11 replies to this topic

[Nothing Whatsoever]

What needs to be considered is changing how the information is displayed to players.

I haven't been a fan of calling most boosts as quirks. And I think I have an idea on how information could be improved for what is seen in-game.

So instead of having a section in the Mech Stats tab listing all of the quirks, that section should only list a few standout elements of the Mechs.

There should then be a section that replaces the Graphs listing for example that could maybe be called Attributes or whatever title is best for telling players important information that shows the end values and not how much something is boosted or reduced.

So that way we can see things like the actual acceleration, turn speed, twist speed, sensor range and so on.

Then each component needs to display and incorporate information of its total Armor and Structure.

For example, with the Boar's Head as a 100 tonner it has 42 health as its base line, its RT quirk raises that to 56, so that value of 56 should then be displayed for that component.

Hope, I'm making sense here!



Edit:

So to restate, I think the players do not need to see all of the applied quirks to mechs, those will simply be used to adjust for balance and parity in the background, so players would simply see the end values of mechs.

Then what quirks should be displayed are more like BT Descriptions of Mech Quirks: So labels such as Improved Targeting, Distracting, No Cooling Jacket, Insulated (maybe good way to re-describe the unique Hellslinger attribute for example) and so on.

Also, came up with another example including the values that change due to engine size, when quirks are applied and so on in the modified Mech Stats tab (and more graphs are more than welcome!):

Edited by Praetor Knight, 14 September 2015 - 01:15 PM.

[Glaive-]

100% agree!

Also would be nice to have an easier way to compare mechs. Like side-by-side or overlayed graphs.

[Krivvan]

Definitely, but it's probably a result of their UI people taking a long time to add things. All the mechs already have attributes for torso turn speed and structure and etc., but it loses the meaning when literally every single mech has additional quirks on top of that. Just making that a part of the mech attributes itself would help.

[ProfessorD]

I fully agree. The clutter and lack of clarity in the UI makes me really wonder how many MWO players really understand quirks. If quirks are going to be one of the balance tools, players need to actually understand them.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

armyunit, on 12 September 2015 - 03:38 PM, said:

100% agree!

Also would be nice to have an easier way to compare mechs. Like side-by-side or overlayed graphs.

That would be sweet. I'd like to see that too.

Krivvan, on 12 September 2015 - 03:38 PM, said:

Definitely, but it's probably a result of their UI people taking a long time to add things. All the mechs already have attributes for torso turn speed and structure and etc., but it loses the meaning when literally every single mech has additional quirks on top of that. Just making that a part of the mech attributes itself would help.

Exactly, that's why I think that we as players would then only need to see the end number in an understandable manner.

Where a 50% or 200% boost on some thing is practically meaningless with out proper context, and the being able to see the actual end numbers would help in providing feedback to the devs when comparing variants and trying to detail what might need adjusting to improve balance and maintain a good parity between mechs.

ProfessorD, on 12 September 2015 - 06:17 PM, said:

I fully agree. The clutter and lack of clarity in the UI makes me really wonder how many MWO players really understand quirks. If quirks are going to be one of the balance tools, players need to actually understand them.

Not only that but understanding things like how Heat Scale (Ghost Heat) is calculated and how those heat spikes looked against our Heat Capacity. When Heat gen quirks came out, I decided to calculate how the values interacted and I have a spreadsheet where I was looking at how PPCs were doing (and I was using smurfy's tables to double check the values I was looking at). When I can't play and have free time, I dabble in such things, been doing such stuff for a long time with Total War games, Elder Scrolls and Fallout series for example!

[Nothing Whatsoever]

Updated image for displaying Mech Stats, and using increased Armor and Structure values applied to appropriate sections:

Spoiler

Edited by Praetor Knight, 14 September 2015 - 01:16 PM.

[Krivvan]

I'd add a visual bar or something to go with the numbers, but yeah.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

Krivvan, on 14 September 2015 - 01:11 PM, said:

I'd add a visual bar or something to go with the numbers, but yeah.

I'm using MS Paint, but I agree more graphs are more than welcome!

[Cold Darkness]

a stat summary would also remove the need for UGLY RED NUMBERS THAT SCARE PEOPLE AWAY to be in broad display. youd only really require that stuff directly on omnipods, like it is right now and on equipment that would possibly affect stuff like that. aside from that, there would be no need to paint every inner sphere mech RED.

also: that boars head looks at least 300% more mighty then it did on the pts at a glance. i would have coloured that green, but i did not find the option to do so.

[Greyhart]

yes this.

what more is there to say

[Nothing Whatsoever]

Cold Darkness, on 17 September 2015 - 05:12 AM, said:

also: that boars head looks at least 300% more mighty then it did on the pts at a glance. i would have coloured that green, but i did not find the option to do so.

The reason being I was using redistributed values from the AS7-D boosts that were on the PTS.

Structure was basically doubled from the current base structure Health, which did make the variant feel tougher to fight against. But I feel that there should also be boosts to Armor along with Structure. So I've been looking at some comparisons along those lines.

[Cold Darkness]

yes, and i was simply pointing out that this way of portrayal is more pleasing to the eye.