26 replies to this topic

[Hit the Deck]

...since its inception?

As much as I hear complaints about the game, there were from time to time veteran MechWarriors commending the current state of game's balance and features compared to the rocky road starting from the Close Beta. As I have only been playing this game since October 2014 (I think), there seems to be not much significant changes happening - what I know about the game is this current state we are in.

So my question for you Close Beta Veterans, how has PGI been doing developing the game? I read that there are a number of late (e.g., CW) or broken promises. Do you think that PGI should do better? Or are they doing okay, i.e., you are pretty satisfied with the game? Or maybe even great?

Thanks!

[Nightmare1]

There have been a lot of bumps in the road. PGI has made a lot of mistakes and great game features that we all knew and loved from previous MW titles, like knock-downs, functioning JJs, Death from Above, etc are all absent. However, the game wants to succeed and it's fighting its way up though the muck. If PGI will get serious about developing it, rather than treating it like a money sink, then it can be truly great one day.

[Scratx]

Hit the Deck, on 27 May 2015 - 06:16 AM, said:

...since its inception?

As much as I hear complaints about the game, there were from time to time veteran MechWarriors commending the current state of game's balance and features compared to the rocky road starting from the Close Beta. As I have only been playing this game since October 2014 (I think), there seems to be not much significant changes happening - what I know about the game is this current state we are in.

So my question for you Close Beta Veterans, how has PGI been doing developing the game? I read that there are a number of late (e.g., CW) or broken promises. Do you think that PGI should do better? Or are they doing okay, i.e., you are pretty satisfied with the game? Or maybe even great?

Thanks!

Practically haven't stumbled since ditching IGP and have only gone up. Community Warfare, while "beta", is out and functional. And fun.

As for the IGP period... I think pretty much all has been said about it. Can we get over it?


So, the answer to the topic question is, at least for me : Yes.

[DaZur]

General opinion is "it's gotten better but has a long way to go"...

Most have fun so long as one makes the effort to ignore these folks:

[Lugh]

It's better enough that I came back after a 2 year absence to check it out and bought two packs to celebrate the improvements.

[ThirtyOughtSix]

Yes and no.

Map additions have been lackluster. Game modes even worse so. With the addition of CW I can't see PGI making too much progress in either of those areas since they now have their eggs spread across two different baskets instead of just one. We'll see though.

They have gotten a lot of game mechanics right. But still have a lot of balancing to do. The mech releases have been good and they are filling stables well with new designs constantly. This is good but again, the lack of gameplay and new weapons makes this kind of a moot point.

Unfortunately, in my eyes this is not good as we are nearing a stage where the game is getting older. I have my fingers crossed for new game modes and steam release to oil the old PGI machine...time will tell.

[Wintersdark]

Since October? We've seen new social tools (faction chat, faction groups, looking for group, VOIP), some I think 5 new maps, a new CW game mode, more mechs, bug fixes, quirk balance passes... Next patch will see the mechlab overhaul. That's not a small set of changes, and there's more.

Old PGI had rough, slow development, but since dropping IGP they've made all their deadlines and progressed constantly and smoothly since with major new features every month in addition to everything else.

[Triordinant]

Hit the Deck, on 27 May 2015 - 06:16 AM, said:

So my question for you Close Beta Veterans, how has PGI been doing developing the game?

There were 3 major mistakes since Closed Beta and I'm not sure if they can be recovered from.

• There should have been a solo-only queue from the get-go, just like in many other shooters. Half of the original population left because they got tired of being constantly pugstomped by organized well-trained competitive premades. There may have been other reasons, but this was the main one. By the time PGI realized their grave mistake and created the solo-only queue it was too late and most of those that left have never returned. Most of the "low population" problems can be traced back to this one awful mistake.
  
• The Clan 'mechs were introduced before they were ready -and by ready I mean balanced so that an all-Clan team would have a 50% win rate against an all-IS team on average (since they'd decided against 10 vs 12 or any other asymmetrical match-up). To be fair, the scuttlebutt is that it was IGP being greedy and wanting to sell Clan 'mechs ASAP that caused it. Most of the current problems with nerfs, quirks, balance, etc. stem from this mistake. This is one way it could've been done better.
  
• Community Warfare was rolled out as a "hardcore" mode instead of something that most MWO players would enjoy. Most companies would not spend 80% of their resources to create a game mode that would appeal to only 20% or less of their players, but it seems PGI did just that. According to Russ Bullock, at CW's peak only 13.5% of all the activity on MWO servers took place in CW. Clearly what makes CW fun for those currently playing it is NOT fun for everybody else.

[Summon3r]

game was better in closed beta, had a 3 month stretch after IGP split that looked good and now has utterly fallen back through the floor now.

the maps and environments in every other game out there make this look like a child playing with photoshop.

[KHETTI]

Theres been definate inprovements since PGI ditched IGP.

Triordinant, on 27 May 2015 - 07:09 AM, said:

There were 3 major mistakes since Closed Beta and I'm not sure if they can be recovered from.

• There should have been a solo-only queue from the get-go, just like in many other shooters. Half of the original population left because they got tired of being constantly pugstomped by organized well-trained competitive premades. There may have been other reasons, but this was the main one. By the time PGI realized their grave mistake and created the solo-only queue it was too late and most of those that left have never returned. Most of the "low population" problems can be traced back to this one awful mistake.
  
• The Clan 'mechs were introduced before they were ready -and by ready I mean balanced so that an all-Clan team would have a 50% win rate against an all-IS team on average (since they'd decided against 10 vs 12 or any other asymmetrical match-up). To be fair, the scuttlebutt is that it was IGP being greedy and wanting to sell Clan 'mechs ASAP that caused it. Most of the current problems with nerfs, quirks, balance, etc. stem from this mistake. This is one way it could've been done better.
  
• Community Warfare was rolled out as a "hardcore" mode instead of something that most MWO players would enjoy. Most companies would not spend 80% of their resources to create a game mode that would appeal to only 20% or less of their players, but it seems PGI did just that. According to Russ Bullock, at CW's peak only 13.5% of all the activity on MWO servers took place in CW. Clearly what makes CW fun for those currently playing it is NOT fun for everybody else.

Match making has always been an issue with this game, either a lack of match making or the quality of the match making is very low.
Single biggest reason why this game has lost so many players, and continues to struggle with retaining players.
To date the Match making and the elo system is PGI's biggest mistake and its never been corrected and it, and if it isn't this game will just slowely fizzel out.
Clan mechs should have never been rolled out, but i'm guessing this wasn't PGI's choice.

PGI should be pushing CW all the way, currently theres no reason for me as a lone wolf to get involved, that is unless i enjoy getting stomped by groups!.
No thanks, and thus CW utterly fails.

Things don't look promising, and it seems PGI still has this "working as intended" attitude.

[BigBenn]

MWO is just fine. There will ALWAYS be the "sky is falling" naysayer types. Sucks to be them.

I have faith in PGI's ability to monitor the game play stats.

I have a few issues: First, is the velocity of most ballistic weapons (too slow!). Second, I hope to see the Clan ballistics revamped so they are a viable alternative to lasers. Third, I'd like to see a "king of the hill" map thrown in to the CW game play. Having to be 100% attacker or defender is getting mundane. Simply having a 12 v 12 on the field "between" the strategic points would be nice. There are MANY maps that are not being used in CW that should be. Fourth, I would very seriously like to be able to see, in print, which map Im going to be dropping on so I dont bring a laser boat to the hottest map. That goes for both CW and pug matches.

Otherwise... I enjoy MWO very much and I think PGI has done well for the most part. It is a work in progress as it should be. If PGI ever just sits and adds nothing, adjusts nothing, or obviously loses interest in devloping MWO.... THEN I can see people raising Hell. But until then....

[Yokaiko]

Scratx, on 27 May 2015 - 06:46 AM, said:

Practically haven't stumbled since ditching IGP and have only gone up. Community Warfare, while "beta", is out and functional. And fun.

As for the IGP period... I think pretty much all has been said about it. Can we get over it?


So, the answer to the topic question is, at least for me : Yes.

They did enough for me to ask for a refund on wave three.

[Kh0rn]

Nope Still lacking so many things. I rarely play and have dedicated switch over too Mechwarrior Living legends.

[MeiSooHaityu]

I feel the game should be farther a long after approx. 3 years, but overall I feel ok about where the game is at.

I'm assuming IGP was a big internal stumbling block. Hopefully now the game will grow a bit quicker.

I still worry that the game, this far after release, will have reached it's peak. Combine that with a steep learning curve, and I am curious how much longer it can thrive.

Still, worries aside, I am still hopeful. After all, after all this time, I still enjoy playing the game.

Edited by MeiSooHaityu, 27 May 2015 - 09:56 AM.

[TLBFestus]

DaZur, on 27 May 2015 - 06:49 AM, said:

General opinion is "it's gotten better but has a long way to go"...

Most have fun so long as one makes the effort to ignore these folks:

While you are at it, watch out for these guys too;





To be honest, you want to be the guy on the right of the next image, a realist, and don't let either side color your opinion til you decide for yourself;

[BARBAR0SSA]

Since Dec 2014 it's slowed down a lot, they've wasted a LOT of time with this new, stupid IMO, mechlab overhaul, we're talking months of many people. Sad thing is it must be a lot of behind the scenes changes because it's slightly improved but not much. With so much work being put in to that it's meant a few light patches the past few cycles and no real meat added to the mode that matters the most for a true MW game feel, CW.


Same game play that really just doesn't hold peoples interest for long which I have a feeling is part of the reason some many people are requesting wave 3 refund. They will have enough CBills saved up to purchase all the mechs by the time any meaningful change happens to the game mode.

They are overhauling pub queue maps as well which is cool and adding in destructible trees, and hopefully buildings next. But for core gameplay content it's been pretty stale for almost half a year.

Compared to a year ago...amazing progress though.

[crustydog]

Two steps forward, one step back, progress, but slowly.

[Moldur]

They don't know how to fix the catapult's ears.

[Kavoh]

If you look at it the way it REALLY is. Such as MWO being a mech version of counter strike/any arena game and nothing more? Then yes it IS progressing well. The problem stems from the fact that this was sold as some huge revolutionary MechWarrior game in which you would be immersed in the amazing world of Btech (CW) and that the closed beta arena style combat ("ITS BETA, RELAX!") was just for balance/testing purposes while they worked on CW. If you look at it this way, this game should have been dead years ago.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it for what it is and play it occasionally, but now that we are all sure this is going the way of Duke Nukem Forever (CW can even be compared to the monstrosity that was released as Duke Nukem Forever's final version) we can safely say that it's changed from an in depth game to a F2P IP abusing cash cow. (Ill still buy mechs, because its fun for what it is, even if I am disappointed.)

That being said, I really wish I could get an in depth view of the workings of PGI. I really am interested in knowing the plan for the future as well as what the hold up is in development. Are they still planning on turning it into the in depth game they promised? Or have they given up on that? I know they are relatively short staffed, but this is incredibly slow even for that.

Edited by Kavoh, 27 May 2015 - 12:44 PM.

[Khobai]

Quote

They don't know how to fix the catapult's ears.

actually they fixed the ears pretty good with the massive structure buff

too bad the catapult still has garbage hardpoints though