I play the game now for a bit over a week. And well its not hard to judge why the game is having troubles with keeping players.
FUN. And this is the ONLY reason why someone will play a game.
Fun is something that "pro" gamers do not understand anymore, they replaced it with winnign at all costs. While this may be an ok thinking in terms of a PvP game, it is the first step into a games grave.
Unlike Counterstrike where you have dedicated servers and a buy2play game, a multiplayer online game has to pay server bills and stuff. therefore it needs to make a regular income. And this does not come from a few pro players, this comes from the wide mass of casuals.
But now we come to the "fun" deciding issues.
No.1 Matchup and randomness.
Well this is a true issus, some small factors totally decide the outcome heavily.
So why do we have no ECM in our random team but they have 3?
Why do we have all those LRM boats in the city where missiles just tickle the roofs of the buildings.
With the first Champion mechs available fun is heavily luck based. luck is not fun, luck is possibly fun. So I may possibly stay?
No.2 Mechloadouts and customisation
Wow, well this was a bit of a disappontment for me.
I came here and wanted to play a mech I like by design with a possible half decent loadout.
So what do I get? 1 mech of each class that I cna paly with but not customize. Fine its the basic loadout.
But except from the victor for a newbie the other mechs just suck in FUN.
Yes the heavy may be fun, if the map provides LRM. boating and the opps don't have ECM.
The medium mech is also only viable in specific maps/situations. On a sniperheavy map, all you can do is sitting there watching the snipe battle. Or just losing patience and running into the opps because dying in a big boom to the opps is less boring than dying of boredom.
So where and when starts the fun? For a casual, the fun starts when you can customize and build up a mech.
But this fun is is a loooooooong pain.
So a newbie, like me, gets through the cadet achievements to get a big bunch of money for his first mech.
But what then? He then has some money for a somehow well upgraded medium, or a stock Assault. And now? Hes a newbie, he will definately by high chance buy the wrong thing in first place. And then he is stuck without any money, since C-bills to get is a pain, especially if you do not know how C-bills are rewarded and if you have the wrong mech its even more hard to get them
.This is hardly considered to be fun. I am not even speakign about engine prices. o.O
Customisation is in the beginning a completely epic C-bill grind pain. To have some decent stuff for a casual, this may take weeks, because not everyone has time to play the game 6 hours a day. Some people play just 2 hours a day. nd do these people want to spend their rare freetime with stupid unfun stuff? unlikely. So why staying with the game? Hardly an argument to bring up here. And considering that one of the most important steps to improve yourself is try and error, you can guess what endles weeks of grinding it means to "try out" a new mwch and loadout. Yes the vets with millions of C-bills can easily try out new stuff. But newbies? grind grind grind.
Sure those who put a lot time and effort in the game should be somehow rewarded for it, but rewarding them with stomping over newbies? This can only be a reward in a broken minded individual. Imagine a singleplayergame where the bosses constantly get harder and harder and the endboss is suddenly a one shot instant dead no brainer. Wouldn't people complain about this being totally stupid? I guess so. But somehow nowdays in PvP environments bashing over lowies and feeling good for this seems to be cool. At least this impression comes up more and more when I roam around through PvP oriented games.
It is a strange and broken construct in many "veterans" and "pros" mind that PvP games like this being better is a result of "hard work" and so granting them the right to crush and stomp over anyone below their level. But this is a toxic and destructive thinking.
In any kind of sports there are different classes, leagues or however it is called in its repsective sort. And why? because its to mke things interesting. Would some one want to see one of the klitschkos instant knocking out a 15 yo who said: I want to try boxing? Hardly. But for some reason many gamers these days feel heroic if they can do something similar. Or at leats they say there would be no reason to seperate them from the low league gamers.
The outcome of this is:
Such matchups should always be tried to avoided because they heavily destroy the new playerbase by destroying their fun. This is a game. there are many games out there. There is no reason except fun to stay here. If you constantly destroy the fun of others, they will go. And once they are gone the game may be dead. Because if palyers are gone, there is no one to play with and against. But at this moment, I am sure all those who scared these palyers away would rather much point at the developers saying they broke the game instead of admitting that they have done something "wrong".
Yes you may just have played the game in its rules, so nothing real technically wrong has been done. But still this is like the boxing example above. Totally wrong. Wrong by design, wrong by ethic standards, wrong in terms of fun.
That is one reason why there is a seperation needed between rookie, regular and major league gamers. To give everyone an equal amount of fun. And fun is what makes people turn the game on again the next day. Fun is also what motivates the casuals to spend money for a game.
So now to me myself:
Do I have fun in this game?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It is too much randomised. With the current mechs and builds I have I am equipped too situational. making these mechs proper in loadout will take still a few days or even weeks. Weeks that I have to spend doing things I actually do not even want to do. Grinding C-Bills in a mech that I do not like with a loadout that I do not like.
And on top of thsi, havign a look at some things makes me woner even more:
Elite skills: to achieve them I need to master 3 variants in basics? REALLY? witht he current C-Bills I get and the current prices this game wants me to:
Grind even more C-bills to buy 2 other variants.
Level their basic skills (which I may have to do in a mech with a loadout I do not want to use). This is not fun, its annoying. far beyond any belief and even further away from what a casual wants to.
Modules:
WTF? So I can unlock them by spending GXP, but buying one cost me serveral millions? yet alone the usability of most weapon mods seems to be borderline inefficient compared to the C-bills, what is the sense for a new player spending GXP for some unlocks he won't be able to afford within some weeks? Sry but grinding C-bills is not much of an "fun motivation" keeping the people on casual level attached to the game. It's occupational therapy for veterans and "pro's" since they wanna get this edge for their competitive gameplay.
So what are my options? I could buy premium, or the mechs to skip some c-bill grinding.
But seriously? Even if I do have the money, pls can someone explain me why I should spend money for stuff that I do not want to have just to reduce annoying stuff I do not want to do? But still I would have to play and farm the mech XP on those variants. Thas an amazingly horrible way of selling products. That is not fun.
from the standpoint of a new player who is not deep in the mechanics my wants are:
Not matching up high equipped pros and veterans with newbies. This gives newbies the short stick, makign all the C-bill XP grind even moe complicated since they score low and will have even more of a hard time to ever catch up by equipment and XP. And eeven if they do, the newbies and casuals will never have the gaming experience to outclass those who spend lots of tme in the game.
Taking ECM's into matchmaking, so that it does not cause 3CMS in team 1 and 0 in team 2. For a random playergame this is pure imbalancing poison.
Change how mechs and variants work.
Ok the battletech universe does have variants, but a variant appears when a specific loadout is designed and tested as a reliable built and then gets massproduced. Now since this is a game and people are individual in the way they are people should be able to "built their own mech"
Yes I came here because I wanted to build and command "my own mech"
As a real
Robojokey Mechwarrior you should get some special connection to your mech, something that is your own and truly special.
I want like in previous PC games, choose a chassis that I like by design and put the guns into ot that I like by gameplay or favour.
Now this is not possible with how the game is atm. Tonnage and slot restrictions are fine as they are. But hardpoints? Really, I truly HATE the hardpoints They kill every kind of fun in customizing the mech I may love with the gunloadout I would like to have.
Somehow looking at the Games deisgn, these variants + elite skill unlocks FORCE you to buy mechbays, and a lot of mechs. Either with loads of grinding or loads of Real money. Maybe a marketing decission, but for me a true fun killer.
But it's crappy, sicne I do not like it. And really, does it really matters if the AC 20 is in an atlas or an Awesome? I see (not even balance related) why an Awesome should not have an AC 20. Yes the Lore considers it as an Energy related Mech. But still it restricts the gamers freedome and fun. Oh is that the evil f word again? looks like. But the Lore also considers a variant with ECM, which we do not have.
So why not adding the following:
instead of variant A + B + C of mech X for 15$ I would better spend 100$ for a single one, if it comes with the ability to be really "My mech" because my Mech si what I want and I would spent money (even more) for things I do want. But I am not going to spend money for things that I do not want.
So lets call these idea "legendary mechs"
- Legendary mechs come naked, just a pure emtpy chassis + base components. Actuators, Life support etc.
- They do have Universal hardpoints.
- Hardpoint option 1: Maybe 1 at the head, and 3 per any other mech part except light mechs who maybe should only have 2.
- Hardpoint Option 2: instead of universal hardpoints per bodypart give any mech a fixed number of hardpoints they can swap around, like: light mechs 4, medium 6 heavy 8 assault 9.
- They do not need to be leveld in 3 variants to unlock elite skills. But they may require lets say 4x XP to unlock these skills. Because its an individual mech and so reading manuals doesn't helps much
. And when they get priced properly, they can also be more expensive than 3x a specific variant. So this way, neither by Real money spent, XP or C-Bills they will be superior in effort compared to the 3 variant Skill system.
Maybe this may allow some OP ness? Not sure, but tbh, Tonnage, slots and heat should be enough to balance guns properly. Sure some poeple may make some 16 x small laser troll loadouts. But this kind of loadout by heat should be already balanced. Also thr short range may already balance this.
But this kind of mehc would heaviyl change the game for my favour.
Instead of possibly not spending money for something that I do not want anywas. Or instead of grinding c-bills for somthing that I do not want and have to level up.
I can now happily spend money for something that I like by appearance and from which I know it will one day be what I want it to be. Sure I still have to grind lots of C-bills for it. But I grind it for something I do like. Thats from psychological point of view a much better thing. While the way may stil be not the one I like, I see a goal I like.
But the current game for me looks like I have to go a way that I don't like to end in a place that I don't like. While in Reallife situations may make this necessary, in a gem it is the worst that can happen. Since it drives people off.
lets look at the catapult.
Why is there not a Variant bearing one Energy hardpoint on the one side and a missile point on the other? Same for the ballistics hardpoints, Why are there only ballistic hardpoints in catapults with Energy weapons but not mix between ballistics and Missiles?
The only thing this is good for is to annoy and restict people in their freedom of customisation. Yes for people who love to missile boat the catapult chassis, for those they find the perfect chasis with their prefered built.
I would prefer to die vs veterans in "my own mech" that I at leats love instead of ruling the world in a mech that I do not like. And even further I do not want to house a "fleet" of mechs. I just want a few of them being my "very own thing".
I totally love the Nova chassis also the Mad cat (who doesn't xD) but when I can not give it the gun laodout I prefer, why should I consider spending real money for them? There is so less revealed about these mechs, why should any sane individual even consider spending money for this? Yet even keep playign a game that I should like in a way that I do not like? Only works in the internet. It's like preordering a vacuum without kniwng what it really can.
state of fun now is 1/4
1/2 match experience
since its too randomised If I have a suitable laodout or not.
0/1 mech I like
0/1 weapon laodout I like
Why is this? well, I prefer the catapharact lik mechs, you know these kind of legs with a mech havign real arms. So the catapharact is the only mech available atm being considered as a chassis of choice. But I can not put 2 lasers in one arm and 2 ballistics in the other. or another loadout I owuld like is 1 ballistic in eahc arm and one leaser in each arm. but onlythe RA comes with a Ballistic and Energy hardpoints.
So I either stay with the Catapharact and have a not wanted loadout. Or I switch to Victor or Jagermech, possibly balckjack. But I don't like by visuals their chassis. So adding this to the fun chart I will maximum get a 2/4 in terms of expected fun in this game. This may be enough to make me stay, but it will hardly let me spend some real money on this game.
Also allwoing more ECM's on various, maybe even every mech chassis would be good, since all the current ECM situation does is forcing people to play an ECM mech they may not like. I bought an atlas with ECM because the sotuation went really bad some days ago sicne the others always had ECM and we never. But 2 days later I just fgured out, soemthing that is needed forced me to play something I do not want. That big ugly Atlas. And I cna not even sell it for a reasonable price and get something other.
This game could be so much more if it grants a bit more freedom but right now it seems that the game controls my activities and decisions a lot more than I for myself. And I for now blame the customisation for this.
I like how the mechs alter visuals with different guns. We also can a bit customise the painting. But again here spending like 15$ to paint a mehc I don't like? Not with my money. So that tiny difference in customising the mech and its loadout IS FOR ME the huge difference between me throwing money at the game and not even considering to keep playing it. The rest feels like a decent game in the Mechwarrior series, itjust lacks the personam component between "me and my mech".
Edited by Grimmrog, 29 April 2014 - 03:54 AM.
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Craig Steele, on 29 April 2014 - 01:29 AM, said:
