15 replies to this topic

[HardDrive]

I mean i know its in the game and you can que for it, But the times I have tried there has not been enough people to make a match.
My unit is finally to the point where we have enough people regularly on to start to participate in this, that has been our goal at least.
is there a night where other teams actually get on and are able to field some games?

[Duke Falcon]

On friday and saturday chances are better.
Be prepared for big premades though...
As a european I say matches usually start to occur around 21:00 local time.

[HardDrive]

Duke Falcon, on 10 February 2024 - 12:49 PM, said:

On friday and saturday chances are better.
Be prepared for big premades though...
As a european I say matches usually start to occur around 21:00 local time.

Yeah i warned my guys to not get discouraged for the first month or so cause we are going to get out arses handed to us until we get6 our crap together and even then some more after.

[Ignatius Audene]

EU Prime and NA Prime u should get matches. Especilly if u are grouped and willing to switch sides as necessary

[Lobster in Leggins]

Its as dead as the king

[tee5]

If it is dead as the king, then why I am playing it right now?

PS: Today I played 6 games in a row.

Edited by tee5, 21 April 2024 - 03:46 PM.

[MechWarrior5782621]

PGI really needs to prioritize FP this year. It may not have the highest population, but it's the best game mode & it's where all their loyal customers are.

All of these event queue weekend warriors will be gone in 6 months, and they're not the ones still spending money on this game.

[martian]

MechWarrior5782621, on 26 April 2024 - 05:30 PM, said:

PGI really needs to prioritize FP this year.

It makes no business sense to sink money into a dead game mode.

MechWarrior5782621, on 26 April 2024 - 05:30 PM, said:

It may not have the highest population, ....

I made this screenshot 1 minute ago to show you the current FP population.

Check the red frame:

MechWarrior5782621, on 26 April 2024 - 05:30 PM, said:

... but it's the best game mode ...

No, the MWO players do not think that it is the best mode. The overwhelming majority of all MWO players who tried this game mode ... has left the Faction Play.

MechWarrior5782621, on 26 April 2024 - 05:30 PM, said:

... & it's where all their loyal customers are.

Considering that the Quick Play still has much more players than the moribund Faction Pay, I would say that you are wrong.

MechWarrior5782621, on 26 April 2024 - 05:30 PM, said:

All of these event queue weekend warriors will be gone in 6 months, ...

Maybe. But I guess that in 6 months the FP will be in the state it is now.

MechWarrior5782621, on 26 April 2024 - 05:30 PM, said:

... and they're not the ones still spending money on this game.

You do not have access to the PGI's accounting data. Thus, you have not even the slightest clue how many dollars any other MWO player spends and on what.

Edited by martian, 26 April 2024 - 11:05 PM.

[MechWarrior5782621]

It makes perfect sense to invest resources in FP, if they can make a profit and keep their customers around.

You are incorrect - the red frame refers to the queue, not the population.

"No, the MWO players do not think that it is the best mode. The overwhelming majority of all MWO players who tried this game mode ... has left the Faction Play."

The same is true for QP and every other game mode.

"Considering that the Quick Play still has much more players than the moribund Faction Pay, I would say that you are wrong."

No, you are just proving my point for me. Players have left because PGI has neglected it. They can still fix it with some patches, and events with rewards, etc.

"You do not have access to the PGI's accounting data. Thus, you have not even the slightest clue how many dollars any other MWO player spends and on what."

Incorrect. You can simply talk to people to gain a general understanding, and pay attention to which game modes have more legendary mechs, etc.

[martian]

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 04:27 AM, said:

It makes perfect sense to invest resources in FP, if they can make a profit and keep their customers around.

The opportunity to "keep their customers around" in the Faction Play passed many years ago. The majority of FP customers haas already left. Sorry.

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 04:27 AM, said:

You are incorrect - the red frame refers to the queue, not the population.

And the Faction Play population reflects in those "0/0" numbers. LOL

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 04:27 AM, said:

"No, the MWO players do not think that it is the best mode. The overwhelming majority of all MWO players who tried this game mode ... has left the Faction Play."

The same is true for QP and every other game mode.

No, it is not. There are still some active players in the Quick Play active around the clock.

For example, in the Quick Play I can get a game after one or two minutes of waiting.

In the Faction Play, I could wait for half an hour and then leave the queue without actually getting a game.

This is really not the same thing.

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 04:27 AM, said:

"Considering that the Quick Play still has much more players than the moribund Faction Pay, I would say that you are wrong."

No, you are just proving my point for me. Players have left because PGI has neglected it. They can still fix it with some patches, and events with rewards, etc.

I am sorry to rain on your parade, but Russ Bullock announced that MWO is not going to have its own dedicated engineers. Essentially, MWO is going to stay in the maintenance mode indefinitely.

Since the Faction Play has not managed to attract a sufficient number of players since its inception, and then keep them around in comparison with the Quick Play ... you are not going to "fix it with some patches, and events with rewards". It is too late for that. And as I have said, there is nobody who would do that.

PGI even launched one event a few months ago, exactly as you suggested, just to remind people why Faction Play sucks so much.

This screenshot shows the Faction Play three days after the end of the last Faction Play event:



As you can see, it was still 0/0.

And this screenshot shows the Faction Play after a week after the event:



As you can see, no change.

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 04:27 AM, said:

"You do not have access to the PGI's accounting data. Thus, you have not even the slightest clue how many dollars any other MWO player spends and on what."

Incorrect. You can simply talk to people to gain a general understanding, and pay attention to which game modes have more legendary mechs, etc.

Sorry, but some random internet anons are not credible sources.

[MechWarrior5782621]

"Sorry, but some random internet anons are not credible sources."

Ok, then by your logic they should not work on QP either. You do not have access to their full financial records, and therefore there is no way for you to justify them working on QP. Exact same thing as with FP.

Your screenshots are meaningless. They could have been taken immediately after a FP game had started. Tee even mentioned that he played 6 matches in a row very recently.

Your other arguments are equally flawed. PGI is still putting out new mechs, weapons, and maps. So, obviously it would be possible to improve FP. And, rewards-based events would be very easy to accomplish. Also they put out event queue which uses dropdecks, and therefore it competes with the FP game mode. These are all decisions that they chose to make - none of it was inevitable.

[torsie]

We just played 3 FP games in a row maybe hour ago, and I think we could still play more but we stopped playing for tonight.

It is lot of fun, but I understand why some people prefer rotato potato queue.

[martian]

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 01:35 PM, said:

"Sorry, but some random internet anons are not credible sources."

Ok, then by your logic they should not work on QP either. You do not have access to their full financial records, and therefore there is no way for you to justify them working on QP. Exact same thing as with FP.

It was you - not me - who attempted to use anonymous internet voices as a serious source. LOL

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 01:35 PM, said:

Your screenshots are meaningless. They could have been taken immediately after a FP game had started. Tee even mentioned that he played 6 matches in a row very recently.

8:22 The Faction Play in the morning: Empty.

0/0




10:11 Two hours later: Still empty.

0/0




10:26 Twenty minutes later: Nobody home.

0/0




11:49: I am here alone.

0/0




12:03: Still dead.

0/0




13:31: The Faction Play in the afternoon: No players.

0/0




14:48: Nobody is interested.

0/0




15:07 Waiting is not some special fun ...

0/0




16:58 Where are all those players who are supposedly eager to enjoy the Faction Play?

0/0




20:47 Time to go to bed. The Faction Play still devoid of players.

0/0



Summary: Yesterday nobody except me was interested in the Faction Play from the morning to the evening.

All your "loyal customers" and "FP customers" failed to show up.

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 01:35 PM, said:

Your other arguments are equally flawed. PGI is still putting out new mechs, weapons, and maps.

These are just recycled items: Reskinned existing 'Mechs. Recycled existing weapons with changed stats (essentially, edited text files). Mostly recycled maps, etc.

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 01:35 PM, said:

So, obviously it would be possible to improve FP.

Everything is possible if you have resources. MWO has not.

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 01:35 PM, said:

And, rewards-based events would be very easy to accomplish.

I posted the link to the last FP event. I also posted a pair of screenshots that demonstrated that after that event the Faction Play was as dead as before.

Obviously, PGI noticed it too, so no Faction Play event has followed since then.

MechWarrior5782621, on 27 April 2024 - 01:35 PM, said:

Also they put out event queue which uses dropdecks, and therefore it competes with the FP game mode. These are all decisions that they chose to make - none of it was inevitable.

The Event queue is not the Faction Play. Sorry for pointing out the difference.

Conclusion: Enjoy the Faction Play "as is" and enjoy it while it lasts.

PGI could decide one day that the empty Faction Play is not worth paying the servers and turns it off, just like they did with the Group queue and with the Solaris 7 game mode.

[Duke Falcon]

Short answer for this topic (consider it PINNED!):

Yes!
Faction Play is still and would be a thing! Afterall it's the heart and core of MWO!

Thank you and consider this topic utterly clarified!

[torsie]

Yesterday FP session.

[Tarl Cabot]

The issue is that PGI took too long to make necessary changes to CW/FP, and kept a few changes in game too long.

• Long Tom, when it was added it became huge deterrent, and PGI kept it alive for too long. Who wants to be on the receiving end, essentially a nuke (think Arty Strike but increase it 100-fold)
  
• Even before that, one of the incentives PGI added at first was the ability to earn MC by claiming ownership of planets (units with the most wins).
  
  • After complaints PGI initiated a fee to add new members to a unit, and it was a scaling fee, it was not a flat fee. Units started dropping players who only played occasionally instead of consistently.;;
    
  • Units starting drying up.
    
  • not sure when but PGI then removed the MC ownership bonus.
• Faction Play has gone through a few iterations.
  
  • The initial setup was supposed to be a place holder but once it was added, it took a LONG time before PGI made necessary changes. This setup was a partial pie chart, started at Zero, Attackers, if they won a match, would earn a slice until the pie was max out. But if the Defender won at the beginning, they did not earn any buffer, i.e. a Tug-of-War going both ways.
    
  • Also, the players chose the planets to fight along the borders. At one point if no one showed up, they earned a win.
    
  • There was only a few CW maps.
    
  • And attackers were almost always the Clans. Inner Sphere players/units almost always wanted to "defend".
    
  • There were definitely more IS players than Clanners, initially.
    
  • NO in-game VOIP, no in-game Faction Chat even.
• By the time the 2nd big iteration went live, the unit population had dropped drastically. Active units were the lifeblood of this game. For many players, playing MWO was okay, the hook was the Unit hook, the excitement to play with fellow friends, not strangers who could give a rats' derriere about teams, they will do their own thing.
  
• 2nd iteration was a Tug-of-War setup with a total of 4 planets at stake each time.
  
  • By this time the population was a fraction of its former self.
    
  • This iterations had its own problems, especially since it was for one session of time.
    
  • Group maps were introduced in this setting. Scouting was added then eventually removed. This is where Long Tom eventually went live and ended up being the final straw that broke the camel's back.
• 3rd iteration is the current one. It is still a tug-of-war but lasts for 3 8hr sessions or waves.
  
  • By this time, it has become a graveyard.
    
  • The times it is busy is where PGI holds one of their rare FP events.
    
  • Other times, it is a hit/miss.
    
  • PGI no longer required player to ACTIVELY switch their House/Clan. Previous iterations players had to switch factions but now if you are a Clanner you would fight for the Clanner side, IS for the IS side. The only time one would switch factions was if a Clanner wanted to fight on the IS side for Clan vs IS matches.
    
  • There is no real incentive to drop in FP for many players.
• 
  
  • 
    
    • Either they drop as a unit/large group then end up grounding the small group/solo players into the ground. That is fun only for a short period of time, especially when it is a serious stomps.
      
    • For small groups/solo players, unless their team is made up of some strong players, most end up not coming back after a few stomps, unless it is an event.
  • The unit membership, if not removed, be made a flat fee AND cap a unit to standard regiment size.
    
  • PGI could/should increase the player payout, at least in C-Bills.
    
  • PGI has a match maker (chuckles) but there is no population for it to work on.
    
  • PGI prioritizes Groups over Solo players.
    
  • PGI could / should review about locking the number of unit members can drop at one time for one faction,.i.e. CWM has a group of 8 formed up (max number, if PGI locked it). Then other CWM members, dropping either as solo or another small group in an attempt to bypass that max 8-man group limit would not drop with them but next game. At this time it would be unrealistic that this would be done since there isn't a population for it to work with.
    
  • Any other options would likely rely on the players themselves to organize drops.
    
    • Coordination would likely need to be done somewhere, where more players would actually access. But as mentioned previously, not as many units as there used to be, and no real incentive to play FP vs QP.
      
    • At least in QP, one is likely to face only 4-man max (quality would still vary!!) instead of 6-8-12-man in FP.

/shrugs That is my pipe dream

I would like to see how may Spheroids would come out to play IF PGI setup an even that lasted for several weeks, not just a weekend, where FP only had House vs House events, and advertised it.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 29 April 2024 - 07:17 PM.