4349 replies to this topic

[xeromynd]

Wintersdark, on 12 August 2014 - 08:23 PM, said:

+1

+2

[QBasic Warrior]

"Bump for Urbie" sounds like a lovely slogan for a bumper sticker.
Maybe with a url with a link to this thread?

[IraqiWalker]

Tal Ravis, on 12 August 2014 - 05:48 PM, said:

is this thread really still going

YES!

[ZnSeventeen]

Why is there not an urbanmech yet? Three minutes of 3D modeling, another three for quirks and attachments, there you go.

[jper4]

Tal Ravis, on 12 August 2014 - 05:48 PM, said:

is this thread really still going

as someone in a video gaming company on south park might say

"how can you kill that which has no Urbie?"

[Bront]

ZnSeventeen, on 12 August 2014 - 11:04 PM, said:

Why is there not an urbanmech yet? Three minutes of 3D modeling, another three for quirks and attachments, there you go.

That's underselling the art and animation department a little bit.

Otherwise, blame the clans.

[General Pete]

I believe that House Liao maintained and fielded the largest number of urbanmechs (or at least their mechforces had the highest percentage of them.) And the clans invaded from the far end of the inner Sphere, never reaching Liao territory. If they had been forced to enter Liao space, I think we all can agree the urbanmechs would have proved to be an impenetrable wall the clans could not hope to crack.

My point? PGI will release the Urbie after all the clan mechs are introduced for c-bills, as the great equalizer!

[IraqiWalker]

General Pete, on 13 August 2014 - 11:56 AM, said:

I believe that House Liao maintained and fielded the largest number of urbanmechs (or at least their mechforces had the highest percentage of them.) And the clans invaded from the far end of the inner Sphere, never reaching Liao territory. If they had been forced to enter Liao space, I think we all can agree the urbanmechs would have proved to be an impenetrable wall the clans could not hope to crack.

My point? PGI will release the Urbie after all the clan mechs are introduced for c-bills, as the great equalizer!

I mean, that only seems fair. a quad AMS urbie with ECM is a nigh unstoppable force on the field, that needs to be balanced by 2 stars of mechs, and 4 trinaries of elementals.

[Alaskan Nobody]

xeromynd, on 12 August 2014 - 08:35 PM, said:

+2

+infinite

[CycKath]

Ah, so I should be bumping the UrbanMech thread? Okay.

[xeromynd]

With all my being, I want this to be the longest thread on the MWO forums.

Make it so #1

[jper4]

xeromynd, on 14 August 2014 - 10:47 PM, said:

With all my being, I want this to be the longest thread on the MWO forums.

Make it so #1

April 1 2015 at PGI

PGI guy 1: hey guys time to make a new thread for our april fool's urbanmech joke.
PGI guy 2: well, we could just use the thread that's still going on from last year's joke.
PGI guy 1: what? that's still on page 1? what's it? 200pages? 250?
PGI guy 2: <checks the boards and gasps> sir. it's OVER 9000!
PGI guy 1: WHAT????
<pause>
PGI guy 1: hey that means they loved the joke so we're going to do this every year from now on!!
PGI guy 3: sir someone in the art department came up with this <holds up a picture of an Urbanmech> and the programmers figured out how to get around the engine cap problem. we just need an ok and we're good to go.
PGI guy 1: WHAT? and ruin our annual april fool's joke thread? be serious <grabs the artwork, crumples it up and throws it in the trash>
PGI guy 4: but numbers indicate MC urbanmechs could make the founder's money look like chump change.
PGI guy 1: you do NOT mess with the april fool's joke. i will hear no more about this.

[KuroNyra]

Tanar, on 15 August 2014 - 03:08 AM, said:

April 1 2015 at PGI

PGI guy 1: hey guys time to make a new thread for our april fool's urbanmech joke.
PGI guy 2: well, we could just use the thread that's still going on from last year's joke.
PGI guy 1: what? that's still on page 1? what's it? 200pages? 250?
PGI guy 2: <checks the boards and gasps> sir. it's OVER 9000!
PGI guy 1: WHAT????
<pause>
PGI guy 1: hey that means they loved the joke so we're going to do this every year from now on!!
PGI guy 3: sir someone in the art department came up with this <holds up a picture of an Urbanmech> and the programmers figured out how to get around the engine cap problem. we just need an ok and we're good to go.
PGI guy 1: WHAT? and ruin our annual april fool's joke thread? be serious <grabs the artwork, crumples it up and throws it in the trash>
PGI guy 4: but numbers indicate MC urbanmechs could make the founder's money look like chump change.
PGI guy 1: you do NOT mess with the april fool's joke. i will hear no more about this.

Made my day.

[Dawnstealer]

xeromynd, on 14 August 2014 - 10:47 PM, said:

With all my being, I want this to be the longest thread on the MWO forums.

Make it so #1

+1

Edited by Dawnstealer, 15 August 2014 - 05:15 AM.

[Tank]

Urbie in an ultimate destiny of this game, otherwise "A Battletech game" is lie.

[Archioli]

I like how the date is so far removed from April Fool's day that I actually thought this was real... until I specifically looked for the date posted.

Har-har.

Seriously though, are people actually interested in this Mech? Judging by the 40 pages, I'd say so. I'm surprised PGI hasn't cashed in on all of the interest in this mech.

[Dawnstealer]

Archioli, on 15 August 2014 - 05:45 AM, said:

Seriously though, are people actually interested in this Mech? Judging by the 40 pages, I'd say so. I'm surprised PGI hasn't cashed in on all of the interest in this mech.

Right? And I certainly wouldn't pilot one every drop, but I would pilot one and I would buy one: no joke.

[Maxx Blue]

It sticks in my head that, at some point, they said a new mech costs something like $250K to create. Whatever the actual number is, unless they think they can generate that much money on MC impulse/nostalgia buys, it would be hard to justify putting in what is essentially a joke mech. Especially one they can't build stock without changing their construction rules.

So, lets say every single post in this thread is an individual buyer (they aren't, there are plenty of dupes, but we are doing best-case here.) That is 40 pages with 20 posts/page, so 800 people willing to buy an urbie. Now, lets say that all three Urbie variants are Hero's, so people have to actually buy all three to elite any of them. An Urbie hero should cost around 2000-2500MC, which about $10-$13, call it $40 for all three of them. Now lets say all 800 people buy all three Urbie heroes. That is a total of $32,000. In reality, there are less than 800 individuals posting in this thread, and not all of them would spend $40 on urbies.

At this point, I think the most likely way to get the Urbie would be to push PGI to put up a kickstarter, pick a number they think they need to make it happen, and see if it gets funded. We all know they could build it, and we all know it is just a question of if the numbers work out. A Kickstarter is probably the simplest way to figure out if the numbers add up.

Edited by Maxx Blue, 15 August 2014 - 08:01 AM.

[Ovion]

Urbie Hero would be 2,250MC.
Say that an Urbie 'bundle' / mastery pack 4,000MC.
So that's roughly $10.35 for the hero, $18.40 for the 'pack' (based on 6,500MC pack).

Lets call it a $20 bundle for the Urbie (Hero + 2 normal, 3 mechbays, badge, cockpit item, maybe some premium time), similar to clan / phoenix.

I somehow severely doubt that it costs 250k to make a mech.
After a little research, it appears the average wage for staff making games is 45-100K per year, Staff reviews have said that salaries are competive, but not at the highend , so 75k a year is probably a generous estimate and stats say an average working year in canada is around 1700 this means that the hourly rate would be roughly $45 an hour. _{I can't help but feel this is a little generous, but it's a guesstimate.}
This means, at $250k it would be 5556 man hours, or 3.2 working years total workload.
Spread among even 10 people, that's still 556, or 3-4 months, to make one mech

But lets consider, I could whack out a hi res model in 1-2 weeks _{(being a CAD Designer)}, and these guys will be more experienced than me. _{(being professional games designers after all)}
I bet the code would take that long tops too, especially being almost all of it exists already. _{(Other mechs, minor changes to adapt to current)}
Art can't really take much more than the same. _{(many assets exist, especially the basics, but I'd allow for this taking a little longer)}
So that's what... 3-5 guys, taking 1-2 weeks..., or 120-500 man hours - $5,400 to $22,500.
_{(Maybe as much as double that if it's up to 10 people making the mech, or it takes more time.)}
With fringe costs, and such, I could see a mech being between $6,000 to $25,000 _{(or $12,000 to $50,000 if 6-10 people work it, or it takes twice as long)}

Assuming 800 people buy at $20, that's $16,000 right there.
I reckon you'd easily get 1000+ buying urbies, making $20,000.
They could even do a Gold Urbie pack for $50, (standard pack + 1mech, bay, gold urbie hero) I bet at least 100 people would buy that. (Hell, I might even)

This is ignoring that there's already an Urbanmech model (cockpit item), so they have the concept work and a basic model all done as-is.

Edited by Ovion, 15 August 2014 - 09:51 AM.

[stjobe]

Also, don't forget that generally less than 10% of any game's population frequent that game's forum, and even less post (PGI has been quick to point this out when it suits them so they can ignore anything we say), so you could probably safely double or triple your estimated sales right off the bat.

Think of the silent majority, man; they're as likely to love the Urbie as any of us hardened forum islanders