86 replies to this topic

[michaelius]

World of Tanks put all tier I tanks into separate matchmaking tier so they rarely meet veterans.

It would be easy solution for MWO for players to start in trial mech only mode for at least first few matches so they aren't exposed to hostile enviroment.

[Kristov Kerensky]

First off, the Bounty thing, I applaud the concept, but the implementation you have, no way in hell. You should be able to put a bounty on someone by using the MRB/ComStar, ie- ingame. This Bounty should be presented to any Merc player/unit as a Contract that they can pick up at any time and they receive payment for it upon completion. Thing is, FIRST person to get the Bounty and complete the contract is the only person who should get paid, bounty should be null and void after that. And the MRB/ComStar should toss out random Bounties on random people so that there's always something there.

As to the whole NPE...eh, we can tell newbs whatever in the Training Grounds, show them how WE run our Mechs, teach them to Smurfy's all day long, but that means nothing when they have to drop against the rest of us. NPE needs some PvE missions, enough to teach newbs the actual mechanics of combat WITHOUT facing some of the pros right away. That gives them real experience in a Mech without having to deal with us, and let's face it, dealing with us is the biggest pain for newbs. The PvE can have some decent payouts, but it make it a one time thing, with the caveat that they can redo it if they fail, failure has a lesser payout, percentage of objectives completed thing, so that even failure has a reward. Yes, I know, participation trophy bs, but it keeps newbs interested and that's the entire objective of this, so make it actually work by giving them something for trying. Completed PvE mission can be redone once completed but there's NO payout after that first completion. This lets people practice with NEW Mechs so they can learn them in a controlled setting but doesn't reward them, it's just to learn. Something I know many people would love right now, myself included.

[SkyHammyr]

Quirkless Inner Sphere Stock Mech Mode.
So, when new Players find themselves in a Trial Mech, there's a game mode that will give them a greater opportunity to learn and advance at their own pace, because everyone would be on the same playing field.

Would be good for Vets that are breaking into a chassis fresh and would like to work on the chassis before spending the several million C-Bills necessary to upgrade them for the big leagues.

Edited by SkyHammr, 29 March 2015 - 11:31 AM.

[Burktross]

SkyHammr, on 29 March 2015 - 11:29 AM, said:

Quirkless Inner Sphere Stock Mech Mode.
So, when new Players find themselves in a Trial Mech, there's a game mode that will give them a greater opportunity to learn and advance at their own pace, because everyone would be on the same playing field.

Would be good for Vets that are breaking into a chassis fresh and would like to work on the chassis before spending the several million C-Bills necessary to upgrade them for the big leagues.

Er... you mean "skillless," not quirks... right?

[SkyHammyr]

Burktross, on 29 March 2015 - 11:35 AM, said:

Er... you mean "skillless," not quirks... right?

No, I mean Quirkless.
Zero everything out.
In fact, I would go so far as to say- 3025 Mode.
Start the new players on the easy stuff, in the context of what they should be doing (Assault, Conquest, Skirmish using 3025 Tech). Then, when they're ready (having earned enough C-Bill to purchase their own mech with upgrades), they can graduate to the Solo Queue.

I wouldn't necessarily say, "Skilless," either.
I don't know about you but, Single Heat Sinks on Terra Therma SCREAMS Hardmode to me.

Edited by SkyHammr, 29 March 2015 - 11:46 AM.

[Burktross]

SkyHammr, on 29 March 2015 - 11:46 AM, said:

No, I mean Quirkless.
Zero everything out.
In fact, I would go so far as to say- 3025 Mode.
Start the new players on the easy stuff, in the context of what they should be doing (Assault, Conquest, Skirmish using 3025 Tech). Then, when they're ready (having earned enough C-Bill to purchase their own mech with upgrades), they can graduate to the Solo Queue.

I wouldn't necessarily say, "Skilless," either.
I don't know about you but, Single Heat Sinks on Terra Therma SCREAMS Hardmode to me.

Why would you remove quirks-- they're supposed to be balancing agents. You'd only punish players for using non-popular mechs, hence creating more generations of players stuck to the meta.

[ShinobiHunter]

Sounds good to me. I like the idea of having bounties, but without the cbill nerf. It would be too easy to abuse.

[KharnZor]

Meeso Thorny, on 29 March 2015 - 10:20 AM, said:

Without getting too heavyhanded with my opinion, I disagree. There is evidence this game is hemorrhaging players pretty hard. Retention of players should be a major focus. Some of it will require a better experience for newbies. Some of it will require charming the founders back with legitimately addressing longtime concerns.

Got any proof of this?

I can see you put some thought into this op, wd.

Edited by KharnZor, 29 March 2015 - 12:55 PM.

[Carpenocturn]

Very interesting ideas Sarlic and good ones.

I would love to see the loyalty rewards extended to cover other circumstances and for the grind aspect of MWO to be reduced in favor of more RPG elements like play rewards determined by players.

Abuse: All systems are open to player abuse. It's what people do to maximise their position. The best that PGI can do is impliment systems and then let the community police it. Give the power to the player base to make it the game they want.

[RoboPatton]

TBH a lot more than even this should be done before steam. Steam community can be pretty brutal on reviews and possibly prevent ppl from trying the game at all.

Your ideas are a start, that's for sure.

[Sarlic]

Mucha appreciated. All the idea's are basic, but PGI can work them out from there.

Bottom line that something has to be done for new players. Slapping this game on Steam in the current state is a bad move. Everybody knows how critic Steam and their gamers can be.

[RoboPatton]

Sarlic, on 29 March 2015 - 01:24 PM, said:

Bottom line that something has to be done for new players. Slapping this game on Steam in the current state is a bad move. Everybody knows how critic Steam and their gamers can be.

I have to say I agree with this strongly. I know Russ said in the past they were working on a lot of content (see previous couple of ngng pod casts). One of the things mentioned was coop single-player. Not sure how solid that is, but if you can earn GXP/Cbills in SP, it may alleviate SOME of the issues. But eventually you will want to funnel the player base into multi-player.

[mogs01gt]

Novakaine, on 29 March 2015 - 10:13 AM, said:

The best training aide would be to allow new players to drop in the training ground with a friend.
That's the only real way to train someone.
After the cadet period is over toss em to the sharks.
Experience is the best teacher.

Toss them to guppies, not sharks. And yes, we need to be able to go into training grounds with players.

[oldradagast]

Sarlic, on 29 March 2015 - 10:26 AM, said:

While it may sound a bit harsch. Some pilots needs to tamper down. While it's already pretty hard to get atleast 24 different people to put a request for the bounty system, it's also a pretty effective way to hunt toxic players down for a short amount of time.

It's not about disagreeing with people, its about being toxic and or even inapproociate behaviour. It's only visible for the opposite. Not your own team.

But if you have a better suggestion or even a change to it, i would love to hear from you.

The problem is that toxic players don't care if they win, lose, or anything else. They simply exist to make everyone else's life miserable. They know full well what will happen to them when they start doing something idiotic, like picking a fight with a team member - they die, but they just don't care. Even if they never made another dime again in the game and had nothing but trial mechs, they would still do stupid things with them to ruin everyone else's fun.

You cannot reason with people like this or apply penalties that would work on a sane human because they are sociopaths, and such people can only be isolated or otherwise removed from society. In short, ban them. Nothing else will work because you're not dealing with a rational human being, but rather a sick, twisted creature lacking empathy and even the most basic of social skills.

The bounties wouldn't fix anything and, as others have said, would be used by trolls to grief other players. Same problem as with the ideas I've seen floating around to seriously punish people automatically - no human review step - for team kills. What would happen? Griefers would create mechs with no armor and intentionally step into the line of fire of team mates so the innocent guy gets the ban or punishment. Again, we're talking about sickos here, not normal, sane people.

Other than the bounties, the rest of your ideas are great, and you are exactly right how this game BADLY needs a vastly improved new user experience. It's already bleeding players, and a launch in this state on Steam will be a killing blow to the game once the reviews start pouring in.

Edited by oldradagast, 29 March 2015 - 02:35 PM.

[Sarlic]

Good point!

[Kiiyor]

I want an interactive tutorial. Something with rudimentary AI. I'd be happy with something similar to the training grounds, with mobile targets.

• Showing how to target and engage enemies.
  
• Show how arm lock works.
  
• Make the newbie cycle through targets until they find the one a teammate is engaging (filled triangle) and engage that.
  
• Make them LURM a target.
  
• Show them how quickly they can die if they aren't near cover.
  
• Make their mech take near critical damage to one torso, and force the pilot to protect their damaged side.
  
• Have them engage an AI mech that twists away after each shot it makes. This will show how effective the tactic is.
  
• Make them avoid artillery.

[Virgil Greyson]

Are the trial mechs really that bad? Some seem to mimic fairly standard builds I have seen posted around here.

[HellJumper]

Great idea. but the issue is not having them in game. the issue is that the devs have their focus on other things. they need to realise that steam launch means an influx of new players. if these new players get what we have now, well bad reviews and people leaving at a faster rate than actually coming in.

They need a lot of work to improve the UI
i completely agree with your idea of letting new players try different mechs for some time (i wont put 1 month to it)
they need to display more info on the match screen instead of a simple xp earned. no tabs please

[OMGUTOOL]

mmmmm....
i think the most urgent part they should be taking care of before going to steam would be more regional servers....
whats the point having all these influx of new players if they can't play the game..
if they can't play then they leave and will spread the info to there friends who could potentialy be an other loyal MW fan.....
so more server's = less ping = more players....
about 30 of my friend's want to get in to this game because they were also MW junkies.
but after spending few hours in to the game.
they quite saying due to high pings the game can not be played the way it should be played.

[Revis Volek]

Sarlic, on 29 March 2015 - 10:17 AM, said:

While true. But that's how to learn to get used to the mechanics. My point is also to soften up the learning curve in terms of the economy.

More experienced player should reward the lesser experienced player.

Forgot to mention that each experienced player can reward a small amount of their income to other recruits.

But as far your response goes: it's also time consuming, i think it would fit more if PGI implented more scenario's. Basic attacking, flanking and reading. Perhaps even small roles. Instead of stationary mechs. You gain already huge experience by playing your first multiplayer games after the learning grounds.

What do you think of the rest?

Would be great if you could drop into the traning grounds in a few scenarios like you stated but also would be great to have a FREE 1v1 arena.

That way you could train cadets and new guys 1v1 in a arena mode. OR allow for a 2 player training mode and let someone show you the ropes.