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Odanan, on 10 July 2015 - 09:13 AM, said:
As someone said, "New mechs make money, new maps and game modes don't."
PGI needs to release new mechs to keep the development active. That constant flow of money is what pays servers and the salary of the programmers, artists, PGI employees and even the rent of the office.
If you think PGI is increasing the number of the released mechs now, you are mistaken. I'm here since the beginning, and there was a time we had a new mech every month. The only difference now is that the mechs are coming grouped in packs and sold in pre-order. I have no problem with that.
But I understand your feelings. Playing the same game modes over and over gets boring. I also bought at least one mech of almost every pack (only skipped the Project Phoenix, and this is because of two certain PR fiascos that happened that time) and even with my new shinny mechs Executioner and Ebon Jaguar good to go, I mostly return to the game not because of the game itself, but because of the friends I made here, who I enjoy playing with.
Yes, MWO needs new, fresh game modes. CW needs to really reward players with something (I mean, really something, like exclusive faction paintjobs and mech variants), otherwise people won't play it (and less people playing = long waiting times = even less people playing = even longer waiting times).
The new River City is terrific, but new or remade maps, alone, won't keep players in MWO for years.
We need Steam (and consequently a lot of new players), yes, but before that we need some good in-game tutorials (missions) that teach not only to pilot, but to use all of the mech's commands and to fight. No point in getting a lot of new players if they don't stay. So, we desperately need AI.
Singleplayer (or even better, co-op) missions would be great for introducing new players, because starting against veterans is brutal. MWO is no casual game and many newbies will feel frustrated after being stomped in all their first matches. Well, even old players need sometime to just launch a game to "relax" punching some AI, instead of facing the lottery of a public match.
PGI, it's time to get your AI up and running. In my humble opinion, AI is more important now for MWO than CW phase X or even Solaris.
Give us some simple random mission generator, with PvE missions like "destroy the enemy base", "destroy all enemies", "capture all control points", "defend the base", etc. and it will revitalize the game. You don't need to make new maps for this: you can use the current maps. Heck, even a "simulator" like the existing in MW2, MW3 and MW4 would be great (choose the map, your mech, the enemies and go). Sure, for stimulating people to still play "real" multiplayer, you could give smaller C-Bills and XP rewards for PvE.
A full campaign would be amazing (Russ said something is planned for 2016), but that will take time. Could you give us something simpler now, still in 2015?
PGI needs to release new mechs to keep the development active. That constant flow of money is what pays servers and the salary of the programmers, artists, PGI employees and even the rent of the office.
If you think PGI is increasing the number of the released mechs now, you are mistaken. I'm here since the beginning, and there was a time we had a new mech every month. The only difference now is that the mechs are coming grouped in packs and sold in pre-order. I have no problem with that.
But I understand your feelings. Playing the same game modes over and over gets boring. I also bought at least one mech of almost every pack (only skipped the Project Phoenix, and this is because of two certain PR fiascos that happened that time) and even with my new shinny mechs Executioner and Ebon Jaguar good to go, I mostly return to the game not because of the game itself, but because of the friends I made here, who I enjoy playing with.
Yes, MWO needs new, fresh game modes. CW needs to really reward players with something (I mean, really something, like exclusive faction paintjobs and mech variants), otherwise people won't play it (and less people playing = long waiting times = even less people playing = even longer waiting times).
The new River City is terrific, but new or remade maps, alone, won't keep players in MWO for years.
We need Steam (and consequently a lot of new players), yes, but before that we need some good in-game tutorials (missions) that teach not only to pilot, but to use all of the mech's commands and to fight. No point in getting a lot of new players if they don't stay. So, we desperately need AI.
Singleplayer (or even better, co-op) missions would be great for introducing new players, because starting against veterans is brutal. MWO is no casual game and many newbies will feel frustrated after being stomped in all their first matches. Well, even old players need sometime to just launch a game to "relax" punching some AI, instead of facing the lottery of a public match.
PGI, it's time to get your AI up and running. In my humble opinion, AI is more important now for MWO than CW phase X or even Solaris.
Give us some simple random mission generator, with PvE missions like "destroy the enemy base", "destroy all enemies", "capture all control points", "defend the base", etc. and it will revitalize the game. You don't need to make new maps for this: you can use the current maps. Heck, even a "simulator" like the existing in MW2, MW3 and MW4 would be great (choose the map, your mech, the enemies and go). Sure, for stimulating people to still play "real" multiplayer, you could give smaller C-Bills and XP rewards for PvE.
A full campaign would be amazing (Russ said something is planned for 2016), but that will take time. Could you give us something simpler now, still in 2015?
But new game modes, maps and the like entice new players to come and buy their mechs, which in turn pays the bills. Obviously MWO is such a great game that we have hundreds of thousands of players and no issues wiht player retention or getting new players in, right? WRONG!
The NPE bites, grind sucks, the only way if 2 buddies wanted to play together is to go into the mega competitive world, basically 2 casuals are stuck playing in what equates to WoT's CLan wars...yeah, they will stay long. THe tutorials suck. Why would any newbie stay? Even if he solo Qs hes going to get wrecked, no practical practice room, even the private lobby with a buddy costs money, which someone just trying out the game for the first time is likely not going to spend.
Fix NPE that would be the first step to player retention and PGI making more money. You can only sell more mech packs to the same people for so long before they either get bored of the game or just dont wanna spend money on it anymore. GOtta get the fresh blood in here somehow. I think fixing the NPE would go along way to that. Fixing the grind would go along way to helping the NPE along. Even with premium time, which costs $$ and a premium mech, which also costs $$, you make not that much. I have had a few pretty avg games, 1-4k, 400-600dmg, wins and even with Prem mech and time it comes out to between 190-230K. Base its like 100-150K.......and a New player is going to be doing like I used to do......40-100K....even with premium hes making squat, and not going to stay long having no fun.
Increase avg earnings to like 150-200K then add premium time to make it 250-300K per game. Even then, you still need many, many millions just for 1 stock mech. Even at 250-300K with prem+mech its still going to be 20 games in a stock mech getting wasted to upgrade it. Prolly not gunna stay long as a New player. Some might, many prolly wont. Many come to just simply play mindlessly.....Im not saying give in entirely to that mentality, but easing up the game a little, just a little would help the game. Cant keep the game entirely all ESports, MLG, 1337 pro player lvls of grind.
More maps, they are starting the new map overhauls, that will be awesome. So far with RC, i have high hopes the rest will be nice.
More game modes, idk, not much else can be done here. BUt a PVE game mode, idk, but I think a PVE Game mode would just be so awesome it wouldnt even be funny. 2 buddies just wanna get in and shoot robots together, PVE. Dont wanna work the PVP scene but want stompy robots? PVE. JUst want to play some objective based game with a little more depth then wolfpack in a blob? PVE. AW has it, and if PGI was able to simply copy, paste what AW has, I personally would be hooked, and there are a number of mechs I would pick up just for use in PVE.
