Is this game enjoyable

[RAGEDog]

After 46 hrs I just feel depressed after a game session. Which is weird because it is such a well designed game. I watch videos constantly and it looks really fun, like Surrey is my favorite. Love looking at all the strategies and different uses of units but then I play and I just feel terrible afterwards. I turned MMR off that helped a lot. Usually I play about 3 games in a row is that too little to commit.

[Esxhaton]

Let me try to help. You obviously seem to like the game, but somehow the looming MMR number going up and down stress you too much.

I’ll quote and paraphrase a pair of known gamers.
- it is only you that care about your MMR, no one else cares
- MMR is just a number

If you like the game and want to “git gud “ you just need to play without stressing about losing games, remover the above and learn from your losses while enjoy playing

[Mivo]

I think the enjoyment depends on your expectations. If you try hard to climb up the ladder and are only have fun when you win, then every defeat is bound to be extra frustrating and only victories seem worthwhile. If you instead focus more on learning, then even defeats have value because you can learn something from them. Or differently put, if you shift your focus from winning to learning, every match you play can feel rewarding.

I watch a lot of streamers and YouTubers too, and while that is entertaining and you can learn a lot from it, I think it can also lead to the situation where you feel you know a lot about the game and should be able to play better than you do. And then, if you can't seem to apply what you saw and your own matches don't work out, it is also frustrating.

To really improve at the game, you have to play a lot and review some of your games. Top players like Surrey have played this game for thousand of hours and experimented a lot. They didn't give each single game they played a lot of weight, because they know that it doesn't matter how often you've won or lost, but how much you've learned. Some of what they learned can be taught, but nothing can replace actual playing practice.

It's like learning a musical instrument. You can watch people play guitar, piano or any other instrument for thousands of hours, you can watch many tutorials that explain how to play a song or do some techniques, but unless you actually sit down with the instrument and practice what you learned a lot, it will not make you a better player, let alone a good one. When people see a good musician, they often say "I wish I had their talent!". But it completely ignores the numerous hours and hard work that these people put into getting to where they are.

I think the game can be fun at all levels if you don't attach your self worth or intelligence to your rating. Is the game more fun at 2200 MMR than at 1200 MMR? Looking at some of the streamers' games, I'd say no, not necessarily. There is a lot less wiggle room in those high top level games, and mistakes get punished harder. Competition is also more fierce. From that perspective, a 1200 or 1600 game can be more fun.

[The_Blizard_Lizard]

i dont have many hours in the game but from what ive experienced just messing around with silly builds it a lot of fun, i personally love watching things burn so i often do all fire badgers...do i win often? not at all. Did i have fun? hell ya! just play with an open mind about what units youre given. because who cares at the end of the day right? its just a number on a screen

[Kugelfisch]

yeah, the mmr system is really frustrating. what was big fun, was when playing with a new account and starting from zero mmr. when you mmr is once around you skill-level, every match feels like a grind.

[RAGEDog]

Games tend to be very hot or cold ethier I demolish my opponent or I get demolished. Sitting around 1100-1200 mmr, I only check my MMR like once a week. Generally its the losing like 3 to 5 games in a row that really gets me low and I just quit playing. Then the win streaks feel awful also as I demolish people, I just want really close games with lots of tension but that doesnt seem to happen very often. I figured I wasnt getting close games because I wasnt skilled enough but now IDK.

Heck I wonder if MMR is screwed up because of smurfs but I dont want to blame the game if its something Im doing. As I said the game is so wonderfully made I just want to jump on but then I do and I just feel upset after regardless of wins or losses.

I have seen other posts about other frustrations but they blame the game but I dont feel the game is a problem at all. So maybe its my understanding of the game that is lacking. I cant figure out the problem.

Thanks for all the advice.

[Arti_Sel]

Originally posted by RAGEDog:

Games tend to be very hot or cold ethier I demolish my opponent or I get demolished. Sitting around 1100-1200 mmr, I only check my MMR like once a week. Generally its the losing like 3 to 5 games in a row that really gets me low and I just quit playing. Then the win streaks feel awful also as I demolish people, I just want really close games with lots of tension but that doesnt seem to happen very often. I figured I wasnt getting close games because I wasnt skilled enough but now IDK.

Heck I wonder if MMR is screwed up because of smurfs but I dont want to blame the game if its something Im doing. As I said the game is so wonderfully made I just want to jump on but then I do and I just feel upset after regardless of wins or losses.

I have seen other posts about other frustrations but they blame the game but I dont feel the game is a problem at all. So maybe its my understanding of the game that is lacking. I cant figure out the problem.

Thanks for all the advice.

I think it's because the balance of this game depends on very hard counters when most similar games have softer counters. Idk if I can think of any strategy-game-counter that is harder than that of vulcan vs crawler or even scorpion vs tanks. So the balance rests on a knifes edge, the slightest mistake in positioning and what would otherwise be a fair exchange can turn into a onesided slaughter. At 1100-1200 mmr you are still making huge mistakes at a regular basis, you won't even notice most of them but your games are pretty much determined by who made the biggest ♥♥♥♥♥♥. This will be true all the way up to 1700 at which point you will still make mistakes but they won't be as easy to spot and aren't necessarily game-endingly bad.

This might sound a bit restrictive, but the flip side of such fine balance is that what looks like mistakes can build up to stronger positions and there are a lot of room to maneuver inside the details of what really is a mistake and what turns out to be unconventional tactics. It's absolutely possible to find your own or new solutions to problems, a lot of innovation is still happening, but you are going to have to make a lot of mistakes before finding out what works and then putting that to the test against other people who actually know what they are doing.

[WeirdWolf]

You are not earning money with this, ignore the mmr. Lower mmr can be fun because of easier games. But i get toxic too in games sometimes...

[Cryptic]

Not after this latest patch. Too many balancing issues right now and easily reachable exploits.

[8-bit Cavalry]

I'm still enjoying this game a ton even though I play almost daily. I alternate between 1v1 and 2v2 to keep things interesting which helps. Also It's kinda dumb, but one thing my friend and I always do when playing 2v2 together is "tell ourselves the story of our opponent".

if you mouse over your opponent(s) in the match prep screen you can see their MMR and recent wins and losses. if we see someone higher MMR than us with say 4 losses, we'll say something like "uh oh, it looks like we're the consolation prize!" or if we see a pair who play together with a string of wins but lower MMR we might say "ohh its the new upstarts, lets see if we can finally bring them down to earth." Or if its one really high and one really low MMR who got auto-matched together we'll joke that "fates forced them to fight together, but without the power of teamwork will they be a match for us?". The larger context makes the wins and losses much easier to accept, and helps set expectations for what we're about to face.

It's all just guessing of course, but it helps get us in the right frame of mind. I'm not saying turn MMR back on necessarily, but at least look at the win/loss of the person you're about to square off with and think about how they might be approaching the match from their side.

[Cryptic]

You can turn off mmr? What?

[Knotty]

Game is fun. The more you win the more your MMR will increase. You will always be put to fight against similar MMR opponents. There are no hackers in this game and if they are I have not heard or seen anyone complain about it. You can enjoy this game solo or with a friend. There is a learning curve and you'll learn how each unit works either through community guides or personal experience. There is no fixed meta, This game is almost like chess where you and your opponent are trying to predict what the other will do and plan around it.

[HolgFromHell]

Originally posted by Cryptic:

You can turn off mmr? What?

yes, in the settings is an option to not show yours and others MMR

[Waggy]

If you're not having fun you shouldn't play this.

In this game you'll be defeated a lot. Even the top players are defeated a lot by each other, and even if you were the most supreme greatest player ever you'd still lose occasionally due to sometimes card drops favoring your opponent...

You win some, you lose some. Like when playing chess or an amateur sport with your local pick-up group or other activity like board games...

But if even with the right mindset you still feel bad playing, just drop the game. You deserve to have a good time on your leisure time. Maybe try another genre or go read a fun book.

[RAGEDog]

Originally posted by Waggy:

If you're not having fun you shouldn't play this.

In this game you'll be defeated a lot. Even the top players are defeated a lot by each other, and even if you were the most supreme greatest player ever you'd still lose occasionally due to sometimes card drops favoring your opponent...

You win some, you lose some. Like when playing chess or an amateur sport with your local pick-up group or other activity like board games...

But if even with the right mindset you still feel bad playing, just drop the game. You deserve to have a good time on your leisure time. Maybe try another genre or go read a fun book.

I just play helldivers 2, generally I felt good playing starcraft 2 that was so fun and AOE4. IDK with whats going on here on mechabellum its ethier your pigeon or the statue and the games are not very close win or lose. My problem its just such a well made game I want to play it more but then I do and its just not a good time. Ill give it another go sometime, but I just stopped playing for now.

[puschit]

This game is perfect for playing 2-3 games once in a while. It's a well designed autobattler but it's still an autobattler with a single, featureless map, both sides have access to the same units (no factions) etc., of course it won't be interesting enough to be played for hours straight. Which is perfectly okay. I really enjoy the fact I can fire it up, play for 20 minutes, turn it off and forget about it for a week or more. Unlike other, more demanding games where you have to grind, keep up to date, remember where you left off last login etc.