9 replies to this topic

[Blood Bear]

I have been playing MWO since closed beta. I didn't mind the bugs, crashes, lag and rubberbanding as long as I could load up the game and get back into more pew pew fast.

However, the game has now become uplayable in the sense that as someone who values their own time and wants to be entertained I now spend more time waiting for the game to load, navigating the even more time consuming UI 2.0, waiting for modules to save, waiting for friends list to load, waiting for the matchmaker to find me a game only to have the matchmaker fail.

What this means is, in order for me to enjoy a game of MWO, which may last 10 to 15 mins if I play well or perhaps only a few mins if I play badly, I then have to spend more time navigating the slow and buggy UI than I spend actually playing the game. This is a fundamental flaw - it's a deal breaker. You can not expect people to waste their lives with a process that forces them to wait more than they play.

What is most concerning, the wait times are getting longer and longer. Most recently UI 2.0 has contributed to this, however this system of waiting is programmed into the core of MWO. I don't know exactly what the issue is but from oberservation and discussion with other frustrated players it seems the more mechs you own, the more it taxes the system and the longer you wait. This is counterproductive to the long term survivability of the game. Why would I ever buy another mech when the number of mechs I already own causes such a delay already? This must be already cutting into their game profits and must be a huge limiting factor going into the future.

Modules must be put on auto-buy. I bet this would be extremely easy to fix and would save at least 2 mins per game and probably more than 10 mins out of an hour. The fact that this has been left like this for so long is a slap in the face to players.

The bottleneck that delays loading and recovery from the game caused by owning too many mechs has to be fixed. How will they ever raise more funds for the development of the game if no one wants to buy more mechs. NO, selling mechs I already own to make space is not an option. Each mech you own represents tens of hours of time invested in the game and when you sell it you get about a third of what you paid for it effectively flushing your efforts down the toilet.

The UI 2.0 is a joke. I'm sure many people have complained about this already but the worrying thing is despite the bugs the actual design of the UI is more time consuming - another indication that they don't value our time. Everything you need should be available on one screen with the absolute minimal amount of clicks to achieve what you want. Complicated is not better.

A while back we had that stupid ready-up timer before the game started. Yes that was fixed but the fact it was implemented in the first place tells us they are not even thinking about how valuable our time is.

All of the issues are magnified for international players a long way from the server. Since probably a large percentage of the player base is in North America they probably don't care about that. However, all you need to do is put one international player into a 12 man and suddenly all 12 are waiting. Thats 12 people all wasting 2 mins while one persons waits for the modules to save. This is just unacceptable.

Until the developers streamline the game so that it stops wasting my time then there is no reason to play and even less reason to purchase anything from them. If you waste my time then you don't get my money - it's as simple as that. Stop rolling out mechs and figure out how to stop wasting my time.

[Craig Steele]

This is close to my heart.

I have been harping on about the entertainment value of watching load screens for a while now, albeit my attention has been occupied by the one shot meta and match making experience.

I know some people really enjoy the game in it's current format and I'm not taking that away from them, I just don't think it's sustainable.

If you love it as is, play it, if you don't, don't. That seems to be PGI's view anyway.

Having said that, I am thinking they are making progress last few weeks and at least talking to the community which can only be a good thing. Lets see if they actually deliver though.......

Edited by Craig Steele, 12 February 2014 - 07:54 PM.

[Naduk]

you sit at traffic lights while its red
you waste hours while the bus is on its way or delayed
you stand in line at the supermarket
you sit on the couch flicking through tv channels because there is nothing to watch

but when Mechwarrior takes a few seconds to talk to its server thats more than likely half a country away
nope thats just not good enough
.....what ever.....

its highly likely you will see these things addressed now that ui2.0 is in
they no longer have to shut everything off and reboot to make small changes that will fix this sort of thing

[Primetimex]

Look on the bright side of all this waiting, while you're waiting for the Friends list to load, for your friends to finish re-loading modules, outfitting their mechs and saving, and also waiting for those who got dumped from the game to get back in - you can do quite a few things here are some suggestions:

1. Take a bathroom break
2. Make a cuppa
3. Discuss life/politics/hobbies with your friends over TS
4. Talk about other games and probably forget MWO altogether if the waiting is too long.

[Taelon Zero]

I have to agree. I want to play MWO, not watch it load. Yes I do otherstuff during this time, but its not MWO.

[Xtrekker]

6 posts... Founder from closed beta...

Hey, welcome to the island, Blood Bear!

PGI said you guys exist and are the vast satisfied majority of the player base, but I didn't believe them. This is like meeting Bigfoot!

The waiting doesn't bother me so much...I have my wireless 'phones on and go walk around the house or maybe surf the forum to feed my rage addiction. It's like fishing. If I hear the connect, yay I got a bite! If I hear the music, aww, I lost my bait.

The UI on the other hand. God that is awful. I swear this thing has been sitting on some disconnected backup drive in a closet at PGI Headquarters (Russ's mom's basement), and they all got together and said "Guys we've got to release something to show we are working! IGP's gonna cut us off if we don't! Hey, remember that spreadsheet UI we scrapped in Fall 2012? What about that?!?"

[Moromillas]

Blood Bear, on 12 February 2014 - 07:28 PM, said:

The waiting is really starting to irk me.

Yeah, it sounds like you need a break.

[Sephlock]

Just take a break from the game. That's what I did, and I came back with only 20% of the bitterness I had when I left .

Granted, my enthusiasm is starting to flag again thanks to some of the issues you mentioned with UI 2.0, but I'm eagerly awaiting March, when the smurfs will finally come to MW:O!

In the meantime, if you die in a match just alt tab out while you wait for the match to end (so you get your sweet, sweet assists). Might I suggest browsing the forums while you wait ?

[DI3T3R]

After clicking on the desktop-icon, it takes:
* 1 minute to load the initial window (in UI 1.0 it was 5 seconds)

After logging on, it takes:
* 10 seconds to load the Mechlab (in UI 1.0 it was 5 seconds)
* 30 seconds to find and connect to a game thta will last about 10 minutes

This is totally unacceptable.
PGI is wasting my time!
WE ARE NOT PLAYING THIS FOR FUN!
THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!!!

[Rasc4l]

Blood Bear, on 12 February 2014 - 07:28 PM, said:

Until the developers streamline the game so that it stops wasting my time then there is no reason to play and even less reason to purchase anything from them. If you waste my time then you don't get my money - it's as simple as that. Stop rolling out mechs and figure out how to stop wasting my time.

You are basically correct in your assertion. My approach to this is that I haven't actually configured ANY mechs at all in UI 2.0, I'm just using the old builds I had made and maybe changing an engine, nothing else. Just tells how pathetic it is.

About waiting times: Did you btw notice that when you're playing in a group with friends, you can ready and relaunch your mechs as soon as everyone is dead, you no longer have to wait for the whole match to finish to be able to redrop with your mechs. Strangely, this does NOT work in single player so when just PUGging, it will ***** that your mech is still in a match and can't launch.