First some background.
I play with a group of people where we rarely have 8 on at the same time.....Normally the numbers waver between 4 and 6 and so with current Matchmaking rules we have to split teams and do other things of that nature. This is fine for now but we where hoping for an end to that with matchmaking phase 2. Originally any group size up to 7 was going to be fine and 8 would be 8v8 only. I can see how this would be bad for pugs and possibly why they made the choice to change phase 2 to this. http://mwomercs.com/...79-matchmaking/
Under this new version of Matchmaking Phase 2 there would be 2 modes....a mode where 2-3-4 man groups would be matched agianst other 2-3-4 man groups with pugs filling in empty slots only but with a 4 man maximum and all the normal weight class matchmaking rules apply. Then there is 8 man mode where you would only be grouped with another 8man premade and 8 is the minimum with no restrictions or matching based on weight class ....a free for all.
This got me a bit frustrated, I could not believe my eyes and so I sent in a support ticket asking for clarification You see under this new phase 2 match making 5-6-7 man groups would not be allowed. This is the response I got back.
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Reppu (MechWarrior® Online™)
Dec 01 10:01 (PST)
Hello Tuku,
Groups of 5, 6 or 7 will not be able to launch, even in Phase 3. The reason for this is that a 7-man premade against a public group has too wide of an advantage, and if we set a 7man group to be in the full premade matchmaking queue, it wouldn't be an even match either as that 8th slot would not be filled (or would be filled with a random public player that wouldn't be part of your team efforts for the most part)
8 player groups will NEVER be matched up against anything other than other 8 player groups.
4(or less) player groups will only be matched up against other 4(or less) player groups, doesn't necessarily need to be equal, with the rest of the slots being filled by a mix of other small groups and random solo players.
Regards,
Reppu
Senior GameMaster
MechWarrior® Online™
It seems that even in phase three 5-6-7 mans will not be allowed with the current incarnation of the rules. This becomes a very large annoyance for my group of friends who despite the bugs still enjoy and support MWO on a daily basis. It is never any fun to be the 5th man to pop on only to find out that you have to go into a pug because the group is full....or worse yet break up a current group to include another person. Now when a 6th joins it becomes a bit better because we can possibly break into 2 groups of 3 but still that is time on restructuring our group that could be spent playing one or two more matches and having fun together.
So I responded to the support ticket and let him know about my concerns and they replied with.
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Reppu (MechWarrior® Online™)
Dec 01 13:17 (PST)
Hello Tuku,
I can see your point. I would suggest to keep giving your feedback in the suggestion forums about this - the devs will value a solid discussion more than a single ticket (since it would generally involve a bigger number of players)
It's also possible that this will come in the future, but I'm not too sure how it would be done.
If you're group of 5, 6 or 7 players were to launch, would you prefer to be matched up other premade groups or pugs?
If you are a group of 5 and would prefer to be matched up against a premade group, configuring the matchmaker to only match you against other groups of 5 would make it a lot longer before finding matches. If you're in a group of 7 and want to be matched up against pugs, well you wouldn't have much of a challenge for the most part, not to mention pugs wouldn't like it either.
Part of the reason for this is based on game lore. A lance of Mechs is 4 Mechs. The idea behind a full 8 player groups is two lances, usually with different areas of expertise.
Regards,
Reppu
Senior GameMaster
MechWarrior® Online™
I will take a moment and answer his questions each in turn here publicly to express my views first and then move on .
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Premdes only! Pugstomping....while great for my wallet is horribly boring after you run your 4th or 5th 2 min match in a row where your team basically marches over the enemy team and stops for nothing. The best matches I have had came down to the wire....The kills staying even for the entire game...multiple flanks and counter flanks....one mistake gets you a dead mech....A pile of destruction laying across the battlefield and it comes down to 2 mechs circling each other each with heavy damage and weapons destroyed .....now THAT is fun.
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To that I say this, when I say 5-6-7 groups should only be matched with other premades....I mean that they should be matched with any premade that is 7 or less....Not 5s with 5s and 6s with 6s because the man is right, that would slow finding a group to a crawl. I could see how some would say "But if I am in a 4man and I am matched with a 7man on the other side do we really have any hope of winning? " Well I look at it this way. If there is a 4man and a 7 man comes up to be matched with it....the system should try to find another 2 or 3 man to stick with the 4 man and fill the last slot with a pug....If it cant then 4 pugs it is but I think that this would do allot to even the playing field. Of course it would require people to use words in game but....that is a risk they will just have to take. This would also solve the problem of pugs worrying about a 7man enemy team and all they have with a 4....if it can be set up so that as much as possible there would premades grouped together in the same 8 drop then they would conceivably get more pug vs pug matches.
The problem that I see with not having 5-6-7 man groups available is one of fun essentially. When you get 5 guys together to play mechwarrior you all want to jump into the same match and see the same wild weird wacky and amazing things happen....Laugh when you accidently TK your buddy because he walked infront of your AC20 or make fun of bad load outs on other mechs together If you have to break up into multiple teams or leave one guy out of the fun because of group size restrictions that becomes not as fun anymore because one or two of your friends aren't there to see that amazing match you just had...Yea you can tell the story afterward but it is just not as good as being there.
I don't have all the answers....I am one guy with his own biases and such but I would like the discussion on this topic to continue and stay at the top of the list so that the devs see it. I would also love to see what those who pug exclusively and have been the "victem" of pug stomps all to often think of this idea as well. Without a counter point a discussion becomes a statement.
In closing I would just like to ask the PGI Devs PLEASE find a way to make 5-6-7 man groups work and still be fair to pugs....And when you have an idea PLEASE let us know what that is. I know I will give constructive feedback on it.
PLEASE
Picture goes here of puppy dog eyes but for some reason the thing wont let me post it
Edited by Tuku, 03 December 2012 - 02:21 AM.