pledge system as people freely switch even in the same night, there's no point to that.
Make it so if people stick and stay with a faction they clearly are working towards specific goals for specific rewards with that faction.

I think that in general the whole Faction Warfare thing has been a bit "overthought" so to speak :
- Even higher learning curve than the usual Quick Play part of MWO.
- Very tight silly rules that only the real die-hards are willing to respect.
- High costs both C-Bill and MC wise for various things...

Getting someone to play MWO at all is already a huge challenge because all of the mechanics involved and throwing Faction Warfare on top of that is mind blowing for many gamers that are not part of "The old difficult games Generation"

Everything is "Fast, Fast, Fast" and "Dumbing down as much as we can!" these days like all that Call of Duty and Fortnite crap...

[The Chancelor]

Roodkapje, on 03 July 2022 - 04:27 AM, said:

Getting someone to play MWO at all is already a huge challenge because all of the mechanics involved and throwing Faction Warfare on top of that is mind blowing for many gamers that are not part of "The old difficult games Generation"

Everything is "Fast, Fast, Fast" and "Dumbing down as much as we can!" these days like all that Call of Duty and Fortnite crap...

Well I guess that is why most of us are the same age like moadepe or blue^^

Edited by The Chancelor, 03 July 2022 - 05:26 AM.