12 replies to this topic

[Lindonius]

Given that many of the delays in making new maps and modes were attributed to staff resources being focused on getting the 1st wave of Clan mechs done, and Russ's promise that they are now "all hands on deck" to get CW in by Christmas, won't these new packs get in the way of CW just like the previous pack caused content delays?

Bearing in mind as well that a large percentage of staff have been moved to the new project, I think I can be forgiven for remaining skeptical on the assertation that CW will really be complete by the stated date. This is now the fifth promise of "CW in 90 days" that PGI have made, and every one of them came jut before the release of a new mech pack.

[Redshift2k5]

for the most part, MWO has always had a cycle of a mech per month without negatively affecting maps, modes, etc.

The Clan Pack 1 was accelerate development for mechs, but all those mechs were 100% complete by June when they were given out to preorder customers.

That means they've had time to make about 3 mechs since then. The Vindicator was on of them, the Mad Dog was clearly another since it will be avail very soon. The King Cra doesn't count since it's not due for a few more months to come (just enough months for each of the Can Pack 2 mechs, minus the Mad dog, to be built at a rate of one per month)

To me, it looks like we're "back on track" with closer to a normal production pipeline which allows for a mech roughly one per month as well as normal map development.

[BourbonFaucet]

I dunno, maybe it'll be faster since all the new clan items and omnipod system are implemented. All they're doing is adding more 'mechs under the same new system, I'd figure.

[Raigir]

I think I recall Russ mentioning that some of the artists and some other people are specifically tasked to working on new mechs all the time. Regardless of any other existing features being developed.

That's also usually how game development works in general as well. (for at least the companies that can afford having a number of employee's suitable to such division of labor)

Edited by Raigir, 15 September 2014 - 06:05 PM.

[Superkingdac]

Even if there was a minor delay to CW (which I don't expect to see one) I think the addition of the extra clan mechs is necessary.

Russ mentioned in the town hall that if CW is about Clans vs Inner Sphere then the Clans deserve a bit more variety and similar numbers of chassis to chose from.

If clans weren't a part of the game right now and CW was just supposed to be IS houses vs IS houses then I might think differently about how they are distributing their staff. As of now I'd rather they give a few more mechs for us to pilot if we can only choose clan mechs.

[Carrioncrows]

Yes, because the time the Artists take designing the mechs and textures is TOTALLY taking away from the Artist's time writing "Code" for community warfare.

Seriously.

Edited by Carrioncrows, 15 September 2014 - 06:10 PM.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Aside from the emergency triage period after IGP announced the initial Invasion Pack, most of the mech packs (or mechs, for that matter) are an art department thing, and only part of the art department (some of the artists are still on map work and such).

The initial Clan Invasion Pack was an exception because of the sheer scale of content, the rushed timeline, and the fact that so much of the Clan release involved creating whole new assets even beyond the mechs themselves (HUD stuff, weapons effects, sound, etc.).

Since all that groundwork is already laid, the Wave 2 pack should be just a matter of the artists putting together the models and skins, and whoever does the hitboxes and store assets and such doing their thing.

Unless CW is at a stage where it requires the art department to focus all its attention on it (unlikely unless there's something about the new game mode that requries significant art assets), then the Wave 2 pack probably won't have any meaningful impact on CW development.

[Ultimax]

Lindonius, on 15 September 2014 - 05:20 PM, said:

Given that many of the delays in making new maps and modes were attributed to staff resources being focused on getting the 1st wave of Clan mechs done, and

The original clan mechs took a lot of time because all the weapons had to be balanced, the omni-pod tech had to be created, lots of other things had to be created.

It's much easier to create clan mechs from that point.


If I had to go out on a limb, I'd also say that most of these clan mechs were done, close to done, or in the works before we even got the first clan pack.


Don't mistake a product launch date for when a product was actually created.

Unless you think apple makes those iPhones the day before launch.

[Shalune]

Though PGI's development time in the past can aptly be described as "glacial," I don't think this is a serious concern. Even moderately sized development teams have employees specialized in very specific parts of game design. Designing and implementing art assets (a majority of what new mechs are given the common rules all mechs obey) has little to no overlap with major system implementation like CW.

If we get closer to CW release, hear that we're waiting on a bundle of CW-specific maps to be completed while normal maps continue to release, that would be a good time to be worried.

[Garandos]

I would go as far and say, those Mechs have been done allready, in fact, i even think, they had been done allready when the first pack got out.

[CocoaJin]

The new mechs likely wouldn't delay CW, but the new maps may very well be sharing some of the artist. But since maps apparently aren't all art, I assume some of these shared artist have opportunities to bounce back in forth between mech and map projects.

Perhaps the artists that do models can start off laying the foundation model for a map, have it approved, then jump to making mech models. In the meantime, textures guys are texturing the maps and adding objects/decor while the mech models are being built. The model artist finish the mech models and then move on to a new map, while the texture guys move on to texturing and painting the completed mechs models. The map is handed over to the engineers, then through quality checks. Any changes get pushed back and forth to the appropriate teams until it pass final checks.

[Hans Von Lohman]

3D artists don't do programing, but they still work for a living doing something. That something is making mechs.

Also, selling mechs is how PGI makes their money. They're always going to have a new mech for sale every month if possible. Recently they've been bunched up into packages, but they're still shooting for 1 a month.

[DaisuSaikoro Nagasawa]

We also don't know if some of these assets were already created and planned for (or for the most part).

Do we know they do not have mechs stored up but haven't released due to .. whatever reason.