14 replies to this topic

[The Flying Gecko]

But...

1) Incompetence

Nearly every patch, something else gets 'broken', and what is broken takes far too long to fix. SRMS have been buggy since early BETA. Pulse Lasers translate poorly from TT and have needed love since day one. When they FINALLY made changes to the pulse-lasers they were very un-characteristically weak buffs (typically when PGI changes anything they have no middle-ground between insanely OP and Nerfed into obsolescence). PGI consistently fails to deliver, especially in a timely manner. Community Warfare? That was supposed to be implemented before 'launch' right?

2) Developer Communication (coming soon!™)

The last two days I've spent nearly every match informing people that their missiles are currently broken. Because they didn't even know. There isn't a "Mechwarrior online is going down for maintenance" message. The game just crashes and leaves you wondering why it doesn't work (the first time at least). Ultimately these things tend to be really minor issues but they exist. If you don't read the forums, you're practically clueless as to how much of the game works. Example Ghost Heat: When first implemented (and for a LONG time after) the only way to know it even existed was to read the forums. There was nothing in the game indicating or even mentioning ghost heat.

3) Player Communication

Need I say more? No voice chat. The tiny social button makes it easy to miss your friends. The inability to message them in a match. I can't tell you how many times I've logged in, checked my social tab, waited for a friend to finish their match, have them not even notice my message and launch again. Guilty of being the other guy in this scenario too, prior to the ability to cancel finding a match I'd sit there at my grey'd 'searching' screen and THEN notice the taunting social button blinking at me.

4) The 12 Man Que (and why you don't matter)

1200+ damage and 5 kills in a locust - STILL LOST (screen shots to prove it). It doesn't matter if you have the game of your life or sit AFK, the only thing that matters, is who those other 11 guys are, and what 12 guys you're fighting against. MWO frequently puts me in No-Win scenarios where all 11 of my team mates are dead and barely scratched the enemies paint, or the equally no-fun opposite, a desperate rush to try and get a few hits in before the enemy's all dead. 12 per team is too crowded on the small maps, and too few for the large maps, and either way you're just a single cog in the team-machine and rarely make much of a difference, the games were you are the pivotal factor in victory (or just have an amazing game like soloing 5 guys in a locust... and lose) are great, but exceedingly rare. As a solo player, this encourages many to be a 'glory hog' and just camp the base while the team dies and try to fish for easy kills and injured mechs. The moments where you actually mater are gold, but far too rare. All too often my team decides to split-up, fight on the enemies terms, and leave me with far too much weight to carry.

5) Time

Too little of the game is spent shooting stuff. Far too much of it is spent in loading screens and searching for a game. Much of the time spent in game is sit and wait. Conquest is really the only game mode I like, because people have to move and even split up on the big maps sometimes, but capturing those points... may as well bring a book... if they even matter, and one team or the other isn't almost wiped out in the first 5 minutes (the team that splits up and goes for caps from the get-go, almost never a viable strategy)

6) Content

10 Maps + 3 game modes. Nothing else to say. Super Mario Bros on Nintendo had 32 'maps' and two game modes (after you beat it and all the enemies are upgraded)

7) Poor Design

So many bafflingly awful decisions. 3rd person camera mode doesn't really bother me, but it royally pissed off many of the die-hards. Ghost heat was and is crappy. The alpha-strike meta was guaranteed when they dropped the 'auto' and just kept the 'cannon'. If the ballistics functioned more like the lasers, (and thus more like Auto-Cannons) the entire game would be different. ECM implementation was a nightmare. Command Module. And....

8) Jump-Jets or Bust

If I mech doesn't have Jump Jets or ECM, it better have KILLER hard-points, because jump jets and ECM are vital. The only mech I regularly play that doesn't have one of these two features is a missile boat.

9) U.I. 2.0

You actually made it worse then the original. Wow. So much useless garbage. One that really gets to me is the Icons for everything. How about: One Icon for regular engines then just a list of the ratings. Followed by one Icon for XL's, and their ratings. Do we really need separate icons for all the kinds of AC ammo? I would much rather the UI have an INTEGRATED SOCIAL PANEL then an easy-to-miss button crammed in the corner that prevents me from chatting while working in the mech-lab.

10) The Clans (speculative)

And you thought this game was out of beta? You can't add THAT much material to the game without through play-testing. Given the existing track record, you can rest assured that clan tech will be glitchy as hell. It's not even in the game yet and has already completely screwed ALL missiles in the game. I really feel sorry for anyone who payed $500 to be a gold-painted beta-tester.

[Flaming oblivion]

I agree for the most part , aside from JJ's and ecm are vital my orions do fine . and I wouldn't say there hardpoints were spectacular.

Edited by Flaming oblivion, 21 May 2014 - 05:27 PM.

[Aaron45]

Dont complain about the game.. Its still in Beta and theres a bottleneck -as usual. Pgi will ignore you anyways.

All systems nominal

Edited by Aaron45, 21 May 2014 - 05:39 PM.

[Santos Villalobos]

Excellent post. To add to #5, the wait times were so consistently long that, at one point, I was able to click "Launch", leave my computer and go to the bathroom, and return before the match had started. Absurdities like this make this game unappealing.

Worse, though, is the PGI's inability to satisfactorily interface with the community and its concerns.

[Oswin Aurelius]

Aaron45, on 21 May 2014 - 05:27 PM, said:

Dont complain about the game.. Its still in Beta and theres a bottleneck -as usual. Pgi will ignore you anyways.

All systems nominal

Ironically enough, the first thing MWO ever teased was a picture of an Atlas that took almost a week to piece together on twitter. It's not like we're used to them doing things well. XD

[StraferX]

I left, gave MWO a break for a good 6 months and came back about a week now. After 20 some patches of updating I see that I have a ton of new mechs to play with, another map and the same ole broke today worse tomorrrow type of fixes.

I in all sincerity hope this game makes a tremendous turn for the better and this all gets sorted out, God bless the devs and i pray they retool this in good fashion.

[Jolly Llama]

I am Geodeath and I approve this message...

I whole heartedly swear that UI 2.0 is a giant step backward for this game. For Christ sake, why can we not see engine ratings and modules when we hover over a mech. The two most interchangable items in the game for most people and you have to burrow through a bunch of clunky menus to see which mech they are on....one at a time. That alone illustrates the obtuse approach at a user interface that was taken when designing this ****.

[Kassatsu]

Too bad this game is guaranteed to continue making money until at LEAST 2016 because of the IP being held hostage until that point, I pray to god they are not given the chance to renew the license.

If it takes another 10+ years for someone to pick up the Mechwarrior IP again, so be it. I can wait.

Ghost heat is not Mechwarrior, nor is it Battletech. The broken implementation of ECM is not Mechwarrior, nor is it Battletech. The completely inexplicable, arbitrary nerfs/buffs to weapon stats are not Mechwarrior, nor are they Battletech. The only thing Mechwarrior or Battletech about this game is that says so in the title and website logo, and of course, some art assets and naming conventions. That's it. That's everything Mechwarrior and/or Battletech about this game.

$10 says the current completely broken missiles are how clan missiles are actually going to be when they hit. Because balance! Everything must be balanced! No advantages! Only hard counters! Unless you're using 2xAC5/2xAC2 jagers or poptart cataphracts!

I blame a desperate attempt at esports on a small number of the ridiculous balance changes, I blame... I wish I knew what to blame for the vast majority of them.

EDIT: Lastly, I wanted this game to be good. I've completely given up hope months ago that it will ever reach that point.

Edited by Kassatsu, 21 May 2014 - 05:59 PM.

[Aaron45]

Kassatsu, on 21 May 2014 - 05:58 PM, said:

Too bad this game is guaranteed to continue making money until at LEAST 2016 because of the IP being held hostage until that point, I pray to god they are not given the chance to renew the license.

.

This part needs to be Marked. Its soo true

Edited by Aaron45, 21 May 2014 - 06:19 PM.

[Kassatsu]

Aaron45, on 21 May 2014 - 06:04 PM, said:

This part needs to be lightened up!!

Why, afraid someone else will snatch up the IP once its license expires and make a better game? I doubt anyone could do worse.

The fact a free mod for Crysis made by amateurs who made it solely out of their love for the franchise had to be shut down for this game to see the light of day means I really never had much hope for this game to begin with.

The punchline is probably something to the effect of this: PGI is just completely screwed at this point either way, even if they pull a complete 180 and rebuild the entire game from scratch (art assets thankfully can be re-used) to be a proper Mechwarrior game, over half the community will instantly go into a frenzied rage because it's not exactly how they wanted it, or because it's such a drastic change from the current (completely broken) meta. Hell, at this point I think most people don't even care what PGI does or when, it's just automatically a terrible design decision that breaks the game or a massive failure implementing a patch (though in this case it's quite valid).

EDIT: Yeah, typo noted. No harm done. I do apologize if I sounded hostile or whatever.

Edited by Kassatsu, 21 May 2014 - 06:45 PM.

[Aaron45]

Kassatsu, on 21 May 2014 - 06:16 PM, said:

Why, afraid someone else will snatch up the IP once its license expires and make a better game? I doubt anyone could do worse.

The fact a free mod for Crysis made by amateurs who made it solely out of their love for the franchise had to be shut down for this game to see the light of day means I really never had much hope for this game to begin with.

The punchline is probably something to the effect of this: PGI is just completely screwed at this point either way, even if they pull a complete 180 and rebuild the entire game from scratch (art assets thankfully can be re-used) to be a proper Mechwarrior game, over half the community will instantly go into a frenzied rage because it's not exactly how they wanted it, or because it's such a drastic change from the current (completely broken) meta. Hell, at this point I think most people don't even care what PGI does or when, it's just automatically a terrible design decision that breaks the game or a massive failure implementing a patch (though in this case it's quite valid).

Sry man messed up lightened and marked. Your post was already so true withoout lightening it up... The game and players are mwo ´s prisoners.. Doesnt matters if mwo sucks or not. Its the only Battletech game

[The Flying Gecko]

Flaming oblivion, on 21 May 2014 - 05:27 PM, said:

I agree for the most part , aside from JJ's and ecm are vital my orions do fine . and I wouldn't say there hardpoints were spectacular.

Right, but unless the guy BEHIND your Orion has Jump Jets, he's gotta wait for his shot, and unless the guy behind him has ECM, you're probably getting pelted with missiles. the Orion is a tough mech, it doesn't have 'killer hard-points' but it does have a lot of armor for its class.

I'm not saying EVERYONE needs ECM or Jump Jets, but I am saying if nobody has them (or for that matter most of the team), then you're probably in for a really rough ride. In "Canyon Network" no JJ cripples your mobility, 10% of the maps (sigh)

I'm saddened I forgot to mention the Arty/Airstrike thing in the OP. I like them but I think they hit a little too hard, and I don't like the potential for 48 red smoke flares in a single game. At the very least I'd enforce a "one-or-the-other" and Increase the time between potential strikes.

[xXBagheeraXx]

Hit the nail on the head sir. while i will say to the "ecm and jumpjets" needs to be changed to PPC/AC5's

[Wolfways]

I think everyone wants the game to be good, but there are different opinions on what is good. There are many different types of players, including (but not limited to) BT/MW fans, "stompy robot" fans, and players who couldn't care if they were piloting a pink box with guns.
Imo if you're going to use an existing IP then it should be made for the fans of that IP.

I'm pretty sure i know when i'll quit MWO for good. When/if the Mad Dog Prime is released. I've been waiting since closed beta to pilot that mech but seeing as the weapons are LRM's and PL's i'm pretty sure it will be half useless and the other half will melt the mech

[Anjian]

I myself also returned to the game from last January, using May as a month to assess if I should invest on the Clan sets, of which I am willing to pay heartily a budget well over $200.

My conclusion as of today, PGI deserves to get my middle finger instead. Adios.