Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 09:47:27 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Search:     Advanced search
we're back, baby
*
Home Help Search Login Register
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  MechWarrior Online  |  Topic: Project Update - January 2014 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Pages: [1] Go Down Print
Author Topic: Project Update - January 2014  (Read 10455 times)
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11124

a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country


WWW
on: January 21, 2014, 02:57:01 PM

Project Update by Paul Inouye

Quote
Hi Folks,

It's been a while and I'm now back in the office catching up on what's been happening. I'm just doing a brief update for you all since you should know by now that there are some really cool features coming down the pipe.

UI 2.0
Sean and I are going through your feedback from the last PTS build of UI 2.0. We will be addressing what we can but keep in mind that we are up against a hard date of February 4th. There are a lot of good ideas in the feedback and we will implement them over the next little while as UI 2.0 matures and stablizes. One of the key things that you noticed during the PTS testing period is the lack of an overall view such as that on the "smurfys" website. This is something that we've determined as a necessity but will be added post UI 2.0 launch. There are numerous other features like this that will be coming out post launch and we'll keep you updated as they come on-line.

Match Maker
Some of you may have noticed a change made to the Match Maker. Previously, the match maker would find the Elo values of a team/player and try to find opponents in a narrow tolerance +/- of the given Elo. After waiting for 3 minutes, the Match Maker would start increasing this tolerance to a maximum of +/- 1000. This worked fine for a long period of time until the curve you've seen on graphs, settled down into the bell curve that Elo creates. But what has happened is that there are players who are at the extreme ends of the bell curve. Very high Elo rated players and very low Elo rated players were not able to match make properly because there were not enough players in their bracket.

For example, a player had an Elo rating of 2790/2800. That person was trying to match make with players with a score of 1790 or higher. The majority of players in MWO do not fit that criteria so the match maker would fail consistently. To remedy this, the max tolerance was set to 2800. This means after 3 minutes, the match maker would start widening the search tolerance around a player's Elo score to +/- 2800. Theoretically, this means a 2800 player could be matched with a 0 rated player. But that is purely theoretical.

We've seen numerous reports of players saying they're being mixed with players far outside of their Elo rating. This is odd because 1) no player knows their Elo rating and 2) metrics is proving this to be a misconception. As of yesterday (Jan 20), the average deviation between team Elo ratings was approximately 175 points. The extreme maximum was around 750. What this means is that match maker is finding people of relative skill compared to your personal Elo with a maximum tolerance of 750.

If you believe that you are being matched with very low Elo players, 250 for example, that means that your current Elo is at the MOST, 1000. This is below the average threshold and you are being properly matched. If you believe that you are a very high Elo player, 2100+ for example, the EXTREME lowest Elo rated team you're going to be going up against is 1350 which is just above the median player of the game.

Now I was inundated with screenshots and PMs concerning the issue of "very high Elo players" being matched with "very low Elo players" so I decided to look directly into the issues themselves in a direct manner. The screen shots showed complete stomps and high discrepancies between damage done on each team. I used 4 screenshots that were submitted (and keep in mind, these were complete wipes/stomps) and compiled the team Elo rating for each team involved. In screenshot 1, the Elo difference between the two teams was approximately 10. In screenshot 2, the Elo difference was 47. In screenshot 3 the difference was 101. In screenshot 4, the Elo difference was 65. What means is, that even if a game ends in a "stomp", there is a high chance that the opposing team was just outplayed via communication and on field maneuvering.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there was a tonnage difference between the teams. There is a general misconception out there that I'd like to clear up. Elo does NOT balance tonnage per team. The only relationship between Elo and a BattleMech is that the player has 4 WEIGHT CLASS Elo scores. A light score, a medium score, a heavy score and an assault score. This allows the match maker to adjust your match base you being great in a light, but not so great in a heavy. Again, this has no relation on team tonnage.

In short, the MM Elo system is kicking off matches between teams with a fault tolerance on average of approximately 175. While this is not 100% perfect (you will never get this number to 0), it is VERY effective.

Clan Tech/BattleMechs
We are still looking at numbers for weapons and technology and are working on testing some of those values out internally with the design team. It is still too early to comment on this stuff at the moment and as soon as it becomes clear on how we'll be addressing specific weapon systems, I will let you know in a Clan specific update.

Dave Bradley (the guy with the epic beard) will be finishing up a write-up on how Clan BattleMechs are assembled and customized very soon. As soon as that write-up is ready, I'll have him post it here in the Command Chair.

Mech Modules
Tier 1 weapon modules are now in development builds. We will be looking at exactly how these modules will be affecting gameplay and the first set of modules affect weapon RANGES. Expect to see these in game fairly soon!

Community Warfare
Engineering is currently working on the new Lobby system required for faction matches. This is no small feat as a Lobby is a completely new state of the game in which players are not just sitting in the UI/Front End and they are not connected to a dedicated game server. It is essentially a game state in which players can communicate together and prepare before dropping into a match. This game state will eventually allow us to have players reconnect to lobbies from which they have accidentally been disconnected from. This is also the game state in which players will be able to vote on game modes/maps prior to the match starting (pending final design). Lobbies will eventually be used for private matches that you've hear of from Bryan's earlier posts. More details to come as development is moving forward but I thought I'd update you with this exciting new feature in the works right now.


Shannow
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3703


Reply #1 on: January 21, 2014, 03:45:41 PM

Oh dear god. Those comments on how PGI 'thinks' the community has a misconception about ELO and tonnage. Everyone fucking KNOWS it doesn't balance for tonnage and that's a BIG part of the problem. Gaaarrgghhh.  swamp poop

Someone liked something? Who the fuzzy fuck was this heretic? You don't come to this website and enjoy something. Fuck that. ~ The Walrus
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11124

a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country


WWW
Reply #2 on: January 21, 2014, 04:37:39 PM

Quote
This is no small feat as a Lobby is a completely new state of the game in which players are not just sitting in the UI/Front End and they are not connected to a dedicated game server.

This is my favourite part. Everything is always such a big, difficult task for PGI. Things they announced more than a year ago all of a sudden turn out to be _finally_ just at the beginning of development, or design actually because... you know.. "this is no small feat!".

Fuck off.

calapine
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7352

Solely responsible for the thread on "The Condom Wall."


Reply #3 on: January 22, 2014, 08:23:55 PM

Quote
This is no small feat as a Lobby is a completely new state of the game in which players are not just sitting in the UI/Front End and they are not connected to a dedicated game server.

This is my favourite part. Everything is always such a big, difficult task for PGI. Things they announced more than a year ago all of a sudden turn out to be _finally_ just at the beginning of development, or design actually because... you know.. "this is no small feat!".

Fuck off.

No you fuck off! It's a "Lobby"! That is a "completely new state of the game" which enables players to "communicate together". We are entering technical terra incognita here!!

In other news: MWO feature Q&A
« Last Edit: January 22, 2014, 08:27:34 PM by calapine »

Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!
eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11838


Reply #4 on: January 23, 2014, 12:55:20 AM

Am I missing something or are PGI claiming to have invented chat rooms?

"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular ­assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson
"Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
satael
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2431


Reply #5 on: January 23, 2014, 05:19:53 AM

Am I missing something or are PGI claiming to have invented chat rooms?

Who knows, maybe they did (re)invent chat rooms instead of just using the knowledge gained from the last n years of development in the gaming industry  why so serious?
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11124

a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country


WWW
Reply #6 on: January 23, 2014, 07:12:04 AM

Well, that is no small feat!  why so serious?

Pennilenko
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3472


Reply #7 on: January 24, 2014, 10:47:25 AM

I swear that this is the game that I am the most embarrassed and ashamed to have ever spent money on. I was so hopeful in the beginning that I was blind to reality.

"See?  All of you are unique.  And special.  Like fucking snowflakes."  -- Signe
Falconeer
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11124

a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country


WWW
Reply #8 on: January 24, 2014, 11:50:45 AM

It's unbelievable how little to nothing they have done in a year and a half. In retrospect, whatever money we spent on it was not necessary except maybe to have more options (getting 'mechs faster). But seriously, would you say you weren't having fun when you decided to spend money on it? Or is it that you funded it before getting into beta?

I still stand by the fact that the actual game is fantastic. It just can't last forever with that little content and meta.

satael
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2431


Reply #9 on: January 24, 2014, 01:14:00 PM

The core of the game works and it looks good enough. It's just the content that is missing and the rate they have been adding it doesn't really impress me (and isn't enough to keep me playing at the moment).
Pennilenko
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3472


Reply #10 on: January 24, 2014, 08:08:24 PM

It's unbelievable how little to nothing they have done in a year and a half. In retrospect, whatever money we spent on it was not necessary except maybe to have more options (getting 'mechs faster). But seriously, would you say you weren't having fun when you decided to spend money on it? Or is it that you funded it before getting into beta?

I still stand by the fact that the actual game is fantastic. It just can't last forever with that little content and meta.

I was in beta when i funded. However, it was a mixture of beta fun and future promises that caused me to buy in.  At the time it seemed reasonable that they could pull off what they were talking about. Now, not so much.

"See?  All of you are unique.  And special.  Like fucking snowflakes."  -- Signe
Pages: [1] Go Up Print 
f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  MechWarrior Online  |  Topic: Project Update - January 2014  
Jump to:  

Powered by SMF 1.1.10 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines LLC