22 replies to this topic

[Amberite]

Recently returned to check the game out. I hadn't been impressed with the patches just prior to launch of the Clan Mechs and could foresee it being somewhat farcical when they brought them in.

Needless to say I was somewhat impressed at finding something really offputting before I even got into a match.

The new method of selecting your mech. Instead of being reasonably intuitive and just clicking the mech you wish to use, you now have to enter a submenu, open up the mech type subsection after filtering through the listing (which includes trial mechs and doesnt seem to have an option for only being mechs you own), then selecting the mech...and -then- "saving" your mech selection.

Only then can you actually enter a match.

It seems that the ongoing system changes are making it less and less intuitive in selecting mech and fiddling with loadouts.

When I actually got into a game (using my good old Atlas DDC) I was somewhat impressed with the fact that the Clan mechs didnt simply disintegrate me by looking vaguely in my direction and scornfully lifting their weapons. There is in fact a modicum of balance.....almost. The loadouts on the clan mechs seem heavily skewed. Point damage in ridiculous in some cases and woeful in others.

I still feel that some weapon spread would significantly make this game more interesting. Kinetics "shaking" your mech should throw laser weapon off-point perhaps? and direct fire kinetic weapons really should have recoil to mess with the faultless accuracy.

I don't know exactly whats needed to make this game more playable unfortunately, and it seems the developers don't either.

I'll be trying out a few more matches and messing with loadouts for a while. But honestly, I can no longer see why I invested in this game to begin with.

[Wintersdark]

You can still select your mech via the mechlab (read:the old way), you don't have to use the mech select screen.

The mech select screen does have real value though for finding modules and refreshing consumables... It IS clumsy otherwise, however.

As to clan mechs, 2x2 dire wolves aside(powerful but with substantial flaws), pinpoint damage is sometimes equal to but typically worse than IS mechs. That's the balancing point of clans.

[Ironwithin]

Wintersdark, on 06 July 2014 - 08:33 AM, said:

You can still select your mech via the mechlab (read:the old way), you don't have to use the mech select screen.

The mech select screen does have real value though for finding modules and refreshing consumables... It IS clumsy otherwise, however.

...

This is definately true and while not even close to being perfect it is a step in the right direction.

Edited by Ironwithin, 07 July 2014 - 12:27 PM.

[Appogee]

You are seeing the glass half empty.

Sure the new UI is less intuitive and more clunky.

BUT we have 3rd person view, reverse reflective glass in our cockpit windows, bobble heads on our dashboards, and when we kill something we can play sandwich truck sounds!

Celebrate good times, come on!

[Troutmonkey]

The last two patches have been incredibly good for gameplay (working SRMs YEY!), but the UI is still as **** as it's ever been.
They really need an actual UI/Human Interface designer to make the UI actuall functional instead of just "cool" looking

[Hostile17]

First let me say, I've played every Mech game produced based on BattleTech.
I signed up to be a founder imagining all the great times I would have in this game.

The game is beautifully rendered and sounds great.

Everything is else regarding the game is worthless, and I'm disappointed I invested in the game.

Skill system makes no sense, I have to own 4 mechs almost completly identical to advance?
I cant see a mech's Loadout before I buy it?
Takes 3 button push's to get into battle?
The mech Lab GUI is less useable than ever.
List of Bad option ends here cause it would fill pages.

Actual game play is worse, walk around for a couple of minutes, then Boom your dead
regardless of Mech or Loadout. Combat is sloppy and Random.

One refund Please.

[Shimmering Sword]

Hostile17, on 07 July 2014 - 10:41 AM, said:

Skill system makes no sense, I have to own 4 mechs almost completly identical to advance?
I cant see a mech's Loadout before I buy it?
Takes 3 button push's to get into battle?
The mech Lab GUI is less useable than ever.
Actual game play is worse, walk around for a couple of minutes, then Boom your dead
regardless of Mech or Loadout. Combat is sloppy and Random.

- 3 Mechs to unlock Elite skills. Do you even play this game?
- Use the "purchasable" filter in the mechlab to see loadouts before buying.
- 3 clicks to get into a 15min game? How terrible. Would you rather have no groups, no game modes, no options?
- The current UI is just as fast as the previous if you take the time to learn it. Not that it can't be improved
- No control in your matches? That sounds like a skill problem.

2 years too late to decide you don't like the game.

[Panzerbjorn]

Shimmering Sword, on 07 July 2014 - 02:18 PM, said:

- No control in your matches? That sounds like a skill problem.

So you completely deny any issues in the HSR/HitReg system? And any issues in the LRM target lock system? And issues in the hit location system? And issues in the mech-to-mech collision system? If you haven't noticed any of those, you are probably smoking too much weed before you play. The more skilled you are as a player, the more outstandingly noticeable and frustrating these issues become. You can be the best shot in the game but with HSR in the state it's in now, it's rolling the dice as to whether or not you do damage, even if it should have been a hit (and shows as a hit from your cockpit).

[ShinVector]

Panzerbjorn, on 07 July 2014 - 03:27 PM, said:

So you completely deny any issues in the HSR/HitReg system? And any issues in the LRM target lock system? And issues in the hit location system? And issues in the mech-to-mech collision system? If you haven't noticed any of those, you are probably smoking too much weed before you play. The more skilled you are as a player, the more outstandingly noticeable and frustrating these issues become. You can be the best shot in the game but with HSR in the state it's in now, it's rolling the dice as to whether or not you do damage, even if it should have been a hit (and shows as a hit from your cockpit).

Hmmmm..... Answer to this question.. 'Higher Skilled' persons will just keep firing on the target until it DIES.. Unless there is a bigger slower, basically easier to hit target to shoot at....

In others words... Learn 2 Adapt/Adjust until PGI fixes the hit detection problems. (My main issue right now is with lasers. Bad for high latency players.)

[Panzerbjorn]

ShinVector, on 07 July 2014 - 04:48 PM, said:

Hmmmm..... Answer to this question.. 'Higher Skilled' persons will just keep firing on the target until it DIES.. Unless there is a bigger slower, basically easier to hit target to shoot at....
In others words... Learn 2 Adapt/Adjust until PGI fixes the hit detection problems. (My main issue right now is with lasers. Bad for high latency players.)

Most of the high-end meta builds are RHOD-centric and don't have the option of "keep shooting until it dies". That's not the upper Elo meta at all. Top Elo is all about pinpoint shooting and long-range stand-offs, where a single volley failing to do damage due to HSR can result in a crippling outcome. You can't adapt to the system just deciding your last 3 volleys are going to do no damage despite being perfect shots that landed on the enemy mech - even the enemy saw themselves getting hit. I get hit by volleys of fire in nearly every match where my paper doll registers no damage, so it's not like this is a rare event. I went halfway through a match last night completely fresh despite being hit by fire from all sides early on before damage finally started to register on my mech. While I find it hard to complain about not taking any damage myself, I should have, and I should also be doing my fair share of damage to others as well. I just want the game to work as intended.

[Kjudoon]

The entire UI is designed from an insider's point of view, not an outsider/first time player idea of what is and isn't important. PGI needs to contract out the UI functionality to a third party who's never played the game or hire a Usability Interface consultant to fix it.

[Hostile17]

Shimmering Sword, on 07 July 2014 - 02:18 PM, said:

- 3 Mechs to unlock Elite skills. Do you even play this game?
- Use the "purchasable" filter in the mechlab to see loadouts before buying.
- 3 clicks to get into a 15min game? How terrible. Would you rather have no groups, no game modes, no options?
- The current UI is just as fast as the previous if you take the time to learn it. Not that it can't be improved
- No control in your matches? That sounds like a skill problem.

2 years too late to decide you don't like the game.

You really missed my Points Dude thanks.

I understand the Idea of different mechs to become elite. But the varients are nearly identical
in most and you can change them in mech lab. So whats so elite, the Mech doesn't Play completly different.
Just make it so you pilot one mech 4 times as long, now your acutally an expert in that chassis.

In other games you set what games you want to be included in options not every time you do battle. Its bad coding.

The UI is pretty, but not time saving or user friendly.

I think it's a bit Troll-y to attack my skill, I enjoy hard to learn games and have plenty of skill in them.
I've been here since day 1, and the game is not fun , wasn't 2 years ago, and isn't now, and I fully don't
expect a refund 2 years later, I was making the point that this game is a bad investment, the company is in a rush to get your money , but doesn't look like it ready to address gameplay issues. This game has devolved into a FPS, something we already have enough of.

The game has serious issues and I won't waste everybodies time listing them. Ill keep returning every patch to see if it's anymore worth playing. Don't get me wrong I want this game to Succeed and be around for 10 years, but it's got a long way to go. Pc gaming is an intense market, They will not earn market share of the player base with this current version.

See ya next patch

Edited by Hostile17, 08 July 2014 - 01:04 PM.

[Marvyn Dodgers]

Folks, please leave the snark at home and be civil out there.

[Wintersdark]

ShinVector, on 07 July 2014 - 04:48 PM, said:

In others words... Learn 2 Adapt/Adjust until PGI fixes the hit detection problems. (My main issue right now is with lasers. Bad for high latency players.)

I witnessed this myself last night - guy in a Jag, firing lasers at my face while I was standing still, doing no damage at all. I could see the lasers impacting on my cockpit glass in front of me, but nothing. Dunno how that happened. Wish I took video, or had useful details to report it, but it was a brief moment in a frantic match.

[ShinVector]

Panzerbjorn, on 08 July 2014 - 11:56 AM, said:

I just want the game to work as intended.

Yeah... Me too... I play more for fun though..
Actually the final form of 'top ELO' matches in PUG matches tends to be... Using the highest DPS, fastest jumping heavy or assault. (The preferred one I believe right now is the MadCat)... And play RING around the map until everyone dies...
Kinda annoying at the moment for people who do not want buy clan mechs for real money. The speed and fire power of the mad cat is hard to beat.

Edited by ShinVector, 08 July 2014 - 05:59 PM.

[Wintersdark]

ShinVector, on 08 July 2014 - 05:58 PM, said:

Yeah... Me too... I play more for fun though..
Actually the final form of 'top ELO' matches in PUG matches tends to be... Using the highest DPS, fastest jumping heavy or assault. (The preferred one I believe right now is the MadCat)... And play RING around the map until everyone dies...
Kinda annoying at the moment for people who do not want buy clan mechs for real money. The speed and fire power of the mad cat is hard to beat.

I'm right at the bottom of this level personally, but after some good games I find myself there.

Its awful. I hate it. Oh, sure, I'm competent and not stupid, I can run in a circle and shoot stuff effectively (and if joining higher Elo groups, I would do so) but it leads to very ridiculous feeling play. To me at least. And it totally invalidates any mech build below roughly 80kph, as the slowest mechs are killed first.

Blah.

[Tskeet]

There have been many improvements since I played last but it still boils down to taking way, way too long to get new 'mechs. Since this game is fundamentally about collecting 'mechs (because the gameplay is still the same old ****), there's a problem. But that's also how the developers make their money, so I don't think it will ever be fixed.

[Ryvucz]

The good news is, it's a living game, and are continuing to develop and work on it.

Bad news is, rather small work force to get things pushed out as fast as they would like.

Give it time.

"How much time do they need"?

As much time as you are willing to give, and if you're not willing to give much, that's okay.

I've got time to spare on your behalf.

[LastPaladin]

Troutmonkey, on 06 July 2014 - 08:53 PM, said:

They really need an actual UI/Human Interface designer to make the UI actuall functional instead of just "cool" looking

Or even someone who has bothered to read like a bullet point FAQ about basic principles of UI design....

[Corvus Antaka]

Yup. I've tried playing a few games over the last 4 months, and very little has improved or changed. Graphics are weaker than I've ever seen them, the ui 2.0 remains the most incredible downgrade upgrade in gaming history, and the gametypes/missions remain the standard 3 year humdrum of modes that have also managed to actually get worse as well.

Really dissappointed that in the past year nothing in this game has changed from release forward. It seems very similar to what befell Tribes:Ascend, no no maps, no new game modes, no community warfare beyond the reddit/forum warfare PGI has mastered at developing.

Really a shame this game has no play value anymore and that there is end of the day simply nothing to do but grind mechs for the sake of buying more mechs ad infinitum.