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I Am Sad Because I Think Battletech Is Holding This Game Back


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#101 Oderint dum Metuant

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Posted 04 October 2014 - 11:00 PM

View PostRoadbeer, on 04 October 2014 - 09:47 PM, said:

This thread...


... is why we can't have nice things.


We can't have nice things because that would involve scrapping 90% if what we do have and starting again.

It's too late to fix things.

#102 Kiiyor

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 12:17 AM

CORERULE IGNOOOOOOORE!

The BT core rules though... They are almost like a religion for some.

#103 Mechwarrior Buddah

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 12:20 AM

View PostDV McKenna, on 04 October 2014 - 11:00 PM, said:

We can't have nice things because that would involve scrapping 90% if what we do have and starting again.

It's too late to fix things.


So I keep seeing ppl say now; all the devs are on CW.

Kind of reminds me of the "UI 2.0 is a bottleneck" quotes

#104 Mystere

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 12:47 AM

View PostMechwarrior Buddah, on 04 October 2014 - 10:34 PM, said:

Have they said what theyre going to do when CW comes out with that? Cause the billionaires will have everything already and then billions of cbills


Unfortunately, I have not heard of anything from PGI with regard to the topic.

Edited by Mystere, 05 October 2014 - 12:47 AM.


#105 stjobe

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 12:53 AM

A bit late to the party, but there's a few things I'd like to point out.

First off, AC classification: It's been canonized as kilograms of ammo thrown down-range per second. Not damage, or anything else. Kilograms of ammo per second. If you wish to dispute this, first go read the sidebar on page 98 of Era Report 3052.

Secondly, while I do think lore is more important than adherence to TT rules, those rules embody the lore in most cases. MWO is "held back" because PGI couldn't be arsed/weren't competent enough to even see this simple fact:

If you double or triple weapon firing rates, damage and heat per shot needs to come down by the same amount, or you'll generate too much damage and too much heat.

That's the kind of devs we're dealing with here. That's what's "keeping this game back". Not BattleTech (which really does not compute at all, since no BattleTech means no MechWarrior, which means no MWO), but:

Devs that do not understand BattleTech trying to implement a BattleTech game.

#106 Black Ivan

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 01:00 AM

The CBT rules aren't the problem. The ingame implementation is the problem.

#107 Stormwolf

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 01:08 AM

View PostBlack Ivan, on 05 October 2014 - 01:00 AM, said:

The CBT rules aren't the problem. The ingame implementation is the problem.


Gotta agree with this, the problem is that there isn't enough Battletech in this game.

There are plenty of other generic big stompy robot games out there people if they don't like Mechwarrior/Battletech.

#108 Deathlike

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 01:24 AM

I think it's ironic that plastered over the forums is "A Battletech Game", while my experience in this game lorewise has never expanded outside of "using Sarna" and "arena only deathmatches with slight variations".

Yes, please continue.

#109 Savage Wolf

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:16 AM

View PostWolfways, on 04 October 2014 - 08:39 PM, said:

There are different warhead types for LRM's. ArtemisIV is an upgrade to LRM's just like ER and Ultra are an upgrade to lasers and AC's.

If that was the case I would be able to mix non-Artemis LRMs and Artemis LRMs on the same mech. Currently not possible.

View PostMercules, on 04 October 2014 - 09:32 PM, said:

Go play other TT strategy warfare games using models. Warhammer and WH40K are two of the most popular out there aside from Battletech and their rules are probably 5 times as complex once you add in all the different army books.

Building an army in one of those systems are a lot more simple than building mechs in BattleTech. Playing the game... well that's a different story. But none of the games based on their systems carried over the complexity to the games either, unlike MW.
And you still didn't mention where BattleTech is oversimplified.

View PostMercules, on 04 October 2014 - 09:32 PM, said:

Is that going to be like D&D 4th Edition? See the best version of D&D is Pathfinder. To understand why it would be because they kept the 3.5 core and expanded and corrected imbalance instead of throwing everything out. 2.0(AD&D) was pretty poor. One of the best gaming systems out there is GURPS and 4th edition was not a radical change from 3rd, just more of a balance shift than actual rewriting. Things were clarified. Just like the current "Classic" Battletech rules are clarifications and balance fixes of the original system.

See... you people act like the rules are 20+ years old and have never once altered at all. They have while still keeping all the core things. It was a well built core and has stood the test of time.

No, they built themselves into a corner. They refused to change anything that would break stock mechs and so the only thing they could do was add things. They didn't do this because it was good. Had D&D done this, it would still be AD&D, but with more classes and weapons. What we need is the D&D 3rd edition of BattleTech, and when we see that, then we can consider doing the Pathfinder of BattleTech.
GURPS 4th edition was a good game and has been going for a long time now, but it's age is showing, so new players aren't adopting it and so like everything else that doesn't change, it's doomed to die a slow death. Just like BattleTech currently is.

View PostMercules, on 04 October 2014 - 09:32 PM, said:

No it doesn't. Every mech is an asset.

All you are saying is that MWO as it exists right now should just have everyone drop in a 100 tonner since no one WANTS to play the 50 tonners or such by your opinion. That is just stupid. Trust me. If a group of 15 mediocre mechs dropped against a group of 10 Meta mechs they would probably have a fun battle. The Meta players would be swarmed from too many sides at once and their high BV mechs would have to deal with being focus fired from multiple lower BV mechs.

Each individual player of lower BV mechs would still be shooting at things and dodging things. It's only E-Peen morons who cry if they don't get their big numbers and need to be the center of attention. Most players would just be happy getting a win.

In a game based on BV there will be a new meta based on what mechs have a lower BV than their actual worth. And players in mechs with high BV would if the system works, be more important than one with low BV. The guy in the high BV mech is also garanteed to stay in the game longer while the guy in a low BV mech is unlucky to be the first to go.

View PostIceSerpent, on 04 October 2014 - 09:48 PM, said:

Not necessarily, you can make them equally viable. If you don't run out, you can equalize firepower. If you do run out, you can make it a choice between initial high damage with low damage later (or none at all) for ammo-based and average damage throughout the match for energy.

But both of those can't be true at the same time. And ammo based weapons always needs to have a higher damage potential than energy weapons because of the risk. Otherwise energy weapons would always be better.

View PostIceSerpent, on 04 October 2014 - 09:48 PM, said:

Why? Being on 5 Atlas team gives you the same influence as each other Atlas. Being on 10 Shadowhawk team gives you the same influence as each other Shadowhawk.
Not to mention that this whole concept only works if your team consists of the same exact mechs. As soon as you allow Atlases and Shadowhawks on the same team, all equality goes out of the window.

Once again my point is made for me. But you also missed the point where I said that you need equal influence compared to anyone in the battle, not just your own team. So we need to make sure that all mechs are as viable as the other, or as close as possible, knowing that we probably will never reach it fully.

View PostDuncan Jr Fischer, on 04 October 2014 - 09:50 PM, said:

The guys who dream of equality. Would you be satisfied to play the game of your dream - EqualWarrior: Online, where you have one mech with one weapon, and fight 12vs12 on a totally flat map? No matter the result, everyone gets the same amount of cash and XP.


Having equal viability does not mean that all mechs are the same. Lots of games pulls this off while giving you plenty of options. Look at League Of Legends. All those champions to choose from and most of them are equal in viability. But that is also because they do different things, unlike an Atlas and an Awesome. They do the same thing, but the Atlas just have more room for guns.
So when you think about it, what we had in earlier MW titles was actually Equal Warrior. Everyone figthing eachother in their selection of 100 ton mechs.

#110 kapusta11

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:22 AM

I bet most of those "CORERULE IGNOORE" guys have no clue what they are ignoring.

#111 Tyler Durden

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:45 AM

This discussion again?

Look, if you don't follow the lore and most of the game rules, then this isn't a BattleTech property and you may as well make **** up. Go ahead and make cannons that shoot rainbows because **** it; that's why.

I am a loyal BattleTech gamer since 1988 and won't argue much if the devs think a tweak here or there is needed to balance a couple of weapons. But what the OP is suggesting is to throw it all out and make up some bullshit game. Hawken already exists. I suggest that you go play that if you don't like the BattleTech vibe.

#112 Savage Wolf

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:48 AM

View PostTyler Durden, on 05 October 2014 - 03:45 AM, said:

This discussion again?

Look, if you don't follow the lore and most of the game rules, then this isn't a BattleTech property and you may as well make **** up. Go ahead and make cannons that shoot rainbows because **** it; that's why.

I am a loyal BattleTech gamer since 1988 and won't argue much if the devs think a tweak here or there is needed to balance a couple of weapons. But what the OP is suggesting is to throw it all out and make up some bullshit game. Hawken already exists. I suggest that you go play that if you don't like the BattleTech vibe.


So in your book, BattleTech cannot improve, evolve or change? It's already perfect?

#113 kapusta11

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:54 AM

View PostSavage Wolf, on 05 October 2014 - 03:48 AM, said:


So in your book, BattleTech cannot improve, evolve or change? It's already perfect?


Improve? Evolve?! You do realize who's developer right?

#114 Kiiyor

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 03:56 AM

View Postkapusta11, on 05 October 2014 - 03:22 AM, said:

I bet most of those "CORERULE IGNOORE" guys have no clue what they are ignoring.


Um... plastic... furniture?

Or the blind adherence to numbers and concepts from the technical manuals and rulebooks?

#115 Savage Wolf

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 04:01 AM

View Postkapusta11, on 05 October 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

Improve? Evolve?! You do realize who's developer right?

Yes. That doesn't answer the question. Nor is it relevant. I was asking you.

While I hope PGI wants to improve BattleTech, it seems they are content with tweaking it, unfortunately.

#116 Mercules

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 04:02 AM

View PostSavage Wolf, on 05 October 2014 - 03:48 AM, said:


So in your book, BattleTech cannot improve, evolve or change? It's already perfect?


Nope, but it already has evolved and changed. The rules of today have a resemblance to the rules of yesteryear and some are the same, like a ML doing 5 damage for 3 heat and taking up 1 ton, but things have changed.

#117 Tyler Durden

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 04:03 AM

That isn't what I said, Savage Wolf. Minor tweaks are acceptable for weapon balancing, but the reason MWO exists is because of BattleTech. You may as well just accept that MWO is based on it and enjoy the universe.

This universe is the future of the '80s and I am okay with that. The game plays well and I don't need changes to it. I taught many people how to play this game over the past 2 years and even suggested that we could try the new streamlined version of the game (a bit more abstract with less gritty details) but they resoundingly said "no". Why is that? Because they enjoyed the details of the original game mechanics.

#118 Mercules

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 04:12 AM

View PostSavage Wolf, on 05 October 2014 - 03:16 AM, said:

And you still didn't mention where BattleTech is oversimplified.
For one thing mechs move on a hex map. This allows very nice straight running in one direction and really crappy movement 90 degrees to that same movement. Square blocks of City Streets don't work very well for mechs as they have to constantly turn and walk one space to walk down some streets. ;)

Mech Speed doesn't affect turning radius in BT, the movement system isn't very dynamic as it is fixed to that hex grid. It uses 2d6 which gives limited variation. One point better to hit is HUGE in some areas and "eh" in others. Mech melee combat doesn't allow parrying/blocking.

So many other areas.

View PostSavage Wolf, on 05 October 2014 - 04:01 AM, said:

Yes. That doesn't answer the question. Nor is it relevant. I was asking you.

While I hope PGI wants to improve BattleTech, it seems they are content with tweaking it, unfortunately.


Um... PGI doesn't touch Battletech. They own the rights to make a Mechwarrior video game based off Battletech.

#119 Johnny Z

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 04:22 AM

Without any doubt some are using lore and tt and worse yet sarna to try and paint the current Mechwarrior into a corner or otherwise send it in a bad direction.

I hope this game builders can see past that.

I have tons of respect for Mechwarrior and Battletech mostly because i pride myself in appreciating cool stuff, but I also hope to see the game grow. I have said this before but Mechwarrior Online has the ball now, I hope they do some good things with it.

Edited by Johnny Z, 05 October 2014 - 04:26 AM.


#120 Savage Wolf

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Posted 05 October 2014 - 04:23 AM

View PostMercules, on 05 October 2014 - 04:02 AM, said:

Nope, but it already has evolved and changed. The rules of today have a resemblance to the rules of yesteryear and some are the same, like a ML doing 5 damage for 3 heat and taking up 1 ton, but things have changed.


Those are tweaks at best. Changes would be different ways of building mechs. Like how MW4 did mech customization even if it still had the flaw of the Atlas just being better than the Shadowhawk.

View PostTyler Durden, on 05 October 2014 - 04:03 AM, said:

That isn't what I said, Savage Wolf. Minor tweaks are acceptable for weapon balancing, but the reason MWO exists is because of BattleTech. You may as well just accept that MWO is based on it and enjoy the universe.

This universe is the future of the '80s and I am okay with that. The game plays well and I don't need changes to it. I taught many people how to play this game over the past 2 years and even suggested that we could try the new streamlined version of the game (a bit more abstract with less gritty details) but they resoundingly said "no". Why is that? Because they enjoyed the details of the original game mechanics.


I do enjoy the universe and the feel of the game. Like Russ says, it's a battle of attrition unlike Hawken which is just a twitch shooter in mech skins. And you change a lot of things and it would still be BattleTech. A different BattleTech, but still BattleTech.

And you taught the TT game to TT players. Those are niche players and MWO is not a TT game. But that is a very limitied number of players. If you need to love complex rules to get into MWO then they will lose more players per year than they will gain and thus slowly die.

View PostMercules, on 05 October 2014 - 04:12 AM, said:

For one thing mechs move on a hex map. This allows very nice straight running in one direction and really crappy movement 90 degrees to that same movement. Square blocks of City Streets don't work very well for mechs as they have to constantly turn and walk one space to walk down some streets. ;)

Mech Speed doesn't affect turning radius in BT, the movement system isn't very dynamic as it is fixed to that hex grid. It uses 2d6 which gives limited variation. One point better to hit is HUGE in some areas and "eh" in others. Mech melee combat doesn't allow parrying/blocking.

So many other areas.

So all the rules that becomes irrelevant when converting the game into a shooter? So they kept all the complicated stuff and don't need the simple stuff. Brilliant.

View PostMercules, on 05 October 2014 - 04:12 AM, said:

Um... PGI doesn't touch Battletech. They own the rights to make a Mechwarrior video game based off Battletech.

Which is the perfect excuse to make changes.





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