17 replies to this topic

[Suko]

I generally play in a group of 3 or 4 guys and have never played in a 8 man group (no real desire to, either). Those 8 man group guys were really vocal a few months back, but lately I haven't heard much from them.

So, how is the 8 vs 8 thing these days? Is it good, bad, both? Are most of those guys now doing 4 x 4 sync drops? I'm just curious.

[Redshift2k5]

The last time(last week or so) I played 8-mans it was fine. Still a lot more trouble to organize and ready up than the 4-mans.

[Z0MBIE Y0SHI]

Been doing it on average maybe 4-5 times a week. It's not near as bad as people make out, at least the whole 'ITS NOTHING BUT 5 DDC's AND 3 3L'S!'

I do notice a trend in lights becoming more and more rare. Also, jumping 3D's went from rare to everywhere.

A lot of people did bail on 8 mans. Some for good reasons (non-existent weight limitations) other's bad (I CANT GRIND PUGS EASY NEMOAR!)

[zhajin]

yeah the real issue is the difficulty of keeping 8 players. my corp runs scheduled groups a few nights a week, but for those of us who can not make that schedule its easier to stick with 2-4 man groups.

I am really hoping that the full match maker will take grouping into account so that grouping can be opend up again. Things will get even thougher when they up it to 12 man runs if they dont...

Edited by zhajin, 11 February 2013 - 02:17 PM.

[TygerLily]

I haven't really had much fun with them. Weight matching, to me, leads to unbalanced teams which aren't all that fun. And as Redshift says, they take more time to get everyone "ready" so you get less matches in.

You just feel like you have to run your A+ mech when you'd rather be levelling something else too...haha.

[Vlad Ward]

There are maybe a dozen or two groups that play 8-mans regularly. It's impossible to find Conquest games even in NA primetime. Assault games usually match you up against the same half dozen or so groups. But it's still fun.

Group homogeneity is not nearly as much of an issue as some people make it out to be. It is a lot more competitive than the regular queue, though, so "VOIP PUGs" like Comstar are nowhere near viable against Merc Corps teams.

[Broceratops]

i notice many more groups than before. a couple months ago you could identify what company most groups are part of. now you see more people you've not seen before.

[Cpt Hammer]

8 mans are a challenge, but I feel they take some of the fun (aka randomness) out of the game. They've devolved into specific builds and if you deviate from the prescribed numbers of ecm + support + specific loadouts, then you're at an immediate dissadvantage. It's high level play, but it's sterile.

[Lukoi Banacek]

Redshift2k5, on 11 February 2013 - 02:07 PM, said:

The last time(last week or so) I played 8-mans it was fine. Still a lot more trouble to organize and ready up than the 4-mans.

that'd be my only issue with 8's these days....people have RL stuff to do and it interrupts the ebb and flow of gaming. With 4 mans, even if you drop short a time or two, you can continue to just drop drop drop and have fun without the lull that seems inherent to 8mans.

What fight's I've had during 8 mans have always been good, especially since the tactical scenarios that occur are so different than 4mans.

[Protection]

It's a shame but you almost never see medium mechs anymore. We're one of the last teams committed to keeping at least 2 mediums in every 8-man drop, but most people seem to skip them for more heavies or assaults.

That said, skill varies pretty widely. You come across pretty weak teams and pretty amazing teams game to game.

8-mans are still pretty serious though. It's not where to go to make C-Bills, it's where you go to test your mettle. This isn't the place to brink AC/2 builds or silly/fun builds -- generally you want pretty serious and optimized mechs.

[Flash Yoghurt]

I have to agree with Cpt Hammer on this. Our corp does semi-regular 8 mans, but I myself dont enjoy them that much. I think its mostly because of the weight matching issues. I favoure medium mechs, which are currently outside of the "fast missileboat" role not viable. The inviroment is really restrictive in what kinds of mechs you can bring to be competitive.

[hammerreborn]

I'm not a huge fan of 8s because of not only are they annoying to set up, aside from maybe RHOD groups theres just no place for light pilots that will just get cored instantly by the enemies entire line of PPC/Guassboats that just camp in one spot the entire match.

Out of the 16 or so matches I played last week I think I saw maybe 3 other lights than myself, and every single match was just a camp/snipe borefest.

It's just not even fun at all, not because I hate organized play and "hard mode", but because as others have said, it's sterile, boring campfests of who brings the heavier/better snipers.

If weight matching or weight limits were implemented, or even forced 2/2/2/2 setups, I'd probably enjoy it a lot more.

Edited by hammerreborn, 11 February 2013 - 02:50 PM.

[Icebound]

We don't play them too often anymore. Very few teams go into them casually, so if you don't have a strategy and everyone on your team set up properly, you're going to lose. It takes a long time to get prepared for it generally, so you're better off just doing 4-mans.

A long time ago I made a thread about this where I said that 8-man games should have higher payouts because it takes so much longer to get going and you generally face fiercer competition, but I got flamed by hundreds of screaming pugs. So now most people who would be playing 8-mans are back to slaughtering pugs in 4-mans because it's faster.

Edited by Icebound, 11 February 2013 - 02:52 PM.

[Max Immelmann]

it is still, "bring the biggest mech you got" party. and a couple of ECM lights.

although last night i encountered a 8 man group of ALL lights.........

they lost

[Rotaugen]

I'm seeing a LOT more PPC sniping now. 8 guys line up and pour chained PPCs at the first person to appear.

[Kraven Kor]

"Better."

Fewer teams of pure cheese builds, at least.

Still usually devolves into the same old brawl, but the recent fixes to PPC's are seeing some of the long-range game return, a bit more cat-and-mouse it seems.

But this is from a limited sample; I've only ran maybe 15-20 8v8 drops since the last patch.

[Volume]

They taste like poptarts.

[Philldoe]

8-mans are going great for Templar Exodus. We have good serious games and good goof around games. We do 8-mans regularly and participate in RHoD.

EDIT: My group tends to shy away from full on cheese. We run our 8-mans based on what our next RHoD match calls for. Be it 2/2/2/2 1/2/3/2 or 2/0/3/3. If we meet a team of Atlases and Spaltapaults, so be it. We push through and find a way to win. All it has been doing is making us stronger. We have come a long way since our first RHoD match.

Edited by Philldoe, 11 February 2013 - 09:41 PM.