66 replies to this topic

[Spike Brave]

Mega Man Kerensky, on 27 March 2015 - 03:39 PM, said:

There are no rewards for this.

If you're creating your content for yourself or because players ask that's one thing, but this is a company that benefits monetarily from your hard work and they are requesting that you do something for free. If PGI wants tutorials done for them they should be scoping out members in the community that create videos and then offer them a contract and pay them accordingly, not try to sucker goodwill out of the creative members that love the franchise.

Marvin, I saw the post requesting to keep it constructive. If you remove this post I understand, but I wanted to reply. If you see this as me doing stuff for free, I'm okay with that. One attaboy is fair payment in my opinion.

[Mechwarrior Xbox]

Tina, is your background in Marketing or Production? Because I work for a production company and reading this "contest" makes my skin crawl with how grotesque and manipulative it feels and reads. This is speculative work under the guise of being a fan contest and that is super gross for PGI to do and feels like something a marketer would come up as a "community project". Offering what amounts to the price of an appetizer at Applebee's which when contracted to an actual production house would probably cost PGI around $1500 dollars(maybe less depending on the depth and timeliness desired) makes this seem more like 'what can we get away with' rather than an actual community contest.

That's just my 2 cents but what do I know I've only got a BA in 3D animation and a BA Production Design.

Edited by Ion Rush, 27 March 2015 - 07:36 PM.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Ion Rush, on 27 March 2015 - 07:34 PM, said:

Tina, is your background in Marketing or Production? Because I work for a production company and reading this "contest" makes my skin crawl with how grotesque and manipulative it feels and reads. This is speculative work under the guise of being a fan contest and that is super gross for PGI to do and feels like something a marketer would come up as a "community project". Offering what amounts to the price of an appetizer at Applebee's which when contracted to an actual production house would probably cost PGI around $1500 dollars(maybe less depending on the depth and timeliness desired) makes this seem more like 'what can we get away with' rather than an actual community contest.

That's just my 2 cents but what do I know I've only got a BA in 3D animation and a BA Production Design.

You do realize that games like TF2 pretty much farm the community for ideas/models/videos/etc for less compensation than what they would give their employers?

Not to mention players constantly complain about the devs not really knowing the in's and out's of their own game, so tutorials from them are always going to feel a little bit out of sync with what actually happens. While I do think the contest should have a slight bit more reward (community contributor title/badge/camo maybe?) I don't see anything glaring problem with this behavior.

[MoonUnitBeta]

Tina Benoit, on 27 March 2015 - 04:28 PM, said:

If the forum community does not like these kinds of forum events, then that's fine, we can refrain from having them in the future, however I believe some players here do understand that we are trying to appreciate their work and would to help you spread your talent and contributions to your community.

Your beliefs are justified. I am all for fun events like this. Even though I'm not interested in video or film myself, I really hope that people with sour attitudes don't ruin this for those who are most interested.

We need community, and the community events we have now is beautiful compared to before (as in, nothing, or extremely little). It would be a shame if we lost this and we can't highlight the talents of the community without being "politically correct" (lack of better words). This is a great community event that helps encourage us to put out more information for new players. It's pathetic that people see this as PGI coping out and taking the easy road.

I guess some people are stuck with their heads in the clouds and just find it hard to be lighthearted and have some fun.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 30 March 2015 - 10:36 AM.

[Surn]

Tina, add a page under the community tab for the top 5 or so CW tutorials.
That will represent pgi promoting the community members and allow tutorials focused on aspects on CW.

In addition, it answers the speculative work charge by making the rewards for creation of content widespread and more concrete.

Edited by MechregSurn, 31 March 2015 - 10:09 AM.

[Dorci]

Thanks for the challenge, finished it a few days ago. Also the quick button to the tournaments & events is really useful too.

Edited by Dorci, 01 April 2015 - 03:52 AM.

[Gray Fox185]

Hello I completed the
Prove Your Allegiance Tier 4

and I never got my Storm crow. It says on the page that I did it but it has yet to show up in my mechbay. can I have my mech please. I stayed up till midnight trying to get it

[MandyB]

So how do we submit the videos? link off youtube or some other way?

Edit: ok here is my video, sorry im pretty shy so I had to try it a few times before I got this one down

https://youtu.be/rPeMMMIwCo8

Edited by MandyB, 07 April 2015 - 12:18 AM.

[Sandersson Jankins]

Some people have said the rewards are far too low; or even insulting.

Yeah, they aren't too high.

However, what you've got to realize is that many people love this game so much, they'll work for free on it. They've wanted a BT game for more than a decade (so have I!), so they'll volunteer to improve it. 3 days premium time is a bonus.

So yes, it is insulting to some of you, and yes it would cost far more if they produced these "professionally". However, I would rather them source work not directly relating to the game TO the community instead of wasting money on professional teams. I would rather their money go to server hardware, upkeep, costs of production, etc. NOT things that can EASILY be made by the community.

PGI; I don't know if you've been transparent on the issue, but do map tools exist for this game? Can they easily be made usable by knowledgeable (former/current dedicated mappers for other games) members of the community?

Make a contest with rewards being just a BIT bigger, and make the objective a CW map.

Edited by Sandersson Jankins, 07 April 2015 - 02:55 AM.

[Siej]

The online community always amazes me with it's ability to poo-poo on anything and everything while weeping about the injustice of their victimhood.

Just a small thing... <valleygirlspeak> but, you can, like, not do it, and stuff, like, you know? </valleygirlspeak>

[Tina Benoit]

Igor Kozyrev, on 26 March 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

Great news!
I have a question — is it english only contest or guides/tutorials on other languages can participate too?

Any language is fine! Does not have to be English. I can get someone who speaks the language to review it and translate!

Gray Fox185, on 02 April 2015 - 10:08 AM, said:

Hello I completed the
Prove Your Allegiance Tier 4

and I never got my Storm crow. It says on the page that I did it but it has yet to show up in my mechbay. can I have my mech please. I stayed up till midnight trying to get it

Please contact support! We can look into your account there and investigate the issue.

MandyB, on 06 April 2015 - 04:29 PM, said:

So how do we submit the videos? link off youtube or some other way?

Edit: ok here is my video, sorry im pretty shy so I had to try it a few times before I got this one down

https://youtu.be/rPeMMMIwCo8

Youtube is perfect! Thanks for submitting your video!


About the prize:
I understand some of you think the prizes are too little, this is also the first time (at least since I've been here!) that we're running such an event, it's nice to get feedback on what people think of it. If the community likes this sort of forum event, we can make it happen more often and change the prizes or rules according to the feedback received!

[Lanceafer]

Community Warfare Basics
4-8-15



Getting started
Community warfare (and Mechwarrior Online) is not like other first person shooters and should not be approached the same way. It is more a game of attrition than of twitch reflex. Keeping that in mind is important when you consider tactics and how you will approach the game.


Pick a Faction
The first thing to do is pick your faction. A description of them can be found here. When choosing a faction you will be able to pick the length of the contract. The longer the contract the better the loyalty bonus you will receive. I strongly recommend against picking a permanent contract to start as you will be hit with a penalty for breaking it later on if you change your mind.

A common tactic is to jump from faction to faction and gain a couple ranks to unlock a free mechbay. As a new player this can be a fantastic way to gain 10 free mechbays. In addition it would be a good idea to start with the Inner Sphere (IS) to make some c-bills and get a feel for your preferred play style. Another reason the IS is a good starting faction is because the costs of buying mechs and modifying them will be much less than their Clan counterparts.


Community Warfare Map
When you click the faction tab at the top of the screen you will be taken to the map. This shows an overview of the known universe and what faction controls what planets. A star around the planet is the faction home world and can never be taken. Two concentric circles signify a world that is the regional capital. At the moment there is no difference with these worlds other than bragging rights. The tag that you see next to a world "[****]" is the unit that owns itand the **** is the unit tag. That means that they did the most to protect or attack the world again no change other than bragging rights.

Any planet that is glowing and has a column of smoke is currently contested. If you click on a world it will bring up the details for it. As you win or lose matches you will switch the semicircle of pips around the planet. Each one represents a zone of control. Red means that an attacker won blue means that the defender won. All the planets start blue and as attackers win the pips will turn red. Every eight hours there is a cease fire and any planet that is more than 50% red will change hands and the attackers will add another world to their faction. The white overlay shows a zone that is currently under attack and as the match is progressing the white will fill to the outside edge, letting you know how much time is left in that match.


Pick your Mechs
After you pick your faction you will need to consider what you want to bring into the field. If you are brand new to the game don't worry there are eight trial mechs for each group (Clan and Inner Sphere) that will get you into the fight and you can start earning c-bills. In IS vs IS or IS vs CLAN matches, IS will have tonnage limits of 160-250. In CLAN vs CLAN or CLAN vs IS matches, CLAN will always have tonnage limits of 160-240. The four mechs you pick are called your drop deck. The tonnage limits mean that you must take a total of at least 160 and up to 250 for all four mechs combined. Your drop deck can change at any time prior to 10 seconds before the start of the match. That means that if you are in a team waiting to drop you can coordinate with your fellow pilots to set up for a specific tactic.


Tactics
Now tactics is not something that can be easily covered in a beginner tutorial like this but two common and effective options you will see are light rush and attrition. They both have many options to tweak but most games come down to one or both.

Light rush is just what it sounds like. Everyone in the group will drop (enter the fight) with a fast light mech that has jump jets and run like crazy to hit an objective. Attrition is the opposite, you start with your heaviest mechs or something that is good at causing damage and try to grind down the other team. Many matches with feature a combination of both tactics such as drop with heavy mechs first and try to kill all 4 of an opposing player’s mechs so that your side has a numerical advantage and then when the time is right drop in lights to push past the defenders and take an objective.


Objectives
There are two game types Invasion and Counter-Attack. In Invasion your goal as the attacker is to destroy the orbital defence cannon. As the defenders your goal is to kill the attackers and protect the cannon. To destroy the cannon there are a few steps. First is to take down the generator that is protecting the gate leading to the base. That will cause the gate to open. There are two or three gates depending on the map and the generator is behind the gate someplace that you either need to jump over or get up high to shoot. After that is done there are three more generators that protect the main target, the cannon. The three are collectively referred to as the O-Gens. When the are all destroyed the shield for the cannon is open and you can shoot the last generator. That is call the Omega Generator. If that is destroyed the attackers win. The base is littered with turrets that will fire two large lasers that will not miss and can cause massive damage if ignored.

Counter-Attack is a skirmish on the same maps as Invasion but there are no objectives save an Omega command truck. They are also different in that the gates are open and the turrets are destroyed. The main goal here is to destroy the other team. The defenders need to kill all the attackers, attackers need to kill all the defenders and omega. Most every match the focus for the attackers will be to kill the defenders first and take omega last when there is nobody left to stop you.

Edited by Lanceafer, 08 April 2015 - 06:12 PM.

[Lanceafer]

Ha, I just reread this and noticed that it has to be a video, I read it as a tutorial OR a video. I guess I need to learn to read better. Best of luck to the people that have good reading comprehension.

[G SE7EN7]

Video Submission:

Had a lot of fun making this, Thanks Tina and PGI

[Sandersson Jankins]

If you're looking for solid tips for new CW players, anyone is welcome to view the thread in my sig. It is a nice compilation of veteran and relative new-comers advice to brand new CW players.

I guess some crediting would be nice, but I wouldn't mind if you just copy-pasted my posts, anyway.

[Ian Drsaurri]

Flying Fox 333, on 26 March 2015 - 03:54 PM, said:

The spectator mode they are referring to is a special privilege some players are given who steam and provide commentary for community run tournaments and so on. It's given on a player by player basis and allows them to essentially watch a match with a free look camera and monitor things like the % health of mechs and so on.

Tarogato, on 26 March 2015 - 03:55 PM, said:

Talking about the Spectator Tool which is only available to fewer than a dozen people in the community, thus it would be unfair if those people that have access to it... used it in their entry here.

Koniving, on 26 March 2015 - 04:04 PM, said:

The CryEngine spectator mode. Here's a quality video made with it. To note, that series will not be continued. (Sadly). Any NGNG video possessing non-gameplay information about mechs also uses it.

Thanks

[Tina Benoit]

Looks like we only had 5 video submissions for this contest! Thank you for your participation!
This event has now come to an end, the 3 winners will be announced tomorrow and receive their reward!

[FURIOUS DESTR0YER]

Hmm I counted 6...

[Appogee]

Only 5? Surprising. Kids these days seem to put up a video whenever they sneeze

[Tina Benoit]

The 3 winners with the 3000 MC rewards are...

Spike Brave!
Created 2 videos filled with lots of detailed information and full game-play!



G SE7EN7!
Although it does not have voice-overs, it's full of action and shows off the highlights of CW!

Mandy B
Simple, short with everything you need to know!



And for the great effort and their videos, 1000 MC will also be rewarded to

Robard Sagioio



Ian Drsaurri