11 replies to this topic

[Mr Smiles]

Are any of you familiar with the State of the Fortress survey done for Team Fortress 2? It was about 15 minutes long, garnered 2,500+ respondents, had a big analysis done, and received positive responses from the developers. Several of the feature demands from the survey made it into the game (though maybe they were going to make it anyway? Who can say.)

Anyway. That was me who did that survey and analysis. And now I want to devote my attentions to the MWO community. I see all these polls in individual threads, but find them inadequate (small sample size, biased answers, no ability to cross-compare responses, etc.). I want to create a survey that answers all of the questions raised by those polls, and more.

But here's my problem. I'm only one guy. I can only think of so many questions! So please, if you will: post for me questions that you would like to see the entire community answering as a whole (or as close to it as I can get!), that you would like to see viewed through a formal analysis.

Or, if you like, post links to individual polls you'd like to see in the survey.

Or, state a general topic, like "I want to know about how extensive MechLab customization will be!" or "I want to know about cockpit customization!" and I'll try and extrapolate as many questions as I can from those statements.

Or give your opinion on a bunch of different matters ("My only strong desire for MechWarrior Online is that it have tanks in it at launch.") and I'll try to form a question which includes that as a possible response.

I hope I get a good response to this request for questions. Think of it like this: if I manage to get as much as 1,000 responses from this community to the final survey, you can be sure that the developers will look at that survey analysis and will give some serious thought to the statistics therein. So, if you, the community, want the developers to get some serious insight into what we want in a particular area of the game? Make sure you remind me to put a question about it in the survey!

Postscript: I will be going through these forums, looking at the various polls and thinking about how to include them, but a ) I might miss some and b ) I only have so much patience for that

Edited by Mr. Smiles, 10 November 2011 - 08:02 AM.

[Inappropriate849]

Which are you mostly looking forward to in MWO (pick any three)
- Teamplay
- PvP
- PvE
- Co-op
- Customization
- Character/mech progression
- Roleplaying
- (Re)telling of and adherence to MW lore, storytelling
- Graphics
- Audio effects
- Music
- Being part of something bigger - lance, war, etc.
- I don't care if it's about ponies as long as they ride mechs!
- [other items I missed]

[ChargerIIC]

Probably some questions on most wanted features. Some features that are getting multiple forum threads:

* Melee
* Vehicles
* Armored Infantry
* Clan mechs and technology
* various Lv2/Lv3 techs
* Not being aligned to a house
* SIngle-player mode

[Amechwarrior]

This sounds like it can be a very interesting survey, glad to have people like you here wanting to play a Mechwarrior game. What are your thoughts on how we do not really know anything about that game and how that will affect peoples answers. Things like "Do you want customization?" you can see the masses voting 'yes' because that is what we are used to and we all like to customize. But we have no clue how such a feature will integrate with any game mechanics, as we do not know anything about the game. This changes the scope of the possible questions, we can ask for anything.

[Barantor]

Do you want more of a 'twitch' style gaming experience or more of an skill point based rpg experience?

[Mr Smiles]

Amechwarrior, on 10 November 2011 - 01:00 PM, said:

This sounds like it can be a very interesting survey, glad to have people like you here wanting to play a Mechwarrior game. What are your thoughts on how we do not really know anything about that game and how that will affect peoples answers. Things like "Do you want customization?" you can see the masses voting 'yes' because that is what we are used to and we all like to customize. But we have no clue how such a feature will integrate with any game mechanics, as we do not know anything about the game. This changes the scope of the possible questions, we can ask for anything.

I think that we know enough to make some informed decisions. We know it's going to be a MechWarrior game in the vein of previous games that held that title; first person, joystick-enabled, cockpit, with C-bills and the ability to purchase gear, that sort of thing. We have a foundation to base our assumptions off. My questions are going to be roughly based on that framework.

[UncleKulikov]

Cool. Hope this happens.

[Amechwarrior]

True, but really really do not know very much. The developers stated wanting to change and correct gameplay issues from previous MW games. The forum threads here and in Suggestions have never ending discussions on boating, customs and alpha striking problems leading to the assault class domination and pop tarting of previous MW titles. In addition to moving to F2P, I think the new game will play very differently then the previous titles.

We did get developer confirmation that we can start with assault class. Presumably all weight classes will be available at the start. Questions like "Which weight class do you want to start with?" or "Favorite weight class?" would be good. Other things like "What Faction?" or "Favorite Light 'Mech?" are also obvious choices. Someone already did a multi-topic polls with each topic being "Favorite Assault/Heavy/etc" and those could help you see which designs you should offer in your quiz.

I hope you stay around, a big and organized "State of the Sphere" would be great for the community.

Edited by Amechwarrior, 10 November 2011 - 02:19 PM.

[Mr Smiles]

Amechwarrior, on 10 November 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

I hope you stay around, a big and organized "State of the Sphere" would be great for the community.

I'm still thinking of a name! State of the Fortress I thought rolled off the tongue and also was evocative of TF2 being a nation. State of the Sphere, something about that bugs me. I need a newer, cleverer name!

[Amechwarrior]

Census of Houses/Nations
Poll of Pilots
Survey of Sphereoids
Mechwarriors Voice
Pilots Picks

I got no clue about the name really.

EDIT:

Why not, here are my polls:

how-many-weapon-groups-do-you-actually-use
if-you-could-only-choose-one-audio-poll

Edited by Amechwarrior, 10 November 2011 - 06:00 PM.

[MagnusEffect]

So committed I am to wanting this game to be something really awesome, I gladly offer my assistance to you in compiling data. I was feeling the same way about the lack of an organized discussion on what people want. To be fair, I have my own opinions on the matter, but I'm really hoping that MWO is something that can appease most of everyone's desires.

Here's some of my polls so far. There is waay more I have already written in text documents but have been unable to convert them to forum polls due to time limitations:

A quick (and kind of lazy) one I did trying to get a general consensus on things:
http://mwomercs.com/...8656#entry28656

Was trying to gauge just how many here really knew anything about the Clans (other than "they have cooler stuff). Was also curious to see how many were pro-Clan or pro-IS. Was very surprised by results:
http://mwomercs.com/...4674#entry24674

My magnum opus I wrote 2 years ago. Needs substantial updating (working on it), but some of its points still apply:
http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

I have another really good one on game mechanics involving mech destruction (keep or lose mech permanently), salvage, repairs, and post-mission rewards, but the **** forum clock timed out on me and i lost all my progress

Edited by MagnusEffect, 10 November 2011 - 06:08 PM.

[wolf on the tide]

will there be anything to do in the game OUTSIDE a mech?

will character skills/progressions/advancement be linear or skill tree based, or sand box basis where you can select from differing sets of skills to truely make your mechwarrior unique?

will you only have 1 mechwarrior character to play, or several to cover all sizes of mech?

will there be the possibility to be anything other than a mechwarrior, (dispossessed, crafter,engineer,merchant, spy etc)?

it's an MMO, but will it be supportive of MMORPG play? or it that outside the realm of the currect game design focus? or financial budget?

will you be able to buy a mech thats not available to your IS house faction? will you be able to claim salvage and "earn/steal/hunt one down" if not?

will we be able to blow up buildings and bury mechs that made the tactically bad decision of fighting in towns and city's ?

will air support be made available to us if we are attacking?(after launch)

will infantry and armour support be available to us if we are defending?(after launch)

will mech trees be "branched" so we can develop individual playstyles, or will this be a straight boring grind from light to assault mech?

is it " 1 player 1 mech" " or is there ever going to be the possibility of having more than one player in a mech?
( "POB command mech" with pilot(firing the lasers and direct weapons), commander in overview and control mode(possibly firing the LRMs indirectly), and radio/ECM operator) ?

will vibro mines be implemented? if so will the tonnage settings be properly variable (into 5 ton settings) or semi set (set to detonate for medium, heavy,assault mech's etc) ?

will the game accurately reflect the secondary adverse effects of weapons fire RE: spotting? and if so is it scaled ?
(i.e. which is more of a give away when firing from cover... firing a AC2 from behind a bush, or firing a battery of PPC's with huge heat spikes, power surges and great big particle beams flashing from behind the same bush?)

am i going to have any immersive element to the game ruined by some big mouthed pillock who's decided to call himself "Leonidas"?
"xXxLEONIDASxXx" et al (add aragorn, legolas, gandalf, and any major name from the BT/MW universe or any other universe) because sad wannabe's drag any game down?
and will i be banned for telling him all spartans were ***? when in fact its a historically correct fact.

or would you prefer it, if i asked easier questions