26 replies to this topic

[Xetelian]

Only 3 game modes and 2 of them are TDM.

Only a handful of maps and some are way too small.

Graphics have gone backwards.

Otherwise it has been steady.

[Sir Wulfrick]

+ Best art direction of any Battletech or Mechwarrior game ever. PGI deservedly stand out in this respect.
+ Some very varied & unusual map design. Definitely not the standard sort of maps for this sort of game.
+ The mechs sound and "feel" like Battlemechs ought to. Immersion is rather good.
+ Cautiously improving since the departure of that bunch of [redacted] huge [redacted] with their [redacted] at IG Publishing.

- Pace of development has been glacial at best. Geological is a better description.
- We're 3 YEARS down the road and only have variations on the theme of deathmatch. SEVERE lack of ambition.
- What we have today is not even within hailing distance of the game the pre-order material insinuated we would get.
- A history on bungling mistakes during the development period, e.g. old code that can't be altered and isn't understood.
- Poor choice of game engine and apparent refusal to upgrade the game engine version. Time moves on PGI, as do players' computers.
- Game left closed beta around 12 months too early. Features that should have been in-place and stable weren't even included or worked poorly if at all. At a minimum CW as it is now should have been in place at open beta.

The game is improving, if slowly, but I remain disappointed in that what I imagined MWO would be was a huge-scale strategic Battletech war simulator in which I and thousands of others would play our parts by piloting Battlemechs in an actual war, where our actions would collectively have an impact and mean something. Instead we have deathmatch COD-with-robots. Minimum viable product is barely acceptable given what was insinuated at the beginning.

[Chuck B]

Not really,

To many things are still missing or need to be rebalanced or recoded. there has been a lot of talk with months going by without any action; and what actions are done, always seem to be MVP efforts that mostly stay that in that condition, until the community bitchs and whines enough in 140 character posts to get it looked into. PGI rarely owns its mistakes and has made so many design choices that will hamstring them in the future that many parts of the game will need to be redone. personally I'll be impressed if they (PGI) are still around in 12-16 months (steam dependent) I just don't see how they will be able to pay the bills.

They are almost out of Mechs they can sell(timeline or new weapons issues). The player base is in moderate decline. CW while a passable effort is rather shallow. All resent work/code has gone into CW so as a side effect General dropping has gotten rather stale. I barely play anymore and have no interest in CW even if only to milk the system for free mechbays. Without an influx of good coders and managers I really doubt much more progress will be made. Good coders don't tend to join company's that are in decline. Because in the end. What at this point will the players pay for to keep the game alive? If the game dies how will I get payed and how bad will it effect my ability to get a good job in the future.

Edited by Chuck B, 27 May 2015 - 01:29 PM.

[Leiska]

I haven't played the game for a long, long time now. Why? Because PGI seems intent on developing only two aspects of the game:

1) CW, which I don't care about because I'm the only one in my play group who has touched MWO.

2) New mechs to sell, which I don't care about because all the mechs feel the same to pilot anyway. Once you've piloted one heavy, you've pretty much piloted every heavy. The experience really doesn't change radically enough.

MWO desperately needs more game modes. Especially some much more ambitious ones than the TDM based brawls we (presumably) have had since the very beginning. Where are the epic battles with respawning pilots and AI controlled non-mech units? How about different objectives for both sides? The core gameplay works, but it needs lots more meat around its bones to keep me interested.

I also really wanted to introduce this game to my friends, but there is a combination of obstacles holding me back that alone aren't too devastating but combined cripple the new player experience:

1) The rentable stock mechs are death traps that can't possibly compete with optimized builds.

2) There are no private games, so you can't decide to bring only stock mechs.

Please let me know if PGI has addressed any of those concerns I mentioned above.

[Chuck B]

Leiska, on 27 May 2015 - 01:41 PM, said:

I also really wanted to introduce this game to my friends, but there is a combination of obstacles holding me back that alone aren't too devastating but combined cripple the new player experience:

1) The rentable stock mechs are death traps that can't possibly compete with optimized builds.

2) There are no private games, so you can't decide to bring only stock mechs.

Please let me know if PGI has addressed any of those concerns I mentioned above.

Number #2 you can have private matches now but you need premium time to start one. its how stock mech mondays are done.

[Leiska]

Chuck B, on 27 May 2015 - 01:56 PM, said:

Number #2 you can have private matches now but you need premium time to start one. its how stock mech mondays are done.

Oh yea, I remember reading about that. Not going to bite, though. I don't need to pay money to make a custom game in League of Legends, either.

[therealswilly]

To be honest, this and Planetside 2 are probably very close to my heart even with their failings.

Both games have their ups and downs but they're the only games that have something that I want. And I swear if someone says Living Legends, I'll point to the fact that all you have is stock builds and that's not a mech game.

I guess I'm optimistic because I remember when brawling was nearly impossible near the start and forward, especially in mediums like the Hunchback and Centurion, and while there are still issues with SRMs...Brawling is possible. They've fixed a lot more than broken and if the 'we're hiring' is any indicator, it sounds like they need staff to keep up.

That's probably why its slow.