Nasty McBadman, on 17 November 2013 - 02:18 PM, said:
The game is fine folks. It will flourish for a long time. It is only a tiny bit of growing pains for being so newly released. There are plenty of players in the player base, you are only seeing the ones that are ranked so close to you in skill level that the matchmaker HAS to put you together. You will see that in only 9 short months from now, after PGI has some real good hires and the game keeps growing in size from the positive word of mouth and the good will in this community at large, this game will be at the top of the pack and there will be records shattered as people pay for so much stuff that the game will be set for the next ten years.
The anniversary when the end of round screen was updated to the "UI2.0 look" is coming close. I really thought that was a sign of something great coming in the near future. But... nearing a year later... I might be able to finally get my hands on an incomplete UI (pilot lab and mechlab, maybe?).
I can't believe what we have now is considered to be "Launch" worthy. PGI expressing that it's just the nature of the F2P model to continuously evolving is a sad excuse to cover up much larger issues. They fully understand the implications that are set when they announce that they have "Launched" have celebrate about it. Just because they say "No but guys, it's actually done this way. See? It's okay... Honest.", does not redefine the way people think about the word Launch or Released. There's plenty of free to play games (Path of exile for example) that have actually designed a full fledged game before launching it. Closed to open beta lasted about a year and a half, and 3 acts were created in the meantime, tonnes of content, story, tuning, bug fixes, and so much more. I have hard time fathoming why MWO is such a difficult project. It feels like PGI is being run by a larger company (IGP) and the way that the company (PGI) functions is not in line with the size of the company. It feels like they're over managed, unorganized, too many steps, and the lurking shadow of their publisher looming frightfully over top of them.
Gremlich Johns, on 18 November 2013 - 08:05 PM, said:
Sarcasm?
I'm confident that it's sarcasm lol. Edit: This is not sarcasm.
Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 18 November 2013 - 08:16 PM.
In kinda lost faith when the were introducing Merc Units...
They kinda said... Loyalist factions ?? Uhhh.. Not sure how we are gonna do that one yet..
Haiz.... I expect blueprints of core game mechanics to be done before launch.
Why do I get the feeling that Merc Units is the only thing they are going to offer in CW even if it comes... Thus the domain 'mwomercs.com'
Drunk Canuck, on 18 November 2013 - 08:00 PM, said:
how come with a year to develop it, the stuff isn't done?
Easy, because they did start it until just now.
Pretty layout designs are only the start.
The backend of the ui would be a big job and the back end of CW would be huge.
PGI need a serious project manager to get this thing going.
Of course his price would be very high to sort this mess out.
Either way come christmas if PGI have not added UI 2.0, Lobbies, and got there credit card merchant unband from Aussie banks, I will be deleting this game forever.
I really don't care enough to worry about whether or not the game dies. I've had some good times with it. If it is truly dying, so be it.
As for the people worried about the money they spent: It was a personal decision. Shít's gone.
Uninstall the client, and if you're still curious a year later then reinstall it.
Worst case, you get a 404 error when you try and come to the website.
ThatOneEdgyGuy, on 18 November 2013 - 09:15 PM, said:
I really don't care enough to worry about whether or not the game dies. I've had some good times with it. If it is truly dying, so be it.
As for the people worried about the money they spent: It was a personal decision. Shít's gone.
Uninstall the client, and if you're still curious a year later then reinstall it.
Worst case, you get a 404 error when you try and come to the website.
If this game dies, dumb, soulless corporate types will be even more reluctant to touch the franchise.
LocationEvery world has a South Bay. That's where I am.
Posted 19 November 2013 - 12:14 AM
Sephlock, on 19 November 2013 - 12:04 AM, said:
If this game dies, dumb, soulless corporate types will be even more reluctant to touch the franchise.
That's why I play every day.
That, and the computer's in my family room next to the TV set, so I need to play something with no blood or "real violence". Very kid friendly game.
And I have a bucket of money in it.
Plus, the combat really seems to be stable now. Maybe there's resources pouring into maps, and CW, and UI 2.0, and factions, and I'm going to bed now...
I was just in a TS3 room where we got 24 'mechwarriors in one room and did a draft of sorts and picked 12 men/women per side and sync dropped versus each other with a 3 light 3 medium 3 heavy 3 assault drop limit and hit each other every time and had a great time.
I dropped out because it is late my time but that group is still playing. This is exactly what a lobby system would bring and could be even better.
It is such a shame that whomever at PGI or IGP for that matter ( I blame some guy at IGP the most) that this has not existed since the open beta.
It is honestly a crime why such basic features of a multiplayer online game do not exist in 2013, unless that is they are planning to monetize it.
Seriously, monetize llobbies? Is that the grand scheme of things?
This is no rage nor any QQ but just put out hero mechs and skins and some maps, but if CW is too big or costly please let us have our lobbies so that our friends and foes(friends also) can play against one another and a 3rd grader can make up the ladders and star maps.
But, alas, it isn't about that, it's about control and that's where IGP is in the wrong and is totally doing it wrong.
No Rage No Quit. Just Tired.
e:no qq except the second to last line, but its really just common sense.
Edited by Texas Merc, 19 November 2013 - 12:43 AM.
I have a stupid question - If the main problem with the glacial updating speed from PGI is that they are a small team, why don't they increase the team size?
Looking at the price of mechs, and the amount earnt from the Phoenix packages and such, it seems as though they really should be able to afford a few extra hands at this point.... no?
Well Tooooonpie, there are a few schools of thoughts on that.
The first is, that if you go to the video where Eckman said back in March 2013 that we would have all 3 phases of CW before launch here , he also mentions that they are planning to double the size of their development team (from 50 to ~100) for 'MWO and other projects'.
Since CW and other features were already somewhat delayed by March 2013, this gets dangerously close to the effects discussed in 'the mythical man month' http://en.wikipedia....hical_Man-Month. Basically adding new programmers to an already delayed software project is virtually guaranteed to make it even further behind schedule. Reason being that it takes X effort from the existing programmers to train up the new programmers to the point where they can meaningfully contribute. That said I'm sure such stalwarts of the industry would never fall for this.
The other school of thought is apparently from Bryan Eckman at the launch event telling someone in this thread that there were ~20 people working on MWO with 4 of those being engineers. This would mean that they actually have the game on a bare bones hibernation/maintenance diet with the bulk of productivity going to artwork rather than features or fixes.
The third school of thought is that they did both... Hired new people which delayed the MWO project, then moved 75% of the staff over to some other project.
The other school of thought is that Bryan Eckman is a random number generator that can't remember what numbers it has told people in the past. (This one seems most likely since it also explains the imaginary feature inclusion dates, as well as the quantum 40/50/100/20 man team size).
Has anyone considered the lack of development may be partially due to PGI picking one of the most expensive cities in the world to be headquartered in? Total cost of living in Vancouver is higher than NYC, which is saying something. Simply put, this means that they have to pay their employees more, pay more for office space, pay more for utility bills, etc. They also don't seem to have a good balance of specialists. Their art department is over-staffed, while QA and software engineers are understaffed. Oh well, they live in a city known for it's creativity, not it's redhot tech community full of qualified specialists, so I guess that's what you get.
It's quite possible that a lot of your founder's money and all the subsequent MC purchases after it went to open beta have been spent on overpriced overhead costs. There's a reason Blizzard isn't located in silicon valley, and has offices spread out among several tech cities that are actually affordable to live in, such as Austin.
One thing we can say for sure. Your founder's money and my $250+ worth of MC weren't spent hiring top of their game coders or project managers.....
Back to the subject of the game itself. Not building CW into the core game in the first place was a mistake, which I think we're all now seeing with 20/20 hindsight. A design decision should have been made during the pre-development stage to prioritize this, as it was supposed to be the truly defining feature of the game. The fact that they're having trouble integrating it now is their own fault.
Training Instructor, on 19 November 2013 - 12:46 AM, said:
Has anyone considered the lack of development may be partially due to PGI picking one of the most expensive cities in the world to be headquartered in? Total cost of living in Vancouver is higher than NYC, which is saying something. Simply put, this means that they have to pay their employees more, pay more for office space, pay more for utility bills, etc. They also don't seem to have a good balance of specialists. Their art department is over-staffed, while QA and software engineers are understaffed. Oh well, they live in a city known for it's creativity, not it's redhot tech community full of qualified specialists, so I guess that's what you get.
It's quite possible that a lot of your founder's money and all the subsequent MC purchases after it went to open beta have been spent on overpriced overhead costs. There's a reason Blizzard isn't located in silicon valley, and has offices spread out among several tech cities that are actually affordable to live in, such as Austin.
One thing we can say for sure. Your founder's money and my $250+ worth of MC weren't spent hiring top of their game coders or project managers.....
Back to the subject of the game itself. Not building CW into the core game in the first place was a mistake, which I think we're all now seeing with 20/20 hindsight. A design decision should have been made during the pre-development stage to prioritize this, as it was supposed to be the truly defining feature of the game. The fact that they're having trouble integrating it now is their own fault.
This is common sense which entitled folk that have been coddled their entire lives are not privy to.
e: Austin is not cheap either.
Edited by Texas Merc, 19 November 2013 - 12:56 AM.
one thing not mentioned in this thread so far is, that the game still is totaly unbalanced. All the nerfing and ghost-heat-stuff didn't change that.
I had a pug-match yesterday, where i dropped against 5 Jagermechs, 3 Highlanders 733C split over the lances (so i don't think they were completely premade) and some other stuff. 3 of the Jagermechs were dual AC20s, the other 2 were gual Gauss. I think i don't have to tell you what the Highlanders were using. That's 2 complete lances of so-called cheese-builds. When you come up against a team, where a dual Gauss Jager is the mech with the lowest alpha, that does tell you a lot. There were so many good suggestions from players in this forum how to change that, with target computers or other stuff, and PGI didn't listen to none of them.
I realy love to drop in Dragons, Catapults and Awesomes (yes, i realy do ), but when you drop in one of this chassis, you will have a bad time in 95% of all maches.
I tried the AC40 and dual Gauss builds on the jagermechs myself, and yes, they work perfectly... but it's not fun. When you see an enemy moving slower than lat's say 100kph within your optimal range, he is dead meat, no matter what mech and what loadout it is. With the 4 AC5 CTF-4X, you can core through an atlas' CT in about 8 seconds, same for the "Chainsaw-Ilya".
Conclusion is, if you want to perform at least average, you need a lot of luck, or you have to ride one of these builds yourself. And to be honest... i don't want to. I want to drop in a mech of my choice, and still have the chance to perform at least average just because of skill, not luck or anything else.
That's what driving me away from MWO at the moment.
So much truth right here. I understand there are certain chassis that are stronger than others, and I understand that certain weapons will out-perform other weapons. I'm not clueless about the current state of the game. However, that said, the game ceases to be fun and entertaining when you are literally torn apart in seconds by those that take the super-cheese/high alpha builds while running around in a wolf pack and then giggling at the "n00b" that melted under their fire. If I were in more matches that ended with scores of 12-9, or even 12-6 and not 12-2 or 12-1 I think I would be much happier with the current state of the game.
Oh, and I have yet to activate my premium time because I keep hoping that the features and game that I was promised when I joined and paid as a Founder, and then again as Overlord tier will be fulfilled. I've never invested $200 into a game before, and PGI is making me to want to never trust enough to do so again.
This is common sense which entitled folk that have been coddled their entire lives are not privy to.
e: Austin is not cheap either.
Yeah, compared to Houston it's quite expensive, but still cheaper than almost every other tech city. I lived in Austin for 5 years, it's very affordable for someone making software engineer money. Also, I just looked at Blizzard's jobs page, and it appears that they run most of their backend net-engineering stuff from Austin. Funny that that has been one of the biggest issues for PGI....
Oh well, at least PGI can go to their local coffee shop and smoke away memories of all their customers being disappointed in them.
CW phase 1 isn't going to add anything besides spending cbills on creating a merc corp and possibly adding unit decals. I'm not expecting much meat on the CW bones until much later.
At this point I'm not even expecting these bare bones anytime soon.
I'm not a hater or anything, but that's the reality. I can sympathize in many of the dev respects, but as a player, customer and all that **** I'll be real about it and dial my expectations to something realistic and probable.
Training Instructor> yes many people have thought the same thing about offices in Van.
LOL, do you keep calling your ex-girlfriend to tell her what a horrible person she is after you break up with her?
Not that hard dude, just need to click on your name and look at your post history, it was right there on the first page.
Cant say I remember any of my ex's numbers they were all too...wacky to bother staying in contact, but doesn't matter got married and got myself a great paying job at john deere as a welder so it hardly matters. Only reason I been able to play is that I have had a month off due to department moving to another part of the plant. Otherwise I dont really get as much time to play this, which can be a good thing considering the rather sad state it is in.
It's not dead yet but it's not likely getting better either. For me the lack of clan mechs is a big turn off, the clan mechs were always the most fun to use in the games.
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Nasty McBadman, on 17 November 2013 - 02:18 PM, said:
?
