102 replies to this topic

[Odanan]

If I owned PGI (or bought it right now), these are the changes I would do immediately:

- Fix ECM: ECMs would only make the affected mechs slightly harder to target/lock-on - that's it. This way, they would still be helpful to a team, but optional and worth no more than its only 1.5 tons. The "Counter ECM feature" would be assigned to other equipment, like Beagle or Command Console, because it is badly wrong to put in ECM's alone all the weight of the Electronic Warfare (or to make ECM the only real ECM's counter).
- Fix Ammo: ammo per ton would be the double of the TT values, making stock variants viable. PGI doubled the armor so it is (only) logical to double the ammo, not just increase an arbitrary number for each weapon.
- Fix Heat Sinks: heat sinks inside the engine should always be single. That's something TT should have done, if they were worried about balance. Double Heat Sinks would dissipate real 2x heat but with the drawback of taking more critical space. That way, Double Heat Sinks would be optional and stock, low-tech variants are more competitive. I would increase the current overall amount of heat dissipated per second too, so the stock variants with DHS wouldn't be too harmed.
- Fix Useless Equipment: Give Machineguns and Flamers a slight damage buff, give NARC a real usefulness, make Beagle worthy, make Ferro Fibrous as good as Endo Steel.
- Fix Variants: there are some timeline-wise variants that never made into the game: release them all. Hunchback HBK-4N, Atlas AS7-S, Commando COM-1C, Dragon DRG-1G, should all be in the game. The Centurion CN9-AH should come back. At the same time, rework some variants and chassis, making them all equally good - this could be made by adding extra modules or hardpoints to poor variants.
- Handle Clans with Care: Clan tech can't be mixed with IS one or the balance is destroyed. So, no Clanners and IS mechs in the same teams. Clan players can't fight in equal terms against IS ones - they should fight something like 16 IS mechs (4 lances) VS 10 Clan mechs (2 stars).
- Earn PGI Healthy Money: make a Clan Founders program - allowing players to have early access to the Clan "Beta" (only Clan vs Clan battles and limited number of mechs).
- Fix Relationship with the Community: release the existing concept arts, sketches, orthos, WIP screenshots, everything! Post complete patch notes, comprehensive "upcoming content" (Creative Director), explanations about how the Community Warfare and Clans will work, etc.

EDIT:
- Fix Streaks: You don't need to make a Jesus Box of the ECM to balance Streaks. Just make them more skill demanding. Simple things like making them only firing when the target is exactly in the "crosshair". That would be even a more accurate interpretation of the TT rules.

Finally, I'm not saying I have the money to buy PGI. Or I would do a better job that the current owners/managers. Or that I have in this list the solutions of all the MWO's problems.

This is just a list of features in MWO that really worry me and what I think should be fixed to make the game better. If I had the power of decision making, I would give them a lot of attention.

Surely, the game has bugs, needs a better performance, etc. But these are technical issues that can't be solved by a "snap of fingers". And surely, PGI is (and must be) already working on them.

Edited by Odanan, 17 April 2013 - 11:02 AM.

[Sephlock]

Nope, all DHS should be true 2.0 heatsinks, mythical jenners notwithstanding.

[Agent of Change]

...it would fail because you don't have the experience or proper training to run a business?

[Chavette]

I'd stop playing in that second.

[Koreanese]

Lol still begging for 2.0 Dhs? Funny

[LinkIcefang]

It's a simple matter to say you would do x and y better than PGI, but let's be realistic. You have no idea of what their situation is or what their longterm goals are.

Besides... Even if you did all that you planned, folks would still find something to QQ about.

[Ens]

Odanan, on 17 April 2013 - 09:14 AM, said:

- Earn PGI Healthy Money: make a Clan Founders program - allowing players to have early access to the Clan "Beta" (only Clan vs Clan battles and limited number of mechs).
- Fix Relationship with the Community: release the existing concept arts, sketches, orthos, WIP screenshots, everything! Post complete patch notes, comprehensive "upcoming content" (Creative Director), explanations about how the Community Warfare and Clans will work, etc.

+1

[Viper69]

We all have dreams my friend.

Edited by Viper69, 17 April 2013 - 09:19 AM.

[Roadbeer]

A lot of that was covered here
http://mwomercs.com/...about%E2%80%A6/

[Zerberus]

Do you already own another company like Activision /Blizzard or EA, and would you be pulling dozens of coders and testers off of other projects?

Becasue otherwise I don`t see the manpower to do this AND continue game development effectively for the next 6-12 months.

I mean no disrespect, I agree with the general principle of what you`re saying. But I`ve seen games from larger houses with 3 years dev time under their belt have bigger problems than we do withour small team and 1,5 years.... If you could see how how some Blizzard games were in closed beta (and blizzard has a pretty good reputation for balancing), you would probably be positively surprised at how far MWO has come on about a third of the resources in a similar timeframe.

That`s something many forget, when a company like Activision/Blizzard releases the next WoW addon or CoD version, they`ve already been coding the next one with a few dozen people for about a year. Yet they expect a startup team of 50-100 people to be able to do the same work in the same time as a team of 500 with the massive financial backing of an industy monolith. Reality just doesn`t work that way

Edited by Zerberus, 17 April 2013 - 09:29 AM.

[Agent of Change]

Roadbeer, on 17 April 2013 - 09:20 AM, said:

A lot of that was covered here
http://mwomercs.com/...about%E2%80%A6/

This post brought to you by
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"We Post better than you"

[Adridos]

Odanan, on 17 April 2013 - 09:14 AM, said:

- Fix Relationship with the Community: release the existing concept arts, sketches, orthos, WIP screenshots, everything! Post complete patch notes, comprehensive "upcoming content" (Creative Director), explanations about how the Community Warfare and Clans will work, etc.

Odanan, we both know it was done and didn't work, sadly.

[Odanan]

Zerberus, on 17 April 2013 - 09:20 AM, said:

Do you already own another company like Activision /Blizzard or EA, and would you be pulling dozens of coders and testers off of other projects?

Becasue otherwise I don`t see the manpower to do this AND continue game development effectively for the next 6-12 months.

Most things I listed there won't need much time to implement.

[Splinters]

If the OP really believes this, setup a Kickstarter page and get enough money to buy MWO from IGP. If the community supports you, you will have the money in no-time.

My personal belief is that it is easy to criticize, but when requested to actually do something, most people shrink away. "Internet Courage" is alive and well but actual "Do-Something" people are getting rarer are rarer.

-S

[Aklor]

What I find humorous about this post is that he thinks PGI is being stubborn or conspiring against him because they will not do this and that. PGI knows what they are doing and they do not need to inform us of their every move.

About balance: You can tell someone to fix something or balance this til you're blue in the face. It doesn't mean just because you say so...it is space magically fixed.

IMO, take a long break from MWO, go find another company you can own and "make better", OR create your own super awesome company and show the rest of them that they are nooblets.

[Moriquendi86]

Zerberus, on 17 April 2013 - 09:20 AM, said:

Do you already own another company like Activision /Blizzard or EA, and would you be pulling dozens of coders and testers off of other projects?

Becasue otherwise I don`t see the manpower to do this AND continue game development effectively for the next 6-12 months.

No, can't you he would fix all that himself? Who needs coders or testers when one almost godly being can fix all that right away. He would probably fired most of the staff anyway and made clan mechs for tomorrow.

[Ravenspyre]

Odanan, on 17 April 2013 - 09:14 AM, said:

If I owned PGI (or bought it right now), these are the changes I would do immediately:

- Fix ECM: ECMs would only make the affected mechs slightly harder to target/lock-on - that's it. This way, they would still be helpful to a team, but optional and worth no more than its only 1.5 tons. The "Counter ECM feature" would be assigned to other equipment, like Beagle or Command Console, because it is badly wrong to put in ECM's alone all the weight of the Electronic Warfare (or to make ECM the only real ECM's counter).

I would actually do something like have ECM maybe ower missile damage some to represent the harder to lock on set for missiles. Andcertainly would not let ECMs stack like they currently do.

Quote

- Fix Ammo: ammo per ton would be the double of the TT values, making stock variants viable. PGI doubled the armor so it is (only) logical to double the ammo, not just increase an arbitrary number for each weapon.

You would have to actually fix weapon damage first before doing this. One of MWO's biggest problems, to me, is how fast mechs get destroyed right now, because of lack of damage variation. The armor is still too thin for how would actually play out if the game is going to continue to allow for pin-point accuracy like it does with the only variation from shot to shot being how twitchy the shooter is.

Quote

- Fix Heat Sinks: heat sinks inside the engine should always be single. That's something TT should have done, if they were worried about balance. Double Heat Sinks would dissipate real 2x heat but with the drawback of taking more critical space. That way, Double Heat Sinks would be optional and stock, low-tech variants are more competitive. I would increase the current overall amount of heat dissipated per second too, so the stock variants with DHS wouldn't be too harmed.

I would just make them 2x as they should be and be done with it. They take up 3 criticals and 1 ton each.

Quote

- Fix Useless Equipment: Give Machineguns and Flamers a slight damage buff, give NARC a real usefulness, make Beagle worthy, make Ferro Fibrous as good as Endo Steel.

Machineguns need to be buffed, they excuse of them being ballistic lasers is just that, an excuse. The fact that machine guns, unlike other weapons in the game, actual do not hit the same exact spot for each round as is, and considering their laughably short range, it's rather silly. As far as BAP goes, it should be the direct counter to ECM.

Quote

- Fix Variants: there are some timeline-wise variants that never made into the game: release them all. Hunchback HBK-4N, Atlas AS7-S, Commando COM-1C, Dragon DRG-1G, should all be in the game. The Centurion CN9-AH should come back. At the same time, rework some variants and chassis, making them all equally good - this could be made by adding extra modules or hardpoints to poor variants.

Considering some variants are go to variants as is, I would be leery of any new variant especially fi it is a more popular variant because it has the ideal hardpoints on it.

Quote

- Handle Clans with Care: Clan tech can't be mixed with IS one or the balance is destroyed. So, no Clanners and IS mechs in the same teams. Clan players can't fight in equal terms against IS ones - they should fight something like 16 IS mechs (4 lances) VS 10 Clan mechs (2 stars).

Your assumption is based on TT rules which are radically different from MWO. Since the games play radically different and if you actually sit down and do some calcs, you will find the clan mechs if they are converted as is are at best, on par with current battlemechs, or at a severe disadvantage. So people asking for clans to fight at a handicap seem to be making grievous errors.

Quote

- Earn PGI Healthy Money: make a Clan Founders program - allowing players to have early access to the Clan "Beta" (only Clan vs Clan battles and limited number of mechs).

And what would the point of this be?

Quote

- Fix Relationship with the Community: release the existing concept arts, sketches, orthos, WIP screenshots, everything! Post complete patch notes, comprehensive "upcoming content" (Creative Director), explanations about how the Community Warfare and Clans will work, etc.

I don't get this last one at all either.

[General Taskeen]

Roadbeer, on 17 April 2013 - 09:20 AM, said:

A lot of that was covered here
http://mwomercs.com/...about%E2%80%A6/

Nope. And that's why it's where it belongs: in the garbage.

Edited by General Taskeen, 17 April 2013 - 09:31 AM.

[Odanan]

Agent of Change, on 17 April 2013 - 09:15 AM, said:

...it would fail because you don't have the experience or proper training to run a business?

I run a 13 year old business in the most predatory business environment. I might not know how to run a game development company but what do you know to judge me?

[M0rpHeu5]

-I'd publish the game myself
-I'd put it on steam