2555 replies to this topic

[Heffay]

StoneMason, on 18 September 2013 - 05:13 AM, said:

Thanks for the heads up about the interview Heffay, but would you consider an external fan site (however close their relationship to the developers) to be an appropriate standalone portal for that kind of discussion? Just like the developers who use Twitter to communicate far more information that is ever released here or on the frontpage. The only reason I have a Twitter account was because I had to open one to find out if PGI was still going to PAX Australia, because there was absolutely no communication from them either here or there to say they'd cancelled.

I think there is plenty of different mediums they can use. And the more, the better. So yes, they should use fan sites, twitter, facebook, and the forums to communicate info. They have Ask the Devs, creative director updates, and the announcements sections. And of course, you can always open a ticket to support@mwomercs.com to get questions like "will you be at PAX Australia" as well.

They haven't been hunkered down in radio silence. They've posted a TON of information over the past few months, in multiple formats.

[ShadowedR]

bloo58, on 18 September 2013 - 05:22 AM, said:

I can assure you I have no affiliation with PGI, and I would probably have one of THE biggest reason to complain about this game, being an online shooter, as I live in Australia and there are zero dedicated local servers for me.. so while you all have issues with maps not being implemented and UI's that havent been updated.. I'm stuck with the rudimentary issues of having to connect across the Pacific ocean to the servers with an avg ping of around 250-300ms.. not really an FPS ping.. but such is life.. I cant MAKE them put a server in the oceanic region, I'd like them to.. but it probably wont happen.. I still love playing the game, despite that massive drawback.. in any other game(CS:S, BF3, CoD) bam seeya later, unplayable..

From South Africa. 300ms +.

I must say I've found the game quite reasonable in terms of action to on screen feedback.
As a dota player, 300ms is unplayable, but on MWO - its not that bad.

[Kread]

Okay I am going to explain this to you Hugo, since I was obviously not being direct enough, a history of gaming 101.

The way video games used to be developed, you sink millions (amount varies on size of title) into a title, manufacture, hope it sells. Make a bunch ...lose a bunch. Some games still made this way.

The new way, pick some niche idea for a game, one with at least several thousand fanatical fans (mechwarrior/ Steam City/ Might quest for epic.....etc etc)

Get people to give you millions with a Kick-starter before you do much of anything, pocket 9/10th of the cash , hire a couple of devs.

The 2 Devs make a quick and dirty mod of the game and slap it out as closed beta with special packs for early access founder packs, investor packs, wanna buy a kelp farm packs.....you get the idea.

If this generates enough income , once again pocket most the cash, hire another couple of devs, who put in a cash shop selling, well anything they can think of for real money, milk this as a closed beta till the special founder packs stop selling.

Now we have open beta...more cash shop items...bobbleheads , in game premium, super cash guns/tanks/mechs ...until revenue drops off, pocket most the cash gains from selling this stuff... fire a couple devs... and


Launch time....

[bloo58]

ShadowedR, on 18 September 2013 - 05:31 AM, said:

From South Africa. 300ms +.

I must say I've found the game quite reasonable in terms of action to on screen feedback.
As a dota player, 300ms is unplayable, but on MWO - its not that bad.

I've found that it's quite playable at 300ms, which says something about the netcode they have.. and I am very impressed by it, I remeber back in the days of Quake 1 and Quake 2, a sub 200 ping was something to gasp at, being able to play this game at 300ms, with no rubber banding, or stuttering, I reckon is pretty damn good..

[ShadowedR]

bloo58, on 18 September 2013 - 05:35 AM, said:

I've found that it's quite playable at 300ms, which says something about the netcode they have.. and I am very impressed by it, I remeber back in the days of Quake 1 and Quake 2, a sub 200 ping was something to gasp at, being able to play this game at 300ms, with no rubber banding, or stuttering, I reckon is pretty damn good..

Except when you do start lagging. Then the net code was developed by the devil himself.

All in all, MWO isn't a bad game. Or I should say, the basis of the game isn't that bad.
But the project as whole has become too top heavy - MORE content to facilitate micro transactions, less focus on core development. I'm sure it is being done, but not at 100% capacity.

Edited by ShadowedR, 18 September 2013 - 05:39 AM.

[StoneMason]

JeremyCrow, on 18 September 2013 - 05:18 AM, said:

I'm a CRM consultant and my boss just sent me this:

http://www.slideshar...n=weekly_digest

Looked strangely appropriate...

Nice , my background is CRM and I've absolutely killed myself working for companies that were exploiting their customer base (Telstra, the #1 ISP over here, was quite deliberately price gouging the elderly for years). I don't think that's the case here, the core game is too lovingly crafted, but it is very difficult to see the pain and resentment that uncoordinated communication results in.

[Ahasver]

Unfortunately AskTheDevs is closed for now.

I really really really would like to get an answer to the Question
"Why was the Launch so unimpressive"
or
"Why was Launch as it was"

or something like that. I am really interested in the Reason. I am sure they know that a lot of people where really sad yesterday and the knew it before. So how and why did this happen?

[bloo58]

ShadowedR, on 18 September 2013 - 05:39 AM, said:

Except when you do start lagging. Then the net code was developed by the devil himself.

True true

ShadowedR, on 18 September 2013 - 05:39 AM, said:

All in all, MWO isn't a bad game. Or I should say, the basis of the game isn't that bad.
But the project as whole has become too top heavy - MORE content to facilitate micro transactions, less focus on core development. I'm sure it is being done, but not at 100% capacity.

If theres one thing i cant stand its microtransactions, they sour the experience, and it really is just money grubbing tactic.. and it's been stolen from these ****** iphones and mobile devices.. stupid apple..

I'll give it time, I mean I've got a plethora of F2P games that I can chop and change between in the mean time, good things come to those who wait..

[Drakken]

Necris, on 17 September 2013 - 11:08 AM, said:

Launchday - what do we get for celebration?

OMG...I loved this. So true!!! SO HILARIOUS!

[bloo58]

StoneMason, on 18 September 2013 - 05:42 AM, said:

Telstra, the #1 ISP over here, was quite deliberately price gouging the elderly for years

The Elderly??.. wha.. tel$tra dont discriminate.. they raut everyone with a large spikey pole

[Mater]

I think they should have waited a week when they launched the UI2 but would that have changed anything … no because I bet the same people that are complaining will not like UI2, so it’s a no win for MWO

And yes I believe that what they promised for the founders should have been delivered a long time ago, and community warfare is coming soon … so it’s like this never happened

[Furball42]

bloo58, on 18 September 2013 - 05:44 AM, said:

True true



If theres one thing i cant stand its microtransactions, they sour the experience, and it really is just money grubbing tactic.. and it's been stolen from these ****** iphones and mobile devices.. stupid apple..

I'll give it time, I mean I've got a plethora of F2P games that I can chop and change between in the mean time, good things come to those who wait..

kinda the root of all this evil isn't it? i'm sure if people weren't spending oodles of money on this game (as in its current state), we weren't be having all this flame.

[Drakken]

Riptor, on 17 September 2013 - 10:13 AM, said:

Im more amazed that they just announced that all the planned features have been pushed back to next year and no one seems to notice.

Everyone was expecting ui 2.0 to be right around the corner and now it is a feature for next year?

Wow.. just... what the hell are you doing with your time pgi?

Totally agree. I wish I could be this slow at MY job without getting my butt fired and end up standing in the unemployment line...

But then...they DO have time. As long as we pay to play, they have all the time in the world. The moment people start closing their wallets, they'll get their collective butts in gear to FINALLY deliver new content. At least, one can hope...

Ahja, on 17 September 2013 - 10:32 AM, said:

Well not a bang but more a pop fizzle?

More like a whimper, Ahja. LOL.

My two C-Bills:

I realize that "Sarah's Mech" May have soaked up some development time, but let's face it...it seems that development is proceeding at a snail's pace. As a lead developer/Application Systems Engineer that oversees a development team of my own, I can understand how inexperience of programmers, or inexperience with the tools you are using can cause slow progress. I can also understand being understaffed, but in both cases, those excuses only go so far. Inexperience soon gives way to experience, and being understaffed...well, if that is the case, that's on the management there at PGI, and they should be ashamed at the fact that they don't realize that implementing planned features needs to happen sooner rather than later. PGI might soon realize a shrinking player base if they do not start delivering some rather substantial content soon!

I do want MWO to succeed, because (like it or not...and currently I don't) the possibility of future "Mechwarrior" games somewhat hinges on the success of MWO. I still would like to see a single player experience again...some day. Hell, I'd like to see a MMORPG instead of just an MMO (but I realize I will not ever likely see that)....but I digress. My point, PGI, is that you need to kick it in high gear, and start TALKING to us about CW, UI2.0, and other stuff.

Here's a few suggestions:

1. Spend less time on making stupid you tube videos of heavy metal music and repetitive kill shots, and more time delivering promised content.
2. You still have a chance to "FIX" this launch by delivering SOMETHING meaningful on the day of the launch party. e.g. a HUGE sale, a free mech to all players that log in and play a match or two during that 24 hr period of time....maybe even something that would be "cheap" to do like new patterns, etc. Anything, at this point, would be better than the 'nothing' you've really done for launch.
3. Give us SOME solid information on CW, clans...concept art of clan mechs...concept art of UI2.0, or ANY news of any of these upcoming features. I, for one, am interested in how you guys plan to balance IS vs. Clan tech. How will you encourage zellbriggan? (or will you encourage it at all?)

Yeah...I guess that's it.

[Heffay]

bloo58, on 18 September 2013 - 05:35 AM, said:

I've found that it's quite playable at 300ms, which says something about the netcode they have.. and I am very impressed by it, I remeber back in the days of Quake 1 and Quake 2, a sub 200 ping was something to gasp at, being able to play this game at 300ms, with no rubber banding, or stuttering, I reckon is pretty damn good..

The amount of improvements they've made to Cryengine is pretty astounding. I bet Chris Roberts is looking at their network engineers and cryengine developers and trying to see if he can lure them off to Texas.

[Heffay]

Ahasver, on 18 September 2013 - 05:43 AM, said:

I really really really would like to get an answer to the Question
"Why was the Launch so unimpressive"
or
"Why was Launch as it was"

That was answered. Let me see if I can dig up the link for you.

Edit: I think it was on the 3 part podcast they did with NGNG. Not sure which one, but just for sheer content alone, I highly recommend listening to it. They talk vision and LONG term plans as well. Solaris, CW, achievements, etc.

Edited by Heffay, 18 September 2013 - 05:58 AM.

[HugoStiglitz]

Kread, on 18 September 2013 - 05:32 AM, said:

Okay I am going to explain this to you Hugo, since I was obviously not being direct enough, a history of gaming 101.

The way video games used to be developed, you sink millions (amount varies on size of title) into a title, manufacture, hope it sells. Make a bunch ...lose a bunch. Some games still made this way.

The new way, pick some niche idea for a game, one with at least several thousand fanatical fans (mechwarrior/ Steam City/ Might quest for epic.....etc etc)

Get people to give you millions with a Kick-starter before you do much of anything, pocket 9/10th of the cash , hire a couple of devs.

The 2 Devs make a quick and dirty mod of the game and slap it out as closed beta with special packs for early access founder packs, investor packs, wanna buy a kelp farm packs.....you get the idea.

If this generates enough income , once again pocket most the cash, hire another couple of devs, who put in a cash shop selling, well anything they can think of for real money, milk this as a closed beta till the special founder packs stop selling.

Now we have open beta...more cash shop items...bobbleheads , in game premium, super cash guns/tanks/mechs ...until revenue drops off, pocket most the cash gains from selling this stuff... fire a couple devs... and


Launch time....

Which is why every F2P game over the last couple of years has sucked, so long as you don't look at TF2, LoL, DoTA 2, GW2 (so long as you bought the box). Just look at all the cow clickers on Facebook and the Google Play Store/iTunes Store.

What you are saying is not only misleading, for most games it's just plain wrong.

Now get my point. If you actually think that 2 developers can develop a game like this, you are stupid. A 3D Artist can't correct a networking issue. A QA Specialist can't make a good consumer grade UI. If you were to actually play for more than what you said, you would find that they made a decent product. Sure they delayed 2 features until they are working properly, but the game can actually be played and they are working on those 2 features, they aren't scrapped.

[bloo58]

Furball42, on 18 September 2013 - 05:48 AM, said:

kinda the root of all this evil isn't it? i'm sure if people weren't spending oodles of money on this game (as in its current state), we weren't be having all this flame.

nailed it.. people are regreting their spends now.. because they were too impatient to wait.. most of the time if those early sales dont end up being lucrative, they are just re run at lower prices after launch.. I wouldnt be surprised if we saw the phoenix packages made available at a later date, at a lower price.. because so many jumped right into their trap so early on, they dont need to..

I wouldnt call this not living up to promises.. I'd call this very very smart marketing.. and a lot of fools got suckered

[ShadowedR]

Furball42, on 18 September 2013 - 05:48 AM, said:

kinda the root of all this evil isn't it? i'm sure if people weren't spending oodles of money on this game (as in its current state), we weren't be having all this flame.

I'm surprised in myself for spending the amount of money I did.
Thinking back on it, why would you dump hundreds of dollars (our exchange rate is 10:1, I've spent in the thousands) on an incomplete product? I could have bought Civ V with all of the DLC's and expansions and still expect change. Civ's a finished game.

Would you buy a car, one micro transaction at a time?

Maybe the the community had a small hand in this, dumping all this currency into PGI's lap and basically telling them that it's OK to sell us virtual models. We don't mind the state of the game, as long as we get a new mech or paint job every now and then.

Edited by ShadowedR, 18 September 2013 - 05:56 AM.

[bloo58]

ShadowedR, on 18 September 2013 - 05:54 AM, said:

I'm surprised in myself for spending the amount of money I did.
Thinking back on it, why would you dump hundreds of dollars (our exchange rate is 10:1, I've spent in the thousands) on an incomplete product? I could have bought Civ V with all of the DLC's and expansions and still expect change.

Would you buy a car, one micro transaction at a time?

Maybe the the community had a small hand in this, dumping all this currency into PGI's lap and basically telling them that it's OK to sell us virtual models. We don't mind the state of the game, as long as we get a new mech or paint job every now and then.

I wouldnt think they'd have a HUGE influx of cash via MT's, more of a dribble here and dribble there wouldnt you think, i mean I havent looked, but whats the most expensive MT you can make? Buying MC's?

For me the Mechwarrior name was enough for me to commit to purchasing a phoenix pack, not the biggest, but I'll contribute what I think I want to spend on, as you say, an unfinished item, I can risk $40 and be happy..

[strike6a]

Can"t wait!!!! This is gonna be epic.