8 replies to this topic

[Fireye]

The PAX East panel was lovely, and pretty fun. It was great to see Bryan's reaction to various offhand comments (like throwing his hands up at the mention of the Warhammer).

Sadly, because I hesitated in getting up to ask a question, I was left at second in line when the panel ended. My question fit into the context of the description and topics for the panel, which was:

Quote

Going Back To The Future - Calling All Mechwarriors, Tribes and Star Citizens
Free to Play games have cropped up in almost every genre of gaming these days, and that’s good news for newbies and old-timers who want to relive the glory of their youth with revived franchises like MechWarrior, Tribes (Todd Harris is now onboard as of this edit!) and Star Citizen! Go back to the future with the developers of these free to play titles, join the discussion and win sweet prizes!

My question would have been something like this:

Quote

One things that Single Player, or standard model games do quite well, is to tell a compelling story. The Battletech universe comes from a very rich and dense storyline, which MWO has pulled from. Tribes: Ascend has lore, but it isn't very prominent. Star Citizen appears to be extremely rich with background information and stories.

Do your respective companies believe that it's possible for a Free to Play or MMO model is able to tell stories, and if so, how?

Does PGI intend on contributing to the lore of Battletech, or just following the existing timeline? If so, what steps do you guys have to take to avoid contradicting the existing timeline?

Ok, it would have been a bit shorter than that, but since I'm getting to write down the question instead of nervously talk about it in front of the panelists, that makes it easier to be verbose.


... Oh, and I found a Squirrel Cockpit Item that was added in the March 5th patch, but isn't yet enabled. Here, have a pic of it. There's also a Pistol Holder standing item, but I don't believe it's textured yet.

[Raghnall]

I think that is a good question. I see elements of the rich universe... Like the salvage trucks, wreckage of mechs on the maps (reminds me of the black and white art from the early battletech rules), and look of the mechs slugging it out. I sort of wonder how they could tell or expand the battletech narrative with straight multiplayer...

I believe they said they were not going to do a single player... But what if they did a episode series? Like a few missions per chapter or episode for a flat fee, like 8,000 mc or some such?

They could certainly go into greater detail about the faction history and what motivates them. They could cherry pick from a huge span of battletech.

Edited by Raghnall, 26 March 2013 - 11:47 AM.

[Voridan Atreides]

Just curious, but how might you implement that in a PVP MMO game? But good question.

[ZealotTheFallen]

Community warfare, where mercenaries are paid to hold or take a planet from the other houses. The houses becomming a boiling pot that explodes everyday as planets are taking from them and handed back by unhoused mercs. where Stiener absorbs a huge portion of the universe and all the rest combine forces to hold back the bluetide. This is the history of the game, the day to day fighting on a global scale. I have seen it, it did occur, and was a blast. duels happened all the time, the warriors made the history not the game, the game was just the stage, the players created the game.

[Belorion]

Fireye, on 26 March 2013 - 11:07 AM, said:

The PAX East panel was lovely, and pretty fun. It was great to see Bryan's reaction to various offhand comments (like throwing his hands up at the mention of the Warhammer).

Sadly, because I hesitated in getting up to ask a question, I was left at second in line when the panel ended. My question fit into the context of the description and topics for the panel, which was:
[/size]

My question would have been something like this:
[/size]
Ok, it would have been a bit shorter than that, but since I'm getting to write down the question instead of nervously talk about it in front of the panelists, that makes it easier to be verbose.


... Oh, and I found a Squirrel Cockpit Item that was added in the March 5th patch, but isn't yet enabled. Here, have a pic of it. There's also a Pistol Holder standing item, but I don't believe it's textured yet.

It is my understanding that they will not contribute to the lore, but instead just use the existing lore.

[Kristov Kerensky]

PGI has said they are using the existing timeline, it's part of why the players don't get to run the Houses and Clans, cause we WOULD totally rewrite the BTech history..it's been done in NBT time and time again.

[wwiiogre]

They have already contributed to the lore. We have modules and pilot trees. Coolant flush 10 years before it is available in timeline. We have null sig ECM decades before it is available in timeline. We have a continuation of hard points which is not part of the timeline or lore.

So yeah, PGI has contributed alot to the lore already. Some of it questionable. But, they are adding to the game. Currently with the nerfs I am having more fun playing right now than the entire last 6 months combined. Perhaps PGI should make these nerfs permanent and then also nerf ballistics and energy a bit and up their heat and we have a much more fun game with less cheese and boats.

Chris

[zhajin]

swtor has great story lines. unfortunately they do not fit the mmo model very well, so its really a single player game in an mmo shell. LOTR has plenty of back story that it brings in, but again its not really integrated into the mmo model. ill be curious to see if defiance can pull off the story links to the show. And many other games have tried world events and such that link to over reaching story. But the typical mmo model of persistant world and level grinding does not fit well with complex interactive story telling. Really an FPS mmo would likely be a better medium for a continuous story line. not having the typical quest and leveling mechanic means everyone can participate all the time. but most fps players do not care about story.

now MWO is not your typical fps player base, so there is a chance. but my guess is pgi does not have the resources to pull it off.

Edited by zhajin, 26 March 2013 - 12:24 PM.

[DirePhoenix]

Raghnall, on 26 March 2013 - 11:44 AM, said:

I think that is a good question. I see elements of the rich universe... Like the salvage trucks, wreckage of mechs on the maps (reminds me of the black and white art from the early battletech rules), and look of the mechs slugging it out.  I sort of wonder how they could tell or expand the battletech narrative with straight multiplayer...

I believe they said they were not going to do a single player... But what if they did a episode series? Like a few missions per chapter or episode for a flat fee, like 8,000 mc or some such?

The original concept of the MechWarrior Reboot back in... 2008/2009(?) was going to be a single player campaign set in 3015 during the 3rd Succession War, with multiplayer matchmaking tacked on (like every other iteration of MW {except MW1, not counting the MPBT port}).

IIRC at the time Jordan Weisman (co-founder of FASA/creator of BattleTech, co-founder of Smith&Tinker who was doing this MW:Reboot) was quoted as saying that the last thing he wants for the franchise was for it to be turned into an MMO (Despite everyone else on the planet recognizing how perfect the BattleTech universe would be for an MMO, but at the time his concept of "MMO" may have been "WoW", which I think we can all agree would not be a good direction either)

At some point they dropped the reboot idea and decided to make MWO, which would be an MMO set in the more "familiar" 3050 Clan Invasion period. Although, so far all we're seeing is what looks like would have been the "tacked on" multiplayer of the MW Reboot, without the MMO parts. (Community Warfare is still scheduled to be in May, hopefully we'll start hearing more about that sooner than that)

As for in-game story/lore/narrative, this is really the WORST time period for that. There is NO ROOM to expand on anything that hasn't already been pounded into the dirt for this time. Everyone even remotely interested in the backstory already knows what happened/is happening/is going to happen here.

It would have been far better if they kept the time period of the 3rd Succession War from the MW:Reboot. There's hardly any lore for that period, so writers wouldn't have to worry about stepping over previous 'canon' or accidentally retconning something. The only thing they would have had to do is make sure that there are 5 Great Houses standing throughout the lifespan of the game (easily done through control of Core Worlds). The 3rd Succession War lasted for 150 years(?), more than the average human lifespan and probably safe to say long enough for the lifespan of a game. Even if they had started it at 3015, toward the end of the war, they would still have 10 years before peace breaks out, which is still a lot of game time.

More importantly, through that setting, the story would really belong to the PLAYERS. The only real information about it is how it started and how it ended 150 years later. Everything in between is up for grabs. It wouldn't be re-enacting things we've read about a million times over, it would be us the players making our own stories, carving out HOW the 3rd Succession War played out, making our own history in this game and franchise.

But no, people want their Clan 'Mechs and uber tech, so we get 3050 and the same story we've been hearing for over 20 years over and over again.

Fireye, on 26 March 2013 - 11:07 AM, said:

... Oh, and I found a Squirrel Cockpit Item that was added in the March 5th patch, but isn't yet enabled. Here, have a pic of it. There's also a Pistol Holder standing item, but I don't believe it's textured yet.

That's a pretty awesome squirrel! I will probably get it as a mascot for one of my light 'mechs. Also I'd really dig a Pistol Holster in... pretty much any of my other 'mechs.

Edited by DirePhoenix, 26 March 2013 - 01:08 PM.