58 replies to this topic

[mark v92]

we need tutorials and lore explanation.

A new player has no idea why:

1. we are fighting.
2. who are clans and why are they different.
3. why are the facton map territories so wierd.
4. How do they know is they buy a clan or IS mech? (its not even stated in the mechlab without looking at the weapons)
5. why cant i run both clan and IS in CW?
6. why are the weapons different?
7. why is the mechbuilding different between the two?
8. what year it is and why are the weapons not more powerful this much in the future.

dont get me started on tutorials. theres a lot that needs to be explained.

bonus:
Why cant i jump with my hoverjets?

[Vandul]

Lore doesnt strip armor or get crits. /pffffffft

[MeiSooHaityu]

Vandul, on 10 March 2015 - 07:23 AM, said:

Lore doesnt strip armor or get crits. /pffffffft

It might make you care that little bit more when you know more about why your doing it.

Really it's a shame. The BT universe has one of the more interesting and fleshed out stories in all of SciFi.

If any SciFi franchise deserves to have it's story told in games, TV, or movies, it's this franchise. With all the warring houses, back stabbing, and politics, Its like futuristic Game of Thrones before GoT existed (well minus loads of gratuitous nudity and sex) lol.

Edited by MeiSooHaityu, 10 March 2015 - 07:38 AM.

[Vandul]

MeiSooHaityu, on 10 March 2015 - 07:38 AM, said:

It might make you care that little bit more when you know more about why your doing it.

Really it's a shame. The BT universe has one of the more interesting and fleshed out stories in all of SciFi.

If any SciFi franchise deserves to have it's story told in games, TV, or movies, it's this franchise. With all the warring houses, back stabbing, and politics, Its like futuristic Game of Thrones before GoT existed (well minus loads of gratuitous nudity and sex) lol.

That was sarcasm for the COD crowd. You must have missed the . So heres a to help you understand my .

[Almond Brown]

If they explained to the Noobs "who" the Clans really were in the real timeline, PGI would never Sell another I.S. Battlemech.

So as noted above. Go ahead and spend a lot of DEV time and effort making a really cool opening video (runs up as the client launches) to tell all the new folks all about BT and its rich history and Lore.

Just make sure you put a big "SKIP" button on the screen as well, so all those new players who "don't give a **** about Lore" can hit it and get right to the fighting bits. LOL!

Edited by Almond Brown, 10 March 2015 - 07:59 AM.

[Kristov Kerensky]

It would definitely make the game feel like something more if PGI would give the history and lore behind what's going on.

Tell the tale of the rise of the Star League, it's fall, the Exodus, the Succession Wars, the creation of the Clans and what they've been doing prior to the Return. This is the first video game title that actually covers the Invasion, every other title was either prior to or after the Invasion, NONE ever directly covered it, so PGI has a great opportunity to expound on the lore and history here, especially the Clans and the Remembrances they all have.

On the other hand, ask most players on Steam what the game they are playing is about, what's the STORY behind the game, and most of them wouldn't have a clue. Goes for most online games, including MMOs. Go log into WoW, free2play til level 13 or so, and ask what the story is behind the game, see the responses you get. And that game has a long and detailed storyline like BTech does, the Alliance are actually the bad guys and the Horde are actually the good guys, but the average WoW player thinks it's the other way around because..well..humans and elves are ALWAYS the good guys, right? There's a LOT of the story and history of WoW in the game, if you seek it out, but most people ignore it, has no bearing on playing the game, so who cares.

Some of us like to know the backstory, others just don't give a surats furry rear end, as long as they can kill stuff, they're happy.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

I'm all for an MWO Codex, to fill in the necessary background information.

[Johnny Z]

Almond Brown, on 10 March 2015 - 07:59 AM, said:

If they explained to the Noobs "who" the Clans really were in the real timeline, PGI would never Sell another I.S. Battlemech.

So as noted above. Go ahead and spend a lot of DEV time and effort making a really cool opening video (runs up as the client launches) to tell all the new folks all about BT and its rich history and Lore.

Just make sure you put a big "SKIP" button on the screen as well, so all those new players who "don't give a **** about Lore" can hit it and get right to the fighting bits. LOL!

https://www.youtube....e&v=X0UNaFuZFNg

Edited by Johnny Z, 10 March 2015 - 08:21 AM.

[mark v92]

just give a short explanation on your first startup of the game about battlemechs, clan vs IS and year of the invasion stuff.

put other more in depth info in a codex like mass effect had. that should be enough

[h0UNd]

Almond Brown, on 10 March 2015 - 07:59 AM, said:

If they explained to the Noobs "who" the Clans really were in the real timeline, PGI would never Sell another I.S. Battlemech.

<snip>

Not necessarily so, if they explained that the Clans are space bullies that have no rock'and or roll and insinuated that they fraternized regularly with there siblings in an unsavory manner.

Edited by h0UNd, 10 March 2015 - 01:48 PM.

[TyphonCh]

Alistair Winter made a great thread about this:
http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

You're Welcome

Edit: Nevermind. He beat me to it lol...

Edited by Team Chevy86, 10 March 2015 - 02:34 PM.

[Sylonce]

i am thinking they can probably do a quick summary of BT background, and explain inner sphere, Mercs, and clans while the game is downloading or installing. Kind of like the way they do it in the Mechwarrior 4 install screens.

Edited by Sylonce, 10 March 2015 - 02:44 PM.

[stjobe]

BattleTech came out in 1985 (as BattleTech, 2nd edition - the first one was called BattleDroids and was released a year before, in 1984). I still have my copy of BattleTech, 2nd edition.

That's 30 years of rich, wonderful, fluffy lore to just pick and choose from.

There has been literally hundreds of rulebooks, technical readouts, novels, game books, and related printed material produced over the years. There's almost a hundred novels alone!

And they're still producing new material!

It is a crying shame that there's not more of that in-game.

PGI could put an intern or two on just typing fluff into the game if they don't want to spend dev time on it, it's not like it affects the game mechanics. But it DOES affect the game, and not having it makes MWO that much poorer.

Edited by stjobe, 10 March 2015 - 02:59 PM.

[Kristov Kerensky]

h0UNd, on 10 March 2015 - 01:47 PM, said:

Not necessarily so, if they explained that the Clans are space bullies that have no rock'and or roll and insinuated that they fraternized regularly with there siblings in an unsavory manner.

Aaaand this guy shouldn't be allowed to tell anyone anything about MWO or BTech.

Clans, highly organized and caste structured society, they do have arts and music, most Clan Trueborn Mechwarriors, Elementals and Aerotech pilots are actually accomplished artists in multiple formats, very much like Samurai were expected to be well rounded and versed in all aspects of civilized society. Clan scientist have eradicated cancer, they can regrow limbs, and many other things. Clan merchants, oh man, never make a deal with them without having multiple lawfirms go through the fine print. They aren't the bully boys that so many tried to make them out to be, the space {Godwin's Law} with their eugenics pogroms and totally military society, not even close. They are a society composed of all aspects of civilization at the HEIGHT of the Star League, and they've kept that and grown it. They aren't coming back to put everyone to death, they are coming back to bring back the Star League, to bring civilization and peace back to mankind. That's what the Clans are about, they are fanatics of the worst sort, ones with a cause that's gone from being social to being quasi-religious.

And that's why PGI really needs to do something about adding the Lore, too many people think of the Clans as space {Godwin's Law} and the Inner Sphere as the good guys. The IS has spent the last 300 years trying to kill each other en masse, destroyed a thousand years of advancements in technology, science and medicine, turned the ability to run a HPG uplink into a religon where the priests often have no idea what they are doing, they just follow the rituals they were taught.

Some of us know this stuff, we played the games for decades, read the novels, the sourcebooks, TROs, all of it. Most don't know anything but big stompy robots.

Come on PGI, it's a great story, tell it.

[Davegt27]

Dr Octagon, on 10 March 2015 - 12:40 AM, said:

I've been playing a while, and I have noticed that this game just automatically assumes that everyone that gets involved just knows 'the lore'. Well, let me assure you, they DO NOT! The main issue with this game and the reason it does not have more appeal, is directly linked to its inherent desire to alienate new players by giving them absolutely no backstory, and expecting them to search other websites and read outdated books from a decade ago in order to catch up. This is a serious marketing flaw as you are alienating an entire market from ever understanding or appreciating your games. Most games would not allow this sort of hierarchy of decades of age over market. Hey, what do you other players think?

http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1


http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

watch this

[Alex Morgaine]

Alistair Winter, on 10 March 2015 - 04:29 AM, said:

Some of you probably expected me to shamelessly plug my Lore-thread, but I'm not going to do it.

Anyway, I heard a rumour that Paul Inouye was moving the timeline to 3053 BBY, which is crazy because it's still one thousand years before the Jedi Archives were constructed by the United Federation of Planets. I just hope the Inner Sphere forgeworlds have enough Space Marines to deal with Clan Elementals when they come.

I love Battletech.

Clan elementals vs Klingon warriors, lightsaber Bat'leth for everyone, final destination :3

[D000M]

Davegt27, on 10 March 2015 - 03:57 PM, said:

http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1


http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

watch this

Thanks for this, watching now...

What we can hope to accomplish is the integration of this sort of information into the actual game itself. In a way it is just simply bad business to ask of your clientele to look elsewhere and off-site to further the experience of your product. It's like going to Lowes for a hammer, and the manager sending you over to Home Depot to buy the nails - It is loss of potential revenue. In order for this game to really become what it can become, we need to appeal to NEW PLAYERS that have never heard of BattleTech before. New players are a giant stream of potential revenue that I feel are somewhat being ignored. This could be as simple as adding a little text window that pops out when you scroll over a mech that sort of describes that mechs history - or while the maps are loading there could be some sort of explanation as to the origin of each map... Something very simple like that could be done rather easily. There are many great suggestions for how this could get done for little to no money on Alistair Winter's thread which has been referenced in posts above.

I was actually wanting to try a little harder than that...

How about missions that act as a campaign, and mimic actual battles from the Battletech universe. Perhaps this game could become more than just 12 v 12 battles, one side of human players vs another, and grow into 12 man teams, or 24 man teams, that have a number of specific mission parameters to execute, for example invading a particularly well guarded planet, on specific days, for specific purposes, congruent with Battletech Lore.

Understandably this would require much more work, and take more time to implement, but the payoff both experiential and economical could prove to be worth the effort.

Campaign missions (with games like starcraft for example) are really an effective way to detail the bread and butter of the interesting dynamics underlying the online play.

With campaign missions, one could learn of each Hero and House in detail, and really forge a better connection with the overall game.

In order to accomplish this task, the developers would probably need to bring in more money, and that's not going to happen in a big way, until they begin to look beyond the already established community, and begin to grow their reaches to a more massive audience.

[InRev]

Kristov Kerensky, on 10 March 2015 - 03:07 PM, said:

*snip*

Caste-based, eugenicist conquerors trying to impose a New World Order through violence.

How is that not space NSDAP, again? Oh right, it's the same damn thing.

But, hey, Mengele was just a doctor, Goebbels was just a playwright and Speer was just an architect, amirite?

[h0UNd]

Thanks InRev. Succinctly put.

My comment was tongue in cheek IS perspective, someone went and made it personal (defamation - Go read the CoC).

I have been playing since the days of yore BT 2nd Ed. and if I wish to share a bit by speaking glibly I will. <content redacted>

Nice Fairy Story mister Kerensky

The TLDR for those who care In 2781 at the disbanding of the Star League (the area now known as the Inner Sphere) caused by the failed coup of the tyrant Amaris

Visionary and an idealist Aleksandr Kerensky the first general of the Star League - took a large portion of military strength of the StarLeague into Exile with the laudable notion of preserving StarLegaue era ideals and technology, fearing that the the ammassed forces would not be enough to avert a galaxy wide conflagration.

After years of travelling the stars the Star League refugees came upon five marginally habitable worlds (dubbed: Pentagon Worlds) attempted to forge a new StarLeague in exile by colonizing the new planets. Within eight years a twenty year long civil war erupted (Exodus Civil War), which culminated in Aleksandr Kerenskys death (heart attack), whilst he organised an operation to end the violence.

In order to preserve the legacy of his father his eldest son Nicholas Kerenesky realising a second civil war was imminent organised a second exodus to Strana Mechty, where he created a warrior caste and appointed himself first ilKhan and returned to the Pentagon worlds and liberated them by force.

So we have a story of an idealist and a son who expands upon his fathers legacy (somewhat allegorical to Phillip of Macedon and his son Alexsander) by appointing himself leader (by definition : a tyrant, an absolute ruler unrestrained by law or constitution, regardless of whether he is a benevolent tyrant or not).

The trials, torture and executions that arose out of the Pentagon Worlds liberation seeded the first schism and opposition to the unquestioned power of the iLKhan Kerensky within the Clans, which in turn gave rise to 'The Culling', an event which led to the removing of the 'cancer' of oppposition to the iLKhans authority. These 'cullings' eventually lead to a clan declaring its independence from the iLKhan's authority and its summarry execution and expunging of its existence from the records. Still sounding like a benevolent space society come to rescue the inner sphere from its own depravity?

My comments in regards to the Clans lack of rock'n'or roll stems from the inherent association with 'rock and roll' with the ideals of rebelliousness and independence and by extension free will - by now we all know how the iLKhan (and by extension Clan society) feels about that. The Clan has no use for 'rock and roll' in the form we recognise it as it has no use for values it espouses. Ergo I maintain my correctness in my position.

Big stompy robots indeed......

Edited by h0UNd, 11 March 2015 - 01:32 AM.

[William Mountbank]

Didn't Mechwarrior 2 have a kind of animated encyclopaedia you could access through your faction menu? I remember spending a lot of time reading that for all the clan histories and mech descriptions. I guess if that came to MWO, mech descriptions would have to be changed to reflect the meta, because Sarna is not a good guide for choosing what to by next in MWO...