66 replies to this topic

[Corvus Antaka]

NextGame, on 02 February 2014 - 02:38 AM, said:

Doesn't need a team.

What they need is a community manager who actively engages with units and longer standing active players and collates rationalised feedback about whats working, and what isn't, and clear suggestions for improvement, and then feeds it back to Paul etc in a concise & structured manner in order that he can get clear feedback without having to wade through a shower of conflicting nonsense.

I'd counter by saying that more likely they need internal changes to actually make the mechwarrior that the fans want.

Anyone gone back and looked over old mechwarrior videos or played those games again? the look. The "Feel". The sound.

depite the lacking collisions, DFA & proper jets the gameplay here is not bad at all, tuning could fix the remianing issues.

Assuming revenue & sales are strong, and this game is a smash hit, that would be ok.

Assuming otherwise, well, you either hire someone who can clean your mess up quickly, or you milk it dry and collapse.

Edited by Colonel Pada Vinson, 02 February 2014 - 07:41 AM.

[Khobai]

Quote

One of the biggest things holding this game back is the completely broken heat system. The threshold vs dissipation relationship of heat sinks is completely out of whack. Energy builds are completely screwed over in this title.

I agree it is one of the biggest problems. Not only are lasers too hot but weapons that are supposed to have minimum ranges like AC/5s dont have them. The whole reason most long-range weapons had minimum ranges in Battletech was so you still had to use weapons like medium lasers or srms to protect yourself at short-range. It forced combined arms.

[and zero]

Colonel Pada Vinson, on 02 February 2014 - 07:36 AM, said:

Assuming revenue & sales are strong, and this game is a smash hit, that would be ok.

Assuming otherwise, well, you either hire someone who can clean your mess up quickly, or you milk it dry and collapse.

Very sadly PGIs [pathetic] business model seems to be milk it dry with mediocrity and empty promises until it collapses. If you look at their past games they all employ the same method; minimal effort for a mediocre and undeserved profit. Some people in life are satisfied with mediocrity and minimal achievement. That appears to apply to PGIs management.

[PanzerMagier]

They just need a bigger coding staff and less artists.

The current payroll looks like this:

32 artists and graphic designers.
18 Coding engineers. Russ thinks it works out, "nah getting another 20 coders at least would cut into my salary boohoo, want moniez plox, ha paul, tell the artists to make another mass sale for mechs, that'll do! Hurr durRRRrrr"

No ******* wonder we're sitting with hundreds of useless mechs and a half baked gameplay system.

Don't get me wrong, props to the artists, you guys are amazing, though I disagree that you're charging 45000$ per mech and 125000$ per map. Have some humility and take some comfort that you're making art for a Great IP that inspires love in millions of battletech fans.

I'd prefer PGI keeping you guys, but at this point I'd honestly like to ask for more coders and maybe a few new head developers.

Edited by PanzerMagier, 03 February 2014 - 11:16 AM.

[Almond Brown]

One wonders how many in this thread have ever run an actual business before. One that consumes millions of dollars? Not very f'ing many obviously. lol

[Jman5]

I wish I could have Russ, Paul, Bryan and 9 other PGI guys play 12-man premades for an evening. I can't help but feel like they aren't seeing what's going on when things get competitive.

[East Indy]

It's not just PGI. But I agree.

There are several different kinds of creative people. Two of them are "idea guys" and "closers." Idea guys have a million tabs open in their browsers, write lists of cool concepts, start dozens of projects and finish only a few of them. Closers are system guys: they're creative, but they're organized and focused, usually with a select few visions that they see to completion.

Idea guys fill blank pages but bore with refinement. Closers aren't as original but accomplish and improve very large, complex things.

Most game developers are idea guys. To them, balance means going backward. They need closers, who would be more than happy to refit and rearrange an established environment.