39 replies to this topic

[machine]

...and then listen to them.

This game has come a long way but frankly there have been some horrendous mistakes. While I do feel like you are heading in the right direction, the stumbles along the way have been difficult to watch and have killed the huge buzz surrounding your game.

I am one of your word of mouth cheerleaders. I get friends to sign up but they drop in a trial mech and just feel like they are at the dentist getting a root canal.

The new pilot bonus is great.... for those players not uninstalling by round five. The mechlab is a must for every player you bring into this game. I will come out and say it, you even messed up by being stubborn with how you hand out the initial allotment of cbills.

You would have avoided alot of the "Giant Bombs" media issue if they could have customized a mech instead of using trial garbage. Who in the hell is making those trial mechs? They should be put on administrative time off pending a review of their resume for actual game design. They are helping severely limit the return on your rather huge investment.

Smaller issues like zoom that you cant make work at all and just release anyway really damage your reputation as developers. Open your ears to the competitive community. You need to stop drop and roll because your game is on fire... and no not in a good way. If you don't turn and focus on getting a game lobby and match making like every other first person team shooter in the last decade you are going to be a lost cause for the remaining fraction of your best advocates. Your word of mouth players.

I must make the assumption you will continue to refine and you will eventually fix the trial mechs and the immediate access to cbills and the mech lab. I will assume your lobby system and matchmaking for TEAMS will develop beyond just worrying about pubbies (i do agree with elo for random pub matchmaking but it is plain stupid to try for teams unless it is for some match type called "randomize my opponent"). Teams bring friends to play they advocate your game. League are good press that prove players like your game beyond advertising hype.

My post isnt perfect but i wouldnt be wasting my time writing it if I didnt want you to succeed.

Lastly, all this should get done and planetary launched before you place the game on Steam. Yes at this point you desperately need Steam to grow your player base. You need to have a "Planetary Conqueror" package similar to founders packages and treat Steam as the "official launch" of your game like you planned it from day one. Work out the bugs and clean things up first though. The relaunch... erm launch on Steam.

That is business advice and paying customer advice.

[Kaijin]

I'm still waiting for the time when I'd want to recommend MWO to my friends.

[Uncl Munkeh]

Netcode and Game Entry are the two things that really prevent new users from being able to get up to speed on the game.

In regards to netcode, why would a new user understand they need to shoot 2 mech lengths ahead of an opponent to hit them?

Without a lobby, a means to put people into groups where they can train up new users, they just PUG until they are unhappy and then they leave.

I'm just wondering how long it'll take before PGI takes these two items seriously.

[Multitallented]

+1, most of my friends can't get past the initial grind. Right now I am grinding an account for my friend cause he won't play the game with trials. He doesn't like his first mech, so now I have to grind for a few hours to get him something decent.

[D34K]

Successfully onboarding the highest possible number of players from casually checking out the game to committed enough to participate in the community and spend cash requires a re-think on trial mechs. Everyone sees this, PGI haven't yet understood it. It's time to put egos aside or consider a compromise on trial mechs (see below).

Personally, I don't care much about this stuff with noob players. I play in one of the elite "premade" units; these thoughts are just as a "concerned member of community" and don't directly benefit what I or my team desperately want (a match lobby amd better netcode).

A suggested compromise on trial mechs.

Some kind of "Proving Grounds" where you play a number of matches against other people in trial mechs. Following that, some merc company leader or commander from one of the great Houses gives you 10 million cbills to buy and customise a mech and gives you some backstory.

What does this do?

• Your first games aren't against heavily optimised mechs that are fully tricked out with modules and Mastered.
  
• A gentle curve on game difficulty.
  
• Exposure to the fantastic BattleTech universe, giving some understanding of what is happening and who is who.
  
• A sense of ownership of a mech -- even let them have some paint. Read the fluff; a MechWarrior's relationship with their mech is deeply personal.
  
• Access to the MechLab. This is a key feature to get people sufficiently interested. It's one of the best features, let them have a taste.

There's so much potential with this game. With a relatively small pivot in the current development schedule, you could unlock some of that before it's too late for anyone to care.

Edited by D34K, 12 January 2013 - 10:01 AM.

[Kobura]

I haven't been able to convert anyone to this game in months because of these issues and more.

And really I don't think anyone I know bought the red and green blinking cockpit lights. They're waiting for the gameplay to not be painful.

Priorities. They are wavering.

[focuspark]

I tried getting a few coworkers to give MW:O a try and despite my favorable review, they opt'd not to due to poor reviews they'd read previously online. MW:O is in trouble if the devs cannot correct the current negative media.

The OP's points are all valid and worth addressing.

That said, the devs need to make the game more understandable. New players entering the game should feel they've got a fighting chance and on not being fed to the wolves.

[machine]

Playing MechWarrior Online is a great experience once you are established.

I want more opponents. I want MILLIONS OF OPPONENTS. I wont be happy until the only way I see the same team twice is if my team has a schedule match or scrimmage with them.

I am pretty sure team leads would spend a few bucks or so a month to have the ability to set up matches, have unit decals, and tags, but we would like a bit more as well such as observer mode to do a ride along for skill building and the ability to share mech builds outs along with skins and color combos to the team and let them just click "buy" with their own cbills...and for competition we get into a match room with where we can negotiate drop particulars or have them autogenerated by planetary (CW).

[wickwire]

Give every player a Hunchback HBK-4SP to start with. Remove its cost (3,632,484 CB) from the recruit bonus.

Edited by wickwire, 12 January 2013 - 02:22 PM.

[Capt Cole 117]

machine, on 12 January 2013 - 12:54 PM, said:

but we would like a bit more as well such as observer mode to do a ride along for skill building

A ride along function and mentoring system to pair new players with old vets would be extremely useful.

[Elder Thorn]

machine, on 12 January 2013 - 06:05 AM, said:

My post isnt perfect but i wouldnt be wasting my time writing it if I didnt want you to succeed.

in my opinion, this is the most important sentence of this post!
We ALL want YOU to succeed, that is why we rage, whine or ragequit to come back a few days later.
Really, listen to the people who are actually playing this game, and i remember pretty much everyone of us was warning you NOT to go to open beta, the game wasn't ready for this, and it isn't even NOW, but now we have to deal with it. That unfortunatly means to stop working on MC payable content and fix problems.
I know, people working on MC stuff aren't necessarily people who have the skills to work on netcode or new maps, but sometimes it would make a better public picture to hold back MC Stuff and bring some more important stuff first.

It's not like we don't want cockpit items or camos or hero mechs, but those are NOT the most important things, and people will judge this game based on available content, and when there is more useless content to pay real money for than actual game content it draws a bad picture.

[machine]

thanks

[MWHawke]

Uncle Monkey, on 12 January 2013 - 09:05 AM, said:

Netcode and Game Entry are the two things that really prevent new users from being able to get up to speed on the game.

In regards to netcode, why would a new user understand they need to shoot 2 mech lengths ahead of an opponent to hit them?

Without a lobby, a means to put people into groups where they can train up new users, they just PUG until they are unhappy and then they leave.

I'm just wondering how long it'll take before PGI takes these two items seriously.

UncleMonkey definitely gets the free bananas for hitting the nail directly on it's head.

Maybe it's time to admit you don't have the necessary skills and pay for professionals? You want exposure before spending money but currently, it's all been negative, meaning, you won't get to find more money to spend until you fix the glaring issues. Lasers which travel the speed of light having to be shot 3 lengths ahead of a mech that is running 100kph? Uhh.. how is 100 kph 3 times faster than speed of light?

You got the founders package cash so do something right. People may say that you have spent it all etc. but at least restore our faith by doing something right.

[Edustaja]

Yeah, there is nothing wrong in having trial mechs with locked configurations. The thing they need to do is make the trial configs viable builds for MWO. This either requires tweaking the heat system or flat out redesigning a few mechs that work.

I'm advocating mechs that have one or two easy to use weapon systems like lasers, ballistics or srm's. Streaks, LRM's and ECMs are very iffy to drop on new players but could work. All chassises would need to have Double heatsinks and enough of them to make them work. Drop all the heat-"ineffective" weapons like ER lasers and PPC's.

New players dicking around the mechlab at first isn't really the optimal choice and I think that if they could always just jump into an above average well rounded config in the trials it would make the initial gaming that much easier.

Overall good suggestions in this thread.

[StalaggtIKE]

Kaijin, on 12 January 2013 - 07:07 AM, said:

I'm still waiting for the time when I'd want to recommend MWO to my friends.

At one point I was, then ECM dropped. It's not worth explaining all of its advantages and all the hoops you must jump through just to counter it. I realize that there are other glaring issues, but ECM is the one everyone sees within their first 3 games. Mercy on any new players that must endure a game with non-ECM team vs an ECM team. There is no way they're sticking around.

Edited by StalaggtIKE, 13 January 2013 - 11:51 AM.

[focuspark]

All new players should be given a free medium mech that they own. Screw Trial Mechs, they suck to the point of driving people away.

I would like to point out that this thread is likely to be ignored by the devs as the title is unbelievably insulting and rude. Not that I disagree with its contents, but the OP should be more careful on how he words things.

[Asmudius Heng]

Edustaja, on 13 January 2013 - 11:41 AM, said:

Yeah, there is nothing wrong in having trial mechs with locked configurations. The thing they need to do is make the trial configs viable builds for MWO. This either requires tweaking the heat system or flat out redesigning a few mechs that work.

I'm advocating mechs that have one or two easy to use weapon systems like lasers, ballistics or srm's. Streaks, LRM's and ECMs are very iffy to drop on new players but could work. All chassises would need to have Double heatsinks and enough of them to make them work. Drop all the heat-"ineffective" weapons like ER lasers and PPC's.

New players dicking around the mechlab at first isn't really the optimal choice and I think that if they could always just jump into an above average well rounded config in the trials it would make the initial gaming that much easier.

Overall good suggestions in this thread.

Agree but would take it even further. The entire scope of weapons balance and mech balance is so out of whack that trial mechs are pretty aweful.

When a trail mech is not too bad on the battlefield then things are closer to balance because they should be balanced being stock mechs from the TT which this game is based on.

Not that i hold to slavish adherance to TT at all but when i look at trials i think:

- The heat on this thing is rediculous
- My ammo is terrible
- Why have i got less than full amour (armour is worth way more than weapons in MWO - if lowering your armour was an actual tactica choice .... but alas)
- Why is the engine in this thing so terrible i canot even torso twist fast

These are not a problem with the trial mechs these are core mechanics problems.
- Lowering or raising armour should be a trade off for tactical choices - right now most people will be at pains to shave just a little bit off certain locations only.
- Heat is not working - not penalties for high heat other than shutdown and ammo cook off - and certain weapons are way too hot to be effective at the ranges the game is usually played at.
- Engines effect torso twist speed making lower rated engines AWEFUL for agility as well as speed which means people nearly ALWAYS up their engines rather than having engines as a trade off - bigger is nearly always better for the agility not just the speed.
- Ammo ... doubled armour but not doubled ammo. Nuff said
- Then there is netcode that makes certain weapons far less efficient.

Core mechanics choices make trial mechs bad showing a bad eye for balanced games and mechs.

Trial mechs will always suck while the developers insist the core mechanics of the games require no tweaking and are workign as intended. the Devs NEVER say - oh wow, we stuffed up and we are fixing it - they always put the onus on the players and say we are not playing correctly which is totally bogus.

Use LRMs dumb fire is my favourite one right now because firing at even 400 meters with LRMs will miss anyone with a shut down mech.

[White Bear 84]

Multitallented, on 12 January 2013 - 09:48 AM, said:

+1, most of my friends can't get past the initial grind. Right now I am grinding an account for my friend cause he won't play the game with trials. He doesn't like his first mech, so now I have to grind for a few hours to get him something decent.

Now thats a dedicated friend +1 to you good sir!

[LynxFury]

On coms while playing Planetside 2 today, discovered one of in my unit was a long BT fan and vet of the MW series of games. He asked me what it was like.

My honest assessment was:
-it's beta and not a lot of content yet, a few small maps and small teams only composed of mechs
-it doesn't run very well compared to PS2 or BF3 (I get half the frame rate even after the latest patch), and has lots of connection problems.
-it has got severe balance issues mostly because of ECM pushing the game into only a dozen of more than 50 mech variants worth taking.

Check it out in six months, perhaps some of the problems will be sorted out by than.

[machine]

Thank you all for the good feedback.