10 replies to this topic

[evilC]

[Repost of an old post that got archived...]
With release allegedly in a couple of weeks, I thought I would list a couple of things that need to be fixed (IMHO) before a game can "go gold". At least when I was working in game QA, we certainly would not have released without fixing stuff like this.

Please note that these are all fixes to existing systems, where the current state is blatantly wrong or holding back other systems (Or mech builds) from working to their full potential.
In many cases, the fix is probably pretty easy also.

1) Zoom
Allow users to program mouse wheel to zoom like they used to
1a) Add zoom out.
The 3-stage loop is very unwieldy in combat.
1b) Make Advanced zoom return to the last used zoom level when closed.
Currently it always pops you back to 1x zoom, which is annoying. If you went 1x > 1.5x > 3x and then hit advanced zoom to view at 4x, when you close advanced zoom it should go back to 3x.

2) Usability fixes
2a) Fix Backspace (Need to spam it repeatedly to delete stuff)
2b) Left / Right arrows (Same issue as above)
2c) The missile bay door light is unusable in thermal or night vision.
Maybe make no light for closed, light on for open?

3) Fix chain fire
3a) If you hold the button down for a weapon group, MWO does not fire at (Weapon RoF / num weapons), it fires at a static rate. An issue with something like the HBK-4P with it's 6ML, even more of an issue with 4xAC2 - it is not even possible to chain fire at full rate without a macro or making your fingers bleed.
Trying to make changes to discourage Alpha builds, whilst requiring people use 3rd party software to make proper use of sustained fire builds is dumb beyond words. Give people proper chain fire and they might not have to resort to alpha striking.
3b) UACs should not double shot if the button is held. Some other mechanism should be used - either an extra key, or you have to click it rapidly.
Again, requiring 3rd party software to be able to properly use a weapon is poor design.

4) Fix weapon loading order.
If you drop an SRM6 and SRM4 into the LT of a QKD-4H, it puts the SRM4 into a 10 tube and the SRM6 into a 5 tube and there is nothing you can do about this - this is not limited to the QKD, merely an example.

Forgivable for not having, but really should:

5) Joysticks
5a) Allow relative analogue throttles.
5b) Allow absolute analogue aiming.

6) Weapon toggle
Requiring a user to hold down a TAG button is kind of silly

7) Refine mouse "extra button" support.
For example, using a vanilla MWO install and a vanilla Logitech mouse setup, the two side buttons (Mouse 4 and 5 - aka "Back" and "Forward") may well not work.
This is partly not PGIs fault - many mice default to sending "Back" and "Forward" not "Mouse4" and "Mouse5", but most games deal with this. Too many users are having to be told to set the button to "Generic Button" in their mouse software. Seems fixed.

8) Proper Arm Lock toggle.
The current hold-to-toggle system sucks.

As it stands, there are way too many things in MWO that require 3rd party software to use properly - I have software to solve (1), (3), (5a), (6) and (8), but new users coming to the game should really not need my software to solve basic failures in PGI's QA system.

I am kind of hoping that (1) will be fixed with UI2.0, but I see absolutely no dev comment on (3) and (4), which particularly worry me.

Edited by evilC, 14 September 2013 - 05:58 AM.

[Foxfire]

I haven't played a QD but have you tried flipping the weapon stack between the SRM's? I only think of this because I know that in mechs like the Jenner, the weapon stack determines which slot the weapon fires out of.

[evilC]

It makes no difference what order you drag them in, when you click save, it reorders them.
I think it always loads them in in order of size (small first) so if a chassis' missile points have a high tube count slot then a low tube count slot, the problem occurs.

Edited by evilC, 14 September 2013 - 05:16 AM.

[Foxfire]

Ah... well that sucks.. I've yet to run into that but I don't really run mechs with tons of missile slots(the most I have is a Cat C4).

[Tweaks]

Release is next week. Do you seriously think that PGI doesn't already have a priority list of fixes to do?

[Simbacca]

The one easy fix that I wish to be done is the missile door light.

No light = doors are closed.
Yes light = doors are open.

That way, regardless if player is in thermal/night vision mode or is colour blind they know if those doors are open or closed.

[evilC]

Yep, I forgot about that one.
Added, thank you!
This is exactly the kind of "low-hanging fruit" issue that I want to see fixed - keep em coming!

Edited by evilC, 14 September 2013 - 06:00 AM.

[Simbacca]

Also, I forgot about Quick Chat like is in every FPS game: IE: Foe Spotted, Help!, Foe in Tunnel, Foe at Kappa, etc.


And perhaps adding a symbol above mechs which are company and lance commanders - to make them easy to spot for fellow team members.

Edited by Simbacca, 14 September 2013 - 07:56 AM.

[evilC]

Simbacca, on 14 September 2013 - 07:30 AM, said:

Also, I forgot about Quick Chat like is in every FPS game: IE: Foe Spotted, Help!, Foe at Kappa, etc.


And perhaps adding a symbol above mechs which are company and lance commanders - to make them easy to spot for fellow team members.

Those are new features. This thread is about finishing the stuff that was already added.
Also, thinking about weapon door lights, IIRC they said they were going to make the vision modes only affect the view through the windows, so I think this is one of those things where they are waiting on something else to be able to fix it.

Edited by evilC, 14 September 2013 - 07:55 AM.

[1Sascha]

Totally agree.

Let me chime in here:

Fix radio buffer. Gimme a persistent (non-vanishing) radio bar which will always show the the last 5 or 6 lines/messages. Even better: Make it customizable in-game, allowing players to set it to whatever size/position they prefer. Also add a scroll functionality to it.. pretty much what other MMOs have had since the mid 90s.

Add ". commands" (or something along those lines) for different channels. Meaning: Typing ".a hi there" would send "hi there" to all. .t would send it to team, .l would send it to your lance. This would give comms more flexibility for the future and and would eliminate the need for three different radio-keys.

While you're at it: Include an anti-spam filter. If anyone thinks it's a good idea to fill up the chat buffer with nonsense (seen people using Macros for this kinda {Scrap}), remove said nonsense before it gets sent out to the channel, give the spammer one or two warnings, then kick him from the game if he does it again.

More radio-related stuff:
Pressing "P" while having my chat-prompt open will sometimes shut down my Mech.
Opening chat or the map will set my throttle to zero sometimes... even though I've had it set to 100 using JS-throttle or Numpad+ before. Don't know what the issue is here, because sometimes this works just fine.


S.

Edited by 1Sascha, 16 September 2013 - 11:29 PM.

[1Sascha]

Almost forgot:

Include a kick-vote feature to give players a way to remove annoying/disruptive players. Pretty much what you get in any kind of shooter. If three or four people call for it, vote gets initiated. If a large majority of players then vote to kick a spammer/TKer from the game, the vote passes and he gets dropped.

Along similar lines: Include an option to ignore annoying/spamming players' text-messages. For convenience/ease of use, make it a tick-box type of deal on the scoreboard.

Include an option to have friendly tags on permanently. Easy fix would be to have the "q" key work as an on/off-switch and not the "press and hold"-thing we have now.
Better still, include some sort of squad management, allowing me to highlight/permanently show my squaddie's tags only. Would make comms/positioning a lot easier.

Also de-clutter IDs/tags. As it is now, if I'm looking at 4 or 5 friendlies and press "Q", I can't see anything on those tags because they're way too big and overlap each other. Make them smaller and include less info. All you really need initially is three pieces of info: color (friend/foe), name (if it's a friendly) and distance. There's no need for names on enemy tags - I don't even want to know who I'm fighting ATM. Include a switch to cycle icons/tags through stages. Second stage could be Mech-type/subtype.

Do something about that stupid "I alpha right after mission start at base ... oops.. sorry there teammate whose rear I just opened up"-behavior. Either have weapons set to "safe" for the first 30 seconds of the game or introduce one of my other suggestions, "Killshooter". Meaning that any damage you do to a friend won't hurt said friend but your Mech instead.


And while it's not a fix per se, I'd also like to see a "hardcore" or "non-EZ-mode" option somewhere. If you chose to play in this mode, 3rd person is disabled, cap is disabled on assault for the first 6 or 7 minutes or so and you have to visually find and identify targets. Meaning: no detailed loadout-info, target-lock would still work so long as your crosshairs are on the target, automatic red/blue triangles for easy ID would only appear under 400m or so.



S.

Edited by 1Sascha, 28 September 2013 - 01:14 AM.