Original reddit is here http://www.reddit.com/r/OutreachHPG/comments/2692f7/my_name_is_russ_bullock_president_of_piranha/
Posts with no questions
Russ_Bullock
I recently communicated this information in the next VLog that we just finished recording however I wanted to get this information out faster to the community.
Status of the Matchmaker: I have both good and bad news. The release of the 3/3/3/3 feature has been as frustrating for us as it has been for you. Many have speculated that the feature simply has been proven unviable and we should be looking for alternative ways to match our players. Here is where I can state the good news that it actuaully seems that we have proven the feature to be very viable and fun. In explanation: now that we have the Queue window we actually were able to prove that players are willing to adjust there behaviour and play more Light and Medium mechs so long as they know that the two sides are even which was always a critical component of the 3/3/3/3 feature. We actually saw the Queue's for the 4 weight classes even out very effectively. On top of that when matches were kicking off the matches were noticable by everyone involved to be very fun and and much more consistently competitive. Now the bad side unfortunately what we found was that the feature is unviable in the currently way the matchmaker has been written. Therefore it is going to be necessary to do a rewrite of the matchmaker code. Now I should mention that it was always going to be necessary to rewrite the matchmaker code to support the faction based matching necessary for CW which was basically upon us anyhow, but we had hoped in the meantime 3/3/3/3 would be active. So this has changed our plans and we have had to bump the MM rewrite up to top priority. Karl Berg is now assigned to start and complete this rewrite and we will start out by completing
just the existing design of 3/3/3/3 and get that active then complete it to support CW. So as to an ETA all I mentioned in the VLog is that I promise to give you an updated ETA in about 2 weeks time, but I am hopeful it will only be in the ~1month timeframe.
In summary: 3/3/3/3 seems very fun, competitive and viable. But it will need some rewrite of the MM to actually turn it on. I will get back to the community with an updated ETA in about two weeks time. Thanks everyong for your patience, can't wait to get this feature live.
Russ
Russ_Bullock
Okay it's now 6pm and the end of our chat. I am sorry I couldnt get to more of your questions. I hope this provided some insight and answers that you have been craving. I did want to get out a state of the union on the match maker but didnt really have the opportunity with the questions tonight. I will post that here shortly. Thanks.
Questions and Answers
Q:Fireye
How do you plan on incentivizing lights and (to a lesser extent) mediums? The scoring in the game is still very damage-centric, and while damage is important, there should be some incentive to complete map goals. It's a painful choice to have to decide between doing damage (and upping my rank/xp for the drop), and helping cap conquest points. IF we win by caps, I get
a piddly amount of XP, it's more efficient to go shoot stompy mechs.
A:Russ_Bullock
Well I do think the new Queue window is really helping to even out the classes. But you are correct even though the amount of people using each class may even out more, we do agree that we need to find time to go back and provide more role based incentives to scouts and support class mechs.
Q:VictorMorson
Here's another question for COMMUNITY WARFARE:
You have stated that soon, you will make private matches require MC on a PER USE basis with no subscription plan available. Will this include refunds for dropped players on launch, how much do you plan to charge, and will this be required in your vision of CW?
PS: Will you charge the same rate for 1v1 as, say, 8v8 or a private 12v12?
A:Russ_Bullock
I cant say for sure right now - so major caveat here this may yet rear its head again at some point as we develop. However it is my opinion and what I am pushing internally to continue to just use Premium accounts for the entry into features. It's there, we already have it and I think players in general wouldnt mind having a subscription mentality in general if they get the features they want.
Posts with no questions
Russ_Bullock
I recently communicated this information in the next VLog that we just finished recording however I wanted to get this information out faster to the community.
Status of the Matchmaker: I have both good and bad news. The release of the 3/3/3/3 feature has been as frustrating for us as it has been for you. Many have speculated that the feature simply has been proven unviable and we should be looking for alternative ways to match our players. Here is where I can state the good news that it actuaully seems that we have proven the feature to be very viable and fun. In explanation: now that we have the Queue window we actually were able to prove that players are willing to adjust there behaviour and play more Light and Medium mechs so long as they know that the two sides are even which was always a critical component of the 3/3/3/3 feature. We actually saw the Queue's for the 4 weight classes even out very effectively. On top of that when matches were kicking off the matches were noticable by everyone involved to be very fun and and much more consistently competitive. Now the bad side unfortunately what we found was that the feature is unviable in the currently way the matchmaker has been written. Therefore it is going to be necessary to do a rewrite of the matchmaker code. Now I should mention that it was always going to be necessary to rewrite the matchmaker code to support the faction based matching necessary for CW which was basically upon us anyhow, but we had hoped in the meantime 3/3/3/3 would be active. So this has changed our plans and we have had to bump the MM rewrite up to top priority. Karl Berg is now assigned to start and complete this rewrite and we will start out by completing
just the existing design of 3/3/3/3 and get that active then complete it to support CW. So as to an ETA all I mentioned in the VLog is that I promise to give you an updated ETA in about 2 weeks time, but I am hopeful it will only be in the ~1month timeframe.
In summary: 3/3/3/3 seems very fun, competitive and viable. But it will need some rewrite of the MM to actually turn it on. I will get back to the community with an updated ETA in about two weeks time. Thanks everyong for your patience, can't wait to get this feature live.
Russ
Russ_Bullock
Okay it's now 6pm and the end of our chat. I am sorry I couldnt get to more of your questions. I hope this provided some insight and answers that you have been craving. I did want to get out a state of the union on the match maker but didnt really have the opportunity with the questions tonight. I will post that here shortly. Thanks.
Questions and Answers
Q:Fireye
How do you plan on incentivizing lights and (to a lesser extent) mediums? The scoring in the game is still very damage-centric, and while damage is important, there should be some incentive to complete map goals. It's a painful choice to have to decide between doing damage (and upping my rank/xp for the drop), and helping cap conquest points. IF we win by caps, I get
a piddly amount of XP, it's more efficient to go shoot stompy mechs.
A:Russ_Bullock
Well I do think the new Queue window is really helping to even out the classes. But you are correct even though the amount of people using each class may even out more, we do agree that we need to find time to go back and provide more role based incentives to scouts and support class mechs.
Q:VictorMorson
Here's another question for COMMUNITY WARFARE:
You have stated that soon, you will make private matches require MC on a PER USE basis with no subscription plan available. Will this include refunds for dropped players on launch, how much do you plan to charge, and will this be required in your vision of CW?
PS: Will you charge the same rate for 1v1 as, say, 8v8 or a private 12v12?
A:Russ_Bullock
I cant say for sure right now - so major caveat here this may yet rear its head again at some point as we develop. However it is my opinion and what I am pushing internally to continue to just use Premium accounts for the entry into features. It's there, we already have it and I think players in general wouldnt mind having a subscription mentality in general if they get the features they want.
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