587 replies to this topic

[Primez]

Tekadept, on 19 November 2013 - 06:45 PM, said:

I did that a while ago, Is russia still the country its most popular with to?

Yes ahahahh

[Sug]

Odins Fist, on 19 November 2013 - 06:00 PM, said:

Sorry but without Mech Customization MWO would have been dead months ago... That's just the reality of the situation

I disagree.

Team Fortress anyone?

Edited by Sug, 19 November 2013 - 06:50 PM.

[RamataKhan]

You're all wrong

http://mwomercs.com/...currently-guys/

[Tolkien]

Primez, on 19 November 2013 - 06:38 PM, said:

MWO in decline according to google. I tried to add in other F2Ps for comparison but it just made the graph look terrible with MWO a solid line at the bottom. As you can see it's declining and there was a brief moment where is rised but that was due to phoenix and started dropping like a stone soon after.

I personally think giving us back our 8v8 cbill earnings would help stem this downward tide until CW.

Google is obviously on an island, the game is in the best shape it's ever been.

[1Sascha]

Tolkien, on 19 November 2013 - 01:45 AM, said:

Let me tell you a tale of a faraway and forgotten time. The year was 2001, the towers still stood, and people thought George Dubya Bush was a cute if kinda dim wannabe cowboy. Clinton was out and mechwarrior was in! In a game from EA that is>


The name of the game was Multiplayer Battletech 3025 or MPBT3025 for short. In this fantastic beast of a game the developers set their sights on a small and achievable set of goals, so they used only 3025 weapons and only stock loadouts. For those of us that love customization this was just too bad, but it really did help limit the cheese, boating, and nightmarish balance problems that are guaranteed with customization.

The game never made it out of beta, and was axed during the fallout from the ongoing dot com bust, and the 9/11 attacks. In that short time though it accomplished some amazing things... look at the screenshot.

CUT for length

Great post, Tolkien!

I wasn't even aware of that BT3025 title, but yes: That's pretty much what I would've (at least) expected from a 2012/13 take on the subject.

The decision to build this game and its "principle of play" like a (pretty poorly done) FPS really boggles the mind in this day and age. I've been playing a lot of MMOs over the past 20 years, from the old Kesmai-titles (Air Warrior/2/3, Battletech Solaris) to Warbirds, Aces High and WW2Online/Battleground Europe. And a lot of the features I'm wishing for in this game have already been done in those titles in the mid/late 90s.

Persistent arenas, architecture/tools that support huge player-organized events, built-in voice comms, fighting for territory, supply, production facilites instead of just "kill everyone".. limited availability of equipment (either due to a timeline or due to limited supply)... it's all been *done* before and by much, much smaller teams.

The thing is that (IMO), the games I've mentioned were mostly done by what I'd call "enthusiasts". MWO seems to be one of those more modern jobs that are being done by the bean-counters.

"People have short attention spans and are unwilling to learn. So we can't make this game complicated or hard in any way. I know: Let's make it about short, single drops.. give the players instant action and gratification. Then we'll just crank out new maps and Mechs every now and then. Oh, and throw in a lot of eyecandy they can buy for real $$s."


S.

Edited by 1Sascha, 20 November 2013 - 05:36 AM.

[spectralthundr]

1Sascha, on 20 November 2013 - 05:36 AM, said:

Great post, Tolkien!

I wasn't even aware of that BT3025 title, but yes: That's pretty much what I would've (at least) expected from a 2012/13 take on the subject.

The decision to build this game and its "principle of play" like a (pretty poorly done) FPS really boggles the mind in this day and age. I've been playing a lot of MMOs over the past 20 years, from the old Kesmai-titles (Air Warrior/2/3, Battletech Solaris) to Warbirds, Aces High and WW2Online/Battleground Europe. And a lot of the features I'm wishing for in this game have already been done in those titles in the mid/late 90s.

Persistent arenas, architecture/tools that support huge player-organized events, built-in voice comms, fighting for territory, supply, production facilites instead of just "kill everyone".. limited availability of equipment (either due to a timeline or due to limited supply)... it's all been *done* before and by much, much smaller teams.

The thing is that (IMO), the games I've mentioned were mostly done by what I'd call "enthusiasts". MWO seems to be one of those more modern jobs that are being done by the bean-counters.

"People have short attention spans and are unwilling to learn. So we can't make this game complicated or hard in any way. I know: Let's make it about short, single drops.. give the players instant action and gratification. Then we'll just crank out new maps and Mechs every now and then. Oh, and throw in a lot of eyecandy they can buy for real $$s."


S.

From someone who spent a considerable amount of time in the 3025 beta, it was indeed fricken awesome. And really what I was hoping MWO would get to. Just give me a planetary map and a reason for the drops. That's all I'm asking for, to have the battles actually count for something.

[Tolkien]

spectralthundr, on 20 November 2013 - 05:43 AM, said:

From someone who spent a considerable amount of time in the 3025 beta, it was indeed fricken awesome. And really what I was hoping MWO would get to. Just give me a planetary map and a reason for the drops. That's all I'm asking for, to have the battles actually count for something.

Throw in solaris and lobbies for the leagues to do what they want to do and I'm right there with you.

(sweet jebus, I'm agreeing with spectral!)

[spectralthundr]

Tolkien, on 20 November 2013 - 06:25 AM, said:

Throw in solaris and lobbies for the leagues to do what they want to do and I'm right there with you.

(sweet jebus, I'm agreeing with spectral!)

See? we ultimately want the same things, I think I'm just alot more patient knowing that things change in development, not you specifically as you seem to be better able to be constructive than some others who just are trolling for the sake of it at this point.

I'll admit PGI could handle communications better, but it is what it is, as long as I'm still enjoying the game, I don't mind being patient for the "meat of MWO" to get implimented. Then again I'm old, and was someone who played things like the old version (think 2.x) of America's Army for years without getting bored, and countless replays of older titles like the Wing Commander & Decent:Freespace series I still replay today.

I wonder how much of the whole epidemic of people being diagnosed with things like ADD or bipolar play into it as well. In general people nowadays especially the current generation of younger people don't seem to have very strong attention spans to begin with. It's certainly a different era from when I was growing up.

[Loc Nar]

[Werewolf486 ScorpS]

It's long winded and not an easy watch, but this guy talks about Alienating your core players at your own peril, which PGI Checked that off the list long ago. He also gives really good insight on why AoE Online failed which strangely parallels MWO and PGI. Take the time to watch this and you'll begin to think how PGI is the same, then you will realize that this game will have a short life span and die out compared to MW titles of the past.

WATCH VIDEO

[dal10]

well this got exiled.

[ShinVector]

dal10, on 20 November 2013 - 07:07 PM, said:

well this got exiled.

Ahhh Finally...

Since this is already 'Off Topic'
Adding some salt to the wound.

Edited by ShinVector, 20 November 2013 - 08:07 PM.

[Smart Bomb]

Werewolf486, on 20 November 2013 - 04:10 PM, said:

It's long winded and not an easy watch, but this guy talks about Alienating your core players at your own peril, which PGI Checked that off the list long ago. He also gives really good insight on why AoE Online failed which strangely parallels MWO and PGI. Take the time to watch this and you'll begin to think how PGI is the same, then you will realize that this game will have a short life span and die out compared to MW titles of the past.

WATCH VIDEO

Very important viewing for PGI.

[Tolkien]

Smart Bomb, on 20 November 2013 - 09:06 PM, said:

Very important viewing for PGI.

Not that I am trying to encourage dithering on the part of PGI (especially in light of star citizen coming to absolutely eat their lunches), but AoE online had a big flaw - it could not email past users.

So let's imagine that PGI gets their thumb out and delivers the stuff they said they would deliver last year - DX11 so we can get UI2.0, UI2.0 so we can get 1990's game technology like lobbies and community warfare (CW). They can at least email all the disillusioned players (including ~50% of founders apparently) to let them know that actual progress has been made!

AoE online couldn't do this, according to the MS email policies. So to be very clear, I'm not saying further delays to the content we were promised before the founders packs even opened up is fine and dandy, but I am saying AoE online was built to not be able to recover... MWO can try to woo back former players.

[ShinVector]

Tolkien, on 21 November 2013 - 01:33 AM, said:

Not that I am trying to encourage dithering on the part of PGI (especially in light of star citizen coming to absolutely eat their lunches), but AoE online had a big flaw - it could not email past users.

So let's imagine that PGI gets their thumb out and delivers the stuff they said they would deliver last year - DX11 so we can get UI2.0, UI2.0 so we can get 1990's game technology like lobbies and community warfare (CW). They can at least email all the disillusioned players (including ~50% of founders apparently) to let them know that actual progress has been made!

AoE online couldn't do this, according to the MS email policies. So to be very clear, I'm not saying further delays to the content we were promised before the founders packs even opened up is fine and dandy, but I am saying AoE online was built to not be able to recover... MWO can try to woo back former players.

*Wonders what PGIs community managers are for... (Other than making snide remarks recently...)

[Tolkien]

ShinVector, on 21 November 2013 - 01:59 AM, said:

*Wonders what PGIs community managers are for... (Other than making snide remarks recently...)

I think they just have the one (Garth Erlam), who is probably doing the best he can with what he's got. In his defense he actually talks to people and will take messages to the decision makers if asked to nicely - at least he did a year ago, that was my last contact with him. If you listen to some of the NGNG podcasts though you can tell that he's stuck between the inmates running the PGI asylum on one side and the pitchfork and torch playerbase on the other any time something goes wrong... he even said 'I am not a developer... do not ask me because I don't know!' in exasperation, or something similar to it.

[Smart Bomb]

Tolkien, on 21 November 2013 - 01:33 AM, said:

AoE online couldn't do this, according to the MS email policies. So to be very clear, I'm not saying further delays to the content we were promised before the founders packs even opened up is fine and dandy, but I am saying AoE online was built to not be able to recover... MWO can try to woo back former players.

If they finally put together the game they sold us on, I'll be back in force. There was just a lot of parallels and, to be fair, they did do some things right, like currency and skirmish modes. However the parts that stuck out to me (and if any devs saw it, them too) were - and I'm probably paraphrasing some things - **** of your core players at your own risk, release with a minimum viable product, expand on what you already have instead of always creating new and expensive content (to create and to buy) and any changes after launch are now in the public eye.

[Smart Bomb]

If this game had actually released as a minimum viable product, instead of creating new and expensive mechs they could have expanded the pilot tree (or mech tree or whatever) with perhaps chassis or even variant specific options and choices. Something to keep us playing with what we have instead of having to buy new mechs (I believe this fits with the "change production model, not business model" thing from the video). Instead of using the test servers to try and implement overdue, basic features, it could be used to publicly test new weapons, maps, the high diss/low cap heat system (so we can see who's really full of {Scrap}) or virtually any other new, creative ideas or changes the devs have.The test servers could have been a lab of innovation instead of an ER trying to keep a patient from going comatose.

[bar10jim]

Did anybody else see this?

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__2929205

Could this be a prelude to a new game mode/asymmetrical warfare?

[IceGryphon]

MadcatX, on 18 November 2013 - 04:22 PM, said:

I'm highly tempted to just blurt "Check out the new community warfare and UI 2.0."!!!

Wait, it isn't out yet?