1095 replies to this topic

[Gasman 1220]

Could I please have a 128ton jump-capable AS7. Pretty please.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Bryan Ekman, on 09 May 2013 - 12:40 PM, said:

aniviron, on 08 May 2013 - 05:40 PM, said:

While I really, really like smurfy's website, I very much hope that there will be a place in UI 2.0's mechlab where we can create loadouts for mechs we don't own with gear we don't have the money for, just to see if they work.

You can do this already, minus taking it for a test spin (something we're keen to allow in testing grounds).

Well, I believe at this time you cannot place an engine or a weapon on your Mech if you lack sufficient C-Bills to purchase the item; attempting to drag-and-drop an engine you cannot afford results in an error message (Not Enough C-Bills) and the engine will not mount, even for investigatory purposes.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 09 May 2013 - 12:49 PM.

[InMidnightClad]

Bryan, Now that you're back and poking around in this thread would you mind taking a moment to address the concern about Hiding Social features behind a keyboard shortcut (For the Steam Overlay) instead of a dedicated button? It's popped up a few time and people (Myself included) are a little anxious to see the social aspect of this game trivialized.

Edited by InMidnightClad, 09 May 2013 - 01:19 PM.

[80Bit]

What is the "G" currency in the latest shot?

[Bryan Ekman]

InMidnightClad, on 09 May 2013 - 01:16 PM, said:

Bryan, Now that you're back and poking around in this thread would you mind taking a moment to address the concern about Hiding Social features behind a keyboard shortcut (For the Steam Overlay) instead of a dedicated button? It's popped up a few time and people (Myself included) are a little anxious to see the social aspect of this game trivialized.

I don't think removing a button trivializes the social aspect. In both cases - button or text, players always know how to get to social features. Based on some of the other feedback - having chat always on screen etc. We're still looking at ways to improve this and make sure we give players enough tools to quickly connect with friends and other players.

As for grouping and faction/merc corp/group chat and launch features, stay tuned for a WIP shot. We've changed a bunch of things related to launching the game that should address player concerns/suggestions as well.

Gasman 1220, on 09 May 2013 - 12:45 PM, said:

Could I please have a 128ton jump-capable AS7. Pretty please.

Will you settle for a 105 ton Atas? Golden?

[Vassago Rain]

Bryan Ekman, on 09 May 2013 - 02:20 PM, said:

Will you settle for a 105 ton Atas? Golden?

Yes, but it's important it has rubies for eyes.

[Chavette]

My observation: The "Loadouts" button would play very, very nice with the also planned pre-game map voting, and variant selecting screen.

For example you could have a loadout with the same mech but ER weapons, and just grab it if you're going on a bigger map.

This would lessen the need for buying more of the same variants, but you could counter this effect by not being able to change anything on the upgrades tab by changing loadouts, making the loadouts button a true loadout button, instead of a "use more variants at the cost of one mech bay" button.

Edited by Chavette, 09 May 2013 - 02:29 PM.

[Orzorn]

Excellent work so far, and I'd like it stress what others said. Give us information; as much as you can. To not confuse people, it can be carefully placed under a button or "advanced" tab or something, or perhaps in a box underneath the relevant item/mech. Regardless, let us see as much as possible about the weapon. Burn time, recycle time, DPS, HPS, etc.

Possible damage graphs of combined systems, as in Smurfy, would be absolutely excellent. The more legwork the UI does the less stressed your new players will be and the better the general play environment will become.

Thanks for listening.

Edit: Can we also get a stats read-out for our mech variants in the game? Its pretty tedious having to log on here to see those stats when I'd rather have access to them in-game.

Edited by Orzorn, 09 May 2013 - 02:30 PM.

[Sprouticus]

Two suggestions

1) Let us drag and drop mechs around in the listing. Being able to reored our favorite mechs for quick selection is important IMO

2) I didn't see an armor mock up screen, but for the love of all that is good PLEASe give us a button to zero out and maximize armor.

As for the rest, I am not a huge fan of the setup as seen, but then again making ANY UI for MW work well will be tough. There is a lot of info to put onto the screen.

[Kageru Ikazuchi]

Regarding mech configuration and testing loads before you purchase them ... Because of the community tools (like smurfy-net), I know exactly how much I need to save (grind) to not only purchase my next mech, but how much it will cost to refit and upgrade it to the specs I want ... we should be able to do this in game.

The current system does not allow equipping gear you don't already own or cannot afford (no chance to see what your "perfect" mech might look like, once you have the C-Bills), or seeing if the benefit from upgrades (endo steel, ferro fibrous, etc.) is worth it without purchasing the upgrade (and if it doesn't work for your build, you're charged again to uninstall it).

I'm OK with it costing money to install and uninstall ES, FF, DHS, etc., but we need a "drawing board" to be able to tinker with designs before any purchase is made.

It would be ideal if we could do this with mechs we don't yet own.

A testing grounds simulator, where we could try out our "dream mechs" would be awesome. It would help the new players (especially those who haven't found smurfy-net and other community tools) have the incentive to play more ... defining the "light at the end of the tunnel" of the grind.

[Sprouticus]

Gierling, on 09 May 2013 - 07:50 AM, said:

Also, could you please consider the ability to save multiple loadouts of the same mech. So that I could have a selection for my Hunchback in its AC20 config in one box, and he same mech with an LBX10 is in another box with a different config. So I could just click on the loadout I want to take into battle and drop with it? If I drop in one loadout, It would gray out all of the loadouts which use that same mech as a "Base" as being in game. Also, if I sell a part of the loadout (making it unable to drop with it) that loadout would also be greyed out until I bought the proper parts again. Functionally something which allows us to keep a stack of parts on hand, and load them dynamically onto the mech by selecting the loadout instead of faddling in the mechbay between games.

THIS ^^^

The ability to export/import a load out to an XML config file we can share with friends would be awesome as well.


The way I imagine it is this:

• I have a mech configured with loadout 'LR sniper'
  
• I can right click the mech and and select saved loadout 'SR brawler'. (Another right click option would be to import or export a loadout. And maybe 'rename loadout'?. And also maybe 'strip mech', which would take all modules and equipment off the mech. You could put all of that in the vertical menu as well.)
  
• Once I select loadout B the UI would strip and load the mech equipment from my inventory and other mechs, unloading the equipment that was not in use in the process.
  
• If I did not have a piece of equipment in inventory or on another mech, it would add up all the pieces of equipment it needed to buy and give me a popup that says 'Completing this configuration will cost 1,400,000 C-Bills. Do you wish to complete this configuration? Y/N'
  
• When you click yes, it completes the reconfig.

NOTE: Pulling from other mechs is critical here, because noone is going to buy 10 XL300 engines and 10 of every module to use this feature. I suppose you could have an 'EMPTY' config for each mech, but just pulling from the mech might be easier.

You could even expand it to include cammo and colors, although that might be a bit much.


This setup would allow for VERY quick config swaps between games (if desired), and would make it MUCH less tedious to do mechlab work. I enjoy tweaking in the mechlab, but not to the extent where I am doing it every single match.

[100 Tonne]

Could there be a clearer demarcation when purchsing mechs for MC or CBills.
I must have been tired when I bought my stock highland for MC instead of spending some of my 700,000 cbills instead......
a expensive mistake

[InMidnightClad]

Bryan Ekman, on 09 May 2013 - 02:20 PM, said:

I don't think removing a button trivializes the social aspect. In both cases - button or text, players always know how to get to social features. Based on some of the other feedback - having chat always on screen etc. We're still looking at ways to improve this and make sure we give players enough tools to quickly connect with friends and other players.

As for grouping and faction/merc corp/group chat and launch features, stay tuned for a WIP shot. We've changed a bunch of things related to launching the game that should address player concerns/suggestions as well.

While I ultimately understand where you're coming from, people will find and use the social features no matter where they are. I feel like you would feel differently about the use of the word "Trivialized" if social was on a button and the Store was the only thing buried behind a Keyboard Shortcut. The Social menu is as important to us as the Store is important to you.

[ArcDemon]

An extremely minor piece of feedback, but I can't say that I'm a fan of the lighting bolt for energy weapons. As a symbol it feels more like something I'd see in WoW then in the gritty BattleTech universe - for that matter the missile icon looks a bit cartoony too. An alternative that would still be recognizable might be a deriviative of the universal laser safety symbol - a line with one end exploding into many lines.

[jakucha]

ArcDemon, on 09 May 2013 - 06:03 PM, said:

An extremely minor piece of feedback, but I can't say that I'm a fan of the lighting bolt for energy weapons. As a symbol it feels more like something I'd see in WoW then in the gritty BattleTech universe - for that matter the missile icon looks a bit cartoony too. An alternative that would still be recognizable might be a deriviative of the universal laser safety symbol - a line with one end exploding into many lines.

Those are just concept screen shots so I think it's safe to assume it will look more battletech-y than that, but I agree with you.

[xengk]

Thontor, on 09 May 2013 - 05:35 AM, said:

Something I found out recently... You can easily scroll through the current mech list by dragging it. Click and hold the mouse button down on a mech in the list and drag it left or right. This video revealed this to me:

Spoiler

[Bors Mistral]

Quote

Supports standard game resolutions 1024x768 to 1920x1200.

Damnation, what about us MechWarriors with lostech 2560x1440 screens?

------
On the new UI design - not completely sold...

It looks a bit too much like a website (that's coming from a web-designer...), and I don't think that the best feel for the game.

Layout-wise, my main critique is the split of the navigation into a top and a side panel. I find the current two-rows-on-top arrangement offers better usability and is a more efficient use of space.

Overall though, the mockup is an improvement.

[Zordicron]

Just one minor thing, might have been listed already-

For the weapon grouping in mechlab(and in game but I do not know if that is within the scope of this) please denote left and right arms. I have several loadouts where I group similar weapons groups in an arm, so I can use cover to shoot around. For instance, a LL and ML in each arm, I would put left arm trigger 1, right arm 2, so i can stick my right arm out and stay partially covered to shoot.

As it is, "arms" and "torso" is useful, but makes it a trial and error to get the arm weapons sorted. A small gap in the display or "lines" and a short left or right label at the end would suffice.

[Rigger]

Oh.. can we please have this now? Dont wave treats under our noses and make us wait months, or days, hours, to get them!

[ShaggyMoose]

It looks like a huge step in the right direction. Looking forward to getting my hands on it.