64 replies to this topic

[MischiefSC]

stjobe, on 24 June 2013 - 12:48 PM, said:

Sorry man, didn't mean to get you down.

But yeah, it's sad. As I said, I'd love for them to go back to the drawing board, re-read what they once envisioned the game to become, and try to implement that instead of this. I'd almost be willing to pay up another $120 if it'd make them do it. Almost, but fool me once...

The problem is just how far it's gone afield. I get money issues - we all got to get paid, right? I absolutely in no way begrudge PGI needing to pay the bills. It's the fundamental issues with F2P games though. There is no motivation to draw in people or in many ways retain people - it costs money to host servers, every player COSTS money. It becomes an issue of getting people to pay. If you just come out honestly as pay to win people rage and quit. If you charge a fee to cover the costs of supporting the game, even as it is, people rage and quit. So you have to find ways to get people to pay and you need to get enough people to pay to make up for the ones who don't pay. I can see where it would be hard NOT to make getting people to give you money be the focus of your business. It is with pretty much every other game, right?

I could get into a rage about piracy (which is why we have F2P games and this model to begin with) but it's no use. See, there's not a lot of motivation for PGI to build all this stuff. Spend the money on it. Reality is that it's no so much that this model needs more players - what it needs to work is more paying players and less non-paying players. Give players things that will make them happy is all well and good, giving players things they will pay for - that gets you paid.

Meh. Anyway. We won't see most of that stuff. Won't see most the things that would make MWO an awesome game. There's no cost/benefit for them for PGI and I can't really even blame them for it. We'll get CW because it'll keep people longer. We'll get a slow, steady shuffle of weapon balance to keep a slow, steady migration of the games meta to give people a sense of growth in an environment that doesn't really have an 'upgrade' path. Mostly what we'll get is things to motivate players to spend money on the game.

That just is what it is - and why I'm so eager to see games like Star Citizen and Heavy Gear Assault get made. I've probably given both games 5 times as much as I've spent on MWO which, given my deep love of the Battletech franchise, says more than anything else I could write here.

[aniviron]

MischiefSC, on 24 June 2013 - 07:53 AM, said:

I disagree that seismic is the best - tell that to any LRM boat. Most don't care about it save as a convenience. A lot of assault brawlers would say the same - there just are not enough lights out there to make it worthwhile. NOT having ALRS or target decay drastically, painfully reduces the effectiveness of LRMs. It's almost like not taking Artemis. I only bother with it on lights to be honest - heavies and assaults, I get more mileage out of other options. If there were more lights out there I might change my mind, but if I only had 1 or 2 slots? I dunno. When I'm in a heavy/assault I'm never, ever, EVER alone so getting ambushed by a lone mech or walking into a pile of them isn't a big fear - it's normally the objective.

I do agree with the point about modules being veteran gear. I'd forgotten how long that takes, especially GXP, in the beginning.

The list stjobe put up.... all but makes me want to quit. It's hard, painful hard, to see what all was promised, what the experience that was promised was, and compare it to what was delivered and what's being promised in the future. It's got some great options and things that would be great for lights but we'll never see them.

I admit, the target decay module did cross my mind when I wrote the post, but I think of that as more of a specialist module, since it doesn't get a ton of use outside of LRM platforms. I don't think ALRS are all that useful either since you're probably going to want BAP on your LRM boat anyway, and that extends your range to as far as you are going to hit with missiles in almost any situation anyway. I could see maybe seismic not being that useful if you dropped in a group (not sure if you do or not), but as someone who solos for a lot of his games, having seismic is usually the difference between me being able to alert my team to a cave rush or not. Even with LRMs I tend to go target decay/seismic, since I usually have some kind of backup weapon, or if I don't, the advance 10 seconds of warning seismic gives me means I can reach the center of my teammates before taking any real damage.

And yeah, jobe's list made me super sad too. :[

FupDup, on 24 June 2013 - 08:29 AM, said:

What the game would look like if all modules were buffed up to Seismic's level of usefulness:

-Sensor range would extend out to at least 2000 meters
-Target Decay would last at least 10 seconds
-Advanced Zoom would highlight enemy hitboxes and calculate leads for you (MW3 Targeting Computer style)
-Artillery and Airstrike would deal at least 100 damage plus splash
-UAV would be mobile and have an infinite duration


Do not want.

Yeah, like I said in my post- it creates way too much of a skill gulf between new players and vets, among other things. It also doesn't help that the best variants also tend to get the most module slots too (I'm looking at you, DDC and 3L). While having useful modules would add flavor to the game, I would much rather keep the gameplay balanced.

[Bunko]

Foxfire, on 22 June 2013 - 07:34 PM, said:

As of right now.. it simply feels like if I cannot break that 140 KPH mark in a light mech, I am almost guaranteed to be legged in the current game.

Getting Legged and not going 140+kph do not go hand-in-hand anymore since HSR.

There is no reason to run a Light other than small size if you aren't going to run fast. You might be able to cram as many energy weapons as heavier mechs but you don't have the armor.

As for 140... well that might be was the standard Light goes, I would say 120 min or you should look at a Medium.

[DaisuSaikoro Nagasawa]

Foxfire, on 22 June 2013 - 07:51 PM, said:

I don't want to but I'm stuck grinding out Raven X2 and X4's to get master level for my 3L an it is horrible.

You're a founder... you've been around for awhile. You could've done it years ago...

[Shalune]

MustrumRidcully, on 23 June 2013 - 02:14 AM, said:

Don't Mediums have the same problem - go fast or explode?

As long as the mechs can actually go fast, they might at least have a use.

But even with that mind, one has to wonder if there shouldn't be use (other than to boost my ego by one-shooting something) for slow lights and mediums, too. Maybe not Urbanmech-slow, but... Jagermech AC/40 slow.

Weight limits.

Once there are weight limits in game I think most of the concerns in here are going to get turned on their head. The issue right now is 'Okay what do I do with a slower light?' You can give it more weapons, but a medium will be better optimized to carry the same or heavier loadout.

Now consider the same thing with weight limits. It's a completely different question: 'Can I do well enough with the slower light loadout that those 15 tons are better going to another heavy or assault?'