73 replies to this topic

[RalphVargr]

Heffay, on 19 December 2014 - 08:21 AM, said:

Time is money. It's not stupid to allocate funds to your entertainment budget to ensuring you maximize the time you spend in the game.

And frankly, in a dollars per hour calculation, the money you spend on a great F2P game like MWO is just peanuts compared to other forms of entertainment.

Hmmm. The $12.00 boxed set of Traveller (without which FASA and Mechwarrior would never have existed) I bought in 1978 is still in use.

[Heffay]

RalphVargr, on 19 December 2014 - 11:11 AM, said:

Hmmm. The $12.00 boxed set of Traveller (without which FASA and Mechwarrior would never have existed) I bought in 1978 is still in use.

Then that too is a good use of your money. Just like a gold mech is good use of my money.

Edited by Heffay, 19 December 2014 - 11:17 AM.

[RalphVargr]

If you really want a taste of what happens when a game is dying, go on over to the World Of Warplanes forums. The white knights, golds/whales are posting "I Quit" threads everyday.

It's the natural endgame of the F2P model, where the sharks have driven off the population, and the sharks are blaming it on the fish who left the shark tank (little fish got tired of getting stomped/eaten alive)...and the tone-deaf devs.

[Heffay]

RalphVargr, on 19 December 2014 - 12:31 PM, said:

If you really want a taste of what happens when a game is dying, go on over to the World Of Warplanes forums. The white knights, golds/whales are posting "I Quit" threads everyday. It's the natural endgame of the F2P model, where the sharks have driven off the population, and the sharks are blaming it on the fish who left the shark tank (little fish got tired of getting stomped/eaten alive)...and the tone-deaf devs.

Is World of Warplanes the follow-up to World of Tanks? I'm surprised that it would be having a hard time. WoT has a huge population, and you'd think that just the natural carryover would be enough to sustain the game.

[Colonel Fubar]

Dare speak against the Mighty PGI...Heritic!

[StompingOnTanks]

Heffay, on 19 December 2014 - 01:22 PM, said:

Is World of Warplanes the follow-up to World of Tanks? I'm surprised that it would be having a hard time. WoT has a huge population, and you'd think that just the natural carryover would be enough to sustain the game.

Problem is, when WoWP came out, lots of people were already playing War Thunder, which by that time had set the standard.

While WoWP is good for what it is, it fails because it is missing the following:

1.) Airplanes that "feel" right in flight, even if the flight model itself isn't that realistic - WT nailed this beautifully, likely because WT is built on a flight simulation engine that they just toned down for Arcade Mode. So in WT, when a plane turns, climbs, or accelerates, it feels "real". In WoWP, it doesn't. And I would know, because me - and a large portion of the WT community, I'm sure - are WWII flight sim fans who know what a plane feels like.

2.) Heavy bombers. WT has B-17s, Lancasters, HE-111's, JU-88s, G4Ms, and so on - big multi-engine bombers with tremendous firepower and tons of defensive guns. WoWP is completely lacking in this regard, the closest thing they have to bombers being "Attackers" - single-engine or twin-engine tank busters like the P-47 Thunderbolt and IL-2.

3.) Dynamic damage modeling - In War Thunder, you kill an enemy plane by shooting their wing off, catching their engine on fire, killing the pilot, exploding the fuel tank, shooting the tail controls out, so on and letting physics do the rest. In WoWP, you kill an enemy plane by shooting it until the health bar above its head disappears. Far less immersive and realistic, I'd say.

They also released the game too early, without adding enough maps, modes, and planes. For f*ck's sake, the Japanese had (and still have) a grand total of, like, what, 12-16 planes? I think Wargaming put the game out too early thinking that their success with WoT would instantly transition to WoWP, without them realizing that War Thunder was already way, way ahead of them. If they had took the time to revise WoWP and learn from what War Thunder did, or AT LEAST waited until the game had a healthy amount of content for players to sink their teeth into, it wouldn't be the sinking ship it is now.

Which is sad, because I like World of Tanks and I loved the concept of World of Warplanes. Hopefully, Wargaming can pull their things together and save WoWP and bring back the population before it's too late. Though it may already could be.

Edit: Also, WoWP is built on WoT's engine which obviously wasn't designed for flight games.

TL:DR; WoWP was late to the party and didn't bring enough snacks.

Edited by StompingOnTanks, 20 December 2014 - 08:36 AM.

[Heffay]

I am interested in World of Ships (if that is the name), as the sailor in me loves everything about the ocean. I hope they can pull that off, although maps.... How do you do maps of an ocean?

[StompingOnTanks]

Heffay, on 20 December 2014 - 04:52 AM, said:

I am interested in World of Ships (if that is the name), as the sailor in me loves everything about the ocean. I hope they can pull that off, although maps.... How do you do maps of an ocean?

I would assume the battles take place around islands, harbors, and coastlines so to provide terrain that factors into the game. That's what the trailer looked like, at least.

[Heffay]

StompingOnTanks, on 20 December 2014 - 08:27 AM, said:

I would assume the battles take place around islands, harbors, and coastlines so to provide terrain that factors into the game. That's what the trailer looked like, at least.

Ships move so slow though. Even the fastest ones can barely hit 50 knots, which is going to be a slow tank in WoT. And they can't turn for crap.

I need to watch some of the trailers to see what it's like. But naval combat is a long distance, slow moving game.

[RalphVargr]

You forgot the broken MM, which allowed ruthless, multi-tier, seal-clubbing.

The casuals got tired of both the grind, and getting stomped. Sound familiar?

Now the MM is broken in the opposite direction- skilled pilots have to wait for other skilled pilots. Wait times went into the tens of minutes.

Sounds like like CW?

Naval and air games have limited audiences. Once the casuals were exterminated, the sharks began exterminating each other. Even the most time\money dedicated players began to eject, when populations fell below 1,000 online.

[Pht]

Sort of makes the offline single player or private server format seem desireable, doesn't it? Now if only we could find a way to make that format work again monetarily.

[StompingOnTanks]

Pht, on 20 December 2014 - 03:00 PM, said:

Sort of makes the offline single player or private server format seem desireable, doesn't it? Now if only we could find a way to make that format work again monetarily.

Well, first, every game dev in the world would need to un-learn making six hour, scripted, "cinematic" campaigns where 50% of your gameplay is spent tapping X for quick time events that do literally nothing important.

[Heffay]

StompingOnTanks, on 20 December 2014 - 06:41 PM, said:

Well, first, every game dev in the world would need to un-learn making six hour, scripted, "cinematic" campaigns where 50% of your gameplay is spent tapping X for quick time events that do literally nothing important.

Press X to pay respects.

[Vassago Rain]

Pht, on 20 December 2014 - 03:00 PM, said:

Sort of makes the offline single player or private server format seem desireable, doesn't it? Now if only we could find a way to make that format work again monetarily.

Heavy gear has private servers as part of their grab deal packages. Also singleplayer.

It might be what you're looking for.

StompingOnTanks, on 20 December 2014 - 06:41 PM, said:

Well, first, every game dev in the world would need to un-learn making six hour, scripted, "cinematic" campaigns where 50% of your gameplay is spent tapping X for quick time events that do literally nothing important.

I like this crysis 2 thing the best.

It's obvious crytek knew you'd zone out completely, or they'd not tell you to press ironsights to grab the gun.