25 replies to this topic

[franoi]

Hey guys,

I haven't played this game for a long time. So long in fact, that I don't remember the exact time I stopped. Think it was around the time when the air strikes and so forth were implemented and tweaked for the first time, so I guess about 1,5 years.

So my general questions are these:

How is the state of the game? Is the balance better than ever before? Are air and artillery strike still mandatory or are you still robbing your team of potential damage if you choose not to use them? Are hitboxes and mechsizes improved? How is it going with the "Community and Faction Warfare" that was always promised but never implemented? Just in general, how are things going and is it worth a shot to try it again after all this time?

Best regards,

franoi

[HlynkaCG]

Welcome back! quick answers in order.

• Balance is definitely better, but there is no pleasing some people, Clan Factions / Mechs have been added to the game and are good but not as OP as everyone feared they would be.
  
• Air and Arty are useful, but not always mandatory as there are other viable options.
  
• Hit-boxes and mech-sizes have improved but there are still outliers.
  
• Community warfare is still "coming soon" but we have at least started to see visible progress since PGI went independent.

Edited by HlynkaCG, 12 November 2014 - 06:49 AM.

[Shlkt]

IMO weapon balance is better now than it has ever been. There are only a few weapons which don't fill a useful role on the battlefield: flamers still suck, and the AC/2 generally isn't worth bringing. The latter can be used semi-effectively in very specific circumstances, and the former I have never seen used effectively.

Mech balance is better now than it has ever been. Several of the less popular mechs have been given bonuses, called quirks, that improve their performance in specific ways. For example, the much-maligned HBK-G was given a 25% cooldown bonus for the AC/20 in addition to extra armor for his hunch.

Arty and airstrikes have been nerfed slightly since the peak of their power (roughly 20% less effective). They are game changers in specific instances but not often enough to justify the price tag IMO. I still drop 'em in almost every game, though Oh, and you can only equip one strike now (arty or air), which was a nice way to reduce the spam...

Minor hitbox improvements have been made, but the bigger improvement is the aforementioned quirks for specific mechs which may have suffered from hitbox issues. The Dragon, for example, was given extra armor to help it cope with its huge CT.

Community warfare is visible on the horizon. Instead of being 3 months out we're now (theoretically) less than 1.5 months from its debut. If PGI doesn't slip the schedule (and they haven't slipped in several months now) then it should be out before Christmas.

[Summon3r]

since PGI parted from IGP the progress in the last 2-3 months has been astonishing compared to what we were used to, along with there involvement with the community and keeping us informed! night and day from your last experience i assure you.

[Jody Von Jedi]

Welcome back.

I see you're a founder. It will be worth it to you to log into the game and see your new mechs. You should have received a couple rewards for pre-orders. You should see 2 shiny new mechs in your hanger, CN9-AH (re-release after IGP departure) and a new AS7-S.

The IS mechs just got a much needed Quirk pass to help balance them out with the clans. As Shlkt said above, give the old Hunchbacks a try. They haven't been this good since before you stopped playing.

Jody

[SilverWolf]

Climb into that mech. New maps. Have fun

[Rogue Jedi]

as previous people have said there is lots of new good stuff,

another notable addition is the module change, modules are now split into 3 catagorys
Consumable (UAV Airstrike, Artillary strike, Cool Shot) you can only equip 1 strike. most mechs have 2 consumable slots
weapon modules (for range or recycle time for a specific weapon) most mechs have 2 weapon slots,
Mech modules (things like sensor range, advanced zoom, sizemic sensor) most Mechs have 1,
the master skill now unlocks a slot where you can put a Mech module or weapon module.

UI2.x is another significant change, unfortunately in a lot of ways the old GUI was better.

most weekends there is now an event where if you partisipate and fulfill the criteria you get something, revent event rewards have included millions of cbills, some MC, mechbays, GXP, cockpit items, premium time

[franoi]

Thanks for all the great news! I decided to give it a try and I am installing it right now.

Was IGP really that evil? I know that most publishers are money grubbing blood sucking parasites but I can't believe that they would deliberately ruin a potentially financially successful franchise like this for some short term money gain.

[HlynkaCG]

franoi, on 12 November 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

Was IGP really that evil? I know that most publishers are money grubbing blood sucking parasites but I can't believe that they would deliberately ruin a potentially financially successful franchise like this for some short term money gain.

Can't say for sure, but there has certainly been a noticeable improvement on all fronts since PGI went indy.

[Nick Makiaveli]

franoi, on 12 November 2014 - 06:27 AM, said:

How is the state of the game? Is the balance better than ever before? Are air and artillery strike still mandatory or are you still robbing your team of potential damage if you choose not to use them?

Just FYI that is the same thing stated twice, so not really an "or". More like an ie as in rephrasing the statement so as to give an example or clarify some detail.

franoi, on 12 November 2014 - 06:27 AM, said:

How is it going with the "Community and Faction Warfare" that was always promised but never implemented?

CW is progressing, but has not been fully implemented. Clans/Merc units are in-game now for example. I forget the link but there is a roadmap showing progress etc.

[Voivode]

Welcome back!

Unfortunately, as much cool stuff as has come out there are only the same three game modes. CW should be in before XMAS and promises a new game mode just for that. Lots of new mech including clans (Stormcrow is my favorite of them) a few new maps, another new map incoming this month. Mech quirks are AMAZING!

See you on the battlefield!

[IllCaesar]

Worth noting regarding IGP - support for Mechwarrior Tactics has completely, inexplicibly dried up. Mechwarrior Tactics is, currently, dead and likely to stay that way.

The game is improving quite quickly. There's been some sort of weekend event every weekend since August, which has given some new life into the game, and the quirk pass just dropped last week, making significant changes to the Inner Sphere mechs.

https://docs.google....&pli=1&sle=true

I can't tell you whether or not its up to snuff for your standards, but its much better than it was, its looking to improve horizon, and I would say that its worth giving a second chance.

Oh, and you're a founder, which means you may have a ton of Premium Time set aside. You can now activate it in lumps of 30 days at a time, rather than all the extra days as well.

One last thing - mentioned earlier, you probably have an Atlas-S, and maybe the Centurion-AH (I don't recall if you needed to buy MC on the game since release or just have bought MC at any point) but the King Crab will be coming December 16th, and if you purchase the top tier of any package before then, of which there are currently three - Wave I, Wave II, and Resistance, you get the King Crab with unique geometry and C-Bill bonus.

[RG Notch]

franoi, on 12 November 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

Thanks for all the great news! I decided to give it a try and I am installing it right now.

Was IGP really that evil? I know that most publishers are money grubbing blood sucking parasites but I can't believe that they would deliberately ruin a potentially financially successful franchise like this for some short term money gain.

No, IGP makes a convenient scapegoat.

[McHoshi]

welcome back

hope u´ll enjoy it now

[Redshift2k5]

I certainly do not expect each team to bring TWELVE artillery/air strikes. there are times when they're useful, but I personally do not bring one every match. But, since I have premium time & hero mechs, I tend to 'take one for the team' by providing them without expecting every player to have them.

I've never seen people complain about too few air strikes, usually it is the opposite!

Balance is good, better now than ever; Many mechs, variants, and builds got some big buffs with last patch's "Inner Sphere Mech Quirks Pass", which gave many lower-tier mechs an equal opportunity to shine and did a lot of work to lessen the gap between the best mechs and the worst. Chances are some mechs you already own got some serious buffs to help them go toe to toe with Clan mechs!

It's not entirely clean what mistakes were IGP's fault or a mixture. It seems that IGP were the ones to put Clans release ahead of CW, and we HAVE seen PGI turning over a new leaf since the summer. Check the Command Chair for Community Warfare updates.

[SnagaDance]

franoi, on 12 November 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

Was IGP really that evil? I know that most publishers are money grubbing blood sucking parasites but I can't believe that they would deliberately ruin a potentially financially successful franchise like this for some short term money gain.

Evil? Probably not. But negligible in an old fashioned bureaucratic kind of way. Something that just not works with something as dynamic as an online game. PGI would be like: "Hey we've got a last minute nice idea for a weekend event that's easy to implement/want to make xchanges/want to hold a sale on these mechs etc."

And IGP would be like. ".......................well.........really? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....well you know the procedure, fil out these forms in triplicate and keep in mind the subsequent month long cost/benefit and optimalisation analysis procedures and well get back to you no longer than 2 weeks after those mmm-kay?"

[JC Daxion]

franoi, on 12 November 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

Thanks for all the great news! I decided to give it a try and I am installing it right now.

Was IGP really that evil? I know that most publishers are money grubbing blood sucking parasites but I can't believe that they would deliberately ruin a potentially financially successful franchise like this for some short term money gain.

I don't know if i would go that far about publishers.... But with PGI at the helm, things are looking much brighter. I think for the main reason, it is there baby, and they live and die by the product.. When you are a publisher.. putting money into a sinking product, (not saying MWO, but in general) could hurt many other projects...

But i guess i am a glass half full kinda guy.... But now... PGI just gave me a Free Refill!

[n3uton]

I've also just come back to the game after a major PC upgrade, this was just the thread I was looking for.

Seems that modules can now only be bought with MC rather than GXP - if so, what can I spend GXP on or is it now only good for pilot skills ?

Playing with a GTX 970 on max graphic settings is really showing me what I was missing out on before, and good to see the PUG hasn't really changed that much - I was expecting to come back to no PUGs and full clan only matches.

See you on the battlefield

[InspectorG]

franoi, on 12 November 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

Thanks for all the great news! I decided to give it a try and I am installing it right now.

Was IGP really that evil? I know that most publishers are money grubbing blood sucking parasites but I can't believe that they would deliberately ruin a potentially financially successful franchise like this for some short term money gain.

Well, yes it can but may not have been deliberate.

IGP may have been looking JUST for a ROI. Think 'pump and dump' but as a business strategy.
Does it make good games? Not very likely. Can it make some money, short term, sure. Wll it piss off players, likely but 'who cares' if its a quick pump and dump, right?

Or maybe IGP/PGI werent ever meant to be good business partners...

Who can tell?

Important thing is MWO is doing noticeably better now from it.
I have no expectations for CW, but PGI 'could' hit a home run. They would get LOTS of gaming industry notice if they did.

[SnagaDance]

n3uton, on 15 November 2014 - 07:05 AM, said:

Seems that modules can now only be bought with MC rather than GXP - if so, what can I spend GXP on or is it now only good for pilot skills ?

That doesn't sound right. You unlock modules for GXP (do NOT use gxp for pilot skills), and after unlocking them you buy the actual modules for C-bills.