35 replies to this topic

[CDLord HHGD]

[El Bandito]

Lostech.

You should know.

[TyphonCh]

"Were it so easy"

[Ace Selin]

CW deck, Favorites, such a simple yet good idea!

[CDLord HHGD]

Bump for exposure!

[Sandpit]

Russ has stated (IIRC feel free to correct anything I get wrong) that this is difficult for them to do due to how MWO reads your inventory every time, but I do think he mentioned a little of this in the last townhall and that they're looking into it.

[sycocys]

Should be a selection to put mechs into a suspended animation-like storage locker. Who really needs to have access to 140-200+ mechs at the same time?

Would speed the loading and inventory updating up a ton if you could just back stock the mechs you never want to see again (Vindicators, Mist Lynx, Spider, and so forth).

[GRiPSViGiL]

sycocys, on 07 March 2016 - 12:01 PM, said:

Should be a selection to put mechs into a suspended animation-like storage locker. Who really needs to have access to 140-200+ mechs at the same time?

Would speed the loading and inventory updating up a ton if you could just back stock the mechs you never want to see again (Vindicators, Mist Lynx, Spider, and so forth).

Or a trash can to put all the needless redundant mechs people never use. Maybe that is why the OP has almost 100 empty mech bays. I thought I had a lot of empty bays with 11.

[sycocys]

No, I'm sure he just did like most people do and buy 50 bays when they are half off. Gives you room for most of the year's mechs.

There are some mechs that I sell after I master them - Dire's, well most clan mechs really because I don't really enjoy them, but the database and inventory loading would run a million times better if it wasn't trying to load up anything but the 20-30 mechs you actually want active.

[Moldur]

Sandpit, on 07 March 2016 - 11:29 AM, said:

Russ has stated (IIRC feel free to correct anything I get wrong) that this is difficult for them to do due to how MWO reads your inventory every time, but I do think he mentioned a little of this in the last townhall and that they're looking into it.

jfc, PGI should have thrown cryengine into a fire long ago. Virtually every single addition or change suggestion, the response is "well, it's basically the way it works is super ****** up and we don't really know how to do it because nobody knows how to work with this engine without imploding the game or using 120% of your processing power."

I mean seriously, how many of these sorts of suggestions are met with a response that starts with "The way it works..."

[Sandpit]

Moldur, on 07 March 2016 - 12:37 PM, said:

jfc, PGI should have thrown cryengine into a fire long ago. Virtually every single addition or change suggestion, the response is "well, it's basically the way it works is super ****** up and we don't really know how to do it because nobody knows how to work with this engine without imploding the game or using 120% of your processing power."

I mean seriously, how many of these sorts of suggestions are met with a response that starts with "The way it works..."

far too many

collisions
HSR
CW queues

you name it, just about every feature players have asked for over the last 4 years. When it takes a year just to simply redesign a GUI, you should know you're in trouble

[Zerberus]

Sandpit, on 07 March 2016 - 12:59 PM, said:

When it takes a year just to simply redesign a GUI, you should know you're in trouble

I agree on teh basic premise of your post

BUT, in their defense, it wasn´t just the GUI they rewrote... it was the entire achitecture between the GUI and the actual Engine itself, topped off with a new GUI.

They basically rewrote the entire game with respects to everything but the actual gameplay, essentially rolling back 2 years of development under the Old UI and integrating the features we already had into a new framework known as UI 2.0. Creating the GUI is by far the smallest and least important task of that endeavor....

But if they had left the old GUI despite replaceing the scaffolding that allows them to develop the game, everyone would have complained that absolutely nothing was done. The new GUI, while something players asked for anyway, was most likeley primarily so players have something that looks different, so that despite not remotely understanding the scope of the project they at least have teh feeling that something at all was done.

BUT: what did it make possible that we couldn´t do before?
The current GUI, which is light years ahead of the old one despite a few persisting issues
It allowed us to have CW at all. Under the old UI, we would not have CW, at least not remotely in the form we do today.
It allowed for the creation of a looking for group function at all.
It allowed for a much more streamlined and functional ingame social system with units.
It removed the 50 person FL cap.
It allowed for Titles and Badges
It allowed us to screw around with mechbuilds without smurfy, even if we can´t afford them at the time.
It was also essential in allowing VoIP to be integrated seamlessly, something the community clamored for for years (and still doesn´t use for the most part despite years of whining)
Mechbays bundled with mechs (we asked for that for, what, 3 years?)
It allowed for Private matches.
And i can probably think of a few more things that weren´t possible before....

Bottom line: The UI is MUCH more and much deeper that just the mechlab, it essentially IS the game, becasue it is basically everyhting that allows you to interface with the game engine in any way. And the old one was simply not even remotely up to the task of allowing them to continue development for the next 5 years. That´s why it was replaced.

Edited by Zerberus, 07 March 2016 - 01:17 PM.

[CDLord HHGD]

The reason they give as to why it takes so long to same a mech is that it reloads our entire inventory every time. Even I know this is not ideal and there has to be an easier way. Russ said in the townhall that they are looking into it and they are also looking into upgrading cryengine or swapping out to a new engine entirely....

I don't know much about game engines, but swapping engines seems pretty big...

[Sniper09121986]

Bleh, I was clamouring for it for some time now. The old warhorses here might remember the UI 1.0 when we had four quick selection slots to assign mechs to. Why on earth can they not make something like it now? Also the engine swapping would do VOLUMES for the game if they choose the right engine. For the record, the classic Mechwarrior 5 trailer was made in Unreal engine that allows ammo swapping among other things, which easily opens the way for Clan ATM and Inner Sphere special AC rounds off the top of my head. Why have they chosen CryEngine over THAT is beyond me.

[Zerberus]

cdlord, on 07 March 2016 - 01:24 PM, said:

The reason they give as to why it takes so long to same a mech is that it reloads our entire inventory every time. Even I know this is not ideal and there has to be an easier way. Russ said in the townhall that they are looking into it and they are also looking into upgrading cryengine or swapping out to a new engine entirely....

I don't know much about game engines, but swapping engines seems pretty big...

AAAH, another good point: the old UI was also Cryengine specific, in teh sense that it was constructed to use their version of CE3 as a foundation and nothing else.

Under the old UI, even floating the idea of an engine replacement would have been met with hours of ridicule, a dunce cap stapled to your head, and a 50% pay reduction every time you opened your mouth at a meeting for the next 2 months

Sniper09121986, on 07 March 2016 - 01:31 PM, said:

Bleh, I was clamouring for it for some time now. The old warhorses here might remember the UI 1.0 when we had four quick selection slots to assign mechs to. Why on earth can they not make something like it now? Also the engine swapping would do VOLUMES for the game if they choose the right engine. For the record, the classic Mechwarrior 5 trailer was made in Unreal engine that allows ammo swapping among other things, which easily opens the way for Clan ATM and Inner Sphere special AC rounds off the top of my head. Why have they chosen CryEngine over THAT is beyond me.

I assume the choice was primarily a financial one. The Unreal engines are free for to use for tech demos IIRC, and I think that if MW5 had gotten off the ground it probably would have been the choice.

But as the dice fell, it turned out that no publisher was going to prefund production of another MW game... so they probably grabbed what they could afford, which was an unfinished version of CE3 with minimal support (though Crytek support sucks anyway if you´te not a big studio ).

I think if they do swap, they will probably go for an Unreal Product and be much better off for it.

Edited by Zerberus, 07 March 2016 - 01:37 PM.

[CDLord HHGD]

Sniper09121986, on 07 March 2016 - 01:31 PM, said:

Bleh, I was clamouring for it for some time now. The old warhorses here might remember the UI 1.0 when we had four quick selection slots to assign mechs to. Why on earth can they not make something like it now? Also the engine swapping would do VOLUMES for the game if they choose the right engine. For the record, the classic Mechwarrior 5 trailer was made in Unreal engine that allows ammo swapping among other things, which easily opens the way for Clan ATM and Inner Sphere special AC rounds off the top of my head. Why have they chosen CryEngine over THAT is beyond me.

I, I do remember that block of 4 mechs. Wasn't so important back then though. Now with over 100 mechs owned, having a favorites tab would save me a lot of time (more time for dropping) and the CW tab would work well too for quick confirmation of what is in my lineup.

[Sigilum Sanctum]

Team Chevy86, on 04 March 2016 - 09:36 PM, said:

"Were it so easy"

Didn't realize Thel Vadam played MWO.

[Dirk Le Daring]

CW deck IS

CW deck CL

[Zerberus]

Dirk Le Daring, on 07 March 2016 - 03:15 PM, said:

CW deck IS

CW deck CL

Well, since you can´t really belong to 2 factions at the same time, this would be a bit pointless (or can mercs play one match clan, one match IS? Dunno, always have and will be Clan Wolf)

I would like to see the 4 mech favorites box make a return, though, as even with class and faction sorting it can sometimes take a bit to find the mech you´re looking for....

[MoonUnitBeta]

Set your screen to a lower 4:3 resolution and we see that UI scales incorrectly. In order to put buttons.
Unless we want to wait 2 more years before they have properly scaling mechlab UI to make room for those buttons...

It would probably be best to simply add a button to the thumbnails to favorite the mechs, which add those mechs into a separate category (like the expandable/collapsable ones for Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault...)

• If you select "All" filter, the Favorites Category is populated with all your favorite mechs (chosen by clicking a Star icon on the mech's portrait/thumbnail)
  
• If you select "Medium" filter, the Favorites Category is only populated with your favorite medium mechs. etc. for other weight classes.
  
• If you select a weight class that does not have any Favorite mechs, there will not be a Favorites Category.

I'll post a mock-up if someone needs to see it.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 07 March 2016 - 03:43 PM.