Lord Dantes, on 18 August 2024 - 11:59 AM, said:
You either didn't play this weekend, or are pretending not to notice the conditions on the ground. Either way, I consider your statement disingenuous.
Been playing half the day, actually. Ground out an entire new Lego battlepass thingus, plus finished a few of the Lego bonus event prizes. It's been tons of fun, this has reminded me how much I really miss 8v8. What's "disingenuous" is assuming the absence of four 'Mechs on either side of the game does anything but make MWO a much stronger experience.
Lord Dantes, on 18 August 2024 - 11:59 AM, said:
The extra people make the match slower, and provide more opportunity for unit diversity.
The extra people makie the match a
gol durned slog. Having to chew through ten-plus assault CTs is a gigantic pain in the hindus, and the overtonnage on both teams massively constricts options.
Lord Dantes, on 18 August 2024 - 11:59 AM, said:
They allow for the setting up of a proper firing line that isn't easily broken, while still having enough people for a flanking, or recon Lance.
Tell me you don't bother with regular QP much without telling me you don't bother with regular QP much.
First of all, you can set up a "proper firing line" regardless of player count. Eight 'Mechs were doing firing lines long before we had twelve 'Mechs on a team. The loss of firepower in the line from the four removed 'Mechs is countered by the reduction in the enemy's ability to counterfire from
their lost four 'Mechs.
Second of all, The Murderblob is not a "firing line". A firing line is a specific formation with communication and coordination involved, which means it does not exist in the Mosh Pit. Ten 'Mechs clumped together in the middle of the catbox do not a 'firing line' make.
Third of all, no one in the history of MWO Quick Play has
ever advocated for a "Flanking" or "Recon" lance. It's All Murderblob, All The Time, and if you're not in the Blob you're part of the problem. Light wolfpacks are already vanishingly rare in this ludicrous fat-leaning game these days, because even if you have three or four fast guys all clumped together, running into twelve Stone Rhinos on the enemy team because the assault queue is
never below 40% means you can't do anything with that speed. The twelve-man group size means fatties get more fatties to hide behind, and the Murderblob reaches a critical mass of Lyran Girth that makes any kind of battle of maneuver largely pointless. Why bother? Wherever you go, there's four hundred tons of weapons pointed in your general direction.
Lord Dantes, on 18 August 2024 - 11:59 AM, said:
The presence of snipers (assuming they don't just sit at the back of the map the entire game) and missile mechs, and ECM skirmishers with NARCs or TAGs become useful with a larger team.
If they're worth the bytes their data is made of, they're useful to a smaller team, too. And if they're so lame they can only feel like they "contributed" with eleven other people to haul their dead weight over the finish line? Then this is an absolutely welcome wake-up call.
Lord Dantes, on 18 August 2024 - 11:59 AM, said:
Under these conditions anything that isn't a pinpoint brawler, or a face-time DPS build is simply wasted tonnage. My SNAC builds, and Laser Vomits feast under these conditions, but that's not all I or many others care to drop in. I don't care how the event reads on paper. I care how it actually plays, and it plays quite poorly.
I've spent a good amount of time today in my Scaleshot, testing a new configuration. Fast striker, utterly unable to stand up to a brawl. This is the best Scaleshot has
ever done for me, and the most fun I've ever had in a Viper. The reduced tonnage bloat, and commensurate reduction in outgoing damage on either side, has freed me to skirmish like never before. The 'murderblob' in the middle only tends to be five or six 'Mechs at a time, and that is
dramatically easier to maneuver around than 10+ Stone Rhinos all having a Hippo Mud Bath at the dom point. it's not necessarily
easy, I still have to be on my toes, but man. I haven't felt like my own decisions and abilities have mattered this much in a MWO game in
forever.
Hell - earlier today I dropped in my new War Emu and one of our lances was a squad of UrbanMechs.
UrbanMechs. Four goddamned Capellan Trash Cans, a Hangover, a Discourteous Doge, a bad triple LPL Victor, and me in my eighty-five ton
Australian Murder Chicken which wasn't even fully skilled when this match happened. Enemy team had multiple assaults, at least one Warthog, and a distinct lack of an entire lance of UrbanMechs.
Won that game, 8-5 I believe. Personally scored two kills, and blew off half a Stone Rhino before I went down.
What you're experiencing is the game as it was originally designed to be. Anyone who was here in Ye Olden Tymes is remembering all the tactics you could do with the smaller engagement sizes and having a blast. The new folks who've never played 8v8 are trying to play an 8v8 game like it's a 12v12 game with four disconnects, and that's
not how you do. Give up the Murderblob Mentality, take command of your own destiny, and assail the enemy. If you're assailing the enemy as a single ERLL Narctic Cheetah? Cool. Do you. I've got no issues with it. Wins are great, losses are inevitable. Your time for the Great W will come.
Edited by 1453 R, 18 August 2024 - 12:43 PM.