41 replies to this topic

[SpartanFiredog317]

Has anybody ever imagined how awesome this game would be and how much further along we could be feature wise if they never would have promised Community Warfare?

If they had just taken the MOBA concept added the Mech sim and put in leagues and ladder boards?

And conceptually its a perfect fit in the Mechwarrior/Battletech Franchise. Solaris/Mercenary tournaments. I mean, its the perfect excuse for having a great PVP stompy robot gameplay without any semblence of story or meaning.... and they never would have had to shoot higher than that.

I think MechWarrior Online is a lesson in setting achievable goals and not shooting for the moon. If PGI would never have promised Community Warfare I think the community would be completely positive about this game.

[mindwarp]

Completely positive? You obviously haven't spent much time on game forums. People always *ALWAYS* complain and hate on every game out there.

[SpartanFiredog317]

mindwarp, on 25 January 2014 - 11:37 PM, said:

Completely positive? You obviously haven't spent much time on game forums. People always *ALWAYS* complain and hate on every game out there.

True, but I think the difference between a community that was never promised Community Warfare and the present one would be such that it would essentially seem completely positive.

But really, I don't know why they tried to bite off so much, I mean if they hadn't promised this 'Community Warfare' type of revolutionary gameplay experience and just concentrated on making the game we have now plus leagues/ladders/e-sport balance and set it up as a Solaris mercenary league, the game would be pretty polished right now. We know they can do competitions within the current set-up so if that had been the end-state of this game from the get go, we'd have League of Legends with better graphics and WAY more custimizability... and I think that would have generated a HUGE player base.


.... Not to mention Clan Mechs and Tech would have been able to come in a lot sooner and probably without as much nerfing as they are talking about.

Edited by SpartanFiredog317, 25 January 2014 - 11:59 PM.

[Deathlike]

TBH, I don't think that many people would play this game w/o a goal. It would be a harder sell to some Founders, let alone some of the people that play here.

I mean, you can have a game w/o an endgame goal... but those games tend to not get much noise or fanfare. People want to be relevant in a game, otherwise they wouldn't bother investing.

In the grand scheme of things... don't make promises that you can't keep. Otherwise, you kill any future trust to acquire more money.

Edited by Deathlike, 26 January 2014 - 12:13 AM.

[SpartanFiredog317]

Deathlike, on 26 January 2014 - 12:12 AM, said:

TBH, I don't think that many people would play this game w/o a goal. It would be a harder sell to some Founders, let alone some of the people that play here. I mean, you can have a game w/o an endgame goal... but those games tend to not get much noise or fanfare. People want to be relevant in a game, otherwise they wouldn't bother investing. In the grand scheme of things... don't make promises that you can't keep. Otherwise, you kill any future trust to acquire more money.

What is the endgoal of MOBA games like League of Legends or Defense of the Ancients?


Its pretty much self contained within each match....

and a MechWarrior MOBA style endstate would have had the advantage of complete customization and permanence of those customizations.

PLUS the lore fits into the MOBA gameplay style perfectly with the Solaris tournament we were introduced to in MW4: Mercs.... and would have been so much easier to implement seasons/arena ladders than whatever mystical form Community Warfare will take on Soon™

Edited by SpartanFiredog317, 26 January 2014 - 01:01 AM.

[Lupin]

When (As they said it will come) private matches are allowed, fans will support the game more and setup there own ladders and leagues. And likely WELL before PGI get organized to do similar.
As I have said before I find it bloody silly that they did not do this from the outset, fans paying (for mechs packs and colours), fans playing and fans promoting game. Without any effort needed from publisher (Apart from fixing netcode/bugs).

[zagibu]

I don't think you can have the MOBA experience without respawn, and respawn in a Battletech game would be silly.

That said, I think AI ground and air forces would spice up the skirmishes a lot. Would also shift balance away from highest pinpoint alpha you can fit on your mech (PPCs and AC/20s aren't so great against swarms of small targets).

Sadly, AI forces would take a whole lot of effort that PGI is probably unable to muster at the moment.

[SpartanFiredog317]

zagibu, on 26 January 2014 - 03:03 AM, said:

I don't think you can have the MOBA experience without respawn, and respawn in a Battletech game would be silly. That said, I think AI ground and air forces would spice up the skirmishes a lot. Would also shift balance away from highest pinpoint alpha you can fit on your mech (PPCs and AC/20s aren't so great against swarms of small targets). Sadly, AI forces would take a whole lot of effort that PGI is probably unable to muster at the moment.

Without Community Warfare that is essentially what we have been doing the last two years.... and the way they have planned CW it will be another year before we feel any true point besides earning C-Bills... which is why I think it would have been so much better to just focus on gameplay+balance+competition, call the game MechWarrior Mercenaries Online (btw current website is MWOmercs.com) and go from there... in fact I don't know what happened to the little tournaments they started doing, but if they just added a few features to that we could have a far more meaningful experience than this proposed phase 1 CW.

If the premise was you were a mercennary fighting battles on various planets for riches and noteriety... they'd only need to add one more gameplay type, Destroy/Defend, public ladderboards, and some tournament support. We know they can control how many players they put on one side because we started with 8v8 and moved to 12v12, so it should also be really simple to do a 1v1, 2v2, etc. skirmish mode.

Everything I see on this Community Warfare sounds convoluted and overcomplicated... and I think that is part of the reason they've continued to be unable to implement it. A simpler, less grand vision could have maintained a larger and happier player base.

[Chemie]

It's not like they have been "focused" on CW...they only just started thinking about what it would be in Nov last year and have only really started part-time programming. You make it sound like they were distracted by CW and could not have done your proposals. Instead, many had been suggesting those sorts of things to keep engagement while the much promised and never delivered CW was being worked on (think lobbies)

Edited by Chemie, 26 January 2014 - 05:01 AM.

[The Mechromancer]

i always thought it would have been cool to have tanks and soldier mobs coming from the cap points. on course to the 3 neutral points.

if that^ is how capping was determined, i think it would help reduce "deathballing" because people would need to spread out to escort the mobs.

[Novakaine]

SpartanFiredog317, on 25 January 2014 - 11:00 PM, said:

Has anybody ever imagined how awesome this game would be and how much further along we could be feature wise if they never would have promised Community Warfare?

If they had just taken the MOBA concept added the Mech sim and put in leagues and ladder boards?

And conceptually its a perfect fit in the Mechwarrior/Battletech Franchise. Solaris/Mercenary tournaments. I mean, its the perfect excuse for having a great PVP stompy robot gameplay without any semblence of story or meaning.... and they never would have had to shoot higher than that.

I think MechWarrior Online is a lesson in setting achievable goals and not shooting for the moon. If PGI would never have promised Community Warfare I think the community would be completely positive about this game.

Seriously have they been working hard on CW?
I think not.

[Deathlike]

SpartanFiredog317, on 26 January 2014 - 12:58 AM, said:

What is the endgoal of MOBA games like League of Legends or Defense of the Ancients?

I've played those types of games before. I believe the answer is "addictively fun" with "rewards and achievements" that increase replay over and over.

MWO may be "addictively fun" to the smaller niche playerbase that we have, but we have zero rewards and achievements (the challenges don't really count because they don't happen often enough to qualify)... let alone a scoreboard to see who's the the top or even a who's who in this game.

[xhrit]

Deathlike, on 26 January 2014 - 12:00 PM, said:

we have zero rewards and achievements (the challenges don't really count because they don't happen often enough to qualify)... let alone a scoreboard to see who's the the top or even a who's who in this game.

This. We need leaderboards like yesterday.

[SuomiWarder]

I do not believe that thier desire to have meaningful community warfare has affected the actual game play at all. Had they abandonded the concept at the beginning, we would still have what we have game play wise.

[Belorion]

SpartanFiredog317, on 25 January 2014 - 11:55 PM, said:

True, but I think the difference between a community that was never promised Community Warfare and the present one would be such that it would essentially seem completely positive.

No... it wouldn't. People just complain, a lot, about everything. The ephemeral balance, ghost heat, the way their legs look when they are free looking in their cockpit...

They have only recently stopped complaining about there not being enough mechs or maps...

Now they just complain about the mechs and maps. People seriously just need to swallow a collective chill pill (or maybe laxative) most of the time.

[Sandpit]

What was the point of the OP? I don't see how this is an upcoming feature?
sense tingling

That aside, uhm it is what it is. There's actually a lot of transparency lately and information so I'm seeing changes. Only time will tell I suppose

[SuperBroHeroFella]

The Mechromancer, on 26 January 2014 - 11:30 AM, said:

i always thought it would have been cool to have tanks and soldier mobs coming from the cap points. on course to the 3 neutral points.

if that^ is how capping was determined, i think it would help reduce "deathballing" because people would need to spread out to escort the mobs.

Now that would be ******* awesome. Like Dota or LoL without the hero's and special abilities.

[Harmatia]

zagibu, on 26 January 2014 - 03:03 AM, said:

I don't think you can have the MOBA experience without respawn, and respawn in a Battletech game would be silly.

That said, I think AI ground and air forces would spice up the skirmishes a lot. Would also shift balance away from highest pinpoint alpha you can fit on your mech (PPCs and AC/20s aren't so great against swarms of small targets).

Sadly, AI forces would take a whole lot of effort that PGI is probably unable to muster at the moment.

Why would it be silly? Just change re-spawn to having the pilot eject, get picked up and hop in another mech that just landed from their drop ship. It wouldn't be exactly the same, but I think one could get the fundamentals operational. Don't you?

[Phantomime]

man, i love the idea of MWO:MOBA!! as a new game mode...

-you match by elo.

-limited tonnage. stock mechs.

-each player picks a mech tonnage and then 2 other mechs with the same tonnage (as extra lives) with their team in lobby to build synergy. 3 lances, 3 'lanes.'

-fight over destructable objectives in "lanes" spread over a huge map - shield generator (bulk hp) and turrets (less hp but lots of damage)

-have lots of impassible terrain to funnel players. uses narrow passes between lanes. create jumps that only a light moving at 150+ could make, and the trajectory would have to be perfect, otherwise they fall to their death...

-have powerful static defences (Gauss Turrets and Caliopies). use basic tanks as the fodder 'minions'.

-primary target for either side is the enemy Mech Hanger (repair bay) and Tank Factories.

-by destroying tanks, shield gens, turrets, or nme mechs, you could earn credits to be spent at the mech bay for modules (wouldnt be able to start the game with modules only earned in game, and only last for the game) so you could upgrade your sensors, coolshot, or get an arty strike, whatever..

...In a campaign environment (see: CW) this would be Hella Fun!

Edited by Phantomime, 27 January 2014 - 07:03 PM.

[slide]

IMO you probably wouldn't have the game you have now if they hadn't promised CW. I know for myself and a large portion of my online friends, CW is the one thing that we have all been waiting for.

As a founder who ponied up a portion of the $5.2m that the founders program raised , I can tell you that I would NOT have invested any money in this game at all without the promise of CW. I know many who would have done the same.

Whilst your suggestion has merit I don't think it would have attracted the same people who basically threw their wallets at the screen the first time they read about CW and effectively got his game moving at all.

Who knows though, it all theoretical anyway.