88 replies to this topic

[Gavalin]

Things I would point out to people that believe things are to be cannon and what not.

When it comes to ECM. If it did everything it was suppose to do in "Cannon" it would be OP. ECM is not as bad as it -should- be.
The things it stops in the table top is insane compared to what it stops now.

Another thing the players of this game the ones that actually play it and are used to it ... have a table top gunnery skill of like -5 and targeting computers built in. Which is why you see a sever lack of "Staying alive as long as a 100 ton" mech should.
(To counter this PGI gave everyone "Hardened armor" by canon rules the mechs all have twice their normal armor values)

Another thing torso twisting. If pilots do not learn to do this...they -should- die quickly. As it stands everyone aims CT for some ungodly reason, 50% of the players don't even hit R to see where mechs are weak. I've seen people shooting XL having gauss mechs in the CT while both shoulders are exposed and its legs are orange or red internals.

The majority of the problems people complain about can be fixed by just paying attention.

I believe the serious problems is why at random certain players become unable to take AC/Missile damage but laser fire will register on them? Servers randomly Desyncing?

Opinions on ghost heat? I think it was a lovely idea. Just like in any game most players will gravitate toward the easiest most widly used "internet meta" build. The reason you can't boat PPC's no more brings the game back more toward keeping people alive a little longer. If you have played the table top an awesome with 4 PPC's yes could fire all four of it's weapons however it would BARELY ever hit the same location. This goes back to the whole "We have a gunnery of -5 and a built in targeting computer"

I would rather see most of the community not be lazy. Games with 6 LRM mechs or 5 Gauss mechs is just boring when you see ONLY one set up on the field and PGI has done ok at balancing that issue.

As far as clans being over powered? Clan tech even after the nerf is still better. It requires a monsterous amount more disipline to use. Riding the heat curve into the dirt, knowing what you can and can't do. Again becaust it's not easy and people don't want to learn to use it "It needs to be changed" ... I say no...when an IS mech can only alpha for 50-60 on a brawler DDC and he can do it four times, the other hand is the Dire Wolf with 4 UAC'5s handful of small ER's and Medium's can tear him down before he gets there. On the same token if that Atlas sneaks up on the Dire wolf...he should die he let an Atlas sneak up on him.

And for people that do not believe the clan is more powerful ATM just wait until Timber wolves and Storm crows are C-bills. You will see no other medium mechs or Heavy mechs around. They are faster, tougher, twice the fire power of anything in their weight class.

So as far as real problems yes we need a new training system, every time a mech or player equips a new weapon the game should prompt them on how to go to the training grounds. I know there was videos set to this but most new players will not bother with a Tutorial, I'd put money on the fact that the training ground is used by vetern players that are practicing a mental timing on guns, testing heat levels and such.

I think we could be able to pick our opponet mechs, I think we should be able to put any mech into the training ground (Even heros) Mechs that are MC only so people can learn what they look like in game. Plus PGI would get massive reports on hit location bugs (Right now if you shoot an Atlas in its hip joint or most mechs for that matter from the front it will register on its rear torso, go to the training ground and look.)

The entire UI interface is...bonkers bad. A lay out like you were in a base and one way took you to the training grounds another to the mech bays blah blah would give more of an immersion feel and help folks see things. I think when you go to load out and hover over something a video should play on how it works with an option detailed description of how it worked be played. If PGI has money issues doing that I'm sure people would volunteer to be voice actors for them. That way people have quick and easy access to how things work. They've done massive work on it but again i think their inexperience is showing. On top of that their feed back is generally sub par at best. (I'm just as bad my bug reports were almost Nil, most were rage filled cry babies.)

We need more content. More options. The community run stuff is awesome, glad to see PGI step behind some of that stuff. The gifts and such, challenges are pretty awesome.

When I say content I don't mean mechs....yea there is like hundreds and hundreds of mechs. They could have every mech in the all the lore every where and I would not count this as content. I'm talking Maps, perhaps more maps where the terrain can be a hazard (Destroyable terrain). More tactically designed maps. Bigger and smaller game modes (Modes that are perhaps 6 on 8 or something of the such attackers defenders)

Better and more applical uses for support items such as TAG and NARC (they are amazing as they are just hard to use). EXAMPLE Tagging a target while calling an Air strike will let the "Smoke cloud" follow the tagged target (I would not allow this for arty but for air strike it's not so bad 15 damage explosions vs 40 damage clunks to the head or some such)

This would help farther the breaking up of formations. The game gets boring because again, people get lazy, run to the same spot, with the same weapons, and do the same dumb stuff. Arty's and Airs help break up formations and get people moving again. I like them just for that purpose. I would love to be able to drop a support air strike that just drops smoke canisters that block view for 60 seconds or so.

Escort missions. Co-op missions vs computers like assaulting an actuall fortification, a maze of automated turrents with a few mechs there and a time limit. (Perhaps even if its a training sim type deal)

I wouldn't mind some NPC introductioni with the CW...which has potential to be amazing.

My personal opinion. Remove the reverse function from the game for a month, let people fire LRM's while their map is open for indirect fire (This would take their sight from teh battle, it would be wildly inaccrate but still would help break up formations and get people moving and thinking. Hit B open map, click on map where you want to fire your LRM's volley launched, it would have to be with in your 1000 meter range to work and I don't think you should have a "range" finder or a bubble around you, you'd be totally guessing and thats how it should be )

Change ECM to work how it is suppose to then take it back to how it is now so people understand.

Meh I'll continue this book some other time.

[Louse]

1.Scouts need more incentive for playing, Spot Bonus, Tag/Narc Bonus, Scout Bonus i.e being away from main group within certain range of enemy mechs.
2.Engine/Reactor driven weapon usage not just heat but available power to use on powering the mech and weapon systems.
3.Weapon limit per size of weapon system compared to size of mech.
4. Pin point damage reduction, kinetics of ballistic damage is dispersed within surrounding panels.
5. Larger Maps
6. Weight limit not class limits.

[Apnu]

Bump for the morning crowd.

[UrsusMorologus]

Most broken thing I've encountered so far is getting stuck on objects when using JJ

Like jump on a pile of crates and then you cant move

[Davegt27]

cry engine memory allocation error

I am not savvy enough to figure it out on my on but other games have the same problem

so someone at cry engine should at least give a direction to go in

they need to park on cry engines door for a list of error codes and fixes

[Joseph Mallan]

DocBach, on 16 September 2014 - 11:49 AM, said:

right now mostly lack of the Zeus as a playable chassis

Yes. We Lyrans need a solid Scout Mech!

[Apnu]

Joseph Mallan, on 17 September 2014 - 05:38 AM, said:

Yes. We Lyrans need a solid Scout Mech!

You have the Atlas for that.

[Apnu]

EvilCow, on 16 September 2014 - 12:32 PM, said:

- generic slots

What do you mean by "generic slots" ? I don't understand this point.

[Farix]

Lack of any real progression is the main failing of MWO. Yes, we get new mechs to play with, but are we actually advancing anywhere? There is no leveling system, no tier system, no R&D to "unlock" more powerful mechs and/or equipment (save for the modules), no grand storyline that we, the players, take part in. It is just tedious match after match with nothing to show for it until you are bored to tears and move on to a new game.

[Kraven Kor]

Morashtak, on 16 September 2014 - 04:13 PM, said:

The lack of a pilot - Instead we have an interchangeable "Cog, No.1, BattleMech" that is equally adapt at any Mech you dump him into (all other areas being equal, of course).

If PGI had focused on the Player as a Pilot with Piloting, Gunnery, and Technician trees then Convergence, Center of Gravity, a large number of modules, ECM, and weapon balance would have pivoted off of the trees and the talents therein.

While I would not mind seeing such, I don't see it happening, not in the way you want at least.

Hell, I want to have my own tech crew I have to train up that reduces the time and cost of repairs or allows for more customization as their skill goes up. I want to see repair & re-arm put back in (but in a way that doesn't completely screw the income of non-premium players.)

Or to be able to call in a lance of NPC light tanks or something. I want to see big battles - the type I used to run on tabletop. Full Company to a Battalion per side, plus infantry and conventional vehicles.

There are Big Things ™ that we can all agree on, and then there are our own little pet issues.

[EvilCow]

Apnu, on 17 September 2014 - 06:36 AM, said:

What do you mean by "generic slots" ? I don't understand this point.

Sure, in MWO all slots are equal, an energy slot is able to mount any kind of energy weapon and so on. Way back in closed beta several testers proposed to give a class to slots, for example: small, medium, large or even just small and large. Weapons would have a small, medium, large attribute too, you could not mount a weapon in a smaller slot.

The point was that this would have helped in several ways:

1) By giving mech a more specific flavor, right now there are lots of mechs that can do the same thing with little variations, because the "generic slots". See the Stalkers for example, mostly the same. By "modulating" the slot sizes all variants would have a more defined role.
2) Limit boating (not eliminating) on mechs that are not supposed to be boats.

Note that the mechanism is already half implemented in MWO, missile slots have the "number of tubes" attribute that is halfway in that direction already.

The counterargument was that this would limit customization and freedom, but we are now getting worse solutions like ghost heat and nerfs, you would not have had 4-6 PPCs Stalkers for example (that triggered the ghost heat "solution"). Varied slots would allow for a much more interesting set of mechs, would be a reason to own more of them too.

Evil

Edited by EvilCow, 17 September 2014 - 07:06 AM.

[Apnu]

EvilCow, on 17 September 2014 - 07:04 AM, said:

Sure, in MWO all slots are equal, an energy slot is able to mount any kind of energy weapon and so on.

... (edited out the rest, but I did read it) ...

Got it, thanks.

[KraftySOT]

Malleus011, on 16 September 2014 - 03:56 PM, said:

Heh. Nice response, Krafty.

Also, Russ has mentioned that this isn't their focus right now, but the new player experience is very harsh. We need a good tutorial system, better training, and quite possibly some 'new pilot' mechs that are easy for new guys to learn (but soon replaced by better, but harder to use machines.)

You nailed everything thats currently 'wrong' with this game. That was a great post you made.

[SmithMPBT]

More $45 mechs and less maps please.

[Apnu]

Bump for the lunchtime crowd.

[Viges]

Apnu, on 16 September 2014 - 07:52 AM, said:

Spoiler

Like the subject says: What are the issues in MWO. List them here concisely. I'll take that list and make a poll and lets see what the community thinks is the biggest issue in the game that the community would like the devs to look at.

So list out, briefly what you think the issues are.


On Edit: Here is a list of items I have collected from this thread so far:

• IS v Clan weapon balance
  
• Heat Scale (Ghost Heat) & heat sink operation
  
• Poptart sniping meta/alpha pinpoint damage (coring mechs with one blow) AKA "Low time to kill" AKA "Time to Kill"
  
• Jump Jets (to be used for movement, not poptarting)
  
• Obsoleting mechs with newer ones
  
• C-bill grind
  
• Skill trees & skill system improvement
  
• 3pv
  
• Consumables
  
• Modules
  
• Role warfare
  
• Info. warfare
  
• ECM
  
• Game modes (more of them)
  
• Maps (size, variation, age, clean up of defects such as being stuck on small objects)
  
• Weapon nerfs (gauss charge, PPCs, LRMs)
  
• Mech nerfs (Victor)
  
• More story / universe immersion / pilots & pilot skills (gunnery and driving levels)
  
• New player experience / training noobs
  
• 10v12 (AKA clans operating in "stars" of 5, and a "binary" being 2 stars. IS using the three lances formation)
  
• Customization (being able to remove a mech from its intended role, like the SRM Trebuchet)
  
• Leveling mechs (having to buy 3 variants instead of one with some kind of unlock paths for other things -- related to immersion and pilot skills?)
  
• Lobby system
  
• 3/3/3/3 class restrictions / flexible class limits for a match
  
• Hit Boxes
  
• UI improvements
  
• Weapon slots (being too "generic", related to customization?)

(Community warfare not mentioned because PGI is already working on it)




Community wishes

• more mechs
  
• New weapons
  
• Subscription option
  
• community run events
  
• More MC and c-bill purchase items

Thats a good list.

Top for me:

-desyncs
-lack of game modes (including cw)
-lack of maps (including cw)
-3-3-3-3 restrictions (punishing players with queues is bad)
-lack of progress system (placeholder forever be)
-everything else (wall of text)

Edited by Viges, 17 September 2014 - 11:13 AM.

[Moonlander]

I haven't read through everything, just the OP, figured I would share my thoughts. I'm pretty new to the game but these are just some ideas to add to the pot.

I feel as though better IS vs Clan balancing is greatly needed, however I don't know which aspect needs to be looked at first. Durability? Firepower? I recently brawled a Timberwolf with my AS7-DDC, did 542 damage before I died... Needless to say, he was still alive and only at 44%. It was just the 2 of us, 99.9% positive that I had no one else firing at me. He was the only mech I came into contact with the entire match, so all of my damage was on him.

Map design. I think a lot of the absolute stomps out in the battlefield aren't always related to player skill. A lot of it depends on which spawn points are picked from the mighty RNG god. On a few maps, which side you spawn on, in my opinion, pretty much determines how the battle is going to go. While, I'm not 100% familiar with everything to do with this game, I've played 601 matches in the last week or so that I've had my account. My W-L ratio is about even, but I think I can safely say that map balance is a huge issue. Whether it's certain collision points that you have to deal with within a couple meters of your spawn that leave you having to walk much further than necessary just to get around it, if you can get off of it at all... while the other side has a straight job to the vantage point. There are obviously optimal spots in each map, but both sides should have equal leverage in capturing these points without having to fight 50% more environment than the other side.

Continuing with the map design feedback, I think having a "living" world would be fun. Where the building show damage and fall apart as their hit with shells and lasers. Tree's get knocked down, avalanches possible in Alpine peak. So many possibilities and a little more unrealistic in the short term fixes to the maps but a fun idea to think about!

Skill tree's are a bit, meh. These aren't "choices" like most skill/talent tree's. These should be fun buffs/perks that each Class/Mech should have, that vary with tonnage/class and which mech you're using. +5% leg armor may not be useful to a Highlander who has a gigantic center torso and +5% CT armor is. Just an example, iteration is definitely needed. Could have 3-5 options per tier, though. Something like this for maybe an Assault class. Change some of the module's into talents maybe?

Quote

Tier 1
Siesmic Sensor
Advanced Zoom
Target Deprevation

All can be upgraded 4 times. Like 2/4/6/8%


Tier 2
+2/4/6/8% Splash Damage
+2/4/6/8% Armor pen.
+2/4/6/8% Focus Fire (faster traveling ballistics/longer channeled laser damage)


Tier 3
A damage reduction type tier... can't really think of anything I want to add to this yet... I'll think of something later.

Also, maybe a different type of mastery system that improved weapon damage as you level your weapons (kind of like a FPS)... if you always use the same weaponry, you should have improved over time therefore improving your weapon damage, your chances of weapon jams lowering, etc. Nerfing/buffing base weapon damage or armor is not always the best route... and I'm not saying gaining buffs this way is the better route either. Just more ideas on how to improve your mech that could maybe scale better in the long term. Someone who has mastered their mech and earned the highest upgrade of each tier SHOULD stomp on a fresh mech with little to no mastery/skill upgrades. The current system doesn't fee intuitive or like a choice. There's pretty much a set choice for each class/mech and they're mostly the same. The different choices could be spread across the tiers instead of restricting each tier to a type of skill.

Maybe some DoT abilities? A flamethrower should in reality catch your target on fire, burning them for an amount of damage over so many seconds or until an exstinguishing system on the target mech kicks in (also maybe a talent/skill choice). They would have to keep the direct damage on the target for long enough for it to ignite. This could already be a thing, I've never even read the tooltip of the flamethrowers. Same could go for lasers (this could also already be a thing, just not included in the tooltip). Lasers are melting metal... it doesn't instantly cool off... This damage could also be affected based on the temp. of the map. Colder maps cool the mech faster, reducing the damage taken... hotter maps, the oppisite.

Sorry, I went further with that that I indended but it's something that could improve MWO (maybe... IMO)

I wish I could see some sort of damage text when my target is hit with an ability, aside from the crosshair turning red. To me, that's fun to see. Seeing numbers pop up on the screen is exciting (or maybe I'm just a nerd). The combat UI definitely needs improvement on many levels...

I don't feel sniping is a bad thing. That's sort of the idea of sniping, in any game. You have limitied oppurtunity to hit your target in the sweet spot. If you get that one chance and are able to land the perfect shot, you should TK them. However, maybe changing the hitbox of the 1 shot kills is a good resolution. Make it harder to get those shots. I've been dual gauss sniped in a Nova and 1 shot before I know it. It sucks and is awesome at the same time. I commend the person who got that kill! However, I can see how that does suck in a game where you don't respawn over and over throughout a match.

The ability to use your favorite mech after you die in a match and leave. I get the idea that yeah, the match is going on and your powerless mech is still on the battleground while it finishes... but is there really any need to lock someone out who dies in the first minute of a fight, for an addditional 8-10 minutes while the match finishes? I don't think that is necessary. Sure, "play another mech" sounds great and I have no issues doing that... but sometimes you just want to play that mech or it's the only mech you enjoy playing. Shouldn't be penalized for that. I personally watch how a match unfolds, especially when they're close ones. I love to spectate.

Also, the matchmaker should be able to replace a DC'd person before the match starts. That would be nice and worth another 30sec-1min wait while that persons spot is filled. Would help with imbalance in a match. I think everyone would rather wait a little longer than to be short a person. Well, maybe besides the enemy team.

The ability to blacklist certain maps. This could be trivial and extend the already sometimes longer queue times. Maybe limit the blacklist ability to a max of 2 maps. 1 would be a good start to see how it affects the queue times. This is a nice feature I've had in other games. Could probably work best when there are more maps implemented down the road.

Something better to help new players. The community COULD do this but people can be so vile and disgusting towards new players that I doubt they would want to be helped by such people. Instead of constantly calling someone a noob (are we 12?), how about help them out instead of raging about how terrible they are. Please tell me you were amazing at this game when it launched. This is new to people still... it's not like the game has been out for 10yrs and even if it had, new players come and go. This is a huge thing in the gaming community. Everyone feels they were born with their ability to be good at the games they play. Googling and reading doesn't always help. For me personally, when I was looking for builds and such when I started playing, everything I Googled and found was at least a year old. There are very few up-to-date guides are discussions on builds. There are also no "cookie cutter" builds that I could find to get a new player started.

If a person doesn't have some sort of up-to-date, easily accessed information to make their experience fun the first time, they're unlikely going to keep trying... unless they're someone like me who just kept grinding and changing stuff until it felt "right" and fun. Can be very discouraging for new players. You can search forums all day but there's not "yeah, that's a great starter build" -- it's mostly experienced players showing off their oddball builds just trying fun stuff out.

Bleh... I think I probably went to far with this post... but I couldn't stop... Sorry for it being so TLDR.

EDIT:

I think the MWO website it self could use some polishing as well. Feels ancient.

Edited by Moonlander, 17 September 2014 - 11:48 AM.

[Apnu]

Moonlander, on 17 September 2014 - 11:22 AM, said:

...

Bleh... I think I probably went to far with this post... but I couldn't stop... Sorry for it being so TLDR.

...

Its OK Moon, I read it all. Thanks.

Keep posting people!

[Apnu]

Bump for the night time crowd. Am I missing anything in my OP?

[Malleus011]

FWIW, I for one would be happy with far *less* customization allowed in Community Warfare matches (either a hard limit of stock machines, or soft limit making modifications more difficult or expensive to run/maintain/modified 'mechs earn less) with the caveat that unlimited 'mechs be allowed in a new 'Solaris' mode, with leaderboards and FFA/one-on-one matches.

Customization is fun, and I enjoy it as well, but it also causes a lot of problems.