MA - Thoughts And Suggestions

I played this game again for the first time in several months. Lost my first 3 matches, closed the game again. Will not open it again. These game companies are really stupid. They need to give a player a bit of hope. Everyone likes to win.

Good to read it's not just me then,though I still can't work out why the losses are so consistent and with other live players scoring over a thousand damage than me at the same time.

I don't particularly target other live players in a match, whatever is in front of my I try and take out,but yeah some of these new weapons pack a lot of damage, mistakes a very costly opposed to how I remember things.

That's why for now I am testing reducing my hanger strength to see if it reduces enemy A.I Rambo style when I'm up against opponents with lower hanger strength which I seem to be regularly up against.

I had a 16 kill, 3 beacon loss once. My AI teammates apparently spent their time in a circle jerk until I was the only one left.

Doesn't seem to matter what you do when the MM wants you to lose, human opponent or not. Most of the time, it's a pretty one-sided affair win or lose.

I gave up worrying about my win/loss record as it's not worth an ulcer.

I’m on a 15-game losing streak myself, though admittedly some of it is self-inflicted, as after 5 straight slaughters, I start playing to lose (i.e., like my lobotomized bot teammates) until I feel like playing for real again. Otherwise it’s just too frustrating. I know I’m not the only one - I’m seeing a lot of players running single mech hangars and mechs with no weapons. They’re probably as fed up with this ‘system’ as I am. 

I have no idea what matchmaker is doing any more, how it decides who your human teammates and opponents are, how stupid/aggressive your AI mates and opponents are, or who’s getting the wins out of all this. It’s obviously being manipulated, but I’ve yet to figure out how or why or what the motivation is supposed to be. They seem to have taken the W R approach and twisted it into something even more senseless. You’d think they’d at least dangle a little carrot and let you reap the rewards of upgrading your gear for a game or two, but no - I’m finding that upgrades (or purchase of any kind) = instant losing streak. I don’t get it. But I’ll tell ya what, it’s almost as much fun seeing how long I can extend that red result streak. 

BigBear, I’ve lost count of my game results that look like yours … and the cussing that goes with it. It makes no sense. I’d suggest just playing it out, try to grab some cheap pilots and collect implants that will enhance your mechs and weapons. Cranking them up does make a difference, even on legacy weapons. In the mean time, wear those losses as a badge of honor. Or something. 

Here’s another one of those head-scratchers (just so y’all don’t feel bad). 

Well guys I have to say a big thanks,to see other players experiencing the same as me makes me feel a little better but as confused as you about the reasoning behind it,as Danny said you would think you would get the dangled carrot for a while to keep you interested as that is human nature,but no it would seem Plarium are happy to grind us into the ground with long loss runs.

Maybe camping is the way forward but to me a mech battle game in an arena should be about going toe to toe not hiding in the shadows but I suppose we have to dance to the developers tune.

Happy camping campers.

     I find I do better when I have at least two live teammates.  We get more wins. I played like three matches cpc yesterday solo and only won one. I had to use KS with RM12s to do that to finish the daily tasks.  Reds had used RMs so I retaliated. 😉 

Well I followed Koalas tip about being aggressive and trying to get the centre beacon and started using Surge with MR's instead of Killy and I have seen a rise in wins and some good toe to toe scrapping as live players fight to turn it.

(Off Topic) When I returned I had around 50 players in my list,of them around 40 were over a week logging in,the others are well advanced of my hanger and the couple of games we teamed up was pointless as MM pitched us against similar high rank hangers and I just got roasted.

I do have to say on the Euro servers I still see a lot of live players,when I watch Foggys YT videos he calls it hunt for live players and plays a lot of solo games,maybe because he doesn't play MA much anymore the MM doesn't team him with live players.

I do the same, save for a few players whose name are funny or with whom I used to play frequently and were good (just in case they eventually come back).

When I was more active, I used to put the threshold at three days.

Also I think everybody realised it by now, but just in case : when the game says someone hasn't been online for one week... it's at least one week. It can be two weeks or six months. The counter just doesn't keep tabs after a week of disconnection.
I'm pretty sure it's because Plarium knows it'd mak them look bad that so many players abandon their game.

I find it truly astounding how easy and plentiful they made the pride skins in accolade challenge, which I have zero interest in acquiring. Why can’t they make the really useful stuff that easy to get.

And another aside - in a moment of utter brain-deadedness, I reinstalled W R after a three year layoff. Exactly why, I cannot say, other than my memory is crap and I needed to remind myself how bad it was/is. And it is quite bad. I think I got up to level 12 over a couple of days, but I think it’s around level 4 or 5 that the game starts showing its true colors. I also forgot what a pain in the gazzochis the single-threaded upgrade process is. I was dealing with the beatings, because I know what they’re trying to do. But when I started coming up against titans while I’m still many levels away from them, that was enough of that. MA’s mentally challenged/lobotomized AI, as annnoying and frustrating as it is, has nothing on Pigsonic’s dastardly ways. 

You'll probably get 10k credits per token. There was like 17 tokens or something right? I used them all so I lost count. I collected all the skins if only to make sure they don't put them in the Crate Rush later on and I waste 10 or 20 fortune keys on them.

So I have been chewing on this theory. Basically that the change isn't with matchmaker, but that the maxed bots combined with the nerf of many human players' main bots has altered AI dynamics. And one area that I'm convinced it occurs is the fact that bots are programmed to prioritize whatever mech has the lowest health. In my matches, AI is fielding Brickhouses and Bastions, and that means that even at full health, some of my mechs are automatically the lowest HP in the enemy's field of vision. Plus I take damage so quickly now, that if I don't start the lowest health mech on the field, I quickly become it. That makes AI come straight for me. It also means that I have to take more frontal shots, which have the least damage. When I am higher health than my teammates, the AI ignores me more and often turns to the side, exposing itself for a higher damage shot. Which is particularly necessary given the high HP of enemy bots.

I'm not saying matchmaker isn't gunning for me too. I am definitely seeing in match after match on CPC that if I draw a single human opponent, my AI becomes hella stupid. But I used to be able to turn the tide more and now I can't.

Also wondering how big win streaks in FFA might factor into this. Not sure what time period matchmaker is using for targeted win rate. FFA gives you a win for top 3, so really grinding a week out might mess everything else up for reals.