4 replies to this topic

[CommanderCaps]

I recently brought a friend, who hasn't played MWO in a long time, back to the game that I myself had left alone for quite a while. And we both came to similar conclusions after struggling with the new interface for a while: It's a mess.
Another big point was the lacking tutorial, but I will adress that later.
Concerning the interface, I know it's probably not high on the angenda, because that train has already left, but please take this into concideration. Maybe before the rumored steam release or any other future games.
I don't think you can have such a convoluted and inaccessible interface in the year 2014. It is the second thing a new player sees from your game after the title screen and it is an instant turn-off if you can't navigate it properly.
A big point of MWO is the customisation of your mech and burrying that feature with a lot of clicks and unreadable menues was not a wise decision imo. That also leads me directily to the lacking tutorial and tool tips.

You can design the best game in the world, but if you fail to explain it to players properly, nobody will know how good it is.

Why should I buy upgrades and modules? What do they do? How do I customise my mech properly? I could go on and on with these questions, but my main point here is, that MWO fails
to explain everything beyond "Hold W to move forward" and that is a no-go in times of interactive menues and tutorials or mentor systems.

I know that a lot of good and complex games these days succeed despite what I just mentioned. But that shouldn't encourage MWO to lack this important part, because not everyone is willing to wrestle with an unapproachable game for a few minutes of stompy robots.

[FeliXXL]

I feel bad to say this, but you are absolutely right.
I cant even configure a mech in MWO so i am planning them all on Smurfy.
You cant just see and drag in things to your mech while watching the complete loadout.
You have to switch between parts all the time - and this is just not neccessary in a good loadouteditor.
Many things are too complicated for new players and even I as a more experienced player
plan loadout always on smurfys because the UI drives me crazy trying to do that.

[Dino Banino]

I agree with you 100%. The only reason I love this game is because I already knew what Mechwarrior was before MWO. If anything, this game just has to fix its huge learning curve. If it can manage that, then we'll start seeing a general shift in consumer demand, and people from all corners of the gaming community will scurry to play MWO.

What about new players? What about people who don't know about Mechwarrior in general? What about people who've never even played a tactical shooter, or let alone a game where you control a torso and pair of legs separately?

Now in terms of how this is approached is up to one's opinion. I believe more tutorials are needed, and a digital manual is placed to offer a brief (or in-depth) description of every weapon, module, and piece of equipment.

[WonderSparks]

Logically, improving the experience for players who are just coming to the game (be that for the first time or just after a very long break) should be among the top priorities. As mentioned, if nobody knows how to play the game, well... they do not know how to play the game. It is not exactly enjoyable for them.
We need tutorials and whatnot to make it a new player-friendly game (because the movement tutorial is FAR from enough and it seems nobody uses the new player resources on the forums), otherwise it will simply remain frustrating for new players. And a free-to-play game like this rather depends on having a large playerbase, not scaring them away with things they do not have enough experience to handle yet.

But as it stands, I think PGI is too busy trying to complete CW to get that work done (should have either delivered it sooner or not promised it so soon, guys ), so I imagine things are going to remain pretty bad for a while to come.

[cranect]

I actually like the way it is. For me it works quite well, then again I tend to think in a sort of step by step fashion so that could be why. I always liked the UI here for some reason. I know a lot of people complain about it, but both this one and the old one took me a whole 5 minutes to figure out. Also I am constantly reconfiguring my mechs because I get bored with loadouts too so I use the mechlab a lot. I just want some faster way to change armor values.

Edited by cranect, 19 September 2014 - 11:17 AM.