Kay Wolf

keith, on 14 June 2013 - 04:33 PM, said:

You make widgets, keith, let's say. You're the best widget maker, and you are the focal point of your company, a very profitable company because of you. Someone comes in from outside and explains, "you can do this better, and that better, and you can be more profitable, but what YOU do is utter crap!" Other people, within and out of your company begin to look at you, and your skills, differently. How do you feel about the widgets you've been making, to your mind, very efficiently, with high productivity, now?

Look, I have some issues with the way things have been done, too and, although I've not played since last September -this is NOT PGIs fault, this is the selfishness of a few others that killed AU, and my desire to play almost anything BattleTech-, I still believe this game has a lot of love that's gone into it, has a lot of potential for the future, if the developers will actually listen, and I think your assessment, which is pretty damned cold, frankly, is wrong.

This thread, and the one for Sarah, and one other I'm involved in, have become too involved, so I have to shut them down; I have other things to do, like college, hehe.

Mason Grimm, on 14 June 2013 - 04:02 AM, said:

I apologize to Sarah and her parents. I will try to do better, such as putting my feelings in PM because, like the guy I answered -whose name escapes me, just now-, I brought my own sort of ignorance to the conversation in the main thread. For that, I apologize to all. <S>

Sephlock, on 13 June 2013 - 06:10 PM, said:

I already play it, thanks. It still needs some work, but I just played three matches today, and each of them went fairly quickly. I'm looking forward to seeing more improvements.

Steel Claws, on 13 June 2013 - 06:33 PM, said:

Granted, not everything translates because you're no longer dealing with turn-by-turn time, you're working on real-time. Frankly, I agree with the recycle times on the weapons, I've heard disparity about the damages, especially from my oldest son who is, right now, hating on LRMs -my favorite weapon- badly; he says they're too powerful. I love how the 'Mechs move, their speed 'FEELS' right, etc. I think PGI really is onto something, here, but there are many things that are being left out.

One of the things relates to something I said earlier in this thread, and you're going to hate it Steel Claws because it deals with a portion of the lore, and the RNG you seem to be bitching about a lot, which doesn't exist for weapons fire. The developers wanted to make the game based on natural skill and, unfortunately, what that's done is allowed those capable of zero skill beyond pin-point accuracy to dominate the game.

Now, the lore of the game contains LosTech, which is technology for which the knowledge to manufacture and, sometimes, repair it has been lost due to the amazingly harsh warfare of the Succession Wars. This means that you have Battle Computers in the 'Mechs that could be as young as a few months old to a few centuries old. This means there's a massive disparity in how these systems work though, generally, they malfunction periodically. With higher heat levels due to movement, weapons fire, and taking PPC, laser, and flamer heat along with the damage, which is all informed by the intensity of combat, the arm-weight of weaponry attached to the 'Mech, especially on the arms, and various outside influences. This is further informed by the speed of your 'Mech, the unevenness of the terrain, and the speed and activities of the enemy 'Mech. So, every time someone gives an argument about why the game should have pin-point accuracy, why there shouldn't be a Cone of Destruction or a random number generator, I have to wonder what they know about BattleTech? NONE of the previous MechWarrior games got it right, and that's too bad.

Frankly, the real skill would be if these things were all accounted for in the game, and MechWarrior's could actually figure out how to improve their pilot abilities both naturally and through pilot and 'Mech improvements purchased over time, instead of the silly BS in the game now, especially being required to master three chassis of the same 'Mech before you can make Veteran -dumb (shakes head)-, I think you might draw more people, because then there would actually be a challenge.

Quote

Yep, you don't know BattleTech, and that's sad.

DocBach, on 13 June 2013 - 07:14 PM, said:

I think that would be pretty nifty!

Steel Claws, on 13 June 2013 - 07:52 PM, said:

For the weapons fire the Devs have told us there is no RNG, and I believe them, because nearly everything is point-and-click.

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Yes, those might be some manner of RNG, but not for weapons fire.

Take a minute to learn some BattleTech, Steel Claws, learn the game universe for it, try to enjoy the whole rather than just shooting the crap out of everything you come across.

Steel Claws, on 13 June 2013 - 04:00 PM, said:

It's not really a matter of wanting to turn this game into tabletop with graphics, though I submit that actually would not be a terrible idea. So many people want to say stupid things like, "Oh, the tabletop rules can't possibly work in the computer game." I'm not a terribly smart fella, but I can think of ways to take any rule on the books and make it work. Fortunately, I think that's what PGI is trying to do, now, whether they're having a great time doing it or not.

By the way, have you EVER played the tabletop? Your ignorant D20 reference makes me cringe. If you don't know what the tabletop is like, you probably shouldn't talk against it, as this game is already based, from all I've seen, fairly closely on it.

Jman5, on 13 June 2013 - 02:45 PM, said:

Recruitment that is not steady is only one of several reasons groups "go bust". It's not always a failure of leadership; in fact, with a lack of face-time and because of long-distance communication, it's more likely for a unit to bust as a result of someone, or a group of someone's, doing something extremely SELFISH or stupid, not following rules they agree to follow, not helping to explain rules, ideals, and standard operating procedures to fellow MechWarrior's so they understand what's going on and act within the bounds of the unit. It's exceedingly difficult for a commander to command in this sort of environment; the truly unfortunate part is when your fellow unit members come to a unit and expect only to play, and then ruin the extra-game activities and conversations of the remainder of the unit who are there to be more. You can't just flush people for differing play-means, or because the experience they're looking for is not exactly what you expect of them, but it makes command a nearly untenable proposition at best.

Recommendation for PGI
Blizzard recently sent their new MMO back to the drawing board. The game's not yet finished, but they shuffled a bunch of people and are basically restarting with the build of the MMO. I suggest PGI makes an announcement that they will be closing down these forums and taking the game back into deep development, with a promise to return when the game, all four pillars, are done and ready to go. That they will return to Open Beta when these things are completed, and all who have Founders and have built up their stash will have some manner of reward when it's time, that all things will be in place, or some amalgam thereof.

I would be willing to bet there are a ton of fans of this game, of BattleTech and MechWarrior, who would love to see that, in order to responsibly care for those of us who love this game, to bring us the absolute best experience possible, the game is going back into deep production. I know I would.

I haven't read most of what's been written, here... TL:DR; so, I apologize if this has already been said, but I think it bears saying, again.

IceSerpent, on 13 June 2013 - 07:32 AM, said:

When this kicked off in October 2011, I did a lot of work to bring friends on-board for this, talked to everyone I knew as gamers, family members, especially fellow BattleTech and MechWarrior enthusiasts, and about a third of them came, while the rest remained away, claiming they were tired of all the promises of other games that never delivered. The rest have dropped off over time, because the game is the same old thing every time you drop.

I have had my doubts about what was going on, here, but I've also tried to be as positive as possible about this game. It's a gorgeous game, and there's a LOT of potential, here. On the very same day the Facebook page for this game was announced, I restarted Armageddon Unlimited, no second thoughts, like it was supposed to be alive, even after three failures as a unit due to attitudes and personalities rather than the ability of certain folks within the unit to see themselves in more than just a game. I believe in MWO, I did the hardest work I've ever done to get AU up and running, for THIS game. However, after about the first six months, I began feeling as though there was already a problem...

See, quite a few of us BattleTech veterans (from 1982 and '84) and MechWarrior veterans (from '91), who have loved the universe since its inception, and loved to play all of these games, told PGI and IGP what needed to happen to make this game successful. We have been ignored, and this is what is happening.

If, indeed, this is a storm and it is set to, eventually, pass, all that will be left, I'm afraid, are the twitchers and FPS gamers who couldn't care less about the game universe. I have heard a lot about how the game universe is irrelevant to the game itself, about how all we need is stompy robots with weapons, like the original tabletop board game. The problem with that is, at least beginning with 2nd Edition BattleDroids, which is what we know as BattleTech (from '84), is the simple fact that unit historical and story snippets were included in the very basic rulebook... from the beginning. The universe BattleTech takes place in, and the tactical tabletop simulation game, itself, are one and the same, inseparable. Until developers understand that, and make the effort to satisfy the veterans of the game universe, who might be willing to turn around and recruit others into the game, and the game is marketed well enough, the only successful MechWarrior computer games will be single-player.

http://www.wolvesau....U/BTO_Basic.pdf

Hopefully, what was ignored as to what needed to be done for this game, for the BattleTech/MechWarrior universe, will sink into the minds of any future developers of BattleTech products. Had I the money to be able to do it, I would build what I linked above, and I wouldn't let ANYONE know about it until Closed Beta was set to begin. It's always been a HUGE mistake to open up forums or the lines of communication before the heavy lifting on the game has been done, as you let in all manner people who don't care about anything but getting their twitch on.

It saddens me to hear what I've read in this thread, before I skipped page two and so on to make this post. I still believe this game has a great deal of potential, and it can definitely be done with these developers, but if they want to have the lines of communication open, they need to respect those lines, and they need to listen.