So... how are things...

It shouldn't be any real surprise that you can collect money for a good cause from this group. Although there is some bitching about all the 14 y.o. losers playing, my suspicion is that the majority are really 30+ y.o. losers (I know I am) who have steady income and feel at least a little guilty about being in a life situation where you can spend significant amounts of your time on something as useless as a computer game. A lot of us were exposed to Battletech in the 80's and have been playing stompy robot games ever since.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a carpool-mate a couple of years ago where he presented his 60's/70's butt-rock music as the best ever because it is still being played on the radio today. I pointed out to him that the reason it's still being played on the radio has nothing to do with the quality of the music but rather the size of his demographic's (he's about 10 years older than) pocketbook. His demographic is worth advertising to so the radio plays music that gets him to listen. It's not rocket science.

That being said - it's nice to be in a community where a project like Sarah's Jenner is successful and I'd like to see them do another project so that those of us who weren't around before can contribute. I'll certainly throw a few bucks to anyone's cause who can stand to play MWO for 24 hours straight.

 

Btw Elo remains intact apparently for perpetuity - I dropped a couple rounds in Timber Wolf tonight finally getting to see the thing in person, and I'm seeing Edmeister in my squad, etc. Why the fuck am I having to grind basics on a new mech against top players after I've been away this long? What the fuck, Elo should decay over time in my opinion.

 

Its an interesting point I've always struggled with - every time I level a new set of mechs like the Gargoyle and you're up against wall to wall maxed Stormcrows, Timerwolves, Direwolves etc in the hands of extremely experienced pilots...

I get why it happens as I have every mech in game maxed but it can get grim and sour you against a new mech.

 

Reset ELO every 4 or 6 months. Except for players that have not finished their cadet bonus. All cadets have a default "low" ELO.
Also, tie ELO to 'Mech, not to weight category. Just because a player is good in their mastered FS9-A, doesn't mean they should be in the same ELO bracket when in their brand new UM-R60 Urbanmech...

 

Setting ELO per mech is not going to work, as a collector/Whale I have 140+ mechs. Many with perfectly good loadouts which I may perform well in but don't play, many have less then fifty games registered which is a impossibly low sample to judge skill.

Sorry. :/

 

Was just imagining the poor new players if they did reset ELO every 4-6 months... I mean I can get 7 kills against good opponents in the solo queue now... with a reasonable number of 8's and one 9... and don't consider myself a great pilot at all just experienced.

Theres a reason certain extremely experienced players used to start new accounts for tournaments and it wasn't for the challenge or to level new mechs. They were quite open about their reasons and considered it a totally valid tactic.

 

That shit used to piss me off.

 

I just never saw the point - can't pretend I managed to get top 10 more than once but at least I felt I earnt that single moment through blood, tears and sweat (plus luck and a modicum of experience/skill... mostly luck).

 

I made an alt during a tournament... but it was entirely coincidental. The alt was made for the Halloween 2014 contest. It's not my fault that they required your first 20 matches for the account to be valid and there happened to be a tournament going on that same weekend and the 20 games placed me in the top 5 for Black Jacks

 

Don't even see the point of earning MCs on a separate account without gifting options available. Furthermore, as stated before, I got the kick of just reaching top 10. The fact that I would lose the spot to others playing way more than I do was annoying, but not of that magnitude to incite me to start a new account just to get my e-peen stroked,...

 

When I was piloting that blackjack for ~20 matches, my Elo for that account must of sky-rocketed because by the end and ~10 games after I was seeing all of the same names on my primary account.

 

Well... if new players start with average Elo... and Elo takes a while to adjust... then doesn't it stand to reason logically... that you're an average pilot?

I'm not insinuating anything, I'm just trying to understand the Elo function. I've heard lots of conflicting reports about how it functions in modern MWO.

I'm also assuming it goes by weight class still, right? Cuz when I drop in Timber for Heavy category (cuz 3D), I'm seeing nothing but legit builds and names I remember and lots of unit tags. When I drop in my Nova, and Mediums I've not played very much at all probably less than 100 rounds total before the Nova, I'm getting 3-6 kill rounds with 400-900 damage practically every round, barely recognizing anyone (more main forum ppl than old competitive ppl), and about half as many unit tags... spectating overall the players look worse, the comments they make in game are more derpy, less cohesion, less tactics by both sides, less meta builds, etc.

PS - oh and most noticable of all... finding a heavy match for me takes about 5 minutes usually... medium is about 10 seconds xD

 

lol, I guess I didn't explain the change well enough. The first 20 games were practically gimmes. Every game was a slaughter, mainly by me. 5-6 kills, 900+ games every time in the AC20 BJ-1 and BJ-A. Players I'd never seen before. Lots of silly decisions on both sides. Almost immediately after 20 games, I started seeing players namely Edmeister (funny you also mentioned him), Cyberblade, eclisse, TENshiCvo, Kaff, Twinky, TFun, Gut, etc. All names I would associate with good players and definitely above average. The games became a lot more difficult at that point. It was literately no difference than playing on my primary account.

So I don't know what the Elo change rate is over time or how long it would take to raise the score, but it seemed like it was locked for the first 20 games, then it immediately and dramatically changed. It was very noticeable. If Elo is only determined completely separate per weightclass, I suppose I could technically test this again with lights (statistically my best mech class). The problem is that this account has finished its cadet games, so the results might differ.

I've never seen it confirmed anywhere exactly how it works, but it sure felt like the Elo was locked while a cadet, or for the first 20 games... might not be real, but there was a definite, speedy change between 20 and 30 matches.

I don't bring this up to defend a perception of my own skill level, but simply to determine the truth based on my observation. I could really care less what skill level I fall under, especially with how much I fuck around in games.

 

Yeah, ok then.

Hmm.

Ok this is something I've always wondered... perhaps... PGI has some sort of IP check for Elo purposes..? To stop griefers from just constantly making new accounts and shitting on newbs?

 

Didn't think about that... could be? I mean, I emailed them to let them know both of my accounts were owned by me for disclosure for the Halloween 2014 contest. Their response sounded like they already knew...

However, an IP check would effect people like, a father and son for example. Or brothers. People who game on the same computer, but have different accounts for the same game. I doubt PGI would have an IP check in their Elo scoring... but it's definitely possible.

 

Yeah Heavies and Assaults are usually the 5 mins cap for me, lights are ridiculously fast and mediums aren't bad. Its why I always churn c-bills with lights and meds.

In MWO its weight classes for Elo ergo why the pain for new mechs. There was a really good explanation of the Elo system on the main forum maybe a year back and I may have bookmarked it - will check later as running out of time to earn the c-bills for the last module I want to buy in the sale....

 

Some things I've noticed:

Clans have no reliable pinpoint alpha except for lasers, which is fucking retarded.

Whats point of extra range if everything IS mech goes faster with engine tweaking, and you get outsniped since splash and tinktinktink instead of fronted.

LRMs are even more skilless now with NARC and TAG being useful and camera shake out the wazoo, I don't even...

Everything is made to run up and exchange 80 dmg alphas from trash weapons until one is somehow left. That's so mindless. It watered down the skill.

 

Gauss...

I get load of kills with clan dual gauss boats and with clan XL engines you're in a much stronger position than a JM6 or CTF due to the reduced vulnerability and light weight support weapons. You even get free case in each location to mitigate the explosion risk.....

Dual ERPPC work well on poptarting as it generates lots of crits via the extra damage spread - 10 pts to primary location, 2.5 to two surrounding locations.

It just happens to be that in many cases SPL/ERSL/MPL/ERML/LPL are much better than cERPPC because heat is so much easier to control and in a mass attack your TBR's and SCR's can get very quickly to brawl range at which point using ER PPC's is a huge weakness as you have no sustained firepower. Well in my opinion!

 

Can't fit a Gauss up top in shoulder Timber S with max JJs, only 3... can't tart like that... so whats the point...

Yes LPL is replacement for Clans that want PPC style shit. That sucks though after a while. It's still a starelaser.

 

Summoner can do gauss/erppc as thats what I used to pop tart with (the other was 2 x er ppc in the nova). Of course there you have a load of fixed JJ.

Edit: My dual gauss aren't pop tarters it has to be said.