38 replies to this topic

[Hoax415]

1) Faction theme is great. Hopefully all 5 houses will get this type of treatment. 50% off house colors is a very nice touch.

2) Please get someone who actually cares to do the research for which mechs should be considered of a given faction. There are a ton of head-scratching omissions and inclusions as many other posters have touched on. It spoils some of the fun of the event/sale when the basic work wasn't put in to get the units included correct.

3) It was great to create a temporarily different game experience having everyone piloting those mechs.

HOWEVER, the fact that the criteria was kills and only kills meant that this entire weekend has had heavies and assaults listed at around 40%. The list of mechs resulted in no ecm being available (where was the DDC!?) and I felt quite bad for some people who pilot lights and aren't big alpha - get kill type pilots.

Hopefully some lessons can be learned.

4-6) The image is nice and gets the information across. The challenge details are awkward, surely the mechs could be organized by tonnage instead of alphabetical? Or at least alphabetical by weight class?

Either way, solid reward (mechbay) interesting games (all IS all big mechs no ecm lol) got me playing heavily all weekend.

[CharlieChap]

1) Personally enjoyed this event and an appropriate build up to future additions.

3) 20 kills criteria more challenging than the old 5 team wins which was not really a challenge. May have been a pretty punishing aim though for the newest players who probably needed the reward most ?.
However as others have posted, it created 'Assault warrior Online'. (this is an ongoing tendency it appears, until you create rewards for roles that are better accomplished by lighter 'mechs' and those rewards equate, there is far less reason to play them.). Refreshing change to have had primarily IS 'mechs' again though for a few hours.

4-6) I liked the Archon announcement and the introduction of background and atmosphere. Good direction, lots more please, Its refreshing and atmospheric to get 'historical' back stories and this one was better written than some of your copy in the past.

Sale deals on relevant Lyran mechs & other Items nicely thematic. You have to do it obviously as it is your revenue stream and this is less obtrusive than usual.

[Kageru Ikazuchi]

May answer to everything except 3) ... good to see something kind of lore based.

3) What were your thoughts on the personal challenge parameters? (Kill 20 enemies in a Lyran 'Mech)
- If this (crazy cool stats compilation) is to be believed (and I have no reason to doubt it), then your average IS 'mech gets .66 kills per match, which means it takes your average player 31 matches to complete the achievement (I think it took me a bit more, but I was also doing science with a couple of new builds) ... that means with wait times, tweaking 'mechs, etc., it took your average player probably eight hours or more ... that's a lot of time for 300

[Monkey Lover]

1, Very fun, loved it
2. Nice selection
3. 20 kills took me 2 hours worked out good for me but saw a few people trying to get the 20 before the time ran out. Maybe the event can be set to allow you to finish the 20 kills within the next week/extra day if you start the event?
4. Nice job seeing cbill sales are rare it might have been a good idea to say something about it. When I first looked I was thinking MC only.
5. Everything needed was on it.
6. Nice photoshop work.

Edited by Monkey Lover, 11 August 2014 - 02:16 AM.

[FlipOver]

1) What were your thoughts on the weekend themes? (Faction based, different each week)
I welcome the idea.
2) What were your thoughts on the items selected for sale? (Steiner Cockpit Items, Mechs, Paints)
A nice idea to complement the Steiner Challenge.
3) What were your thoughts on the personal challenge parameters? (Kill 20 enemies in a Lyran 'Mech)
Didn't like the idea. Here's why:
3.1) A team based game should award assists or cap points or base defense timer rather than kills. As seen during the weekend, lots of friendlies would run a whole map just to get a kill, no matter what teammate needs their assistance.
3.2) Disconnected 'mechs shouldn't count for the events at least. Killing a DC should only count for the teams score, not personal kill count.
4) What were your thoughts on the sale text?
I welcome the idea of a novel based text.
5) What were your thoughts on the event text?
Same as 4.
6) What were your thoughts on the event image?
The image is well put together. Simple yet functional.

Edit - Formatting.
Edit #2 - About people saying it was a hard task to get 20 kills:
I do believe any challenge should be hard! That being said, this was difficult enough to be considered a real challenge, especially when the prize was a mechbay.
If there are any more challenges to come, I urge you PGI not to make them too easy to accomplish.

Edited by FlipOver, 11 August 2014 - 06:12 AM.

[Trevor Belmont]

TOGSolid, on 09 August 2014 - 02:42 PM, said:

Wintersdark is pretty much spot on there. It's a fun event that is getting a lot of interesting variety on the battlefield though the increase in useless Assaults trying to farm with LRMs is annoying because LRM boat Assaults are teeerrrrible wastes of space.

My Awesome 8R LRM boat and his 500 dmg per match disagrees with you.

[Trevor Belmont]

Also, I don't think Wins is a good challenge. Last time I we had 'Wins' I saw lots of people dropping then DC'ing probably to go jump in another mech. Kills actually requires you to sit at your computer and try, not just DC and hope your team wins for you.

[Talsha]

After all my complaining, I owe you some constructive feedback.
Cheers

1) What were your thoughts on the weekend themes? (Faction based, different each week)
Fun Idea with a nice flavor attached to it.

2) What were your thoughts on the items selected for sale? (Steiner Cockpit Items, Mechs, Paints)
a.C-Bill Sales are a great idea.
It worked on me. I am rather dissatisfied with a lot of aspect of the game (hit detection, ui, gold mechs, clan pricing...) and a bit pessmistic. But I still spend some cash to get mechbays. That was the first money You got from me since I bought the full Phoenix Package. With 35% off, the C-Bill prices for the mechs are actually attractive and realistic as far as I am concerned So well done Bob and Emma from Marketing
b. Cockpit Items & Paints
The paints are gorgeous but even at 35% off, horribly overpriced for a pure fluff item. I would not spent more than 200 MC on any color or camo, But for 200 MC I would feel tempted to buy one here and there...
I do not care about Cockpit Items at all.
c There was a lack of Atlai and the mech selection seemed a bit partial, sparing out some of the popular variants. Yet the later could simply be due to lore

3) What were your thoughts on the personal challenge parameters? (Kill 20 enemies in a Lyran 'Mech)
Realistic to do for casuals, but still requiring some work.

4) What were your thoughts on the sale text? (Link here)
English is not my primary language, so please forgive issue related to that fact.
But allow me to make some quick suggestions as far as wording and style are concerned:

It seems that House Steiner has taken exception to the activities in the Kurita border worlds. In response the Lyran Commonwealth has now taken their increased its BattleMech production. to high output levels and, Like the Kurita initiatives, they are moving deploying those forces on their borders. Obviously there is plenty of communication chatter coming from the Free Rasalhague Republic. and They are very wary of both Steiner and Kurita's actions, as suspected.

Dare I say that it may be time to have notify the Primus and First Circuit notified about these on-goings. There has been is no political reason for this type of posturing. Yet it is happening right before our eyes.

In a possibly related side note: The Free Rasalhague Republic has been is reporting skirmishes happening along the periphery border. and At this moment we are not sure if it is this is related to Steiner or Kurita actions. or if it is It might be just increased pirate activity. increasing. Investigations are underway. Nevertheless this issue is of low priority. but this is low priority compared to We are focusing on intelligence gathering about the finding out the background details behind the Steiner/Kurita mobilizations. Please refer to the forwarded transmission for more information.


6) What were your thoughts on the event image? (Link here.)
I like it

Edited by Talsha, 11 August 2014 - 04:17 PM.

[The Wakelord]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 09 August 2014 - 01:24 PM, said:

Greetings Focus Group!

Please let us know your focused feedback on this weekend's House Steiner sale and challenge!

1) What were your thoughts on the weekend themes? (Faction based, different each week)

2) What were your thoughts on the items selected for sale? (Steiner Cockpit Items, Mechs, Paints)

3) What were your thoughts on the personal challenge parameters? (Kill 20 enemies in a Lyran 'Mech)

4) What were your thoughts on the sale text? (Link here.)

5) What were your thoughts on the event text? (Link here.)

6) What were your thoughts on the event image? (Link here.)

1) Great that it was faction based & themed
2) I liked it, particularly that it was also c-bill sale
3) The goal (kill 20 mechs) I think was too high. It encouraged poor teamwork, and the high number meant people had to play 10-40 games depending on chassis. This is compared to other events like "be on the winning team 5 times"
4) Good
5) The starting text was nice, but the main text was a little unclear
6) Nice & clear image

[Zeece]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 09 August 2014 - 01:24 PM, said:

1) What were your thoughts on the weekend themes? (Faction based, different each week)
I like the idea of Faction Based themes.

2) What were your thoughts on the items selected for sale? (Steiner Cockpit Items, Mechs, Paints)
Good

3) What were your thoughts on the personal challenge parameters? (Kill 20 enemies in a Lyran 'Mech)
Very Specific... but the fact it was a Lyran challenge and there were no Atlases mades no sense at all to us Steiners.

4) What were your thoughts on the sale text? (Link here.)
It was fine

5) What were your thoughts on the event text? (Link here.)
It was fine

6) What were your thoughts on the event image? (Link here.)
It was fine

[Jody Von Jedi]

Please let us know your focused feedback on this weekend's House Steiner sale and challenge!

1) What were your thoughts on the weekend themes? (Faction based, different each week) I love the idea of faction events. I wish we had more of them. You used to do the Medium, Light, etc. vs the world events. Would like to see those again.

2) What were your thoughts on the items selected for sale? (Steiner Cockpit Items, Mechs, Paints) Good choice of colors and cockpit items. Would like to have seen you include the Atlas in the Sale since it was a "Steiner" event. I understand why you didn't include it in the challenge. As you said, it would have turned into a "Steiner Scout Lance" event.

3) What were your thoughts on the personal challenge parameters? (Kill 20 enemies in a Lyran 'Mech) Twenty kills was challenging enough for the casual player, maybe a little too tough for some. Took me about 16 matches to get the kills. A new player would never have had a chance.

4) What were your thoughts on the sale text? (Link here.) Sale text is OK, the back story needs a little work though. Do you have anyone on staff that has a literature background? Perhaps a short story author? Sentence structure for clarity and grammar really needs some work in many of the official posts.

5) What were your thoughts on the event text? (Link here.) Poor grammar: "so long as they pilot one the Mechs listed below while achieve their kills". Should have read: "so long as kills are achieved while piloting one or more of the mechs below:"

6) What were your thoughts on the event image? (Link here.) A little bland for my tastes. Text overlaid onto a battle scene would be nice. PGI/IGP have great art departments, so utilize that talent.


Jody

Edit: Clarity

Edited by Jody Von Jedi, 11 August 2014 - 07:39 AM.

[Enigmos]

I think it would have been better had all houses and clans been represented rather than only Steiner.

There were benefits, like an increase in different kinds of mechs than normal on the battlefield.

The downside of making the objective kill-counts was a serious dearth of lights and an overabundance of assaults.

It should also have provided more data points for Paul's balancing effort, considering several serious recent changes subsequent to the data sampling in the very brief IS/Clan matches. I'd rcommend a similar challenge with clan mechs except that would exclude your free players unless they had champions to try.

[CycKath]

1) More events, even lacking sales or challenges, help give some focus and interest to proceedings while we wait for CW.

2) Generally a good selection of 'Mechs with some curious exceptions, especially given it was a faction sale with a faction almost universally known to favor Atlases, and C-Bill sales are always crowd pleasers. Factional sales make sense and I hope they continue after this month.

3) Given it was kills rather than wins, it was probably too time intensive for most people and very unfriendly for newer players, seeming to favor those us who had a good portion of the mechs. However the basic concept (do something while being restricted to these mechs) is definitely a winner. Was terrific to see such a dramatic reduction in Clan 'Mechs.

4) Lore stuff is always good, and it kept a nice balance between that and explaining the sale.

5) Again, continuation of the sale lore was very nice and set the scene.

6) Very pretty and eye-catching.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 09 August 2014 - 01:24 PM, said:

6) What were your thoughts on the event image? (Link here.)

Great effects! good layout. 10/10

[Son of the Flood]

1. I like the faction based themes, keep them coming!
2. Good idea to pick up faction based swag, paint sales always good.
3. I thought 20 kills was just about right for the time I could play. Not sure how many matches it took, but I played probably 6 hours this weekend (including some hearty BSing over the comms) to reach it. It would be interesting if the faction challenge involved taking down x number (maybe 5) of that particular faction (I mean who wouldn't want to take down some Liaos, am I right?)
4. I like the hpg transmission tee up and hope to see more lore included in the future. I did totally miss that the sale included cbill mechs. I wish that could have been displayed more prominently.
5. Looks good.
6. Whoever does these always a bang up job and should get a corner office!

[Gerhardt Jorgensson]

I did not get to play in the event as I was working all weekend and taking care of my yard when I had time off, but I would like to see these events result in the reward of an iconic 'Mech from the faction, like when the free Thunderbolt was released -- perhaps like a Steiner variant of a specific chassis. Or at least have the event coincide with a new variant of an already released 'Mech, like the BNC-5S Banshee or AS7-S Atlas that people could buy to use in the event.

[RisTanA]

1) Factional themed events are great, especially the c-bill reduction. It certainly made me play more. Not only that but it got my friends playing who had not played in awhile.

2) I liked the wide diversity of mechs available for for sale,

4) The sale text needed to clearly state the start and end of the sale, other than that it was good.

[Fiona Marshe]

Overall a good idea.

Big problem is the event timetable. Australian players were screwed for playing time due to the timezone difference.

Event went live about 4am Saturday morning; so the first we find out about it is later in the day. For players with a life (ie: anyone over the age of 16) I generally find out when I login about 9pm that night (14+ hours lost already). Played about 4 hours (15 kills), then managed to get random games through the day on Sunday between caring for the toddler for the other 5 kills.

Got a second session on Sunday night for a couple of hours (working on my alt account), only managed 12 kills by midnight before having to go to bed as work started 8am Monday. Event ended about 4pm Monday before I get home from work.

So Aussies only get two evenings for the event, while US/Europe players got three evenings to get the kills required.

For future events, please ensure they are multiples of 24 hours, so a big chunk of your player base are not penalized due to the timezone difference (+18 hours to server approx).

[Myke Pantera]

Hopefully not to late for my feedback:

1) Faction based events are great. Could be intermixed with other themes, but overall quite nice! The main point is that we have events!

2) Could have been a little more colors. The cockpit items make total sense for this kind of event. Quite a lot of mechs available for the challenge is great. CBill sales are also great! So thumbs up from me. A was a little puzzled not to see the Atlas though...

3) Parameter was cool, and certainly more challenging than 5 wins. But could be other parameters instead as well. The difficulty was just right i think.

4 & 5) I'll leave that to others to decide.

6) good enough for me

Edited by Myke Pantera, 12 August 2014 - 06:10 AM.