Tarl Cabot, on 18 October 2023 - 06:17 PM, said:
(chuckles) It would only slightly change things but not by much. One team melting the other was happening before the merge into the Soup queue.
What I would prefer to be done is to drop the max group size from 4 to 3. Then remove the min/max tonnage, changing it so that a group could only allow 1 mech per weight class. That would not stop one team from being melted but could potentially help reduce/prevent 3-4 man running the same mech, good or bad. And for the weaker groups, could put more armor on the field. It would simply change up the appearances. Then PGI could change up the teams back to where each team, overall, have matching weight class. Not sure how that would work with the current population but at least the group being set to 1 mech/weight class could change up the dynamics a little, for both sides.
The same could be achieved simply by reducing the tonnage available for a 4 man group. Then players would surely complain that a group pushed their total tonnage down and got them stomped.
There is a difference between real critiques and complaints, and bad faith gripes meant to attack people for playing the game "wrong" in the eyes of certain people. Real critiques can lead to positive changes. Bad faith gripes will simply get up and move; and there is always a dedicated contingent of players on this forum determined to find ways to select their own opposition, rather than ever adapt to the reality of the game. Losing is never a question of skill, its always the result of someone else doing something they view as illegitimate, and when you ask them what it is, they'll always come up with the latest boogeyman; groups, snipers, clans, IS, competitive players, groups again, and so on. This is a distraction, and not really indicative of any of the real challenges the game faces.
The source of the stomp pain is, as myself and many others have also said, two fold;
first, the game does not present your actual performance in a meaningful way, it only really shows match score, and damage on a per player basis, and kills on a team basis. If the game presented total team damage dealt, especially in relation to the total armor of each team, you would have a much better idea of performance, because even a 12-2 stomp might look pretty close if the team that didnt lose any mechs ended the match with every mech at 30% integrity, it just means the losers didnt turn those into kills. I dont have proof, and wont pretend i do, but I expect many a stomp is actually much closer in reality, but the game makes it seem like a clean sweep.
second, this game has no respawns, despite gamemodes being designed with respawns clearly in mind, and without respawns, every mistake compounds a team's disadvantage, and an opponent's advantage. Took a wrong turn and got wiped? well now your team is one down and the enemy might have an idea of where your team is. That could turn into the next kill, and into the next, with each loss on your team compounding into the next, like floors of a collapsing building pancaking into each other. respawns, or dropdecks, or whatever similar system, brings the actual match objective into focus, rather than letting every game mode be skirmish, or skirmish with extra steps, and it allows teams the chance to come back from mistakes and misplays, meaning you may well not know who the winner is, until the match timer actually hits zero (a match timer that i might remind the people here, can be set to whatever value you want. Nobody wants overlong quickplay games, so setting the timer to 10 minutes seems reasonable to me).
One of these is a pretty simple UI/presentation problem, the other is dramatically more structural. Given the townhall confirming what has long been suspected by some, and known by many, i doubt either of them will be addressed. This game has had a wildly long run all things considered, and is actually in a quite healthy place given the circumstances, but without a major investment, one it will not be getting, i doubt it will ever reach its highs again.
Edited by pbiggz, 19 October 2023 - 10:38 AM.
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