172 replies to this topic

[Lishta]

I play with my husband
Guess you could still say it's pugging though.

[Secundus]

Lishta, on 02 December 2012 - 11:28 AM, said:

I play with my husband
Guess you could still say it's pugging though.

You two can call whatever you do behind closed doors whatever you want. If you want to call it pugging, it's none of our business.

[Orthodontist]

Voted!

[Naeron66]

About 60% Pug I would guess. I won't try and get a premade unless I know I am going to play for at least a couple of hours. If I want some quick matches I just drop solo.

[Wolfways]

Lishta, on 02 December 2012 - 11:28 AM, said:

I play with my husband
Guess you could still say it's pugging though.

I want a divorce

[Teralitha]

RocketDog, on 02 December 2012 - 09:41 AM, said:

It's almost certainly this. We don't have hard data, but the key advantage is probably voice comms rather than being a pre-arranged team. Even a random group of players on 3rd party VOIP has a huge advantage over those just using PGI's chat window.

So coordination actually wins vs super custom build configs.... wow.

[Lefty Lucy]

As I've been grouping more and more, I'm fine with having PUGs and pre-mades in the same queue, but for the love of god limit it to one pre-made per side.

There's no reason to limit teams to four, but then allow the game to put two teams of four against 8 randoms.

The match maker *should* start off by looking for groups, and add one group to each team in the game. Then it should look for PUGs to fill each side. As of now, even if you're not abusing the match maker by sync dropping the game seems to favor filling one side with two teams if they are available, then filling the other side with PUGs, or maybe a team.

[AEgg]

I would bet that the vast majority of those that post on the forums are part of the overall minority that ever plays in an organized group. That's how it is with most game forums, anyway. The current poll responses seem to indicate that (36 random only and 46 that play premades at least some)

[anonymous175]

Does this thread mean Phase 2 is never coming?

[peve]

Solo Rambo Hero -stuff is, in my experience, much more succesful than trying to play as a team, when both teams are pugs.

You just need a good brawler mech with a good lag shield. My choise is 130kph cicada with 18 DHS and 6 mlas. Works great. I get 6-7 kills sometimes and dont even look at the map.

[soapyfrog]

If you are a decent player, and you pug exclusively, then your win rate will be about 40%. If you are phenomenal you will pull that number up, if you are terrible you will drag it down.

As a player who has PUGed 90% of his matches, my win rate sits at 46% after 1032 matches.

This is not unreasonable to me. With perfect matchmaking & PUGing, it could not go much above 50% anyway.

Edit: this includes having played a very wide range of mechs often in stock configurations for long periods of time while I earned money to outfit them. If you play esxxclusively the "best" chassis with the "best" fits you can probably drag the win rate up a bit also.

Edited by soapyfrog, 02 December 2012 - 12:29 PM.

[Sean von Steinike]

My guess is most people that PUG, don't use the forums much. I suspect the number of PUG players is far higher than what ever the poll might suggest.

[The Cheese]

I exclusively pug, but that's only because 4 man teams are the equivalent of two fingers up the no baby hole.

Once 8 man teams are back, I'll probably pug one in 20 matches.

[Sifright]

Bishop Steiner, on 02 December 2012 - 09:19 AM, said:

You see, one thing has stuck in my craw from the start about all this "PUGGY v PREMIE" qq-ing.

You have the PUGnation crying that they can't win because they keep getting stomped by Pre-Mades. And so PGI needs to bend over to their demands, or they will crash and burn since the vast majority of players, and hence, potential income is from casual PUGs.

Well the problem is BOTH statements cannot be true.

You see, if the vast majority of players are PUGs, then the vast majority of drops, YOU ARE ALSO FACING PUGS. In which case the evil Pre-Made boogeyman is a myth, and you are getting stomped primarily by other PUGs (Maybe by ones who have figured out the Command Map, text chat and teamwork stuff).

Conversely, if you are getting rolled constantly by Pre-Mades, then the majority of the players (by inference) cannot be PUGs, which means catering to PUGnation is actually counter productive. Especially since it seems most of the Serial QQ PUGs are not Founders, or have in any other way put money into the game. Whereas most of the Teams out there are mostly peopled by Founders (aka the people who actually ARE financially keeping this game afloat).


4-8 man premades on teamspeak certainly have an advantage over an all PUG group. (Of course, even casual players could just as easily use TS3 and join any of the many many PUGs in their that actually DO use voice comms). There is no denying that. And that is why they are implementing the different Phases of Matchmaking. What is ludicrous is the charge that Premades are ruining the game, since they can't both be the extreme minority of the community AND be stomping you every single match. I hear that Premies will start crying once they face real competition (which in some cases will certainly be true), but once phase 2 implements, who will PUGnation have to blame when many continue to get stomped?

SO WHICH IS IT?

Are Evil Pre-Mades REALLY ruining the game, or are you using Pre-Mades as an excuse for your own lack of skill or coordination?

Or is it really somewhere in the middle, where sometimes you get rolled by a Pre-Made, but just as likely, you got rolled by PUGs who were smart enough NOT to try the Solo Rambo Hero route?

I'd just like to point out if you drop in a match with only one premade group of four players, you have double the chance of being against the premade than with them

4 slots open on premade side vs 8 on the other.

[Red squirrel]

OK let's have a look at the poll:

42% PUG exclusively + 8% (*0.5) 50/50 + 17% PUG mostly

That's aömost 70% PUGgers. And I am damn sure those that write in the forum
are not a representative sample. I would say forum user polls will overestimate the number
of premade players.

So yes, PUGnation seems to be the majority.



My PUGxperience is that if you loose horribly you usually can see that
you were playing against 8 founders and had none at all on your team.
No offence there are many great nonfounder players.
But then there seem to be almost no founder noobs.

[Socket7]

I play lone wolf or with one of my friends.

I enjoy both winning and losing.

I took down a team of founders the other day with a group of pugs just by using team chat and calling out orders and what mechs I saw where.

Pugs can take orders just as well as premies if you bother to give them any.

[JimSuperBleeder]

Although I pug I still win most of the time so I really can't complain.

[KingNobody]

Another premade vs PUG thread. Haven't you guys had enough childish bickering yet?

[Majorfatboy]

Voted Both, but pug more.

I started out in CB in a group, then pugged exclusively for over a month. I've been playing with some groups off-and-on these past two weeks. Not so much because of cost issues or team effectiveness, just for the sake of playing with some buddies.

I still consider Myself a pug though, as I have no exclusive ties to any formal team.

[p4r4g0n]

KingNobody, on 02 December 2012 - 01:43 PM, said:

Another premade vs PUG thread. Haven't you guys had enough childish bickering yet?

Actually its been pretty civil up to now which makes a nice change.