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we quickly realised that 3PV offered no significant advantage over 1PV. In fact we found each mode had pros and cons that played well with each other.
So, here is my feedback with this in mind.
1) You can, in fact, still use 3rd person view to peak around a corner without exposing your mech, you can also still see over objects you wouldn't be able to otherwise.
2) You can freely switch between first and third person view, this makes my first point stand out a lot as I can simply switch to it, see the enemy teams locations and relay them to my entire team all whilst safely behind cover - Sure, they could see the little LED drone if they paid attention however they can't fire at me nor get a lock - I also don't need to stay in third person view for more than a few seconds to see the enemy team so it could easily be missed.
3) It's hardly friendly to new players, I can't see where I'm aiming because my head is in the way, my aiming cross-hair does all sorts of weird things when going over the smallest bumps and, to top it all off, I can barely see the tops of my legs.
4) To build on point 3, the third person view supporters are going to be demanding buffs or ragequitting as the third person view functions horribly for what it does and feels like it only exists for corner-peeking and seeing over the tops of low hills/mountains however you can't buff it without further alienating a lot of your current stakeholders in the pursuit of new ones.
Overall I have to stay that your continuous inability to provide the current player base with what they want whilst chasing
potential numbers of players (Which, just to point out, you are not guaranteed to get) is eventually going to drive off your core playerbase until your main way of making money is from the players who play a few times, buy a couple of mech's because trials suck then quit.
You would do so so so much better if instead you were offering players something to drive for, a reason to play other than dropping on the same maps repeatedly for no reason other than to buy that next mech, if you had some kind of solid core community constantly battling not just for their own gains but for their corp/clan's gains as well then not only would you see an influx of players but the quality of those players would also improve, many would want to get better to further the goals they have set themselves and to assist their community in whatever way they could.
Honestly, when community warfare comes, the game is either really going to kick off or fail. Horribly. No amount of appealing to the masses right now is going to change that - Especially when the game still has no overlaying goal.
I really hope the game does do well, even with the current iteration of third person view being so easily abused whilst also being fairly unhelpful to new players however if you muck up clan warfare or bend over backwards to please third person players (Read: Turning MWO into a TPS complete with corner peaking, looking over hills and lining up shots before seeing the target at the lowest to the highest levels of competitive play) then I will have no reason to play.
You can warp the game however you please, as long as it is enjoyable and balanced however you do need to be very careful about your next few moves, lest you manage to ruin mechwarrior.
On a side note: This post is going to get buried by the replies to this thread, which makes me sad really, there have already been ~50 posts written in the time it took me to write this. My only real hope is my thinking that somewhere somebody actually reads this and agrees with at least some of the points. Oh, and the hope that community warfare is worth the wait.