156 replies to this topic

[Johnny Z]

Quad mechs were mentioned?

Also didn't they say they are actually starting the engine upgrade now? I am almost sure that the engine upgrade was mentioned but its not in the topics notes.

Edited by Johnny Z, 02 April 2016 - 04:05 PM.

[sycocys]

Wintersdark, on 02 April 2016 - 03:54 PM, said:

Probably not. Paul works on CW, particularly design elements. They'd have a developer tasked for quirks (David? Alex? I forget who) and he'd be fully responsible for that. Showing the numbers to Paul would be useless, because Paul isn't working on mech vs mech balance at all. The guy doing the work would have (theoretically) been testing and researching. It's on him.

So you are saying Paul is directly responsible for the terrible state of CW then? I think he'd rather take credit for the quirk situation.

[Wintersdark]

sycocys, on 02 April 2016 - 04:14 PM, said:

So you are saying Paul is directly responsible for the terrible state of CW then? I think he'd rather take credit for the quirk situation.

Well, we'll see how CWp3 is (ALL HAIL PHASE THREE!), after all, surely it'll be totally awesome and lacking gross design flaws that make it largely unplayable at launch, then Paul will bask in much deserved glory.

Right? Right?

[Deathlike]

Tristan Winter, on 02 April 2016 - 10:20 AM, said:

That seems to be the idea. NGNG did bring up the language barrier, and Russ acknowledged it.

Now the question is: will there be a male and female voice? Clanner and Inner Sphere voice?

I don't think it matters that much (probably do both female and male voices.. because reasons).

The language barrier is not something you'd want to invest too many resources in.. like you can keep the voices English (ideally) and other languages (if you can hire some multilingual speaker to do the voices, even better), but like some of the creatures in Starcraft, you get "used" to the same noises and sounds when they confirm your orders. Ideally, the cheapest way to get the multi-language thing done textually (as part of the Commo Rose) is to have community translated text for all languages.

It's just cheaper to do it that way (unless you're going to hire someone to do that work).

sycocys, on 02 April 2016 - 04:14 PM, said:

So you are saying Paul is directly responsible for the terrible state of CW then? I think he'd rather take credit for the quirk situation.

It hurts so bad inside, that I can't stop laughing at the truth of that sentiment!

Edited by Deathlike, 02 April 2016 - 05:02 PM.

[Azalie]

Are they going to post this up on youtube any time soon? I missed it and I honestly like to listen to them. I scanned the thread and didn't see any links and it's not up yet as far as I can tell. I'm trying to go in fresh so I'm avoiding any actual information/content people are posting or talking about.

[Exilyth]

Deathlike, on 02 April 2016 - 05:02 PM, said:

The language barrier is not something you'd want to invest too many resources in.. like you can keep the voices English (ideally) and other languages (if you can hire some multilingual speaker to do the voices, even better), but like some of the creatures in Starcraft, you get "used" to the same noises and sounds when they confirm your orders. Ideally, the cheapest way to get the multi-language thing done textually (as part of the Commo Rose) is to have community translated text for all languages.

So true, lingua franca and all.

[cazidin]

Was the Command Console forgotten about again?

[Bluttrunken]

InRev, on 01 April 2016 - 05:41 PM, said:

I'm having a hard time focusing on it since Russ's voice makes me sleepy, but has anything concrete actually been said about what makes Phase 3 different? I don't think I've heard anything worthy of the "excitement" that NGNG keeps trying to hype up.

- New game mode, 4v4 iirc, with the objective of gathering enemy intel.

- New faction/mercenary/freelancer system. Nothing specific but it seems to work differently to the current.

- Faction vote on attack routes.

- New incentives to take and hold planets.(MC)

- Rework of unit design, disencouraging to build large/very large units.

- Separation of unit/pug queue.

- Leaderboards

That's from the top off my head. Maybe I missed something. Safe to say it will be the biggest update concerning FW so far, maybe even topping the initial implementation.

cazidin, on 02 April 2016 - 05:30 PM, said:

Was the Command Console forgotten about again?

No, it was explicitely mentioned that the Command Console will be reworked. Soon™.

Edited by Bluttrunken, 02 April 2016 - 09:22 PM.

[Bluttrunken]

Johnny Z, on 02 April 2016 - 04:04 PM, said:

Quad mechs were mentioned?

Nope.

Johnny Z, on 02 April 2016 - 04:04 PM, said:

Didn't they say they are actually starting the engine upgrade now? I am almost sure that the engine upgrade was mentioned but its not in the topics notes.

An engine upgrade can only happen if the team works on it alongside all other updates as it is a massive undertaking. The choice is either 1) a slow rework of the assets for the new engine or 2) neglecting all other updates for ca. 1/2 year solely working on the engine update.

Russ opted for the first option because no one wants a stand-still for this game for 1/2 a year(i.e.: no work on CW, no work on new maps, modes and mechs). He said, with this consideration, it would take at least twice, if not thrice, as long to change the engine. He didn't explicitely say an engine change is in the works at the moment but as far as I am aware they are considering it. If the change is happening I'm pretty sure we would only hear about it shortly before release.

Edited by Bluttrunken, 02 April 2016 - 09:35 PM.

[Sigilum Sanctum]

Triordinant, on 02 April 2016 - 01:09 PM, said:

Copied this little snippet from Paul Inouye in chat during the Town Hall:

"I don't do quirks but I do know they are constantly being updated as we monitor incoming performance data."

So the question is who DOES decide on the Quirks?

It wouldn't surprise me if it was Bryan. Then again, maybe he's in a closet playing with Transverse like a lego set.

[Mystere]

Tristan Winter, on 01 April 2016 - 05:38 PM, said:

• 
  Russ explains Solaris will have ranked 1v1 and ranked 8v8.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

[Mystere]

Johnny Z, on 02 April 2016 - 07:32 AM, said:

Faction play phase 3 really does look great. there is 4 v 4 in it and quite a few other things ...

Care to share any details?

[Ex Atlas Overlord]

Stryker Ezekiel, on 02 April 2016 - 02:14 AM, said:

He does have female staff, yes?

WTF does a color have to do with someone's sex?

He said it was "too silly" right?

No clue how you're reading that as having anything to do with someone's sex?

Edited by The Atlas Overlord, 02 April 2016 - 10:07 PM.

[Karl Marlow]

Next patch is all about phase 3 and he is too busy to write the roadmap. Then he doesn't discuss phase 3 in a 3 hour townhall?

[Kodyn]

Man, I was really hoping for CW Phase 3 to be something. When I say something, I mean something big, something different than what we have, something worth playing....something you don't have to beg people to play.

We're getting 4v4s....ok. Cool. I know some people that will enjoy this. I'm happy for them. Does it make me want to give PGI money? Not exactly. Does the splitting of the queues make me look forward to the boredom of waiting while multiple units get organized and time things perfectly so there are actual matches in "Unit CW"? Nope, but it sure does save me some time worrying about the CW meta...I'm doubting I'm going to care about it for all that much longer.

We're getting Solaris. Something that I guess to both the TT/BT novel crowd and the COD kids is great. I'm not really happy for either of them, because I don't particularly like them all that much, and this still isn't going to cause me to feel any urge to buy anything. If I wanted some kind of arena pit fight, I'd be playing Doom or Unreal or something.

Russ apparently put some people to sleep with his voice, offended others with his lack of social graces, and monotone'd out some boring news that is designed to sound like it's informative, but really is barely more info than we've had for a while now. This is normal. Was he at least not chewing the whole time this time? This would also not cause me to open my wallet, but would be a step up from most of the past Town Halls.

Quirks are changing again? Really? I'm not surprised, I just pretty much expect them to be in a permanent state of flux now, and to never be able to build a mech and keep a working loadout for any period of time ever again. Not surprised at all, but I am disappointed. However, I really should look at this as PGI's way of looking out for my best interests, and ensuring that I'll never, ever, ever have an urge to spend actual money on a mech, or the game itself, ever again. Thanks!

I know this all seems terribly passive-aggressive...kinda like PGI's balancing methods, Russ's treatment of their customers on social media....hm. Must have rubbed off on me.

Oh....and one last thing...Decals. Really? We're really gonna do this Nascar garbage, on military-grade war machines? How trashy and silly that's gonna look....I can see it now. And they were worried about pink? A color which is pretty much already in the game in several shades, and that I've seen on at least one mech, every day I've ever played a match of MWO...AND, that they actually released a hero mech featuring? Not weird at all. Not passive aggressive at all. Makes total sense, like all of PGI's decisions, be they business, balance, or social.

Hey, I'm cool with MWO being an extremely niche, low-player-base, completely free-to-play game that I only now play once or twice a week for an hour or so out of a sense of obligation combined with a sick determination to force myself to have fun doing something that I used to enjoy. But goddamn, do I wish that PGI would get some outside** perspective and realize how bad some of their ideas are, how poorly some of their staff conduct themselves while interacting with the public, and how much money they could really be making if they just bothered to do some stuff right for once. And I mean really right, not their traditional, one step forward, two steps back routine. I mean, c'mon, how many years does it take a kid to learn that touching a hot stove will burn you? Most kids I knew growing up learned the first time they got burned. Apparently some game designers had sheltered childhoods, or have forgotten some life lessons....

(**outside- not the community/forums, we really, really suck at being unbiased or reasonable by and large when it comes to this game, and cannot agree on nearly any topic, ever. You cannot base business decisions off of the personalities and quirks of thousands of different players, nor the moods and introverted ideas and styles of game devs that don't much understand their own game, or how to get people to spend money without feeling like they're potentially making a poor choice, either because of balance changes, quirk changes, or someone's bad mood. F2P players should be spending plenty of money, but in lots of small increments, on small, non-gameplay affecting things, instead of large increments, less often, with much complaining after what they purchased with real money gets digitally butchered in the name of balance, etc.)

[Apologies for the book, I'm tired, I'm grumpy, I'm disenchanted, and I'm blunt. I say what I mean and I mean what I say, and am sorry if that offends some people, but hey, some people's bad haircuts or voting choices offend me. What can you do? You be true to yourself, you express your opinion, and you move on. Take it as you will.]

[TyphonCh]

What Kodyn said. +1
But hey bud, look on the bright side. There will still be a phase 4! WEEOOOO!!!!
I don't agree with your view of Decals. This game needs more customization options for income other than redundant mechs that people are only buying out of nostalgia. There gets to a point where one has too many mechs.

Edited by Team Chevy86, 02 April 2016 - 11:16 PM.

[Kargush]

Stryker Ezekiel, on 02 April 2016 - 02:14 AM, said:

[Russ confirms that there's no pink camo colour in the game because Russ & Dennis were worried that it'd make the game look too silly and immature. He may reconsider, they're going to discuss it.]

He does have female staff, yes?

Not just ladies who like pink. I'd happily run a bright pink mech just so I could drink the sweet, sweet tears of haters.

[Tarogato]

Kodyn, on 02 April 2016 - 10:45 PM, said:

Oh....and one last thing...Decals. Really? We're really gonna do this Nascar garbage, on military-grade war machines? How trashy and silly that's gonna look....I can see it now.

One of these things actually looks more serious than the other...

[Wintersdark]

Team Chevy86, on 02 April 2016 - 11:15 PM, said:

What Kodyn said. +1
But hey bud, look on the bright side. There will still be a phase 4! WEEOOOO!!!!
I don't agree with your view of Decals. This game needs more customization options for income other than redundant mechs that people are only buying out of nostalgia. There gets to a point where one has too many mechs.

I recently realised I have too many mechs, and I'm sort of a collector type anyways. But I've got ~120, not including my incoming Phoenix Hawks and Kodiak's. And I play all of them... Or I would. But I've so many now I simply cannot cycle through them anymore. So many just sit there unused. That makes me sad.

As there's very little left that'll bring any capabilities I don't already have, I'll likely not be buying much of anything else now.

Except decals. I'm all for customisation options, if others can see them.
So I don't bother with cockpit items, but decals? Yeah,I'd be all over decals. Even with what will likely be a fairly limited set, being able to place them as demoed will allow more ways to make mechs mine, and I'm in for that.

I hope PGI adds more paid customisation options, anything to back them off mechs a little bit.

[RustyBolts]

Got to admit that I also think Pinpoint is one, if not the biggest issue in this game. All these high alpha blast that rip arms and legs off in a single blast would not be a problem if there was a cone of fire instead.