88 replies to this topic

[Elaxter]

Simple.

I say yes mainly because in the last few months, the devs really pulled together to do nice things for us. The anniversary mechs, the Halloween event, the new map on the horizon, all the clan mechs for Cbills, cool IS mechs coming out in the new pack (and are not deadly expensive compared to what you get), etc etc. I can smell the Community Warfare stuff right around the corner.

Discuss.

[luxebo]

I think PGI is turning in to a better company in general, it has been good for a long while since the turn of Clans in.

While there are things I disagree with, other things have been going much better and I like it.

[Jin Ma]

its been good for as long as russ has been balancing thigns instead of paul

[Pale Jackal]

MWO is definitely moving in the right direction, and is one of the reasons I am willing to pay $80 for the IS resistance pack, even though (as an eventual Clan player) I would probably be better off dropping $50 on MC and just buying the hero versions of the good Clan 'mechs. (And I'm not going to pay $120 for the Clan pack when I only want the Hellbringer.)

Edited by Pale Jackal, 15 November 2014 - 05:49 PM.

[Cion]

Elaxter, on 15 November 2014 - 05:08 PM, said:

Stuff....

Discuss.

I really don't like it when people simply put "discuss" on the OP. No hard feelings.

Anyway. I do like the direction. It's not exactly where I would be going but before this we had no Mechwarrior game and the direction they are taking is still a good one even if it's not the best IMO.

[girl on fire]

MWO doesn't seem to have any sort of direction at all. Maybe CW will change that, but the longer I play this game the less I expect from CW which makes me less prone to actually playing. It's just a perpetual cycle of hype and let down. Don't get me wrong, MWO is "okay" as it is, there's just nothing about it that makes me want to invest much time into it. If mediocrity was the goal they set out to achieve, then I guess they've done that. An f2p death match arena matchmaker may be good business but it doesn't make for a compelling video game.

Edited by girl on fire, 15 November 2014 - 07:25 PM.

[R Razor]

I've seen improvements but they have a long way to go and a lot of bad decisions made early on in development that need to be rectified.

[Hades Trooper]

Elaxter, on 15 November 2014 - 05:08 PM, said:

Simple.

I say yes mainly because in the last few months, the devs really pulled together to do nice things for us. The anniversary mechs, the Halloween event, the new map on the horizon, all the clan mechs for Cbills, cool IS mechs coming out in the new pack (and are not deadly expensive compared to what you get), etc etc. I can smell the Community Warfare stuff right around the corner.

Discuss.

yeah but this weekend event is for chumps,

100 matches to earn the cash compared to 20 scoring matches to earn the cash like last time?

i played 15 matches while having drinks with the gang friday night, after that i sdaid no thanks not worth the hassle.

the rest is good bare the broken hit registration on fast moving JJ light mechs.

I've noticed that when PGI went to it's own server after leaving the pariring with IGP hit registration is a real issue and could be game breaking in my eyes

[Thorqemada]

The "New PGI" does better than the "Past PGI".

I guess they take much data to figure out things but its hard to interpete data.

A lower TTK i.e. will not lead to much shorter matches -> it does give the use of Cover and No-Return-Fire combat tactics a much higher priority and depending on the execution of these tactics matches may even last longer.

High skilled organized Teams could start to use "Rrolling Barrage" tactics which lessens the match time.

In the end you have data you can not use bcs you know not enough about the environment balance the data was collected in.

Looking at general numbers does only tell general truths and we all know "General Truth" is a lie!


Dont expect wonders - we will get more Mechs, more balance changes, more fixes, a crude CW Metagame and make the best use of it for our entertainment and see if the ship gets enough wind into the sails to steer a good course.

[-Natural Selection-]

I log on, play and adapt to what happens. I like the game in game in general and have never really had a complaint aside from map production last year.

[Molossian Dog]

1.) I don´t think there is a specific direction the devs have laid out. No conscious master plan. It is a series of crisis management and bandaids. Most of it seems to be done on the fly.
2.) The direction the game seems to be actually staggering towards? No, I don´t agree at all.

Basic requirements for a successful online game are lacking. Even worse the announced intentions ignore these requirements completely. Each would require its own thread, but if you look at the townhall answers you will notice almost each and every issue that bothers people and actively drives them away from the game is handled as "maybe later".

http://mwomercs.com/...v-13th-session/

Just a few keywords:
User Interace
VOIP
Command Rose
Heat Engine
Eradication of Bug-Exploiting (i.e. JJ animation)
ECM/Target lock system
PPFLD
A frigging tutorial worth a damn.

And finally: Something to do.

There is nothing to do in this game. It is a deathmatch. Plain and simple. CW will be deathmatch plus colourful map. There is nothing to organise, nothing to plan for, nothing to talk about or coordinate with your faction buddies. You log in, maybe click on a planet, drop and grind. Rinse and repeat.


Random thoughts:
-Why don´t we have faction specific trial Mechs? Why don´t we vote on them? At least for CW.
-Why aren´t there historic battles to opt in? You know, instead of leaderboard grinds.
-What is there in terms of immersion? There are no missions. No logistics, no economy, no chain of command.
-Where are incentives for community interaction? For teaching new players? Look at the faction forums. Empty.
-What goals are there for players? Get mech number 58 and grind it to master? Will that keep players interested?
-You never get the feeling that you are a Mechwarrior in the battletech universe. You don´t get assigned to a location doing missions there. You never even get into contact with the universe. There is not even a scrap of lore to be found in the game. You need third party sources to even get a basic understanding of what is going on.
-There are no consequences to whatever I do in this game. It is an endless grind. The only possible interaction in the game decides if I grind slower or faster.

------------------------------------------

TL;DR

While diverting, the game is as shallow as a browsergame. In fact it is monetized like one. Go figure.

And there are no plans to change that.

Edited by Molossian Dog, 15 November 2014 - 09:37 PM.

[UrsusMorologus]

There's a direction? Seems like a general drift

[Impyrium]

In terms of how PGI have been handling the community and game now? Much better.

But if I'm going to bring up old grudges, I'll never be content on how MW:O is still trying to be a casual arena shooter rather than a BattleMech simulator. CW might/hopefully change this. I know the reasoning, and of course I don't expect it to change, but it's still a sore point.

[Kirkland Langue]

One thing that PGI could, and absolutely should, do - which would then give me the sense that they want to start going in the correct direction...

... would be to simply state that ALL Hero mechs would be available through LP rewards if your rank with a corresponding faction is high enough.

Note: I own a number of the Hero Mechs already. Don't think that I'm just trying to get free mechs. The point would be that this is one way to remove a big part of the perception of P2W that exists, and by extension, the perception that PGI is just going to milk the existing playerbase for as much as they can then throw in the towel without ever trying to increase the playerbase.

It could even be a year out, before people would start wanting Hero Mechs for achieving top ranks in the Factions - but just saying right now that the plan is for every hero mech to be available would show Intention.

[STEF_]

Molossian Dog, on 15 November 2014 - 09:35 PM, said:

1.) I don´t think there is a specific direction the devs have laid out. No conscious master plan. It is a series of crisis management and bandaids. Most of it seems to be done on the fly.
2.) The direction the game seems to be actually staggering towards? No, I don´t agree at all.

Basic requirements for a successful online game are lacking. Even worse the announced intentions ignore these requirements completely. Each would require its own thread, but if you look at the townhall answers you will notice almost each and every issue that bothers people and actively drives them away from the game is handled as "maybe later".

http://mwomercs.com/...v-13th-session/

Just a few keywords:
User Interace
VOIP
Command Rose
Heat Engine
Eradication of Bug-Exploiting (i.e. JJ animation)
ECM/Target lock system
PPFLD
A frigging tutorial worth a damn.

And finally: Something to do.

There is nothing to do in this game. It is a deathmatch. Plain and simple. CW will be deathmatch plus colourful map. There is nothing to organise, nothing to plan for, nothing to talk about or coordinate with your faction buddies. You log in, maybe click on a planet, drop and grind. Rinse and repeat.


Random thoughts:
-Why don´t we have faction specific trial Mechs? Why don´t we vote on them? At least for CW.
-Why aren´t there historic battles to opt in? You know, instead of leaderboard grinds.
-What is there in terms of immersion? There are no missions. No logistics, no economy, no chain of command.
-Where are incentives for community interaction? For teaching new players? Look at the faction forums. Empty.
-What goals are there for players? Get mech number 58 and grind it to master? Will that keep players interested?
-You never get the feeling that you are a Mechwarrior in the battletech universe. You don´t get assigned to a location doing missions there. You never even get into contact with the universe. There is not even a scrap of lore to be found in the game. You need third party sources to even get a basic understanding of what is going on.
-There are no consequences to whatever I do in this game. It is an endless grind. The only possible interaction in the game decides if I grind slower or faster.

------------------------------------------

TL;DR

While diverting, the game is as shallow as a browsergame. In fact it is monetized like one. Go figure.

And there are no plans to change that.

While, at least, the pgi's actitude is changed a bit since IGp departure, you are describing the game I wanted since ever.

Really loved if pgi kids were ppl like you.

At my age, I must admit that such a game you describe, maybe, will be played by son, or nephew.

No "game house" has ever respected BT universe as it deserve. And this is just a sad thing.

[nitra]

still feels like a botched project. while I appreciate having a online battle tech game to play I still feel short changed.

regardless of free to play or not this game has many short coming that are just hard to over look.

while the recent changes look promising there is a long way to go before I would feel we have reached true battle tech greatness.

My number one addition after CW would be to add solaris into this game add a ranking system and establish a tiered reward system with weekend events .

second I would enable a subscription models along with the free to play model, allowing subscribers access to a selection of paints and cammo . it would also allow for the addition of matching cammos to maps and maybe a selection of cutom huds.

third would be a stock only mode of mwo maybe make this into a hardcore mode follows tt rule set has bv based player drops and would center around objective based game play for example .. protect the urbie .. a large map with 5 separate paths. objective, get the urbie to the drop ship at the end of the map before the other team puts an end to its miserable existence.



that's a few examples where I think mwo should be at .

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

What have we heard on that player council?

Before you praise the future, lets not forget the past.

Edited by Mechwarrior Buddah, 16 November 2014 - 12:21 AM.

[Sandpit]

Elaxter, on 15 November 2014 - 05:08 PM, said:

Simple.

I say yes mainly because in the last few months, the devs really pulled together to do nice things for us. The anniversary mechs, the Halloween event, the new map on the horizon, all the clan mechs for Cbills, cool IS mechs coming out in the new pack (and are not deadly expensive compared to what you get), etc etc. I can smell the Community Warfare stuff right around the corner.

Discuss.

There is no "new" direction yet. There's a lot of lip service at this point, but that's exactly what we've had for nearly 3 years. If and when it's actually implemented, THEN we can talk about direction.

I'm hopeful, but as of right now, we have nothing more than we had 2 years ago, or at launch, or after PP, or after Clans. The only thing we have as of now is yet another announcement of mech packs to buy and a lot of words talking about how cool CW will be. Until it's implemented nothing has changed.

Harsh?
Yea, maybe a little, but as I said, I'm hopeful. I like the information they've been releasing and it SOUNDS like they're on the right track so we'll have to wait and see, but I'm still not dedicating any more money to this game and that's coming from a guy who has literally dropped thousands of dollars on Btech in general over nearly 30 years of love with the IP.

So, I hope they get it done and get it right because I'll be ecstatic if this game becomes a huge success simply because it means I'll have a Btech game to play that I find fun.

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 16 November 2014 - 12:21 AM, said:

What have we heard on that player council?

Before you praise the future, lets not forget the past.

Exactly

[Kilo 40]

people keep talking about CW, but what I'm interested in is what the Devs start talking about AFTER CW.

will they divide up a number of projects among the team? will it be "all hands on deck" for another project(single player?)? a focus on the back log of side projects like VOIP, and command wheel? maps? or what? what exactly is the focus on in 2015 for PGI?

we had a direction in 2014 and it was mostly laid out in the "state on the inner sphere" post last December. for the most part they stuck with that direction. But now that the last major sticking point is almost here, I want to know where we go after CW.

[Popper100]

I'll be honest, this is not the game I would have made.

But, that stems from a lot of recent experiences and new developments in asymmetric gameplay and team balancing has sort of twisted my expectations of the mp centric experience and how there will always be a place for evenly matched competitions of skill, but this doesn't feel like one of them. I would have put more emphasis on the ephemeral aspects and engaging a player on his quest for battlefield dominance in little ways that boost his loyalty to his faction and his comrades. The Clans would have been handled completely differently, being a full on buy-out option to populate the new faction for a clear 2-sided conflict.

Fundamental things like speed of combat and map size would be increased, since these are least taxing on servers and increase small scale combat over large scale smash fests. More unbalanced game modes pitting undergunned teams with easier objectives over heavily armed teams to break up game flow. Various little things to manage player growth without arbitrary hard limits and punishing gameplay.

In short, I feel this game is not close to where it could be and isn't going there anytime soon. But it is also a product of its time in a different era, the closing period of that era maybe, but a different one nonetheless.