65 replies to this topic

[BadWolf]

So a person who may have heard nothing about, or a little about btech, and who may even have played some old btech games in the past (such as I)....finds MWO and says, O cool I can jump right into an Atlas...because bigger is better.

So what will stop random games to be full of nothing but heavies/assaults? Thanks.

(If this has been already discussed, please point me in that direction, thanks)

Edited by BadWolf, 10 June 2012 - 05:59 AM.

[Gun Bear]

Check out the Developer Blogs, they explain great detail everything from how they have designed a system to make every weight class important to how you can customize your ride, and everything else in between. In answer to your main question most people seem psyched and geared toward light and medium 'mechs at this point actually.

[Nintenja]

Short Answer is no. I for one always enjoyed the smaller Mechs in the past. Running around in a light mech nipping at big boys heels is always fun.

[BadWolf]

I mean, for the "regular joe"...most people will not check the forums or bother reading any dev blogs. We are programmed to think...bigger is better. Does MWO have some system in place to promote class diversity (for the regular player, not btech vets) ?

[Kazumi]

BadWolf, on 10 June 2012 - 06:06 AM, said:

I mean, for the "regular joe"...most people will not check the forums or bother reading any dev blogs. We are programmed to think...bigger is better. Does MWO have some system in place to promote class diversity (for the regular player, not btech vets) ?

Yes, they are slow. They will learn fast enough when a light/med just runs around in a circle chewing out their heels till they fall over dead.

[Dragon Lady]

Most online polls reveal that there is an almost bell-like curve in the distribution of 'Mech classes. Slightly fewer players will be playing lights and assaults than those who will be playing mediums and heavies. IIRC, the proportion is almost like 20/30/30/20.

Which is to be expected, because everyone has their own preferred playstyle, and the Devs are taking pains for this game to not be an arms race to the heaviest 'Mech. Not everyone wants to play a lumbering brute that simply can't react quickly to a changing battlefield as lighter and faster 'Mechs circle around them and complete their mission objective.

[Badgerpants]

I will have a heavy, I want the founders Catapult right now, that may change, but I envisage most of my time in a Centurion (medium)

[Shaft McCavity]

"Death by a thousand paper cuts!"

Light 'Mechs all the way, baby. Can't hit what you can't draw a bead on.

[kelmar6821]

Hell no. I'll be in fire support medium mech.

[Bagheera]

I image we will see a few "all assault" teams, and of those a couple of them might make it work for certain scenarios.

By and large though, lack of speed/manuverability, and no indirect fire (no one fast enough to play spotter) would cripple an all assult team against a copetent team with a well balanced lance.


To the topic: light/mediums for me, mostly. I'll likely try to keep something of each class in the stable for maximum tactical flexibility.

Edited by Bagheera, 10 June 2012 - 06:20 AM.

[Black Sunder]

Depends on the mech, but I won't be looking to pilot an assault all the time.

[Elysion]

Citing current polls or what current people are expressing is pointless because its not the current people you have to worry about.

When the game is released the average player will be bairly sentient and just run around clicking on things that move. If you are lucky they will be able to tell the difference between a friendly or an enemy, but thats about as much as you can expect from them.

All the tactical considerations and facts about it being a really good idea not to all just go around in assaults wont matter one tiny bit because the average player wont know any of this, nor will they have the capacity to learn any of it. They will just continue going forward and shooting at things untill they die.

As such no amount of actual mechanical design matters in this regard, as the problem is in perception. What is being done to influince peoples perception away from 'bigger is better'? Again, you cant expect the average free to play mmo player to be able to discern any thing from game mechanics or experience, so what im basically saying is you need bigger flashy buttons, or even hiding the assaults to where you need to go to a different less obvious screen to buy one. You really do have to take the very depressing (but very accurate) viewpoint that the vast magority of players will be idiots. All assault team a bad idea? Maybe, but the average player will lose on an all assault team and not even have the cognative capability to understand why. They will just go play another game in their big gigantic robot with lasers.

Propaganda videos showing mediums being awesome and assaults and heavies being lumbering and sucking and exploding a lot may help also.

Not having any weight class restricted early on is an example of something that can help, as keeping the heavier stuff locked up and reserved for more experienced players is just telling newbies that that is their 'goal' and that everything 'before that' sucks.

In fact, pick a light, the raven i guess since its all fancy high tech stuff. And make it stupidly hard to obtain. This will program all of them into thinking that is 'the goal' and it will be highly desireable and we will have a bunch of ravens running around.

[Kazzamo]

Honestly from something I read before they pretty much expect new players to go for the bigger mechs first. The additional armor gives them more room for error and lowers the learning curve. As they get used to the game and understand that while their big mech has its place but isn't always the best option they might branch off into medium mechs or even light mechs for more speed and such.

[JimmyT]

Definitely there'll be the few who would think bigger is better, or more guns I bring to the battlefield, the longer I live, not to mention the lovely fireworks. It's just something gamers being gamers will have to deal with. When a new player starts out, you can bet they'd want a positive experience, and that usually comes with winning games with better chances, i.e. being in a heavier mech with more armor, more weapons at the expense of speed and maneuverability.

That said, don't worry about what the devs are gonna do to prevent this problem. I think if the community heads in the right direction, new players will quickly learn that bigger isn't necessarily better.

[VagGR]

the gameplay mechanic is designed in such a way that all classes are needed...its been stated in many ways that this game will not be about an arms race. i do agree that in most players think bigger=better and prob wont go through forums and dev blogs, so its up to the game itself to prove them wrong and i do have faith in MWO that it will do so...

[Azariah]

I look forward to entire lances of atlas's trying to take an objective while marching uphill and getting rained on by medium and light mechs.

[infinite xaer0]

well, if it's anything like MWLL, any assaults that dare crawl out into the open are just going to be eaten alive by fire support mechs, or gutted by snipers. It's the organized assault squads that you're going to have to worry about, not the mindless pubbers.. I mean, imagine playing against a team where everyone is communicating through TS, and rocking assault mechs, especially if it's more than 4 v 4. Such a scenario could be pretty OP, considering it would be hard to take the enemy base or kill the entire enemy team without comparable firepower.

[Woodstock]

Nope

[Gun Bear]

Elysion, on 10 June 2012 - 06:24 AM, said:

Citing current polls or what current people are expressing is pointless because its not the current people you have to worry about.

When the game is released the average player will be bairly sentient and just run around clicking on things that move. If you are lucky they will be able to tell the difference between a friendly or an enemy, but thats about as much as you can expect from them.

All the tactical considerations and facts about it being a really good idea not to all just go around in assaults wont matter one tiny bit because the average player wont know any of this, nor will they have the capacity to learn any of it. They will just continue going forward and shooting at things untill they die.

As such no amount of actual mechanical design matters in this regard, as the problem is in perception. What is being done to influince peoples perception away from 'bigger is better'? Again, you cant expect the average free to play mmo player to be able to discern any thing from game mechanics or experience, so what im basically saying is you need bigger flashy buttons, or even hiding the assaults to where you need to go to a different less obvious screen to buy one. You really do have to take the very depressing (but very accurate) viewpoint that the vast magority of players will be idiots. All assault team a bad idea? Maybe, but the average player will lose on an all assault team and not even have the cognative capability to understand why. They will just go play another game in their big gigantic robot with lasers.

Propaganda videos showing mediums being awesome and assaults and heavies being lumbering and sucking and exploding a lot may help also.

Not having any weight class restricted early on is an example of something that can help, as keeping the heavier stuff locked up and reserved for more experienced players is just telling newbies that that is their 'goal' and that everything 'before that' sucks.

In fact, pick a light, the raven i guess since its all fancy high tech stuff. And make it stupidly hard to obtain. This will program all of them into thinking that is 'the goal' and it will be highly desireable and we will have a bunch of ravens running around.

All I got out of this was "I have no faith in the developers or in the future players of this game."

[Faceless Priest]

Give me a heavy over an assault any day. Heavys are great stalker killers for assaults. That being said if seriously EVERYONE is in an assault then yeah you basicly have to go assault...at least in most MW games.

In table top the whole "bigger is better" isn't really true though.
There is truth in it, but the statement isn't just isn't correct, especialy depending on the rules you are going on.