44 replies to this topic

[Midgie]

I've seen a lot of people on these forums talking about MWO as some kind of WoW-like MMO. Have a missed something mentioned by the devs? What I've read suggests a matchmaking function tied to some kind of territorial metagame. I was thinking of something like League of Legends combined with World War II Online (which actually sounds pretty sweet to me). I'm not trolling, just curious where people are getting their info.

[Atlas3060]

It's just personal projection of their fears or anticipations for this game. Fact is we don't have a lot of info on the guts of this game yet.

[GaussDragon]

midgie, on 04 December 2011 - 03:42 PM, said:

Have a missed something mentioned by the devs? What I've read suggests a matchmaking function tied to some kind of territorial metagame.

You're on the money there.

[Alaskan Viking]

I Hope its not an MMO. I want to Customize my Mech and shoot Gauss cannons at people, not complete quest and work on my crafting skill....

Edited by Alaskan Viking, 04 December 2011 - 05:06 PM.

[Korbyn McColl]

WoW is an MMO. Not all MMOs are WoW.

The Devs have stated very clearly that MWO will not be an MMO, but a rose by any other name...

In short, no, MWO will not be what many people think of an MMO as being. You won't have a persistant open world to explore, endlessly respawning mobs to fight or any of the trappings that most people think of when they hear the word "MMO". But MWO will be a massively multiplayer online game...which means it will be an MMO.

Does that make any sense?

[Midgie]

Yeah, I guess I should have said, "MMORPG."

[Korbyn McColl]

midgie, on 04 December 2011 - 05:42 PM, said:

Yeah, I guess I should have said, "MMORPG."

Nah. Trust me, there are enough of us old PnP gamers playing this that we'll be turning it into an RPG. I think half of my unit has already bought their kilts for our first meeting. ,-)

[KnowBuddy]

Yes, MWO will be a "massively*" multiplayer online game (i.e. an MMO).

*"massively" as a term related to gaming has come to mean "anything more than 36 people at a time" since mid-2003.

No, MMO does not necessarily mean MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, a format which somehow seems to be universally accepted as a game typified by the UO->Everquest->Lots of other imitators->World of Warcraft->Lots of WoW imitators progression, despite the reality that a Game can be Online, Massively Multiplayer, and also have Role-Playing components without necessarily being like WoW).

MWO will not be an MMORPG in the misonception-riddled current conception. Actually MWO will not be an MMORPG at all. As I understand it, MWO will likely be more realistically described as a Persistent-World 'Mech Battle Simulator with Character Progression Elements. (Gosh, PWMBSCPE just has such a nice ring to it, doesn't it?)

[wolf74]

Unlike someone you all. There are those of us that like get the item together to make stuff with. (Why do you think Minecraft took off like it did?) I would not mind have a world we could make units from the ground up.
I like the way Star Wars Galaxy system (earlier version of the game before they made it an FPS) did Crafting.
I can see these Non-Combat Skill Trees

Harvester (Gathers Raw materials need to make units) (4 to 6 types)
Basic Mechanics (Build, ICE Engine, Auto-Cannons, M.G.,)
Advance Mechanics Weapons (LB-x., Ultra, Special Ammo Type) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics Armor& heat control (can Make Armor, Basic Heat Sinks) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics Tanks (Tank Internals & assembly) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics Mech (Mech Internals & assembly) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics VTOls (VTOLs Internals & assembly) Requires Basic Mechanics

Electronic Basic (Build Basic Lasers, Basic Targeting system)
Advance Electronic (Build ECM, BAP, Targeting Computer) Requires Electronic Basic
Advance Fusion (Build, Fission & Fusion Engines, PPC, Flamers) Requires Electronic Basic
Advance Laser (Pulse & ER Lasers) Requires Electronic Basic

Some Items need two trees to unlock:
ER-PPCs need both Advance Fusion & Advance Laser
Double Heat sinks, Adv Armor & Advance Electronics

I would Let player master 2½ skill tree. As you can see I also would love to see more than just Mechs. All the Mechwarrior games basic only had Mechs for the player to drive. (Elemental in Mw2 than Mektek Added Infantry & Power Armor MW4). I would love alterative to just mech on mech. A Solaris arena I would love to see is 48-63men VS 1 Mech in a City Map. With enterable building.

[Demi-Precentor Konev]

A lot of wasteful and wishful thinking. Absolutely zero fact.

[Haeso]

We know for a fact they've said it won't be an MMO. We also know that given the things they've told us about the game, it will be in the meta-game aspects, if not the direct combat aspects. Surprisingly contradictory, but we know both of those things.

It stands to reason the game will be an MMO or not an MMO based solely on how one defines MMO. The meta game persistence and all that is what makes it an MMO to me, to others it would be how many people are fighting it out on a fight. To other still it'll be something else.

[Thorqemada]

I thin it will start primarily as Combat Action Simulator and hopefully will become a real persistant Universe that expands into more areas of gameplay, more management, more economy, deeper simulation, maybe even territorial conquest not only for the houses but if you be bold enough for your own kindgom in the peripherie...its has endless possibilities with a risk to fail at each step.
First a good more simulation like mechwarrior combat game with also soon to come coop vs ai (IS vs Pirates/Rogue Mercs/Clans?) missions would be very nice.
I would also totally like treasure hunting lostech!

Edited by Thorqemada, 04 December 2011 - 11:02 PM.

[Wil Scarlet]

I dunno about the rest of this thread, certainly some of it sounds interesting but there is one thing i'd like to address/suggest.

I think everyone agree's that perma loosing a mech would suck. Especially if you busted your perverbial hump to get it.

I think we can all agree that 'magic' also isn't wanted or needed here. having your destroyed mech automatically appear in your 'garage' shiney and new before you could even get home seems... fake.

I would suggest this... (bare with me still thinking this all out)

Let's say you just got enough C bills to buy that new Hunchback, it's shiney it's new and you figure heck yea, no more light mech i can wade into battle!!! So off you go, you run multiple missions you run several maps, you are the shiznit until BLAM I come along in my panther and take you apart piece by piece (let me dream ok!!) anyway the point is you had to eject cause i got damn lucky and knocked loose that bolt that was holding your left foot on and now you can't get up!! KABLOOEY goes the bolt, BIFF BAM goes your left foot and half the leg (the bolt shot straight up into the ammo casing above it and set off a bunch more explosions) and you're busy floating down in your parachute, I"m looking around to tell anyone and everyone what I just did and naturally NOT A gawd dam soul is around, and so i stomp off pizzed off and angry and ready to quit when you hit the ground, look at your not shiney and new hunchback anymore. Obviously you're not gonna just leave it there, so you pick up your cell phone, call your mechanic and tell him that he'd better replace that gawd dam bolt that got shot off!! You get a ride back to your base on the back of a Scout car that was passing by and noticed the elevated radiation levels. So there you are sitting in your garage, when the mechanic rolls up with your hunchback in toe. He isn't happy, he says that if you'd just turned to the left this wouldn't be a problem and so he dumps your hunchback into a repair bay looks at you like you're retarded and gets to work. After (several minutes real time) several hours working on it he emails you a report letting you know that it'll take a couple weeks to repair your hunchback (maybe 3-5 days real time) and that's if the parts aren't on back order, he also calls into question your parentage and your intelligence level and then gets back to work.

So there you are, looking at the mechanic working on your hunchback, feeling dejected, and then things get worse, you remember your Jenner is also being repaired, it wont be ready for another (real time day) so you drag your sorry *** into your commanders state room, and hat in hand explain to him why it is you can't manage to turn left. You explain to him the stupid bolt, and the fact that you faced off against 45 different mechs and managed to take down 44 of them, and that if you'd just had 4 more seconds you'd have been fine and could he please please please give you a loaner mech. Now your Commander isn't happy, he's paying for the repair bays, the mechanics, the electricity and water bills not to mention how much it costs to put all the destroyed stuff into the freaking local dump and so he's looking at you..... long and hard..... he smiles, you know the smile, it's the one he had on his face when he used his atlas to squish his ex wife's cat. He lets you know you can go to service bay 8 and get the only thing that's available. You figure hell it can't be worse then the Jenner you had before and besides it's only for a day until your Jenner is back up and then only a couple days before you're riding high again in your Hunchback... you walk to the service bays, Bay one has the Commanders Atlas, someone got cute and painted a little cat on the right leg, service bays 2 and 3 are empty, service bay 4 has a Cicada and it looks like the armor plating is being replaced.. on and on you go passing bays of mechs each one mean looking in it's own right until you come up to service bay 8... you're hopeful you're lookin forward to getting back at that farkin panther mech pilot who turned your day to crap... and then you see it... it's painted in florescent green and orange... it's the most god aweful ugliest thing you've ever seen. You look around, maybe this is the wrong service bay... in big black paint it has the number *8* sigh... you walk up to the Urban Mech, You know the mech, you trained in it back when you were a cadet... it's bright orange and green paint gives you an instant head ache. "God" you think "Please don't let the girls see me in this thing"

Edited by Wil_Scarlet, 05 December 2011 - 12:25 AM.

[Tarmok II]

i think a realistic way of looking on what we have to expect from the game is comparing it with games like 'World of Tanks'. Basically the system can be the same because here you have mechs and there you have tanks, but the main idea is the same:
going on a battle field and fight one machine against another.

Edited by Tarmok_II, 05 December 2011 - 12:54 AM.

[Thorn Hallis]

KnowBuddy, on 04 December 2011 - 05:49 PM, said:

No, MMO does not necessarily mean MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game...)

Wait a sec, I thought MMORPG would stand for "Many men online role playing girls".

[Huntsman]

Whatever term you want to use to define it, my hope is that this game will take matters to the next level with Mechwarrior. I'd love to see sandbox worlds rather than just a collection of maps playable maps. I want the game to feel persistent. I won't hold my breath on that but it's a dream.

[Haeso]

Wil_Scarlet, on 05 December 2011 - 12:14 AM, said:

I dunno about the rest of this thread, certainly some of it sounds interesting but there is one thing i'd like to address/suggest.

I think everyone agree's that perma loosing a mech would suck. Especially if you busted your perverbial hump to get it.

And I know you're wrong, regardless of what you think. Not even close to everyone agrees with that statement.

Quote

I think we can all agree that 'magic' also isn't wanted or needed here. having your destroyed mech automatically appear in your 'garage' shiney and new before you could even get home seems... fake.

Except there are many people that want just that, Magic. Which is what an indestructible and teleporting 'Mech will be no matter how you look at it.

Quote

I would suggest this... (bare with me still thinking this all out)
Obviously you're not gonna just leave it there, so you pick up your cell phone, call your mechanic and tell him that he'd better replace that gawd dam bolt that got shot off!! You get a ride back to your base on the back of a Scout car that was passing by and noticed the elevated radiation levels.

This is hopelessly inaccurate to the universe. You needed a massive flatbed hovercraft or tracked vehicle to drag a disabled 'Mech back, unless you had a fairly articulate 'Mech of around equal size available to drag you back, they pretty much never brought easily destroyed vehicles out unless the field was won.

You do not recover 'Mechs without owning the field of battle.

Quote

So there you are sitting in your garage, when the mechanic rolls up with your hunchback in toe. He isn't happy, he says that if you'd just turned to the left this wouldn't be a problem and so he dumps your hunchback into a repair bay looks at you like you're retarded and gets to work. After (several minutes real time) several hours working on it he emails you a report letting you know that it'll take a couple weeks to repair your hunchback (maybe 3-5 days real time) and that's if the parts aren't on back order, he also calls into question your parentage and your intelligence level and then gets back to work.

How long it takes to repair doesn't change the fact that it's magically getting back to the hangar, and often times 'Mechs simply were not able to be repaired in the first place. If your reactor blew, you were lucky to be able to salvage any systems from the 'Mech much less the chassis itself.

Quote

Loaner 'mech plus some story nonsense.

How is this any different from salvage? You're not playing with your 'Mech now, which is what people were crying about when loaners are suggested for those that can't break even with salvage.

Also this idea that 'Mechs are expensive, it's not going to fly if all it takes is time and a bit of money to repair them. And if it is expensive, it's exactly the same as salvage without any of the advantages, and all the disadvantages, chiefly among them still being magic.

Tarmok_II, on 05 December 2011 - 12:54 AM, said:

i think a realistic way of looking on what we have to expect from the game is comparing it with games like 'World of Tanks'. Basically the system can be the same because here you have mechs and there you have tanks, but the main idea is the same:
going on a battle field and fight one machine against another.

Lets swap magic tanks that teleport after being destroyed for magic battlemechs, yeah! And they've nothing in common, Battletech is about more than just big robots fighting.

Edited by Haeso, 05 December 2011 - 09:23 AM.

[Odin]

Bryan Ekman, the man himself said it, loud and clear 5by5 MWO is no MMO.

[Black Sunder]

Haeso, on 05 December 2011 - 08:54 AM, said:

Huge quote here...

You play Eve Online too right?

[VEDRFOLNIR]

While I enjoy MMO'ing, I think adding immersion to MWO can be accomplished without having to add 'Go gather 5 armor plates' type quests - thankfully, I don't think MWO will ever go down that path.

True, there is a ton of backstory and lore available - but that doesn't guarantee a good MMO experience, if a developer doesn't know how to implement it in a way that both adds 'flavor' and enjoyment.

I look at it this way - Immersion is going to happen, whether the game explicitly supports it or not. Some of the absolute best Roleplaying I have been involved with started on my group's forums, grew there, and culminated with a battle in a specific place in the MMO. It was immersion based on the imaginations of the players - and there's no reason why such a collaborative method couldn't work in MWO.