Author Topic: Be an Engineer and Play Faster  (Read 13073 times)

Offline Andika

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Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« on: November 05, 2014, 04:44:19 am »
When I'm searching for a match as a crew member, but only pilots are needed at that moment, matchmaker pops up a message that goes something like: "Switch to pilot and play faster", meaning that I could get a spot immediately if I decided to be a pilot instead of a crew member.

It would be great if we had a similar function for gunners and engineers. Recently, I've found it increasingly difficult to get a good match as a gunner, because whenever I search for matches as a gunner, matchmaker keeps throwing me onto ships which already have one (or two, in some cases). Then I usually leave the match, because nobody likes a second gunner, and I try searching for a new one with matchmaker. Usually, what happens is that matchmaker throws me into the very same lobby again, quite often in the last second so that I do not even have time to leave anymore.

Instead of that, it would be great if matchmaker informed me that there are no gunner spots available, but I could play immediately if I switched to engineer. This would save me the frustration of joining a 2-gunner ship in the last second of the lobby time, and it would also save the frustration of trying and re-trying to join matches as a gunner. It would also inform new players about ideal ship/crew member arrangements so they would not think that 2 or 3 gunners are an effective and working build on, let's say, a squid. Thos who still wish to play as second gunners would have a chance to switch back once they arrived at the lobby, but they would at least be aware of the possible disadvantage of being a second gunner.

Right now searching for a match as a gunner is so risky that I often think it would be best to start searching as an engineer even if I don't want to play engineer at all. I realize that with the small playerbase it is difficult to fill ships with engineers, let alone find a match for each gunner (usually only 4 gunners per match are needed, or even less, as we tend to play 2v2s more often than 3v3s), but in my opinion an AI engineer is still better than 2 or 3 gunners on a ship. Not to mention that second/third gunners won't have much fun either if their ship is not successful and both the captain and their team is unhappy about their presence.



Offline Hoja Lateralus

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2014, 05:04:10 am »
Well, I pretty much agree with all your post and I'd like to see it happen
BUT
Muse claims that matchmaking should NEVER* put you in a crew as second pilot or second gunner so they are not going to make changes to system that "works".

*Unless the player pool is too small, but shhh

The red one is Eric's words from Fireside Chat

zlater75@hotmail.com

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2014, 07:38:20 am »
I agree with andikas opening post 100% and have noticed the same ever since the patch. Only thing i'd add is it would be nice, if needed as an advanced mode, to see more info on the classes needed. Since it shows them on the big play button but still this happens. More info meaning a number or some indicator on the need for that specific class. Like a colour or blinking light, anything, to help know if the need for class is small or large.

I don't remember exactly what he said but in their defense they also spoke about restricting the mmr more to deal with this issue and therefore make the lobbies a bit more fair. I hope that will happen soon, like next hotfix.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2014, 07:41:17 am by genozide »

Offline sparklerfish

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2014, 09:57:13 am »
MechWarrior Online shows the percentage of each mech class being used and what there's a need for so you can select a less-used class to play faster, or at least be aware that it'll take a while to place you as the weight class you actually want to play as.  Something like that would be nice.

Except it should pretty much always just say "play as engineer to play faster" because there is no shortage of people who want to gun and this is how you get multiple gunner builds.  :P

zlater75@hotmail.com

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2014, 10:17:29 am »
Percentage would work too.

But the thing is.. we need to be able to trust the matchmaker when it searches for a lobby for us, it would be for us even classwise. If there are free gunner spots then that should be possible, shouldn't it? Or like the topic inform the user if that is hard to complete in a sensible time.. The result of the use needs to be more practical for a better gaming experience. If it's more practical and fair it'd be less frustrating and lobbykilling.

Offline Omniraptor

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2014, 11:17:57 am »
I would personally like this to be integrated with recommended loadouts. Say if my loadout says I don't want ANY gunners, then matchmaking shouldn't give me any gunners. If my loadout says I want 3 gunners, I should get 3 gunners.

Offline Mean Machine

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2014, 11:32:05 am »
I tried to play as gunner yesterday and today and in 10 out of 15 tries i got on a ship which already got a gunner or two.

Offline Sammy B. T.

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2014, 03:00:53 pm »
Something of note is we are in a sale boom. Sale boom means a lot of new players. A lot of new players means a lot of players who haven't been shown the light of the engineer master race.

Offline HamsterIV

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #8 on: November 05, 2014, 03:19:31 pm »
All classes are equal, some just happen to be more equal than others.

Offline Mean Machine

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #9 on: November 05, 2014, 05:11:57 pm »
All classes are equal, some just happen to be more equal than others.
Equal in what way? They are not equal.

Offline Omniraptor

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #10 on: November 05, 2014, 06:32:21 pm »
They all have access to 5 tool slots, but some tool slots are more useful more often in more places than others.

Offline sparklerfish

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2014, 08:51:58 pm »
Theoretically there should always be at least twice as many engineers playing as gunners since a ship never needs two gunners (except perhaps a Clan Clan munker).  It might be nice to have a tooltip to that effect so that people see it while they're waiting to be placed in a match.

Offline SaintR.L.

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2014, 10:29:36 pm »
I still wonder why captains can't request certain slots be of certain classes. Tired of seeing 2 gunners getting shoved onto one ship. If it wasn't for the ability to send load out requests I would give up on piloting.

Offline Devinstater

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2014, 12:10:35 am »
I fully support this. I am willing to wait longer if I get to play gunner, instead of being the second gunner and handicapping my team.

Offline CitizenFry

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Re: Be an Engineer and Play Faster
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2014, 02:18:13 pm »
Immediately after the big patch, I had a couple occasions of queueing as a pilot and being suggested to switch to gunner or engineer to play faster. But then when I switched, it would suggest to switch to pilot to play faster.  ::)