23 replies to this topic

[Gemini]

First of all, let me quickly introduce myself. My name is Kris Asick, lead designer for Pixelmusement and host of the web show Ancient DOS Games, through which I have covered the first two MechWarrior games and will likely get to MW2:Mercs sooner or later. My website is at http://www.pixelships.com

Because the MechWarrior series is one of my all-time favourites, I've been keeping tabs on the progress of the next MechWarrior game. I will be honest, my first reaction when the MechWarrior Online name was announced was "WTH?" My second was, "Hey I guessed the release period of Summer 2012 right!" ;D

When it comes to the MechWarrior games, I've always preferred the single-player experience. (Mech 3 is my favourite story-wise though I prefer the gameplay of Mech 2 and 4.) I've read through Dev Blog 0, and the FAQ, and nothing has been said of a single player experience for MWO, short of that the original plans a couple years back were to have one.

So in some ways, I'm disappointed because it doesn't seem as though there will be a single player experience.

...yet.

As a game designer, this got me thinking that once MWO is released and people are playing it, there will be a platform in place to easily produce a true, offline, single-player experience with minimal development resources, using MWO as the base engine, that can be sold as a retail product OR as one massive DLC package for MWO players since MWO itself will be following a F2P system.

This is the thought I wanted to share with all the other MechWarrior/BattleTech fans who are here to witness the launch of the new MWO website, and especially with the developers who have the power to make this happen once MWO makes its mark in the gaming world.

Please share your thoughts on this! :)

(P.S. Devs: My favourite mech is the Marauder, so I'm really hoping to see that one in MWO!)

[Threat Doc]

I would like to see both a single player experience as well as a closed group experience, both of which could be set up as various campaigns. Personally, I would love to see all of the work done by those producing the games as well as those who've produced more beyond them for free be honored for their work. I know this has a pretty limited budget, but if it's possible... man, you guys have to realize the mantle of what you've taken on yourselves. I was the second guy to sign up on these forums today, and within an hour there were nearly 700... so, let me say I'm grateful this is all here, that you're doing this, but I'm hoping for so much.

[mulligan]

We need a single player experience, no huge budget CGI, just solid voice acting and smart AI teammates and enemies. It should be easy enough, that way we can start the MP part fairly knowledgeable of what is going on.

Edited by mulligan, 31 October 2011 - 04:58 PM.

[bryan2]

Agreed. I would be happy to pay for a single player story, once the devs have the technology in place it wouldnt be too much of an undertaking.

[rag tag]

I made a topic about the same thing before finding this one. I suggested that maybe the single-player should be a tie-in story. Even though it takes place hundreds of years before 3050 (2784 I think), a great story would be the 1st Succession War when General Kerensky leaves the Inner Sphere.

I can't play online because of HughesNet so the news of MWO was so bittersweet. I'm sure I'll be taking my laptop to McDonalds or college many times to use real hi-speed

[nighthawk441]

I think there should be a coop campaign expansion, not purely single player. When you think about it, you almost always had 3 other lancemates in mechwarrior games. Therefore instead of making a single player campaign ( and then a half assed coop ), the campaign should be fully coop, with the choice of having cpu's lancemates. The single player itself should be full fledged with an awesome story line too, not an arena mode or some a really forgettable series of plot lacking missions.

In a nutshell, it shouldn't be like halo 2, whos campaign was designed for a single person, but tacked on coop for the heck of it. ( 2 master chiefs? ). A resident evil 5 approach to developing the campaign is the way to go.\ I hope that made sense.

I would also like to see another campaign focused on you playing as a clanner, since mechwarrior 3 & 4 afaik had you playing as a mechwarrior of some inner sphere faction / house / merc.

Edited by nighthawk441, 31 October 2011 - 06:16 PM.

[Threat Doc]

rag-tag, on 31 October 2011 - 05:56 PM, said:

I can't play online because of HughesNet so the news of MWO was so bittersweet.

Okay, so you're paying $65 per month for crappy satellite internet that doesn't even allow you play online? Do you have anyone else you can get your internet through? Yeah, it's a good idea to find other internet.

[shambles]

I like the idea behind playing as a clanner as well, especially in single player mode.

[DirtyD]

I would love to have either single player or co-op. I'd prefer jump-in-jump-out co-op, maybe with AI replacing lancemates when needed? And, yes, I'd be willing to pay for a campaign.

Edited by DirtyD, 31 October 2011 - 09:56 PM.

[SnowWolf06]

My apologies for not noticing this earlier. I made a similar posting in NO!! Mechwarrior is now Pay 2 Win
I would really just like to buy the game straight up. Ive played the Sims so i know what its like to add on to things, but in this economy, renting anything just discourages me from playing. I would rather pay $60 straight up.

It's also important to keep connectivity, as mentioned by responders to my posts, or have MWO set-up to continue to allow the player to play against either a skirmish AI or a single player campaign.

To me, Mechwarrior is a universe where you start small and go big with BIG risks. Compared to MW2 Mercs. Instead of real money purchases, create a currency system with exp or "fake money".

You have a mech, you lose that mech, you start back at the bottom again or dust off the one you have saved, salvage another, or maybe a friend can GIVE you a mech. Happy Birthday!

If Mechwarrior turns out the way i think it will, i would recommend a tonnage limit PER mission based on the type of players or missions that compare experience of players. Try to make balances with for noob vs pro situations.

[rag tag]

kay wolf, on 31 October 2011 - 06:46 PM, said:

Okay, so you're paying $65 per month for crappy satellite internet that doesn't even allow you play online? Do you have anyone else you can get your internet through? Yeah, it's a good idea to find other internet.

The only other alternative is dial-up... Verizon and Comcast are on either side of me about 2 miles away but they don't think this small area is worth their time even though several small housing developments has came. It's complete BS. We've tried petitions but they ignore us. I'm not sure why they don't want the customers. If they put in the lines I know all several hundred of us will instantly switch and their initial costs with pay for itself soon enough.

[Aleksandr Miuri]

Okay, so no Single-player game, because that would distract Kris from ever getting Pixelships 2 together >.>

Kidding of course (though I do hope to see that game someday, I can only play Pixelships and Pixelships Retro so many more times!), but it's pretty cool to see you here, and I'm with you on wanting a Marauder, even if it has to be significantly redesigned; unseen, reseen, or all new, a Marauder is always going to be one of the best mechs ever built.

I do agree, though, I'd LOVE to see a single player campaign eventually. I was a bit disappointed at first when I heard this was going to be online only, too. I'm still pretty excited; if this manages to finally live up to what MPBT3025 could have been, then I won't need to spend the next decade missing it like I have the last one! A real campaign would still be a whole new level of amazing though. Judging from comments the dev team made in the PC Gamer interview, they seem to be thinking the same as you as far as being able to add a single player game on the MWO platform later, so I'll be happy to just support the game in its current form all I can, and see what comes of it later!

[Threat Doc]

SnowWolf06, on 31 October 2011 - 10:27 PM, said:

If Mechwarrior turns out the way i think it will, i would recommend a tonnage limit PER mission based on the type of players or missions that compare experience of players. Try to make balances with for noob vs pro situations.

Agreed. I also wonder if the community, knowing they could lose tonnage, will pay heed to honor rules about temporary battlefield withdrawals for repairs? Fight for a bit until your machine is close to combat ineffective or your entire lance is close to Combat Loss Grouping (CLG), both sides withdraw with the opposition's agreement -per the fluff I've read elsewhere-, repair, and return to the field, twist torso's and get moving again. The side that runs out of resources first, or withdraw, ceding the field to the opposition, loses.

rag-tag, on 01 November 2011 - 08:48 AM, said:

The only other alternative is dial-up... Verizon and Comcast are on either side of me about 2 miles away but they don't think this small area is worth their time even though several small housing developments has came. It's complete BS. We've tried petitions but they ignore us. I'm not sure why they don't want the customers. If they put in the lines I know all several hundred of us will instantly switch and their initial costs with pay for itself soon enough.

Are you looking at the possibility of changing those circumstances in the next 9 months or so?

Aleksandr Miuri, on 01 November 2011 - 11:51 AM, said:

I do agree, though, I'd LOVE to see a single player campaign eventually. I was a bit disappointed at first when I heard this was going to be online only, too. I'm still pretty excited; if this manages to finally live up to what MPBT3025 could have been, then I won't need to spend the next decade missing it like I have the last one! A real campaign would still be a whole new level of amazing though. Judging from comments the dev team made in the PC Gamer interview, they seem to be thinking the same as you as far as being able to add a single player game on the MWO platform later, so I'll be happy to just support the game in its current form all I can, and see what comes of it later!

Agreed on all fronts. I'll support this game as much as I possibly can and, if the level of awesome comes up from previous experiences, I don't think IDG(?) is going to have a single problem keeping this game alive.

And, if they keep adding aspects, maps, missions, and unit/element support to the game... my hands start to shake just thinking about it; excitement unbound!

[Pointman1]

I was disappointed at first aswell about there not being a multiplayer, but now i'm just happy there's going to be a new MechWarrior.
I was looking forward to the original story line set in 3015, because it's a time frame that hasn't really been covered by the games. So losing that is disappointing. But, i'm excited about MWO! hopefully they will release single player campaigns as DLCs and maybe the original story line.

[Gemini]

Aleksandr Miuri, on 01 November 2011 - 11:51 AM, said:

Okay, so no Single-player game, because that would distract Kris from ever getting Pixelships 2 together >.>

XD

Don't worry. Single-player or not I generally don't obsess over a game I really like for more than a week, after which I tend to play four hours a day at most. So even if MWO really distracts me from my own work, it's only really gonna delay anything by a week or two. :P

That's pretty cool though that someone here recognizes me. Even though the original PixelShips is over 10 years old now it's only more recently that I've started being noticed when I go places online that are almost completely unrelated to what I do. :)

[Pht]

SP is nice, and I was looking forwards to it, but the publishers wouldn't spring for it (their loss). Down the road? ... I would say that depends on how well their profitability model pans out.

Myself, I'm kind of worried about what will happen to MWO once its profitability model runs its course and the game comes to (developer backed) end of life. An SP game can soldier on, but MMO games usually go the way of the dodo... and I don't think the IP holders are going to be keen on letting us have the back-end server code.

[renegade mitchell]

Single player was good in previous games, but what made me addicted to Mechwarior was the multiplayer community.

[rag tag]

kay wolf, on 01 November 2011 - 12:23 PM, said:

Are you looking at the possibility of changing those circumstances in the next 9 months or so?

Believe me, I want it to so badly, even more so after the announcement of MWO. However, I've no reason or need to move and it doesn't seem like any ISP is planning to do right by us and give us real hi-speed. At least I can do the things I need to get done with HughesNet...

[Razor Kotovsky]

rag-tag, on 31 October 2011 - 05:56 PM, said:

I made a topic about the same thing before finding this one. I suggested that maybe the single-player should be a tie-in story. Even though it takes place hundreds of years before 3050 (2784 I think), a great story would be the 1st Succession War when General Kerensky leaves the Inner Sphere.

This is actually a great idea as MWO will be event-based and therefore always rolling, but the spotlight for next decade is definitely The Invasion.

Clans: Origins, hurrr.

[speedreal]

mechwarrior has always been about the single player campain for me. i love the rich background and storylines it alows.

sadly single player isnt part of this game, that the bad side to "this isnt your fathers mechwarrior."

The only thing that would have been better for me in the past would have been multi player co-op. all the good bits of a mechwarrior mission played with friends. Each mission could unlocks another so we have a campain.

multi player co-op looks like it could be within the scope of this game so i guess thats what im going to hope/ask for