105 replies to this topic

[Peiper]

The following is a summary of the NGNG interview with Russ Bullock on 15 January 2014. The full show can be found here: https://soundcloud.c...00-russ-bullock This is not an official summary, just one I've done to bring the information presented to those who want the short version and for the hearing impaired.

Grats on episode 100, No Guts No Galaxy!

4:00 Russ introduced.

4:50 Russ announces the production of 'You're on an island!” t-shirts
Cost $100, and they only come in the color gold.

5:40 discusses changes in UI 2.0 public test (16 Jan). It's 100% functional, but doesn't contain everything you'll see Feb. 4. We will see a heat scale, Smurfy style loadout summary, some other things the community wanted. Should be another public test before Feb. 4^th where we'll see that.

Version 1 of UI 2.0 WILL BE OUT Feb. 4^th. It will continue to evolve from that point on.

9:00 Will it be easier to find our lost modules? Not the first version. It won't have many of the easy mode features we're looking for. We won't have auto fill of consumables. Probably features introduced on a monthly basis.

10:45 Bombadil has ducks that like to quack in the background.

They remind people again that UI 2.0 is necessary for other stuff. Weight restrictions are 'waiting on UI 2.0 to be complete.' I couldn't translate on whether it means that they won't touch it until Feb. 4^th, or if they have it ready and it's just waiting for UI 2.0 to be released.

13:00 With UI 2.0 they won't need to bring down servers for sales like happy hour sales, where impulse buys will be injected for an hour or so then pulled down with no interruption of service.

14:30 Next weeks patch (21st) will have cockpit glass, battlemasters for C-bills. Cockpit glass is another layer of depth/visual affect that will allow them to introduce cracked, scorched or broken glass. Also, 6 mechs will have hit box changes. http://mwomercs.com/...-update-dec-19/

17:30 Russ and Phil talk mention stuff like steam/heat waves/blackouts in the cockpit. Do we as players want that level of immersion, or would that just annoy people. [toggle on/off would be my answer! -Peiper]

19:20 Russ suggests if we want stuff like cockpit effects, teary eyes, sparks, whatever start a poll or comment in the MWO forums about it and they'll listen.

20:00 Russ talks about the development of the Oxide. Originally it had 6 missile hardpoints, and it was determined it was overpowered. Did they go to far in nerfing that idea? Should they add jump jets? Machine guns? Russ wants to know! Asks the community to weigh in. [Sized hardpoints might help prevent abuse if they want to add ballistic hardpoints or something... Yeah, yeah, back to my island. -Peiper Also, does this mean they'll listen to other hardpoint changes on other hero mechs and stuff??]

26:00 What should we expect Feb. 4^th? Russ hints about a new mech, a NEW hero mech, NEW chassis. (It's NOT the Panther.) It's not a Phoenix mech. Reworking of Assault Mode.

New base models/mobile HQ? will be added, including turrets which COULD kill you if you're already in bad shape. How hard would it be for a locust to cap a base? Russ hasn't playtested enough to speculate.

30:00 Teir 1 weapon modules. Access to levels 1 and 2 available Feb. 4^th. In order to access level 3, the character LEVEL system has to be in place, which it will not be yet. Examples: These modules WILL take module slots, as opposed to skills. Level 1 weapon module might increase range a few yards, but might increase heat to balance it out.

30:50 A spider pilot might like the Level 1 'Vredenburg machine gun barrel' or level 2 'Lexitech machine gun barrel.' Optimal range might be increased by 2.6 or long range by 5.2 meters. Numbers aren't set. Even after they go live, the numbers can still be tweaked.

35:40 DX11, there was a big bug with nVidia cards that were causing FPS slowdowns. The issue has been resolved. March 4^th date is currently set for DX11 release. Possibly earlier. Probably be another public test after Feb. 4^th and there's no reason for any delay.

38:00 Weight balancing/matchmaker comments? All this stuff is coming with launch module. Russ talks about his nervousness about 2-12 man groups being unleashed into the game. 'You can see how powerful four mans on VOIP are already.' Talks about why weight restrictions are so tight, and so important with April's launch module.

41:00 Are you concerned about killer 12 mans stomping everything in their path with the intro of the launch modules? Not so much, because matchmaker will still seek to put high ELO players with similar players, the only change being that weight restrictions will replace the part of matchmaker that tries to match weight by mech weight class.

43:00 With current ELO/Matchmaker, high ELO puggers/single players have a hard time finding matches if at all because there's no available games in their bracket. What if a 12 man group of guys with 2500 plus ELO drop and can't find a match? (Russ says an engineer should answer this question, but he understands that adding another bucket of players/12 mans with Skirmish mode might segregate the players further / making it harder to find matches. Russ says he has suggested to the Engineers to put in a feature that tells people waiting long times for a match that indicates that matchmaker can set them up with an even team in another game mode right away if they don't want to wait. But that's just something they're discussing internally.)

46:20 Russ says they MIGHT have to reset ELO. Currently there are some strict restrictions with matchmaker. Before, at 3 minutes, the matchmaker put you into a group no matter what your scores were. Now, it kicks you if there's not enough people in your bracket. What they could do is make the ranges more open/lenient, like every minute you wait, the ELO bracket opens up another couple hundred points in hopes of finding you a match. The matchmaking reset could help set up the ELO according to the new matchmaker type (lobbies). None of this is set in stone.

Russ acknowledges that there is an issue with high ELO players not finding matches and he's going to talk to the engineers tomorrow (16^th) to loosen up the matchmaker restrictions.

52:00 When the launch module is active, will we have the ability to set up private matches? Russ believes that private matches with the launch module in April for sure, but he's not sure if private matches will be allowed to launch with LESS than 12 people on a team. That's a Bryan Eckman question.

53:00 Vlog feedback response? They will improve sound, and try to do the Vlogs monthly, and possibly have real-time interaction with players. He says we should expect them often, and they might last longer so answers can be more fully answered.

Will this replace command chair posts/walls of text from PGI? No.

55:15 Russ says he has become compelled to defend the inner sphere from the clans despite his love of the Summoner. When someone tells Russ a mech sucks, he's compelled to play it and prove them wrong.

57:00 interview ends/thank yous.

[Dark Horse X]

Well, it definitely looks like things are headed in the right direction. Thumbs up!

[Lindonius]

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

55:15 Russ says he has become compelled to defend the inner sphere from the clans despite his love of the Summoner.

Oh really? How is he going to defend the inner sphere from the clans then? Is he advocating TKing that Gold Mad Cat that drops alongside his rusty old Hunchback?

[Deathlike]

Edit (because, it's important):
Good job Peiper on the synopsis.

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

55:15 Russ says he has become compelled to defend the inner sphere from the clans despite his love of the Summoner. When someone tells Russ a mech sucks, he's compelled to play it and prove them wrong.

SPIDER-5V, I CHOOSE YOU. THIS MECH SUCKS.

Also, I'm annoyed @ the store, but I'd be even more pissed if the next projected UI 2.0 test DOES NOT ADDRESS THE SERIOUS RAMIFICATIONS OF THE THE MECHLAB.

And, apparently, buy more MC.

Why is it always about making stuff look better, when there's so many things that could be addressed like the poor use of LOD or just the HUD in general... those artists could be more productive than that.

Additionally, why are they looking for Oxide feedback when they STOPPED doing new mech (hero or regular mech) feedback a while back? Did they not read them? (hint: they didn't) That hasn't stopped the PB (Pretty Baby) being a total disaster and the Golden Boy (a KTO/Kintaro, just for those that are curious) being sub-par.

Edited by Deathlike, 18 January 2014 - 04:11 PM.

[Fang01]

Feb 4

[Thorqemada]

Awesome!

[Troutmonkey]

EDIT: Uh, thanks Chrome? I guess it's the forums at fault, and not IE 11 as I expected

Quote

5:40 discusses changes in UI 2.0 public test (16 Jan). It's 100% functional, but doesn't contain everything you'll see Feb. 4. We will see a heat scale, Smurfy style loadout summary, some other things the community wanted. Should be another public test before Feb. 4 where we'll see that

This has given me hope.

Edited by Troutmonkey, 18 January 2014 - 04:08 PM.

[Biglead]

Yes, please reset Elo.

[Deathlike]

Troutmonkey, on 18 January 2014 - 04:03 PM, said:

This has given me hope.

No, it's setting you up for massive disappointment. The only dates I take seriously are the ones that Paul (and I admit to not liking Paul) and Thomas set. UI 2.0 is still likely to arrive on time though.

Anything from Bryan or Russ should be taken with a grain of salt IMO.

Edited by Deathlike, 18 January 2014 - 04:12 PM.

[Rebas Kradd]

Deathlike, on 18 January 2014 - 04:09 PM, said:

No, it's setting you up for massive disappointment. The only dates I take seriously are the ones that Paul (and I admit to not liking Paul) and Thomas set.

Anything from Bryan or Russ should be taken with a grain of salt IMO.

Just let other people make their own decisions. You don't need to decide for them.

[Troutmonkey]

Deathlike, on 18 January 2014 - 04:09 PM, said:

No, it's setting you up for massive disappointment. The only dates I take seriously are the ones that Paul (and I admit to not liking Paul) and Thomas set.

If UI 2.0 comes out without a drastically changed MechLab I will stop playing until it's fixed. It's completely unworkable in it's current state. The current one is clunky, but functional. As long as PGI know we hate it and are working on a fix that's enough for me, but as I said if there's no change when UI 2.0 eventually launches - I'm out.

[Deathlike]

Rebas Kradd, on 18 January 2014 - 04:11 PM, said:

Just let other people make their own decisions. You don't need to decide for them.

They can take my words with a grain of salt if they want. It's up to PGI to prove what they are saying.

Troutmonkey, on 18 January 2014 - 04:12 PM, said:

If UI 2.0 comes out without a drastically changed MechLab I will stop playing until it's fixed. It's completely unworkable in it's current state. The current one is clunky, but functional. As long as PGI know we hate it and are working on a fix that's enough for me, but as I said if there's no change when UI 2.0 eventually launches - I'm out.

I'm in full agreement with that.

[Asmosis]

On the one hand, destroying pugs will force them to look for other games that support casual players. On the other hand MWO definitely needs a competitive 12v12 system.

Wouldn't it just make more sense to fix the 12 man queue with tonnage limits and see if its actually popular or not? I'm sure that's a better idea than just nervously crossing your fingers and hoping it works out.

I'm also nervous about the UI2.0 release. Honestly I think I speak for everyone when I say at this point, we don't care if you delay it again, just don't release it broken although I think that's been repeated since early closed beta.

Edited by Asmosis, 18 January 2014 - 04:22 PM.

[Corvus Antaka]

thanks once again

Quote

52:00 When the launch module is active, will we have the ability to set up private matches? Russ believes that private matches with the launch module in April for sure, but he's not sure if private matches will be allowed to launch with LESS than 12 people on a team. That's a Bryan Eckman question.

this is a big one for me. I hope we get this answered, 1v1 -12v12 should all be possible, as well as 1v2 or 1v4, etc if we so desire it for private matches/duels, clan events, etc. should really be up to the match creator and totally flexible since it is private matches anyhow.

[Goose]

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

What they could do is make the ranges more open/lenient, like every minute you wait, the ELO bracket opens up another couple hundred points in hopes of finding you a match.

Wait'a frellin' minute: That NOT what's currently happening? That's not why MM is so bad, and turing it on is considered an improvement?

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

46:20 Russ says they MIGHT have to reset ELO.

I don't get it; I can see it shifting faster, I can see there being moar then four stats, but why a reset?

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

55:15 Russ says he has become compelled to defend the inner sphere from the clans …

Good man.

[Alistair Winter]

Thanks for taking the time, Peiper§

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

4:50 Russ announces the production of 'You're on an island!” t-shirts
Cost $100, and they only come in the color gold.

Oh, I get it. It's funny because it's a reference to when they ignored feedback from the fans. These guys are PR experts.

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

9:00 Will it be easier to find our lost modules? Not the first version. It won't have many of the easy mode features we're looking for. We won't have auto fill of consumables. Probably features introduced on a monthly basis.

Oh for the love of...

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

19:20 Russ suggests if we want stuff like cockpit effects, teary eyes, sparks, whatever start a poll or comment in the MWO forums about it and they'll listen.

But they already listen to all the feedback on the forums.

Right?

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

20:00 Russ talks about the development of the Oxide. Originally it had 6 missile hardpoints, and it was determined it was overpowered. Did they go to far in nerfing that idea? Should they add jump jets? Machine guns? Russ wants to know! Asks the community to weigh in. [Sized hardpoints might help prevent abuse if they want to add ballistic hardpoints or something... Yeah, yeah, back to my island. -Peiper Also, does this mean they'll listen to other hardpoint changes on other hero mechs and stuff??]

How about fixing the Pretty Baby first? Or the Locusts in Talon package? There's a lot of people that have spent real money on crappy mechs and waited longer than the Oxide players.

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

53:00 Vlog feedback response? They will improve sound, and try to do the Vlogs monthly, and possibly have real-time interaction with players. He says we should expect them often, and they might last longer so answers can be more fully answered.

That's handy. I've been expecting them more often for a while.

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

55:15 Russ says he has become compelled to defend the inner sphere from the clans despite his love of the Summoner. When someone tells Russ a mech sucks, he's compelled to play it and prove them wrong.

Instead of trying to balance the game. Interesting approach. I guess that's why we have brilliant mechs like the AWS-8Q and Spider 5V. Russ is compelled to prove that they're actually brilliant.

In closing... N.O.P.E.

[Davers]

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

55:15 When someone tells Russ a mech sucks, he's compelled to play it and prove them wrong.

You forgot the part where he admits that the players were right and Dragons and Quickdraws are not very good.

[Sandpit]

Good interview. I enjoyed the info and timeframes that we'll be looking at.

In short, still got a ways to go for my money but each time I see a new interview or post or information release I get an itch in my wallet.
Y.U.P.

[warp103]

WOW joke of island . I have a better one N.O.P.E.

[RedDragon]

Peiper, on 18 January 2014 - 03:39 PM, said:

17:30 Russ and Phil talk mention stuff like steam/heat waves/blackouts in the cockpit. Do we as players want that level of immersion, or would that just annoy people. [toggle on/off would be my answer! -Peiper]

19:20 Russ suggests if we want stuff like cockpit effects, teary eyes, sparks, whatever start a poll or comment in the MWO forums about it and they'll listen.

This is a joke, right? There are literally a thousand threads and polls about this, starting in Closed Beta until now.