117 replies to this topic

[Bryan Ekman]

Since Social elements of the UI are worthy of their own channel, please post your ideas here.

This thread will serve as the official and dedicated feedback channel. Please keep your feedback, responses, comments and concerns limited to this thread so that we may ensure no valuable opinions are lost.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Bryan Ekman, on 10 May 2013 - 09:58 AM, said:

This thread will serve as the official and dedicated feedback channel. Please keep your feedback, responses, comments and concerns limited to this thread so that we may ensure no valuable opinions are lost.

Nicholas Carlyle, on 10 May 2013 - 09:34 AM, said:

I think that on the initial load up, you should be dropped into a chat room that is set-up for new players to ask questions.

This game has a TON of info. And I think it's like asking someone to read an encyclopedia (for those of us old enough to know what those are) to learn everything via the various tool-tips and descriptions.

I also realize we will have a tutorial, but there is only so much you can do in a tutorial.

The first thing I did when I started up Path of Exile (a F2P diablo2 clone) is figure out how to talk in their "global chat" and start asking some basic questions.

They have the same problem, their skill trees and attributes are insanely hard to grasp just by using the in game menus/UI.

I think this also creates an immediate connection with the game, I forsee new players saying to the people that help "Hey can I add you to my friends?". Creating relationships immediately gives the player a feeling of community and keeps them coming back.

Also I think that the "friends" list should be upfront and center. And when you join a group, it shouldn't be hidden, it should be upfront and center.

And that is a basic overview, I'm at work so it's hard to easily get my thoughts across sometimes.

From the other topic.

[Banditman]

Social to me is the interface for interacting with other players. My Friends, my Guild, chat, everything. It may also touch on what I consider the only reason to play this game: Community Warfare. Without that important feature all you have here is Counterstrike with mechs, and no means for anyone else to create a true metagame. Not something I am interested in sticking around for.

Here are features that absolutely must be a part of MWO:

1. Robust chat. This means configurable, tabbed chat windows. I want a tab for Guild (private), Guild (public), Group and Faction. I want the ability to join other channels (and create those tabs) that might exist, such as "New Player", "Recruitment" and "Events". I want a tab specifically for private messages. I would say PGI dropped the ball on this, but I'm not sure they ever had the ball to begin with on this topic. Here's the ball. Run with it.

2. Robust Guild function. While I think that the guild features of EVE are probably a bit much for this game, a good education in what EVE provides would be a great basis to cull ideas from. At a minimum, I need the ability to create my own ranks, assign various access rights to them and move players into and out of these ranks easily. I need to be able to send some sort of message to individuals, ranks or the guild as a whole. I'd like my Guild's mechs to share a common paint scheme. I'd like them to have custom decals. I'd like a tag for all guild members, though I have to believe after dropping against some PGI 8 mans, something of this nature is already in the works. I'd It would be a lot easier to know what features we need here if we knew more about how Community Warfare was going to work.

3. In game messaging. No, not chat. Let's say I want to talk to a Mercenary corp about a contract, but their leader or diplomatic contact isn't online. I want to be able to leave him a message. In game.

4. End of match results, in the front end. I want to be able to review the results of the last drop in the front end. In fact, I want those results to be hotlinked. If I finish a match, and want to message one of the guys (or girls, no judging!) I just played against, I click his name and select from a context menu: "Chat, Message, Invite to Group, Invite to Guild, See Stats, Ignore" There are probably other things that belong in that context menu.

5. Etc. Without knowing a lot more about how the community will interface with the actual metagame (Community Warfare), it's hard to say what else we're going to need. Probably about 10,000 things that we can't even imagine right now. If you really want our help in guiding development, we need to know a lot more than we currently do.


PGI wants this game to succeed, I believe that. Most of this community wants the same thing. Unfortunately, it's very hard right now for the community to help PGI see the missing parts, because we don't see any of the parts. Make no mistake. I don't consider what we have right now "MWO". Until Community Warfare exists, we have nothing but a mech sim.

I believe we all want a great game, and I think there are probably a lot of great ideas that the community can either help evolve or even conceive. We can't take those steps until we are more informed.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Thontor, on 10 May 2013 - 10:20 AM, said:

i guess I'll do that too

I was going to move yours, but I didn't want to rob you of the "likes" from it.

[Khanahar]

Mentoring system would be awesome. Tutorials can only do so much. I've already introduced 4 friends to MWO, so I (and doubtless others) have some experience already with teaching. Mentors should look over the shoulders of their charges, and be able to give feedback via VOIP or text. They should be randomly assigned, and should earn some XP for their mentees achievements while being coached.

Related to that, giving out rewards for recommending people to the game could be a cool thing for us 'mech-missionaries. Would have to be controlled to avoid exploitation, but if you made it so you just earned rewards for the first 10-15 games they play (at the standard, non new-player rate) it would make these rewards less farmable than simply playing more games on their own accounts.

VOIP needs to be a real priority. Mutable, for sure, but everyone who wants to should be able to. "Most players are premade," but new players are highly likely to play solo, and many of us who just play a drop every day or two after school play PUG for time efficiency.

Group making should be improved... groups should not become defunct when the leader drops.

Effective faction chat would be great as well. Maybe even rivalry chatrooms where FedRats and Snakes can trade insults!

Match history would be cool too. Could really even be locally stored, just matches played on that machine, if doing that would free up resources.

Thanks so much for all your hard work!

Edited by Khanahar, 10 May 2013 - 10:25 AM.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Banditman, on 10 May 2013 - 10:21 AM, said:

Lots o' Good Stuff

Great post. I agree, we are so far out of the loop on CW/UI2.0 it's very hard to give help.

I've been railing for better communication, and now that you are asking for our input, I'm asking you to open up more so we can actually help.

Instead of throwing darts, at a dart board, in the dark.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Thontor, on 10 May 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:

That's ok, Banditman pretty much said what I was trying to say, only a million times better.... Damn you Banditman! Why do you have to be so good with words!

I wish I had time to make posts like that at work. haha

[zraven7]

We really, really need some kind of "Looking for Group" chat. A lot.

I've met a lot of people I enjoy playing with, and I think maybe 2 of them I met through this forum. A bunch others, I met through the Lone Wolf Teamspeak. I have meant none, at all, through the game client. This is kind of silly.
I know you likely have it in the works, but I cannot stress how important a global chat client is to bringing together your player base. Yes, it will be abused, and yes, it will need to be heavily moderated, and double yes, we will need an "ignore" button, but it is something that is essential. Please do not underestimate the importance of this thing.

[Tarl Cabot]

Quote

Every other multiplayer mechwarrior game I have played had something like a global chat... From MW2's Netmech, to the MSN Zone for MW3 and 4.... All had a global chat where people could socialize outside of actually playing the game or visiting the forums.

MPBT EGA/Solaris/3025 also had those features.

But I will stick with combat chat first. It needs to be scalable and persistent and the ability to separate specifics.
1. Kills/deaths
2. Team
3. Global

Out of combat

As we do not know the outline of how you plan on handling that and how long it will be before you can implement all the elements, lets see what we can do.

Semi quick setup before true community warfare gets here.

Ease of use.

PGI touts MWO is about team play but makes it dang near difficult to make that happen. There needs to an interface that will allow you to add or drop someone before dropping into combat, with the ability to add them as a friend, or not, as well as having the ability to organize your friends/team list.

Centralized gathering location - Solaris
7 area - locations / 5 House specific/mercs/general population
Each area has their bars/pubs/joints

And private C* (comstars or /tells from other games) that are automatically saved but can be deleted later.

Will stop since there is no outline to tear up and put back together, or what is in all of your realm of control/feasibility.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 10 May 2013 - 10:51 AM.

[Tennex]

social is def important

since there is no private matchmaking a lot of mer corp websites are pretty much ghost towns..


i think what this game should provide is pretty much just what other multiplayer games have provided. maybe a general chat. friend list. group maker. maybe private chat room


the forums could also use some work. instead of being a disjointed experience. it could be made a community moderated forums, by upvotes and down votes. it is more democraticc. that way there is no animocity generated between playerbase and company through policing. and there is no need to spend money hiring moderators... this system is used by other succesful games like league of legends, starcraft 2, planetside 2 and much more.

Edited by Tennex, 10 May 2013 - 11:05 AM.

[Tennex]

Khanahar, on 10 May 2013 - 10:23 AM, said:

VOIP needs to be a real priority. Mutable, for sure, but everyone who wants to should be able to. "Most players are premade," but new players are highly likely to play solo, and many of us who just play a drop every day or two after school play PUG for time efficiency.

most players are premade with voicechat. but the new players this game needs to keep are solo players. And if they have a good enough experience in the PUG matches they are more likely to bring in more new players

[jay35]

Banditman, on 10 May 2013 - 10:21 AM, said:

Social to me is the interface for interacting with other players. My Friends, my Guild, chat, everything. It may also touch on what I consider the only reason to play this game: Community Warfare. Without that important feature all you have here is Counterstrike with mechs, and no means for anyone else to create a true metagame. Not something I am interested in sticking around for.

Here are features that absolutely must be a part of MWO:

1. Robust chat. This means configurable, tabbed chat windows. I want a tab for Guild (private), Guild (public), Group and Faction. I want the ability to join other channels (and create those tabs) that might exist, such as "New Player", "Recruitment" and "Events". I want a tab specifically for private messages. I would say PGI dropped the ball on this, but I'm not sure they ever had the ball to begin with on this topic. Here's the ball. Run with it.

2. Robust Guild function. While I think that the guild features of EVE are probably a bit much for this game, a good education in what EVE provides would be a great basis to cull ideas from. At a minimum, I need the ability to create my own ranks, assign various access rights to them and move players into and out of these ranks easily. I need to be able to send some sort of message to individuals, ranks or the guild as a whole. I'd like my Guild's mechs to share a common paint scheme. I'd like them to have custom decals. I'd like a tag for all guild members, though I have to believe after dropping against some PGI 8 mans, something of this nature is already in the works. I'd It would be a lot easier to know what features we need here if we knew more about how Community Warfare was going to work.

3. In game messaging. No, not chat. Let's say I want to talk to a Mercenary corp about a contract, but their leader or diplomatic contact isn't online. I want to be able to leave him a message. In game.

4. End of match results, in the front end. I want to be able to review the results of the last drop in the front end. In fact, I want those results to be hotlinked. If I finish a match, and want to message one of the guys (or girls, no judging!) I just played against, I click his name and select from a context menu: "Chat, Message, Invite to Group, Invite to Guild, See Stats, Ignore" There are probably other things that belong in that context menu.

They could also put the mech paperdolls in there to display the damage and death information, rather than trying to force it into the middle of the match in the midst of combat where what really matters is that your opponent has died, not how they died. The "how" is relevant after the match has ended, in the calm of the after-action report/briefing.

[Loc Nar]

I don't have any suggestions as of now, but I really appreciate seeing this type of approach for such a vital community feature and feel the need to say thanks.

Thanks Bryan! ...and Thanks PGI!

[Kaijin]

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1640854

[MavRCK]

One of my favourite memories of Mechwarrior 2, the expansions (Ghost Bear, Mercenaries) was the historical elements / information on the Inner Sphere, the Clans, Mechwarriors of Note and the daily Inner Sphere / Comstar News Updates... this gave me a feeling of immersion and atmosphere to the game as well as an introduction into the Lore of Battletech / Mechwarrior. I would love to have this aspect available in the UI as well - I think it would flesh out the game, give substance to the reasons before the conflict, the maps, the mechs, the Hero Mechs and also be a resource for new players to the game and lore.

Also, I would love to be able to upload a photo of myself and have it as my pilot face (perhaps under a helmet?).

Edited by MavRCK, 10 May 2013 - 12:21 PM.

[Tuonela]

I think most of the good stuff has been mentioned, but in terms of minimum chat functionality:

1) General Global channel for just random discussion
2) Help Channel focused on helping new people or asking general questions regarding the game
3) Private discussion between 1 or more individuals
4) Merc Group Discussion
5) Faction chat wouldn't be bad, not sure if its needed

[TheMeatPuppet]

Please for the love of all that is sacred, do not connect MWO with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or any other social network.

It would be great to have my clan available to me in-game, in it's own tab if possible.

[Wintersdark]

Banditman's post is made of awesome.

I want to reiterate one simple thing, however:

It's extremely important that we have a robust chat window viewable in every screen of the UI. It's currently intensely frustrating to use the current chat system while doing... well... anything.

[Staplebeater]

Banditman, on 10 May 2013 - 10:21 AM, said:

Social to me is the interface for interacting with other players. My Friends, my Guild, chat, everything. It may also touch on what I consider the only reason to play this game: Community Warfare. Without that important feature all you have here is Counterstrike with mechs, and no means for anyone else to create a true metagame. Not something I am interested in sticking around for.

Here are features that absolutely must be a part of MWO:

1. Robust chat. This means configurable, tabbed chat windows. I want a tab for Guild (private), Guild (public), Group and Faction. I want the ability to join other channels (and create those tabs) that might exist, such as "New Player", "Recruitment" and "Events". I want a tab specifically for private messages. I would say PGI dropped the ball on this, but I'm not sure they ever had the ball to begin with on this topic. Here's the ball. Run with it.

2. Robust Guild function. While I think that the guild features of EVE are probably a bit much for this game, a good education in what EVE provides would be a great basis to cull ideas from. At a minimum, I need the ability to create my own ranks, assign various access rights to them and move players into and out of these ranks easily. I need to be able to send some sort of message to individuals, ranks or the guild as a whole. I'd like my Guild's mechs to share a common paint scheme. I'd like them to have custom decals. I'd like a tag for all guild members, though I have to believe after dropping against some PGI 8 mans, something of this nature is already in the works. I'd It would be a lot easier to know what features we need here if we knew more about how Community Warfare was going to work.

3. In game messaging. No, not chat. Let's say I want to talk to a Mercenary corp about a contract, but their leader or diplomatic contact isn't online. I want to be able to leave him a message. In game.

4. End of match results, in the front end. I want to be able to review the results of the last drop in the front end. In fact, I want those results to be hotlinked. If I finish a match, and want to message one of the guys (or girls, no judging!) I just played against, I click his name and select from a context menu: "Chat, Message, Invite to Group, Invite to Guild, See Stats, Ignore" There are probably other things that belong in that context menu.

5. Etc. Without knowing a lot more about how the community will interface with the actual metagame (Community Warfare), it's hard to say what else we're going to need. Probably about 10,000 things that we can't even imagine right now. If you really want our help in guiding development, we need to know a lot more than we currently do.


PGI wants this game to succeed, I believe that. Most of this community wants the same thing. Unfortunately, it's very hard right now for the community to help PGI see the missing parts, because we don't see any of the parts. Make no mistake. I don't consider what we have right now "MWO". Until Community Warfare exists, we have nothing but a mech sim.

I believe we all want a great game, and I think there are probably a lot of great ideas that the community can either help evolve or even conceive. We can't take those steps until we are more informed.

yeah what he said!

Additionally, I would add a configurable combat chat that gives combat data to the player. This could give info on weapon hits, damage output as well as what you are getting hit by, and also critical hits and the like. Similar to the data view in WoW where you can tell the game what data interests you and have it shown in a customizable scroll

[Straker]

There needs to be an overall chat for people to talk in general. Then specific faction chats. Plus ideally the ability to make custom chat rooms or channels. Obviously there also needs to be a way to ignore somebody.

Also you should be able to send messages to your friends who are offline.