498 replies to this topic

[TOGSolid]

Quote

It's a holiday weekend. The developers do have a right to live outside the office.

It'd be nice if devs in general would stop making incendiary, vague comments and THEN peacing out to have fun. They're more than welcome to go and enjoy themselves, but at least ask the journalists to hold off on publishing the interview until the devs get back to the office. This is hardly a PGI problem though. For some reason a lot of different companies make this same mistake repeatedly.

Quote

If you really must link premium accounts to merc corps in some way, at least only require it for officers. If you require it for everyone it'll severely impact the ability of merc corps to get and maintain individual members.

I'd be ok with that. I think it's safe to say that the dedicated merc units around here all have premium members running around who can keep things operating.

Edited by TOGSolid, 29 March 2013 - 03:21 PM.

[Fenix0742]

Nicholas Carlyle, on 29 March 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

Must be in the dark ages if you need to be at the office to post on message boards.

Yeah, but Bryan is in Vegas, and he probably didn't tell Support that he was dropping this particular bomb on the press today. Being in Vegas, he probably doesn't care too much at the moment.

[Karyudo ds]

Prosperity Park, on 29 March 2013 - 03:05 PM, said:

Anyways, I can understand trying to limit the Mercenary Players to those who are "dedicated" because Mercs have to be able to field teams whenever SOMEBODY ELSE gets a contract to try and take your land. It's a point where your Unit has to be on-call 24/7 to drop response teams (with some sort of advance notice, of course) and that just won't happen with a Company of 4 guys who play once a week.

Or 135 guys who downloaded the game, played it a bit and forgot about it. I've seen a number of Outfits in PS2 with huge player counts but no more than 4 players on at a time. So I can see why PGI would want to try and solve that as in a 12v12 specific setting... 4 aint going to cut it.

Unless you did the smart thing and let that 4 simply drop with basic house drops that are short players. Either way I don't see needing a premium account to be a very good answer. Being F2P people are likely to just up an vanish for long periods of time making units feel like ghost towns yes, but forcing them to pay to play that way? PS2 has tons of ghost outfits, but it also on every server has several per faction that are big and always have a presence and obviously they get far more done than any of those outfits with 2 people on.

If they want money they want money, but it seems like smaller merc units would have a place if it were done right and just charging to play a specific way doesn't seem to me like it would keep those units more active. I'm playing with friends several nights a week without having to pay to want to do it.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 29 March 2013 - 03:04 PM, said:

roflmao; I got bored

ha, looks like me banking on the idea that bt/mw players would know benedict arnold by looking at him paid off.

[Protection]

Stimbles, on 29 March 2013 - 03:15 PM, said:

Requiring premium time to join a Merc Corp is a bad idea and whoever thought it up should feel bad.

I'll buy your Hero 'mechs, mechbays, camo's and whatnot, but I'm not going to buy the ability to play with my friends at the exclusion of those who don't have premium time.

Exactly.

Our corp, like many others, is hundreds of players deep. We enjoy playing with one another, and a major part of our enjoyment of the game is being able to play with those people.

With free access, some of us will pay. You will make some money.

Taking away free player access, you will not get the free players to pay you. You will give the paying players incentive to leave for a better game and you will make no money.

[Devil Fox]

Prosperity Park, on 29 March 2013 - 03:05 PM, said:

Anyways, I can understand trying to limit the Mercenary Players to those who are "dedicated" because Mercs have to be able to field teams whenever SOMEBODY ELSE gets a contract to try and take your land. It's a point where your Unit has to be on-call 24/7 to drop response teams (with some sort of advance notice, of course) and that just won't happen with a Company of 4 guys who play once a week.

That's your assumption on how CW will work... if they do it like WoT, which this seems to be going, then there will be windows of opportunity in each time zone (since their already region splitting the community via regional servers) so that Merc unit's can field Companies in defense of their planets. However there is still no details on CW, like how big Merc Unit's are actually allowed to be? How will the contract bidding system work? What times are planets are up for the offering?

What I want is a comprehensive list of the community warfare systems (eg lobby system) that are being implemented in the coming months. I've heard Bryan on NGNG quickly rattle off a list, they briefly mentioned tid-bits in their latest press release... but not one serious dev post on the features that they are implementing, because they are all the fundamental steps to CW. No communication is one of the hidden elephants on these forums... and as you read earlier, someone's been feeding it peanuts making it a sick thing...

[RiceyFighter]

Hylius, on 29 March 2013 - 03:11 PM, said:

You want dedication, PGI? I've spent over a year making a corp. I, and many others, have paid our dues elsewhere: VoIP servers (especially with lack of in-game options), websites, forums, teaching our members how to play (because you can't be bothered to), participating in our own player-run competitions and tournaments (since you're taking your sweet ol' time), making connections... I could go on. You want dedicated? How about sticking with you through all this crap you constantly throw at us as you seem to be doing your darnedest to destroy this game from the inside. I've defended you constantly, but I'll tell you right now: you want me to pay for premium to run and participate in a merc corp, you can forget it.

Same with our clan. We have to pay for our own VOIP, setting up a program for new members, encouraging players to buy hero mechs and premium color that fits our requirements, and encourage play game.

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Fenix0742, on 29 March 2013 - 03:18 PM, said:

Yeah, but Bryan is in Vegas, and he probably didn't tell Support that he was dropping this particular bomb on the press today. Being in Vegas, he probably doesn't care too much at the moment.

Just...lol...

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Fenix0742, on 29 March 2013 - 03:18 PM, said:

Yeah, but Bryan is in Vegas, and he probably didn't tell Support that he was dropping this particular bomb on the press today. Being in Vegas, he probably doesn't care too much at the moment.

let the founder's money ride on 32 black

[anonymous175]

Prosperity Park, on 29 March 2013 - 02:55 PM, said:

You can become part of House Units with your friends for free, but you won't get the feature of choosing your fights. We'll see how this pans out and what kinds of fluidity/flexibility they give us in terms of personalizing our House Affiliations and what grouping options are being granted to Lone Wolves.

Just throwing this out there, but a common back-up plan might wind up being to just Merge your [current] Merc Corp into a House and work as a House Unit if they do, indeed, require Premium Accounts for Mercenaries.

Once again, Suppprt got back to me and said they are aware of this thread and the commotion it's causing, the holiday weekend means they're not all together, but they will do something... that's all I got.

Monetizing a community function just seems like they're not trying hard enough.

You'd expect them to offer up the best parts of this game for free so they can catch all of the general public to increase their chances of paying for the content.

[Protection]

Roadbeer, on 29 March 2013 - 03:17 PM, said:

+100

Hell, i'm a "House" Guy and I'm pissed for you all...


First they came for the Table Top players,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Table Top Player.

Then they came for the Boaters,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Boater.

Then they came for the Merc Units,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Merc Unit.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

Don't compare PGI to N-A-Z-I Germany.

The N-A-Z-I's didn't charge the Jews microtransactions.

[Executioneer]

I'm fine with an initial setup fee for merc corps. Hell, make there be different levels of setup so that each level allows a corp to have more members or something- gotta pay for bigger dropships somehow, right? I might even be okay with requiring *the corp* to pay a monthly fee of some sort. But forcing existing, currently "unofficial" corps to lose large numbers of their members because those members can't pay for a monthly $10 subscription is both greedy and stupid. If it comes down to that I'm definitely not spending any more damned money on this game(before I read this, I was all set to purchase the hero Highlander when it came out). What's more, I will spend a good deal of time warning people away from it.

Please don't, guys. For your own sake.

[Slab Squathrust]

KuruptU4Fun, on 29 March 2013 - 02:17 PM, said:

Think of the "subscription" as Union dues, get a lot for a little extra money a month.

Dang, I live in a right to work state... No merc corp for me.

Why don't they just put some limit on it, like you need 8 players to form a merc corp. To form it you must all be on simultaneously to prevent sock puppet accounts. If the corp as a whole goes inactive for a set period of time it is deleted. Instead of limiting it to those already running premium time, this opens it up to more people. As more people play more often, they are likely to see increased purchases of MC products. By limiting it to a select few they are essentially shifting the burden to those on premium time. As they get fed up and move on because of the continued cost, or not being able to play with certain friends fewer will be left to replace the lost income, necessitating higher rates. This will force more players out as the price becomes inelastic. It will lead to some giant feedback clusterf****.

[Felicitatem Parco]

It would be a good time to remind everyone that, even if they charge for being in a merc corp, that media article said you can still join house units for free, and you can play with your friends in house fights. I'm not defending anyone here, it's just important to differentiate between "no way to play with friends for free" and "fewer ways to play with your friends for free"

We still have to see how this pans out, and hopefully they can get an official word out soon. They told me in our super-secret premium moderator forum that they are aware of the community response, and will come up with something to say about it when the right people can give the right go-aheads.

(DHL ain't got nothing on me.)

I hope nobody thinks I'm automatically on-board with the game staff on this...

Edited by Prosperity Park, 29 March 2013 - 03:27 PM.

[Zylo]

Tyzh, on 29 March 2013 - 03:01 PM, said:

Wow. Just when I was about to consider putting some more money into the game to pick up the new Rhonda Snord mech when it comes out... they have to pull this kind of **** and make me regret buying Founders all over again.

Seriously, hiding it in game isn't enough. Can I hide it on the forums, too? I'm ashamed I purchased it.

Well look at it this way Tyzh, now you can find another game you like that has a dev team that isn't trying to kill their game and give them money instead. That's what I plan to do although I will still be playing MWO, I just won't be paying to play in CW.

[Lorcan Lladd]

Hope is born in gold,
To come down burning.
And it thus ends...

[Evinthal]

Okay so I think people are missing something: According to the article there seems to be three levels of play

Level 1 - Lone Wolf: no benefits, no CW, this in essence is how PUG dropping in MW:O is right now. no need to pay anything to pay though

Level 2 - House Affiliation: This is what it sounds like, you are affiliated with one of the major powers in the Inner Sphere. You get limited CW as the house territories are relatively stable and remain about the same due to "lore armor". You get some benefits from being in a faction as well as territory control.

Level 3 - Merc Corp: At this level you get all the CW benefits, but you have to pay what is basically a subscription fee.

I personally do not like the idea of having to have a premium time account in order to join a merc corp. I find it an unnecessary burden on the player, and I find the one time set up fee for the merc corp more than enough.

With that being said though I think a better approach to it would be a Set up fee + a recurring maintenance fee (monthly/yearly ect.) to keep the merc corp active. This allows for a couple of things: It opens up the recruitment potential for merc corps vastly, as now they do not require a person to have a premium time account in order to join, and it also allows for the merc corp to set up something like a pay pal account for their members to donate to if they want to in order to reduce the financial burden on the merc corp leaders.

Really PGI, look this over and take everything here into consideration. I'm going to grill you about it at PAX if I get the chance. D:

[BlackBeltJones]

Prosperity Park, on 29 March 2013 - 03:05 PM, said:

THIS is some good ol' Community Warfare, right here. I'll be on tonight, around 9-11 PM PST... come find me (before I find you... muwahahaha)




Anyways, I can understand trying to limit the Mercenary Players to those who are "dedicated" because Mercs have to be able to field teams whenever SOMEBODY ELSE gets a contract to try and take your land. It's a point where your Unit has to be on-call 24/7 to drop response teams (with some sort of advance notice, of course) and that just won't happen with a Company of 4 guys who play once a week.

Alas, I have never participated in playing a F2P game. I am used to the drop-$60_and-play kind of games. If running premium all the time costs $120 a year, that's like buying an Xbox game every 6 months. I have no idea how that stacks against other FTP games with guilds and whatnot.

Rationalizations and reasons may do well to calm hurt butts but presently we are collectively reeling from the pain of hearing something we have expected, something PGI advertised, and something many of us purchased MC or Founders to support will not be that thing we were marketed. Being told that elements of the upcoming game may be "Pay to Play" , whether for a good reason or not, is vastly different from the marketing and enticements we've been sold up to this point. Even if this plan fleshes out into something less painful the announcement and silent refrain from PGI makes me regret every penny I have spent thus far.

[anonymous175]

Prosperity Park, on 29 March 2013 - 03:24 PM, said:

It would be a good time to remind everyone that, even if they charge for being in a merc corp, that media article said you can still join house units for free, and you can play with your friends in house fights. I'm not defending anyone here, it's just important to differentiate between "no way to play with friends for free" and "fewer ways to play with your friends for free"

We still have to see how this pans out, and hopefully they can get an official word out soon. They told me in our super-secret premium moderator forum that they are aware of the community response, and will come up with something to say about it when the right people can give the right go-aheads.

(DHL ain't got nothing on me.)

And I can't wait for them to finally make proper use of

"Well that was our position at the time" and squash this freedom-hating terrorist idea.

********* 'Murica.

[BlueSanta]

Yeah, there should be NO requirement to have a premium time account for any reason.

It's unfortunate we have to learn information about this game on third-party websites, instead of here. You'd think they'd want to address their own core community first. Guess not, but honestly, I'm not surprised by much at this point. :/