108 replies to this topic

[Paul Inouye]

Hey folks, we're shutting down the PTS servers for now. There just aren't enough participants at the moment. We will take another look at putting the test server back up for shorter amounts of time so we don't detract from any other event like the double XP event going on right now. This also gives us a chance to make a few changes and fixes due to feedback, metrics and those typos that gave certain 'Mechs quirk values in the 1000's!

[Tarogato]

Good decision, Grump... I mean Paul.

P.s., I like your new signature.

[Kanajashi]

Literally the minute before I was logging in to do some sensor range science

[hideyourkids]

Hopefully you guys use this time to completely rethink "sensor warfare" and focus on the stuff that matters like weapon quirks, mobility, armor. Make those your 3 pillars. Sensor info should just be across the board buffs to light mechs for scouting.

[Kodyn]

http://mwomercs.com/...tion-for-a-dev/

Since I know you were here long enough to post, can I please get you to address this Paul? I think it will help a lot, both us as players and you guys as Devs, just to clear this up.

[coe7]

Playing with that joke of balance pass looming over us is going to kill this game. It was a travesty. Who would want to invest RL money or time with INFOTEK changes looming on top of us?

You are doing Star Wars Galaxies NGE full speed in anticipation of your steam launch. Lets throw half of your playerbase under the bus and think steam will replace it if we just make the game simplified.

Years worth of your own finetuning of chassis, builds and systems are being tossed away on imagery benefits of targeting boxes that will result in total baldness of IS mechs. Its back to 2013 where hardpoints were only thing that mattered, IS had very few good chassis and alot of crap.

You cannot have one of the pillars of balance as a null factor, aka sensors and stuff.

Worst is that most mechs feel and play totally different than people who have grown to like them. You are already old game, making this drastic changes and removing alot of flavor aquired over the years is going to be undoing of MWO.

No longer there is JJ-DDs with brutal and fun dakka, no longer there is Wolverines with lasers, no longer there is GI's or any hunchbacks worth playing. Lights are muddled roles of nothing because rudder and pedals crowd cant keep up with fundamentals of FPS shooters, aka aiming. Where is the lore of longer range ravens, knifefighting firestarters or zooming locusts? IS lost all of its flavor gathered over years for absolutely nothing.

We are way past the point where you can say look at this great INFOTEK and think people will buy it. Game is pretty damn fun right now with live balance, all we wanted was slight reductions on clan weapon balance, notably medium clan laser and even more fun, playable IS chassis via quirks to those with low hardpoints getting HP boosts.

Every major game is balanced by ex pro's / highend players or people deep in the scene being responsible for balance. Watch examples of SC2, CSGO, DOTA2, etc. Your personal ability to play this game is visible to everyone in your twitch channel. Flat out I will say this, if you need a red box around mechs and have problems with people flanking you as you do on your twitch stream, or have issues shooting arm of a wolverine or dragon, it is not a reason to balance the whole game based on your individual skill level.

Truth thurts. You hurt this community. With this balance failure of an idea looming over to completely overhaul the game, how do you think active units will keep their players intersted and paying to upkeep this game?

Edited by coe7, 12 September 2015 - 04:47 PM.

[Koshirou]

It took me three hours to download and install this stuff - for nothing! What the hell were you thinking when you brought along such a fundamental change to be tested without even the most bare bones preparations on the PTS like MC and CB boosts?

As it is, the population of the PTS is going to need to increase by two orders of magnitude to yield any useful data. Do you think that is going to happen? Because otherwise you need not bother.

[XX Sulla XX]

Paul Inouye, on 12 September 2015 - 03:46 PM, said:

Hey folks, we're shutting down the PTS servers for now. There just aren't enough participants at the moment. We will take another look at putting the test server back up for shorter amounts of time so we don't detract from any other event like the double XP event going on right now. This also gives us a chance to make a few changes and fixes due to feedback, metrics and those typos that gave certain 'Mechs quirk values in the 1000's!

Might be good to keep it up and let people play around in private matches and testing grounds. But not sure what it takes to keep it up.

PS I thought this was important enough to download the test client for the first time.

Edited by XX Sulla XX, 12 September 2015 - 04:20 PM.

[Smotty]

If you can't balance to three things (firepower, armor/durability and mobility) why would you add a fourth and try and balance to it? Don't get me wrong, the info tech radar stuff is a neat system, but in NO WAY can compare to the other three for balancing purposes. Adding a completely new system than trying to balance around it is just dumb.

I hope that this is done in waves, as you just completely nerfed every single IS mech and made the top clan mechs that much better. It's almost like you took a step backwards with this attempt at balance, going back to the launch of the clans.

For balance how about what most of us have been asking for? Mech scale, clan weapon nerfs, advanced timeline, anything but this info tech crap.

Do you even play this game? I just, I can't even...

And the reason I seem so salty is because I fricken love this game. I have very limited gaming time anymore (real life OP...) and this happens to be my escape for a couple hours each day. (If that) I spend my hard earned money on this game not only to make my time more enjoyable, but to also support the game. I want to keep loving this game so please take a step back and think about what the ever living f--- your doing. Don't ruin it Paul, fix it.

[KraftySOT]

Im not even mad about the total removal of quirks.

Especially if we can actually use the PTS to find out which mechs need them back...theres a golden opportunity here to get this **** right.

Nope.

"Detracting from the double XP event"

Dont you mean the double XP event is detracting from the play test, since it took AN HOUR for me to get a match on the PTS, and when we do, they take the server down.

Im halfway through a full review of the Banshee 3M, but nope, I has no value and should be shooting gundams for XP, not helping out, because im terrible and deserve to be treated like crap

Why does a double XP weekend take precedence over what is arguably the most important thing to happen to MWO in a long, long time.

In PaulLand, mechpacks are "major feature additions".

Here we get a major feature addition thats being billed as a "balance pass".

What the hell is going on up there in Canada.

[Kamikaze Viking]

I just woke up and was about to try it again. I couldn't get a game on there when I tried yesterday.

How can I give feedback if I cant get a game on there?

I'll just have to work with incomplete information i was able to glean from the mechlab and quirks I read.
Please bring it back up.

[XX Sulla XX]

Its possible they will need to bribe players to use the test server sad to say.

[merz]

remarkably, people are incredibly vocal about all of the things that the public test environment currently gets wrong. the problem i'm seeing is that very few are on the public test server. i've wanted 30min to an hour between games in the 'searching' screen and notice that the forums set up for discussing different mech chassis individual balance remain relatively free of posts. Instead, there are a lot of people saying how paul sucks, russ sucks, pgi sucks and is obviously incapable of making a decent game, then in the same breath continuing that they've spent hundreds of dollars on this one (made by PGI.) .. go figure.


Anyway, lets try and work out serious suggestions on how we can move beyond these placeholder values other than 'PGI SUCKS, DON'T TOUCH MY META' etc.

(also, bonus points for zatoichi to the guy above. because he looks like a rat sniffing about with his whiskers)

Edited by merz, 12 September 2015 - 04:34 PM.

[KraftySOT]

Im not even complaining that it took an hour to get a match or that not many people are participating in it. Theres seriously hours and hours of notes we can take by ourselves, and in the meantime, wait for matches to test things and record it, give feed back.

Its a play test. Not the actual game. Not getting a match for an hour is fine. Its not for fun, its work You got at least two dozen people voluntarily doing a 17 dollar an hour tester job for free....

*smashes face into keyboard*

WHHHY.

[TheSteelRhino]

Balance now in game is best ever.

Now i am totally in facor of adding sensor quirks to specific mechs. That is there role or specialty.

But this whole shared targeting bot could be toned back a little. Quirks have been a great thing. I might say tone down obvious overkill but try to find mechs that need help shadow hawk 5m/2/2d2 etc for example and bufff them up. I would suggest frwer of the generic buffs and buff around what a battlemech was designed for

[coe7]

merz, on 12 September 2015 - 04:33 PM, said:

remarkably, people are incredibly vocal about all of the things that the public test environment currently gets wrong. the problem i'm seeing is that very few are on the public test server. i've wanted 30min to an hour between games in the 'searching' screen and notice that the forums set up for discussing different mech chassis individual balance remain relatively free of posts. Instead, there are a lot of people saying how paul sucks, russ sucks, pgi sucks and is obviously incapable of making a decent game, then in the same breath continuing that they've spent hundreds of dollars on this one (made by PGI.) .. go figure.


Anyway, lets try and work out serious suggestions on how we can move beyond these placeholder values other than 'PGI SUCKS, DON'T TOUCH MY META' etc.

(also, bonus points for zatoichi to the guy above. because he looks like a rat sniffing about with his whiskers)

Wrong. I played over 20 games on PTS when it came out and spent over 4 hours, basicly last night testing multitude of mechs and how they play out.

Do not for a second think that highend players are mad because they lost their "meta". With this new game idea they have going on there, there is no longer IS meta, only 4-5 hulls worth playing with high hardpoints and everything else being muddled to similarity.

What is currently on PTS is a completely new game. Hunchback you got in 2013, played almost three years will feel nothing that you have used to feel. All the history of this game is being wiped in one swift swipe. The game you know right now as MWO, is not the game in PTS atm.

Do not for a second think this game will play anything like it does right now. If cockpit was removed, you could not tell what mech you are driving even if you had 1000 hours on it.

Edited by coe7, 12 September 2015 - 04:44 PM.

[KraftySOT]

I cant think of a single over quirked mech. Maybe the Stalker 4N? The Thud needed its PPC nerf, but other than that...I have no idea what people are talking about when they say theres overkill quirks.

50% rate of fire on a single Gauss on a medium, or an LB10 on an Orion, is not exactly overkill, when their counter parts in weight, can practically core them instantly.

Were some quirks a little too stronk? Yes. Were other quirks not nearly stronk enough? Yes.

Despite the quirks on the PPC Vindicator, it was still considerably worse than three 35 tonners. It had "crazy big quirks" and practically needed them doubled to be competitive.

Now it has none.

Obviously they have to add them back on certain mechs if not most mechs. But getting data without them in play, to accurately judge and test the sensor changes is totally a great idea. I have no idea if that was their intention....but it was a defacto great idea..

Riiiiight up until they took the servers down so no one else can test it anymore.

I just got into a match, recording it, to see how this whole thing plays out in one of the crazy sensor quirked mechs (the Banshee and its 400% slower targeting) and they take the servers down.

I was there.



#neverforget

Edited by KraftySOT, 12 September 2015 - 04:47 PM.

[Tarogato]

I asked Russ on twitter if it was possible to install a player counter just for the PTS server. It would really help, I think, with getting people online and knowing when a good chance to get a match is.

No response.

[KraftySOT]

I dont think it matters how long it takes. Those of us dedicated to testing, waited an hour to get a match, and besides some ribbing each other over how long it took, were both happy to be there, and not bothered by the wait.

Were doing this to help make the game better. Were not doing it to get our jollies off.

Well...helping make the game better IS getting out jollies off...but thats not the point. While we waited, a ton of people have gotten full comprehensive reviews of mechs done. Theres been a bunch of videos of game play.

If the servers were still up now. There would be more.

End of story.

[Domenoth]

KraftySOT, on 12 September 2015 - 04:19 PM, said:

[redacted]

I'm sorry, but I just can't let this one go by. You are wrong. I'll agree that the wording could be improved but you really can't figure out what Paul means? Really?

Quote

There just aren't enough participants at the moment because there's an event. We will try the PTS again when there isn't an event that will pull everyone away from the PTS.

Was that really so hard?