59 replies to this topic

[RedDragon]

Aim64C, on 19 July 2015 - 04:16 AM, said:

What makes you think they are stupid?

You realize that Infinite Games Publishing was founded from within PGI for the sole purpose of publishing MechWarrior, correct?

There is another publisher you should look up: Groove.

They published, mostly, games developed by Jarhead Games. Guess who ran Jarhead Games...

Russ and Bryan.

Groove developed what was called "Skillground" - something akin to a match maker but that allowed people to post wagers on the outcome of various games. Groove is a former entity, much like IGP. Russ and Bryan regularly create these shell companies to funnel funding through into whatever they have (perhaps a retirement account, perhaps they are part of some new world order front group, who knows). It wasn't a gambling system, per se - but it was fairly close.

Anyway - I can almost 100% guarantee you that their talk of "sports gaming" with MWO will be aimed in a similar direction.

They aren't stupid.

They are what we would call predators who have no issue with us believing they are stupid, just so long as they can continue to be paid for minimum effort.

Well - Russ and Bryan are. I can't pass judgment on the whole of people at PGI as I don't have a complete history on them.

They may not be 'world class' predators, but they've found a prey that works for them and have stuck with it.

... And I'm currently bearing witness to one of the most intense lightning storms I can recall... I can't say I've ever seen so many nearby strikes. Thor may smite me before the day is done, at this rate.

Being stupid and making money doesn't exclude each other, quite the opposite in fact. The one intelligent thing they did was to acquire the MW license. From that point on they did one stupid thing after the other. And those were not things one could say "We think they are stupid, but in fact they were calculating.". So many occasions on which they just driven away many customers or neglected to get new ones or other ways of income.

Clever? No. Lucky, that is all.

[Thander Gil]

I would actually prefer them to scrap the entire UI and make us use the monitors instead. (FLAME ON)

[lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol]

Joseph Mallan, on 19 July 2015 - 02:52 AM, said:

The stuff to paid attention to is outside your Mech. Other than your HUD and mini map its all extravagance.

A very valid point. The "working" monitors they do have "Mission Kills (why? Just look at the top of the screen and see the kill count), Heat Sinks (does this even work?), and Ammo Status (If I look down and to the right, I see my ammo count right there next to the weapons that use them)" are rather useless too.

Aside from the completely useless AUTO DETECT ( NO ) on the rest of the screens, what could they possibly come up with that isn't displayed on the HUD?

But if they have no realistic intentions of doing anything more with those screens... just save the modelers a ton of time and remove them, especially when they obscure precious cockpit viewable area. I don't mind immersion, but having AUTO DETECT (NO) on a screen blocking one's view may as well be a middle finger, especially to the people who are buying the newer mechs.

The thing that boggles my mind is that they keep adding the damned screens despite no signaled intentions of doing more with them.

Edited by 00ohDstruct, 19 July 2015 - 12:36 PM.

[Andi Nagasia]

00ohDstruct, on 19 July 2015 - 12:33 PM, said:

But if they have no realistic intentions of doing anything more with those screens... just save the modelers a ton of time and remove them, especially when they obscure precious cockpit viewable area. I don't mind immersion, but having AUTO DETECT (NO) on a screen blocking one's view may as well be a middle finger, especially to the people who are buying the newer mechs.

The thing that boggles my mind is that they keep adding the damned screens despite no signaled intentions of doing more with them.

it would be more on the lines of Coders and Artists that would fill the Screens not the Modelers,

i think as they keep adding them to new mechs they are planing on filling them,

[Sug]

Joseph Mallan, on 19 July 2015 - 02:08 AM, said:

There is nothing important on those monitors.

But they look better than blank monitors : /

[lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol]

Andi Nagasia, on 19 July 2015 - 01:51 PM, said:

it would be more on the lines of Coders and Artists that would fill the Screens not the Modelers,

i think as they keep adding them to new mechs they are planing on filling them,

I'm talking about the modelers not having to add the actual monitors inside the cockpit when they construct it. If they aren't going to have them display anything of significance, the monitors don't need to be there.

Edited by 00ohDstruct, 19 July 2015 - 06:37 PM.

[Davegt27]

MasterBurte, on 19 July 2015 - 01:07 AM, said:

Let's start a threat with ideas for funny placeholders in the screens.

when I drop against a 12 man I always type Crap!

[MoonUnitBeta]

Can't they just instance data to them like they do with instancing similarly rendered trees? For example, the Atlas has that center glass screen, is it possible to instance the mini map to that? And what about lance info. I think it'd be neat to one day disable the UI, but keep targeting and reticle info, and still be able to see all of the same information you normally would, except on the monitors.

I think it'd be neat to be in normal vision on a night map, but be able to glance up at a corner screen and see what things look like in night vision on a screen without actually switching modes.

Or a screen that has two waves: one wave that is the general loudness of your mech (stepping, twisting, heat hissing), and another showing your seismic signature maybe.

I dunno, I just wanna see them do something, I don't really care what, but bonus points for information that's useful. At least they haven't got rid of the ammo/heat sink screens in the mechs that do have it.

[Vellron2005]

Ya know.. I'v been asking myself this exact quesiton.. what is up with all these empty monitors with that silly autodetect message?

I guess Tina didn't get around to it yet.. but seriously.. they should REALLY do something about those.. It shouldn't be difficult to put in some static pictures, and knowing how good PGI artists are, they could easily put in animations, like spinning mech wireframes, targeting data, or even matrix-style data streams...

Tina, honey, you know we love you.. Please.. talk Russ into letting you spruse-up our nice mech interriors.

P.S.

I would not mind if they added static images for free, and then a new class of cockpit items in terms of mc-only animations.. imagine the choices!

Wouldn't it be cool to pilot a mech and say, watch the BattleTech cartoon on your mech's monitor? Or the Simpsons? Or Robotjocks?

How about animations from MW4, or MW2?

How about some product placement commercials? Why would not PGI add some founding to their pockets by placing coca-cola and McDonalds commercials into mech-cockpits?

Just a thought..

Edited by Vellron2005, 20 July 2015 - 01:47 AM.

[MeiSooHaityu]

I talked to the techs. They said they are addressing the drop ship exhaust leak in the mechbay floor first, but refuse to give me an ETA on that repair. I think it will be a long time before they address the monitors :/.

Seriously though, you would think PGI could throw in some bogus mech junk in the monitors until they actually do something with them :/.

[Sjorpha]

oldradagast, on 19 July 2015 - 06:33 AM, said:

I thought they were replacing "No Signal" with "SOON ™"

That would be awesome, would go perfectly with the island cockpit item.

[Johnny Z]

This is an excellent topic. What are those monitors going to be for and why does the most recent mech have more of them than most of the older mechs?

Like many of the replies said, they must have plans for them. It would be great to know what these plans are.

[Speedy Plysitkos]

kills in mission 0 . loaded ammo 0, looks fun, when you just killed an enemy with rounds/shells/lasors. and are contsantly firing ahead. Is it rly so hard to change to numbers from 0, to current ?

Edited by Titannium, 20 July 2015 - 03:08 AM.

[LORD ORION]

Just allow us to stream netflix into it.

[LordNothing]

Titannium, on 20 July 2015 - 03:08 AM, said:

kills in mission 0 . loaded ammo 0, looks fun, when you just killed an enemy with rounds/shells/lasors. and are contsantly firing ahead. Is it rly so hard to change to numbers from 0, to current ?

you have to redraw the texture, assuming its not a static image. ive never actually see the kill counter display a number other than zero before. the other two displays do animate but they dont update very frequently. usually only once and thats it. in cw ive seen the screens show data from your previous mech so they dont even update when you spawn. its a proof of concept at best, and a poorly executed one.

Edited by LordNothing, 20 July 2015 - 04:11 AM.

[Lugh]

Alistair Winter, on 18 July 2015 - 11:25 PM, said:

They're still adding in knockdown animations too. Soon™?

I don't know.

The new rivercity map is giving them the data about knockdowns that they need without YOU crying about how unfair it is to be knocked down.... (*disclaimer* YOU in this case is all the whiney, no skill light pilot, crotch huggers, that really need to confront their issues outside the game please)

[JernauM]

What are some ideas for interesting information that could be displayed on those screens?

• Modules equipped
  
• Special equipment status and details (e.g. ECM, BAP / CAP, command console, targeting computer, MASC)
  
• Number of still-functional heatsinks / total equipped heatsinks
  
• Number of still-functional jump jets / total equipped jump jets
  
• Temperature / time of day
  
• Gravity
  
• Mission objectives

Or maybe just some fluff imagery?

• Mission radio frequencies
  
• Scroll of battlefield intel reports
  
• Environmental conditions (e.g. pressure, atmospheric composition, radiation levels)
  
• Myomer load readings / graphs
  
• Ejection system status
  
• Dropship / satellite uplink status

[Appogee]

Aim64C, on 19 July 2015 - 04:16 AM, said:

Russ and Bryan regularly create these shell companies to funnel funding through into whatever they have (perhaps a retirement account, perhaps they are part of some new world order front group, who knows).

My theory is that they get a new government subsidy for every "new" tech startup they create and become directors of.

Edited by Appogee, 20 July 2015 - 05:23 AM.

[Hound of War]

JernauM, on 20 July 2015 - 04:31 AM, said:

What are some ideas for interesting information that could be displayed on those screens?

• Modules equipped
  
• Special equipment status and details (e.g. ECM, BAP / CAP, command console, targeting computer, MASC)
  
• Number of still-functional heatsinks / total equipped heatsinks
  
• Number of still-functional jump jets / total equipped jump jets
  
• Temperature / time of day
  
• Gravity
  
• Mission objectives

Or maybe just some fluff imagery?

• Mission radio frequencies
  
• Scroll of battlefield intel reports
  
• Environmental conditions (e.g. pressure, atmospheric composition, radiation levels)
  
• Myomer load readings / graphs
  
• Ejection system status
  
• Dropship / satellite uplink status

Or maybe a rearview like on every driving game made in the last 15 years?

[lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol]

Well it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one wondering "Really? Why?"

Even if it was with best intentions of doing something later with them... the only thing I'm getting from those is a constant reminder especially in every new mech that the game will EVENTUALLY be what it was imagined to be... just not SOON. Until then... enjoy our placeholder AUTO DETECT (NO)!