26 replies to this topic

[Melissia]

Quote

Is there any particular aspect of the combat which you felt needed to be radically revised and/or updated?


[DAVID] The greatest challenge when it comes to combat would be properly implementing melee combat. As a result, this is something that we’re going to put on hold until we know we can do it right. As for more traditional aspects of MechWarrior® combat, we want to make sure that there exists a proper balance to the different weight classes of ‘Mechs, so that they each have their own distinct uses, and encourage good team play when used together.


[PAUL] To touch on David’s comment, we are also bringing in the ability to skill up your pilot. Your pilot is the actual avatar sitting in the cockpit. The dude or dudette that you’re viewing the world through. This brings a whole new level of pilot awareness to the battlefield and you’ll be hard pressed to see why it wasn’t included before. You will be able to fine tune your pilot’s skills into one of the various roles we have planned for MechWarrior® Online™. This includes scouting and commanding for your team mates.

Does this mean we'll have female pilot options? Is it, like so many other games, restricted to just one class (usually the scout, or the magic user in fantasy games)? Or is it the better solution of allowing any combination of pilot class and gender?

I've been somewhat annoyed at the lack of options for female characters in non-fantasy games lately (modern games almost invariably involve some soldier or ex-soldier grunt whose manly grunts and hairy arms don't really do much for game immersion for me, and sci-fi games are only somewhat better in that regard, with Halo being the biggest name that subverts this; most of the rest have been indie games)... pretty much every FPS game out recently has failed rather hard in this, with only a few exceptions, so this got me rather hopeful.

It's an aspect of games that has been marginalized or even ignored for far too long, and would greatly add to my experience of the game.



edit: As an aside, how do I change my avatar, if I can at this point?

Edited by Melissia, 16 November 2011 - 01:57 PM.

[Gaius Cavadus]

I assume there will be some form of character creation because the forum avatars are supposed to be tied to our account profiles somehow:

Kyle Polulak, on 31 October 2011 - 09:26 PM, said:

Avatars will remain disabled until we begin to integrate your MechWarrior® Online™ profile into the forums. More information will become available in the coming months. Please stay tuned!

Then again it could just mean we can select an avatar of a mech that is actually in our stable, or an insignia of the faction we're in, or something.

Not the answer you're looking for but I wouldn't sweat your mechwarrior's appearance too much. Either will get some options or we'll be completely faceless.

Edited by Cavadus, 16 November 2011 - 03:26 PM.

[Melissia]

Ah, that makes sense, on the avatar question.

As for the other.... I'd prefer to be entirely faceless, no character model, no voice acting, nothing at all over having to play another male character. There's countless examples of female pilots, including some supremely competent ones (Natascha Kerenksy comes to mind, but even the one who finally killed her was an exceedingly skilled female pilot IIRC) in Battletech, so if you have pilot voice acting it'd just be wrong and a disservice to the lore to limit it only to dudes talking.

[Cyttorak]

For a FPS it might make more sense to have the characters be male, especially if they're all "grunts".
For a sim like MWO, there's no reason a female pilot would be any worse (or better) than anyone else, just like in real life...Natasha Kerensky is the prime example.
However, as a sim you won't be spending much time looking at your pilot.

[Melissia]

Cyttorak, on 16 November 2011 - 02:17 PM, said:

However, as a sim you won't be spending much time looking at your pilot.

Perhaps I'm too big of a roleplayer (as indicated in no small part by my interests), but it still makes a difference for me. I like to become the character I'm playing in the game for the duration of me playing it, if that makes sense.

Especially if that character is going to be tied to my avatar as suggested above... usually I take a picture and edit it to make my own avatar, heh. Though some places (DCU Online comes to mind) only let you select from a small set of avatars. A pity they didn't have Renee Montoya.

Edited by Melissia, 16 November 2011 - 02:24 PM.

[Red Beard]

Here I thought this thread was gonna have some kind of substance to it. Title is really misleading.

Sigh...

[Melissia]

Red Beard, on 16 November 2011 - 02:25 PM, said:

Here I thought this thread was gonna have some kind of substance to it.

The irony here is bafflingly strong.

My question is legitimate, and I searched the forum to see if there was already was a thread asking about it first.



Hm. I actually have some ideas on pilots, namely possible future pilot classes in later updates... guess I'll go look in the suggestions forum again.

Edited by Melissia, 16 November 2011 - 02:50 PM.

[TheRulesLawyer]

Seems like it should be trivial to implement. I doubt your pilot is going to amount to much more than a pic in the lobby. Well gender wise anyways.

[CeeKay Boques]

I for one, hope that your "pilot" is just a list of stats. Plenty of Pilots in Mechwarrior are female, in fact its about 50/50 as far as Mercs go in both Mechwarrior and MechCommander. In addition to being canon, I'm sure that *** won't be a factor in the game. Everyone knows girls game now.


My fear is, do I only get ONE? I dislike the whole "I'm a scout!" "I'm a heavy gunner!" "I'm the medic!" thing they seem to be going for. I am a MechWarrior. I don't want to be a specialist. What if I want to play a woman one week, and a man another? What if I make a mistake in character selection? What if I plunk all my "talents" in to Scout, but I end up as a marksman most of the time in my Unit? I'm not sure which would be worse, leveling up 4 different classes, or being stuck with a single pilot. People that have played this competitively game know that name and reputation is everything... sometimes you don't want to be that guy, you just want to be Pilot Smurf113...

What does this cost? another Email account?

All that being said, I'm sure PGI have it figured out.

[Adridos]

Technoviking, on 16 November 2011 - 03:01 PM, said:

I for one, hope that your "pilot" is just a list of stats. Plenty of Pilots in Mechwarrior are female, in fact its about 50/50 as far as Mercs go in both Mechwarrior and MechCommander. In addition to being canon, I'm sure that *** won't be a factor in the game. Everyone knows girls game now.


My fear is, do I only get ONE? I dislike the whole "I'm a scout!" "I'm a heavy gunner!" "I'm the medic!" thing they seem to be going for. I am a MechWarrior. I don't want to be a specialist. What if I want to play a woman one week, and a man another? What if I make a mistake in character selection? What if I plunk all my "talents" in to Scout, but I end up as a marksman most of the time in my Unit? I'm not sure which would be worse, leveling up 4 different classes, or being stuck with a single pilot. People that have played this competitively game know that name and reputation is everything... sometimes you don't want to be that guy, you just want to be Pilot Smurf113...

What does this cost? another Email account?

All that being said, I'm sure PGI have it figured out.

Yeah, that system has some flaws, but I'm sure they'll get over it. I would propose to chenge it from talent based to skill based, so I play mediums and my character gets good st them and then, when I get bored of them, or they won't fit my style, I will simply try other class, where I have to skill up too, but everytime I sit into medium, I'm ready to do some serious damage (i.e. you will just skill in different classes and become a jack of all trades after a while).

[TheRulesLawyer]

I'm sure they'll have to have skill tree respecs. Not allowing it and having one character seems a good way to **** a whole lot of people off.

[MaddMaxx]

We the "Community" are supposed to be (hinted at) part of the Persistence within the MWO Universe. It would be very cool if they had something like News Feeds or broadcasts highlighting certain groups or Lances that did such and such at whatever Battle and one Mechwarrior in particular was noted for their Skill, Cunning, Kill count (whatever) and then named and showed a Bio Pic of that Pilot. One would assume if that was done, then a Mechwarrior named Melissia would have a female avatar. Preferably one Melissia herself had chosen when creating her Pilot Avatar.

Edited by MaddMaxx, 16 November 2011 - 03:47 PM.

[Garth Erlam]

Melissia, on 16 November 2011 - 01:56 PM, said:

Does this mean we'll have female pilot options? Is it, like so many other games, restricted to just one class (usually the scout, or the magic user in fantasy games)? Or is it the better solution of allowing any combination of pilot class and gender?

I've been somewhat annoyed at the lack of options for female characters in non-fantasy games lately (modern games almost invariably involve some soldier or ex-soldier grunt whose manly grunts and hairy arms don't really do much for game immersion for me, and sci-fi games are only somewhat better in that regard, with Halo being the biggest name that subverts this; most of the rest have been indie games)... pretty much every FPS game out recently has failed rather hard in this, with only a few exceptions, so this got me rather hopeful.

It's an aspect of games that has been marginalized or even ignored for far too long, and would greatly add to my experience of the game.



edit: As an aside, how do I change my avatar, if I can at this point?

There will be the choice of being male or female, and no it won't be determined by your 'class'. Breathe easy, mechwarrior.

And you can't change your portrait, yet. More on that later.

[Red Beard]

Maybe it could have a picture of a kitten or something nice like that...

[Cyttorak]

Red Beard, on 16 November 2011 - 04:09 PM, said:

Maybe it could have a picture of a kitten or something nice like that...

Or, maybe it could have a picture of an angry woman kicking another mechwarrior in the b*lls.

[Silent]

Red Beard, on 16 November 2011 - 04:09 PM, said:

Maybe it could have a picture of a kitten or something nice like that...

Lets dial back the gender stereotypes.

[CeeKay Boques]

My wife has a Maelstrom called "My Beauty". It ain't no putty-tat, I'll tell ya that!

[Red Beard]

Melissia, on 16 November 2011 - 02:49 PM, said:

My question is legitimate

Indeed it is.

[Red Beard]

Silent, on 16 November 2011 - 04:17 PM, said:

Lets dial back the gender stereotypes.

That is simply your assumption. My comment has NOTHING to do with gender.

Must not have seen the thread with the kitten....

(need to work on my timing here)

[Melissia]

Garth Erlam, on 16 November 2011 - 04:06 PM, said:

There will be the choice of being male or female, and no it won't be determined by your 'class'. Breathe easy, mechwarrior.

And you can't change your portrait, yet. More on that later.

Thank you for the answer!