3 replies to this topic

[FFK ClouD]

I played mech3 competitively and traveled back to 1999-2002 just so I could ask my younger self what makes MWO's gameplay suspect. I'll cover just a few things here then get onto more rants/detail later.


First, this games' core movement/aiming/loadout mechanics are way off compared to mech2/3 and that will never be allowed to change. As far as the loadout goes we would have been fine with ZERO hardpoint restrictions as long as bidding was built into the game. I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure that our old mech2/3 leagues had bidding long before picks/bans were "a thing" in MOBA's. Which is basically what bidding is anyway.


You bad at fighting against certain weapons/mechs/maps/map features/equipment? Bid something else. This would also kind of help the balancing issues.

IMO, you can more often lose due to something you ARE (a certain mech or loadout) not something you are GOOD at...the excuse for this is that it's a team based game, but for this awesome teamplay experience you are better off playing your preferred game over MWO.

Further, the teamplay argument fails the sniff test because EVERY game is a team-based game. Your only semi-popular 1v1 PC experience right now is SC2 or various collectible/trading card games. My point is that just the teamplay thing can't (and doesn't) carry MWO...simply because for every MWO there are 50 games that will do teamplay better.


I'm a big believer in the person(s) vs person(s) aspect of online games...this doesn't work when "Im this mech I win you." For example: In TF2 the class and loadout mis-matches have a chance if you are good enough at performing something specific. This doesn't seem to work well in MWO with a low(ish) mastery ceiling and the fact that you will be instantly punished for "something you are," because loadout wise you could be in a bad situation and movement wise you are locked down compared to the options you had in Mech3.

MWO highpoints compared to mech3: The graphics are much better and the map design is much better. Often times in mech3 the levels played online were very bland and very flat with only a few buildings or mountain/ridges/hills to break up the horizon. The only exception to this was the map Dugan City which had a lot of buildings and even a ridge :c)

IMO Mechwarrior was "supposed" to mean the video game translation of this universe. Online means person vs person but from what I can tell there is not enough depth of "Video Gamey" mechanics to allow an individual person beat another person just based on something they are good at or have mastered. I didn't even compare the movement/aiming mechanics but now the post is dragging on. Competitively -in terms of person(s) vs person(s): I kind of hate this thing as much as I hated Mech4.

And I do care about this franchise I just care about it in a different way compared to lore/universe guys.

Edited by FFK ClouD, 24 August 2013 - 09:31 PM.

[Peiper]

FFK Cloud. I wonder how many people understand what you mean by bidding. Could you explain? I haven't played an electronic battletech game competitively since the Battletech Center in Chicago! The only bidding I know of is in the lore: the Clan Batchall.

[Majorfatboy]

I think He means both teams getting together and agreeing on what everyone can use in this match.
Kind of like hot rodders at a drag strip. One guy shows up with ten grand worth of automobile, the only other guy to show up has forty grand worth of car.... And will win easily, no competition. But both drivers came here to race, so guy 2 agrees to pull his nitrous bottle, and give guy one a two car-length head start. Both parties get to have a fair race, and everyone's happy.

In this case, I can see both teams making terms like "Okay, don't stack four CLRM 20s on every mech, only x amount of ER med lasers per team, Total tonnage between teams need to be similar, Etc.

I think this is what He means.

[FFK ClouD]

Bidding was taking turns deciding what game modes, weapon loadouts, map, map features....maybe a few other things I don't remember. The player or team with the worst win/loss record would usually get to "pick" first from this list of 5-6 things.

Most players that got a chance to pick 1st usually picked the mech loadout because that's obviously really important. Some preferred to pick map first but it was kind of rare.

I remember most of the loadouts you could bid for your match:

c0=stock mechs ONLY
c1=laser weapons ONLY
c2=dont remember
c3=dont remember
c4=Energy and Missile weapons only (I THINK)
c5=Ballistic weapons ONLY
c6=ALL weapons allowed
c7=Missile weapons ONLY

C2 and c3 (the ones I don't remember) were some combination of 2 weapon types I just don't recall where those fit. The c0 mode or "stock only" was not allowed unless you specifically signed up for a tournament/league/ladder that was made for that.

Most teams only played vanilla c5 or c1...but you would occasionally see the other game modes. There were no hardpoint restrictions so you could boat...but you would be going up against other boats anyway and the difference between the pilots could more often times BE the pilot with better movement/aim...and IMO mech3 allowed you to express skilled movement compared to MWO. Just like in Moba's with their picks and bans...you would try to play opponents on maps you thought they were bad at or on mech loadouts you knew you were good at etc.

I don't think this would translate to today's MWO but it shows a direction the game could have gone. An FPS or mech game with picks/bans/etc could do a lot to push things forward. C6 (all weapons) wasn't actually that popular because the best mechs were boats anyway. The reason people didn't just ALWAYS pick c6 is because if you picked c1 or c5 for example...at least you knew what kind of boats to expect. C6 felt like rock paper scissors to most players and feels a bit like that in MWO.

Edited by FFK ClouD, 28 August 2013 - 04:24 AM.