55 replies to this topic

[GrizzlyViking]

There were a few points that stood out for me in a recent ZAM interview http://www.zam.com/s...tml?story=29803 with Matthew Craig, Technical Director at Piranha Games. See the ones that stood out the most below:

FPS GAMEPLAY

Quote

MechWarrior isn't your standard FPS

There has been a lot of discussion about this here on the forums in the past few days making various comparisons to other FPSs. Craig confirms what most of the old MW hands have been saying. MechWarrior does not play like most FPSs and it never has. If you have never played a MechWarrior game before and you are expecting to jump in and play it like other FPSs, then you are going to be surprised that your tactics from other games are not going to help you much with MWO. How to excel at MWO?....TACTICS, TEAMWORK, TACTICS, AND MORE TEAMWORK.

HARDWARE SUPPORT

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We really want to support the fans that want to get more immersed than ever; if you have 3 monitors and a great flight stick we want to ensure you can use them to play MWO.

This is a definite commitment to hardware support on the part of MWO. If you still had doubts/concerns, now you can put those to rest.

MAPS AND LOADOUTS

Quote

You certainly don't want to be taking large numbers of lasers into battle on a map with a higher ambient temperature. We intend to make it easy for players to rapidly switch between configurations to customize their load-outs to fit the game about to be played.

I get a few things form this. 1. There will be varying map temperatures. 2. Switching between various Mech load-outs will be "easy." 3. There will be a way to know what the environment is before match launch and we will be given time to select Mech configurations accordingly.

TEAM PLAY

Quote

Heading into battle without a diverse lance and not using tactics won't be considered an imbalance; players will be rewarded for working together to cover each other's weaknesses.

Team play will be key to winning just as it always has been.


All of this sounds great to me and I am looking forward to getting into the game!


*PLEASE REMEMBER "MECHWARRIOR ONLINE ISN'T YOUR STANDARD FPS," SO PLEASE AVOID MAKING COMPARISONS BASED ON YOUR EXPERIENCES ELSEWHERE. THOSE EXPERIENCES DO NOT APPLY HERE.*

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 01 June 2012 - 02:53 PM.

[Davers]

Yeah, in a lot of FPS you can have 1 good player who knows the camping spots and stuff can really dominate a match, or in WoT a high tier tank can run around wasting the low tier guys with little chance of them hurting them. I don't think that will happen here. Not saying that a skilled pilot won't make a big difference, just they won't be able to win all on their own.

[Mister Dubis]

this is why i'll be playing this more than WoT. A. its got mechs. B. A laser is a laser and does the same if its on a light mech or an assault mech. C. player skill will determine battles, not who has the biggest mech

[MadBoris]

I sure hope not.

I've seen developers cave in to tactical 'competitive' guys a bit too often, they need fast because they don't play for the enjoyment of being in a game world. They need to be winning!

I've seen devs talk strategy out the wazoo, only to eventually turn their game into a tactical adrenaline finger fest, then the OCD guys got some changes they wanted and then left for the next new game to win.

Lets hope the talk pans out.

Edited by MadBoris, 01 June 2012 - 09:23 AM.

[DireWolf307]

MadBoris, on 01 June 2012 - 09:22 AM, said:

I sure hope not.

I've seen developers cave in to tactical 'competitive' guys a bit too often, they need fast because they don't play for the enjoyment of being in a game world. They need to be winning!

I've seen devs talk strategy out the wazoo, only to eventually turn their game into a tactical adrenaline finger fest, then the OCD guys got some changes they wanted and then left for the next new game to win.

Lets hope the talk pans out.

If they make this game in to MechAssault 3 in order to lure the Call Of Duty crowd, I guarantee they will lose a lot of players. I know I would leave. They have already shown a commitment to make this a proper MechWarrior game (no 3rd person, for instance), making it a twitch shooter would already require a serious rework.

[Karyudo ds]

DireWolf307, on 01 June 2012 - 09:37 AM, said:

If they make this game in to MechAssault 3...

You mean Phantom War?

Edited by Karyudo ds, 01 June 2012 - 09:40 AM.

[MadBoris]

The challenge to make different types of gamers happy is always a tough one.
The reality is they can't, they shouldn't try.

If the old timers in PGI make the best game that they themselves enjoy playing, with that recipe then we'd likely be back in the days of PC gaming nirvana. Many of the greatest games were designed the way the devs wanted to play them back in the day, it's what made them deep and rich.

Publishers/devs these days seem to be trying to make a game for some kid, they seem to know who, but I don't know who.

Edited by MadBoris, 01 June 2012 - 09:46 AM.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

The worst thing they can do is make a game "that will appeal to everybody" as it ends up appealing to nobody over time. The game has to be "different" to appeal. Its not as if its the only "robot" game coming out this year, just that we know it will be the best

[DireWolf307]

Karyudo ds, on 01 June 2012 - 09:40 AM, said:

You mean Phantom War?

*dry heave* Thanks, I was trying to forget.

[Kudzu]

Karyudo ds, on 01 June 2012 - 09:40 AM, said:

Phantom War?

How is that not on the filter list?

[Agent KI7KO]

I like how people conveniently pretend they've never seen a Tier 10 heavy tank charge a small group of Tier 8s and get shredded.

[Davers]

If this game manages to maintain the strategy of the TT with the piloting skills of the MW games it will be a very profitable for PGI and probably the most enjoyable game to play on the market. I am really hoping this will be the case.

[Davers]

Afoxi, on 01 June 2012 - 10:10 AM, said:

I like how people conveniently pretend they've never seen a Tier 10 heavy tank charge a small group of Tier 8s and get shredded.

I actually haven't seen that. I was referring to Churchills and KV1s charging my AMX-38. Different people, different game experiences.

[Kartr]

GrizzlyViking, on 01 June 2012 - 07:36 AM, said:

MAPS AND LOADOUTS

Quote

You certainly don't want to be taking large numbers of lasers into battle on a map with a higher ambient temperature. We intend to make it easy for players to rapidly switch between configurations to customize their load-outs to fit the game about to be played.

I get a few things form this. 1. There will be varying map temperatures. 2. Switching between various Mech load-outs will be "easy." 3. There will be a way to know what the environment is before match launch and we will be given time to select Mech configurations accordingly.

This makes me very, very sad. BattleMechs are not OmniMechs and it is not easy to switch BattleMechs from one configuration to another. Easy switching makes it so players will develop the "perfect" weapons load out based on that map and then all you will ever see on that map is that loadout(different 'Mechs will have different loadouts but all the chassis of a certain 'Mech will have the same load).

So fast, easy and costless swapping of configs to best fit the map is bad for the game because A: it takes away the more important of the two differences between Omni and BattleMechs, B: it stifles diversity by allowing the player base to develop and use the "perfect" build for every map, rather than creating a build they like and learning how to use it in many different environments.

It's also a bad idea because it flies directly in the face of lore in a huge and obvious way. Nor does breaking that lore really benefit gameplay and so isn't acceptable under the gameplay>lore reasoning.

Edited by Kartr, 01 June 2012 - 10:45 AM.

[Davers]

Kartr, on 01 June 2012 - 10:43 AM, said:

This makes me very, very sad. BattleMechs are not OmniMechs and it is not easy to switch BattleMechs from one configuration to another. Easy switching makes it so players will develop the "perfect" weapons load out based on that map and then all you will ever see on that map is that loadout(different 'Mechs will have different loadouts but all the chassis of a certain 'Mech will have the same load).

So fast, easy and costless swapping of configs to best fit the map is bad for the game because A: it takes away the more important of the two differences between Omni and BattleMechs, B: it stifles diversity by allowing the player base to develop and use the "perfect" build for every map, rather than creating a build they like and learning how to use it in many different environments.

It's also a bad idea because it flies directly in the face of lore in a huge and obvious way. Nor does breaking that lore really benefit gameplay and so isn't acceptable under the gameplay>lore reasoning.

As pure speculation,
I imagine if I belonged to Davion, when I logged on I would see where Davion was fighting that day. Maybe I would have a choice between urban fighting vs Liao, Desert worlds vs Marik, or Ice world vs the FRR. Maybe there would also be battles that didn't effect any faction goals that may have just pure random maps.
You can't have customization, then penalize you for customizing your mech. New players will have far less choices, and if you have a high heat mech to start with (which I don't think any of them really are) being forced to fight in desert terrains they will be at a disadvantage and have to 'make do'. But being able to customize your mech is an advantage paid for by playing and earning money.

[Lightfoot]

@Kartr

I don't think easy Mechlab changes will have that effect. Take me, I would probably bring some missiles to any map and in MW4 I saw players boating lasers on desert maps. Also the Mechlab happens outside of gameplay so the time it takes is not actually represented in-game.

Should it cost more C-Bills? Should there be a cooldown on Mechlab for non-omnimechs? I don't think it will have much impact on gameplay regardless since players are going to have a good number of 'mechs with the necessary loadouts ready to go so cooldowns are really only going to impede new players who only have one or two 'mechs. Erecting barriers to new players has to be carefully considered. Making 'Mechlab difficult to access is only going to effect players with 2-3 'mechs.

[AC]

Have the devs said it was fast easy and costless? I am actually assuming the opposite. Battle mechs were actually simple to customize with the right amount of cash. Look at all the Solaris custom mechs in BT lore. In fact, the Solaris jocks would modify mechs between matches sometimes to adjust to the various arenas.

Of course there were limitations to what could be changed, and it cost money and time. Omni-mechs were designed for easy field swapping of weapons loadouts. I would assume that if Omni's get added in the future, they will have a much lower customization cost, if not free.

But at this point... why complain? Omni's are not in the game anyway.

Edited by AC, 01 June 2012 - 11:06 AM.

[DireWolf307]

Davers, on 01 June 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

As pure speculation,
I imagine if I belonged to Davion, when I logged on I would see where Davion was fighting that day. Maybe I would have a choice between urban fighting vs Liao, Desert worlds vs Marik, or Ice world vs the FRR. Maybe there would also be battles that didn't effect any faction goals that may have just pure random maps.
You can't have customization, then penalize you for customizing your mech. New players will have far less choices, and if you have a high heat mech to start with (which I don't think any of them really are) being forced to fight in desert terrains they will be at a disadvantage and have to 'make do'. But being able to customize your mech is an advantage paid for by playing and earning money.

The way its seemed is that you will be allowed to have multiple variants of a given chassis and could pick from them before a match.

[Davers]

Any speculation on Omnimechs and clantech and how it will be balanced against IS stuff is an argument for next year.

[Paladin1]

Kartr, on 01 June 2012 - 10:43 AM, said:

This makes me very, very sad. BattleMechs are not OmniMechs and it is not easy to switch BattleMechs from one configuration to another. Easy switching makes it so players will develop the "perfect" weapons load out based on that map and then all you will ever see on that map is that loadout(different 'Mechs will have different loadouts but all the chassis of a certain 'Mech will have the same load).

So fast, easy and costless swapping of configs to best fit the map is bad for the game because A: it takes away the more important of the two differences between Omni and BattleMechs, B: it stifles diversity by allowing the player base to develop and use the "perfect" build for every map, rather than creating a build they like and learning how to use it in many different environments.

It's also a bad idea because it flies directly in the face of lore in a huge and obvious way. Nor does breaking that lore really benefit gameplay and so isn't acceptable under the gameplay>lore reasoning.

You're not the only one who will be disappointed with PGI if this is truly the way things work out when the Beta finally goes fully open in July. BattleMechs are NOT OmniMechs and what was just described was an OmniMech. I know they want to keep the customer happy, but if you destroy the difference between standard `Mechs and OmniMechs all because you want to give your customers "options", you destroy more of the game than what you realize and jeopardize the story later. After all, the ability to rapidly change configurations between battles was one of the major advantages that the Clans had over the Inner Sphere. Higher technology can be compensated for, but allowing the same design that was providing LRM support yesterday to suddenly pack an AC/20 and a bunch of Medium Lasers today is going to screw with anyone's tactics.

I'm still willing to wait and see, but I'm not liking what I'm seeing so far in this regard.

Davers, on 01 June 2012 - 11:03 AM, said:

As pure speculation,
I imagine if I belonged to Davion, when I logged on I would see where Davion was fighting that day. Maybe I would have a choice between urban fighting vs Liao, Desert worlds vs Marik, or Ice world vs the FRR. Maybe there would also be battles that didn't effect any faction goals that may have just pure random maps.
You can't have customization, then penalize you for customizing your mech. New players will have far less choices, and if you have a high heat mech to start with (which I don't think any of them really are) being forced to fight in desert terrains they will be at a disadvantage and have to 'make do'. But being able to customize your mech is an advantage paid for by playing and earning money.

And I would counter with the fact that this is exactly the situation that BattleMechs have been historically presented with. You can customize your ride, but only with a lot of time and money and it's never done right before a battle. That tactical flexibility, not their technology, was what made the Clans such a stone cold ***** to deal with when they first invaded.