173 replies to this topic

[Thorqemada]

The Orion will probably be another Mech that is smaller than my Centurion^^

MISSILE!

[Banditman]

Bryan Ekman, on 05 June 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

Completely untrue. lol. We wanted to more variety to the mech meta game, so we changed it up a bit. The order in which mechs are announced will not always be the order in which they are released.

While I do agree that you have, in the past, altered release order slightly, you have never rolled out an un-announced mech. You blindsided your community - again - and continue to eat up good will for no reason at all.

The meta game excuse is just terribly weak. You're not going to change your "meta game" (aside here: What you are calling the meta game, is not the meta game, it's just the bloody game. Community Warfare is the meta game) by adding something you already have.

1. You have the Dragon. A fast, 60T heavy. What does the Quickdraw bring to the table that the Dragon doesn't? Let me help everyone out here: Jump Jets. That's it. Do we really need a jumpy, 60T mech? You recently changed things so that Jump Jets are far less important. So now, you add a mech that has them to "change the meta game"? Really? Weak, weak, weak.

2. If your goal is truly, honestly, to change the "meta game", then your goal should be to add weight limits . . . right now. No, not with UI 2.0. Not with Community Warfare. RIGHT. BLOODY. NOW. Weight limits will do far more to influence what mechs are seen on the battlefield than any other change you could possibly make. Consider! Right now, what is the benefit to taking a Dragon over taking an Awesome? None! The AWS chassis is close enough in speed to the Dragon that the difference isn't relevant, and the AWS series can carry far more weaponry. If you really want to create a paradigm shift in your meta game, you need to add weight limits. Make people THINK about what mech they can take to get the job done instead of taking the heaviest, most armored mech that can perform the role they want to fulfill.

Seriously, think about it. Please. You're not fixing anything with the Quickdraw. At least with the Orion, you've giving the game something it doesn't have: a 75T Heavy - a bridge between the Assault and Heavy classes.

I understand you guys don't like the fact that people are bringing the heaviest mech they can. I get it! I don't like it either! But you are doing nothing to incentivize or restrict that from happening. You could develop and release every single mech in the BT universe that falls between 40 and 70 tons, and you wouldn't do anything to change what's happening on the battlefield right now!

Players gravitate to what is effective. Mediums and low end Heavies are not effective. They are ok in and of themselves, but there is no reason for me to take them when I can take a heavier mech with more armor and still perform my role on the battlefield.

[General Taskeen]

Vorkash, on 05 June 2013 - 04:35 AM, said:

I really don't like the look of the Orion, pretty much the only one I don't like. I just don't feel it fits in aesthetically with the other designs. I hope the delay is a total redesign.

I hope not. Its one of the few concepts that is true to the original art. You take your blocks and Thwomps, but I'll have my classic Orion. The concept fits perfectly with the spirit of the original Orion.

[PropagandaWar]

they needed to do it with the damn Treb too. I swear that mech turns like crap has next to no arm movement and the torso just blech. I feel if its a huminoid mech and has the proper actuators it should be able to get the Cent and Hunchies arm movemnt. Orion has a big cannon justting out so I sould see why its a tad limited unless they scaled the snub back a bit.

[Deathlike]

FiveDigits, on 05 June 2013 - 08:03 AM, said:

Here you go. Semi-official explanation:

I asked on Twitter:

That's a terrible explanation.

Bryan Ekman, on 05 June 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

Completely untrue. lol. We wanted to more variety to the mech meta game, so we changed it up a bit. The order in which mechs are announced will not always be the order in which they are released.

The Meta didn't need another jumper, which you already released with the Trebuchet, but also may also neuter the Dragon further. Of course, it doesn't help when you've nerfed jumping quite a bit, so it's actually backwards planning.

With the Orion, at least it has a tonnage not filled (75t) AND is a more iconic mech. It's a double whammy. It's not like the Awesome will get LESS popular because of it (it will be overthrown by the Victor due to the Awesome being generally inferior as is).

Failure to recognize what the meta is and what you did to the meta is always /facepalm worthy.

Edited by Deathlike, 05 June 2013 - 09:37 AM.

[Kanatta Jing]

The Quickdraw is a fast brawler. It is not the Dragon. It gets to commit to engagements it starts. It will be easier to pilot then a Dragon.

PGI is trying to share with us the alarm and panic a CTF-3D should feel when a Quickdraw hops up behind it.

[Adridos]

Kanatta Jing, on 05 June 2013 - 09:45 AM, said:

PGI is trying to share with us the alarm and panic a CTF-3D should feel when a Quickdraw hops up behind it.

Quickdraw sneaking up on anything? Oh boy...

[Tremendous Upside]

I think Bryan's explanation was probably more aimed at trying to say they're getting all the jump jet balancing and me hs out of the way at once. We just got the HGN and BJ recently. Getting QD and Victor next - all of which are jumpers. Boating and jumping are two of the biggest focal points they're working on... So I think it does make sense from 50,000 feet. Still, the crap way it's relayed to the community at ground zero... C'mon guys, would it really be hard to keep the community connected so these snap decisions cause ripples instead of tidal waves?

[Chavette]

Kanatta Jing, on 05 June 2013 - 09:45 AM, said:

The Quickdraw is a fast brawler. It is not the Dragon. It gets to commit to engagements it starts. It will be easier to pilot then a Dragon.

PGI is trying to share with us the alarm and panic a CTF-3D should feel when a Quickdraw hops up behind it.

Doesn't it say its armor is low for its size? Why would it be a brawler then, or easy to use?

[stjobe]

Bryan Ekman, on 05 June 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

Completely untrue. lol. We wanted to more variety to the mech meta game, so we changed it up a bit. The order in which mechs are announced will not always be the order in which they are released.

What. The. Hell.

How on earth do you think adding another PPC poptart will bring "more variety to the 'mech meta game"?

I swear, sometimes it's like you lot haven't even heard of your own game.

[Adridos]

Chavette, on 05 June 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:

Doesn't it say its armor is low for its size? Why would it be a brawler then, or easy to use?

It has the same armor as Dragon.

Lore-wise armor doesn't have any impact in this game.

[Deathlike]

Banky, on 05 June 2013 - 09:58 AM, said:

I think Bryan's explanation was probably more aimed at trying to say they're getting all the jump jet balancing and me hs out of the way at once. We just got the HGN and BJ recently. Getting QD and Victor next - all of which are jumpers. Boating and jumping are two of the biggest focal points they're working on... So I think it does make sense from 50,000 feet. Still, the crap way it's relayed to the community at ground zero... C'mon guys, would it really be hard to keep the community connected so these snap decisions cause ripples instead of tidal waves?

The Orion is seriously a good changeup from the currently JJ-nerfed meta.

stjobe, on 05 June 2013 - 10:04 AM, said:

What. The. Hell.

How on earth do you think adding another PPC poptart will bring "more variety to the 'mech meta game"?

I swear, sometimes it's like you lot haven't even heard of your own game.

The game within the game man!

Oh wait, you've practically crippled the entire reason for the JJs existence.. and NOW you want to add something that is made further useless? Good job!

[Ngamok]

Padic, on 05 June 2013 - 08:19 AM, said:

This rings true to me. I suspect that they have a "surprisingly large" number of mechs that are more-or-less complete. They don't release them all at once because they don't want to subject us to inconsistent periods of getting lots of mechs and getting no mechs at all - much like how web cartoonists often have a big buffer of comics drawn, but continue to release them on their pre-defined schedule.

The Orion, although cool, is basically just a little Atlas/optimized Cataphract. I can see the desire to put a more interesting (if less popular) mech earlier in the lineup.

Additionally - they probably suspect that the Orion will be popular and well received. They probably don't want to drop it too shortly after the popular, well received Highlander and Jagermech. You need to temper your safe bets (Orion) with your daring experiments (Blackjack, Quickdraw).

I suspect it was a good decision, in the long run.

And to release the Hero mech prior to the C-Bill versions to make it another Heavy Metal money making item. Don't get me wrong. I bought the Heavy Metal on release and will buy the Orion version as well.

[Lightfoot]

Bryan Ekman, on 05 June 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

Completely untrue. lol. We wanted to more variety to the mech meta game, so we changed it up a bit. The order in which mechs are announced will not always be the order in which they are released.

But we don't have a 75 ton mech yet. 75 tons is a unique mech really being almost the same in loadout and armor as an 80 ton assault, but with the speed of a heavy mech. You can really go either way with a 75 tonner. We don't have a 55 tonner either, also a unique mech.

[InRev]

Bryan Ekman, on 05 June 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

Completely untrue. lol. We wanted to more variety to the mech meta game, so we changed it up a bit.

Explain. Simple. Explain.

This is a horrible reason that makes absolutely no sense, so explain it. All we ever do on this forum is try to speculate what the hell you guys are thinking with your decisions, so enough is enough. You pulled the rug out from under us, so it's high time for you guys to spell out, in nice simple words, how a ******* child of a dragon and a catapult will have any effect on the metagame.

Christ, what a shockingly terrible excuse.

[GingerBang]

Vorkash, on 05 June 2013 - 04:35 AM, said:

I really don't like the look of the Orion, pretty much the only one I don't like. I just don't feel it fits in aesthetically with the other designs. I hope the delay is a total redesign.

I like the design of it for this reason. Mechs aren't supposed to all look the same. All we have now are a couple lights, and a bunch of walking people shaped robots. The aesthetics could use some serious shaking up with these new mechs.

[Tennex]

Bryan Ekman, on 05 June 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

Completely untrue. lol. We wanted to more variety to the mech meta game, so we changed it up a bit. The order in which mechs are announced will not always be the order in which they are released.

so i hope Orion will still get those cool arms.

[and zero]

Bryan Ekman, on 05 June 2013 - 09:31 AM, said:
Completely untrue. lol. We wanted to more variety to the mech meta game, so we changed it up a bit. The order in which mechs are announced will not always be the order in which they are released.

........

Epic PR Fail.

[Tremendous Upside]

Deathlike, on 05 June 2013 - 10:07 AM, said:

The Orion is seriously a good changeup from the currently JJ-nerfed meta.

Totally agree. But I think from PGIs standpoint they're figuring its best to get all the similar mechs out of the way at once. Since that's a big part of what they're working on balancing it does kinda make sense. All the same I'm still pissed to have to wait even longer on the Orion. It's one of the mechs I've been looking forward to most.

[PropagandaWar]

Deathlike, on 05 June 2013 - 10:07 AM, said:

The Orion is seriously a good changeup from the currently JJ-nerfed meta.



The game within the game man!

Oh wait, you've practically crippled the entire reason for the JJs existence.. and NOW you want to add something that is made further useless? Good job!

Jump Jets were never meant for Jump Sniping. There meant for getting over terrain and other mechs. They are harder to shoot and in turn are harder to shoot with. They need to also Cripple the legs if you have no fuel left for your mech on desent along with falling damage if you shut down while jumping.