184 replies to this topic

[Average Pilot]

Dear Site / Game Owners,

I'm a BT gamer from the hex board days with a goodly amount of MW3 stuck in, and I just have to say... After two days of playing this online game, while it looks fabulous, you must have to play this for months to develop any kind of ability to do anything useful in the game. EIther that, or the stuff you can buy absolutely dominates the default mechs that are offered.

Any time I've gotten into a skirmish with another mech, I get the fire blasted out of me every.... single... time. It's impossible to keep a reticle on target for any length of time, certainly not long enough to get a meaningful shot off. It's enough that the game after two days is not fun at all now that the novelty of it has worn off.

I hope perhaps yourselves or someone else that can use this property might put together a single-player campaign style version of this; that I would play for sure. But the online version of this is just no fun at all. I wish you folks the best.

-TR

[Alaskan Nobody]

Finnish your 25 matches - then you can talk.

I say that for a couple reasons.

1) less than 25 matches played means you have not played enough (that is about 1 hour worth of play) to know jack-diddly about the real state of the game.

2) there is a specific area of the forum for feedback - it is called the Support & Feedback area - this is not it.

[redacted]


Have a nice day.

Edit:
Thank you miSs
I was out of line, but kept spacing the edit I meant to do.

Edited by Shar Wolf, 09 January 2014 - 09:51 PM.

[Buckminster]

And it is admittedly one of the worst parts about the current state of MWO - no "newbs only" matches. It was a big thing that WoT did right that I wish would be replicated here, where new players aren't generally going against superior opponents. Maybe make a "trial mechs only" queue, to help level the playing field, or something like that.

It's why my two brothers have been very hesitant to get in. They were both big TT players, but have been ROFL stomped in too many online games to get on board.

But seriously, stick it out a little longer. Find an open group on Teamspeak to join, and drop with a team. Once you get past the learning and equipment curve, it's a fantastic game. And once they add in the Community Warfare stuff, it should only get better.

Edited by Buckminster, 09 January 2014 - 06:28 PM.

[Average Pilot]

@Shar Wolf... First off, I can talk whenever I damn well feel like it. Excuse me if I don't hang out on message boards all the time and know all the "proper" places to put every damned thing. I was just posting about my reaction to the game, and not everybody loves everything. As to trolling new players, I don't know what on earth you're talking about; again, this was just my feedback after playing the game for about three hours.

Also, thanks for the insult. I always say it's easy for people to sit in front of a screen a talk with a big mouth that in real life would get smacked off their face. Glad to know these forums attract a high caliber of interested, helpful persons.

[Buckminster]

and re: Shar Wolf's attitude, we've had a lot of "new" people coming through and trolling the forums lately. If you are not one of those guys, cut him some slack. He's actually a generally helpful guy.

[Daggett]

What you describe is basically a steep learning curve combined with suboptimal matchmaking.

It took me more than 20 matches back in closed beta to get any positive feedback and i almost gave up.

The problem is that it is way harder to get a random kill compared to CoD-style shooters.
But if you bite yourself through you will get better and you will keep that reticle over any moving target quite well while running 150 kph.

The devs tried to make a new player's life easier with the tutorial, arm-lock, throttle decay, training grounds and 3rd person camera, but the most important thing to give a sense of achievement is still missing:
Matchmaking which will let new players face other newbies only.

Currently you are being thrown right into the shark-pond, against way stronger mechs, and i think this is a major obstacle for getting fun.

Speaking of 3rd person Camera: Try pressing F4 to get the cockpit view. Aiming is much easier in this view and you get a map and other important stuff.

Edited by Daggett, 09 January 2014 - 06:32 PM.

[Average Pilot]

Buckminster, on 09 January 2014 - 06:25 PM, said:

And it is admittedly one of the worst parts about the current state of MWO - no "newbs only" matches. It was a big thing that WoT did right that I wish would be replicated here, where new players aren't generally going against superior opponents. Maybe make a "trial mechs only" queue, to help level the playing field, or something like that.

@Buckminster... Now that's actually a good idea. It would be helpful for me (and abviously for others) to have as you say a "trial mechs only" area so us new folks can cut our MWO teeth and start to build some actual skill instead of getting our guts stomped out every single match. I love the BT universe, the board game, and the older MW games (which I can't play any more unfortunately), but going up against the heavily experienced opponents really takes the wind out of my sails... I'll keep an eye on things though... Maybe they'll take your suggestion to heart and make a new pilot arena or something.

[Felbombling]

Way to grow the community!?

[Bhelogan]

Don't worry bout the trolls. This game does have a steep learning curve. Best advice I can give is to try getting on TeamSpeak with a group who would be willing to help you learn. it really makes the game more interesting, and will let you learn a lot more much faster than dropping solo.

[Alaskan Nobody]

The Harvester, on 09 January 2014 - 06:33 PM, said:

and to the comment about Shar Wolf... If he's associated with the game or with these forums in an administrative capacity,

No I am not associated with the admins (the have that written under their names - helps if you actually look around before you yell at people - you will learn all sorts of things)

Other than my calling you a Troll - go back and read my 2 points - THEN come yell at me.

[Average Pilot]

Daggett, on 09 January 2014 - 06:30 PM, said:

What you describe is basically a steep learning curve combined with suboptimal matchmaking.

It took me more than 20 matches back in closed beta to get any positive feedback and i almost gave up.

The problem is that it is way harder to get a random kill compared to CoD-style shooters.
But if you bite yourself through you will get better and you will keep that reticle over any moving target quite well while running 150 kph.

The devs tried to make a new player's life easier with the tutorial, arm-lock, throttle decay, training grounds and 3rd person camera, but the most important thing to give a sense of achievement is still missing:
Matchmaking which will let new players face other newbies only.

Currently you are being thrown right into the shark-pond, against way stronger mechs, and i think this is a major obstacle for getting fun.

Speaking of 3rd person Camera: Try pressing F4 to get the cockpit view. Aiming is much easier in this view and you get a map and other important stuff.

@Daggett... Thanks for the additional background. I was just elated to find that I can actually pilot a mech in a video game again because I spent HOURS on MW3 back in the day. I know it would take time to build up some skill and mojo, but talk about getting hammered..!! Also, I never use 3rd person perspective... I always have to operate from the cockpit, same with driving sim games... 3rd person is just way too unnatural for me to play effectively (and obviously very rusty skills don't help either!).

However, to give credit where it's due, I'm really impressed with the look and feel of the game; the developers did a great job creating an authentic "feel" of the BT universe in the game, and the mechs and backgrounds look great. Being an old-school gamer (cut my gaming teeth on an Atari 2600 if that tells you anything), it's tough on the ego to admit when you are terrible, but the players have sure shown me where I am lacking skills, no doubt... lol.

[Buckminster]

And another thing - it also takes a lot of time to find your style, and get all of the C-bills and XP that it takes to get the full capability of a mech. It's not well explained (not at all really), but each mech has three tiers of skills - Basic, Elite and Master - that will make your mech more nimble, more responsive and faster as you unlock them. And it will easily take 70-100 matches to reach that point, and you need to do it with three variants of the same mech to actually unlock them all. So you really need 200-300 matches before you have a mech that is fully optimized.

And I'm not trying to scare you off - they intentionally make it a slow climb to the top, but once you find a mech that you like, 200 matches goes by in a flash.

And another "for the record" - I am a moderate player, and I exclusively drop solo. I have almost 1300 matches under my belt since the last stats reset, so in reality I have more than that. But after 1300 matches, in 21 different mechs, I just finally got a 1.0 KDR in one of my mechs. In the other 20 mechs, I die more often than I kill. This game is tough. It's tons of fun, but it's tough.

Edit: another thing, as another old school gamer. I was dying for a chance to use a joystick with this. So I tried that, and as much as I wanted it to, joystick alone does not work well. I've been using a hybrid joystick and mouse control scheme, and it's worlds better.

Edited by Buckminster, 09 January 2014 - 06:56 PM.

[Doc Steiner]

Last I looked, you can't post untl the 25 matches are up, so that may not be an issue?

[Xorv]

actually getting kills in skirmish is not too hard as long as you have a VTR-9S with 1 ac20 1 srm 4 2 srm 6 2 med lasers a 350 xl engine and balance the rest in ammo, dhs, 4 jump jets and armor.

Then just alpha large mechs in the face (except the atlas and stalker they are easier from behind) and you'll be getting a good KDR and make sure to jump a lot to spread dmg.



by the way, i play with a gamepad only

Edited by Xorv, 09 January 2014 - 07:18 PM.

[Ace of Spades]

Fact is that MWO does not have an option for players to log into games with other people under 50-100 or so games. Newbie matching it is called.
Theoretically it should be easy to check how many days each account has but I guess

1) the community might not be big enough to support 12 man matchmaking for newbies

2) the game has other issues to solve first before this problem

Generally I believe newbies are good for the game, but they should be excluded from the future community warfare games until they have a couple of games under their belt.

*edit for typos*

Edited by Ace of Spades, 09 January 2014 - 07:13 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Doc Steiner, on 09 January 2014 - 07:03 PM, said:

Last I looked, you can't post untl the 25 matches are up, so that may not be an issue?

You can post - but you are limited to 5 posts a day - and only in certain portions of the forum.
(I think there are others beyond the new player, but am not sure)

This was done because a lot of the trolls in the forums were making alt accounts and spamming the entirety of the forums with negative feedback for no real reason.- since that change they have limited themselves to this area of the forum (hence my bad reaction to the OP - I do not react well to posts that are nothing but complaints)

[TheCaptainJZ]

@ the OP

This game handles way differently than previous mechwarrior games. In part, because you are playing with real people and not a bot.

The torso turning separately from the legs and dual reticles are great additions, but it takes a long time to get used to the feel.

Combat is punishing at first, and you will die a lot. Trial mechs are not representative of the real experience. Once you have played your first 25 matches, your cadet bonus will be over and you can select a mech to choose from. A popular recommendation is to start with shadowhawks. The more you play, the more xp you earn to unlock skills in the pilot lab for your particular mech. Note it is specific to variant so you have to do this for 3 different variants of the same mech to unlock the elite tier. There's a lot more to this game beyond that but that is a good start.

[Phoo Phighter]

For Harvester ... the game transition from MW4 game(s) to this one was probably easier than MW3 to MWO. For more than control reasons. In MW4 team play really came into it's own.

So besides getting used to targeting etc. try these tips. When you drop into the game find an Atlas (or other assault) and follow him stay behind him and stay with the group (hopefully your meat shield doesn't make a solo charge at the enemy).

Hang back a little, be patient. Shot at what the big guy and the group shoots at, move with them, and hopefully you can work on your targeting without drawing much attention.

Good luck (and a campaign would be nice)

~Foo Fighter~

[AaronWolf]

The Harvester, on 09 January 2014 - 06:08 PM, said:

Dear Site / Game Owners,

I'm a BT gamer from the hex board days with a goodly amount of MW3 stuck in, and I just have to say... After two days of playing this online game, while it looks fabulous, you must have to play this for months to develop any kind of ability to do anything useful in the game. EIther that, or the stuff you can buy absolutely dominates the default mechs that are offered.

Any time I've gotten into a skirmish with another mech, I get the fire blasted out of me every.... single... time. It's impossible to keep a reticle on target for any length of time, certainly not long enough to get a meaningful shot off. It's enough that the game after two days is not fun at all now that the novelty of it has worn off.

I hope perhaps yourselves or someone else that can use this property might put together a single-player campaign style version of this; that I would play for sure. But the online version of this is just no fun at all. I wish you folks the best.

-TR

Hey, welcome to the forums! Sorry your experience has been a little rough. But it generally is for those coming from a more MW3 background over MW4/Mercs. Due to how the game is, its far more squad/team based.

And its nice to see another hex player. I still have my Gyrfalcon from the Jade Falcon Invasion series on my work desk. XD

Now, about default (four random monthly mechs) mechs you get to choose from. They generally are worse then custom ones, as you can easily guess, custom generally tops default loadouts. You can m/max to your tastes and liking with a custom, can't with the defaults.

Once you complete 25 matches you should have a lot of cbills from the recruit bonus in order to buy quite a few different mechs from the list. Depending on what you get, you may have a good chunk of bills left over to customize to your liking.

Other good ideas is to get on one if the merc ts or general ts to find a group you can drop with. Or find a buddy on here and drop with them. Its what I did in the beginning and it helped me get off the ground a bit faster as well.

Unlike a lot of other MW titles, this one requires just a bit more effort to get into, but it is worth it after the initial stumbling.

And don't mind Shar. He has to put up with a lot of stuff, and everyone gets a little stressed out time to time. A lot of people make fresh accounts here just to complain, and it generally gets on the nerves of those of us who spend our time in the new by forum trying to help.

Well, I cant exactly say a lot, I can more of say its a couple who are persistent and just keep making more accounts. Since they seem to have nothing else better to do then just smear over giving concise feedback/experiences.

Now, Myomes, he's not a bad guy. But he is also more leaning towards the Anarchists Against PGI spectrum. (Truth in jest, Myomes. ) He has his opinion, and makes good points on a good number of things, but many others I don't so agree with. As is how the state of everything is at the moment.

There are some really frustrated people with PGI over varying reasons, and there is those whom are very happy. Neither will I say are a majority or minority.

For the most part, try and find a group of players to roll with, have a good time and get a custom much with your cbills as soon as you can afford one you like. Hope to see you in game! Hell, once I got my computer running, I will even send you a friend invite an play some match's with you!

[Hexenhammer]

Buckminster, on 09 January 2014 - 06:25 PM, said:

And it is admittedly one of the worst parts about the current state of MWO - no "newbs only" matches. It was a big thing that WoT did right that I wish would be replicated here, where new players aren't generally going against superior opponents. Maybe make a "trial mechs only" queue, to help level the playing field, or something like that.

It's why my two brothers have been very hesitant to get in. They were both big TT players, but have been ROFL stomped in too many online games to get on board.

But seriously, stick it out a little longer. Find an open group on Teamspeak to join, and drop with a team. Once you get past the learning and equipment curve, it's a fantastic game. And once they add in the Community Warfare stuff, it should only get better.

Now thats an idea.

A newbie only bracket. That new players start out in but experinced players can join in as well. But how to protect new players from customized mechs? Stockbuilds!

A number of players have asked for a unmodified queue and this might be a way of killing two birds with one stone.