48 replies to this topic

[Alistair Winter]

I feel like there's too much joy and celebration on the forum these days. So here's a list of minor things that annoy me a lot. I'm not even going to touch game balance, game modes, faction play, jump jets or any of the big issues. Here's just a list of small things that I figured would be fixed quickly with the monthly patch instead of semi-weekly patch system.

If you enjoy reading long lists with nothing but negativity and airing of grievances (happy festivus) then this thread is for you.

• The Command Wheel. I thought this would be updated on a monthly basis on account of feedback. It wasn't. I now realize it will probably stay like this for a while. When I'm Company Commander, I can only order 2 lances to take positions, not all 3. If any lances have received such an order, I can't order them to attack a target without going to the battlegrid and deleting their previous order first. That's bad.
  
• Game mode HUD. I'm not talking about the game modes. I'm just talking about how the HUD changes depending on game mode. In Skirmish and Assault, it counts kills. That's good. In Conquest and Domination, there's no indication of a kill count, even though this is an immensely important metric to keep track of. This is a stupid attempt to force more attention on alternative objectives, and it just makes the game harder to play. Also, could the Domination markers BE any less intuitive?
  
  Oh, looks like we have RNG but we need CLR and TRK. That makes perfect sense, thanks a lot! How can you not know what TRK is, amirite?
  
• Lack of destructible objects. Destructible containers, destructible crates, destructible cars. We've had destructible trees and branches and streetlights in the game for over a year now. Why not just insert the rest of the destructible objects? They're already in the Academy, albeit only in the first two minutes of the tutorial, for some reason.
  
• Lack of techies and other people in the MechLab. We've got mechs, we've got a little work station for people. PGI has already created models for mechwarriors (i.e. pilots) and technicians for this game. You can see the techies in the Academy tutorial. Why aren't there any people in the Mechlab to establish scale and create some immersion?
  
• Achievements. I really hoped these would be placeholders. Like the Leaderboard, the Achievement system looks like something they knocked up in 15 minutes. It's just a bunch of random rewards for random events and/or grinding. Achievements are supposed to motivate players to keep playing and/or try to set specific goals that are fun and unusual, keeping the game fresh. MWO achievements have none of that.
  
• Titles. MWO has the worst titles I've seen in any MMO / PVP game. Philanthropist? Big Daddy? How inspiring. Not to mention that 90% of the titles are just rewards for Buying A Mech Pack.
  
• Did I mention the Leaderboard? Yeah, same thing as Achievements. Using zero of the potential of Leaderboards, which are supposed to motivate the players and help them set goals for themselves to keep the game fresh and interesting. Right now, it's just a win counter.
  
• No nice things for the veterans. So you've got every mech in the game, you've mastered them all, you've played 10,000 matches, you've done everything there is to do. Do you get any kind of trinket to show the world your accomplishments? Cockpit items? Custom geometry? Decals? Camo patterns? Titles? Nope, none of that. But at some point, if you get 20,000 assists in light mechs, medium mechs, heavy mechs and assault mechs, for a total of 80,000 assists... then you get... 5000 GXP. Sound good? Did I mention the Achievement system is bad?
  
• Want to check your statistics? They're on the website. Not in the actual game UI, of course. Oh, and PGI hasn't reset them in years, so they're basically meaningless. No way to check your results the past week, past month, etc.
  
• No soundtrack. Keep in mind, PGI has several pieces of music that they've used for past trailers and various videos they've published over the years. But none of those are in the game, and if you enable music, you'll listen to the same looping track in the Mechlab, over... and over.... and over.
  This despite the fact that the Mechwarrior series has some of the most memorable soundtracks of all video games, ever. Shout out to Jeehun Hwang and Gregory Alper.
  
• Extremely limited use of voice actors. Only in Scouting Mode can you actually hear different voices based on factions, and even then, it sounds like the same guy is actually just doing a normal military act (inner sphere) and an evil space villain act (clans). Even though we have a command wheel, and even though the Mechwarrior games are one of the few video game franchises with their own lingo and lore that would be relevant (Why not Aff instead of Affirmitive if you're a clan player? How hard is that? I mean, really!!), we all get the same generic voice with virtually zero variation.
  
• MWO still has about as much lore as Team Fortress 2, despite being based on one of the most extensive, established sci-fi universes in all of video games. Want to read about the different planets on the galaxy map? Want to read about the different mechs you're buying? Want to know which mechs are traditionally associated to your faction, whether it's House Liao or Clan Wolf? Want to read about your faction and find if it's more than just a flag?
  Sorry, guy. No lore for you. Wanna buy a mech pack?

That's enough airing of grievances for now. I'll go back to being the hopelessly optimistic, enthusiastic and cheerful bundle of joy you've all come to love and admire.

Thanks for reading.

[RedDragon]

One answer to rule them all: minimally viable product.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

RedDragon, on 23 July 2016 - 01:11 PM, said:

One answer to rule them all: minimally viable product.

this right here

[Mystere]

Alistair Winter, on 23 July 2016 - 01:07 PM, said:

I feel like there's too much joy and celebration on the forum these days ...

Huh?

[martian]

RedDragon, on 23 July 2016 - 01:11 PM, said:

One answer to rule them all: minimally viable product.

▲ This exactly.

Why would PGI waste time, money and manpower on all those aforementioned things, if players give money to PGI anyway?

Plus, PGI knows that their MechWarrior licence might come to an end maybe in 2 years (perhaps in four years if PGI is lucky).

[Trauglodyte]

Alistair Winter, on 23 July 2016 - 01:07 PM, said:

I feel like there's too much joy and celebration on the forum these days. So here's a list of minor things that annoy me a lot. I'm not even going to touch game balance, game modes, faction play, jump jets or any of the big issues. Here's just a list of small things that I figured would be fixed quickly with the monthly patch instead of semi-weekly patch system.

If you enjoy reading long lists with nothing but negativity and airing of grievances (happy festivus) then this thread is for you.

• The Command Wheel. I thought this would be updated on a monthly basis on account of feedback. It wasn't. I now realize it will probably stay like this for a while. When I'm Company Commander, I can only order 2 lances to take positions, not all 3. If any lances have received such an order, I can't order them to attack a target without going to the battlegrid and deleting their previous order first. That's bad.
  
• Game mode HUD. I'm not talking about the game modes. I'm just talking about how the HUD changes depending on game mode. In Skirmish and Assault, it counts kills. That's good. In Conquest and Domination, there's no indication of a kill count, even though this is an immensely important metric to keep track of. This is a stupid attempt to force more attention on alternative objectives, and it just makes the game harder to play. Also, could the Domination markers BE any less intuitive?
  
  
  Oh, looks like we have RNG but we need CLR and TRK. That makes perfect sense, thanks a lot! How can you not know what TRK is, amirite?
  
• Lack of destructible objects. Destructible containers, destructible crates, destructible cars. We've had destructible trees and branches and streetlights in the game for over a year now. Why not just insert the rest of the destructible objects? They're already in the Academy, albeit only in the first two minutes of the tutorial, for some reason.
  
• Lack of techies and other people in the MechLab. We've got mechs, we've got a little work station for people. PGI has already created models for mechwarriors (i.e. pilots) and technicians for this game. You can see the techies in the Academy tutorial. Why aren't there any people in the Mechlab to establish scale and create some immersion?
  
• Achievements. I really hoped these would be placeholders. Like the Leaderboard, the Achievement system looks like something they knocked up in 15 minutes. It's just a bunch of random rewards for random events and/or grinding. Achievements are supposed to motivate players to keep playing and/or try to set specific goals that are fun and unusual, keeping the game fresh. MWO achievements have none of that.
  
• Titles. MWO has the worst titles I've seen in any MMO / PVP game. Philanthropist? Big Daddy? How inspiring. Not to mention that 90% of the titles are just rewards for Buying A Mech Pack.
  
• Did I mention the Leaderboard? Yeah, same thing as Achievements. Using zero of the potential of Leaderboards, which are supposed to motivate the players and help them set goals for themselves to keep the game fresh and interesting. Right now, it's just a win counter.
  
• No nice things for the veterans. So you've got every mech in the game, you've mastered them all, you've played 10,000 matches, you've done everything there is to do. Do you get any kind of trinket to show the world your accomplishments? Cockpit items? Custom geometry? Decals? Camo patterns? Titles? Nope, none of that. But at some point, if you get 20,000 assists in light mechs, medium mechs, heavy mechs and assault mechs, for a total of 80,000 assists... then you get... 5000 GXP. Sound good? Did I mention the Achievement system is bad?
  
• Want to check your statistics? They're on the website. Not in the actual game UI, of course. Oh, and PGI hasn't reset them in years, so they're basically meaningless. No way to check your results the past week, past month, etc.
  
• No soundtrack. Keep in mind, PGI has several pieces of music that they've used for past trailers and various videos they've published over the years. But none of those are in the game, and if you enable music, you'll listen to the same looping track in the Mechlab, over... and over.... and over.
  
  This despite the fact that the Mechwarrior series has some of the most memorable soundtracks of all video games, ever. Shout out to Jeehun Hwang and Gregory Alper.
  
• Extremely limited use of voice actors. Only in Scouting Mode can you actually hear different voices based on factions, and even then, it sounds like the same guy is actually just doing a normal military act (inner sphere) and an evil space villain act (clans). Even though we have a command wheel, and even though the Mechwarrior games are one of the few video game franchises with their own lingo and lore that would be relevant (Why not Aff instead of Affirmitive if you're a clan player? How hard is that? I mean, really!!), we all get the same generic voice with virtually zero variation.
  
• MWO still has about as much lore as Team Fortress 2, despite being based on one of the most extensive, established sci-fi universes in all of video games. Want to read about the different planets on the galaxy map? Want to read about the different mechs you're buying? Want to know which mechs are traditionally associated to your faction, whether it's House Liao or Clan Wolf? Want to read about your faction and find if it's more than just a flag?
  
  Sorry, guy. No lore for you. Wanna buy a mech pack?

That's enough airing of grievances for now. I'll go back to being the hopelessly optimistic, enthusiastic and cheerful bundle of joy you've all come to love and admire.


Thanks for reading.

You have to have this before you can air your grievances.

[Alistair Winter]

Trauglodyte, on 23 July 2016 - 01:25 PM, said:

You have to have this before you can air your grievances.

Who do I have to pin?

[No One Lives Forever]

Alistair Winter, on 23 July 2016 - 01:07 PM, said:

I feel like there's too much joy and celebration on the forum these days. So here's a list of minor things that annoy me a lot. I'm not even going to touch game balance, game modes, faction play, jump jets or any of the big issues. Here's just a list of small things that I figured would be fixed quickly with the monthly patch instead of semi-weekly patch system.

If you enjoy reading long lists with nothing but negativity and airing of grievances (happy festivus) then this thread is for you.

• The Command Wheel. I thought this would be updated on a monthly basis on account of feedback. It wasn't. I now realize it will probably stay like this for a while. When I'm Company Commander, I can only order 2 lances to take positions, not all 3. If any lances have received such an order, I can't order them to attack a target without going to the battlegrid and deleting their previous order first. That's bad.
  
• Game mode HUD. I'm not talking about the game modes. I'm just talking about how the HUD changes depending on game mode. In Skirmish and Assault, it counts kills. That's good. In Conquest and Domination, there's no indication of a kill count, even though this is an immensely important metric to keep track of. This is a stupid attempt to force more attention on alternative objectives, and it just makes the game harder to play. Also, could the Domination markers BE any less intuitive?
  
  
  Oh, looks like we have RNG but we need CLR and TRK. That makes perfect sense, thanks a lot! How can you not know what TRK is, amirite?
  
• Lack of destructible objects. Destructible containers, destructible crates, destructible cars. We've had destructible trees and branches and streetlights in the game for over a year now. Why not just insert the rest of the destructible objects? They're already in the Academy, albeit only in the first two minutes of the tutorial, for some reason.
  
• Lack of techies and other people in the MechLab. We've got mechs, we've got a little work station for people. PGI has already created models for mechwarriors (i.e. pilots) and technicians for this game. You can see the techies in the Academy tutorial. Why aren't there any people in the Mechlab to establish scale and create some immersion?
  
• Achievements. I really hoped these would be placeholders. Like the Leaderboard, the Achievement system looks like something they knocked up in 15 minutes. It's just a bunch of random rewards for random events and/or grinding. Achievements are supposed to motivate players to keep playing and/or try to set specific goals that are fun and unusual, keeping the game fresh. MWO achievements have none of that.
  
• Titles. MWO has the worst titles I've seen in any MMO / PVP game. Philanthropist? Big Daddy? How inspiring. Not to mention that 90% of the titles are just rewards for Buying A Mech Pack.
  
• Did I mention the Leaderboard? Yeah, same thing as Achievements. Using zero of the potential of Leaderboards, which are supposed to motivate the players and help them set goals for themselves to keep the game fresh and interesting. Right now, it's just a win counter.
  
• No nice things for the veterans. So you've got every mech in the game, you've mastered them all, you've played 10,000 matches, you've done everything there is to do. Do you get any kind of trinket to show the world your accomplishments? Cockpit items? Custom geometry? Decals? Camo patterns? Titles? Nope, none of that. But at some point, if you get 20,000 assists in light mechs, medium mechs, heavy mechs and assault mechs, for a total of 80,000 assists... then you get... 5000 GXP. Sound good? Did I mention the Achievement system is bad?
  
• Want to check your statistics? They're on the website. Not in the actual game UI, of course. Oh, and PGI hasn't reset them in years, so they're basically meaningless. No way to check your results the past week, past month, etc.
  
• No soundtrack. Keep in mind, PGI has several pieces of music that they've used for past trailers and various videos they've published over the years. But none of those are in the game, and if you enable music, you'll listen to the same looping track in the Mechlab, over... and over.... and over.
  
  This despite the fact that the Mechwarrior series has some of the most memorable soundtracks of all video games, ever. Shout out to Jeehun Hwang and Gregory Alper.
  
• Extremely limited use of voice actors. Only in Scouting Mode can you actually hear different voices based on factions, and even then, it sounds like the same guy is actually just doing a normal military act (inner sphere) and an evil space villain act (clans). Even though we have a command wheel, and even though the Mechwarrior games are one of the few video game franchises with their own lingo and lore that would be relevant (Why not Aff instead of Affirmitive if you're a clan player? How hard is that? I mean, really!!), we all get the same generic voice with virtually zero variation.
  
• MWO still has about as much lore as Team Fortress 2, despite being based on one of the most extensive, established sci-fi universes in all of video games. Want to read about the different planets on the galaxy map? Want to read about the different mechs you're buying? Want to know which mechs are traditionally associated to your faction, whether it's House Liao or Clan Wolf? Want to read about your faction and find if it's more than just a flag?
  
  Sorry, guy. No lore for you. Wanna buy a mech pack?

That's enough airing of grievances for now. I'll go back to being the hopelessly optimistic, enthusiastic and cheerful bundle of joy you've all come to love and admire.


Thanks for reading.

This is good. PGI should read it. Not only read it, many good points.

[Trauglodyte]

This is a good list, Alistair. I'd help chip in money for music. It is a really old game, especially by today's standards, but I, from time to time, put in my Total Annihilation cd - that music was amazing.

The achievements and titles in MW:O are pathetic.

The lack of lore is pathetic.

The lack of immersion is pathetic.

Mediocre™

[Deathlike]

Alistair Winter, on 23 July 2016 - 01:07 PM, said:

• No soundtrack. Keep in mind, PGI has several pieces of music that they've used for past trailers and various videos they've published over the years. But none of those are in the game, and if you enable music, you'll listen to the same looping track in the Mechlab, over... and over.... and over.
  

There's two soundtracks.

Yes, I know - I shouldn't know this, but I do.

TWO.

There's also TWO soundtracks in the FW section.

I know.

TWO.

You know what's better than minimally viable? SLIGHTLY more than minimally viable.

I know.

My TWO cents.

[Y E O N N E]

Deathlike, on 23 July 2016 - 01:45 PM, said:

My TWO cents.

Stingy!

[Brain Cancer]

Deathlike, on 23 July 2016 - 01:45 PM, said:

My TWO cents.

Minimally viable tipping.

[cazidin]

You forgot the Command Console, just like Russ has.

[InspectorG]

Airing of the grievances!!!!

- Fix my Godd*mn Summoner. neglected like latchkey ghetto kids who get to share one freezypop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

-InfoWarfare. Where? New 'Map' is one good step. Altering radar range/Arc is better. Lights have a wider arc. Fatmechs get tunnel-vision-radar.

- CW...as in the whole game. Where is it? Where's the money, Lebowski?

-Overly Agile Heavies and Assaults. Most need a hefty nerf if alpha/hardpoint creep is here to stay.

-Fix the Crit System. it sucks and makes several weapons irrelevant.

-Show the odds on supply caches. Its Honesty and only the player can blame themselves. Juke the odds right and both player and PGI wins.

-More rewards for NARC. Make it a Infotech tool moreso than a missile tool. No one uses LRMs.

-Better Objectives. Dominations and Scouting are good steps but need work.

[Stone Wall]

My main grievance is to "de-newb" the players. Stop holding hands with the Tier System, let weapons hit hard(turn this game up to 11 like MW3), let Lights run at blazing speed, remove 75% of the cover in the maps, give us good JJs back, turn on respawn(might as well since 3rd person made it in).

One way to remove MechWarrior Online from being a FPS, is to remove the quirks on mechs as if they are just characters on a select screen. I doubt they are nerfing cars in NASCAR Online. This isn't a MOBA either, so let's drop the quirks and nerfs on mechs.

[Summon3r]

so sad that this is and will be 100% IGNORED

[Quintus Verus]

I'm going to derail this thread with peace, love, and happiness!

Word is next big project is complete rework of skill tree.

[nehebkau]

I will add my Grievance here too then:

Not enough mech packs. We need more mec packs. I just sit in my hangar and play dress-up with all my mechs.`

[LordNothing]

mostly agree with op.

i think my biggest complaint is that all features are treated as line items, and once it gets crossed off it never gets revisited. a game isnt a list of systems, those systems have to interact in fun and exciting ways and become greater than the sum of their parts. a lot of those systems arent even finished before they are abandoned. how many weapons still dont have modules? why hasnt a solution for the cacs been made? if no intention to fix cacs exist can we give them the same balance treatment and modules as the other weapons? stuff like that bugs me. command consoles, still useless, couldnt have updated it like with all the targeting computers.

Alistair Winter, on 23 July 2016 - 01:07 PM, said:

• No nice things for the veterans. So you've got every mech in the game, you've mastered them all, you've played 10,000 matches, you've done everything there is to do. Do you get any kind of trinket to show the world your accomplishments? Cockpit items? Custom geometry? Decals? Camo patterns? Titles? Nope, none of that. But at some point, if you get 20,000 assists in light mechs, medium mechs, heavy mechs and assault mechs, for a total of 80,000 assists... then you get... 5000 GXP. Sound good? Did I mention the Achievement system is bad?

the funny thing about the 5000gxp. i just recently got to the half way point on the final kill assist cheevo. i have cleared the module unlocks, i have mastered 3 of every chassis you can get for cbills (and a few you cant). by the time i win that 5k gxp, i aint gonna have a thing left to spend it on. anyone who gets all around helper is a masochist and probibly needs psychological help.

Quintus Verus, on 23 July 2016 - 04:07 PM, said:

I'm going to derail this thread with peace, love, and happiness!

Word is next big project is complete rework of skill tree.

i have a feeling that is going to make a lot of people very angry, especially if no xp refund. am i gonna have to re-do mechs i mastered and sold? this is going to be really crappy. is the leveling process going to take longer now? all you really need to do is replace pinpoint and i would totally be happy with the skill tree.

sad thing is i am content with the game being more or less as it is now, maps, mechs and modes being the primary focus, and essential stuff like bugfixes and balance tweaks should be happening on a much more regular basis. however i really need 3060s tech. mwo players wanting to keep the same set of weapons in perpetuity make as much sense as a ksp player wanting fewer rocket parts. that just doesnt happen. staying in the early 3050s untill the servers get hawked for beer money is not going to make me buy mech packs.

Edited by LordNothing, 23 July 2016 - 04:44 PM.

[Johnny Z]

Last update was big. Really big. I hope the rest of the year is like that. This game does need a lot of work.

On the bright side, its shaping up real nice.

The last two updates were huge really.

- Comm wheel

- Decals

- Supply crate system

That's 3 new features right there.

- a lot of map changes and fixes

- more mechs

There really is a ton more to fill the rest of the page listed off in the last two updates.

Edited by Johnny Z, 23 July 2016 - 04:27 PM.