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Mwo And The New Player


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Poll: More Noobs For The Meat Grinder (87 member(s) have cast votes)

Make MWO More Welcoming For Noobs?

  1. Yes, Make it easier for Noobs to get in the game (76 votes [87.36%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 87.36%

  2. No, Who cares about Noobs (11 votes [12.64%] - View)

    Percentage of vote: 12.64%

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#21 Kishida Sato

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Posted 12 July 2015 - 02:58 AM

i love the idea of the chameleon :) should be the same for clan and IS players

#22 Idealsuspect

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Posted 12 July 2015 - 09:28 AM

Quote

No, Who cares about Noobs


PGI ! :lol: :lol:

#23 Lexx

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Posted 12 July 2015 - 09:37 AM

The main problem I see with the new player experience in MWO is the inferiority of the trial mechs.

Regardless of how good the build might be, those trial mechs have none of the "skills" unlocked and no modules.

New players already don't have a clue how to play the game, due to a lack of a decent tutorial. They have to play mostly veteran players that know the game and their mechs much better. They are already at a disadvantage, yet on top of that they have to fight with a mech that moves slower, fires slower, runs hotter, has less torso twist, accelerates slower, ect. Even if that new player was a natural at the game, they wouldn't like it because they are given an inferior machine to fight in.

I think trial mechs should at least have all the basic skills unlocked. Perhaps even give them speed tweak and the X2 basic bonus. Everything but the extra module slot. I also think they should get a UAV and an artillery strike.

If trial mechs were actually competitive, then only the new players lack of experience with the game would come into play. As it is now they are at too much of a disadvantage and won't likely stick around very long.

Some might ask why buy a mech if the trial mechs were almost as good? To that I say customization. Most new players would buy a chassis they really like just so they could customize the mech. Also owned mechs can use mech and weapon modules, plus choose the consumables they take.

Edited by Lexx, 12 July 2015 - 09:41 AM.


#24 Thumper3

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Posted 13 July 2015 - 03:28 PM

View PostGigliowanananacom, on 28 October 2014 - 08:56 PM, said:


First, it is impossible to avoid the problem of being unfair, those of us who have been playing for a while did not receive any such help.


Unfair?

LOL

I've been playing this game over 2 years, I have spent LARGE sums of money on it.......and I frankly could care less if new players now got a free mech.

Heck, why not make them play on only 3 maps at first, we didn't have all these fancy maps. LMAO

I made a similar suggestion in addressing the new player wall (grind) that turns many away, we already drop new players into the que with grizzled vets piloting mastered meta mechs ready to just core them in 5 seconds and walk away laughing. Yeah, that really encourages people to stick around.

This is F2P, so a person who downloads and drops into a game has nothing vested, no purchase price to MAKE them stick it out a bit. If they get constantly pounded into the ground (and ELO makes sure they do by using them as filler to offset better players) they will just uninstall and walk away.

By giving new players a mech (trials don't need to be elited, they just need to have decent, useable builds) it means they can spend their cbills immediately to upgrade and customize instead of spending their first week in garbage trials they can't change. Only then to buy their first mach and find they can't do anything to it because it took all their money and the cadet bonus is over so they have another week or two of getting beat around by vets before they can buy an AC20 and some ammo.

I actually would allow the new players a choice (very limited) of mech, not just hand them one. Make it one Light mech (Panther, or Raven), and two different mediums (Centurion, Griffon), mechs that are good, but not great.

What would be "unfair" would be if after all my time and money spent this game disappears next year because there's not enough players to support it. We can't afford to treat ourselves like some cool kids club and turn away people at the door. Heck, forget keeping new players, we can't even keep old players.

#25 ACWILD

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Posted 25 August 2015 - 03:17 AM

This is the most intelligent suggestion i have read so far.

Both your proposal would give tha game a great boost and make it more interesting to new players.
And that is good because we get more meat to chew ^^

#26 Hashocky

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Posted 30 August 2015 - 07:13 AM

Oh god yes! I hated having an inferior mech simply cause I was new to the game, it was so frustrating after getting the basics on one of my mechs to realize I had to own 3 of the same chassis to get it up to master. I actually stopped playing because if I already own one version of the mech why do I need 2 more if the thing is going to play the same.

The only reason I got back into it was cause my friends kept pestering me.

#27 Cyberiad

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Posted 03 September 2015 - 07:55 AM

I think they need to get rid of all the convoluted game mechanics like ghost heat and guass charge. Re-enabling the mini-map in 3rd person view will go a long way as well. One of the main gripes of people I tried to introduce to this game was that 3rd person view is default in the game and they couldn't see where they were going. When told that you could change to 1st person view with F4 they didn't want to.

#28 bot5

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Posted 15 September 2015 - 10:47 PM

This thread is still chugging along, so I'll give my two cents:

I've been playing in spurts for 2-3 years now, and my friends and I recently got back into MWO. I've got 5 mastered mechs, so I'm familiar with the grind... but for us, the biggest problems right now are the grind and the "matchmaking". I initially typed up this post from the perspective of someone new, but I think I can more effectively communicate the ideas here from the perspective of a returning player that wants to enjoy the game and already knows how much fun it can be. This isn't a post about what's fun for veterans. It's not a post about how to keep the clan players in the game. It's a post about the stuff that can stop you from starting to play in the first place.


In general, a light will cost 2-3M CBills, a medium will cost 3-5M, a heavy will cost you 5-7M, and an assault is 7-10M. Let's go with a Medium at ~4M cbills, because you're a reasonable guy. Next you need double heat sinks at 1.5M if you want to mount weapons on your mech, and maybe 1M worth of equipment, but then you need a 2-5M cbill engine. So that new medium in an actually playable form (minus skills and ridiculously expensive modules), is going to cost 10M cbills easy before it's worth playing. Have fun grinding for that pulling 100k per game, only 100-150 wins to get your new medium. If you win every game in 5 minutes that's only 8.5 straight hours of wins with zero down time. End result, at 100k per win I'm not buying any more mechs. I'll only ever be able to upgrade the ones I already had from the last time I stopped playing (upgrading includes buying modules, which are as expensive as mechs, but far easier to improve old mechs with new modules than to start a new mech from scratch).

Matchmaking is a huge thing by itself. At the simplest, I don't think it's fun to lose OR WIN a game 12-0. Literally no one had fun. The game lasted 3 minutes, probably less time than your were in queue. When I play solo drop, almost every game is a brawl that ends 12-8 for one team. That's a game where everyone got to play. When my friends and I get on to play groups, we have 2 or 3 people in our group, and get put against a 10-12 man group literally every game. These are the 3 minute games I'm talking about. 12 man groups are just too big, this game and its matchmaking system don't effectively support a 12 man team because 12 guys can hold 120 lasers. That much dakka grinds an Atlas to dust in seconds, which means the game isn't a fight anymore. There's a reason the background of the forum is a big mech brawl, and not 12 clan mechs executing a lance of atlases that don't even have time to shoot back.

#2¢

#29 QuulDrah

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Posted 03 November 2015 - 07:34 AM

New players should feel more welcome. yes. nice. what you said...

that said, a common misconception:

Newbie: a new player, asks a lot of trivial questions, still trying to learn the ropes. should get some help and a warm welcome.
Noob: an old player, playstyle indistinguishable from a newbie. makes the same mistakes over and over again, unwilling to learn. used as derogative.

#30 Vellron2005

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Posted 04 November 2015 - 05:33 AM

When it comes to new players, I just know that when you launch the game, there is nothing that explains the various game modes and the rules of engagement, and if you're not a battletech or Mechwarrior veteran, the weapons, systems and other micro management items are very, very daunting to learn and master.

My GF started to play not two weeks ago. She though that "resource gathering" in conquest meant you had to walk about the map and find stuff.. it took her a while (after some explaining and training from me) to figure out that you have to stand in the capzone, and that not everybody else has to do it with you, or that when more than one mech caps, it's done faster..

Same thing with assault.

I still have to go to the mechlab for her whenever she needs to change anything. (She's not much into the micro management).

Considering that she is a fairly intelligent person who's not an avid gamer, and who passed the basic training in the Academy, she should be aware of most of this stuff.. but is not.

And let's face it.. she's one of those people who doesn't want to have to read a manual to play a game.. she wants to simply "jump in and play", and MWO is one of those games that needs a foot-thick manual, but right now, only has like a pamphlet.

What do you think, how many steam players will be like her?

I just hope most of them will have boyfriends/girlfriends/partners/friends who know what they're doing, cose' if not, many will be stumbling about, utterly confused..

#31 Corviness

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Posted 08 November 2015 - 09:37 AM

First, the game is easy enough for newbies, 25 "premium time" games, expanted tutorial, where you can earn something. What do you really want more? Its enough. In my beginning time, I had only the 25 "premium time" games and it was completely okay.
2nd, your vote is s h i t. If I say "no" because of my viewpoints, I only had the option "Who cares about noobs." Thats like "******* you newbies". But I dont give a s h i t about noobs. Please change your vote, really. I hate this white - black options. Why you dont make a 3rd for "No, because the startbonus and tutorial rewards are enough."? So, I take your "no", but not with this Sentence after it.

Edited by Corviness, 08 November 2015 - 09:39 AM.






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