28 replies to this topic

[Bacster]

Hello guys, I'm coming of Hawken (because it is nearly stagnant) and wonder if MWO is in better condition for development and population growth. Could someone answer me?

Edited by Bacster, 01 June 2013 - 04:16 AM.

[Midgie]

Welcome to MechWarrior Online. Just a little heads up. The forums here can be toxic and are full of people who say that the game is utter crap. All these people never seem to leave though. I can't speak much to the number of people playing the game since PGI doesn't release numbers, but it seems to be at least solid.

[Xeno Phalcon]

Hmm its pretty big far as im aware PGI wont tell us the playerbase but I dont have issues finding a game while pugging and I rarely see people iv fought before. MWO is a mix of battletech/mechwarrior fans and flavor of the month players, we are experiencing some balance issues right now for some weapons (missiles too weak for example) but overall its comming along nicely.

[Darwins Dog]

From the perspective of my merc corp, we are steadily growing. There are also a fair number of new players in a lot of games that I'm in, so that would indicate a steady influx as well.

[vash021]

well this game would actually feel like you are piloting a 80 ton machine in hawken everyone was moving fast for a gigantic robot
and here you can destroy a certain part of a mech each part has it own health unlike in hawken where you had an overall health bar on top

[Sam Slade]

I was an Alpha tester for Hawken at the same time as I was testing MWO: to put it simply this is light years ahead.

Hawken has been turned into TF2 with robot skins; rich Uncle Pennybags from LoL threw a bit of cash at them and then put the thumb screws down and said "yey, make it rain money or fail and ruin your name, I care not".

The way Hawken has been handled is pretty much exactly the opposite of here; so no 'agh we can't balance so we'll make all weapons identical and add healers' or any of that guff. It's a longer haul here but already the difference is quite obvious; winning a close game in MWO can still cause involuntary fist-pumps... Hawken... well it's not what it should have been.

Short answer; of the two this is a superior product and feels more rewarding.

[Hayashi]

Can't tell if it's actually growing or not since there aren't any 'Players Online' counters, but there's quite a few pilots.

[Redshift2k5]

I suggest you ask about player growth in the next weekly Ask the Devs column, that is a very good question!

In terms of development, though, I think we are doing very well. New mechs monthly. New maps every other month. New modules, weapon tuning & balancing. Weapon hit registration lag compensation. Connectivity imporvements. New paint and new hero mechs (the Firebrand is a sexy beast!)

There is also a sale nearly every week, and at least one community challenge every month. Most of the challenges have been 'leaderboards' (score the best in a given timeframe) but the most recent one was 'collect 25 wins during a given timeframe' which was much easier for a large volume of players to win than a leaderboard.

There is also great stuff coming very soon! A whole new UI is coming with new menu options and ease of use, 12 vs 12 is coming, and even the first phase of Community Warfare is just around the corner.

Edited by Redshift2k5, 01 June 2013 - 06:18 AM.

[Bacster]

Sam Slade, on 01 June 2013 - 05:44 AM, said:

I was an Alpha tester for Hawken at the same time as I was testing MWO: to put it simply this is light years ahead.

Hawken has been turned into TF2 with robot skins; rich Uncle Pennybags from LoL threw a bit of cash at them and then put the thumb screws down and said "yey, make it rain money or fail and ruin your name, I care not".

The way Hawken has been handled is pretty much exactly the opposite of here; so no 'agh we can't balance so we'll make all weapons identical and add healers' or any of that guff. It's a longer haul here but already the difference is quite obvious; winning a close game in MWO can still cause involuntary fist-pumps... Hawken... well it's not what it should have been.

Short answer; of the two this is a superior product and feels more rewarding.

I also noticed that the open beta of Hawken is much worse than the game that appears in older videos with "work in progress". The game really lost focus and many players.

[Koniving]

Bacster, on 01 June 2013 - 04:15 AM, said:

Hello guys, I'm coming of Hawken (because it is nearly stagnant) and wonder if MWO is in better condition for development and population growth. Could someone answer me?

Welcome aboard! Production hasn't had the luxury of time that Hawken has, MWO has been announced shortly after development started in January 2012 in terms of actual stuff related to the game engine. Hawken started in 2006 and encountered many reiterations before becoming what it is. However while the flare of destructible environments hasn't yet reached MWO, there's a lot here that you will never find in Hawken.

For example, a real cockpit. Turn off Armlock in the options. Hop into any mech. Try to look to the left or right rapidly by quickly moving the mouse in a direction. That alone is one of the many things that Hawken lacks. Alternatively at any time, press Left CTRL, and then move your mouse around. Try pressing buttons while looking around such as P (press it again though to turn back on), W / S, and if you're looking at your right hand, wiggle your mouse a bit.

You can see plenty of examples of both combat, some humor, and what I mentioned above in some of the latest vids I posted in trial (default) Atlases. There's also plenty of other vids included for additional trials and customized rigs to give you a sort of well-rounded sampler.

Spoiler

Warning, language; bad humor.
Trial rigs

Atlas RS

Atlas K

Trial Jagermech JM6-A.

Trial hunchback 4H gets 691 damage, several kills.

Trial BlackJack



--------------
Customized rigs
Fast attack mech; Spider chases its greatest predator (the Raven 3-L) for nearly 6 minutes in insanely high speed combat.
(Epic music was just playing on my winamp.)
This is an amazing thing to watch -- we chase each other through each of our entire teams multiple times, run off to the obscure corners of the map, just hunting each other for the kill.


Jager DD - customized. Fire support role (rapid fire sniper, if you will).


An attempt to save a teammate -- teamwork.


Legendary flamer stalker


Customized Atlas.

A list of content that's coming is here.
http://mwomercs.com/...updated-may-31/

And for awesome screenshots despite our medium graphics only limit (high and very high can be set, but most of the functionality, texture quality, etc. is not yet available since high end optimizations haven't started yet), check out this thread where I star as many of the mech models!

The main "game" has yet to arrive, which is a universe of faction-based warfare with territorial lines and the like.

If you are completely new to anything Battletech-lore related, check out this thread which has lots of valuable information (in video form) when it comes to the factions and the upcoming big event; the invasion of the self-outcasted descendents of Kerensky, the Clans. (Speaking of which, guilds are called Mercenary Corporations, coalitions, etc. Anything but 'clan'.)

Hope you enjoy your stay! Oh, much like in Hawken, default rigs are death traps; soon as you can check out suggestions for starting mech purchases (I recommend the Hunchback 4SP, but many also recommend the Centurion line). Good luck! Ask any questions you need here.

Edited by Koniving, 01 June 2013 - 08:17 AM.

[Koniving]

Bacster, on 01 June 2013 - 06:59 AM, said:

I also noticed that the open beta of Hawken is much worse than the game that appears in older videos with "work in progress". The game really lost focus and many players.

While I haven't been a fan of Hawken's easy to develop nature (hacks are possible in Hawken where in MWO there's only two hacks and a plethora of complaints about being banned within a few hours of using them -- what can I say, I keep apprised), lack of an actual explorable cockpit, etc. I think it's current iteration is better than its alpha stage for the PC, where the ever so cleverly concealed "Crouch" option allowed your mech to sink completely inside the map, and sniper rifles were one-shot kills even to the barrel of the enemy ...whatever they are in Hawken.

It's come a fair bit, but it's still essentially Call of Duty in robots that behave more like Armored Core or Gundams than some of us would like. For example in Front Mission 4, I loved that style. Then in FM 5, they went back to the classic original style (which was done because animations on a super nintendo were costly), so they skate around in this super...lame..way. I like my machines to stomp. "Rawr, I'm heavy. Stomp, stomp, stomp." Not: "ooo I'm an ice skating princess! Weeeee!"

[Thorqemada]

Personal experince is that i have no trouble finding matches, see many new pilots.
MWO has peaked at 135 recently on Xfire, may go to steam and the best of the game has yet to come so my guess is there is and will be a growth.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Back in Closed Beta they had a player counter on the bottom the the game's menu that showed you how many players were online at the time. Back then, it was hundreds -> thousands of players online at a time. Now in Open Beta, the developers say it ranges from Thousands -> 10's of thousands at a time. That's a good sign of growth.

There are content patches every 2 weeks, here, and they are releasing new Mechs to use every month.

There are some people who try to judge the game's Player Base strength based on how much posting activity takes place on the Forums, however this isn't a good metric to measure the number of people Online and playing the game. There have been some forum changes lately that have affected the quantity of posts some people have been making, and the Developers have stated that the majority of registered players don't actually post anyhitng on the forums.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 01 June 2013 - 07:37 AM.

[Wildstreak]

Midgie, on 01 June 2013 - 04:20 AM, said:

Welcome to MechWarrior Online. Just a little heads up. The forums here can be toxic and are full of people who say that the game is utter crap. All these people never seem to leave though. I can't speak much to the number of people playing the game since PGI doesn't release numbers, but it seems to be at least solid.

People complaining but never leaving, that's called tough love. They love something about it else they would not complain but still play. Yes I am one of those.
Number of people, sign up for a tournament then check your rank before playing. Last time I did that I think was Assault vs. the World, I was listed as #25000 and that was only a few hours after it started. Don't know why PGI reported about 8100 played that tourney, maybe people signed up but got sidetracked.
I usually see at least 1 person put in chat, "I'm new," whenever I play.

Bacster, on 01 June 2013 - 06:59 AM, said:

I also noticed that the open beta of Hawken is much worse than the game that appears in older videos with "work in progress". The game really lost focus and many players.

Seems to happen to a lot of games today.

[Jack Lowe]

Again, a certain answer is impossible at this point. There used to be a screen that showed how many users were online at any given time but that was removed about 2 months ago. There was quite a bit of QQ in the form of fear mongering over that back then as I recall.

With that said it has been my experience that that one almost always finds a match regardless of the time of day now. This is apposed to the first of the year when there were certain time periods when you might have to try two or three times in order to find a match. There is also a greater diversity in the players you encounter each match. Although I will sometimes run into a player again in a match or two it is rare. It is even uncommon to run into the same player within the course of a couple hours at least the names I take note of. The number of new players seems to be growing, I determine this by observation mainly. It's not hard to pick out a player that is still uncomfortable with torso twisting, weapons groups and other basics.

Therefore using those observations alone I would have to conclude the game is indeed growing. It's development is also coming along very nicely as has been mentioned regardless of what the trolls in this forum would have us believe. Simply go thru the ask the devs answers posts and search the forum for upcoming content and features. There are up to date trackers for both. This should give you an idea of the direction in which the game is heading and if you believe it is going to be fun and interesting for you.

Welcome aboard hope you enjoy the experience.

Edited by Jack Lowe, 01 June 2013 - 07:53 AM.

[Koniving]

Added an additional link and some paragraphs in my first post, which lead to the history of Battletech (and thusly, Mechwarrior). The 3 videos on that thread are great for those who have absolutely no idea what's going, or for those who want to know more than what was given in past mechwarrior games. Lazy to scroll? Click here.

Edited by Koniving, 01 June 2013 - 08:25 AM.

[PapajIGC]

This is in a better state than Hawken, but that isn't saying much considering this game has been in beta for over a year. That's a continuous beta by the way...24/7/365...not one or two weekends a month for a widened length of time. The game is still littered with bad optimization (lol@CryEngine), hiccups in the global map rendering (specific areas kill FPS for up to a minute before returning to normal), and there has been minimal content release overall.

Yes, they have patches every two weeks, but one of them is to release a Hero 'Mech (MC only purchase aka real life money) and the other is for a new map (which suffers from the above issues with optimization) and a new camo pattern/color (again, MC only purchase). Weapons remain fairly unbalanced and generally fall under two categories, "useless" or "why the @$%! aren't you using them" and the general state of the four 'Mech classes is Lights are good (if they have ECM), Mediums are just wasted tonnage, Heavys can be potent, but are basically more fragile Assaults (very fragile if you want the firepower of said Assault), and Assaults are the end-all be-all of what you want to pilot. Why wouldn't I want to pilot something with 50+ damage strikes that takes ages to kill and can 'poptart' out from cover and blast things trying to flank or provide cover fire?

Oh, and the big kicker, they were supposed to initially follow a 1:1 timeline, but completely messed that up and have essentially delayed what was supposed to be the true launch of he game for months now because they had to spend time lessening the issues caused by the problems outlined in the first paragraph.

Edited by PapajIGC, 01 June 2013 - 09:05 AM.

[mailin]

PapajIGC, on 01 June 2013 - 09:02 AM, said:

This is in a better state than Hawken, but that isn't saying much considering this game has been in beta for over a year. That's a continuous beta by the way...24/7/365...not one or two weekends a month for a widened length of time. The game is still littered with bad optimization (lol@CryEngine), hiccups in the global map rendering (specific areas kill FPS for up to a minute before returning to normal), and there has been minimal content release overall.

Yes, they have patches every two weeks, but one of them is to release a Hero 'Mech (MC only purchase aka real life money) and the other is for a new map (which suffers from the above issues with optimization) and a new camo pattern/color (again, MC only purchase). Weapons remain fairly unbalanced and generally fall under two categories, "useless" or "why the @$%! aren't you using them" and the general state of the four 'Mech classes is Lights are good (if they have ECM), Mediums are just wasted tonnage, Heavys can be potent, but are basically more fragile Assaults (very fragile if you want the firepower of said Assault), and Assaults are the end-all be-all of what you want to pilot. Why wouldn't I want to pilot something with 50+ damage strikes that takes ages to kill and can 'poptart' out from cover and blast things trying to flank or provide cover fire?

Oh, and the big kicker, they were supposed to initially follow a 1:1 timeline, but completely messed that up and have essentially delayed what was supposed to be the true launch of he game for months now because they had to spend time lessening the issues caused by the problems outlined in the first paragraph.

Sorry, but I think you're being way to critical. First of all, I haven't experienced any areas on maps that specifically drop my fps for a minute. If I did, I would notify the dev's via a support ticket. Second, I have been fairly happy with the content releases. Although content releases have been infrequent, when they have come out, they have been fairly well-developed and mostly bug-free. They do not release a new map once a month as your post suggests. Instead they truly are patches. That is, updates to fix known issues. For example, is anyone in game complaining about losing HUD or minimap errors anymore? Thank the latest round of patches for that. There is still some tweaking that everyone would like to see done to some weapons, however the devs are working on it. Do you remember all the complaining about how flamers and mgs need a buff and LB10x spreads too much? Fixed in a patch. Granted mgs and flamers may still need a tweak, but there is no doubt that they are better. As far as your comments about mechs, your are simply wrong on so many accounts. Victory is NOT based on who has the greater alpha, rather who uses the mech they're driving to its fullest. There is a place for every mech in a drop, and every pilot needs to know what their particular mech's strengths and weaknesses are. Those who don't understand this tend to be on the losing side or die early. As far as the timeline goes, don't really stress about it. They decided instead of sticking straight to canon without varying a bit, to use TT as a guideline and simply make the best game, and the best game experience possible. I think that overall the devs are succeeding. Do I wish they would come out with more content and have weapons be more balanced? Absolutely, but not at the expense of the game experience.

[POOTYTANGASAUR]

PGI has stated that player base is as expected. with each patch player base grows, and in between there are slight declines. This is common in all games and there have been big drops at times but that was early when they nearly went bankrupt. The game and its player base are currently very strong and very healthy and don't look to be losing much pace. The game will IMO explode when clans come and then continue to grow because well known mechs will be release and there will be larger diversity when clan tech and more mechs are added. There will also be considerable UI improvements with UI 2.0 so all that will be left is balancing which will be difficult as it is in all games but i believe IGP and PGI can handle all that is to come. TY for your time. - TANG

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Bacster, on 01 June 2013 - 04:15 AM, said:

Hello guys, I'm coming of Hawken (because it is nearly stagnant) and wonder if MWO is in better condition for development and population growth. Could someone answer me?

No one knows, anyone that says they do is a liar.

It's free, play it, if you like it keep playing.

And unless you have thin skin, do read the boards because contrary to popular belief it will help you be a better player and voice your views on the game which is important.