My First Impressions Of Mwo (And A Few Suggestions)

My greetings to the MWO Community!

I’ve started playing MWO about 2 months ago and, as a new player, I’d like to share my first impressions of the game.

My very first impression was that Community Warfare looks extremely cool – but it’s quite pointless at the same time: in 30-40 minutes of game in public matches, I can earn at least three times as many credits as I would get playing a CW match. And as a new player, I am very hungry for credits as I still need to buy and customize a lot of mechs just to have a flexible dropdeck. Not to mention there is simply no point in conquering a planet besides the vague pride of conquering territory for your faction. No wonder most players are more interested in playing public games! It’s a pity, really: the game looks beautiful, but the CW system simply doesn’t work, as it doesn’t fulfill its main role, that is to motivate people to play! So I’ve put a bit of thought into this, and here are a few suggestions:

A gamer’s motivation is just the same as human motivation in general, and it comes down to three elements:

1 – Greed (accumulating a vast amount of credits and mechs)
2 – Individual pride (publicly displaying notorious extraordinary excellency)
3 – Collective pride (being a part of a winning unit/clan/house)

The way CW is right now, element 1 is simply not being explored, element 2 is vaguely present (the faction ranks are too easily earned and are quite vague) and element 3 is only rewarding in players imagination, but not in game. Please allow me to elaborate:

1 – As I stated above, CW rewards need to be higher, urgently! Otherwise it will simply be more profitable to play public matches. And whenever I need to buy/customize a new mech and don’t have the credits for it – which is a new player’s every day routine – I will always prefer to play public matches for faster and higher rewards. Either triple the credit rewards of CW matches or add a small MC reward for every CW game: for example, a loss in CW could reward you 1 MC, and a victory 3 MC – that alone would motivate new players to play a lot of CW games! Never underestimate the power of greed in motivating human beings!

2 – Besides plain greed, nothing motivates a human being more than inflating his ego and showing his “superior” skills to his friends. MWO needs to learn the lessons taught by other successful online games, such as League of Legends, that centers the rewards of teamwork in the player's profile: winning games doesn’t mean just getting credits to buy stuff, it means being promoted to higher leagues, and every promotion (or demotion!) is clearly seen by all your friends on your in-game profile. I remember me and my friends used to play for hours and hours just so we could be promoted from “bronze” to “silver” league and earn the respect of our gamers’ community. The way the CW faction ranks are structured right now is simply pointless: any idiot can reach the rank the “general” provided he just plays CW for a long time. Faction ranks should reflect a player’s skill in combat, and only the very best mechwarriors should have officer ranks! Not to mention the obvious: we need in-game player profiles – and all a player’s CW (and only CW!) statistics should be publicly displayed there, especially the number of planets that player has contributed his faction to conquer. For example: a player must have played at least a third of the victorious matches that resulted in the conquest of a planet to earn the title of being its conqueror and, say, only someone that has significantly contributed to the conquest of 10 or more planets should have the right to a rank of Lieutenant – now THAT would be a true measure of pride and an irresistible challenge for proud gamers (as most of us are!), and that would be a huge motivation to play CW and actualy conquer planets for one’s faction instead of just joining whatever CW match just for the little loyalty rewards. Another example: military medals, of course! If you have scored more than 1000 damage in a CW match, you deserve a medal that you can display in your public profile, a proof of your superior skill! Other medals could be rewarded for 1500, 2000, 2500, even 3000 damage in a CW match; and we should have medals for scouting, defending planets, conquering planets, and even taking a lot of damage (a purple heart?). Moreover, please don’t forget to add a touch of vanity too! Give us an option of cool profile pictures to give our public face in the game a unique look. I want my Mechwarrior to be smoking a cigar on my profile picture, because that's what I actualy do in front of my computer when I'm blasting clanners to pieces! MWO, please learn from other successful online games: our proud gamers need in-game profiles!

3 – The way CW is structured right now, there is absolutely no difference between conquering a planet and conquering any other. Planets are just dots with names on the screen – and the fact that faction A has more planets than faction B means absolutely nothing. Every planet should offer its direct conquerors (and their entire faction) a unique reward. For example: Bergan Industries, the company that produces the Locust mech, has factory sites in planets Alshain, Ares, New Earth, New Oslo and Thule, so the faction(s) that controls those planets should be able to provide those mechs to its members/mercenaries at reduced cost – if my faction controls Thule, I should be able to buy a locust mech with, say, a 30% discount; or perhaps the discount could be better the longer my contract with my faction? Moreover, the players directly involved in the conquest of a planet should earn unique rewards. For example: a player that has played at least a third of the victorious matches that resulted in the conquest of Thule, where there is a factory of Bergan Industries, should earn a locust mech for free – and perhaps one with unique hardpoints, or with a unique paint job? That would make players dream about conquering a specific planet just so they can get a unique variant of that mech they love. Perhaps the very last battle to conquer a planet that has a mech factory could be in a map where the attacker team has to invade an actual mech factory? Can you imagine, fighting inside the assembly line of mechs in production? But since not every planet has a mech factory, other planets could provide discounts for buying specific weapons, equipment, or other advantages. For example, some planets could be financial: controling a rich planet gives a faction a stronger economy that allows it to pay its enlisted mechwarriors / signed mercenaries higher rewards for every mission. Thus, with a global bonus (extended to every member of the faction) for every conquered planet, every player will be interested in the success of its faction in CW, as it directly affects his pocket whether he is actualy playing CW or not!

And I should add a 4th element – Roleplaying and imagination is a very important part of a player’s experience, especialy for a player that has played Battletech tabletop since childhood (as it is my case here!). I understand the CW maps are still being developed, but I hope some day every planet will have a unique environment and a unique aesthetic personality. Rich, populous planets should only have city maps, cold planets should only have white-cold maps, sulfurous planets should only have sulfurous maps, and so on. This way, we will always remember each planet for its unique environment. Thus, the conquest of each planet would produce unique memories, as opposed to just conquering another dot on the screen, the same as any other, as it is in CW right now.

I hope my humble suggestions have contributed in any way to the development and success of this game: I love the Battletech universe, I’ve played this game since I was a kid and I would love to see MWO become even cooler than it already is.

Thank you for following me this far (sorry if I wrote too much!) and I will see you on the battlefield!

Sergeant Rameau of the 66th Avalon Hussars