171 replies to this topic

[SOIMiMozO]

Kageru Ikazuchi, on 18 February 2015 - 07:47 PM, said:

One of "Murphy's Laws of Combat" is (paraphrased) ... "no plan survives contact with the enemy".

While I don't advocate an adversarial relationship between a company and their customers, particularly when talking about cherished entertainment intellectual property in an environment as dynamic as an online game where the players are encouraged to modify their stuff (and min-max), you could easily modify the above statement to reflect shifts in MW:O ...

"no balance fix survives contact with the player base"

Prior to the quirkening, there were entire chassis lines that were never, ever used. Many, many players (myself included) spent real-world money on them (long before the quirkening). WVR and TDR are prime examples of this. I played them all up to Elite skill levels, and while they didn't suck, they weren't as good as other 'mechs ... my experience was not unique ... virtually no one used them. Why would you, when you could run a SHD/GRF or a JM6/CPLT?

So, they got heavily quirked to make them more attractive ... and were quirked for specific weapons (MPL, LPL and ERPPC are prime examples) that many players really wanted to have a good reason to use.

When "everyone" uses a thing, whether it's OP or not, it's not good for the game.

I don't agree with all of the quirk adjustments, but I kind of understand why they did some of them. If you bought a 'mech or package expecting it to be OP until the end of time, I hope you get your money's worth out of it while it is the flavor fo the month. The rules will change and the balance will shift. Hopefully the shifts will be gentle and minor, but it will shift. Attributing some nefarious grand money grab scheme to the balance changes is probably assuming too much ... there aren't enough evil geniuses to go around for all the accusations people make.

Don't get me wrong, friend.
I don't mind balance shifts, those are natural.
First problem is, PGI can't really "adjust" things, it seems. Almost with every balance fix they swing balance a lot. For example, like they did with LRMs boosting it from 120 straight to 175 initially. PGI change things dramatically instead of little by little approach, and do it without any warnings or explanations.
Next, this time they have nerfed or reworked things which weren't really good or bad. I don't mind the changes, but there are plenty of things to balance there. Did they really have to mess with the Ravens 2X/4X or Cicada 2B for example? There are much more mechs which are close to be considered over-performing, or under-preforming, why not to start with them?
And the last is their attitude to customers. I mean, do you really think they didn't know they will be rolling out quirk changes, when they made that weapon modules sale a few days ago? Couldnt' they do the sale after the quirk pass? Weren't they aware that this pass will change desirable modules configuration a lot? Couldn't they make it mech modules sale instead?
I don't think it is a coincidence. They made that sale before the quirk pass on purpose. I do feel I was fooled there.

[Tightwad]

Having voice chat on by default is offensive to me. I've met tons of jerks in this game who love to berate their comrades during the match. I don't need them yelling in my ear. For the developers to make this change without consulting us, without making it perfectly clear before the patch went into effect is outrageous. A discreet mention in the patch notes isn't right. All of this is compounded by the fact that there is no in-game means to file a complaint about a player. Furthermore, I will chose when to let this game access my devices and share my IP address with others, not a game company. If the company assumed I couldn't figure out how to turn the thing on, that's an insult to my intelligence. Get it right. You are losing players by the droves.

This VOIP fiasco is tantamount to the annoying houseguest sleeping on your couch moving to your bed.

Let us see who is talking
Let us file a complaint real-time, since player info doesn't carry after the match.
Let us see the match history with player names
Let us perma-mute players
Give us an ignore list that auto mutes everyone on it
Let us import/export our ignore lists

On another note... players spent a lot of money and so much time grinding for modules for their mechs. I bought two other variants just to skill up each of my primary mechs. Now some of those are no longer viable. You changed the quirks, seriously? Don't you know we bought the mech for the hard points and quirks? I have a small batch of mechs. This will cost me like 25 million c-bills. I can't imagine what the veterans lost. Complete mastery packs wasted. If this wasn't a sales strategy to get people to buy new mechs, then you should allow players to sell their mastery packs back at full value.

Edited by Tightwad, 19 February 2015 - 04:12 AM.

[PFC Carsten]

SOIMiMozO, on 19 February 2015 - 03:10 AM, said:

And the last is their attitude to customers. I mean, do you really think they didn't know they will be rolling out quirk changes, when they made that weapon modules sale a few days ago? Couldnt' they do the sale after the quirk pass? Weren't they aware that this pass will change desirable modules configuration a lot? Couldn't they make it mech modules sale instead?
I don't think it is a coincidence. They made that sale before the quirk pass on purpose. I do feel I was fooled there.

You mean like, empty everyone's C-Bills depots, then re-quirk, thus create more demand for new modules, which, if people are out of C-Bills, will be an incentive to stock up on C-Bills via real money-bought MCs?
Man.... :-)

[Insects]

Tightwad, on 19 February 2015 - 03:17 AM, said:

Having voice chat on by default is offensive to me. I've met tons of jerks in this game who love to berate their comrades during the match. I don't need them yelling in my ear. For the developers to make this change without consulting us, without making it perfectly clear before the patch went into effect is outrageous. A discreet mention in the patch notes isn't right.

It has been big news for ages plus mentions of it cant be missed. There has been heaps of forum discussion.
Patch notes link was/is shown right above the Patch/PlayNow button in the launcher. Always look at those things with any software. It wasnt hidden at all.

Pretty sure your IP is safe, it all goes in and out of a server so only PGI is seeing it.

Who is talking is at the bottom of the radar minimap.

Quote

If the company assumed I couldn't figure out how to turn the thing on, that's an insult to my intelligence.

Just turn it off then.
So far its been ok and has worked well in a few games, silent in others. Weekend will bring a more idiot crowd, but if it gets annoying turn it off.

Agree a stored blocklist is needed so you never have to encounter the same idiot twice.
Hopefully they add it next patch since its not too hard.

[Punk Oblivion]

Tightwad, on 19 February 2015 - 03:17 AM, said:

Having voice chat on by default is offensive to me. I've met tons of jerks in this game who love to berate their comrades during the match. I don't need them yelling in my ear. For the developers to make this change without consulting us, without making it perfectly clear before the patch went into effect is outrageous.

I have played a LOT of matches since the patch, and not once have I had anyone be negative over VOIP. Are you sure your not being a jerk to others, that then causes them to be jerks to you?

[Kageru Ikazuchi]

I'm going to pick a few things out to reply to directly and to guide my reply ... if you think I'm taking something out of context, it's not my intent.

SOIMiMozO, on 19 February 2015 - 03:10 AM, said:

First problem is, PGI can't really "adjust" things, it seems. Almost with every balance fix they swing balance a lot. For example, like they did with LRMs boosting it from 120 straight to 175 initially. PGI change things dramatically instead of little by little approach, and do it without any warnings or explanations.

The difficulty they have is the many different dimensions to balancing the game ...
- weapon systems (and equipment, like modules) balanced with and against other weapon systems (and equipment) ... ideally every weapon system can be viable
- 'mechs balanced with other 'mechs for random queue drops ... ideally every 'mech can be viable
- clan 'mechs balanced against inner spere 'mech for community warfare ... this is probably the most important aspect to consider right now

If they do things in very small increments (or not at all) they may not reasonably be able to observe the effect the changes have on gameplay. If they do things too quickly, there's not enough data to observe the effect that specific changes make. They're still trying to find the right increment for balance changes.

While I would appreciate an explanation for big changes, they don't owe us anything. Some people will hate it, others will praise it, but what they don't want to do (I don't recall where, but they have stated this) is influence our choice as players by announcing upcoming changes ... they want to observe our reaction to the changes to determine their effect.

Quote

Next, this time they have nerfed or reworked things which weren't really good or bad. I don't mind the changes, but there are plenty of things to balance there. Did they really have to mess with the Ravens 2X/4X or Cicada 2B for example? There are much more mechs which are close to be considered over-performing, or under-preforming, why not to start with them?

Immediately following the first quirkening, they were blasted for adding quirks that had nothing to do with the stock builds and focused on specific weapon systems for many 'mechs. It appears that the most recent quirk pass has been done with a completely different goal in mind. Did they "have to?" ... No, of course they didn't, but the new quirks generally do a better job enhancing stock builds rather than forcing a specific meta.

Quote

And the last is their attitude to customers. I mean, do you really think they didn't know they will be rolling out quirk changes, when they made that weapon modules sale a few days ago? Couldnt' they do the sale after the quirk pass? Weren't they aware that this pass will change desirable modules configuration a lot? Couldn't they make it mech modules sale instead?
I don't think it is a coincidence. They made that sale before the quirk pass on purpose. I do feel I was fooled there.

If you bought new modules or 'mechs (whether they were on sale or not) based on the meta and balance at the time, and you feel like it's a deliberate "bait and switch", then there's probably nothing I can say to change your mind.

I've dealt with enough people in various positions of real responsibility and power to know that most of them just want to do their job well, and don't like pissing people off. There is a balance between being naive enough to believe anything and so paranoid that one believes that there's a nefarious plot behind everything.

I really don't think that there's some evil genius behind the curtain drumming his fingers about the player base spending millions of C-Bills for digital content that has a planned obsolescence ... more often than not it is just one part of the organization being clueless about what another is doing and how they affect each other.

Edited by Kageru Ikazuchi, 19 February 2015 - 02:55 PM.

[gaIaxor]

InnerSphereNews, on 17 February 2015 - 11:00 AM, said:

Voice over IP

I think it would be a funny feature if ECM would totally jam or partly disrupt(i.e. making it less audible) Voice over IP of nearby enemy mechs without BAP or ECM.  This would add immersion.

[emereld]

edit:

Just saw what you did there. WVR-6K now has Large Laser quirks instead of Large Pulse Laser ....

Edited by emereld, 21 February 2015 - 10:56 AM.

[river908]

Downloading patch right now....and it says 6484MB?????

Is there something wrong? why am I downloading 6 gigs worth of patch????

[Kodyn]

Heh, if that's the patch I'm thinking of, be prepared for it to really need 20 gb of space to unpack and do it's thing. It broke my install, had to completely reinstall from scratch, have fun.

[ThatGuy539]

I'm just happy that PGI seems to be aggressively working on improving the game. New maps, patches, upgrades, new mechs, a challenge every weekend... better this than doing a lot of nothing.

The quirks keep things interesting. Paying the same build or the same mech all the time gets boring, so I don't mind making the odd change sometimes. And I don't always build my mechs around the quirks. But that's me.
Some of the problems can keep things interesting too. Just the other day I teleported apparently right over the enemy and back when I was placing a UAV. Was behind a hill from them one moment. Hit the UAV button, found myself way up in the air somewhere, and then back where I was, and my UAV was like 150m out toward the enemy right over them.

Alternately I've had guys I'm brawling with teleport behind me, never good. And once got creamed by friendly fire from a team mate who was standing in front of me...with his back to me. Must be that rear facing AC20 he had. And nope he didn't teleport. Saw him in the kill cam still a bit ahead of my dead mech. He turned around to see what had happened. Was odd, and kinda funny at the same time.

Overall, I like the game. Taking a bit of a break though after the grind his weekend for the Raven challenge.