All Categories

This is my last post here but some answers would be appreciated

Search
Sep 30, 2021, 04:5709/30/21
232030

This is my last post here but some answers would be appreciated

It's a shame there isn't more interaction here as Discord and FB are a full of a bunch of noise and F2P complainers.


BUT... they clearly have some legitimate reasons to complain about the Matchmaking.  After the recent update either you guys made some changes or something else has gotten jacked up.  


I have made several posts on here about mismatches where I play tournament and I get 1 ( ONE ) human on the other team that is 2xs my squad power.   The answer I seem to keep getting is "yeah, that player is way out of the realm for what is normal at their level but... the matchmaker evens things out with the AI levels".   I am really holding back on what I feel like saying but that is bull.   


AI does not make up the difference in that situation.  AI is dumb and reckless... it doesn't think and it doesn't care about winning or losing.  SO it really comes down to the humans in the game and when one of them clearly overpowers the other the scales are not even remotely what one might call "placed in an even position".  


SO - this is the latest mismatch I just experienced and it would be super nice if someone could come on here and explain if this is the way you believe this should work.  Clearly if it is working as intended then you are trying to crush players into submission.   


i

His ID is #12430030 - go ahead and check out his hangar... has all the expensive toys and all leveled up 6 stars with several pink.  


Look... the funny thing here is you are beating up players like myself that will spend money.  I am not spending this dudes type of money which literally has to be approaching 1500.00+ USD based on the amount of stuff he has but I have dumped about $200 into your game over the last 1.5-2 months since I downloaded it... i would probably end up being the type of player that would be happy spending $500 a year because I enjoy the game and competition.  


You are pushing me though to reconsider if you care about the more casual spender -  Honestly, I don't consider my financial commitment to a game casual.   I'm essentially willing to spend the same amount as the top end console system would cost me on some silly mobile game.  


Wake up and fix your stuff guys... it's broken and people are getting pissed off.   Forget about the F2p whiners... they don't get to complain if they never spend a dime on the game.  I get to complain though and I think I should get an answer better than what I have gotten so far.

Jack


Views
76
Comments
37
Comments
AlinaCommunity Manager
Sep 30, 2021, 12:4409/30/21
05/21/19
3507

Hello, Jack! We understand that matchmaking is one of the most discussed topics in our community. That's why we’re monitoring the matchmaking situation and will make changes once we’ve gathered enough game data. Thanks for bearing with us! 🤗

Sep 30, 2021, 13:0009/30/21
232030
Deleted

Hello, Jack! We understand that matchmaking is one of the most discussed topics in our community. That's why we’re monitoring the matchmaking situation and will make changes once we’ve gathered enough game data. Thanks for bearing with us! 🤗

Alina,


I appreciate that you responded though the response doesn't really shed any insight into why that type of blatant mismatch occurs.    

For the monitoring you mention, do you rely on people like me that will come to the forum to complain and show you what the cause of my complaint is?  I think most people just complain on FB groups or Discord channels rather than come to the devs and offer information.  If people don't complain directly to you then all the backend systems you might use tell you things are fine.  

Sep 30, 2021, 13:2909/30/21
08/29/21
30

This is exactly what happened to me. My hanger is around 2300 and I was in a tournament fighting of more than 3450. I had to battle him 10 times before I realised it was counter productive and just slowing me down. He also had maxed everything.... brinkhouse maxed, carbine 12s maxed, bloody rail guns etc.  Your spot on about matchmaking and completely right about pushing players like me and yourself away. I regret spending about 150 dollars so far but see little point in spending further as I have no desire to be another whale. 

Sep 30, 2021, 13:5409/30/21
232030

While squad power is used to help with matchmaking, it is by no means a perfect system which is why it is tweaked and monitored.

The main issue with Squad Power you may note is that you can have a 750 Power Rating Lancer and a 700 Power Rating Redox.  While the Lancer does have a higher Power Rating the Redox in certain game modes is superior because of its heavier weapon payload and damage output.

So group Squad Power (even with bots) is used but it by no means exact. It is more of an average assuming the Squad Power (Power Ratings) of all mechs are equal.  From time to time these ratings are adjusted to better reflect fairness and matchmaking.

Hopefully that explanation helps some.


Sep 30, 2021, 18:5909/30/21
232030

Another   but  this  one  went  the  opposite  way.    HAWK  was  out  up  against  me  which  was  not  fair  to  him.    My  SP  was  double  his.    


these  posts  are  real  time  after  the  matches  so  you  should  start  to  get  an  idea  how  often  this  is  happening.    

i


i


Oct 1, 2021, 13:3010/01/21
232030
Deleted

Again  I  will  go  back  to  saying  that  balancing  out  big  differences  of  the  human  squad  power  with  AI  is  not  the  right  answer.      The  balancing  should  first  be  done  on  the  human  players  and  then  small  differences  of  squad  power  can  be  balanced  at  the  AI  level.    

So squad power was removed beause while it is a system guideline for matchmaking people were putting to much emphasis on it during the loading screne to justify wins or loses.  Squad Power is the accumulation of all assigned point values to mechs and weapons in a players hanger.

BUT, and it is a BIG one, having a high Squad Power is not inheriently a marker of a good player or even a good mech setup.

Exhibit A:  I have 3,313 SP between my 5 mechs.  Looks like a good setup at first until you realize all weapons on all the mechs are 2 energy power.  So having high SP would mean virtually nothing as I would likely get crushed by a 1,000 SP player with 1 good mech setup.

Redox - Autocannon 2s

Cheetah - RPG 2s

Lancer - Thermal Lance 2s

Arachnos - Shotgun 2s

ShadowPlasma Cannon 2s


i


Oct 2, 2021, 14:4410/02/21
Oct 2, 2021, 14:55(edited)
232030
Deleted

So squad power was removed beause while it is a system guideline for matchmaking people were putting to much emphasis on it during the loading screne to justify wins or loses.  Squad Power is the accumulation of all assigned point values to mechs and weapons in a players hanger.

BUT, and it is a BIG one, having a high Squad Power is not inheriently a marker of a good player or even a good mech setup.

Exhibit A:  I have 3,313 SP between my 5 mechs.  Looks like a good setup at first until you realize all weapons on all the mechs are 2 energy power.  So having high SP would mean virtually nothing as I would likely get crushed by a 1,000 SP player with 1 good mech setup.

Redox - Autocannon 2s

Cheetah - RPG 2s

Lancer - Thermal Lance 2s

Arachnos - Shotgun 2s

ShadowPlasma Cannon 2s


i


Thank  you.    That  was  a  deeper  explanation  of  how  squad  power  is  being  looked  at .    Would  be  nice  if  players  had  more  understanding  what  other  factors  are   looked  at  so  they  could  make  better  decisions  in  setting  up  their  hangars.


I  do  not  have  the  ability  to  see  what  the  metrics  are  in  the  game  of  humans  that  continue  to  play  and  those  that  give  up.    All  I  know  from  my  perspective  is  that  over  the  last  several  weeks  I  went  from  having  matches  with  at  least  an  average  of   4  humans  in  a  match  to  now  seeing  many  more  matches  with  ONLY  ME  and  all  AI.    My  last  7  matches  and  I  saw  a total of FOUR  humans  total.    


Something  is  wrong  as  the  game  does  not  seem  to  be  encouraging  players  to  stick  it  out.    I  think  its  the  hyper  aggressive  tactics  used  to  push  sales.    Players  do  not  like  it.  


The  image  shows  my  last  group  of  matches.    Humans  are  circled  in  yellow...  all  others  are  AI.    Not  so  good  for  a  muliplayer  game.

i

There are many players like myself that want the game to succeed and the general consesus among us is that the sales methods are too aggressive and chasing casual spenders away.  

Oct 3, 2021, 14:5810/03/21
232030

Another  indicator  players  are  dropping  out  of  the  game

i


Oct 4, 2021, 02:2810/04/21
232030

Realizing  now  that  matchmaking  Is  based  more  on  XP  rather  than  squad  power.    In  a  previous  thread  a  mod  here  stated  differently.    So  the  game  allows  players  to  essentially  buy  their  wins  if  they  so  choose  to  buy  all  those  mechs  and  weapkns  early  on.    


at  least  now  its  clear  why  matchmaking  appears  utterly  broken  sometimes.    


out.

AlinaCommunity Manager
Oct 6, 2021, 14:0610/06/21
Oct 6, 2021, 14:06(edited)
05/21/19
3507
Deleted

Alina,


I appreciate that you responded though the response doesn't really shed any insight into why that type of blatant mismatch occurs.    

For the monitoring you mention, do you rely on people like me that will come to the forum to complain and show you what the cause of my complaint is?  I think most people just complain on FB groups or Discord channels rather than come to the devs and offer information.  If people don't complain directly to you then all the backend systems you might use tell you things are fine.  

Hello! We monitor both in-game and in the communities. Of course, we need some time to collect enough data and then analyze it. Thanks for bearing with us!

Oct 9, 2021, 15:1610/09/21
232030

I wish they could take the competitive aspects of the game seriously and realize that you can still make money without chasing away people that aren't just raining money down to improve their chances of winning.  I spend money as I stated here and in some other threads but I am not spending stupid amounts like whales spend.


Tournament mode is where my main distaste for this matchmaking eminates.  I want to enter a tournament match and know that everyone else is entering the match on roughtly equal footing so the win/loss comes down to the decisions made during the match rather than the credit card bills racked up prior to the match for maxed out mechs/weapons.  Until they fix that... the game will not be viewed as a comptetitive one for me but rather one for person willing to dump hundreds/thousands into their account.  

Oct 12, 2021, 11:0710/12/21
232030
Deleted

I'm getting impatient. What sort of data are you looking for? How much of it do you need? Can you at least try something different? How is it you have time to do all sorts of thing like add a whole new event type and bring new weapons into the game. How is it you get enough data on crate rush within a week?

You had a hacker problem and you acted on it within a week. You've had a pay to win problem as long as the game has been out, and you've done squat. Just how much longer do we have to wait? I really want to know, because I'm tired of this. I can't keep playing. And now you've got a specialization spree for a-coins that depends a weapon that's locked behind $70 USD if you didn't happen to get lucky in the first crate rush. How am I to know you're even going to change the matchmaking system, or that plarium cares to, with this sort of blatant pay to win?

Let me put it this way. Most money I spent in this game was after you took action against hackers. Plarium isn't getting a cent from me as long as matchmaking is skewed.

I'm tired of words. I want action.

What  needs  to  be  realized  is  Plarium  is  making  thousands  of  dollars  off  the  whale  accounts.    They  would  rather  hit  the  big  fish  as  hard  as  they  can  and  offer  them  preferrential  matchmaking  to  entice  more  spending  instead  of casting  a  wide  net  and  filling  it  up  with  massive  numbers  of  active  players.


these  four  players  have  likely  combined  for  $5k  in  spending  to  get  the  hangars  they  have.    Look  at  their  account  XP.    They  are  running  hangars  equal  to  150k  XP  but  the  matchmaker  puts  them  in  with  players  between  30k  to  60k.    A  cake  walk  for  the  big  spender.    


i


AlinaCommunity Manager
Oct 12, 2021, 16:3310/12/21
05/21/19
3507
hypernova132.ec

I'm getting impatient. What sort of data are you looking for? How much of it do you need? Can you at least try something different? How is it you have time to do all sorts of thing like add a whole new event type and bring new weapons into the game. How is it you get enough data on crate rush within a week?

You had a hacker problem and you acted on it within a week. You've had a pay to win problem as long as the game has been out, and you've done squat. Just how much longer do we have to wait? I really want to know, because I'm tired of this. I can't keep playing. And now you've got a specialization spree for a-coins that depends a weapon that's locked behind $70 USD if you didn't happen to get lucky in the first crate rush. How am I to know you're even going to change the matchmaking system, or that plarium cares to, with this sort of blatant pay to win?

Let me put it this way. Most money I spent in this game was after you took action against hackers. Plarium isn't getting a cent from me as long as matchmaking is skewed.

I'm tired of words. I want action.

Hi! I hear you, thanks for sharing. We've actually run a few tests on our matchmaking. So far, we haven't found an ideal option. We're still experimenting. I do hope we'll find it soon, though. 

Oct 12, 2021, 21:2510/12/21
Oct 12, 2021, 21:47(edited)
232030
Deleted

Hi! I hear you, thanks for sharing. We've actually run a few tests on our matchmaking. So far, we haven't found an ideal option. We're still experimenting. I do hope we'll find it soon, though. 

Averaging  out  the  "potential"  hangar  strength  would  be  about  the  fairest  way  you  could  create  a  matchmaking  algorithm.    


This  takes  care  of  the  two  biggest  problems  I  have  heard  matchmaking  created.    First  is   "seal  clubbing"  by  dropping  all  mechs  to  minimum  and  then  maxing  one  of  them  out  with  the  intention  of  getting  low  strength  opponents  but  being  able  to  clobber  then  with  one  high  level  mech/weapon  loadout.    It  secondly  eliminates  the  "whales"  from  buying  all  the  high  level  stuff  early  and  getting  a  major  advantage  over  those  that  are  progressing  normally.    


No  reasonable  player  expects  perfect  matchmaking  but  they  should  be  able  to  expect  a  group  of   devs  recognize  the  flaws  and  find  a  way  to  eliminate  the  two  extremes  mentioned  above.    


I  have  been  a  content  producer  for  Wargaming  (  WOT  Blitz  w/club  wargaming  in  the  USA  ),  worked  with  Panzerdog  on  content  for  Tacticool,  had  some  of  my  content  featured  by  Mech  Battle  devs  Djinnworks and  I  worked  very  closely  with  Bravo  Company  which  was  working  on  very  well  recieved  game  "Forces  of  Freedom"  which  unfortunately  lost  financial  backing  after  several  years  of  development.    I  have  a  pretty  decent  idea  of  what  players  want  and  what  they  don't   want.    Right  now  your  devs  are  on  the  wrong  side  of  what  players  want  and  it  should  be  a  pretty  easy  fix  if  they  are  listening.   I  know  the  CM's  are  listening  though   which  is  appreciated....  even  if  things  get  a  little  heated  on  the  players  side  ;)      

Oct 12, 2021, 23:1010/12/21
Oct 14, 2021, 07:50(edited)
08/12/21
35
Alina

Hi! I hear you, thanks for sharing. We've actually run a few tests on our matchmaking. So far, we haven't found an ideal option. We're still experimenting. I do hope we'll find it soon, though. 

I think you should let players test the matchmaking.  We haven't a clue the ideal you're trying to meet. There's of course no such thing as a perfect matchmaking system, obviously. But other games have done way better. Mech Arena's matchmaking is just so bad. I don't trust plarium leaving so much stuff behind closed doors.

Oct 18, 2021, 00:5210/18/21
Oct 18, 2021, 00:52(edited)
232030

Lol...  you  need  to  realize  that  matchmaking  is  working  exactly  the  way  they  want  it  to  work.    It  drives  players  to  become  big  spenders  to  get  the  upper  hand.    Those  that  can't or  choose  not  to  will  bitch  and  moan  but  they  dont  care.      The  big  spenders  spend  and  that  is  all  that  matters.    Why  do  you  think  they  barely  respond  and  when  they  do  its  the  same  old  "  we're  looking  into  it"?    Its  just  to  keep  someone  around  long  enough  that  maybe  they  will  also  spend  some  money  to  get  the  advantage.    


if  younwant  something  fair  and  competitive....  move  on.  

Oct 18, 2021, 01:1410/18/21
232030

Is  redox  worth  upgradding?

Oct 18, 2021, 01:1610/18/21
232030

I  mean  buying,  its  pretty  darn  expensive,  but  maybe  u  could  add  another  beam  type  weopen,  i  dunno,  maybe a green one that gives u a poisen  affect?

Oct 18, 2021, 03:4810/18/21
232030

Hello have  you  read  my  other  messages?

Oct 18, 2021, 03:5010/18/21
232030

I