157 replies to this topic

[Cryptic Gamer]

I can see all this talk of the game being ported to console and reading through a lot of posts I have to agree that they seem to be using PC gamers to beta test a console port. What's next on the list? Will we all have to ditch our Mice, Keyboards, Joysticks, Throttles etc. And be forced to use a gamepad of sorts in the next patch? If this is the case then you're doing it wrong..... very wrong.

You should be doing your own testing of this sort on closed servers to ensure your control mapping will work with standard gamepads for whatever console you're looking at as well as having your own separate beta testing on the console itself. Also if you plan on Cross-Platform gaming then you will find that a massive chunk of your 'investors' will up and dissappear. There is a reason that there is a massive PC gaming community. We game on PC's for many reasons and every individual has their own reasons but here are some of mine

1- I enjoy better quality gaming and graphics. I don't mind investing large sums of money to build systems that will run games to the max.
2- I enjoy faster frame rates, this adds to the game play quality and immersion as it's truer to natural eyesight.
3- (Probably the most important reason for others and myself) I enjoy playing games with a mature crowd, I do own almost every console there has ever been but in this day and age most children and adolescents do too which takes the fun out of it as you have to hear some 12 year old spewing racism and hatred over his headset/typed in chat. Something that the majority of your current customers and I cannot tolerate. At least these crowds are minimised on PC as most parents won't front the necessary cost to enable them to join us.
4- I also enjoy the benefit of having more options and features, better control interfaces and basically a better complete package. These are the advantages of most games on the market for PC over their console siblings and that's what keeps us going.

If I didn't bother with these issues I could've saved myself thousands of pounds and countless hours building, troubleshooting, frustration, overclocking and more troubleshooting to get my system to where it is today. I could've stuck with all my consoles. (Yes I know that this is my choice and a choice I made. I like the challenge. Just putting it out there)

Lastly on the subject I will say this. I can pretty much guarantee that you will not find half as much willing 'investors' on the console format as for most of that community F2P is a temporary thing for them whilst they await the release of the next big hype game.

I think you really need to start listening to to those who make themselves heard here on the forums instead of claiming that 'X' number of e-mails came through (not saying it's BS but............). This latest Patch is the first step to the demise of this game and going by the track records of the dev's attitudes to consumer requests, this slippery slope you're on will get very steep, very soon.

Either roll-back and rethink your strategy, do a hot-fix (if possible) and re-enable the 'Fire selected Weapon Group', or at the very least come forward and discuss this with your customers. Another thing I think that has to be done in the future is more detailed notifications on upcoming patches, allow discussion/collaboration and from there try to come to a compromise with the direction you want to take and the requests from your player base.

[oldradagast]

It's madness, nothing less.

The game still has a host of issues, though most are not game-breaking. So, development time is spent REMOVING a working user interface tool for no reason at all. Did anyone ask for this to be removed? Was there some screaming post on "dynamically firing active weapon groups is over-powered" that I missed. Did anyone, anywhere ever ask for this feature to be removed? I doubt it... so why was time and money spent on making a change that hurts the game? I don't even use this option and I'm ticked about it because it means it's only a matter of time before PGI DOES break some aspect of the UI that I use in the game, and that's not acceptable.

I don't know if this is some nutty order issued by Microsoft regarding UI limitations for the new Xbox or what, but this needs to be brought back ASAP.

[Acid Phase]

Spheroid, on 05 November 2013 - 06:01 PM, said:

Wow this latest patch sounds like pure garbage.

Not sure if we should emphasize "Pure" or "Garbage".

[Spheroid]

Would the Xbox have enough buttons? Maybe, depending on how you treat consumables. You could get four inputs if you used the d-pad. You would need one dedidated button for "R", couldn't every other one be for a weapon group? One analogue stick for heading and throttle the other for twist and pitch, much like a helicopter cyclic.

Edited by Spheroid, 06 November 2013 - 09:48 AM.

[KHETTI]

6 pages of complaints over the removal of the key map, i see a second popular thread on the issue also, have PGI even bothered to comment on it? nope not a single word on the matter, no hotfix, nothing.
This people is what PGI think of us.

[Chrysato Bahrudin]

Zyllos, on 05 November 2013 - 03:06 PM, said:

I guess it doesn't matter one way or another...just figure I would ask because it's extremely confusing to me that someone would actually play that way.

Either way...

It's how i've played Mechwarrior since i was a wee little one on my dad's Gateway 3000. Create multiple weapon groups i use two side buttons on my mouse to toggle groups RMB to zoom and LMB to fire selected fire group did that explain it? This is how my entire merc corps plays and PGI just bent our playstyle over and butt ***** it. and just curious whats your control setup? toggling groups seems far more efficient than trying to keep track of 6 keybindings for 6 fire groups with 5 fingers......all the while keeping your aim on the enemy mech

[Roadbeer]

KHETTI, on 06 November 2013 - 09:51 AM, said:

6 pages of complaints over the removal of the key map, i see a second popular thread on the issue also, have PGI even bothered to comment on it? nope not a single word on the matter, no hotfix, nothing.
This people is what PGI think of us.

Tweeted both Bryan and Russ (since it is their favorite medium): No response
Sent in a ticket to support: No response.

Still early, lets see where the day takes us. I mean, they were quick to reply about that stupid clock thing that a few people got all up in arms about.

[Acid Phase]

Roadbeer, on 06 November 2013 - 09:54 AM, said:

Tweeted both Bryan and Russ (since it is their favorite medium): No response
Sent in a ticket to support: No response.

Still early, lets see where the day takes us. I mean, they were quick to reply about that stupid clock thing that a few people got all up in arms about.

Not sure if they care. The patch was pushed through. PGI loves to troll.

This from Ekman's twitter.

"Off to LA for a break"

Edited by Acid Phase, 06 November 2013 - 10:05 AM.

[Chrysato Bahrudin]

Mercules, on 05 November 2013 - 04:52 PM, said:

You realize there are about 9 other companies that make gaming mice with multiple buttons, right?

I'm sorry, if you can't go from click button A twice and B once to fire group 3 to Click button 3 to fire group 3... Um... I have no words.

Yes, they shouldn't have removed it, but even with it in the game you would be better off using a mouse that would allow you to easily fire different weapon groups instantaneously, or even multiples of them at once, than having to rotate between weapon groups. I can hold down a mouse button with my thumb to keep tag toggled on(I don't always want it on giving away my position) as well as fire groups 1,2, 3(which is where I tend to put Tag), 5 all at once. I can then have 4 as a chainfire group which I can instantly switch to while still using 1 and 2 freely.

It is literally more efficient than having multiple groups you utilize singularly.

well sorry ive already dropped over 100 dollars on the game i don't feel like having to go buy a gaming mouse to play it its stupid and theres absolutely no reason for the change i use a two button mouse with two side buttons. i make multiple weapon groups use the two side buttons to scroll through them RMB to zoom and LMB to fire selected weapon group. this is how i play and my merc corps plays its how we play the game and thats the point MW has always been about customizing weapon loadouts and how to fire them. you have your way we have our way to each is own PGI restricting that function is an insult to paying players and the MW franchise as a whole

[Sir Roland MXIII]

oldradagast, on 06 November 2013 - 09:10 AM, said:

"dynamically firing active weapon groups is over-powered"

Said no one ever.

Besides, even hypothetically, if there WAS a lone post about this, that's a very small part of the forums which they regularly dismiss as "not our target demographic" / "vocal minority" / etc. So if they DID follow one brainless poster who said this then that renders everything they've said before a lie.

Which to be honest wouldn't come as any surprise to me, but it would still represent a very drastic (and extremely worrisome) course change on how they troll treat their customers.

Edited by Sir Roland MXIII, 06 November 2013 - 10:10 AM.

[Deathlike]

Acid Phase, on 06 November 2013 - 10:03 AM, said:

Not sure if they care. The patch was pushed through. PGI loves to troll.

This from Ekman's twitter.

"Off to LA for a break"

Well, he's not on "vacation" exactly.

However, it is par for the course.

[Loc Nar]

Dear PGI: please for the love of kerensky hire someone with a background in human factors of engineering and start treating the interface and controls with some respect and understanding.

For some reason the interface for playing MWO is treated as a secondary subject... a side note... an afterthought. That is, when it gets what little attention it receives which amazingly is almost none. Newsflash: an interface is not some minor detail that augments one's experience playing a game.... it IS the experience. If you make that suck bad enough, nothing else you do matters.

Please understand, this latest feature doesn't even affect my own weapons/controls or playing at all beyond gimping people I'm playing with/against and further thinning of the heard. However controls and the interface is my personal main focus as a cockpit builder, going so far as to fabricate a specialized joystick designed specifically for *zero-order positioning and I take this stuff pretty seriously. Alienating people at the level of control interface is a good way to lose a lot more players.

tl;dr: your interface is bad and you should feel bad


*zero-order positioning is the proper name for the type of input that reticule aim is in MWO, same as a cursor in a browser and is essentially incompatible with most joysticks (the real reason regular joysticks suck in MWO) because they are vector based input devices for what is called first-order control. Read up some on it here if terms like zero-order or first-order control are unfamiliar: Controls Demystified(?)

[Kenyon Burguess]

Nick Makiaveli, on 05 November 2013 - 03:06 PM, said:

I want to see an example of a mech that uses all 6 weapon groups.

my orion m: 1= 2 med lasers, 2= ac/20, 3=lrm15,4=full alpha, 5= la med laser, 6= ra med laser.

[Kaosity]

Acid Phase, on 06 November 2013 - 10:03 AM, said:

Not sure if they care. The patch was pushed through. PGI loves to troll.

This from Ekman's twitter.

"Off to LA for a break"

I'd worry even more if it was "Off to Redmond for a break."

[Chrysato Bahrudin]

Dear Piranha Games,

I am an avid MWO fan and was extremely excited when the game came out but this recent patch troubles me greatly. Specifically the removal of the "Fire Selected Weapon Group" function. I feel I speak on behalf of a large number of the community in this email. The function you removed has been a core function of Mechwarrior games since I was a child playing on my father's Gateway 3000. It also severely impedes my style of play because I use a two button mouse. I do not think its right to A) have to purchase a "Gaming Mouse" to be able to pilot well, or have to assign my firing groups to my already cluttered key bindings while trying to keep my aim with the mouse. Another thing that troubles me is a lack of response from you the developers. It truly amazes me at the lack of official response about this issue when there has been hundreds of posts in the forums in the last 24 hours. This is the reason I am emailing you its my last ditch effort to get some sort of response from you. The fact that none of your staff has said a WORD about this issue on the forums is extremely disheartening. Its not an issue with how efficient the controls are but how limited you just made them. All past Mechwarrior games have been about the abillity to customize weapon loadouts and utilize them however you want to that's what makes it so fun! With this change you're limiting that core concept of customization and in turn limiting the game I've thoroughly enjoyed this past year and a half. Please PGI i'm desperately reaching out and asking on the behalf of our community to put this function back, if it was not broken in the first place then why remove it? Once again a response would be greatly appreciated and I feel that myself and the community deserve at least that.

Thank you,

Justin, a paying customer and lifelong Mechwarrior fan

sent this to PGI's general inquiry see if i get a response

Edited by Chrysato Bahrudin, 06 November 2013 - 11:07 AM.

[Snitchkilla]

really ... HOT FIX!

[Deedsie]

Quote

Unless, your moving the active weapon group around to fire, which then...I am sorry.

But why would you be playing that way in the first place, just to ask?

Because I have my Machine Guns set on group 6 that I can quickly switch to so I can fire those instead of my ER PPC when my heat is up bad on my Battlemaster. ER PPC group 1, lasers group 2, SRMs group 3, machine guns group 6 to switch to on the fly so I have something to shoot that won't heat me up further when my heat is high. I keep no more than 3 primary weapon groups because I only have a 3-button mouse. This screws it up for me.

Edited by Deedsie, 06 November 2013 - 11:39 AM.

[DjPush]

Recieved a reply for my Support ticket:

Hello Brandon Corwin,
As per the patch notes:
"Removed the key binding option "Fire Selected Weapon Group". Mouse 1's (Left Click) default key bind is now "Fire Weapon Group 1", this can be remapped in the options screen."
This was changed as the previous functionality was causing errors with other key bindings.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience.
Reppu
Senior GameMaster
MechWarrior® Online™

Not sure if I believe it though. How can it be causing a problem that no one noticed or complained about for the last year?

[Deedsie]

Quote

This was changed as the previous functionality was causing errors with other key bindings.

Causing errors with other key bindings? Wat? I simply disabled the group 1 key binding to keep it simple.

[oldradagast]

DjPush, on 06 November 2013 - 11:32 AM, said:

Recieved a reply for my Support ticket:

Hello Brandon Corwin,
As per the patch notes:
"Removed the key binding option "Fire Selected Weapon Group". Mouse 1's (Left Click) default key bind is now "Fire Weapon Group 1", this can be remapped in the options screen."
This was changed as the previous functionality was causing errors with other key bindings.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience.
Reppu
Senior GameMaster
MechWarrior® Online™

Not sure if I believe it though. How can it be causing a problem that no one noticed or complained about for the last year?

Maybe the problem really was "causing issues with other button binding on the next gen Xbox console port, which is what UI2.0 really is."

Or, maybe they are just trying to get the game to be 3pv only, 1 button to fire all weapons, no torso twist. That'll really feel like MechWarrior... ugh...

It sickens me that with all the real problems, this is what they focus on - breaking things that work. I honestly don't see them getting another dime from me until this type of nonsense ends, and I didn't even use the key binding option in question... wonder what they'll "fix" next...

Edited by oldradagast, 06 November 2013 - 11:38 AM.