5 replies to this topic

[Bane Sidhe]

I started playing MWO a little less than a month ago. So far, I'm enjoying the game a lot. I was surprised by the "launch" announcement, however. Don't get me wrong, the game is quite playable and fun as it stands; it's also clear that the developers still consider the game a work in process. Speaking as someone who enjoys the game, then, and enjoys video games in general - particularly competitive ones - there are a few features and improvements that seem to be lacking from a working title.

- Lobbies. Matchmaking is fine, but for any form of competitive gameplay, some form of premade lobby is critical. If I want to play "my team versus your team" I need to be able to set that up in advance, complete with map selection and environment settings under user control. While games like CS:GO and TF2 allow for third-party servers to act as hosts for premade games, the Starcraft 2/DOTA 2 style of lobby would probably work better for MechWarrior Online. This feature is particularly important for setting up scrimmages and matches if there are any plans at all for some level of amateur or professional competitive play.

- Community mapmaking. Give the community some mapmaking tools and sit back and watch the available map pool expand. Nearly all of the maps used in current Starcraft 2 competitive gameplay were created by the community; half or more of the maps in rotation in CS:GO started out as community projects. Even if 99% of the maps created are garbage and the other 1% needed at least some professional tweaking to be playable you'd still end up with the community doing almost all of the work of generating new maps for you... and they do it for free.

- In-game voice comms. I recognize that as an independent developer you're not working with the same level of existing code libraries as Valve and Blizzard, but in-game voice comms have come to be something of a standard feature that players sort of expect. They promote communication, and communication promotes teamwork.

- Different game modes. I know that things like "Community Warfare" are in the works, but there are other dimensions to game modes that could be explored. Smaller-scale skirmishes (4v4) would be fun to play sometimes. For regular 12v12, Team Fortress 2 has a neat map called tc_hydro; it's one map that gets broken up into multiple smaller sub-sections. Each team has a capture point (much like assault) in each smaller map section. Once you've captured the enemy point, the available subset of the map shifts so that the winning team is now on the control point they just captured and the other team is defending a new control point. Once you've pushed the other team back far enough, you assault their main base; capturing that wins the map. Since you're considering attack/defend style gameplay, you might take that page out of TF2's playbook as well - three successive "layers" of attack are required, with the win going to the attacking team only after they've taken the final point (maps such as cp_dustbowl.)

- New player assistance. Not only does MWO have a decent learning curve to get the basics of controls and tactics down, but as a new player you're dumped into combat in mechs with jack-of-all-trades loadouts against players who have had years to tweak their mechs into specialized killing machines. Using the "Champion" mechs as the trial mechs was a step in the right direction, but the cadet bonuses (usually) aren't enough to get that first mech you purchase into fighting condition. You might consider creating specialized cadet mechs that have loadouts that are popular with the community. This not only gives the new player a competitive mech to play around with, but also gives them more insight and direction for building a decent loadout once they have their own mechs. Another problem is that the default loadouts for your first few mech purchases are significantly inferior to what a new player is going to be going up against, and most new players are going to adopt one of two mentalities as a result (most, but not all, I'm sure there are exceptions.) Either they are going to find it too frustrating to play, or they are going to try to work the system and rush the upgrades by getting as many mechs into as many simultaneous games as possible so that they can actually play the mech that they bought. The latter approach is terrible for the kind of teamwork you need to play a 12v12 match. Perhaps an optional "trial mode" could be enabled for a newly-purchased mech (only available on your first 1-2 purchases) that allows you to create any loadout you want on your new mech for free; during trial mode, you get a normal payout in C-Bills, but limited or no experience. Trial mode would expire after a set number of games played (5? 10?) but would probably be enough to allow players to not only find a good configuration but give them a head start in the money needed to purchase the upgrades to work toward that loadout.

- Balancing gameplay vs. lore. More than one game has gone horribly awry by slavishly adhering to lore when it clearly made for terrible or imbalanced gameplay. I love the gauss rifle change. The game needs more distinguishing characteristics like that, things that go beyond "an ER Large Laser is just a Large Laser with more range and heat." Pulse lasers are a good example of weapons that could use some love. If you consider the factors of the weight, heat, range, and DPS of pulse lasers against their ordinary counterparts, there's almost never a scenario where the pulse laser is a better choice for a hardpoint than a normal laser. Small pulse lasers in particular are actually a strictly worse choice than both a medium laser or a small laser for the same hardpoint. While the completely homogenous internal structure worked for the tabletop game, it feels a bit silly in MWO that a tiny Commando and a massive Atlas both have 12 center torso slots, 12 side torso slots, 6 leg slots, etc. It's not a problem or anything, but it would certainly change the decision making for loadouts if different mechs had different numbers of internal structure slots available (beyond just the removal of a couple of actuators in the arms.)

Well, that's about all I have. The game is fun, I'm enjoying it, I look forward to seeing it evolve. No wait, one other thing - I know I just got done saying to ignore the lore in favor of better gameplay, but I want my melee capabilities. If I have a hand actuator, I want to be able to punch another mech in the face. And then I want a Hatchetman, because the only thing BETTER than punching another mech in the face is smashing another mech over the head with an axe.

[Bane Sidhe]

Something I forgot that would be very handy to have - the ability to cancel out of the matchmaking queue would be great.

[wickwire]

all excellent points, +1

[Corvus Antaka]

ui 2.0 will hopefully address most of these concerns. We will see when we get it I suppose.

Edited by Colonel Pada Vinson, 25 September 2013 - 09:53 PM.

[Lefty Lucy]

4 v 4 pre-made only would be ******* awesome. Just leave the big maps out of rotation.

[Johnny Reb]

Bane Sidhe, on 25 September 2013 - 09:10 AM, said:

I started playing MWO a little less than a month ago. So far, I'm enjoying the game a lot. I was surprised by the "launch" announcement, however. Don't get me wrong, the game is quite playable and fun as it stands; it's also clear that the developers still consider the game a work in process. Speaking as someone who enjoys the game, then, and enjoys video games in general - particularly competitive ones - there are a few features and improvements that seem to be lacking from a working title.

- Lobbies. Matchmaking is fine, but for any form of competitive gameplay, some form of premade lobby is critical. If I want to play "my team versus your team" I need to be able to set that up in advance, complete with map selection and environment settings under user control. While games like CS:GO and TF2 allow for third-party servers to act as hosts for premade games, the Starcraft 2/DOTA 2 style of lobby would probably work better for MechWarrior Online. This feature is particularly important for setting up scrimmages and matches if there are any plans at all for some level of amateur or professional competitive play.

- Community mapmaking. Give the community some mapmaking tools and sit back and watch the available map pool expand. Nearly all of the maps used in current Starcraft 2 competitive gameplay were created by the community; half or more of the maps in rotation in CS:GO started out as community projects. Even if 99% of the maps created are garbage and the other 1% needed at least some professional tweaking to be playable you'd still end up with the community doing almost all of the work of generating new maps for you... and they do it for free.

- In-game voice comms. I recognize that as an independent developer you're not working with the same level of existing code libraries as Valve and Blizzard, but in-game voice comms have come to be something of a standard feature that players sort of expect. They promote communication, and communication promotes teamwork.

- Different game modes. I know that things like "Community Warfare" are in the works, but there are other dimensions to game modes that could be explored. Smaller-scale skirmishes (4v4) would be fun to play sometimes. For regular 12v12, Team Fortress 2 has a neat map called tc_hydro; it's one map that gets broken up into multiple smaller sub-sections. Each team has a capture point (much like assault) in each smaller map section. Once you've captured the enemy point, the available subset of the map shifts so that the winning team is now on the control point they just captured and the other team is defending a new control point. Once you've pushed the other team back far enough, you assault their main base; capturing that wins the map. Since you're considering attack/defend style gameplay, you might take that page out of TF2's playbook as well - three successive "layers" of attack are required, with the win going to the attacking team only after they've taken the final point (maps such as cp_dustbowl.)

- New player assistance. Not only does MWO have a decent learning curve to get the basics of controls and tactics down, but as a new player you're dumped into combat in mechs with jack-of-all-trades loadouts against players who have had years to tweak their mechs into specialized killing machines. Using the "Champion" mechs as the trial mechs was a step in the right direction, but the cadet bonuses (usually) aren't enough to get that first mech you purchase into fighting condition. You might consider creating specialized cadet mechs that have loadouts that are popular with the community. This not only gives the new player a competitive mech to play around with, but also gives them more insight and direction for building a decent loadout once they have their own mechs. Another problem is that the default loadouts for your first few mech purchases are significantly inferior to what a new player is going to be going up against, and most new players are going to adopt one of two mentalities as a result (most, but not all, I'm sure there are exceptions.) Either they are going to find it too frustrating to play, or they are going to try to work the system and rush the upgrades by getting as many mechs into as many simultaneous games as possible so that they can actually play the mech that they bought. The latter approach is terrible for the kind of teamwork you need to play a 12v12 match. Perhaps an optional "trial mode" could be enabled for a newly-purchased mech (only available on your first 1-2 purchases) that allows you to create any loadout you want on your new mech for free; during trial mode, you get a normal payout in C-Bills, but limited or no experience. Trial mode would expire after a set number of games played (5? 10?) but would probably be enough to allow players to not only find a good configuration but give them a head start in the money needed to purchase the upgrades to work toward that loadout.

- Balancing gameplay vs. lore. More than one game has gone horribly awry by slavishly adhering to lore when it clearly made for terrible or imbalanced gameplay. I love the gauss rifle change. The game needs more distinguishing characteristics like that, things that go beyond "an ER Large Laser is just a Large Laser with more range and heat." Pulse lasers are a good example of weapons that could use some love. If you consider the factors of the weight, heat, range, and DPS of pulse lasers against their ordinary counterparts, there's almost never a scenario where the pulse laser is a better choice for a hardpoint than a normal laser. Small pulse lasers in particular are actually a strictly worse choice than both a medium laser or a small laser for the same hardpoint. While the completely homogenous internal structure worked for the tabletop game, it feels a bit silly in MWO that a tiny Commando and a massive Atlas both have 12 center torso slots, 12 side torso slots, 6 leg slots, etc. It's not a problem or anything, but it would certainly change the decision making for loadouts if different mechs had different numbers of internal structure slots available (beyond just the removal of a couple of actuators in the arms.)

Well, that's about all I have. The game is fun, I'm enjoying it, I look forward to seeing it evolve. No wait, one other thing - I know I just got done saying to ignore the lore in favor of better gameplay, but I want my melee capabilities. If I have a hand actuator, I want to be able to punch another mech in the face. And then I want a Hatchetman, because the only thing BETTER than punching another mech in the face is smashing another mech over the head with an axe.

Preaching to the over 6 month choir!
edit: dare I say 9, 12?

Edited by Johnny Reb, 25 September 2013 - 10:02 PM.