101 replies to this topic

[Bhael Fire]

I really enjoy the interaction between the devs on Twitter...simple, fast quick-fire Q&A interaction ftw.

[-Natural Selection-]

You want a suggestion..

Tell them all to take 5 mins every morning to respond to a couple post in "THIS" site. I am sure people actually putting in effort to lay out ideas would appreciate to hear from devs as to their thoughts on it, be it good or bad.

They maybe they wouldn't have to face an annual firing squad when they do decide to speak. I mean really, why do you guys want to go through the trouble of answering the same 5 questions over and over from the same old people..?

[SQUIRRELLL]

Edit: moved this to Niko's new thread so its on topic.

Edited by SQUIRRELLL, 27 May 2014 - 05:54 PM.

[p4r4g0n]

I like this thread for the same reasons l like the Karl Berg one. Actual discussion going on and not just an OP and then essentially nothing else in the thread from either the initiator or any other PGI staff (cept for mods when things start getting ugly).

More please!

P.S. Getting VLogs covering issues already disclosed in Command Chair updates is pretty pointless other than for putting faces to names. Also, almost the same words / quotes being used in both makes the VLogs comes across as a video reiteration of the Command Chair posts which again seems pretty pointless and a waste of effort.

How about using the Command Chair posts for the updates and the VLogs for the Devs to talk about the problems / issues they encountered or expect to have to deal with while working on that particular content or why they decided to do things that way and why certain suggestions (if any) could not be implemented, etc?

[DerMaulwurf]

To be frank: I'm not interested in the faces behind the decisions. What I want to know is: What decisions have been made and why have they been made. These things are best adressed with Command Chair posts.

To elaborate a bit more: First I want to know where the game is headed and how the devs want it to develop/look. That is obviously the kind of information anyone would want before putting money towards a game. If I like the way things are headed I'm going to spend. Certainly hard information is going to put off people, too. But the uncertainty over major issues that has happened so often, supresses all kinds of potential customers. Secondly, the information why the dev team has come to certain decisions is almost as valuable to me as the decision in it self. because it allows me to get some gut feeling about what the decision making process appears to be like and wether I share the approach of the devs or not.

Besides that I would like to see the devs discuss alternatives/approaches that didn't make it and explain why they chose not to take that particular path. Elaborating why certain things don't get done is as informative as saying why you do other things.

In the past my main issue with PGI's communication was a) the lack of it and b ) the lack of proper explanation beyond "We know best". Command Chair posts did help with this and can be further improved. Fluff like VLogs and "Behind the Scenes" don't.

Edited by DerMaulwurf, 28 May 2014 - 10:01 AM.

[Mylardis]

DerMaulwurf, on 28 May 2014 - 03:25 AM, said:

To be frank: I'm not interested in the faces behind the decisions. What I want to know is: What decisions have been made and why have they been made. These things are best adressed with Command Chair posts.

To elaborate a bit more: First I want to know where the game is headed and how the devs want it to develop/look. That is obviously the kind of information anyone would want before putting money towards a game. If I like the way things are headed I'm going to spend. Certainly hard information is going to put off people, too. But the uncertainty over major issues that has happened so often, supresses all kinds of potential customers. Secondly, the information why the dev team has come to certain decisions is almost as valuable to me as the decision in it self. because it allows me to get some gut feeling about what the decision making process appears to be like and wether I share the approach of the devs or not.

Besides that I would like to see the devs discuss alternatives/approaches that didn't make it and explain why they chose not to take that particular path. Elaborating why certain things don't get done is as informative as saying why you do other things.

In the path my main issue with PGI's communication was a) the lack of it and b ) the lack of proper explanation beyond "We know best". Command Chair posts did help with this and can be further improved. Fluff like VLogs and "Behind the Scenes" don't.

^^^^^^

very much this. If the poll is intended to filter what to do and there isn't enough time for everything, then I absolutely agree with this.

Decisions and their origin are the single most important piece of information lacking, followed by lots of interaction. "Fluff stuff", though nice, is simply not as important.

(apart from that, I still strongly encourage using these forums as main channel of communication. Inofficial channels used more often like Twitter and Reddit are not the right way of doing this - and it won't get better by running away)

[Nightmare1]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 27 May 2014 - 04:59 PM, said:

Topics split. Those who wish to discuss the r/mwo situation may do so here: http://mwomercs.com/...159498-on-rmwo/

Thanks Niko! That was getting annoying. Now we can get back to the business this thread was designed to facilitate!

[Gasoline]

DasAmok, on 28 May 2014 - 04:36 AM, said:

(apart from that, I still strongly encourage using these forums as main channel of communication. Inofficial channels used more often like Twitter and Reddit are not the right way of doing this - and it won't get better by running away)

QFT

This so very much...

[Morgana]

Have to admit, I love the idea mentioned by a few others, of a video walking through the studio, to the different areas of development, highlighting the Devs within them. It may give the Community a better appreciation of the content received, developed by the "handful" of Devs in comparison to the 100+ development teams other major gaming companys have. The "Meet the Devs" posts of days old, are now deeply buried.

Dev Hunts? Hell yea! Yes, I would love to see more Dev Hunts. I don't need any fancy banner or whatever. I've noticed alot more Devs playing these past two weeks. Have to admit, it gave me a "warm & fuzzy" feeling, seeing them participating, amongst the general population, experiencing what we are dealing with. I realize they have their testing servers and whatnot, but for them to "see" what we see, and be respected by the Community to understand our issues, they need to be more visible. In the past, Garth covered this by visibly dropping with Sean Lang and the NGNG "team".

Bonus Questions:

Who, in the studio, do you find you have the best rapport with?
What, so far, has been your most challenging project in MWO, how did you attack it, and did you succeed or not?
How do you personally deal with pressure? (ie, what is your outlet?)
What do you feel, has been your greatest accomplishment in the development of MWO thusfar, pertaining to your specific field?

[Mister Blastman]

Less talk. More results. That's what I want to see. Stuff being DONE.

[Heffay]

Morgana, on 28 May 2014 - 07:18 AM, said:

Dev Hunts? Hell yea! Yes, I would love to see more Dev Hunts. I don't need any fancy banner or whatever. ?

I strongly second this. But I do want the banner, or at least a t-shirt. This should be a monthly event!

[Monsoon]

Yes, yes, yes and yes...yesyesyes.

Done!

[Sybreed]

hey Niko, since you're doing polls now, how about you ask us about Ghost Heat, ECM, 3rd person and the likes?

[IraqiWalker]

Sybreed, on 28 May 2014 - 03:09 PM, said:

hey Niko, since you're doing polls now, how about you ask us about Ghost Heat, ECM, 3rd person and the likes?

Hate ghost heat all you want, but right now we don't have a better alternative to the 6PPCs of doom set ups.

[Sybreed]

IraqiWalker, on 28 May 2014 - 04:10 PM, said:

Hate ghost heat all you want, but right now we don't have a better alternative to the 6PPCs of doom set ups.

there is, it's called a heat limit set at 30, client side authorization and cone of fire

[IraqiWalker]

Sybreed, on 28 May 2014 - 04:28 PM, said:

there is, it's called a heat limit set at 30, client side authorization and cone of fire

2 of them are manageable, They'd still kill half the builds in the game. The third (Cone of fire) makes no logical sense whatsoever

[Sereglach]

Absolutely yes to pretty much all of it. I'm only neutral on the tweets, however, because I pay little attention to twitter. On the other hand, if there was a thread on the PGI forums where all of those tweets would be posted, then I'm absolutely all for it. The videos and Developer Hunts mentioned in this thread are also pretty great ideas, too.

As for getting to know the developers . . . it would be nice to know the actual people behind the game in general. How big has the studio gotten? How big is it planning to get?

HOW and WHY were y'all able to start vying for a MechWarrior game when it was apparently a toxic franchise that no one would touch (which, honestly, isn't surprising given all of the scandals in MechWarrior history)? Maybe it'll give all of these "Armchair Quarterbacks" who just "know" how everything should be done for MWO and PGI the incentive to actually get up and do something about it by joining the studio, or at the very least having more constructive feedback when they post.

Simple Battletech things would also be great. How did they (the staff) get into Battletech/MechWarrior? Do they play TT Battletech via Total Warfare or the new Alpha Strike? What kinds of mechs/forces do they prefer to field?

On the other hand, just knowing that y'all have lives outside of MWO would be great. Even if you have an undying passion for something like Battletech, having your job consume your life just sucks the fun out of it. That being said, how about simple hobbies? Obviously, because of the wonderful dangers of internet toxicity, families and home lives are pretty well out of the question . . . so better to just keep that subject simple, at most.

EDIT: Typo fixes.

Edited by Sereglach, 28 May 2014 - 08:36 PM.

[Heffay]

Sybreed, on 28 May 2014 - 04:28 PM, said:

client side authorization

It's like you're asking for the game to be hacked.

[Tekadept]

Heffay, on 29 May 2014 - 05:38 AM, said:

It's like you're asking for the game to be hacked.

It already was to a degree dunno if that was "fixed".. maybe they should though , coz funnily enough i read something ages ago the f2p model people who hack end up spending more money on it coz they feel elite, seemed counter to what i thought. Shrug.. must find that article..

Edited by Tekadept, 29 May 2014 - 05:55 AM.

[Wintersdark]

Sybreed, on 28 May 2014 - 04:28 PM, said:

there is, it's called a heat limit set at 30

Yay!

Quote

client side authorization

And here you go right off the rails. This is just a stupid idea, a terribly, terribly stupid idea.

Quote

and cone of fire

There are ways that can be done (I personally like increasing CoF after 75% throttle and 75% heat) but you'd never get people to go along with that.