20 replies to this topic

[Warchild Corsair]

It has been on my mind for quite some time now - how will the future of my beloved MWO look like when there are fewer and fewer iconic Mechs to buy?

What will keep us players playing for years to come and spend money and time on this game? I thought about it for a very long time as I said and I think the key to the long term success is immersion (in Community Warfare as well as in the rest of MWO).
Let me explain why: the BT universe was the driving force for many of the MWO fans to get involved with the game. A vision of a living background still lingers among many players it's what they image when they look upon their Mechs in their hangars, the CW map, the Mechlab, everything. This vision keeps us coming back, logging in, day after day, to BE a Mechwarrior in a giant machine of steel, to still feel the excitement, when your avatar presses all the buttons in the cockpit at startup of each game.
We will buy more Mechs just for the different cockpits, working noises, "feeling" of the play.
Competitive players, on the other hand, will not, as they only strive for the Meta, the best possible. The former enjoy long matches, epic battles on planets
that they recognize from fiction and books, the latter fight for precision and play their min-max game to fight in leagues with a few hundred spectators.

If MWO is to succeed in the long run key would be to increase the immersion effect while still pushing the competitive scene.
I would like to make a few proposals, how to achieve this with a small team and how to keep the core gameplay of MWO intact.

Immersion extensions to MWO should also be designed with new players in mind and to get them deeper involved with the BT universe and stay with MWO for longer. Another important aspect is that certain immersion extensions could easily be sold for MCs, as players would not be gaining ingame advantages and this would be for vanity only.

Immersion proposals of mine are divided into CW/Non-CW mode and include the following:

• A customizable player avatar (with MCs)
  
  • Appearance (3D-Model with customization options)
    
  • Selectable multiple-choice history (Faction, Home Planet, Age, Combat/Unit-History, Education, Academy, Standing, Experience)
    
  • Identification potential, players love that also supports roleplaying aspects
    
  • Opportunity to walk around in the Mech hangar (killer feature)
    
  • Ingame avatar pics appearing if VoIP activates
• A customizable Mechhangar (with MCs)
  
  • includes some action to be less sterile e.g.
    
    • maintenance vehicles driving by
      
    • Techs walking around, using tools
      
    • Faction banners hanging in the background
      
    • Hangar looks rusty and old or shiny new
      
    • Ammunitions car standing close by
      
    • Mech parts stapled on a heap
      
    • another Mech from the player's Hangar walks by in front of the Mech
• Labels for Modules, e.g.
  
  • "Magna Medium Laser Mk. I" (Cooldown IS M-Laser 1/5)
    
  • "Lord's Light PPC" (Range IS PPC 4/5)
• Names for Weapon and Equipment Manufacturers
  
  • Fusion Engines and Equipment taken from the Technical Readouts e.g.
    
    • "Vlar 300" standard engine etc.
• Quirk-"Symbols"
  
  • give each quirk a symbol that explains it's meaning on mouseover (e.g. a star for energy-related quirks etc.)
    
  • give quirks a name derived from the Readouts and the Mech specs, like "Accurate Laser Targeting System" = -10% Laser Duration

CW ideas:

• Unique planet properties - since the planets we fight for vary from day to day, make them more distinguishable (this might very well be extreme but we have 2,500 planets!)
  
  
  • Drop weight variations (from 100-160 up to 240-400) fixed per planet
    
  • Type: hot (only hot maps), cold (only cold maps), balanced (all maps)
    
  • Weather (Storms e.g.)
    
  • Day/night fixed for a planet
    
  • Designate a "capital" slot on the planet, where fighting on an urban map takes place
    
  • Descriptions for all planets
    
  • Picture (indicating the type of the planet)
    
  • Betty saying "dropship enroute to XYZ" upon entering the lobby
• Unit-Tags of currently fighting units (with more then 4 players) on a planet visible as little flags
  
• "Outreach"-Tab in CW screen listing all units
  
  
  • their size (roughly in BattleTech terms like lance, company, bataillon, regiment)
    
  • their current contract details (employer and length)
    
  • gives access to the public unit HQ screen (see below)
    
  • unit combat history (planet wins, district capital planet wins)
    
  • honour symbols after certain events have taken place (e.g. "Battlestar of Tukayyid")
    
  • fluff text editable by the unit
    
  • unit insigniae
    
  • Dragoon's Rating for Mercs (see below)
• Publicly visible CW unit hangars or "HQs"
  
  
  • Dropships of different types or numbers depending on unit size
    
  • Expandable with unit coffer money
    
  • Visible assets like tanks or elementals, also buyable with unit money
    
  • Air support units like fighters flying overhead (again, unit money)
    
  • If the unit is rich = wealthy, big hangars and buildings, if not = poorer buildings
    
  • Permanent contract = flags flying with House colours
• Dragoon's Rating for Mercs in CW
  
  
  • visible in suggested "Outreach tab" on the CW page
    
  • rating influences payments
    
  • calculated by a number of factors e.g.
    
    
    
    • number and length of successfully completed contracts
      
    • unit age
      
    • size
      
    • fictional transportability (if assets like dropships can be bought with unit money)
      
    • unit members successes in events
      
    • planets conquered or defended in total
      
    • current No of planets
• Public CW unit combat records (visible in suggested "Outreach tab" on the CW page)
  
• An HQ flag of choice on the CW map indicating a unit's HQ location
  
  
  • settable by the unit leader
    
  • movable once per contract
    
  • relative closeness (max 1-2 jumps away) gives 5-10% cbill bonus for fighting CW matches due to short supply lines

I put some work into these and really hope to bring across a few fresh ideas to help MWO improve in the long run.




Do you like any of these ideas? Hit the button or let me know via comment

Edited by Warchild Corsair, 03 June 2015 - 11:31 PM.

[BigBenny]

Great Ideas!!

PGI should take a look for this, maybe just for Inspiration.

[Black Ivan]

Very good ideas. PGI should take this ideas very seriously

[n4sty]

Overall, I really like almost all of these great ideas!

One might criticize that most of the ideas are “visual” features addressing the immersion for (hardcore) BT fans. For “competitive players/units” all this ranking and representation stuff would be really nice and motivating. Yet balancing and matchmaking(!) probably are the most important aspects for them.

What I am missing regarding new players is how the proposed features should “get them deeper involved with the BT universe”. They probably don’t use MCs, they do not know about weapon manufacturers, they have no unit and cannot compete in rankings. Indeed immersion is important, but if it does not affect new players in at least the same magnitude as hardcore fans, it might be questionable whether some features would be worth the effort because attracting new players is the most important factor to remain a large player base. So how do you intend to achieve this with the proposed features?

[4smoday]

liked all but the following because this would be too immersive and needs a hover up with explanation for new / non BT-Fan Players...

Quote

• Labels for Modules, e.g.
  
  • "Magna Medium Laser Mk. I" (Cooldown IS M-Laser 1/5)
    
  • "Lord's Light PPC" (Range IS PPC 4/5)
• Names for Weapon and Equipment Manufacturers
  
• Fusion Engines and Equipment taken from the Technical Readouts e.g.
  
  • "Vlar 300" standard engine etc.

Edited by 4smoday, 04 June 2015 - 03:50 AM.

[Quincy McAllister]

Thanks for your proposals which I fully Support. There are enough ideas for PGI to take. By the way I have also written a post with some ideas for further development, see:

http://mwomercs.com/...95#entry4397795

[ADD3R]

I can completely support the ideas summarized by Warchild.

As we saw in the last weeks, mwo needs utterly more content to Keep the community with te game.

Just as Quincy brought up, i would love to see more logistics, and tanks / infantery / elementals and aerospacefighers implemented into game.

This would bring the game more to simulation, away from arcade, but i think the community demands for that.

Since we have a very ripe community, that mostly comes from tabletop and has read the books, there is no need for arade, the battefield universe is much more complex.

And that is a great aspect for the future of MWO.


One thing i absolutely don't understand: since everyone would be willing to give mcs for costomizable decals on the 'mechs.

Edited by ADD3R, 04 June 2015 - 12:34 PM.

[50 50]

Nice post and suggestions Warchild.

While there is certainly a big focus on the mechs themselves, we are not the mechs but the warriors that drive them and there is very little of that personal aspect in the game.
It doesn't matter if you're a hard core fan or not. These little aspects that build some depth outside of the matches increase the appeal of the game beyond just combat.

For the competitive players, it doesn't detract from their experience at all. If anything, being able to customise their mechbay (I'd like to see personal quarters as well) gives more areas to show off rewards and achievements.

There are some really nice things that could be done which I think the dev team would enjoy building.

[Black Ivan]

MM, better rewards and other stuffs should be added as well. CW can't survive on the units and competitive plaxers alone IMO. It has to attract and try to keep the solo players and Pugs to it.

[white0Fox]

Many good Ideas, particular to bring more roleplaying in the game !

Customizable Avatar's and Items for the Mechhanger thats a great idea,
and I like to see the Pontiac 100 AC/20 at the Yen Lo Wang in the Mechlab.

Please more Battletech feeling in MWO

Edited by white0Fox, 05 June 2015 - 10:31 AM.

[Gremlich Johns]

For immersion, I want an alpha shot of 45 pts or higher to knock over a Light mech at a range under 100m

[Warchild Corsair]

50 50, on 04 June 2015 - 06:44 PM, said:

Nice post and suggestions Warchild.

While there is certainly a big focus on the mechs themselves, we are not the mechs but the warriors that drive them and there is very little of that personal aspect in the game.
It doesn't matter if you're a hard core fan or not. These little aspects that build some depth outside of the matches increase the appeal of the game beyond just combat.

For the competitive players, it doesn't detract from their experience at all. If anything, being able to customise their mechbay (I'd like to see personal quarters as well) gives more areas to show off rewards and achievements.

There are some really nice things that could be done which I think the dev team would enjoy building.

Exactly this! Of course balancing the gameplay and smoothing everything out is important but what I think Mwo should increase is the feeling of us players being Mechwarriors riding huge Machines into combat in another universe. Increase the feeling of being there.
Plus, give us more abilities to show off successes and give us virtual meeting spaces.

Concerning the 45-point-alpha I would say that is something else. It's ingame balance like heat, maps, armor details etc. Not what I am aiming at here.

Edited by Warchild Corsair, 07 June 2015 - 11:25 PM.

[Tulamar]

Great ideas, i hope some make it to the game!

[Dr Slap]

Good Post. Would love to see These features!

[DI3T3R]

I think, we need something like Outreach:

* CW randomly creates contracts to conquer/defend a given list of planets for a given faction for a given length of time for a given amount of CB.
* Merc-units would be competing for good contracts.
* You can fight anywhere you want but you only get the contract-money for fulfilling the conditions of your contract. (If the planets in your contract don't become contested, that's bad luck and a lousy contract you picked.)

[Alienized]

i would like to see some PGI comments on here =)
lots of the things are really worth considering.

TINA !

[Warchild Corsair]

DI3T3R, on 08 June 2015 - 03:46 AM, said:

I think, we need something like Outreach:

* CW randomly creates contracts to conquer/defend a given list of planets for a given faction for a given length of time for a given amount of CB.
* Merc-units would be competing for good contracts.
* You can fight anywhere you want but you only get the contract-money for fulfilling the conditions of your contract. (If the planets in your contract don't become contested, that's bad luck and a lousy contract you picked.)

Absolutely - an Outreach tab would be essential for us Merc units.

[Rebas Kradd]

I hate to be so harsh, but it's alarming to me that players focus on fluff ideas like this and completely ignore the real problem with MWO -

Objectives, objectives, objectives, objectives, objectives.

The problem with CW and the primary block to immersion is that it's a universe of gauss cannons. Gauss cannons, gauss cannons, gauss cannons, hey here's another gauss cannon, more gauss cannons, gauss cannons, shoot another gauss cannon! Apparently that's the only asset in this entire damn galaxy worth fighting over. No starports, no population centers, no factories, no supply depots, no supply lines, no dropships, no bases, no rescue missions, no reconaissance or inspection targets...nothing.

Inclusion of these things is the only way we'll ever get more "feel of being in a real war". What this OP has suggested is a bunch of UI labels. That's pretty much it. When people were pitched this game, we got a vision of a variety of missions, objectives, and PURPOSE in a war. We got repetitive deathmatch.

And as long as PGI is convinced that a bunch of UI labels are what the community wants, the truly squeaky wheels will never get the grease. That is why I come off as so against your idea; it's nothing personal.

[Vellron2005]

Some of your ideas are in line with my own, and YES, PGI should definitely listen to us, to the community, and incorporate many of these ideas.

[Kalimaster]

Congrats. Well Done. Hope they consider these.