Town Hall Summary!

These are just my notes, but hey, it's better than nothing if you couldn't listen yourself! (Bear with my terrible notes)

1. New Player/UI 2.0. They're working on it to make this game more friendly to new players, and it has to be ready "before the Steam release".

2.VOIP is "functioning in house" and we can expect to see it sometime mid-February! It'll be a fully integrated teamspeak-eske fuction.

3. Faction grouping available this January 20th. Apparently it will be limited to your friends you've already added that are in your faction. Its, "finished" and now they're working on implementing it in the UI. He says that it will also function like voip, so they're trying to figure out limitations and implementations. So voip faction chat available in February.

4. Optimization progress in regards to HUD/fps. He says they're working on it, it's a priority to help CW fps, but he doesn't have anything huge to report right now.

5.30+ minutes for CW que times, any fixes? Remember, this is a new game type, it's a beta, please be patient. We're little less than a month into the CW beta. (In short, chill ppl. Content is coming.)

6. Call to Arms improvements. They're currently working so when a 12 man team attacks a planet, the call to arms goes out. So right now there could be 100+ people fighting for the same planet and hoping enough players show up. The fix? When a strike team selects a planet, the call to arms will wait for 20 seconds to send it out if they don't have enough players to fight against. (So if 12 Wolves attack, and 12 Steiners are there, no call to arms will be issued. But if only 8 Steiners are there, after 20 seconds the call to arms will go out.)

7. "Que-Line-Up", It's a lot of UI work, and it should show all of the zones which are active, and how many teams are waiting. (I.E. If 8 zones are taken, 8 will light up and you can fight for a few others. But it all are taken, then you can go fight somewhere else.) This will not be in February. It's gonna be a lot of work for this.

8. Ceasefire changes. It's worth trying. Right now only the few players in the last hours of the battle window really matter, and this disenfranchises players in different time zones (Europe). Since we wanted players to be able to play CW regularly, they decided not to limit timeframe, and go to a rotating battle window. Current fix? Three 7:40 chunks, with 20 minute ceasefires. This allows each region to battle, but it also increases the hours that matter for last minute battles. Don't panic about massive amounts of planets flipping, the max we've had was 8, and I think it's worth trying. 4v4 and PvE will further help this problem in the future.

9. 2015 Roadmap? Russ didn't want to commit/lay out everything yet. There's a lot of work (months of it) going to go into VOIP, faction chat, CW, etc.... BUT, he's looking at putting more modes into CW like 4v4 and PvE. Even Solo players getting involved with CW (turrets, infantry, tanks, helicopters maybe? "There's a use for your flamers, everyone's been talking about flamers.")

10. ECM. We'd like to review ECM, Ghost Heat, and I'd be happy to deal with these issues right now, but "would they (the players) want it" instead of 4v4 and extra missions? Now it's not "Either/Or" but right now they're focusing on optimizations, future game modes, etc. ECM isn't an easy discussion because there's no consensus on fixing it. Ghost Heat is an easier discussion. "I am willing to have those discussions. Paul's probably pulling his hair out though."

11. Steam/Increased Marketing plans? "Steam is the big one." "We want to wait til we are ready." "Steam is a priority in 2015 in the first half of 2015", and we have full approval for Steam. I want it to be more about getting on Steam when we *choose* to, not when we *can*. We want some UI improvements in, all of those proposed CW missions in, and at some point we will just make it happen. We need to be able to retain the players on Steam, and we need to be ready for that.

12. MAU (monthly users) has gone up 20% since CW launched. And we're aiming for even more.

13. More depth to the base game? We're currently focused on fixing/polishing the current stuff, but we have some ideas. But titles will mean something outside of the forums. Titles will be displayed in games. (Like Davion Private JohnDoe). So those titles should be available in February. So we're gonna see a lot less faction switching because of that.

14. Is PvE a priority? Yes, but it does come after everything else, VIOP, cue info, maps, etc.

15. More expensive API? They're working on it. Pretty soon you'll be getting more web api/info.

16. Role Contracts/Raid Contracts? Yes? I think my answers on 4v4 and PvE sort of answer this.

17. Are there any plans to help the smaller factions against the bigger factions? Help with the population disparity? "Wait til the Cue Info stuff is done, that'll help. With more info comes smarter choices."

18. Will there be major penalties for CW units who constantly cancel contracts? Yes. For now we're gonna chill on it though.

19. How does the CW pick which planets are available? (Random planets not working right?) We're gonna fix that *hopefully* in the Jan 20th patch.

20. Can we see a "Rush Mode" in CW? We're adding the new counter-attack mode on Feb 8th. So we're going to keep adding in modes as we go. There will be new gametypes, like with a mobile field base in which you have to kill all 48 enemy mechs and the field base which will discourage turtling. That way to *have* to push out.

21. The Union Class dropship is being modeled. No promises when/where you'll see it... Maybe in the landing game mode... And it's gonna look awesome.

*Five minute break*

22. Is there a fix for the lack of mech diversity? (I.E. Only Timberwolves, Stormcrows/Holy Trinity, etc). "I wouldn't mind", but he doesn't want to limit player choice. Very polarizing, because IS wants Timber/Stormcrows nerfed, and the clan wants Thunderbolts nerfed.

23. "I'd rather not nerf the 9S, or the Timber until we put in a lot of the items that are missing." We still need to do the 2nd quirk pass. We have quirking we need to do for Clans. Clans are still the most powerful mechs, and they do have chassis got help/still need help (Nova/Summoner)

24. On the 20th we're coming out with this (only in the gift store for the first three months though, afterward they'll be released for Cbills) a new variant for each clan mech other than the Hellbringer. And a Direwolf with jumpjets. This will be similar to the mech packages. Same prices as the other mech packages. There will be "quite" interesting pods. There's a Timberwolf D coming out with 2 PPCs and 4 missles in each arm, and a Mad-Dog with 2 ballistics coming out in each arm.

25. CW increased rewards? Maybe... We will see if we need to as an incentive after we implement VOIP and other fixes.

26. Solo CW players, do you expect Solo players to use CW to earn Cbills? Russ says that with the current design that as a solo player you won't be able to make as much money.

27. Any chance of moving the old gamemodes to CW? Kinda? But not likely.

28. Will we see new modules/CW specific modules? How about landmines? Yes. But not right away.

29. Are we going to see the Atlas/other mechs quirked to make them viable again? Yes. After we get Phase 2 done of Pass 1 for the IS mechs, we will go to the Clans too.

30. Any plans to make light mechs more viable/more survivable? No other plans for the locust. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure the locust is meant to take dual gausses."

31. The Flea. The Flea is dead to me. We have the concept art, but we haven't just... been excited about it. It'd be like creating another locust, and MASC is cool, but it wont be a priority for a bit. Another chicken leg mech isn't what the game is screaming for.

32. URBANMECH. "I don't know whether to believe you guys or not if you want the urbanmech." So Jan 20th, this Tuesday, we're launching a page to pre-order the urbanmech." Concept art is all done, it's as sexy as can be. It will have this quirk, it will have 360 degree torso twist. Two price packs. All three varients, no hero, 30 days premium, warhorn, title, mechbays, for $20, and then the Collectors Package. Custom geometro, custom skin, 3 warhorns, etc etc etc $40. Release in early April. Only available for 10 days. We're trying to make it viable. We are debating making a standard 60 engine, which will have a negative tonnage! We haven't decided what the max engine cap will be. It'll be something higher... So you can run as fast as a spider.

33. Will we see champs and chassis roll out as usual? Yes. Also we're working on fixing the scaling issue on the AC20. Just keep asking for those mechs you want.

34. Clan heros? I don't know. No ETA.

35. Destructible terrain? Yes, but priority is collisions, mech vs mech, mech vs tree, and he's hoping it will be soon.

36. Forgo major features to polish the game? I'd love to, but I don't think we will be granted that. CW has been in beta for less than a month and already everyone is complaining.

37. Can we have the Community supply future map layouts/inspired designs? Maybe? (He didn't really address that.) Right now PGI is turning out a map every month, and doesn't want to disrupt that.

38. Feb 3rd for the next CW map. We have a HPG moon theme, a Desert theme, and we should see a community warfare map coming out each month.

39. Any plans to fix/expand the current solo/pub maps? All map resources are currently dedicated to making more CW maps.

40. Any plans to be able to upgrade regular mechs with champ bonuses? No.

41. What is the most fun thing PGI is working on right now? Mostly improvements (voip, maps, etc).

42. Will we see the FedSuns and Lyrans unite/Similar lore effects? Will we see lore impact planets/territories, or will it be player motivated only? Paul likes letting players create their own alliances for now... "I like the player driven politics personally."

43. Ghost/Turret Drop fixes? Well planets aren't being won by those. At all. With the new CW info patch coming in you'll be able to see that for yourself. Updated call to arms might even fix that.

44. New IS Weapons? Streak 4s and 6s, Snub nose PPC, Blazer, LBX ammo changes? For now we're sticking with timelines. But if we should have something already we'll look at it as a priority.

45. Timeline progression/jumps forward/back? "I doubt highly that we'll stick with the timeline. We'll jump forward as it suits us." Basically if they need new mechs/weapons they'll advance it.

46. MASC mechs that dont break the game? Yes. We will consider those.

47. Solaris Area/Free for All game mode? Interesting thought, the only holdup is that it's a lot of work. It could take as much time as we've spent on CW. We want to do it well. It's really another pillar, and could take 6 months to make. But they're interested.

48. What about players hiding in CW/not attacking to hold/delay a unit? No fixes... yet. But the new counter attack mode might fix this as pro units could push out and demolish those units being the delayers.

49. Defense being able to open gates/get over them? (skipped over this.)

50. Unit Logos/Decals? Good news! It's essentially done, and just being polished. Not very far off. Quarter 1 sounds realistic. Units could even submit their own custom decals for some MC. (Nothing lewd)

51. Why were mercs allowed to work for clans and will this continue to be allowed? It's a player feature as a lot of players wanted to use both IS mechs and Clan mechs, so merc corps was the best solution for that.

52. Occulus rift. It's cool, but PGI has so much to do already, and we can't deal with it right now.

53. Weekday events? Weeklong events? Maybe? We just have to work with our own limitations.

-END TRANSMISSION-

Brody319, on 15 January 2015 - 08:59 PM, said:

I don't know, just don't think it could ever like seperate itself from the locust enough. It likely would end up being like a reskin.

Well, that depends on its hard-points and its quirks. I still want a six-MG 20-ton 'Mech, since the Locust Hero didn't go that way. There's also the FLE-14, which had jump-jets. And, if we keep it with MASC and limit the engine size, that causes the 'Mech to behave very differently from the Locust since the speed-boost is temporary and supposedly comes with penalties.

Maybe everybody else doesn't want another 20-ton chicken-walker, but I do because I A.) dislike humanoid 'Mechs and B.) love running the tiny things.

Town Hall Summary!

#1 DasSibby

#2 Brody319

#3 Kiiyor

#4 Mcgral18

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#6 Y E O N N E

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#12 Brody319

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