230 replies to this topic

[MrMilkshake]

Before i start, pass the salt.
Why PGI? Why are you so painfully average? Why after all these years, after all the money and good will that's been sent your way do we still have to put up with this unfinished buggy, laggy *** mess of a game?

Your communication with your player base is woefully inadequate, to the point where people feel like they get better feedback shouting at parked cars. The town hall meetings have been farsical, going from a boy's club piss up at OUR expense. To a moody hour of questions that never get answered properly.

Your game maps are repetatively themed and quite frankly, terrible in there quantity for a game thats supposedly been out for this long. Most communities who have access to map making tools can throw out a decent one in a day or two, yet we have "tournament" maps that are still un-skinned!!?? Shame on you for putting this tripe out to your community.

Your attempts at faction war "BETA" (the whole thing still feels like its in Beta) are lack-luster. Maps are not balanced to take into account the strength and weakness of each side. The queue system is just plain broken still, after all this time. We wait and wait and wait some more. Hell, in the public drops we wait when we first click play, then we wait for the map choice, then we wait while we see the animated map selection and game mode, then we wait till the game loads....then we have to wait once more for everyone to ready up. This is PANTS !!

Friggin Hit detection, honestly one of the things that can make all the other problems magnify ten fold. Why do I bother running ultra 10's when I watch half of my rounds (sometimes) pass straight through enemy players ?

So where does this leave us? Nowhere. Nothing meaningful will change in any reasonable amount of time. It never has in the past, there's zero reason to think it will in the future. You'll continue to pump out beautifully designed and crafted mechs into buggy broken architecture, and we will continue to buy them behind gritted teeth.

I continue to play only because its mechwarrior. Not because PGI are any sort of decent games company. There is no good will left. I know others feel the same. I almost wish that Microsoft takes the licence back from you and give it to a company who is more deserving. Then whats left for you? Nothing. No game. No good will. Nothing. And if that does happen, you'll have no one to blame but yourselves.

This was as pointless an exercise as any other forum post. I have wasted the time of myself and anyone else who has read this diatribe. But I was tired of shouting at parked cars.

Edited by MrMilkshake, 24 May 2016 - 11:17 AM.

[YourSaviorLegion]

INB4 locked thread

[Piney II]

K-Town here we go..........

[C E Dwyer]

Guys got a point, and when he's one of P.G.I's silent majority, that us forum warriors don't apparently represent with our rants, joint date 2013 and 7 posts, it really is something that they should take notice of.

But of course K-town it will go

[MrMilkshake]

YourSaviorLegion, on 24 May 2016 - 11:20 AM, said:

INB4 locked thread

Well if there was somewhere in support that i could have posted this privatly rather than publicly, i would have done so. But as this is not the case, here it is.
I also dont do Facebook or twitter which seems to be the prefered way to bend someones ear around here, so again here it is.
This was writen from my own experiance.There was nothing in my post which was offensive or untrue
I stand by every word.

Edited by MrMilkshake, 24 May 2016 - 11:44 AM.

[Mcgral18]

The test maps are one of their better decisions in a long time.


As for PGI and MWO in general...it seems they're happy being mediocre.
The game could have been so much more for so little effort, with a little more drive, but we've never gotten it.

Wasted potential

[Livaria]

Okay you've said a lot of things... But I want to ask you a very important question...

Wheres the proof?

If you cannot answer this question. Then you are not really helping at all.

[2fast2stompy]

Livaria, on 24 May 2016 - 11:45 AM, said:

Okay you've said a lot of things... But I want to ask you a very important question...

Wheres the proof?

If you cannot answer this question. Then you are not really helping at all.

If you look to the upper right corner of the page, there will be a blue "download now" button. You're welcome.

[Livaria]

That is not proof. You can not expect players to just find the proof, most of what has been said are opinions more than anything.

Edited by Livaria, 24 May 2016 - 11:57 AM.

[2fast2stompy]

Livaria, on 24 May 2016 - 11:50 AM, said:

You can not expect players to just find the proof

I mean... isn't that exactly what you're expecting?

And if you think those are opinions, I suggest you read the op again. The only thing that could be dismissed as an opinion is "Maps are not balanced to take into account the strength and weakness of each side".

Edited by 2fast2stompy, 24 May 2016 - 11:57 AM.

[GRiPSViGiL]

PGI gets owned yet again. I am right there with ya bro. I hope Microsoft snatches the IP and PGI gets left with that sullen look Russ always has on his face.

Hey all the "wait" time is just the immersion happening bro....let it happen.

You are absolutely right by saying people continue to buy only because it is battetech and truly has nothing to do with PGI's craftsmanship. I know I will never give them another cent and will avoid any future titles from them regardless what it is.

Welcome aboard the salt train!

Edited by GRiPSViGiL, 24 May 2016 - 11:59 AM.

[MrMilkshake]

Livaria, on 24 May 2016 - 11:45 AM, said:

Okay you've said a lot of things... But I want to ask you a very important question...

Wheres the proof?

If you cannot answer this question. Then you are not really helping at all.

My points on the communication of the company are self evident, as are my comments about the quantity of the maps.
As for the bugs, lag and hit detection, I would have to compile a video of my next few nights play's and edit them to provide you with evidence.
There is a problem with this however.
I dont know you sir, or owe you anything.
I'm not here to help, I never at any point said that i was.
I have made clear in the title of the post and indeed its content, that this was a rant. Nothing more.
However if you would like to use this rant to try to help, you are more than welcome to do so.

Edited by MrMilkshake, 24 May 2016 - 12:01 PM.

[RustyBolts]

I have bought every Clan pack offered until the Kodiak. I was tired of throwing money at PGI only to get a substandard game with awesome designed mechs. So I decided to stop throwing money at PGI until Phase three was released. If Phase three changed my mind, I would again start putting money in PGI's wallet. However, Phase three was yet another let down that was just CW Beta 2.1. So I will continue to keep my money in my pocket until either PGI starts actually doing something positive with this game, or until another company takes over.

[Suko]

Wow, and here I thought I was bitter about the slow development of MWO.

Btw, where's those decals I've been told were coming since 2013?

[Zolaz]

PGI has shown by its collective actions that it doesnt care about players, your in game experience or what you think about them. All PGI cares about is your money.

[Appogee]

Mcgral18, on 24 May 2016 - 11:42 AM, said:

As for PGI and MWO in general...it seems they're happy being mediocre.

I believe this is the core problem. They have no pride of workmanship. They just don't care about pushing shoddy code and design out to market.

You see evidence of this everywhere you look... the redundant unlocks in the skill tree after five years (!), the glitching planet animation in the Planet Info window, the ongoing unresolved invitation bugs in the social interface.

I'd be ashamed if I let these kinds of things get into the public eye. I'd be working evenings and weekends to put them right, out of a sense of professional responsibility and pride.

Edited by Appogee, 24 May 2016 - 01:00 PM.

[Revis Volek]

[Rebas Kradd]

Lot of cynicism and omniscience coming from total n00bs to the process. I may still be a n00b myself, but I keep an open mind, give people the benefit of a doubt, and am willing to assume that there's more going on than I know.

Besides, there are some facts that I'm not a n00b to.

* A lot of what you guys are complaining about - focus on mech packs over engineering advancements, pricing model, low population as a result - is down to the game being F2P. It's a separate model that looks exactly like what you're seeing - monetized content prioritized over gameplay development. Even within that model, they haven't been horrible - was the 4v4 gamemode monetizable?

* PGI is still playing catch-up from closed beta. Yes, still. The map revamps, gamemode revamps, and bug fixes all represent attempts to improve parts of the game from minimum viable stage. Accusations of "they don't care" would be more credible if they'd produced nothing at all in the last few years (matchmakers, tutorial, just for a beginning)

* Maps and assets, yeah, that's disappointing.

* It's established by now that there are numerous legacy code issues which PGI doesn't have the engineering talent atm to go back and sort out (skill tree and ammo switching are two oft-cited examples). That actually isn't uncommon, most projects have people slap in poorly documented code and then dash off to another company (often because they're poached) without leaving any kind of trail for others to follow. It's a PITA and the reason your CS 101 instructor gets down on your knees and begs you to document your code.

* The job wears you down. Yes, I know you think you'd be immune to it. Spend four years getting eviscerated by forum comments like the very ones you're making and you'd lose your passion, too. It happens.

* Yeah, the communication has always been bad. It's 90% of the problem. It's unfortunate that PGI has nobody in-house who's truly eloquent and charismatic enough to rile people up about the game. This also happens. Not every studio has a Disco Lando or an Eric Petersen. In fact, programmers are usually introverts and the very opposite personality of that.

* A couple of OP's requests are simply unrealistic. Community map-making isn't going to happen. It's been explained why numerous times, but in short, vetting community submissions would actually be more work on PGI's part than simply making their own. I do have enough mapmaking experience in other games (Counter-Strike) to know that it's not as simple as you're probably thinking ("a day or two", LOL). And if the reference to "balanced maps" is a request for dynamic terrain, that's also a high-overhead-low-reward move.

* What you see when you complain is the two or three issues YOU'VE made into a pet peeve. What PGI sees is the collection of thousands of such complaints - that is, thousands of issues, which they can't possibly fix all at once. Even with Blizzard, 90% of complaints will go unaddressed in any given month.

PGI has had a lot of problems, and I wish they'd just listen to the community straight up instead of just HAVING to go with their own ideas first out of pride and then capitulating when the community rightfully calls it out as ****. But that doesn't mean they're not a professional game studio. They're a real studio with flaws. The trajectory of the game has been slowly but surely upward. A bad studio would have folded right now, loyal community or not.

What's funny is that you guys refuse to advertise the game yourselves in the hope of expanding the base, and then gripe when the small population has adverse effects on CW. You can't have it both ways. I realize that you have issues with the game (the gamemodes are my biggest pet peeve), and I think the designer team has a lot of questions to answer on why they won't get around to simply changing a few values on an XML sheet. But a lot of the issues are in YOUR hands, not PGI's. The community could be doing about ten times the amount of advertising that they actually are. We don't want to do it because it feels like praising PGI, but then we find both ourselves and PGI stuck with awkward choices in the queue department.

At least the OP is honest enough to admit that this is just another forum rant, but I prefer being part of the solution. Starving PGI by dropping mech packs isn't going to magically fix the code problems. It's just going to put people out of work, and us out of a game.

Edited by Rebas Kradd, 24 May 2016 - 02:03 PM.

[Tordin]

GRiPSViGiL, on 24 May 2016 - 11:58 AM, said:

PGI gets owned yet again. I am right there with ya bro. I hope Microsoft snatches the IP and PGI gets left with that sullen look Russ always has on his face.

Hey all the "wait" time is just the immersion happening bro....let it happen.

You are absolutely right by saying people continue to buy only because it is battetech and truly has nothing to do with PGI's craftsmanship. I know I will never give them another cent and will avoid any future titles from them regardless what it is.

Welcome aboard the salt train!

Really?? Pass it to Microsoft?!
I sure took Mech Assault for what it was and it was fun games. Semi - canon with interesting plot and IMO interesting characters.
But the signs, the lack of certain things I've seen from MW 3, that lacked in MW 4 (I loved MW4 it was my first MW/ Battletech game) was not promising. Namely no separate arm reticule, to plain graphics etc. I wouldnt want, say MW 5 to become watered down casual FPS. It need to be an immersive, easy to learn, hard to master simulator shooter.

No! I dont want M$ to do anything more to the MW franchise, at least not developing. Just publishing and give said developers free room. And thats a stretch.

In fact, I would want a developer/ publisher with alot of funds that care about the Battletech franchise.

I like for example Bethesda and Zenimax media, if anyone there have interest and faith in restoring Battletech to become great again. Fist ones that come to mind anyway. They at least let the developers under them be in peace. Letting them do their thing.

[MrMilkshake]

Rebas Kradd, on 24 May 2016 - 02:01 PM, said:

Lot of cynicism and omniscience coming from total n00bs to the process. I may still be a n00b myself, but I keep an open mind, give people the benefit of a doubt, and am willing to assume that there's more going on than I know.

Besides, there are some facts that I'm not a n00b to.

* A lot of what you guys are complaining about - focus on mech packs over engineering advancements, pricing model, low population as a result - is down to the game being F2P. It's a separate model that looks exactly like what you're seeing - monetized content prioritized over gameplay development. Even within that model, they haven't been horrible - was the 4v4 gamemode monetizable?

* PGI is still playing catch-up from closed beta. Yes, still. The map revamps, gamemode revamps, and bug fixes all represent attempts to improve parts of the game from minimum viable stage. Accusations of "they don't care" would be more credible if they'd produced nothing at all in the last few years (matchmakers, tutorial, just for a beginning)

* Maps and assets, yeah, that's disappointing.

* It's established by now that there are numerous legacy code issues which PGI doesn't have the engineering talent atm to go back and sort out (skill tree and ammo switching are two oft-cited examples). That actually isn't uncommon, most projects have people slap in poorly documented code and then dash off to another company (often because they're poached) without leaving any kind of trail for others to follow. It's a PITA and the reason your CS 101 instructor gets down on your knees and begs you to document your code.

* The job wears you down. Yes, I know you think you'd be immune to it. Spend four years getting eviscerated by forum comments like the very ones you're making and you'd lose your passion, too. It happens.

* Yeah, the communication has always been bad. It's 90% of the problem. It's unfortunate that PGI has nobody in-house who's truly eloquent and charismatic enough to rile people up about the game. This also happens. Not every studio has a Disco Lando or an Eric Petersen. In fact, programmers are usually introverts and the very opposite personality of that.

* A couple of OP's requests are simply unrealistic. Community map-making isn't going to happen. It's been explained why numerous times, but in short, vetting community submissions would actually be more work on PGI's part than simply making their own. I do have enough mapmaking experience in other games (Counter-Strike) to know that it's not as simple as you're probably thinking ("a day or two", LOL). And if the reference to "balanced maps" is a request for dynamic terrain, that's also a high-overhead-low-reward move.

* What you see when you complain is the two or three issues YOU'VE made into a pet peeve. What PGI sees is the collection of thousands of such complaints - that is, thousands of issues, which they can't possibly fix all at once. Even with Blizzard, 90% of complaints will go unaddressed in any given month.

PGI has had a lot of problems, and I wish they'd just listen to the community straight up instead of just HAVING to go with their own ideas first out of pride and then capitulating when the community rightfully calls it out as ****. But that doesn't mean they're not a professional game studio. They're a real studio with flaws. The trajectory of the game has been slowly but surely upward. A bad studio would have folded right now, loyal community or not.

What's funny is that you guys refuse to advertise the game yourselves in the hope of expanding the base, and then gripe when the small population has adverse effects on CW. You can't have it both ways. I realize that you have issues with the game (the gamemodes are my biggest pet peeve), and I think the designer team has a lot of questions to answer on why they won't get around to simply changing a few values on an XML sheet. But a lot of the issues are in YOUR hands, not PGI's. The community could be doing about ten times the amount of advertising that they actually are. We don't want to do it because it feels like praising PGI, but then we find both ourselves and PGI stuck with awkward choices in the queue department.

At least the OP is honest enough to admit that this is just another forum rant, but I prefer being part of the solution. Starving PGI by dropping mech packs isn't going to magically fix the code problems. It's just going to put people out of work, and us out of a game.

Well then, thats quite some reply. I will try and respond in a slightly tighter format.

* Calling yourself a noob straight after calling the rest of us total noobs has lost you any credibility from this point going forward.

* No one said that mech packs and a quaility product were mutually exclusive. We "pay" for the product when we buy things. It is right and reasonable to expect that product to be fit for purpose.

* You agree about the maps.

* I care not for the programming woes of PGI. Again, we pay for a product we expect it to be of a satisfactory standard.

* You agree that the communication is bad. You then mention Ben Lesnick and Disco Lando. If your credibility had not left you with the "Total Noob" comment, this is where you would have lost it.

* At no point did I ask or request community map making. And yes people who are experienced can make a map in a couple of days (your experience may vary).

* What I see when I complain are the same issues that have reoccured for years. This is my tenth post in three years. How many negative things have you said in your two thousand seven hundred and seventeen?

* Yes PGI are a real company, they are registered and pay tax, no one is suggesting otherwise. The point was they are a bad one. You agree about communication again.

* It is not my, yours or any of the player bases responsibility to flog a dead horse. That would be PGI.

* You bash the game modes PGI have supplied for you to play.

* You have offered no solution. You have insulted me, others who have posted here and yourself. If a company's product fails they go under and people lose their jobs, its called the free market. It's supposed to work that way. You avoid it by supplying a better product than the next guy.