376 replies to this topic

[Daddy]

I just asked my son who plays with me about a possible improvement to the game. His first suggestion was to let 4 gause rifles fire at the same time. After I explained that it is the way it is for game balance and players don't like getting insta killed he went back to the drawing board.

His suggestion to improve MWO is to enable a feature that replaces cuss words in chat with symbols so he can still receive lance commands through chat. Since I currently have chat disabled for him as it's the only way for me to screen his content.

BTW my sons 9 years old......

He also liked the positive feedback idea.


Daddy

Edited by Daddy, 27 October 2015 - 03:05 PM.

[Chados]

Russ,

I'd like to know when the Catapult rescaling is planned.

I'd also like to hear your thoughts on CW Phase 3. I'm an old player of Kesmai's EGA Multiplayer Online Battletech back in the 1990s and our CW here is close to what MPBT was. The differences are first, the game was set in 3025, so no Clans to deal with. Second, the mechanic was 4-player once drops vs. environment, and the faction that managed the most wins over time won the planet. Third, the Great Houses were almost entirely player driven, and House politics were managed on forums not dissimilar to this one. I was Kurita at the time, and a player was the Coordinator, I don't recall how he was selected. Nevertheless, he was able to select who the military district governors were, and the district governors picked the leaders of the House military units, who could designate the lance leaders. I ran with the CO of the 9th Benjamin Regulars after he recruited me out of the Academy-he actually poached me from the AFFS-and was appointed lance leader when we were short Mechwarriors. When he became Rasalhague District governor, I followed him and took over the 17th Rasalhague Regulars.

The House leadership-the governors and the coordinator-were the ones who set strategic priorities, meaning the planets we were trying to take. As a lance leader in the Benjamin Regulars I could move my lance to that planet for attack, or any planet in the Combine on defense, which was handy when none of the leaders were online and the AFFS (when I was in Ben-Jammin', it was the Draconis Marches that were a problem) or LCAF (constantly a problem when I was in Rasalhague) decided to try us. It was all driven by the players. The repair and rearm costs were taken up by the Houses for the House military units. Mercenary units were in game as well, including Wolf's Dragoons and several player-created units. The tradeoff was that they had to pay their own bills but didn't have the established House leadership bossing them around, and they could take up contracts for any of the Houses. I'm not sure how that all worked, as I was in House military units the whole time I played that game.

Roleplay was encouraged by the House leaders and the game moderators. In the DCMS we basically followed Japanese custom and addressed the Coordinator respectfully as our "Tono." We'd greet each other in drop lobbies with "Konnichi-wa!" or shortened to ""K-wa," and respond to instructions with "Hai!" It was a lot of fun. We felt like we had a stake in the Combine. To this day I am a Kurita loyalist because of that game, I wasn't into Battletech before that. The only reason I'm FWLM now is because I joined an FWL loyalist unit; I'm the resident Kuritan there and I'm hoping we don't ever have to go up against the Combine in CW

There's got to be a better CW. Right now it just feels more grindy than the PUG queue does and the maps aren't nearly as interesting. Players don't feel connected to their factions. We did it 25 years ago. We can do it now.

[Sevronis]

With the current state of the game and how gameplay is done in a multiplayer aspect, a lot of frustation for me personally is going up against all these meta builds that constantly alpha strike. This isn't a meta-build complaint. I get it that there are competitive players that crunch numbers and that's fine. However, for someone like me who actually uses weapon grouped, non-meta builds and manages my heat, I find it difficult to go up a a skilled opponent WITHOUT alpha striking back at the same rate, which goes against my playstyle. Typically as many long time battletech fans know, alpha striking was used as a last resort or if you were certain of a kill shot, considering that it risks you shutting down. Not to mention, there just really seems to be no point to having more armor or internals the heavier the chassis because these alphas just rip through it all in 1+ rounds (depending on weapons and number of weapons). Would there be a way to implement something to decrease alpha usage? I know pressing all weapon group keys at the same time will do the same thing, but perhaps some sort of timer similar to arty and airstrike usage might help prevent constant alphas, regardless if done by alpha strike key or multiple group keys. I enjoy the game and have always, but constant one button salvos seems to be an obstacle for me to actually perform better by being destroyed so quickly even in an assault.

Edited by Sevronis, 27 October 2015 - 03:28 PM.

[S T I N G S]

What are your plans for CW phase 3?

I personnally think a good idea is to map reset and for 1-2 months let the clans fight each other and the IS fight each other...
I still play CW even though it is broken, I would like to see a boost of players that play CW.

I would also like to know if you plan to do another map reset and if so how soon?
And are there any special things PGI plans to do while we are coming up in December on the 1 year anniversary of CW

[Drunk Canuck]

On Mech Balance:

Why is it you hesitate to just modify the XML files to reduce things like Clan weapon damage? It is already known that some of the Clan lasers have higher damage values than they did in table top (LPL, SPL and ER SL, as well is the IS SPL and SL). Is this because you felt that the smaller lasers wouldn't be viable? I'd think that nerfing the Clan LPL and ER ML damage would probably go a significant way towards balancing the Clans. Making LBXs do more damage per shell would also help make them more viable.

[redwolf77 Shaw]

When will the 3rd Community warfare begin?

[DAYLEET]

Dawnstealer, on 27 October 2015 - 01:49 PM, said:

More than that, make your "vision" swim and go to tunnel vision as it gets hotter. Give me some indication why mechwarriors in lore had to dress like this:



Make me see that the mech is heating up - if my mech actually shuts down from the heat, I should be ROASTING in that cockpit.

That heat protection suit is so good, im notifying fire-fighters to work half naked all the times not just photoshoot.

[Sereglach]

Ok, trying to bring this up, since it started, and all I'm getting is an infinite black-screen loading loop. Anyone else having similar issues? I've watched these things before and I haven't had this problem.

[Kael Posavatz]

30 minutes so far on the new group queue. You aren't missing anything.

[Sereglach]

Kael 17, on 27 October 2015 - 05:31 PM, said:

30 minutes so far on the new group queue. You aren't missing anything.

Yeah, but I can't even get the video to come up for when they do get away from that. Screen has been stuck on this infinite loading loop for past 10 minutes (since last attempted refresh/new window).

[Sereglach]

Well, a workaround. http://www.twitch.tv/NGNGtv/embed works as a full screen only video. No chat, nothing else . . . just full screen video. So I need two twitch windows open to get the twitch feed and to get the chat.

[Davegt27]

Ok, trying to bring this up, since it started, and all I'm getting is an infinite black-screen loading loop. Anyone else having similar issues? I've watched these things before and I haven't had this problem.

I have the same problem

Edited by Davegt27, 27 October 2015 - 06:49 PM.

[Sereglach]

Some feedback in no particular order (lots of good stuff came towards the end of the Town Hall):

1. Take an additional vector to work balance through making all weapons viable: Fix Flamers! Other weapons need attention, too. Mcgral had some nice feedback, here (don't agree with all of it, but you can read that discussion in that thread).

2. Agree that the heat system needs work. Personal opinion: lower heat caps with more aggressive dissipation seems like a very sold place to start at cutting down alphas.

3. UNITS THAT SWITCH FACTIONS SHOULD LOSE TAGS ON PLANETS! I'm sorry for the all-caps here, but that NEEDS to happen . . . especially as rewards start to be given for owning planets. It allows super-units to terribly game the system if not in place. Why would a faction give rewards to someone who turned away from them?

4. Look forward to seeing Phase 3 unfold. Overall it sounds pretty awesome. First quarter of 2016 is not a bad timeline, either.

5. Body part mods, sound packs, voice packs, decals, etc. all sound like great things. More options for solid monetization in MWO via microtransactions are never a bad thing.

6. Although "The Plan" really doesn't mean much (and I agree that the town halls and command chair posts provide so much more information then we used to get), a full website revamp is severely needed. We need to be able to use the website to get up-to-date info on basic aspects of the game as a whole.

7. More new-hires is awesome to hear! Considering certain backlogs (like the skinning issue) can PGI get support from Microsoft or even external contractors, just to fill in those backlogs and get other things done. It seems like contractors could be used to redo old mech visual reworks (. . . actual quality reworks -to match new mechs- . . . the Dragon, Catapult, Awesome, and Commando are some of the worst offenders here), get the pattern skinning of mechs caught up, and get some UI/AI work done for PvE and CW Phases.

8. Really looking forward to new PTS Phases and getting that rebalance done. That NEEDS to happen. Also . . . any changes to the skill tree are almost guaranteed to be good changes.

9. The campaign/career stuff was a terrible tease. I know it is a long way off but it sounds incredible.

Final note: I want to throw money at this game so badly, especially with all the good info from tonight, but I need to stick to my convictions. Fix flamers and my wallet reopens. There are lots of good concepts out there (Mcgral shows how easy one fix is that would be incredible) . . . but please make this weapon functional.


P.S. Bombadil: If you're looking here for any of the followups, could you please consider asking one about the timeline for the Flamer rework (or if anyone with twitter would be kind enough to ask that follow up, please)? Last town hall it was stated that Paul needed to be prodded for the followup.

Edited by Sereglach, 27 October 2015 - 08:17 PM.

[Hawk819]

where's the rifleman??

[White Bear 84]

Good project design - setting a deadline, identifying risk and being able to keep to said deadline.. ..Russ was way to uncomfortable to give a deadline for CW, it was disappointing.

[NocturnalBeast]

Sereglach, on 27 October 2015 - 08:16 PM, said:

Some feedback in no particular order (lots of good stuff came towards the end of the Town Hall):

1. Take an additional vector to work balance through making all weapons viable: Fix Flamers! Other weapons need attention, too. Mcgral had some nice feedback, here (don't agree with all of it, but you can read that discussion in that thread).

2. Agree that the heat system needs work. Personal opinion: lower heat caps with more aggressive dissipation seems like a very sold place to start at cutting down alphas.

3. UNITS THAT SWITCH FACTIONS SHOULD LOSE TAGS ON PLANETS! I'm sorry for the all-caps here, but that NEEDS to happen . . . especially as rewards start to be given for owning planets. It allows super-units to terribly game the system if not in place. Why would a faction give rewards to someone who turned away from them?

4. Look forward to seeing Phase 3 unfold. Overall it sounds pretty awesome. First quarter of 2016 is not a bad timeline, either.

5. Body part mods, sound packs, voice packs, decals, etc. all sound like great things. More options for solid monetization in MWO via microtransactions are never a bad thing.

6. Although "The Plan" really doesn't mean much (and I agree that the town halls and command chair posts provide so much more information then we used to get), a full website revamp is severely needed. We need to be able to use the website to get up-to-date info on basic aspects of the game as a whole.

7. More new-hires is awesome to hear! Considering certain backlogs (like the skinning issue) can PGI get support from Microsoft or even external contractors, just to fill in those backlogs and get other things done. It seems like contractors could be used to redo old mech visual reworks (. . . actual quality reworks -to match new mechs- . . . the Dragon, Catapult, Awesome, and Commando are some of the worst offenders here), get the pattern skinning of mechs caught up, and get some UI/AI work done for PvE and CW Phases.

8. Really looking forward to new PTS Phases and getting that rebalance done. That NEEDS to happen. Also . . . any changes to the skill tree are almost guaranteed to be good changes.

9. The campaign/career stuff was a terrible tease. I know it is a long way off but it sounds incredible.

Final note: I want to throw money at this game so badly, especially with all the good info from tonight, but I need to stick to my convictions. Fix flamers and my wallet reopens. There are lots of good concepts out there (Mcgral shows how easy one fix is that would be incredible) . . . but please make this weapon functional.


P.S. Bombadil: If you're looking here for any of the followups, could you please consider asking one about the timeline for the Flamer rework (or if anyone with twitter would be kind enough to ask that follow up, please)? Last town hall it was stated that Paul needed to be prodded for the followup.

Flamers do what they are supposed to do, they are primarily an anti-infantry weapon! I agree with the units switching faction thing, please punish the faction hoppers.

[Sereglach]

Ed Steele, on 27 October 2015 - 09:32 PM, said:

Flamers do what they are supposed to do, they are primarily an anti-infantry weapon! I agree with the units switching faction thing, please punish the faction hoppers.

Wrong. They work just as equally against mechs as infantry. Reread the Battletech rules. They got extra damage vs. infantry as a balancing factor and logical reasoning to take them over a medium laser . . . but this mainly happened in later editions of rules that put caps on the amount of heat any unit could take from external sources. However, they still wreaked havoc on mechs even after this change.

Flamers should be perfectly viable weapons next to anything else. Maybe not the typical first choice, but certainly a viable option. There are plenty of good ways and ideas out there for balancing purposes.

[Karl Marlow]

DAYLEET, on 27 October 2015 - 04:49 PM, said:

That heat protection suit is so good, im notifying fire-fighters to work half naked all the times not just photoshoot.

Mech cockpits are hot. They don't have flames shooting out at the pilot. You don't suit up on a hot day or working near a furnace. There is a line between very hot and hot enough to burn.

[Will9761]

Is anyone here gonna make a transcript about this townhall meeting?

[Appogee]

Will9761, on 27 October 2015 - 10:38 PM, said:

Is anyone here gonna make a transcript about this townhall meeting?

Was looking for this also. Hopefully some kindly soul will spare us needing to watch the whole thing and filter out the "yes we'll get around to doing that one day" thought bubble waffle.

EDIT: Just found the Reddit thread.

And kudos to Russ for "no mech pack announcements of any kind".

Edited by Appogee, 27 October 2015 - 11:24 PM.