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Aright guys, sorry for being the negative Nancy, but since there's a new GD in town, I thought a comprehensive list of stuff that needs improvements/overhauls is needed as a central point of discussion for MWO's main issues.
So, here's a short list of MWO's main problems with possible solutions for each. You can agree or disagree with each and constructive arguing is encouraged.
(I won't discuss the private lobbies and group stuff as I'm not really informed on the matter)
Problem #1
Ghost heat. While it technically accomplishes it's intended purpose, it is a convoluted, illogical mechanic
We know, the pinpoint PPC meta was awful and one of the most boring gameplay experiences ever. But, PGI took the easy way out. Instead of making the hard decisions of completely revisiting the hardpoint system and the heat system, they decided to add a completely arbitrary measure that discourages alpha firing.
Possible solution: 2 steps:
1) Add hardpoint sizes. Doesn't completely fixes the issue as some mechs are natural massive boats, but alleviates it as it promotes more mixed builds setups and more role warfare.
note: Fupdup as a better idea, read it here:
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__3314788
2) Rework heat and use a 10 seconds turn as a template, adapt as needed (in other words, if your MWO "turn aka weapon cooldowns" last 5 seconds, double the heatsinks efficiency). Look, if my mech has a single Mlaser and 10 heatsinks, and I fire said Mlaser 3 times in 10 seconds, it simply shouldn't generate heat, ever (considering Mlasers generate 3 heat). But, if I fire 6 at the same time, then I can expect to be overheating instantly. There should be a balance between weapon usage and your heat generated in a 10 seconds timer.
For example, let's take the Awesome. 3 PPCs, 30 heat generated, 30 heatsinks. If I fire the 3 PPCs at the same time, I should shut down immediately. If I fire the 3 PPCs so it takes approx 10 seconds to fire them all, then my heat should be very close to 0 at the end of the 10 seconds "turn". If I can fire the same PPC twice in that 10 seconds magical turn, then I should be able to fire 6 PPCs in 10 seconds and not overheat if I have 30 heatsinks.
This can be adapted as needed. There's a test server, we should use it for this. Why am I suggesting hardpoint sizes as well as this? Simply because I don't want everyone to boat pinpoint weapons all the time. Having a variety of weapons on a mech forces more tactical thinking and is more fun to play than having a 1 button wonder.
Problem #2
Single heat sinks being useless vs DHS. endo/XL/DHS too easy to acquire, creates imbalances in matches vs less upgraded mechs.
I'll skip to the solution immediately: as much as I hate to say this, MWO should have used a tier system or at least BV. When a mech starts upgrading with DHS and Endo, or by using tier 2 weapons like U/ACs and such, it should start climbing in its "tier" lvl. After a certain threshold, it reaches tier 2 and can only fight tier 2 mechs. This way, most SHS mechs would fight SHS mechs and so on. A BV would have a very similar use and be closer to canon. But I doubt PGI would take the time to implement such a system.
In other games F2P games like War Thunder or LoL upgrades give you an advantage, but nothing as overpowering as upgrades in MWO. There needs to be a way to separate a full upgraded Highlander vs a stock Centurion.
Problem #3
Maps don't promote interesting gameplay. Rather, a stale, deathmatch like game mode that gets old fast.
Look, PGI, this isn't Quake 2, this is Mechwarrior and your maps are killing a good 3rd of the fun out of this game. When I heard about CW, I thought of Objective-based game modes like you have in Chivalry. Having an asymmetrical, objective based map is 10x more fun than a round arena-like map. Assault/defense with secondary objectives should have been the basis of MWO and you failed at this in a way that it will be hard to recover from. You should start looking for community made maps and promote a more asymmetrical style of gameplay if you want to reduce your costs. Arena-like maps are fun for a while, but they don't keep you playing long. MW:LL, while not without its flaws, had some very interesting map designs.
Problem #4
The F2P model has been wrong from the start
I tend to believe that there's a cashflow issue with PGI right now and a part of the problem has been the wrongfully designed F2P economy. People don't mind spending two or four bucks here and there. But, constantly asking for 15-25$ for hero mechs and 30-240$ for packages is simply too much for the average gamer.
There's a thing in BT called salvage, and you could have based your entire economy off it. At the end of each matches, you get different kind of salvages (weapon, colors, paint schemes, heat sinks, etc) and players who want to see what kind of salvages need to pay 1$ for it. See where I'm going with this? This is simply what DOTA 2 CS:GO have been using and it's been a HUGE success. Sure, you can still pay for packages and stuff with MC. But, if you want a steady income of cash, a microtransaction system is what you need. You were such in a hurry to release MWO though, you completely missed the opportunity.
I described what system I had in mind in a rush, but I hope you guys get it. There's the disadvantage that you don't get what you really wanted, but then, you just need to implement a "trade" system that can fix the issue.
Feel free to discuss and sorry for the various grammar mistakes.
Aright, so I said yesterday I would talk about ECM and the Gauss charge, so here it goes. I also need to bring precision to the heat rework and hardpoint sizes ideas.
Problem #5
ECM and the (lack of) information warfare
Interestingly enough, the lack of info warfare can be directly related to the maps layout in MWO. The movement patterns are so obvious and the maps so small, there is simply no need to have a robust info warfare system as the only info you really need is mech positions and armament..
While one big reason we lack info warfare is the smallish maps (note: Bigger maps would perhaps require adding respawns, as it is simply not much fun to spawn, die, then start all over in an entirely different match), the other reason is that PGI never really put much work into the radar system in MWO. While the BT fans could explain this a lot better than I do, there's supposed to be an active and passive mode in MW. What we currently have is a very arcadey always active but also passive mode where LoS is king. What this also meant is that LRMs were also dumbed down, because you could always shoot them as long as you maintained lock. When PGI introduced ECM, we were in a sort of LRMgeddon but not a total apocalypse, and instead of following canon, they went completely overboard with how powerful ECM is. It's a toggable system that doesn't require any effort to use, only weights 1.5 tons (right? not sure) and completely counters guided missiles. Canonically, ECM is supposed to counter different pieces of equipment like NARC or Artemis. But, these pieces of equipment were so negligible in usefulness, there wasn't really a reason to counter these.
Now that NARC is back into being something worth carrying and that missiles aren't as OP as they used to be, ECM doesn't need to be the king of "nope" and needs to be brought back to a reasonable level of countering NARC/BAP, etc. Oh, BAP, it needs to be reworked as well. I don't know how exactly, but PGI needs to rework this one so it makes sense canon-wise. Don't forget ECM is something that requires ZERO input, and as such shouldn't be as powerful as it is.
My vision of info warfare would require huge maps where you have several spots where you can "hide" with your passive sensors and get info on incoming mechs through BAP/NARC/TAG. Such info could be transferred to your team this way and you could coordinate attacks as such. C3 computers are another thing. I think this specific part could be a bit "annoying" to implement in MWO. Too early to tell about this.
Problem #6
Gauss rifle charge and how damage is dealt in MWO
Now, the gauss rifle is supposed to be the standoff long range ballistic gun. As such, it acts well as a sniping tool. But, it shouldn't be performing as well in brawls. But, how "bad" do we want it to perform? In other games, if someone flanks you when you're using a sniper rifle, you're usually caught pants down with a "no crosshair" rifle and you need to be either lucky and/or skillful to perform a perfect no crosshair shot. In MWO, you can't have this as your other weapons require the use of a crosshair. The other drawback of the using a sniper rifle is that you have HUGE reload times. Oh, I think we have something here.
Sniping shouldn't be completely frowned upon in MWO, but I can understand that the PPC/PPC/Gauss combo was too powerful and easy to use, especially when used with jetpacks. First, I think there needs to be a revisit of how damage is dealt. IMO, and I understand if people will disagree, Gauss rifles should be the only weapon that deals pinpoint damage. PPCs should, IMO, deal 5 pinpoint damage, 5 aoe damage. (2.5 to 2 adjacent parts, something like that) and ACs should be closer to burst cannons that shoot several slugs that deal fixed damage (AC/10 is 5x2, AC/20 10x2 or 5x4, AC/2 is 2x1, AC/5 is 5x1, numbers can change) so that you can mitigate the front loaded damage. Still, they need to fire very fast so they're very close to pinpoint damage.
As for the Gauss rifle, I could fix it using these 3 steps:
1) Remove Gauss charge
2) Add a fire delay (like the new sniper rifle for the NC in planetside 2, you click, there's a 0.5 second delay, then you shoot)
3) Increase cooldown so it really feels like a sniper rifle and doesn't become too good in brawls, but still very usable.
Notes about hardpoint sizes:
Fupdup has a pretty good idea how to implement hardpoint sizes... and he calls it hardpoint critslots. It's a more elegant idea and would fit MWO better IMO.
Notes about the heat rework:
My description of how heat should work is pretty much what we have, except PGI halved weapon cooldowns or so, for the sake of keeping the combat exciting. If you permit your players to fire twice as fast in your game, then you should also cooldown twice as fast. In other words, I'd double the heat efficiency of heatsinks and remove the increasing of the heat threshold. I explained it further in the edited part of the OP.
Edited by Sybreed, 22 April 2014 - 04:59 PM.
