486 replies to this topic

[SuomiWarder]

Yes, I have some fear about the plans to link into Steam. Obviously, PGI expects a bunch of new players. What scares me is that they will get them.

Most of these new players will have no love of - nor knowledge - of BattleTech. Which means they will not understand or accept the quirks of B Tech lore that many of us do. They will wonder why Clan mechs work different, why the weapons are lighter, why stock mechs come "gimped" with no double heat sinks / endo steel / low armor values / small engines. Why lasers don't travel practically to the horizon and why our cannons don't come close to matching real world 1950s tanks, etc.

Then there is the brutal learning curve, how easy it is to get womped in CW (may will expect that even a newer player would not be set loose in the 'dangerous' area if not minimally powerful enough - they expect the game to restrict you from getting stomped zones until your "level" is high enough. This is not the MWO way) and they will expect written rules to reference on Mech design and basic gameplay.

I am all for more players - but I fear that there will be a rush of "let's try this robot shooter" folks who will get discouraged quickly and then make their displeasure know every place they can think to vent. Which means PGI will start trying to change the game to appeal to "main stream" gamers and who knows what will eventually come of that.

I know PGI is a business looking to increase their customer base. I just worry that they have not prepared enough for the "general public". By their own admission they started this project as B Tech fans aiming to please other B Tech fans. Unintended consequences of increased scrutiny might end up being the beginning of the end rather than a new beginning.

I hope I am wrong. But the track record I have observed since closed beta makes me concerned.

Edited by SuomiWarder, 26 February 2015 - 12:02 AM.

[Xetelian]

I just hope we can retain enough players to lower the queue times in Solo and Group queues.

[Brother MEX]

Xetelian, on 26 February 2015 - 12:00 AM, said:

I just hope we can retain enough players to lower the queue times in Solo and Group queues.

Thats just a problem of the MATCHMAKER, which is the worst piece of **** in MW0 !

Even feed with more players, the matchmaker wont get better or give you lower waiting times, unless they use a different way to find random players for match

Edited by Brother MEX, 26 February 2015 - 12:06 AM.

[Brody319]

yea there are players who will come, and give up.

but if PGI handles the game right, the players that do come will understand the quirks of the game.

They said they planned on a lot of features before the steam release so as long as they get that done, they can make a huge profit.

[sneeking]

They may expect it to be more like armoured core ...

[kf envy]

you think the LRMing is bad the last weekend for the event. its for be LRMs as far as the you can see after MWO hits steam

[Pjwned]

SuomiWarder, on 25 February 2015 - 11:58 PM, said:

Most of these new players will have no love of - nor knowledge - of BattleTech. Which means they will not understand or accept the quirks of B Tech lore that many of us do. They will wonder why Clan mechs work different, why the weapons are lighter, why stock mechs come "gimped" with no double heat sinks / endo steel / low armor values / small engines. Why lasers don't travel practically to the horizon and why our cannons don't come close to matching real world 1950s tanks, etc.

I don't see what the problem is with asking these questions.

Quote

Then there is the brutal learning curve, how easy it is to get womped in CW (may will expect that even a newer player would not be set loose in the 'dangerous' area if not minimally powerful enough - they expect the game to restrict you from getting stomped zones until your "level" is high enough. This is not the MWO way) and they will expect written rules to reference on Mech design and basic gameplay.

It's easy enough to get womped in the solo queue, let alone community warfare, with your fresh stock mech (or trial mech) and the mech tree as well as the (relatively recently) revamped module system aggravate this problem tremendously, so that is PGI's fault pretty much entirely. As far as basic rules and references, the game does an extremely piss poor job at presenting it and it should be fixed since a while ago.

Quote

I am all for more players - but I fear that there will be a rush of "let's try this robot shooter" folks who will get discouraged quickly and then make their displeasure know every place they can think to vent. Which means PGI will start trying to change the game to appeal to "main stream" gamers and who knows what will eventually come of that.

I know PGI is a business looking to increase their customer base. I just worry that they have not prepared enough for the "general public". By their own admission they started this project as B Tech fans aiming to please other B Tech fans. Unintended consequences of increased scrutiny might end up being the beginning of the end rather than a new beginning.

I hope I am wrong. But the track record I have observed since closed beta makes me concerned.

As it stands now, if players get discouraged too quickly it will likely be due to metagame factors being hugely stacked against them in most cases. Aside from that, there's plenty of things to change & fix without "casualizing" the game or anything, assuming that's the concern here.

Edited by Pjwned, 26 February 2015 - 06:44 AM.

[sneeking]

kf envy, on 26 February 2015 - 12:14 AM, said:

you think the LRMing is bad the last weekend for the event. its for be LRMs as far as the you can see after MWO hits steam

I give to you a like because you are so right, not because I like the idea...

I dread it !

[ShinVector]

PGI over taxed servers will just exploded...
'It's Game over man ! It's GAME OVER !!'

[YueFei]

The new player experience in this game still stinks.

Needs a proper single-player introduction to ease people into it so they develop some basic understanding.

Lack of initial success in this game is largely due to lack of knowledge, not lack of skill or intelligence. The game needs to provide that knowledge in stages to build a player up.

Look at Freespace 2's training missions, introducing concepts 2 or 3 at a time in each new training session, interspersed with combat missions. That's the way to do it.

[Triordinant]

ShinVector, on 26 February 2015 - 12:20 AM, said:

PGI over taxed servers will just exploded...
'It's Game over man ! It's GAME OVER !!'

[Sarlic]

When it hits Steam you actually get more aware that the pilots we have no are actually skilled and using (apart from laser vomit) some decent builds.

[Lily from animove]

We as the community should prepare some guides, Stema has a good library for guids showing up. any seriously trying player will if he fails look at those guides, anyone who dosn't is anyways someone we probably do not want in our community anyways.
We already have some nice guids her,e like about crits and stuff, they should be updated to the current state of the game and most of them would have the information that are needed..

[Alistair Winter]

I wouldn't be so worried if they just upped the Cadet period from 25 matches to 200 matches. I'm not a fan of the whole "hey, let's throw new players in with veteran players and let them educate each other" idea. Not for a game like this.

Both in the single and the group queue, cadets should be left alone untill they're ready to swim with the sharks. For every new player who enjoys the challenge of playing with veterans, it seems that there's ten new players who are fed up with being farmed for C-bills in continuous roflstomps.

The thing I fear the most about the steam age is the MWO matchmaker opening the flood gates and drowning my matches with hordes of <narutoboi98>, <grandtheftquickscope> and <linkinparkgirl99> spamming LRMs at point blank and using advanced zoom to snipe people with medium lasers at 3 kilometers range on Alpine. And then raging about hax when they get LRMed while camping on the Crimson Strait mountain.

[NextGame]

I cant wait, there hasnt been enough whining here lately and I need my fill of drama. Steam users will provide this in abundance.

I'm going to call it "new wave whining" when it happens.

Edited by NextGame, 26 February 2015 - 02:28 AM.

[Onmyoudo]

Steam release should be great, as long as PGI completely reworks the UI, new player experience, economy, lack of tutorials, matchmaking algorithms, pilot trees and module system before it happens. Plus explanations of ECM, ghost heat, Artemis, FF/Endo and double heatsinks, of course - to be included with the tutorials.

Coming to a Steam near you in 20XX.

[zagibu]

I don't think PGI will make the mistake and cater to the casual crowd. They don't spend hundreds of dollars on a free to play game.

[Ascaloth]

Lily from animove, on 26 February 2015 - 01:39 AM, said:

We as the community should prepare some guides,

Already working on a basic guide in portuguese for Brazilian players.

[Lily from animove]

YueFei, on 26 February 2015 - 12:23 AM, said:

The new player experience in this game still stinks.

Needs a proper single-player introduction to ease people into it so they develop some basic understanding.

Lack of initial success in this game is largely due to lack of knowledge, not lack of skill or intelligence. The game needs to provide that knowledge in stages to build a player up.

Look at Freespace 2's training missions, introducing concepts 2 or 3 at a time in each new training session, interspersed with combat missions. That's the way to do it.

wlel russ said they have one guy working an new tutorials, lets hope the result is a good one.

[Mudhutwarrior]

If the elitists stop feeling so special and instead try to teach we will have no problems with steam.

If they keep the were so much better than the underhive mentality we will have lots of problems with a truly divided base.

Its a game, your not special.