1105 replies to this topic

[Woozle]

So let me get this straight...we might get UI 2.0 at or near launch. We won't be told anything about CW until launch day.

Just what are you "launching"? Why September 17th? Why pick a date at all?

[Kazly]

It did say there's more about community warfare later on in the post, right? Did I miss something?

And what's the plan for September?

[Panboy]

I have only one question to ask.

If us old Mechwarrior veterans are not your target demographic who is?

We are the generation that grew up with computers and made them part of our everyday live. PC games for many of us are our primary entertainment source and many of us have money and are willing to pay.

There is a younger generation of gamer's out there yes and they are eager to play many games but they neither have our resources or our long standing commitment to the franchise. Not that we don't welcome new blood, but don't you think that making a quality product that appeals to us should appeal to them as well?

Also we didn't want 3rd person because we knew from experience that it would make the game worse. and we see the same problems not exist that did in the old games. there is a reason games like COD have such large player basses and its partly because they are first person. its imersive and everyone can see the same thing.

I have had one 12man as i was only able to wrangle enough players together once in my time zone, maybe its easier to do in the american time zones, but in that one 12 man i saw 8+ highlanders all using the same loadout PPC and Gauss, I died quickly. It didn't seem a success.

I'm just kinda disappointed.

[Protection]

General Taskeen, on 27 August 2013 - 05:52 PM, said:

Complaints aren't due to the fact that people want the game driven into the ground - your backers want it to succeed, they wish it, they dream of it - we've waited years for Mech Warrior. We get that games take time to grow and build up to something, that's good - its the decisions thus far that have totally created more massive problems than have existed in any other Mech Title. There is no escaping that fact.

[ElCadaver]

It appears that the hard core Mechwarrior/Battletech fans that coughed up the $5million dollars and paid MC to do your alpha and beta testing are not your target demographic.

Can you imagine how that makes people feel?

I'd say 'bitter' is an understatement.

Just the word I have heard from many founders who have invested bigtime in your game.

Some facts and figures on player retention pre post 3PV would be nice too. Without them, it's just propaganda.

How about you show is hours played by founders pre post 3PV?

[Voivode]

I enjoy the game. There are some things I think could use work, I'm sure PGI does to. Good work guys. Haters gonna hate.

[Knight_Invictus]

Bryan thanks to you and the whole team! I'm enjoying the game very much already and am looking forward to the UI2 and other new features at launch.

[KhanCipher]

InnerSphereNews, on 27 August 2013 - 01:17 PM, said:

If your Mech is destroyed to a roaming band of Jenners early on, you can jump out of that match and into a new one right away – potentially doubling your C-Bills to 1.2 million per hour! This cuts down your time to purchase new Mechs and equipment.

is it just me or is pgi sending the message that's it's totally ok to go around doing "assist farming" thus ruining the game experience for others, nice to know... also it seems that grouping up slows you down on making money...

[Robo_D]

I love the game so far, my only complaint is UI2.0 and CW aren't in game yet. it's too bad they don't have enough manpower. 3PV is not an issue, never even used in my ELO bracket let alone being abused/exploited. Weapons are relatively balanced as is and I am very happy with them at the moment. I hope for their sake they are just not telling us what is coming so that people are shocked and happy when stuff is rolled out with launch(i assume is the case, at least for UI2.0).

[Serpent 6]

InnerSphereNews, on 27 August 2013 - 01:17 PM, said:

September Creative Developer Update
What an August! We released some really big features in 12v12 and 3PV: Both have been a great success and delivered on our goals of adding more action, tactics, and deeper gameplay (12v12), while continuing to make the game appeal to a broader audience of gamers (3PV). After releasing 3PV we saw an immediate improvement in our target demographic, with a good bump in new player retention!
We continue to see a steady increase in online players, with more new MechWarriors joining us every day. Registrations continue to be strong with a very nice increase during the month of August. Our Phoenix program was a big success and we’re very excited to deliver the Phoenix `Mechs in October!

I thought the true demographic were players of Classic Battletech/MechWarrior? You are a sell out. You have alienated your entire ORIGINAL player/contributor base by "making it more appealing to the masses" by adding/making 3pv part of the game. Your methodology was purely monetary based. Then your rational after a FLOOD of disapproval was that everyone has it, so you have a choice to use it or don't. How contradictory can you be!? You actually nerfed your own promise and creation by doing that.
For who or whom is this post really for? It's not for us as you have pissed us off beyond any measure. Is this for "other" contributors like business partners? If that's the case it would be best to not post it here where you will ignite the flames again. This kind of report is better suited in an email or something.

Edited by Serpent 6, 27 August 2013 - 06:20 PM.

[Aware]

Knight4Him, on 27 August 2013 - 06:08 PM, said:

Bryan thanks to you and the whole team! I'm enjoying the game very much already and am looking forward to the UI2 and other new features at launch.

I am glad you are enjoying the game. I wouldn't hold your breath on UI2 or any other features getting added at launch though

[Kushko]

I would assume a large portion of this influx of new player he talks about is really the already active players making new accounts to get new mechs with the cadet bonuses since the current grind is just too soul shattering.

25 games according to Bryans numbers: 2mil. What can you buy for this? Fk all.
25 games on a newly made accound: ~10mil. Yey i have a new mechs to play with.

And since so many players are doing this it just proves another fact about MWO; People dont feel invested in to their account anymore and are just making new accounts for the cadet bonus to see if there is something at the end of the rainbow before moving on (oh btw, if you are one of those people i'll save you the trouble...there is nothing but disappointment at the end of this rainbow).

Edited by Kushko, 27 August 2013 - 06:15 PM.

[Panboy]

Voivode, on 27 August 2013 - 06:07 PM, said:

I enjoy the game. There are some things I think could use work, I'm sure PGI does to. Good work guys. Haters gonna hate.

You're quite haters will hate, but they probably wouldn't bother trying to tell PGI what they think is wrong and try to nudge them along to fix the problems so that those haters could make the game they want to love that little bit better.

Tell me of the following things which add to the game and which detract?

1: Heat scale
2: Third person view
3: Hard core players running nothing but Highlanders + PPC gauss
4: Mechs going from 100% to dead in 10 seconds.
5: Interesting map selection
6: Large array of Weapons to choose

These are key talking points. Feel free to add your own and show us pros and cons. of those 6 points I don't like 4 of em

[Roheryn]

Knight4Him, on 27 August 2013 - 06:08 PM, said:

Bryan thanks to you and the whole team! I'm enjoying the game very much already and am looking forward to the UI2 and other new features at launch.

don't hold your breath...



Apparently it took 10 months to get from it being "in design" and slated for release in Jan/feb to get to their "first preview build".

Hmmm....I wonder if the developers working on ghostheat and 3pv, could have been better utilized. Doubtful.

[Hillary Rodham Kerensky]

I uninstalled the game this patch, and hadn't played for several more. Pretty much the only reason I'm still around is a love of Btech/Mechwarrior and the burning desire to make sure PGI knows that they are failures.

Please get your crashing and burning out of the way quickly. Nowadays it seems like there is more interest in picking up failed properties and relaunching them. That is pretty much the only hope I have left for something that once held so much promise.

[Serpent 6]

Kraven Kor, on 27 August 2013 - 01:53 PM, said:

For the love of god just give me my founders money back because you have completely failed to address our concerns, once again, in a manner that is not essentially telling us "Deal with it."

I've been polite, I've been constructive, I've been patient, and I just can't do it anymore.

I have filed grievances with the BBB and CPBC. Go ahead, delete my posts, do whatever, just give me my money back and take my name off of your products' credits, please, and I will go away. I promise.

I agree 100% and I'm with you on that statement!

[Stalephreak]

You have a mass exodus of people who've paid for your game this week, and you're calling it a success? Tell me, which business school did you drop out of? You're losing players that have invested MORE in this game than in their entire gaming rig!!!! This is great, like Nero gasping in awe at the tuning of his violin as his whole town burned.

[Snuglninja]

I would say something but but I'm not their target demographic. Oh whatever shall I do? I know Arkham Origins is coming out in October, should have my Phoenix money refunded by then. Over and out

[Chronojam]

Ohsh, on 27 August 2013 - 05:39 PM, said:

so which one do you live with right now

Ohsh you are incredible sometimes, no matter what the others say.

[Shadey99]

InnerSphereNews, on 27 August 2013 - 01:17 PM, said:

Spoiler

<strong> September Creative Developer Update</strong></p><p><br></p><p>What an August! We released some really big features in 12v12 and 3PV: Both have been a great success and delivered on our goals of adding more action, tactics, and deeper gameplay (12v12), while continuing to make the game appeal to a broader audience of gamers (3PV). After releasing 3PV we saw an immediate improvement in our target demographic, with a good bump in new player retention!</p><p><br></p><p>We continue to see a steady increase in online players, with more new MechWarriors joining us every day. Registrations continue to be strong with a very nice increase during the month of August. Our Phoenix program was a big success and we’re very excited to deliver the Phoenix `Mechs in October!</p><p><br></p><p>Behind the scenes, we have been working hard on UI 2.0, CW, and Clans. Our first UI 2.0 preview build was just delivered to me this week, and I’m really excited to get a version up on public test. This new UI framework is the gate keeper for almost everything we are working on right now, including Community Warfare (more revealed a bit later in this update).</p><p><br></p><p><strong> Balance</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Game balance continues to take a top priority as we work to keep the game tuned and balanced with an ever evolving meta-game. Expect to see more tweaks to weapons in the next few patches, especially after we introduce some more Host State Rewind (HSR) fixes in a near future patch. These HSR tweaks fix a few known bugs and will help improve overall hit detection for most players.</p><p><br></p><p><strong> Charity</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Our Sarah’s Mech charity drive concluded with over $122,000 being raised for the Canadian Cancer Society. I had the pleasure of meeting Jon and his family, who visited our studio in Vancouver and IGP’s offices in Montreal.</p><p><br></p><p><strong> Economics</strong></p><p><br></p><p>As for the economics, we’ve heard some talk about the reduction in C-Bill rewards. As previous replies to the community in the latest ATD have stated, we needed to rein in some of the rewards a bit as they had grown beyond our original thresholds by about 16%. This is normal and common as a game evolves and players become more efficient. The addition of 12v12 also required a tuning pass to lower the earning by around 13% to account for an additional 8 players on the battlefield. The future vision for CB and XP rewards includes a more granular, role based approach currently in design and development. These expanded earnings will reward players directly for performing specific roles, allowing them to distinguish themselves.</p><p><br></p><p>Some economic math from our telemetry data:</p><ul class="bbc"><li>Average match time is 8.4 minutes.</li><li>Average CB/match is 79,069<img data-cke-saved-src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg" src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg">.</li><li>Average CB/hour is 564,778<img data-cke-saved-src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg" src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg"> if you only have 1 BattleMech to use.</li><li>New players can earn 7,981,686<img data-cke-saved-src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg" src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg"> in cadet bonuses during their first 3.5 hours in addition to between 1-3 million <img data-cke-saved-src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg" src="https://static.mwomercs.com/img/ui/custom_icons/cb_icon.jpg"> in regular game earnings.</li></ul><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">It’s important to note that new or inexperienced players will be below this average, while experienced or veteran players will be above this. Player’s with premium time and/or a Hero Mech can expect to better still. New players can earn enough money to buy several light or medium Mechs with just their cadet bonus, or can opt to buy 1 or 2 heavies, or 1 assault. In fact a new player can buy their very first Mech within just a handful of matches, begin upgrading and acquiring new permanent equipment for future Mechs.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">If players so wish, they can even increase C-Bill earnings substantially by exiting matches if they are destroyed early, and jumping into a new one.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">For example:</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">If your Mech is destroyed to a roaming band of Jenners early on, you can jump out of that match and into a new one right away – potentially doubling your C-Bills to 1.2 million per hour! This cuts down your time to purchase new Mechs and equipment.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">Like game balance, we are constantly evaluating the economic environment and will continue to make small tweaks to keep the economics balanced.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC"><strong> Community</strong></span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">I also wanted to take time to clear up a few laundry items, mostly to do with communication and promises. I think I’ll start with a lesson from my wife: Never say never, or always. I have to agree. Even though best intentions and plans for future designs and direction of the game can take a different course as we develop them, we have learned to avoid using words of certainty whenever possible. We’ve seen these type of words frame our messaging in a way that some community members either see this as a promise, or guarantee. I want to always remind our community that we do our best to describe both our vision and roadmap, and that sometimes we are going to make decisions that you may not agree with. MechWarrior Online is constantly evolving and changing. It’s a living breathing project that will never stay still, rather react to players, analytics and external influences, like new trends in gaming.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">The community is very large, and represents a broad segment of players. There are vocal minorities and silent majorities on all subjects and we always have to balance between these groups. We have found that analytics and player profiling has helped us identify the needs of most demographics and while it may seem that we either a) don’t listen or <img data-cke-saved-src="https://static.mwomercs.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.png" src="https://static.mwomercs.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.png" class="bbc_emoticon" alt=""> are making choices that go against the “players” opinion, this is simply not the case. People can become focused on narrow aspects of the game, and forget about the bigger picture. We all have favourite weapons, builds, Mechs that we want to be the best they can be, but oftentimes we can overly focus on what affects us, and forget about other players with other Mechs, builds, and so on.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">You will have already noticed a new form of communication since spring, largely due in part to focusing our efforts on the Ask the Devs format, and the monthly Creative Director updates. I have also changed how we discuss future major designs, keeping them closer to the chest until we are ready to make a presentation to the community. A good example is how we handle the UI 2.0 introduction and discussion. A lot of player feedback drove the design of UI 2.0, and we view it as a great success in communication and community involvement in the design process. You can expect the same when we reveal our Community Warfare design at the launch event! This presentation will reveal some of the features our core audience has been after for some time now, and we’re very excited to show you what’s been in the works.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">I also see a lot of “IGP vs PGI” or “IGP’s to blame”. This is unfair and simply not true. We are partners, and we work very closely to decide the direction of the game. Ultimately PGI has to approve everything as the license holder, so laying blame at IGP’s doorstep is misguided. IGP has an absolutely amazing team of dedicated, passionate individuals, and they are a large part of making sure MWO is available for everyone to enjoy!</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC"><strong> Policy</strong></span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">That last piece of housekeeping is less enjoyable to discuss but I feel the need to remind all of our members to respect both your fellow players and the staff at IGP and PGI. We have seen an alarming number of verbal, and written threats directed at staff. These threats, whether idle or simple jokes will be treated as real, with local authorities being notified. There is no situation on earth that warrants these attacks, so I kindly remind you to think twice before posting anything that might be viewed in this light. Behind each of the names you see on the forums or Facebook or Twitter, are real people. Please keep that in mind - we do!</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC"><strong> Launch Event</strong></span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">With that out of the way, I’m really looking forward to the Launch Event in San Francisco, I’m very excited. We had an excellent response to our event invites and I think we’ll see some really competitive teams going for the win. It will be good to see some familiar faces, and you will get to meet a bunch of developers, some of whom will be first time attendees at a public MWO event. That’s about it for now! September is going to be a really busy month, and I’m looking forward to launch and all the new features coming live in the next 90 days! It’s a very exciting time for MWO as we deliver some long desired community features! </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">Cheers,</span></p><p><span style="color: #CCCCCC">Bryan Ekman</span></p><p>

[color=#CCCCCC]

[/color]

Do you need a new Public Relations person to handle your interaction with the community? Because with zero experience I know I could positively increase public relations for you. I live on the east coast though, so... We'd have to work out that commute, but as is you seem determined to shot yourself in the public relations foot...