304 replies to this topic

[jozkhan]

I cant seem to find any of this (pretty vital) information here you know on the game website forum

So here's the latest on launch and coming soon from NGNG88 with Bryan Ekman (reposted from Reddit)

why cant we hear info about the game here???

brace yourselves:
<p class="usertext-body">

TL;DListen version:

• 
  Will UI 2.0 be available at launch? No
  
• 
  Will UI 2.0 include a lobby system? What will that be like? Lobby system sounds cool, but it won't be in the initial release. Only thing he mentioned that was implied that would be in the initial build was a new ingame store.
  
• 
  Will UI 2.0 bring any additional information or functionality to the After Action Report? Website statistics to be available ingame. Eventually.
  
• 
  Bryan shares his API hopes and dreams Something along the lines of Eve Online's API system.
  
• 
  Will there be any elements of Community Warfare released with launch? No.
  
• 
  Where has the Public Test Server been? Will it be back? Technical/resource/QA reasons. Returning in September.
  
• 
  Will more player numbers and statistics ever be made available? They're concerned player numbers would be misconstrued. Some rationale about being disadvantaged if their competitors knew the numbers (guess someone should tell WoT and WT so they can remove their player counters post-haste lulz). According to Bryan, once they hit a certain number they plan to publish the figures "when there's no mistaking their meaning".
  
• 
  Bryan talks about new player numbers and player retention rates Retained more than 50% of original Founders, who still play at least monthly. "Most" of them have bought into Phoenix.
  
• 
  Muromets is #1! Cataphract is most-owned mech after filtering out Founders' mech chassis. Incl Founders', Catapult is the most owned.
  
• 
  Will there ever be metallic paint? Yes, in the form of skins probably.
  
• 
  Will we see a free-cam spectator mode? What would it be like? They want to support video makers, feature-wise. "Plans", nothing specific.
  
• 
  UI Twitch integration coming with UI 2.0 Ready to go, waiting for UI2.0.
  
• 
  Will the role of single heat sinks be re-examined, or are they as intended? "Working as intended". Will take another look when clan tech is introduced.
  
• 
  Bryan talks a bit about PGI's approach to Clan Tech balance and how to avoid a mass exodus to the Clans because of superior everything Clantech won't follow the lolOP model from tabletop/lore; PGI doesn't want to obsolete IS mechs with the release of clantech.
  
• 
  Regarding the recently updated 'Mech movement system, ie going uphill, is that based on weight or scale? "Class weight".
  
• 
  Is 'Mech scaling being looked at? Bryan says 'Mech scaling is also about balance When possible, they use references from the lore. Will look at "egregious cases".
  
• 
  Will 'Mech quirks ever evolve into something more, like 'Mech specific weapons capabilities etc? No specific plans.
  
• 
  Are certain 'Mechs being looked at, like the Awesome and the Hunchback 4J? More generic talk about looking at egregious cases, wanting to take a look at all mechs again, etc etc. Nothing specific.
  
• 
  The community is the canary, and the data is the truth Yea, Bryan actually said this. Such a terrible analogy considering what happens to canaries when the 'truth' is bad news.
  
• 
  Will 'Mechs ever be able to crouch? What would the gameplay advantages and/or disadvantages be? Eventually.
  
• 
  Are individual, lance, and/or team achievements coming? In development currently.
  
• 
  Bryan discusses upcoming MechWarrior leveling system and level unlocks Player level based on total accumulated XP. Level unlock example included a requirement to join a faction and what I assume was a tongue-in-cheek reference to a requirement to post on the forum.

[Booran]

well this is {Scrap}

[Sean von Steinike]

Founder's Cat is the most owned mech......so.....not too many non-founders out there? And 50% of Founder's play monthly? One match in a month?

[Chrithu]

Sean von Steinike, on 05 September 2013 - 03:14 AM, said:

Founder's Cat is the most owned mech......so.....not too many non-founders out there? And 50% of Founder's play monthly? One match in a month?

What I find baffling is that retaining over 50% of your most enthusiastic supporters is seen as a good thing that is worth to be made public. The flipside is: They managed to alienate at least 41% of those people in about one year's time.

[New Day]

No UI 2.0? No CW? No DX11? What exactly are they launching.

[Appogee]

Thanks for posting. Unfortunately, there's not much good news in there, and a lot of bad news...

* No UI 2.0 at launch?!
* No lobby system - even in UI 2.0?!!!
* Not even a teensy bit of CW at launch?!

What do these guys do all day?!

It's further disturbing to learn that most founders no longer player (lowering the bar to ''once per month'' is not fooling anyone).

At the risk of being cynical, whenever PGI says ''eventually'' or ''under consideration'' I now hear ''never''.

Edited by Appogee, 05 September 2013 - 03:30 AM.

[Aym]

I know a LOT of founders are waiting for the Beta tag to be taken off before judging the game, so the numbers don't really mean a lot currently.

[Chemie]

"retained metric being loggin in once per month? I suspect there are founders who take a drop to see how tings changed and leave again so real number is below 50%.

I am one who did not buy into Pheonix. The CW "lies" are enough for me...now into 1/2Q 2014 (which means 1 year away in PGI terms). UI2 is nothing what we wanted (real lobbies) and just a front-end store.

Edited by Chemie, 05 September 2013 - 03:25 AM.

[Darwins Dog]

I still don't feel lied to or betrayed, and I still love what's out there, but I can't help but wonder: What's the point of launching?

[C E Dwyer]

NamesAreStupid, on 05 September 2013 - 03:20 AM, said:

No UI 2.0? No CW? No DX11? What exactly are they launching.

An ingame store, obviously, thats the most important part of MWO

Only retained 50% of the founders of which 'most' play monthy, wondering how many play weekly, or even daily now..

One of the retained founders with spare time:- hmm shall I ram a red hot poker up my jacksie or play MWO..hmm not anough time to heat up the poker, guess its the game..

ok exagerating(not by much for many of the 50% I'm sure) but the fact hat he said monthly says all sorts of bad..

Really pilling on the steam for the incomming train wreck heading for that tight mountain bend with every increasing hour..

[Lefteye Falconeer]

I still love the core game, the fighting, and I have been one of the biggest supporters of PGI... until now.

I can't blame anybody for their lack of crazy skills, so the inability to do in more than a year what some other companies can pull off with a smaller studio and in less time. But I can certainly blame them for questionable placement of resources (meaning they clearly didn't hire the right people when they expanded from 10 to 50 developers), for being terrible at prioritizing, and for being terrible at communicating even though they have been given multiple chances to do a better job at all these things.

"Releasing" without any major feature, with a game that has arguably not that many more features, outside of just combat, of what was in ALPHA (not beta) more than a year ago, is hardly excusable but most importantly very hard to understand.

I am all for understanding, but today for the first time I have to admit that _I do not understand_ and no amount of press babbling or interviewing will help me understand. I am sure I would understand if I could just sit down with Bryan, as a friend, over a pizza, and if he could reveal me all the issues they went through that we can't see from here.

But given that such thing is never gonna happen, I cannot help (even though I am trying, really) but feel *misled* by a development team that doesn't have the know-how to complete the task at hand in a reasonable amount of time but has been playing "competent" for a long time.

It would have been easier for me to understand if they told me/us 13 months ago (Inception): "We do our best but we aren't that great. Community Warfare and a new UI will take YEARS (literally) so please keep that in mind when you subscribe to our game cause for the next 18 months or so all you will be able to do will be dropping in random maps to do random figths with not the slightest hint of metagame, persistence or anything. No stats, no ladders or rankings, no chat or social tools, no clan wars. Nothing. Just new 'mechs, some new maps, some modules and consumables. For the next 18 months or so."

Yeah, I would have appreciated that. And now, today for the first time, listening to Bryan giving out his finely honed pretend-excited excuses, I cannot help but feel really, deeply disappointed. And it could have been avoided.


TL;DR: Will we get all the promised things EVENTUALLY? Sure. But 18 months are a long time to ask your players for patience. How do you expect people not to be burned out over that time when you don't ever release major features?

[C E Dwyer]

Appogee, on 05 September 2013 - 03:23 AM, said:

Thanks for posting. Unfortunately, there's not much good news in there, and a lot of bad news...

* No UI 2.0 at launch?!
* No lobby system - even in UI 2.0?!!!
* Not even a teensy bit of CW at launch?!

What do these guys do all day?!

It's further disturbing to learn that most founders no longer player (lowering the bar to ''once per month'' is not fooling anyone).

At the risk of being cynical, whenever PGI says ''eventually'' or ''under consideration'' I now hear ''never''.

With the snails pace developement the only thing that springs to mind other than laughing alot at the loyal community, no matter how badly they treat us,I cringe at what myself and others have put on these boards but they deserve every single word.

Assuming they actually do any work, is porting this to console games, hence all the delay I mean a game must be easier to code without CW and UI2 and all the things we were told, would be in a year ago, than with them

Edited by Cathy, 05 September 2013 - 04:17 AM.

[Bromineberry]

Sean von Steinike, on 05 September 2013 - 03:14 AM, said:

Founder's Cat is the most owned mech......so.....not too many non-founders out there?

It doesn't say that!

"Muromets is #1! Cataphract is most-owned mech after filtering out Founders' mech chassis. Incl Founders', Catapult is the most owned."

If you simply count ALL owned mechs, Catapults (all versions: A1, C1, C4 ....) are the most owned. If you filter out the founders mechs, it's the Cataphract.

Example: 4000 People own Cataphracts and 5000 own Catapults. That makes the Catapult the most owned mech. If 2000 of the 5000 Catapults are founders mechs and you filter them out, its 4000 vs. 3000 and the Cataphract becomes the number one owned mech.


I wish there were more stats like which mech is owned how often and which version is played how many hours a mont....relative values (%) would be fine also if hard numbers were too "dangerous" to give away.

[Vila deVere]

THIS. FREAKING THIS. They are launching WITHOUT the games main feature? Fire the freakin' project manager. That's ridiculous!

NamesAreStupid, on 05 September 2013 - 03:20 AM, said:

No UI 2.0? No CW? No DX11? What exactly are they launching.

NamesAreStupid, on 05 September 2013 - 03:20 AM, said:

No UI 2.0? No CW? No DX11? What exactly are they launching.

[Booran]

I can't help but wonder if they didn't expect some kind of backlash after that interview, and maybe prepared some kind of response. I hope we'll get an official word before the weekend.

And why do they drop this (really big important) bit of info in an interview instead of posting some kind of update on the main site? Never understood the NGNG collaboration.

[General Taskeen]

jozkhan, on 05 September 2013 - 03:04 AM, said:

• 
  
  
  Will the role of single heat sinks be re-examined, or are they as intended? "Working as intended". Will take another look when clan tech is introduced.
  

No worries everyone, SHS are working as intended by using DHS on every build! Better have your c-bills saved up for the upgrade! Heatsinks raising that threshold, unlike any Mech game, working as intended! SHS/DHS Heat neutrality is evil, can't have that, working as intended!

Edited by General Taskeen, 05 September 2013 - 05:02 AM.

[carl kerensky]

Also why in blazes can't PGI communicate these things here? Why does it have to second hand news? The core audience is the canary? Wtf The core audience is the foundation of this game !! You lost almost half of your founders? These people paid money because they believed in what you were doing. They saw the vision and potential. That has to tell you something. Like PGI needs to change the way they operate. Seriously.
Wow unbelievable.
Ck

[JudgeDeathCZ]

BIG things in October...anyway what are they launching?
For me it is just another patch...

[Waking One]

what the hell are they thinking launching without ui 2.0

launch is their last chance for a sort of "clean slate", give people good impressions at launch with a bit of promotion and they're good to go, but no, clearly have to screw it up

gah *facedesk*

Edited by Waking One, 05 September 2013 - 05:17 AM.

[TekSiDoT]

About a year ago this game had unlimited potential ... in my eyes it's still a good game, but nowhere near where it could have been. I also find the developments in community relations and developer communications kinda disturbing.

PGI, I really really really want you to succeed at creating a great Mechwarrior title, but right now, I'm losing any hope I had left for this game to eventually become great. What's the difference between open-beta and post-launch MWO?