78 replies to this topic

[Tam Wolfcry]

Can you please explain how you determine whether or not the pilot rating goes up or down? Because it seems to be purely based off damage done which is stupid. It doesn't seem to really take into account mech tonnage and only cares about actual damage inflicted by your mech. Which again, is stupid. Some mechs just don't do damage. IS 20 tonners are a fantastic example of that. But according to you, if I'm not doing at least 400pts of damage in a game, my pilot rating goes down. Here's another word for it...asinine. How long has this game been out? How much stuff have you added to it? But still pilot rating is only determined by damage output?

[Tam Wolfcry]

Latest update, just ran a mission with my locust. I got two kills, multiple spotting assists...and my team won, handily. My pilot rating stayed the same. No change. What the <bleep>?

[CFC Conky]

Your PSR is also based on what you do relative to the other 23 players in your match. You can have a drop where you get an up arrow, then another where you have the identical, or close to it, performance and get a down arrow., depending on how the other players performed.

The amount of increase/decrease is not fixed, so an up/down arrow might not move you very much within a given tier.

Good hunting,
CFC Conky

Edited by CFC Conky, 02 March 2023 - 06:56 AM.

[sosegado]

Tam Wolfcry, on 01 March 2023 - 07:25 AM, said:

Can you please explain how you determine whether or not the pilot rating goes up or down? Because it seems to be purely based off damage done which is stupid. It doesn't seem to really take into account mech tonnage and only cares about actual damage inflicted by your mech. Which again, is stupid. Some mechs just don't do damage. IS 20 tonners are a fantastic example of that. But according to you, if I'm not doing at least 400pts of damage in a game, my pilot rating goes down. Here's another word for it...asinine. How long has this game been out? How much stuff have you added to it? But still pilot rating is only determined by damage output?

I used to wonder the same thing but I gave up caring about PSR.

Free yourself from the burden, it will make the game much more fun and a lot less aggravating!

To answer your question though, as far as I can tell it's because no one has come up with a method that is easier to track and less messy to implement.

Plus, the "If it ain't broke don't fix it." mentality seems to play a part.

[Davegt27]

Jay Z's PSR Calculator

https://docs.google....#gid=1739121335

[Curccu]

Even though we got multiple game modes almost every game basically ends when other team is dead, other team doesn't get dead without damage so that is the most important criteria for PSR score... it's not perfect but pretty functional.

[Heavy Money]

There's like 3 threads about this per page on this forum. Did you even try searching?

PSR is measured compared to the rest of the players in the game. It is based on match score. The top 3rd go up, the next 3rd stays even, the last 3rd goes down. So what you need to score to go up depends on how other players in the match do. It isn't a static value. You can PSR+ even on losses if you do well enough.

Damage is one of the largest contributors to match score, but plenty of other things matter too, like component destructions, spotting, etc. And for smaller mechs, you get the freebie Proximity awards where you get free matchscore every few seconds just for staying near a big mech.

Also doing 400+ dmg in a locust consistently is perfectly viable (assuming you have a good loadout.)

Keep in mind that there is no reward for going up in PSR tier. All it means is you're going to get matched against nastier people. If you are struggling to go up consistently, you don't want that. So I suggest you don't try to optimizing PSR farming because all it'll do is increase the difficulty of your opponents before you're ready for it.

Edited by Heavy Money, 01 March 2023 - 11:39 AM.

[RickySpanish]

Tam Wolfcry, on 01 March 2023 - 07:25 AM, said:

Can you please explain how you determine whether or not the pilot rating goes up or down? Because it seems to be purely based off damage done which is stupid. It doesn't seem to really take into account mech tonnage and only cares about actual damage inflicted by your mech. Which again, is stupid. Some mechs just don't do damage. IS 20 tonners are a fantastic example of that. But according to you, if I'm not doing at least 400pts of damage in a game, my pilot rating goes down. Here's another word for it...asinine. How long has this game been out? How much stuff have you added to it? But still pilot rating is only determined by damage output?

Damage done is a pretty good indicator of effectiveness most of the time. Light 'Mechs are actually very capable of dealing damage close to that of an Assault. This sounds stupid at first, but if you focus on the smaller size and faster speed of most Lights, you can see that in general, Light 'Mechs have a greater number of opportunities to fire at their opponents than Assaults do. There are of course some hilariously bad Light 'Mechs, and they require a slightly different mindset to play, but it is quite possible to carry a match in one. I personally have huge difficulty in maintaining consistent performance in Assaults; in a Light 'Mech, I can often get to the 400-500 damage 'decent performance' spot.

[Tam Wolfcry]

As stated, some mechs aren't designed to do damage. I use my light mechs to scout and mark targets...that does not really allow for doing lots of damage. So playing my mech as designed, I'm penalized...and that is ******* stupid. And maybe there are three threads because how they currently do it is lame and it needs to change.

[RickySpanish]

Any Light 'Mech can perform decently after the Cauldron quirk passes. Some perform better than others, which is true of all weight classes. You can absolutely scout and mark targets as well, just don't forget to also be shooting while you are at it. You are right that there is no dedicated information warfare type role, which is a shame. I think though that you will be able to adjust your playstyle to get the best of both worlds - damage AND scouting. What Light 'Mechs are you running at the moment? Have you considered running something with a small profile and tall mounts, like the Incubus?

[Knownswift]

If your mech isn't designed to do damage it is probably a waste.

[Heavy Money]

Tam Wolfcry, on 01 March 2023 - 12:31 PM, said:

As stated, some mechs aren't designed to do damage. I use my light mechs to scout and mark targets...that does not really allow for doing lots of damage. So playing my mech as designed, I'm penalized...and that is ******* stupid. And maybe there are three threads because how they currently do it is lame and it needs to change.

Whoa, where does it say that? Does the locust come with a "not designed to deal damage" decal on it or something? None of mine did.

You've chosen a playstyle that doesn't contribute much to your team, and so you aren't ranking up. Its that simple. Scouting and marking targets is helpful, but it isn't enough on its own. It can be done while also dealing damage. The two are not mutually exclusive. You aren't being penalized, you're just only doing half your role.

Edited by Heavy Money, 01 March 2023 - 03:06 PM.

[Mad Mech]

Heavy Money, on 01 March 2023 - 03:02 PM, said:

You've chosen a playstyle that doesn't contribute much to your team.

Losing a conquest match, I switched tactics from dps to capping flags. My heroic efforts won the round for the team, but I ended up getting a negative rank. The message was loud and clear.

Edited by Mad Mech, 01 March 2023 - 03:30 PM.

[Aidan Crenshaw]

Brios made an exceptional explanation video on how PSR works now. Have a look:

[Curccu]

Mad Mech, on 01 March 2023 - 03:30 PM, said:

Losing a conquest match, I switched tactics from dps to capping flags. My heroic efforts won the round for the team, but I ended up getting a negative rank. The message was loud and clear.

Usually if team splits to take caps and other team deathballs and crushes those smaller groups one by one, deathball team wins.

With that loud and clear message you now know how to build mech to contribute well for most of the matches.

[Widowmaker1981]

Tam Wolfcry, on 01 March 2023 - 12:31 PM, said:

As stated, some mechs aren't designed to do damage. I use my light mechs to scout and mark targets...that does not really allow for doing lots of damage. So playing my mech as designed, I'm penalized...and that is ******* stupid. And maybe there are three threads because how they currently do it is lame and it needs to change.

Maybe look at it this way: PSR going up is a penalty, not a reward. higher PSR increases the difficulty of future matches and grants no bonuses of any kind.

Id much rather be in T5 than T1, speaking purely selfishly - im just not prepared to throw 75% of games in order to tank my PSR.

Edited by Widowmaker1981, 02 March 2023 - 04:37 AM.

[Tam Wolfcry]

Wow, the ignorance level here is fairly off the charts. Sure, if I want to cheese out, I can run a clan light mech with ECM and plenty of damage output. But I don't. I hate clan and think they are cheesy and OP long before MWO ever came out. That is my personal preference. I play IS mechs. The Locust is in the game. Therefore, you should be able to use them and have an expectation of increasing your PSR. Now, based on the actual facts of the game, there is no way every locust is able to do massive damage output. No where were they designed with that in mind. Not in the lore, not in the battletech game design. So to hold them to that standard is stupid and unrealistic.

Next, you look at the pilot skill points you can earn after each game. The vast majority of them will always be single digit points. The three main ones that I found to have significant values are Damage Done, Damage Taken, and Missiles Destroyed. Damage Taken is quite limited for the Locust due to its small size. It can only have so much armor and IS. Now recently I tested one in a game where I shot down over 400 missiles with my AMS system. I also did over 100pts of damage...fairly good considering my armament was a single SRM 2. My team lost the match and my PSR went down. I did over 100pts of damage, I took over 100pts of damage and I shot down over 400 missiles...that is besides tagging mechs and working with my team constantly to do good. Saving allies from 400pts of damage is significant. But useless for PSR apparently. Clearly they only care about if your team wins and how much damage you do. Which is a tremendously limited and small minded system. It doesn't reward teamwork. It doesn't reward good tactics.

Before that experiment with AMS, I ran two SRM 2s and a TAG in my platinum Locust. It has no ECM, so I have to be very careful. In another match, I did close to 300pts of damage and had two kills. And they were solid kills, going after wounded mechs that were three times my size and still capable of taking me out very quickly...but I flanked, used speed, and shot for weak points. I did end up getting killed. My team even won the match. I'm thinking great...300+ damage, 2 kills.....and = PSR. No change. Are you kidding me? What are you expecting a locust to do in order to increase their PSR?

So again, the system is lame and unimaginative....I'd go so far as to say just outright lazy. The game is almost ten years old. And this is the best that they can do? The best advice so far in this thread is to just ignore PSR, and play the game. Because clearly Piranha Games isn't going to fix this.

And it might simply be because all that matters in who wins is how much damage you do...in most cases. Though why they even bother with other game modes I have no idea. Honestly, just make every game Skirmish and be done with it.

I was in an incursion game and instead of battling with other mechs, I went for the base and took it out. Our team won even though kill wise, we were massively losing. But we won the match...and sure enough, my PSR went down. So again, why the **** do you have a game mode where winning makes you lose skill??

It should be better, but clearly it isn't going to get that way.

[Widowmaker1981]

Tam Wolfcry, on 02 March 2023 - 07:54 AM, said:

I was in an incursion game and instead of battling with other mechs, I went for the base and took it out. Our team won even though kill wise, we were massively losing. But we won the match...and sure enough, my PSR went down. So again, why the **** do you have a game mode where winning makes you lose skill??

I see where you are coming from, but the fact is that each drop is totally self contained and has no effect on any kind of progression. Its not like a single player game where you complete the objective and move to the next mission. That means that, especially after 1000s of drops, the winner of each match is of secondary importance (to most people, in my experience) to having fun shooting mechs and individual performance.

That means that you're going to get very little sympathy when asking for PGI to incentivize people to end matches without shooting mechs (which is what increasing rewards for things like base capping would do)

The best thing, if what you care about is winning games by whatever means and not specifically blowing up enemy robots, is to stop caring about PSR. You gain nothing from it going up, in fact youll lose more frequently due to harder opposition. If its just an ego thing, you can hide the display of PSR on the front end.

[RickySpanish]

Tam Wolfcry, on 02 March 2023 - 07:54 AM, said:

Wow, the ignorance level here is fairly off the charts. Sure, if I want to cheese out, I can run a clan light mech with ECM and plenty of damage output. But I don't. I hate clan and think they are cheesy and OP long before MWO ever came out. That is my personal preference. I play IS mechs. The Locust is in the game. Therefore, you should be able to use them and have an expectation of increasing your PSR. Now, based on the actual facts of the game, there is no way every locust is able to do massive damage output. No where were they designed with that in mind. Not in the lore, not in the battletech game design. So to hold them to that standard is stupid and unrealistic.

Next, you look at the pilot skill points you can earn after each game. The vast majority of them will always be single digit points. The three main ones that I found to have significant values are Damage Done, Damage Taken, and Missiles Destroyed. Damage Taken is quite limited for the Locust due to its small size. It can only have so much armor and IS. Now recently I tested one in a game where I shot down over 400 missiles with my AMS system. I also did over 100pts of damage...fairly good considering my armament was a single SRM 2. My team lost the match and my PSR went down. I did over 100pts of damage, I took over 100pts of damage and I shot down over 400 missiles...that is besides tagging mechs and working with my team constantly to do good. Saving allies from 400pts of damage is significant. But useless for PSR apparently. Clearly they only care about if your team wins and how much damage you do. Which is a tremendously limited and small minded system. It doesn't reward teamwork. It doesn't reward good tactics.

Before that experiment with AMS, I ran two SRM 2s and a TAG in my platinum Locust. It has no ECM, so I have to be very careful. In another match, I did close to 300pts of damage and had two kills. And they were solid kills, going after wounded mechs that were three times my size and still capable of taking me out very quickly...but I flanked, used speed, and shot for weak points. I did end up getting killed. My team even won the match. I'm thinking great...300+ damage, 2 kills.....and = PSR. No change. Are you kidding me? What are you expecting a locust to do in order to increase their PSR?

So again, the system is lame and unimaginative....I'd go so far as to say just outright lazy. The game is almost ten years old. And this is the best that they can do? The best advice so far in this thread is to just ignore PSR, and play the game. Because clearly Piranha Games isn't going to fix this.

And it might simply be because all that matters in who wins is how much damage you do...in most cases. Though why they even bother with other game modes I have no idea. Honestly, just make every game Skirmish and be done with it.

I was in an incursion game and instead of battling with other mechs, I went for the base and took it out. Our team won even though kill wise, we were massively losing. But we won the match...and sure enough, my PSR went down. So again, why the **** do you have a game mode where winning makes you lose skill??

It should be better, but clearly it isn't going to get that way.

The game's not going to change though, so you can either keep running your single srm2 and play with all the other folk who are allergic to shooting at stuff, or build your Locust properly with weapons that actually do more than tickle trees. It's perfectly possible to keep up damage wise, even in a Locust. You just need more guns. If you insist on running IS Lights that is fine, by the way. The Osiris for example is kind of like the Locust's big brother and has more room for weaponry without sacrificing speed and scouting ability too much. You've also got the Spider which has great armour quirks, ECM on a variant and also room for good weapon loadouts, like 3 Light PPC, or a snub. You can also do an absolutely huge loadout of SPLs on the Firestarter and even carry a Light Engine in it to survive torso death. Lots of options!

Edited by RickySpanish, 02 March 2023 - 08:58 AM.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie]

Tam Wolfcry, on 02 March 2023 - 07:54 AM, said:

Wow, the ignorance level here is fairly off the charts.

it surely is, but not the way you think it is. people have explained the how&why to you in detail,
several times,
and yet......

Edited by Teenage Mutant Ninja Urbie, 02 March 2023 - 08:57 AM.