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TRIAL MODE IS MISLEADING

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Jul 4, 2026, 09:547 days
04/07/23
107

TRIAL MODE IS MISLEADING

Yesterday I used the trial mode feature to test Silverthorn and see how it fights against other legendary mechs and weapons. I noticed that all other bots (I can't say whether it was intentional or not) took only epic mechs which are equipped with epic weapons, whereas my Silverthorn had legendary weapons. I had used Trial Mode multiple times and all bots equip only Legendary mechs and Legendary weapons and yesterday there was only rare/epic mechs and weapons. I feel that this kind of bot selection would mislead players into believing that a particular mech/weapon is good, but we might have an entirely different experience in a real match (though we use pilots, implants and mods in real game, they can be neglected because players like me use it to check how much powerfula a mech/weapon can be without any extra equipment) So I request the developers to let all bots use only Legendary mechs and Legendary weapons in trial mode

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Comments
Jul 4, 2026, 16:267 days
06/26/24
111

Yes, this was intentionally changed recently. I also agree that it's misleading, would give the team this feedback.

Jul 5, 2026, 19:286 days
01/30/24
483

I hadn't noticed this since I haven't used trial mode since the change happened. Very valid feedback. It's bad enough that the trial mode is without pilots and mods, but this makes it significantly worse. 

Jul 6, 2026, 05:195 days
04/07/23
107
tar

I hadn't noticed this since I haven't used trial mode since the change happened. Very valid feedback. It's bad enough that the trial mode is without pilots and mods, but this makes it significantly worse. 

"It's bad enough that the trial mode is without pilots and mods"

I think trial mode does not have pilots and mods due to too much options for pilots, implants and mods. There are thousands of possible of pilot+implant combinations. And I think the exclusion of mods are not much of a problem, because there is ONLY 1 MAP available in trial mode where all bots would eventually group together. And mods would have little to no effect there.

The developers must add more maps, and add a "Customize Option" which enables the player to select the types of mods they want to install their mech and the selection will be copied to all mechs if the player wants to test a mech, and also all pilots paired or the mech test will be maxed legendary pilots having maxed legendary implants of the mech with the Legendary Ability Cooldown implant be equipped manadtorily to all mechs and also for the bots. And for weapons, there would be a maxed legendary pilot who will be paired to all mechs for that particular trial and they'll have maxed out legendary implants for the weapon to be tested

Jul 6, 2026, 08:095 days
01/30/24
483
ThunderTechno0615

"It's bad enough that the trial mode is without pilots and mods"

I think trial mode does not have pilots and mods due to too much options for pilots, implants and mods. There are thousands of possible of pilot+implant combinations. And I think the exclusion of mods are not much of a problem, because there is ONLY 1 MAP available in trial mode where all bots would eventually group together. And mods would have little to no effect there.

The developers must add more maps, and add a "Customize Option" which enables the player to select the types of mods they want to install their mech and the selection will be copied to all mechs if the player wants to test a mech, and also all pilots paired or the mech test will be maxed legendary pilots having maxed legendary implants of the mech with the Legendary Ability Cooldown implant be equipped manadtorily to all mechs and also for the bots. And for weapons, there would be a maxed legendary pilot who will be paired to all mechs for that particular trial and they'll have maxed out legendary implants for the weapon to be tested

Actually it's not that hard. The game already has to decide how to allocate pilots, mods and implants for bots in every game. The same logic can be used in trial mode. A "customise" option would be nice, but it's not necessary.

Jul 6, 2026, 08:105 days
01/23/26
274

im happy with trial mode, its better than nothing, asking them to rebalance trial mode matchmaking is already an anecdote comic book task.. I take trial mode as something to see how weapon works and not to determine its power, we see stats for weapon power.. it should realistically be enough. As for example i tried blitzfrost in trial mode and it helped me to come to conclusion that its totally useless. Doesnt matter the power, i wanted to see what ability does and in short it does nothing :)

Jul 6, 2026, 13:595 days
01/30/24
483
Papa

im happy with trial mode, its better than nothing, asking them to rebalance trial mode matchmaking is already an anecdote comic book task.. I take trial mode as something to see how weapon works and not to determine its power, we see stats for weapon power.. it should realistically be enough. As for example i tried blitzfrost in trial mode and it helped me to come to conclusion that its totally useless. Doesnt matter the power, i wanted to see what ability does and in short it does nothing :)

Good to hear an opposing perspective. To be clear though, I was not suggesting making trial mode matchmaking perfect. I was just saying that the existing imperfect 5v5 matchmaking can be applied in trial mode as well. The idea is simple - it would let us see how the weapons and mechs perform in a scenario that would match an actual game.

Also, to be clear, such a change is not necessary to make trial mode usable. It is already usable and useful to a decent degree. The context behind my suggestion was the remark that the permutations of pilots and mods are too numerous and would make trial mode complicated. To address that, I pointed out that such permutations are already calculated in regular game modes.. it shouldn't be a monumental task to apply the same in trial mode.

Jul 6, 2026, 14:595 days
08/30/24
76

...perhaps it would be easier to just add a pop up notification to ask the user to choose between no mods and pilots (current set up) and full mods with full pilots. The former lets low to midgame users test content in a scenario that is more relevant to where in the game progression they are, and the latter will make the trail mode relevant to those either at endgame or close. 

For me using the trial mode as is isn't relevant as my main hangar is fully modded up (even if not all are rank 6) so a weapon excelling with no mods does not equal the same with full mods.

Just my two penneth.

Jul 6, 2026, 16:385 days
12/14/21
13

Yes they give very weak bots compared to normal 

Jul 6, 2026, 17:575 days
01/23/26
274

it would certainly improve whatever you are suggesting.. especially with popup options to choose something.. no way I said current trial mode is perfect.. According to what you are saying it's tuned to promote any weapon you try.. good marketing strategy. 

Regarding fixing it in any way.. if they have not done key mapping options despite the option actually being there means that not much going to happen.. But staying hopeful is cool.. 

I assume every idea here has like triple filter layer... 

First one is we critisize it ourselves... buff it, nerf it.. want it don't want it..

The second one moderators pass on the idea if multiple people suggested it's a good idea, plus moderator's own belief (for example if moderator lives in north pole, he likes to get bots for hangar showdown as otherwise he can't play it at all and have his "dailys done", so if we suggests no bots, then such comment may never be passed on to the team :) it goes against filter #2 religion.

Third filter is whether they care about this idea once they get the message, whether it will be anywhere in top of the list of priorities, whether it's not going to be forgotten at all.

I see many things as very easy to implement, but it's not happening.

Jul 6, 2026, 18:565 days
01/30/24
483
Papa

it would certainly improve whatever you are suggesting.. especially with popup options to choose something.. no way I said current trial mode is perfect.. According to what you are saying it's tuned to promote any weapon you try.. good marketing strategy. 

Regarding fixing it in any way.. if they have not done key mapping options despite the option actually being there means that not much going to happen.. But staying hopeful is cool.. 

I assume every idea here has like triple filter layer... 

First one is we critisize it ourselves... buff it, nerf it.. want it don't want it..

The second one moderators pass on the idea if multiple people suggested it's a good idea, plus moderator's own belief (for example if moderator lives in north pole, he likes to get bots for hangar showdown as otherwise he can't play it at all and have his "dailys done", so if we suggests no bots, then such comment may never be passed on to the team :) it goes against filter #2 religion.

Third filter is whether they care about this idea once they get the message, whether it will be anywhere in top of the list of priorities, whether it's not going to be forgotten at all.

I see many things as very easy to implement, but it's not happening.

To their credit, Plarium do listen to user feedback and occasionally implement suggestions. The implants rework is one example, and making mods universally available again is another (to name just a couple). I think the main reason it doesn't appear that they listen is that the bulk of the complaints are about matchmaking and sadly it's in their interest not to fix matchmaking the way everyone wants.

That said, I suspect the user feedback on the forum has low weightage, partly because it has less traffic than discord, and partly because of the nature of traffic. Too many posts are repetitive (the same complaints about matchmaking in new posts) which sometimes masks other useful posts, and too many are nasty (which considering even I ignore them I'm sure mods do too, even if they make some valid points).

Jul 7, 2026, 04:504 days
04/07/23
107
Papa

it would certainly improve whatever you are suggesting.. especially with popup options to choose something.. no way I said current trial mode is perfect.. According to what you are saying it's tuned to promote any weapon you try.. good marketing strategy. 

Regarding fixing it in any way.. if they have not done key mapping options despite the option actually being there means that not much going to happen.. But staying hopeful is cool.. 

I assume every idea here has like triple filter layer... 

First one is we critisize it ourselves... buff it, nerf it.. want it don't want it..

The second one moderators pass on the idea if multiple people suggested it's a good idea, plus moderator's own belief (for example if moderator lives in north pole, he likes to get bots for hangar showdown as otherwise he can't play it at all and have his "dailys done", so if we suggests no bots, then such comment may never be passed on to the team :) it goes against filter #2 religion.

Third filter is whether they care about this idea once they get the message, whether it will be anywhere in top of the list of priorities, whether it's not going to be forgotten at all.

I see many things as very easy to implement, but it's not happening.

When I used Trial Mode initially it was "actually" helping me to check effectiveness of a mech/weapon in combat (without any additional equipment like pilots or mods) because all bots were using legendary mechs and legendary weapons. Also the Bots in the initial stages of "Trial Mode" were much "intelligent" than real-werld match bots (once I played trial mode to check Viper 16, and one of the bots was camping with a Redox and Howler 16 on a corner and defeated me easily) With the 12 and 16 weapon trials, it is almost like Hangar Showdown Division 3. After this current rebalance, trial mode looks more like a marketing strategy, because bots are very weak when they choose epic/rare class mechs and weapons whle we primarily check for Legendary mechs and weapons. Even with epic/rare class, I had gotten lots of kills with weaker gear (With Zephyr and Missile Racks, I alone got 12 kills and my team together got 18 kills, while the opponent team got 4 kills). Therefore I had to conclude that the "Trial mode" got downgraded :(

Jul 7, 2026, 08:484 days
01/23/26
274

well i also think forum has less weight if any at all.. They are listening to feedback but not the one majority thinks, i have no idea who would want mods available for all mechs apart from them making money from it. The idea was bad to me straight away as soon as i heard about mod change.. and i still think it was one if the worst things happening to this game since i started playing. And i didnt see anyone saying they want mods for all mechs, so feels like feedback was from some small circles of people and it was not majority decision or idea.. So saying that they do listen, i dont know.. They listen to someone thats for sure, but im not sure that this someone is living in the same reality as others. 

The other change i seen in my lifetime was tournaments and i could see how they made it great and then broke it the right next month. And its still broken. 

Then the nerfing of specific mechs for SP dropping.. who were they listening to about it? certainly not us.. 

the hangar showdown was changed from 5 games to 10.. at first i didnt like it, now i like it, that was a positive change i think, there is not much changed but there are much more rewards now. 

So thats a summary for 5-6 months i been playing.