565 replies to this topic

[JDH4mm3r]

Tyr Gunn, on 02 December 2013 - 03:02 PM, said:

Not to be insensitive, but how do you consume other forms of media? Probably closed captions, right? If they fail to provide (CC), you'll have to wait until someone transcribes the video. Considering this communities busy body population, that'll probably mean a delay of only a few hours.

That depends on whose quick enough to get it ready.

And yea closed captions / sub titles work unless PGI adds them themselves, and please...no lame youtube smart captioning.... thats pretty lame.

[Grim DeGrim]

Excellent update. You've got the major points on most folk's minds. The only piece is to manage players expectations: most folks are sighing with an "oh, good, that will be out soon".

Can you add timelines to each? Be sure to add double for contingency... I have no frame of reference what it means if an item is in engineering or development.

Thanks Niko.

PS - You a Habs fan?

Edited by Grim DeGrim, 02 December 2013 - 03:27 PM.

[SmithMPBT]

So the engineers will "soon" begin cleaning up the game code in preparation to eventually begin the actual coding of CW?

[East Indy]

Quote

It is at this time that we must stress once again that we will not be bringing Clan Tech into the game as it was originally written. Game balance is going to take precedence over any values/behaviors found previously in other MechWarrior/BattleTech titles. Yes, there will be growing pains but we will make sure that Clan Tech does have a unique flavor when compared to InnerSphere Tech but not to the extent of everything just being over powered out of the gate.

I must've missed earlier statements on your design philosophy for Clans. This is the best news I've heard in a long time — and I'm looking forward to gameplay that's different, and not just better.

[Deathsani]

Sigh, at least I don't feel bad for not buying any MC. Thanks for the update, I hope you can limp along for enough time to actually release anything.

[Zanathan]

Thanks for the update. Despite the delays (who wants them right) and obviously content not being released fast enough for us hungry gamers, I applaud the detailed update.

(Of interest to a developer like myself, the database sharding is cool).

[JDH4mm3r]

East Indy, on 02 December 2013 - 03:19 PM, said:

I must've missed earlier statements on your design philosophy for Clans. This is the best news I've heard in a long time — and I'm looking forward to gameplay that's different, and not just better.

The question is how much longer will we have to wait for it............................

[Pinkamena Diane Pie]

Paul Inoye said:

...we have been implementing a lot of the community’s feedback into UI 2.0. With each release we put on the Pubic Test Server...

what kinda server is that, paul? tell me all about it.

[Devil Fox]

In honesty this information should've been released probably closer to launch... but PGI's development cycle seems more intent on monetizing the game to date (their pushing UI2.0 and it's new store front, no matter how horrid the core systems of it are), their releasing A new game mode after 1.5yr's.

The problems I see is that their pushing UI2.0... because the negative feedback of many of it's core systems won't hold it back. You see PGI need it to push more sales, their new store front and to get the rest of the content that depends on the sick puppy that is UI2.0. Money grabbing whilst they can...

CW has been talked for over a year now, and we're still only in the design phase of the engineering and concept coding? I mean seriously it is getting severely disheartening to have to read month in and month out just concepts of what you WANT to do... without any net results. Take a look at DX11 (it's disappeared off the books again) and UI2.0 previews have been shambles in community feedback because of the unintuitive design and forgotten lessons from UI1.5 (all that clicking and it's hovering sound will probably turn me off it).

Then throw in minor upgrades to battlemechs... another public communication and another HINT at clans and their tech... that just doesn't scream teaser to try and keep the public playing . Only now their starting to consider HOW to bring back role warfare, but I still think it won't make an ounce of difference to the best method of obtaining CB's... dmg/kills plain and simple.

So in-essence because they wanted to keep CW in a concept stage, they've assigned un-used resources into game asset passes from battlemech hit-boxes, to map design failures of spawns and base locations. This post still doesn't question their entire method of communication to bolster sales... afterall why drop all this information at once unless you're covering up for a short falling or you're trying to overload the player community with information hoping you'll get something past them. It seems like their trying to get interest building for the 17th Dec patch and the ask the devs... where no doubt they'll try to sell their concepts again and tell us to continue to hold out a hope and a helping hand and wait... for what another year?!

If gameplay, mechlab and expectations for this game take a dive mid-December, well then this game will become a patch once a month ordeal...

[JDH4mm3r]

Regarding the NEW MAP... if it's in space, what is the outside temp on the surface? According to a website, it all depends on where you are:

Away from everything: -270C

If you're between Earth and Moon, and the Sun is shining on a metal bar, it could get as hot as 240C and as cold as -100C in the shade... so....

if it is indeed colder than frozen city night, I suppose we're to expect to see a return of PPC heavy + ERL heavy Mechs again for just that specific map..........

i'm almost sure you could chain fire a 6ERL stalker on a -270C map...

[Conductor Rarity]

Spoiler

Quote

Community Messaging:


We are currently changing some of the avenues for community information updates and plan to get this stuff out ASAP. One of the changes is to the Ask the Devs format of Q and A.

Current plans are to shift the regular forum updates to a video format which will hopefully be a little less time consuming as the current method of communication. Our first video is targeted for mid-December if everything works out as planned. Stay tuned for updates around that time.

Great, now do one each week so we see that you're actually doing something.

Spoiler

Quote

UI 2.0:
We are currently working toward a release candidate of UI 2.0 which is to bring the functionality of the current UI with the improved flow and experience as well as the new store interface. ---

Our target is to launch UI 2.0 as soon as possible and iron out the kinks over the next few months. I can tell you this, it will be buggy (not game-breaking) and we’ll be addressing both internal requirements and your feedback on a week by week basis. This means we’ll be splitting the UI2.0 team to have some people working on nothing but bug fixes, and the other group will be working on core feature items and updates. The bug team is the team that will be doing to a weekly cycle and we’ll be able to track updates a lot faster as we push the fixes into the normal patch process.

This says to me that you're releasing UI 2.0 in a Broken State.

Spoiler

Quote

Community Warfare:
The first set of features for Community Warfare have been broken down and reviewed by engineering. The systems engineers have a roadmap and schedule in which they will start addressing the needs of all new systems required by Community Warfare and are working on the core layout for faction/unit gameplay. What this sums up is… engineering has done all project management breakdowns and specs for the upcoming feature and code clean-up and preparation is being worked on in a special new branch build (much like PTS). Some of the core new features, like database sharding for improved load handling, have been completed and are in that branch now.

We will update as each feature of Community Warfare enters development so you will know what order to expect things to start appearing. Right now all development is heavily, under the hood.

Another feature that will be updated is the Match Maker. A full analysis has been performed on the current system and fixes/updates are now planned. This is not a trivial update and may be included with the release of Phase 1 Community Warfare. Tonnage limits, grouping, Elo calculations are all reliant on these changes and we will fill you in with more detail, as these tasks move into production.

Sooooo, you're showing nothing, nor sharing your roadmap? Then we have no choice to believe that you're doing nothing.

Spoiler

Quote

Gameplay:
A new game mode is being added. Skirmish will be released mid-December which is essentially Team Death Match. The inclusion of this mode is the first game mode specific step toward Community Warfare and the game modes that will be required for planetary control and community conflicts. It’s also a way for us to gather metrics on what may eventually turn into a Solaris game mode further down the line.

The Attack/Defend Mode is in progress and we have some functioning turrets that will be fortifying Forward Operating Bases in the mode and the game mode is being investigated for any retrofit issues with the older maps. This game mode in particular will have to take into consideration special rules or functionality for Community Warfare and how defensive positions operate and are possibly upgraded. This will be the first game mode to see a potential “respawn” system. We will update when we prep this mode to go live.

Respwans? No.... just...no.

Spoiler

Quote

BattleMechs:
All BattleMechs are going through micro-tuning in terms of their hit boxes, quirks and abilities. We have just completed the first draft of upcoming new modules and pilot talents that will allow us to further refine the roles that the various BattleMechs partake in. We are also looking at chassis/role specific module slots being added to BattleMechs so that they do not occupy general module slots which can be considered as generic modules. As an example, players who equip a specialized Scouting module may receive higher XP/CB gains when performing scouting actions and players who equip a specialized Brawler module may receive higher XP/CB gains when performing support actions etc. Our plan is to start ramping up generation of these new modules and talents as soon as possible.

Great! These are things I actually want to see.

Spoiler

Quote

Clans:
Design has started to focus on Clan Tech. It is at this time that we must stress once again that we will not be bringing Clan Tech into the game as it was originally written. Game balance is going to take precedence over any values/behaviors found previously in other MechWarrior/BattleTech titles. Yes, there will be growing pains but we will make sure that Clan Tech does have a unique flavor when compared to InnerSphere Tech but not to the extent of everything just being over powered out of the gate.

Currently on the hot-seat is a discussion as to how Clan BattleMechs will be customized. We will update everyone once the final call has been made and who knows, maybe one of the planned BattleMechs will be announced soon™!

I'd rather see you fixing your game and adding new features to the client then adding ANY new battlemechs... let alone clan mechs and technology...

Spoiler

Quote

Map Gameplay Elements:
New layouts have been done for spawn locations and base/resource collector locations across all maps. The motivational drive was to keep the spawn locations fair and at the same time have players able to enter combat sooner. This is more evident on the larger maps.

I don't see the point, I'd rather have more time to play the tactical game than mindlessly get into combat immediately in the same spot every time...

Spoiler

Quote

Player Experience:
The art team has proven technically that {LT-MOB-25}-pit glass is now functional. This means a little more immersive effect when you’re sitting in the cockpit of your BattleMech. I’ve seen the effect and it’s very cool and non-intrusive so expect to see this coming soon with the next few new BattleMechs appearing on the battlefield. Previously released BattleMechs will be retrofitted over the coming months with their own glass treatments.

Months?! This kind of thing should take less than a week...
Good effort though, we need more of these blogs

[Tezcatli]

I'm really not surprised with the progress here. More surprised with, how other people are surprised, this is generally the pace for the devs. Clearly UI 2.0 is a bigger feature then a few of the past ones. Especially as it's used as an excuse for why we can't have this or that. With that said. The combat in-game is fun. But the grind is getting boring and fast.

And what's this cockpit glass feature? Are we going to have glass cracking and exploding in our faces? Because I would be down for that.

[Threat Doc]

(squeaks) Thank you (/squeaks) (holds back a tear)

Honestly, all of this sounds awesome to me... and I look forward to the video updates and, hopefully, a relatively high frequency of them, if your post is any indication. Can't wait to see the cockpit glass, and the new moon map.

[Lord de Seis]

I am starting to think we won't see Community Warfare until the clan elements are added to the game, it will all be brought in at once.... In like 6 years.

The communication is welcome though, it is nice to have some idea of what is going on but the patience they are expecting from this community is quite frustrating.

[Alekzander Smirnoff]

I like what I see, glad we're getting some new game modes soon. As to mech tuning, you broke my awesomes... Otherwise, keep up the good work!

[StoneMason]

It's good to see an update especially after another recent comms break. Of course it seems there was a blackout because there just wasn't anything to report. I think you guys would do much better just throwing test content out the way you should have in beta, new map layouts, new spawn locations, new gametypes, new module types (why no artillery smoke?). You shouldn't worry so much about the overall fit, just build it, test it publicly then either tweak it or remove it for the time being. The game needs lots of fresh content to make up for the lack of an overall metagame and you might as well do all your testing now before CW is in.

CyclonerM, on 02 December 2013 - 02:59 PM, said:

Nice updates

Have you thought of Dropships in Attack/defense mode instead of bases protected by turrets? I mean, those ERPPCs, LRM launchers and autocannons on that Union may be cooler than a little supply base with a few machine gun turrets, quiaff ?

I like the idea of Dropships defending primary bases, lots of firepower but a valuable target. Personally I think deploying turrets to defend those ugly little resource extractors is ridiculous. Why waste the time, tech, c-bills AND development resources when you can just dig-in a few infantry sections in little camouflaged bunkers? SRM's, man-packed PPC's, LRM's... as long as the planet is survivable it makes much Battletech sense. Save turrets for defending proper established fortifications.

[Iqfish]

What is that mysterious REDACTED-Glass everyone talks about?
Are we seriously talking about a glass effect that you see from inside the cockpit?

Or are we talking about transparent cockpits that you can look into from the outside?

And why the hell are people crying again?! Just bought 14,4k MC, enjoy my money PGI

Have a great one

[Aesthir]

Well, I definitely fall squarely in the Unimpressed category. There's a whole lot of 'if', 'looking at', and 'soon' coming off this post and not a whole lot of 'reasons to stick around'.

Here's the takeaway points from each section:

Community Messaging
Changing Ask the Devs from a text dump to a more complicated to produce video format. So less information given less often but with a shiny new coat of paint. At least it plays to PGI's strengths in that regard.

UI 2.0
We tested it, it's broken as hell, nobody likes it, but we're pushing it out there for the store functionality.

Community Warfare
Touted as the big exciting "actual game people paid for" for more than a year now, still hasn't entered anything close to development. They know what they'd like it to be, which is like the artist you've commissioned to paint your portrait handing you a napkin with a smiley face and saying "this is what I have so far".

Oh, and we'll slide the matchmaker news in under this heading. Surprise! It's still broken.

Gameplay
Hey, do you like MWO's 2 basically-the-same game modes but wish they didn't have token attempts at actual gameplay? We're adding Skirmish mode! It's the same game you're playing now, just without the indicator at the top of your HUD. Next up, Skirmish With Turrets. It's pure genius!

Battlemechs
You know those people who whine and cry every time they get killed by a lucky shot? We love those guys, so we've devoted an inordinate amount of our resources to hitbox tuning and making each mech 'fair and balanced'! Also, more modules that you technically don't have to pay for as long as you're willing to grind for a year to get GXP.

Clans
Hey look, we used "soon™" at the end of this, just like a regular forum poster. It's a clever in-joke about how completely incompetent we are! We have to talk about the Clans because it's a huge part of the IP, but realistically speaking these will never be in the game in any form close to what they are in any other media.

Map Gameplay Elements
Because the whining isn't limited to hitboxes! I died and it's the map's fault because I spawned 5 feet to the left or the Kappa point is just slightly closer to the enemy team.

Player Experience
Cockpit glass effect is so cool and non-intrusive so I'm not even going to explain what this means before we make you all use it. We're sure you all will love it and it will cause no problems or issues whatsoever because graphical 'upgrades' never do that.

The Next Map
Look look, shiny shiny. We'll dangle this in front of you and say it's "ready for release" without actually saying that we're releasing it.

[Alistair Winter]

I don't really understand why people are so happy that PGI is talking about CW, UI 2.0, matchmaking, clans, etc. Yes, they are addressing important issues, but I'm not seeing any new information that I haven't heard at least once already. In most cases, several times. So why are we still cheering every time PGI says they're still working on CW?

I'm happy about the game modes and changes to existing maps. That's very important stuff and will keep me interested in the game if it's executed well. But almost everything else in this post was basically stuff we knew already. Just saying.

[Iqfish]

Aesthir, please try to not swim away in your river of manly tears.
A defend mode is awesome and adds a new layer of strategy to the game, stop complaining about anythingEdit: hey you annoyed me that much that you tempted me to make my 500th post, congrats

Edited by IqfishLP, 02 December 2013 - 04:21 PM.