24 replies to this topic

[PappySmurf]

Looking back from my first days playing TT-Battletech-MechWarrior in the late 1980's to my first online game MechWarrior2 net.mech.ten.net.kali I get online for MWO and I don't feel its the same type of thrill as I had with MechWarrior2-MechWarrior4 Mercenaries.

As hard as I try to be involved with MWO solo or CW it just does not feel like a Battletech-3025 or a MechWarrior game. It still feels like just another generic FPS it lacks all the great things a MechWarrior IP had like social abilities with a MSN Messenger system to a MSN lobby system.

It also lacks all the fun private leagues that were diverse in there individual game play for 1v1 Solaris style play to the huge planetary leagues 12v12.The old community is still around in small numbers compared to the millions of dedicated fans players and league owners and website owners that once existed.

I feel Russ, Brian and PGI purposely destroyed the old TT-MechWarrior-BattleTech community with there lack of vision for MWO as far as sociability for this game and the lack of a true social lobby system for private leagues and community involvement.

Lets hear your thoughts on this topic and see if we cant persuade Russ to turn this subject around and bring back the MSN lobby system social abilities of MechWarrior and rebuild this community and the private league system?

Edited by PappySmurf, 12 August 2015 - 06:53 AM.

[stjobe]

MWO is BattleTech/MechWarrior mostly in name only. There's still some tenuous connections, like the numbers for weapon damage, weight, and crit slots, but most of the rest isn't anywhere near BT.

Ghost Heat, the atrocious ECM implementation, tripled rates of fire without tripled dissipation or 1/3rd the heat, a heat system without heat penalties, pinpoint accuracy (no, it's not mandatory for a skill-based shooter), instant convergence, doubled armour and internals - the list goes on and on and on.

It promised to be so much more ("a MechWarrior game as close to BattleTech as possible" is a phrase that sticks in my mind), but has so far failed to deliver on almost every account. In fact, it has gotten further from BT over the years, not closer.

And yes, it's the Tragic Trio of Russ, Paul, and Bryan that made it so. Their little fantasy of MWO becoming a major e-sport title has done so much damage to this game, and it continues to do so. Face it guys, the game actually has to be good if it's going to ever be an e-sport. You can't half-ass everything and magically get a good game.

In the end, they had a good core game back in 2012 - the actual feel of piloting a 'mech was great, the 'mechs looked fan-fscking-tastic, and of course people were starved of big stompy robot combat - but they have failed miserably in turning that good core game into something better; we're still just doing 12-man TDM over and over and over again, sometimes with a 4-'mech respawn, sometimes not.

One would have hoped three years of development time would have amounted to a bit more than that.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Yup, Paul, Russ, and Bryan were hired by Harmony Gold to kill the Mechwarrior franchise. Just as the OP says.

[MoonUnitBeta]

I feel like it's lacking the sound department. You can get a lot of feel from just how it sounds.
There's hardly any warning blips or bloops for ammo explosions. critical hits, incomming missiles, lasers don't have recharge sounds.
BBetty still sounds very muddy, and gives useless warnings like 25% jumpjet, and giving an extra missile warning when there are none.

They have an "immersion" audio loop for the cockpit where it add some blips and bloops but they are meaningless.

Also if the hud looked crisper, we had HTAL, and passive radar options, it'd start feeling Mechwarrior like..

[Paigan]

Childish whining and flaming.

I played MW2 a LOT (and before that crescent hawk's revenge) and it had NOTHING. No online capability of any kind. Not to think of multiplayer or the social stuff you claim it had.
It had crappy graphics, extremely restricted gameplay, tiny missions and from those only a few with just some text campaign.
The only thing that made it fun was the awesome music and the generic configurable missions.

MWO might feel a lot different but mostly because it is BETTER, richer than MW2 etc. was.

Personally, when I grabbed Crescent Hawk's Revenge (google it) from the shelf as a boy, I though I would get exactly something like MWO as far as Mechs, Graphics, etc go (admitted: plus singleplayer).
Now, some 25 years later, it's here.

Yes it still lacks a ton of features we all would love to see (as does EVERY game).
Don't project that unsatisfiable customer wish onto some crazy thought of "not being battletech".

Whenever MWO differs from TT, it's because TT rules are extremely idiot at some points and MUST be adjusted if a playable, balanced game is supposed to be the result.

Edited by Paigan, 12 August 2015 - 07:37 AM.

[Shredhead]

PappySmurf, on 12 August 2015 - 06:51 AM, said:

Looking back from my first days playing TT-Battletech-MechWarrior in the late 1980's to my first online game MechWarrior2 net.mech.ten.net.kali I get online for MWO and I don't feel its the same type of thrill as I had with MechWarrior2-MechWarrior4 Mercenaries.

Really? Or is it your rose tinted glasses you just refuse to settle? Because when I look back at these games I want to puke (especially with MW4) because of the tech imbalance, ugly mechs and MW4's dropships. Yikes. And these games were farther away from TT than MWO could ever get.

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As hard as I try to be involved with MWO solo or CW it just does not feel like a Battletech-3025 or a MechWarrior game. It still feels like just another generic FPS it lacks all the great things a MechWarrior IP had like social abilities with a MSN Messenger system to a MSN lobby system.

Which was added later from the outside, with nothing available like Teamspeak or other VoIP solutions, which have replaced chats for games like 8 years ago almost entirely.

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It also lacks all the fun private leagues that were diverse in there individual game play for 1v1 Solaris style play to the huge planetary leagues 12v12.The old community is still around in small numbers compared to the millions of dedicated fans players and league owners and website owners that once existed.

That's a lie, and you know it! MRBC, NBT, tournaments and leagues are abundant for MWO. But how would you know this if you don't talk to people in the community, eh?

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I feel Russ, Brian and PGI purposely destroyed the old TT-MechWarrior-BattleTech community with there lack of vision for MWO as far as sociability for this game and the lack of a true social lobby system for private leagues and community involvement.

So let's talk about sociability in this game then, shall we? PGI, after years of getting asked to do it, added additional faction chat, LFG function and VoIP! What's the result? Nobody ******* uses it! So how about you install MSN TS3 and start communicating with people instead of crying about stuff that nobody would use in the first place because it's clunky and obsolete?

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Lets hear your thoughts on this topic and see if we cant persuade Russ to turn this subject around and bring back the MSN lobby system social abilities of MechWarrior and rebuild this community and the private league system?

Nothing to rebuild, it already exists!

[Sable]

I feel like MWO is a pretty good blend of the oldschool mechwarrior gameplay and more modern gaming mechanics. Not all changes have been 100% on target but i'm happy with how the game has been evolving. It does need more atmosphere and story developed. Newer people to the battletech universe need more info about the different factions and why they would identify with one particular faction over another. They should do a small intro video for each faction like what was in the old mechwarrior 2 game when you chose between clan jade falcon and wolf.

[MeiSooHaityu]

It might not be as Battletech as people had wanted, but it seems to come closer than any MechWarrior game I had played (in the mechanics department).

As for immersion with content, that hasn't happened much. The game really kind of feels like Solaris without Duncan Fisher (endless matches with cash and xp prizes).

The game could be great if it just tweaked the balance a bit more and added a huge amount of story, lore, and purpose to the fights.

The balance is possible, the latter story element is a pipe dream.

[Burktross]

Sable, on 12 August 2015 - 07:35 AM, said:

I feel like MWO is a pretty good blend of the oldschool mechwarrior gameplay and more modern gaming mechanics. Not all changes have been 100% on target but i'm happy with how the game has been evolving. It does need more atmosphere and story developed. Newer people to the battletech universe need more info about the different factions and why they would identify with one particular faction over another. They should do a small intro video for each faction like what was in the old mechwarrior 2 game when you chose between clan jade falcon and wolf.

My thoughts exactly.

[Almond Brown]

This is not your Fathers MechWarrior. Best to come to grips with that or simply move on.

P.S. I do not miss NH/UA matches nor the 1000m staring contest that was the jist of MW4 Online.

[Rizzelbizzeg]

A messenger is what's missing for that real battletech experience? Weird. Why not hop on one of the many dedicated teamspeak channels and forgo the typing?

[PappySmurf]

To all the players that want to flame my post =(go for it ) it is your right to post what you feel.

But for me TT was about friends playing a tactical board battle and having fun discussing the battle details. Battletech for me was the true story line and pure tech game play it had, MechWarrior for me was about setting in the MSN lobby system chatting to MechWarrior pilots from around the world 24/7 7 days a week about League matches and just typical social topics.

Fun for me was bidding league matches and totally trashing competitive players 1v1-12v12 or being trashed myself then setting in the game lobby and discussing the last match's actions and also setting up new matches for myself or my team to play competitively.

That was what this MechWarrior IP was all about and big stompy robots in actual tactical and fun game play.I have to admit MWO does look better and is better visually and a lot of ways better than the old games but it lacks the core social and competitive fun that made this TT-BattleTech-MechWarrior IP what it was and Russ-Brian and PGI just don't seem to get it.

If MWO stays a FPS e-sport project I'm sorry I just would rather play MechWarrior4 Mercenaries on GameRanger with friends in a small private league where all that I just said is still possible. And I don't want it to be this way I personally after 3+ years with MWO would like to see this game prosper and grow but it has to evolve back into BattleTech/MechWarrior first for me anyways.

[MechWarrior5152251]

"Battletech" is not mentioned anywhere in this game.... did they even get a license to use the term?

[MeiSooHaityu]

MechWarrior5152251, on 12 August 2015 - 08:09 AM, said:

"Battletech" is not mentioned anywhere in this game.... did they even get a license to use the term?

It's under the logo at the top left corner of the forum pages.

[LordNothing]

im a mechwarrior fan, never was a battletech fan. i got into mechwarrior when my voodoo card came bundled with a full version of mechwarrior 2. been hooked ever since. played 2 and all its expansions, and the same with 4. i missed 3 and played through some of it on a nostalgia rig some years ago (up till it stopped running). i was also very impressed with MWLL that made me think 'hey, cool, mechwarrior is back!'. mwo was in closed beta at the time and i didnt even bat an eyelash at it. gave it a try when it moved to open beta and still liked MWLL better at the time. then MWLL started dieing, games were hard to find. so i switched over to mwo and have been disappointed ever since.

what i dont like about mwo is that it didnt respect its legacy. it tried too hard to suck in all the tt neckbeards to the point where i wondereded why didnt they call it battletech online and spared me the disapointment. thinking id get the same experience with modern technology, and giving me a dumbed down shooter instead. maybe they can save the sinking ship but im not counting on it.

[stjobe]

MechWarrior5152251, on 12 August 2015 - 08:09 AM, said:

"Battletech" is not mentioned anywhere in this game.... did they even get a license to use the term?

Top left of front page edit: every page if you scroll up to the top:



And in the footer of every page:

"MechWarrior and Battletech are registered trade-marks of Microsoft Corporation and is used under license."

Edited by stjobe, 12 August 2015 - 08:20 AM.

[Y E O N N E]

I feel like everybody expecting the video-game mechanics to exactly parallel the table-top game mechanics are kind of missing the point of a video-game interpretation. The only things that matter are the presence of 'Mechs and items and the jist of their operation.

Basically, what many of you are saying is that Star Wars: Battlefront II isn't Star Wars. Go reflect on that.

[Rampancy]

Almond Brown, on 12 August 2015 - 07:42 AM, said:

P.S. I do not miss NH/UA matches nor the 1000m staring contest that was the jist of MW4 Online.

So much this. The constant romanticizing of MW4 online play on these forums is kind of out of hand.

[PappySmurf]

LordNothing said=(what i don't like about mwo is that it didn't respect its legacy)

I have to agree with this because so many old guard players tried to ask PGI in the beginning of closed beta to make a dual game MWO as it is FPS-E-sport style and the old Battletech MechWarrior style with a lobby system private leagues 20+ game modes community made maps and involvement and all that was in MechWarrior4 Mercenaries Multiplayer so it could retro back for those that wanted to play MWO that way.

[PappySmurf]

yeonne said=(feel like everybody expecting the video-game mechanics to exactly parallel the table-top game mechanics are kind of missing the point of a video-game interpretation. The only things that matter are the presence of 'Mechs and items and the jist of their operation.

Basically, what many of you are saying is that Star Wars: Battlefront II isn't Star Wars. Go reflect on that.
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No yeonne we just miss all the tactical aspects of TT and the social fun.Its not about board Vs video.
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Rampanct said =(P.S. I do not miss NH/UA matches nor the 1000m staring contest that was the jist of MW4 Online.
So much this. The constant romanticizing of MW4 online play on these forums is kind of out of hand. )
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Rampance/Almound MechWarrior2-MechWarrior4 Mercenaries on in-game server leagues or leagues on the MSN gamming zone were so much more than what you describe. there was anything from 1v1-12v12 Solaris style pure tech leagues to mix tech to just about any type of brawling sniping mid-range games to anything goes there was so many options to chose from.

MWO is so shallow on gameplay options compared to MechWarrior2-MechWarrior4 its a joke.