98 replies to this topic

[Panzer76]

Hi,

I've played this game for some weeks/months now and like the concept. I'm not the best and I'm not the worst. I'm usually at the mid to top damage dealer on my team.

The last few weeks this game has stopped being fun for me. The reason is the many battles were the enemy team is dominating my team to the point were we are lucky if we manage to kill 2 Mechs.

The response to this is usually that I should also join a team and play with them on TS.

But that's not what I want. I want to be able to drop in, play games when I can (not everyone have free time to spend as they want) and have fun.

There are plenty of other online, PvP games that can offer me this. They also offers team play, but not where team play is such a dominating factor as here. This is due to size of the teams.

For instance, in World of Tanks which I have played extensively, each team is 15 players. You can create platoons of up to three vehicles. As such, the 1 platoon size vs team is max 5:1. The platoon absolutely can affect the outcome of the battle, but not to the extent as we see in Mechwarrior.

I'm a simple man. If I have different offers of entertainment, I choose the one that can entertain me the most at my terms. As of now, Mechwarrior is not my #1 choice due to the play mechanics of teams and how it heavily influences the outcome of the battle.

Perhaps this is design as intended, if so, this is not the game for me. If not, I hope to see improvement soon.

[Vila deVere]

To each his own. For this game to be successful, it MUST be more than "giant stompy robot deathmatch" Because otherwise, it's not MechWarrior.

In other words, if they do as you suggest, I'm outta here.

[Panzer76]

Vila deVere, on 17 November 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

To each his own. For this game to be successful, it MUST be more than "giant stompy robot deathmatch" Because otherwise, it's not MechWarrior.

In other words, if they do as you suggest, I'm outta here.

Absolutely. Im not saying it should be as I want. It's just that if wont be like that I would like to know, so I can stop spending time on it.

[Alexa Steel]

Panzer76, on 17 November 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

Absolutely. Im not saying it should be as I want. It's just that if wont be like that I would like to know, so I can stop spending time on it.

How about that? You add me or one person that you find "cool" and they show you the ropes, share some tactics. You dont have to join a group thats nonesense, but it might help having somebody to talk to, when having problems ingame.

Maybe you run into a well known trap and just did not know about it. You see what I mean?

[Krivvan]

You're not necessarily saying this, but I just wanted to add something to clear up some possible misconceptions.

When people say "join TS and join a group" they do not mean joining a clan/corp or anything that involves any commitment whatsoever. They mean just quickly finding 3 other random people and then playing a couple games with them. It's faster than a matchmaker in other games. Even those groups of 4 consisting of completely random people that don't even talk enjoy much higher w/l ratios.

[Firion Corodix]

I think teams of four should work fine in pugs, what MWO just needs is bigger matches. Right now it's 8vs8 against WoTs 15vs15. To get the same 5:1 ratio teams of 2 would even be too big. But bigger matches would probably be a very bad idea until they fix the netcode issues, since if you increase the amount of players per match those issues will probably grow in severity too.
They are working towards increasing the size to 12vs12, aren't they? So at least it's going in the right direction

Edited by Firion Corodix, 17 November 2012 - 02:27 PM.

[Silra]

People have different concepts of fun. For example I absolutely dislike the all-out brawls where both sides charge at eachother and just slug it out. In that case the side with first shots and/or better focus firing wins every time. I prefer slower moving matches with serious tug-of-war, usage of cover and actually having to think of what I am doing.

The big difference to many other instant-action games here is that there are no straight up 1-shot kills (some exceptions apply, it's a generalization). Lone wolf style play where one tries to take on the whole enemy team by themselves does not bring good results. That is in the nature of the game, it's a team-oriented game. We can argue that WoT is similar in ways, except there are blatant power differences there (you can end up in a match where you can barely damage anyone else, and everyone else can basically 1-shot you).

There is no need to get on voice coms and try to sort out teams. I myself PUG a lot when friends are not around. Just like every game where you are part of a team of PUGs, you will have worse games and better games. Communication is not even necessary either. Understanding that you are part of a team and playing as part of a team, focus firing targets with your team mates and so forth is the key thing here.

So all in all, if you're not a team player, you do not want to see yourself as part of the 8-man team you get matched into the game with, then unfortunately this is not a game for you. To repeat, you do not need to be on voice coms, you do not need to type in the match. However you still are part of the 8-man team, and if you help them out, they will eventually start helping you out in return.

[Jiggawatts]

All the founder mech enthusiasts can try and whitewash it but MWO in its current state is an average game experience at best. Atm its really keeping an endless list of things not worthy a decent successful game in a year 2012. And many of you are fooling yourself if you think MWO can be anywhere near profitable solely on the cash of those players who would play a mech game no matter how good or bad it is (aka founders). Pirahna needs to overthink quite few mechanics if they ever want to attract more than just few old school mech enthusiasts. I enjoyed MW many years ago and I am quite disappointed to see this great franchise be such a buggy mediocre game. I was hoping for so much more. Still hoping since its still beta...

[Panzer76]

Silra, on 17 November 2012 - 02:27 PM, said:

People have different concepts of fun. For example I absolutely dislike the all-out brawls where both sides charge at eachother and just slug it out. In that case the side with first shots and/or better focus firing wins every time. I prefer slower moving matches with serious tug-of-war, usage of cover and actually having to think of what I am doing.

No discussion there. I also enjoy those kind of games.

Silra, on 17 November 2012 - 02:27 PM, said:

Understanding that you are part of a team and playing as part of a team, focus firing targets with your team mates and so forth is the key thing here.

And I do. In WoT and other games, Im still part of a team. And I try to work with them, cover them, focus fire etc. I AM a team player, but I dont want to be "forced" into TS or a lance to be a team player. But, these players due to the low amount of players on each team, makes such a huge difference in the outcome of a battle, it most often a game changer.

Again, it is a misconception that players that wont, cant or otherwise do not join TS/lance/clan etc are not team players. It is just that faced against such a force, you have very little chance, to basically, have fun.

[Alexa Steel]

Jiggawatts, on 17 November 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

All the founder mech enthusiasts can try and whitewash it but MWO in its current state is an average game experience at best. Atm its really keeping an endless list of things not worthy a decent successful game in a year 2012. And many of you are fooling yourself if you think MWO can be anywhere near profitable solely on the cash of those players who would play a mech game no matter how good or bad it is (aka founders). Pirahna needs to overthink quite few mechanics if they ever want to attract more than just few old school mech enthusiasts. I enjoyed MW many years ago and I am quite disappointed to see this great franchise be such a buggy mediocre game. I was hoping for so much more. Still hoping since its still beta...

Agreed, there are alot of problems. Some can be fixed through players helping players, some cant.

[Vermaxx]

Mystical Community Warfare will solve all the problems! The 8-ball told me so!

[Broceratops]

eventually there will be a matchmaker which puts you against people with the same odds of success so you will get stomped less. other than waiting if you're not willing to join a group right now there is nothing you can do except take your stompings

[Vassago Rain]

Jiggawatts, on 17 November 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

All the founder mech enthusiasts can try and whitewash it but MWO in its current state is an average game experience at best. Atm its really keeping an endless list of things not worthy a decent successful game in a year 2012. And many of you are fooling yourself if you think MWO can be anywhere near profitable solely on the cash of those players who would play a mech game no matter how good or bad it is (aka founders). Pirahna needs to overthink quite few mechanics if they ever want to attract more than just few old school mech enthusiasts. I enjoyed MW many years ago and I am quite disappointed to see this great franchise be such a buggy mediocre game. I was hoping for so much more. Still hoping since its still beta...

And it usually comes down to either deathballing the other team to pieces, or sitting in their red square.

[FLes]

Panzer76, on 17 November 2012 - 02:12 PM, said:

(...)
But that's not what I want. I want to be able to drop in, play games when I can (not everyone have free time to spend as they want) and have fun.
(...)

You have no idea what TS is or how does it work. You don't have to be in any permanent group. You just connect to TS whenever you want, join a group on the spot and start playing in the matter of minutes.

1. Install Teamspeak 3
2. Add Comstar EU or US, you have adress and pass in the sticky somewhere here on the forum
3. Join "looking for group channel" and wait a bit or
Join an empty Dropship # channel and create your own group or
Join Dropship channel that lacks one or more players and ask if you can play with them
4. Congrats, you just became OP premade

Main problem with pugs is that they are totally uninformed and lazy, and have this delusion that TS requires lot of time or effort, while in reality it takes a couple of minutes to join a group and start playing. There is nothing to it.

Edited by FLes, 17 November 2012 - 03:01 PM.

[Alexa Steel]

FLes, on 17 November 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

You have no idea what TS is or how does it work. You don't have to be in any permanent group. You just connect to TS whenever you want, join a group on the spot and start playing in the matter of minutes.

Again, some people dont want to do that.

[Cearrdorn]

Panzer76, on 17 November 2012 - 02:48 PM, said:

No discussion there. I also enjoy those kind of games.



And I do. In WoT and other games, Im still part of a team. And I try to work with them, cover them, focus fire etc. I AM a team player, but I dont want to be "forced" into TS or a lance to be a team player. But, these players due to the low amount of players on each team, makes such a huge difference in the outcome of a battle, it most often a game changer.

Again, it is a misconception that players that wont, cant or otherwise do not join TS/lance/clan etc are not team players. It is just that faced against such a force, you have very little chance, to basically, have fun.

So if they had made the decision to allow you to turn the hud off, and had included voice chat, would your complaint still be valid? I mean basically folks are telling you that you're playing without a needed tool, and your response is "I shouldn't need the tool." That's fine, but you're handicapping at that point, so your frustrations is self imposed. I have been pugging since the tail in of the Closed beta and the reset. I joined the Lone Wolves (we're not a clan, we're lone wolf pilots who congregate.) The change has been tremendous. You can just listen, but tactical coordination is a key part of this game, which is based on tactics and strategy and not just pew pew pew. So if you want to continue to play with a handicap fine, but that is your self imposed handicap. LIke my tagline for flashing vent in another game, "You don't have to be able to talk, but it helps if you're able to listen." Folks should not be forced to stop and type to coordinate with you, often those critical seconds are death for anyone that's engaged.

[Vassago Rain]

FLes, on 17 November 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

You have no idea what TS is or how does it work. You don't have to be in any permanent group. You just connect to TS whenever you want, join a group on the spot and start playing in the matter of minutes.

We don't want to go outside the game to - well - play the game.
Is it really so hard for people to understand this? It shouldn't be a requirement.

[Vermaxx]

The game tells we need a 3rd party utility to set up groups.

And a 3rd party utility to report bugs.

And a separated (website run by PGI, but still not there) utility to see what mechs have what hardpoints, how much [stat] weapons do, and get general tutorials.

I sense a pattern.

[Alexa Steel]

Cearrdorn, on 17 November 2012 - 02:55 PM, said:

So if they had made the decision to allow you to turn the hud off, and had included voice chat, would your complaint still be valid? I mean basically folks are telling you that you're playing without a needed tool, and your response is "I shouldn't need the tool." That's fine, but you're handicapping at that point, so your frustrations is self imposed. I have been pugging since the tail in of the Closed beta and the reset. I joined the Lone Wolves (we're not a clan, we're lone wolf pilots who congregate.) The change has been tremendous. You can just listen, but tactical coordination is a key part of this game, which is based on tactics and strategy and not just pew pew pew. So if you want to continue to play with a handicap fine, but that is your self imposed handicap. LIke my tagline for flashing vent in another game, "You don't have to be able to talk, but it helps if you're able to listen." Folks should not be forced to stop and type to coordinate with you, often those critical seconds are death for anyone that's engaged.

Marcos that allow players to give simple orders would help out alot.

[Vassago Rain]

Vermaxx, on 17 November 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

The game tells we need a 3rd party utility to set up groups.

And a 3rd party utility to report bugs.

And a separated (website run by PGI, but still not there) utility to see what mechs have what hardpoints, how much [stat] weapons do, and get general tutorials.

I sense a pattern.

Yes, and it's best if you also have a third party forum, that's not really a forum, where the actual critical discussion goes on, while funny images are posted.

Then we might need a third party wiki that sorts good builds.

Alexa Steel, on 17 November 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

Marcos that allow players to give simple orders would help out alot.

Like in counter-strike. Press a button, your guy says 'follow me.'