74 replies to this topic

[Bobby Blast]

Come onnnnnnnnnnnn Destiny!

[HellJumper]

Plot twist...

nothing was in the cooker before or completed 70% or done..

they started making the map right after clan release..thats why its minimum 60 days..

[Sandpit]

HellJumper, on 14 July 2014 - 11:50 PM, said:

Plot twist...

nothing was in the cooker before or completed 70% or done..

they started making the map right after clan release..thats why its minimum 60 days..

Possibly but I really think it was and the management decided to block production on everything but clan mechs

[Bryan Ekman]

GalaxyBluestar, on 14 July 2014 - 06:18 PM, said:

and what has PGI done to dispel rumours and sqaush the negative brigade, hold off CW missing more seasons which they'd said it was starting whilst pushing for larger cashgrabs. the novelty items in the shop always gets regualar updates as does the line of champion and hero mechs. there's never a bug in the cashshop and other than a skeletal private match set up UI.20 has just created more buy buttons at the cost of an half decent mechlab setup. and all we here of new news is a map maybe here in months but the modules {purchasables in particular} will double up and become more essential to easy mode meching now than ever. **** you wonder why people are skeptical about PGI's intentions after all these years huh?

This comes up regularly, and we answer it the same way each time. The artists make mechs, patterns and bobbles and content, Engineers make features. They don't usually collide. Feature development has not been delayed due to store items, or cash grabs as some people like to call them.

Now there have been many features that needed to be completed first, and that's definitely where the backlog and delay occurred.

The Clan releases was a feature and content release, requiring almost the entire team to work months to design, build, test, and deliver.

Hopefully that clears that up.

[Galenit]

Sandpit, on 15 July 2014 - 09:17 AM, said:

Possibly but I really think it was and the management decided to block production on everything but clan mechs

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__3333181

From april to now 30% of a map is impressive,
10% a month is at least a explanation why a map costs 250.000.

Edited by Galenit, 15 July 2014 - 09:34 AM.

[Bryan Ekman]

9erRed, on 12 July 2014 - 10:18 AM, said:

Greetings all,
@ Bryan
~ a few questions but some you may not be able to answer.

Hello,
If the map team is now working on the 'Mech Factory/Industrial City' and devoting all time into it's completion, is there any work or personnel looking at the existing maps to 'repair/fix' any issues with these maps?
- Or are these different individuals.
- Or do they 'fix' our old maps as a break from the new work, side task?

Understanding that the longer the team works on MWO maps the better they get, and the more time that can be saved on asset and design creation. At some point will all the current maps need to be 'done over' to change the elements to these new higher detail and better designed features? (looking at the simplified designs and visuals of cars, trees, some building, most of the static art elements.) - The items that give us a sense of scale as familiar objects.

Some of these items still only look like they have a single LOD, and never get any high detail pass's. Will this improve?
- Or are we still at the state of trading visuals for performance?
- Are the teams working on shifting some of the loads to the GPU's?
- Dx11 performance levels?
- SLI performance enhancements?

An aside;
I would assume that the map selected to be completed second (swamp) was due to 'damage/collision' issues with the trees and overhead cover? Quite a few 'rigid bodies' that can be damaged/destroyed, tying into the damage state/knockdown aspect of the game and code?
- Or other, elements that are not yet ready?

I had heard that the 'Mech Factory/City was being designed specifically for the next mode, 'Attack/Defend'. And it brought many new and different battlefield aspects to what we have and how we play now.
- I take it this has now changed? (unless your planning on landing a Union Drop-Ship in that city.)

Thanks for any info,
9erRed

They are the same people, see below answer.

I wouldn't say done over. We do have a backlog of tuning/fixes to be done. We're currently deciding how and when to tackle these fixes. Right now we're focused on new content. I don't anticipate we'll wait much longer to fix the biggest offenders (geo collisions). I won't speak to the tech part of the question, I do know that CryEngine is more of CPU bound engine at lower to mid specs and does not tax the GPU very much until higher graphics settings

Swamp needed more custom geo work from the art team. It's being developed along side Mech Factory and will be released afterwards when the geo and testing is complete.

It was being designed for the Attack/Defend. We decided move away from that concept and focus on delivering a map quickly for the existing modes. We have not abandon Attack/Defend.

[HellJumper]

Thanks Bryan for answering.

One question, when can we expect to see variants of current maps?as they are not suppose to take longer than making new ones.

[Kjudoon]

I appreciate the clarification from Bryan Ekman here, but needless to say I'm supremely disappointed we're going to break 8 months without a new map. I understand that the clan mechs were of highest priority to the company, but for those of us who did not care for, or have interest in owning clan mechs, wanted community warfare first and saw maps as a way to prevent boredom and burnout... this is hollow succor. Unless there is going to be a sudden burst of maps before the end of the year... say like 4 new ones by then, I will be a bit disappointed with the choices made by IGP (I know you PGI guys are the ones put in the sling, but are doing your best).

Most of the art effort that was put into getting the clan mechs out is shoved back into it's appropriate priorities I hope will improve this dramatically and we can see you guys beat your goals in the upcoming months on this front. I actually do have some faith you will.

Edit: because engrish.

Edited by Kjudoon, 15 July 2014 - 10:32 AM.

[Tom Sawyer]

Bryan thanks for the updates. At least we have 2 more maps to have fun on.

I just wish the powers that be would consider making a TRUE big city map. Dense city corridors, large central park.

Be a reverse of the big central obstacle concept. Teams could emerge from nearly any of the streets into the park. Got someone spamming LRMS from Avenue Q? Slip around the side side streets and WHAM.

[Kjudoon]

Tom Sawyer, on 15 July 2014 - 10:34 AM, said:

Bryan thanks for the updates. At least we have 2 more maps to have fun on.

I just wish the powers that be would consider making a TRUE big city map. Dense city corridors, large central park.

Be a reverse of the big central obstacle concept. Teams could emerge from nearly any of the streets into the park. Got someone spamming LRMS from Avenue Q? Slip around the side side streets and WHAM.

Just remember this, consider how much fun it is to fight in the tunnels when you ask for those 'dense city maps'. If this is a blast for you with mechs lined up like Space Marines in Space Hulk with no/limited cover jumping over blocking friendly mechs like Mario.... you asked for it.

Go fight in the Crimson Strait F2 sector or River City's B2, C2, D4 sectors, if you eliminated the more open areas. That's what you're asking for.

Of course the flyover on the mech map the Vlog gave us looks like many more areas like that will be available. I'm just cautioning you on this. It's not going to be all 'beer and skittles' if you get it.

[Bryan Ekman]

Kjudoon, on 15 July 2014 - 10:26 AM, said:

I appreciate the clarification from Bryan Ekman here, but needless to say I'm supremely disappointed we're going to break 8 months without a new map. I understand that the clan mechs were of highest priority to the company, but for those of us who did not care for, or have interest in owning clan mechs, wanted community warfare first and saw maps as a way to prevent boredom and burnout... this is hollow succor. Unless there is going to be a sudden burst of maps before the end of the year... say like 4 new ones by then, I will be a bit disappointed with the choices made by IGP (I know you PGI guys are the ones put in the sling, but are doing your best). Most of the art effort that was put into getting the clan mechs out is shoved back into it's appropriate priorities I hope will improve this dramatically and we can see you guys beat your goals in the upcoming months on this front. I actually do have some faith you will. Edit: because engrish.

Definitely appreciate where you are coming from, it's so hard to balance everyone's needs on our end. I hope you can give us a little latitude and we'll do our best to catch up on map production.

HellJumper, on 15 July 2014 - 10:15 AM, said:

Thanks Bryan for answering. One question, when can we expect to see variants of current maps?as they are not suppose to take longer than making new ones.

I don't have a specific timeline, but we are doing an internal assessment to see what we can do.

[Kjudoon]

Thanks, sir. Yes I do understand the need for latitude. You got chucked a curveball, met the challenge, and now have to do the changeover. Still makes me a grumpy pilot, but I'm sure you guys feel the same way.

[Sandpit]

Bryan, as critical as I am of PGI and their decisions lately, thank you for commenting here. The kind of stuff you're doing in this thread does a few things

Even though I don't like or agree with everything you've said, I respect and appreciate that you took the time to say them.
Not on twitter
Not in a Vlog
Not on some other website
but here
on the forums

If more took the time to do this (notice how nobody complained about the amount of time it took you to respond, but rather are appreciative that you actually took the time to do so, you would see a LOT more latitude given. I hope you read this and I hope you can convince others on your team of this.

This is really at the core of a lot of unhappy customers. Yea, they delays have finally gotten to many and they're upset about it. Yes, some are unhappy with other things because some people aren't going to be happy regardless, but many would be a lot more forgiving if things like
"Hey, where's CW at?" was met with more posts from dev team members explaining things like you did here with more than "soon" and things like "we're working on it" which are vague and not really an answer.

Or the dreaded, "Hey, where's CW at?" met with months of complete radio silence. Start doing things like this and tell your compatriots to stop being "cute" when talking to customers in a public setting. If those things happen you'll have old and new customers alike flock to the game. I really hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears.

With that said, I really am curious as to why every map (except remaps like snow and night I would hope) takes such a large amount of time to complete and have such a high cost. Community members have been modding games, in some cases, for 20 years. We've had experience with things like this and it's really hard for us to believe it takes that much in resource cost to develop a map. I can understand when you're first starting (IE beta, pre-beta, etc.) they could have that kind of cost and time associated with them due to having to develop everything from artwork and textures to geos from the ground up. At this point though most of us feel you should have enough of those types of things already designed and just need retexturing, colored, adjusted, modified, etc. as opposed to designing from the ground up. That's one of things some of us have a difficult time understanding.

[GalaxyBluestar]

Bryan Ekman, on 15 July 2014 - 09:31 AM, said:

This comes up regularly, and we answer it the same way each time. The artists make mechs, patterns and bobbles and content, Engineers make features. They don't usually collide. Feature development has not been delayed due to store items, or cash grabs as some people like to call them.

Now there have been many features that needed to be completed first, and that's definitely where the backlog and delay occurred.

The Clan releases was a feature and content release, requiring almost the entire team to work months to design, build, test, and deliver.

Hopefully that clears that up.

so long as you can live with money first, regualrly talked about oh so important feature of the game {community warfare} which you previously charged people for {via loyaltypoint medallions and mech bonuses} second at the cost of tons of credibility in the industry, then you're alright aren't you?

can you really explain to this guy --> why he paid for items in june 2013 and still hasn't got them?

explaining a year's late delivery to a paying customer straight faced is something i've gotta see.

Edited by GalaxyBluestar, 15 July 2014 - 09:54 PM.

[MischiefSC]

Sandpit, on 15 July 2014 - 01:57 PM, said:

Bryan, as critical as I am of PGI and their decisions lately, thank you for commenting here. The kind of stuff you're doing in this thread does a few things

Even though I don't like or agree with everything you've said, I respect and appreciate that you took the time to say them.
Not on twitter
Not in a Vlog
Not on some other website
but here
on the forums

If more took the time to do this (notice how nobody complained about the amount of time it took you to respond, but rather are appreciative that you actually took the time to do so, you would see a LOT more latitude given. I hope you read this and I hope you can convince others on your team of this.

This is really at the core of a lot of unhappy customers. Yea, they delays have finally gotten to many and they're upset about it. Yes, some are unhappy with other things because some people aren't going to be happy regardless, but many would be a lot more forgiving if things like
"Hey, where's CW at?" was met with more posts from dev team members explaining things like you did here with more than "soon" and things like "we're working on it" which are vague and not really an answer.

Or the dreaded, "Hey, where's CW at?" met with months of complete radio silence. Start doing things like this and tell your compatriots to stop being "cute" when talking to customers in a public setting. If those things happen you'll have old and new customers alike flock to the game. I really hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears.

With that said, I really am curious as to why every map (except remaps like snow and night I would hope) takes such a large amount of time to complete and have such a high cost. Community members have been modding games, in some cases, for 20 years. We've had experience with things like this and it's really hard for us to believe it takes that much in resource cost to develop a map. I can understand when you're first starting (IE beta, pre-beta, etc.) they could have that kind of cost and time associated with them due to having to develop everything from artwork and textures to geos from the ground up. At this point though most of us feel you should have enough of those types of things already designed and just need retexturing, colored, adjusted, modified, etc. as opposed to designing from the ground up. That's one of things some of us have a difficult time understanding.

Double this.

I'm all in for modifications on existing maps - especially for CW, when it arrives. The idea of fighting for Tourmaline on all the regular maps is just.... less than it could be. New base maps is awesome but expensive. If modifications to existing maps can be produced drastically more quickly then that's awesome.

Otherwise... good stuff. This and other stuff lately. Thanks for the updates.