8 replies to this topic

[NocturnalBeast]

I know this topic has been beaten to death, but after some thought, I actually agree with some of the criticism that is levelled towards the trial mech program. PGI, the solution, as pointed out by others, is very simple: get rid of trial mechs altogether and give each new account one mechbay and 10,000,000 cbills to start, plus a tutorial on how to purchase, spec, and pilot a new mech. This would eliminate suicide farming and any sense of injustice, players feel by being forced to use a limited trial mech. Do this and you will make most of your customers and potential customers happy.

[NocturnalBeast]

No feedback (positive or negative)? Very surprising.

[RonanFrost]

No feedback because the idea doesn't work.
This would not eliminate anything. I've had conversations with a couple of the suicide farmers. They do it in custom mechs no different than trials. It's a blight on the community, and the simplest way to end it is to stop rewarding people for bad behavior. If you die to overheat, you're either trying to cheat the system, or you haven't learned to pay attention to your heat.
see:
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1499190

The suicide farmers are not new players that are too lazy to try, they're players that have learned they can cheat the system to make more money faster than actually playing the game. They're players with 15-20 mechs or more, all purchased with c-bills farmed by exploiting the economy.

Edited by RonanFrost, 28 November 2012 - 02:41 PM.

[Darwins Dog]

Many new players (myself included before I bought the founders package) actually like the trial system. If I had just been given money, I probably would have bought a mech that I regretted. My only wish was that they rotated faster (I think weekly would be ideal) so that I could get a better idea of what's out there.

I still use trials just to test drive the different mechs.

If you gave players a bunch of money right away, many would find themselves wanting a refund because they didn't know enough about the game when they picked it.

[canned wolf]

New players who don't understand the system are likely to design mechs that are less viable than the trial mechs on their first few attempts. What are they supposed to do after they spend their 10 million and have an atlas with 2PPC's and ER Large Laser an LRM 20 and a AC20 with 10 heatsinks? You think digging out with a trial mech is hard? Try using a botched custom mech.

[Bhael Fire]

I'm not too worried right now...because I think it will eventually become obvious what they must do; Stop rewarding players with c-bills if they die or d/c before the match ends.

If a player dies or d/c before the match ends, they should get NOTHING more than reimbursement for mech repairs (so essentially NOTHING) and perhaps their bonus compensation for things they actually accomplished like kills, assists, etc. In other words, no automatic payment for just playing the match.

[NocturnalBeast]

Bhael Fire, on 28 November 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

I'm not too worried right now...because I think it will eventually become obvious what they must do; Stop rewarding players with c-bills if they die or d/c before the match ends.

If a player dies or d/c before the match ends, they should get NOTHING more than reimbursement for mech repairs (so essentially NOTHING) and perhaps their bonus compensation for things they actually accomplished like kills, assists, etc. In other words, no automatic payment for just playing the match.

This could work.

Edited by quasihuman, 28 November 2012 - 03:47 PM.

[Bhael Fire]

quasihuman, on 28 November 2012 - 03:44 PM, said:

This would have to take into account your contribution to your team before you died, or DC'd in order to make it fair for players who are not cheating.

That's what I said; The only compensation they would get would be for things they actually accomplished, like kills, assists, spots, ect. That is, no automatic payment for just logging into the match or if your team wins.

[sycocys]

I'm not entirely behind the name and shames - BUT - what if PGI banned these players or completely wiped their accounts clean (meaning loss of founders or any mc content they might have as well) AND made a very clear and public post including the names of all the players and their penalty for exploiting and repetitious violations of tos.

It would send a clear message that if you want to play in these manners there is a clear penalty that will be enforced. Far less coding required for something such as this, and I think it would be an effective penalty.

Maybe use a warn, wipe, then ban policy to make it somewhat fair for people that are intentionally and actually performing tests which would give them a chance to respond/halt their actions before being wiped. With certain things such as running a bot, which should be detectable through logs fairly easily (button presses being pre-timed an all) starting with a wiped account for first offense.

Now it won't be a complete fix by any means, because those that want to carry on with it will certainly try to find another way to do so, but it might be a good step in the right direction and something that could be implemented sooner, rather than later.