Okay. Your post is so long, I'm going to break it down into more respond-able bite sized pieces. I mean no disrespect by doing this, just want to make sure responses are clear.
VeeOt Dragon, on 21 August 2025 - 10:42 AM, said:
honestly drop decks would make this game even less accessible to new players. the biggest problem with MM right now is not so much the system itself (neither 8v8 or drop decks will do much if anything to help wait times overmuch.) it is the low player counts. as has already been stated dropdecks would adversely effect new players the most. not only do new plays not have the mechs to fill out a drop deck but even with cross tech slots it just gives them even more crap o have to worry about. not only that but with the inevitable spawn camps (or across map sniping) its more likely that less skilled or unlucky players will very likely lose all their mechs and now not only are they locked in a match they can't participate in anymore but now they have 4 mechs locked up instead of just one. hell i have over 100 mechs in my stables and some days i am just in the mood to play a certain mech. if i die early i have to deal with the frustration of having to wait for the match to end before i can play that mech again (even worse when you have the inevitable light that runs off hides and shuts downs to pad their k/d numbers). you would also have to give each player at lest 2 QP drop decks at minimum though PGI would likely just charge real money for a second one the way things have been going lately. now multiply that by 4. i am not going to say that dropdecks are the reason FP is dead because its not but QP is bad enough with groups.
Gonna start from the top (seems like a wise place to start at).
Drop decks and new players.
I can see this being more of a hindrance for players without 4 owned mechs that could fit into a drop deck together. On the note of that, there are the free champion mech trials people can use to fill in these decks. Sure, it will take longer for new players to get a full drop deck functional as they want, but I don't think this would be off putting to new players as a whole. Gives people something to do, a goal to aim for, a reason to play. New Player rewards can also be adjusted, as they get extra C-bills for their first 25 matches (I believe). This amount could be boosted to be able to get a full deck made within those 25 matches, rather than just one or two mechs.
Another point in favor of Drop Decks for new players is that they are engaged longer per match. They die by making a mistake? Rather than having to learn and wait for the next match, they can select a new mech in their drop deck and get right back into the action. This gives a player more changes to learn and do stuff per match. New players likely will enjoy this feature more, as they aren't watching people play, but actually playing.
On notation of the Match Maker, how it works, and how the Drop Decks could improve it (to the extent of my knowledge).
You mention low player counts as the main problem with MM. If the player counts are low, then 8v8 should reduce wait times, as fewer players needed would mean less time waiting for said players to sign up for matches. However, I saw a rather large negative feedback from this on the forums (could be the vocal minority, but seen as it was cancel early...) with people boycotting the game "until this is fixed". So, I think the players have given a resounding "no" to 8v8.
So, with 8v8 reducing the number of players needed to trigger a match seemingly out of the question, we need alternatives to ease MM's burden. If we can't do fewer people per match, then what else? Remove PSR? Then we will hear even more complaints about high skilled players "seal clubbing" the newer players. No. I do not think that will work. The last part of the MM that can be adjusted are mech class restrictions.
For mech class restrictions, you need to understand how the MM works in detail, and this is all "to the last of my knowledge". When a match is being formed, MM looks at specific things to form a match.
- It grabs a random "seed" player. This is the player it will concentrate matching around.
- It looks at said player's PSR and attempts to match around that, while sticking to a 3/3/3/3 mech class restriction (3 of each mech class).
- If it can't find enough players within 3/3/3/3 and PSR, it will first open the PSR gates by +/-1 rank.
- If it still can't find enough players quickly enough with the rules of 3/3/3/3 and PSR +/-1 of the player, it will open up to +/-2 of the player.
- If it still can't find a match after a long time, it will drop the 3/3/3/3 rule all together, just matching on PSR +/-2 alone.
- It will continue in that last stage until enough players are match.
This current system, with consideration of a 60%+ assault mech queue, means that players are having to wait for the last opening gate before the system just starts tossing in all those extra assault mechs in queue into a match haphazardly. This, on top of a lower population count, on top of needing 24 players to start a match (rather than 16) it what is causing the long wait times for finding a match. This is also how we end up with matches with 2 assaults on one side, and 6 on the other... and other strange match finding abilities.
As we have people complain about one side having too much tonnage over their own team, and that it's resulting in a stomp, we obviously can't remove the 3/3/3/3 rule either at current MMing systems.
This issue is also exasperated by having up to three different buckets for players to drop into. These buckets are N. American server, EU server, and Pacific server. You can currently opt out of up to two of these forcing the MM to only work with only one server. It may also be needed to consider only letting a player be able to opt out of one of these, so there ends up being fewer buckets to separate players from matches.
Drop Decks, and how they relieve the problem.
With drop decks in the QP format, it will remove an entire section of the MM completely. No longer would MM have to wait till last to open the mech class gate, because there would no longer be a mech class gate at all. Everyone has so much tonnage to bring, and they can drop in one of up to 4 mechs at a given time, up to all 4 if they die a lot in the match. This one removal means we should see better built matches based on PSR, as well as faster match finding times as the system no longer needs to wait so long before removing the final gate(s) from the MM system.
As for number of Drop Decks, I didn't consider that. Either people would just have to change an existing Drop Deck, removing invalid mechs that are locked in a match, or most likely PGI could have 2 free decks, and be able to purchase up to an additional 2 more with MC... I will admit, this was a factor I had not considered. But, 4 mechs to use within 15 min matches, unless you are either suicide bombing the enemy, or just being overly reckless, I don't believe many people will lose all 4 mechs in a single QP match. So, players are more likely to be in a match and active, rather than quitting a match because they are perma-dead. I feel it will likely be a rare occurrence to have mechs still locked in a match with drop decks implemented, but it is a very valid point I had no considered.
I noticed you mentioned the frustrating issue of a lone surviving mech shutting down in a corner in an attempt to not die. With Drop Decks, this should become a habit of the past. I think it would be extremely unlikely that, in a 15 min mission window, you are going to have one lone survivor on a team to hide. You likely will have the match end with mechs still alive on both sides.
You mentioned group play as well. I can't say much about that, as there are few things besides separation that can solve that issue. The best I can come up with is the hope that Drop Decks relieve enough on the MM to permit groups to drop in their own queue again (and I'd have it so that solos can opt in to dropping with groups, because I still would with no issue). Otherwise, I don't think much can be done with groups, unless you want to ban groups completely, but that would mean you can't play with your friends unless you do private matches... which I feel would be very bad for this game.
Spawn Camping, and ways to change Respawn to help.
I have already mentioned several ways to reduce, or even remove, spawn camping from the game. How effectively it could be implemented is more so the question. We could introduce invincibility upon spawn for a few seconds. We could have more than 3 drop zones, with some form of code to drop mechs in a zone clear of enemies within whatever amount of meters, etc. Invincibility can make spawn camping an unwise choice, as a mech you can't damage might be able to wreck your face for a few seconds...
VeeOt Dragon, on 21 August 2025 - 10:42 AM, said:
you also have the fact that a bad match is even worse because you are now stuck in it longer. so instead of losing 12-1 and cowardly hiding mechs aside its over quickly enough. now you have to burn through your entire dropdeck before you can reroll the match rng. thats one of the things i like about QP if you get a **** team, **** match-up or even an oopsy (like forgetting to equip ammo on a new build before starting, come on we all have done it before) its over quick and you can try again instead of having to slog through it just being a damage farm for the enemy team.
now on the flip side something i wouldn't mind having for QP is a sort of two slot dropdeck but no respawns. instead at the start of the match after the map is selected you get to pick which of the two mechs you want to run. (maybe put in a restriction that the two have to be of the same weight class and give each player one deck for each class just in case that ever returns to the MM calculations (i am pretty sure they removed that when they merged QP with Group, i know it doesn't calculate the tonnage of any mechs within a group. (its always frustrating when you pull out a Tbolt or LRM mech and end up on Merick or Solaris, or you choose a brawler and get one of the more sniper infested maps. that way you could at least have a better chance of having a mech more suited to the map.))
the way i look at it any future major changes should have new player retention being foremost. thats what keeps MWO and games like it going. not the old salts and die hards but the new players. new players are also more likely to spend money on things than those of us who are sitting on fortunes in C-Bills and even enough MC to easily buy a couple hero mechs or any mech bays we might need..
A Drop Deck means that you wont lose 12-1, but likely will have damaged them enough to likely be able to trade more on the second wave... Even then, you could have matches with a stomp happening, and still win via objectives. Right now, every match turns into TDM, sometimes with a slight spin to get just enough of the objective to keep yourself from losing, like getting minimum 2 points in Conquest, or getting a single mech to stand in the circle on Domination. With a Drop Deck, you will find that more matches will have to play to the mission mode, or they will lose by focusing too much on the killing.
Drop decks also should, in theory, lead to better match ups. So fewer matches should become so one sided.
As for an Oopsie, we've all I'm sure done something like... forgetting ammo or not changing to the right ammo. With a Drop Deck, you could eject out of a bad mech like that and just select your next one. I find it unlikely all four mechs in a deck would be build with an Oopsie.... Now the whole match isn't a dud, only one of your mechs was and you can just keep going.
As for new players, I feel Drop Decks would actually help them greatly. Not only do they get into matches faster, but they play in a match longer. They have more goals to aim for (getting 4 mechs owned, skilled and customized), but also means they are more likely to be doing stuff, rather than waiting on the next match or (if they don't realize they can exit a match once dead) watching a match after death.
As a new player, I like having goals to achieve in a game, as well as want more time to play said game. There are reasons games with "energy" or "Stamina" that recharges slowly over time gives gobs of it to new players for everything they do. It gets players excited to keep being able to play the game, until the rewards for level up stop coming, and the resource to keep playing dries up, but by then those games either already have you, or they never will keep you anyway. So, keeping players active, even on a per match basis, is a good thing. I don't see Drop Decks hurting this at all.
As for monetary ends for MWO (something we need to also consider) for new players, you have only 4 mech bays to start. PGI gives enough bays away for free, and MC, to keep a new free to play player alive and functional over time. However, players who want new stuff "now" might toss a few bucks to PGI for additional mech bays for more options to change up a drop deck. Might purchase a mech pack to have more bays and mechs. Etc.
However, PGI kind of wrote themselves into a wall when this has become more of a collect them all mech game, rather than other options. Needing a set of 3 mechs to master a chassis wasn't bad, but I also am happy they removed that from the game. (I recall cycling through mechs on a single mech bay, planning on the last mech I purchase being the final piece to master the chassis because I only had the one bay free. So long ago.) They could have given some rewards for each mastered mech, meaning players might be more likely to purchase and sell mechs to get those rewards...
So, drop decks could improve not only new player experience, but also revenue options for PGI. I'm still not seeing much of a down side to adding drop decks into QP, besides the fact some people have already said "no" to it without even listening to the proposal, or "FP was bad" when that had little to nothing to do with drop decks.
As you've probably noticed, I'm open to the discussion, and even pointing out flaws with it. I want to remind everyone that I'm appreciative of constrictive feedback and well written opinions on the subject. I'd rather be doing something in an attempt to improve the game, be it Drop Decks or some other idea.
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