233 replies to this topic

[kapusta11]

Mcgral18, on 17 June 2016 - 11:41 PM, said:

In the pursuit of Esports?

You want to say that PGI dumb down MWO by trying to make it an ESport game because they want to appeal to wider audience and earn a lot of money that way? I don't think that's a safe way business wise. I's much safer to sell and easy to pick up game with dumbed down controls, even more agile mechs and infinite respawns. Not to say that it won't have as many mechs as MWO has.

Edited by kapusta11, 17 June 2016 - 11:59 PM.

[Jarl Dane]

Alistair Winter, on 16 June 2016 - 09:33 AM, said:

• Faction Play. Trying to reduce the number of buckets to reduce wait time. Basically trying to narrow it down to Clans vs IS. Russ is willing to have a roundtable conversation with 8-10 of the most significant unit leaders.

Alistair I've began my campaign, add this to your cliffnotes:




The people must know of their champion.

[Wintersdark]

Hit the Deck, on 17 June 2016 - 10:52 PM, said:

I don't know about this because certain games which are taken as challenging like the Dark Soul and XCom series, have a lot of following and show that they can be successful (financially). I think you just need to make a good game and people will appreciate and buy it.

I didn't say challenging. I said, specifically, complex sim.

While (very specifically) the right complex sim may work out, odds are long and definitely not what would be publishers are going to be very interested in funding.

XCOM is a turn based strategy game. There's a pre existing market for turn based strategy games, and it's pretty reasonably sized. Even so, the first (new) XCOM was released on a shoestring budget they were able to make work largely due to the TBS nature of the game, which really pulls down dev costs. And even then as much as it was awesome it was also a hot buggy mess for some time. Also, being predominantly single player, so many issues are sidestepped (complex netcode, server costs, etc) allowing a simple buy-the-box model.

Dark Souls was risky, but isn't actually very complex, it's just hard and punishing. If anything, Dark Souls is an old school arcade game in many ways, so it appeals to people who miss that hard element of challenge and no-hand-holding.

There hasn't been anything that would show much interest in hardcore much sim action, except MWO. From a game industry standpoint, this is a pretty complex much sim, despite how people like to deride it.

MWO hasn't been a massive success, though it's clearly profitable. There's certainly no indication that a MORE hardcore sim mechwarrior game would be more successful, and one could easily argue that going simpler and faster would draw more Steam players. Keep in mind, easy/hard is not linked to simple/complex.

I want a complex, hardcore much sim. But it's not going to happen.

Look at War Thunder. Compare it's populations between Realistic mode and Arcade mode. And I guarantee there are orders of magnitude more gamers out there looking for a realistic historical military aircraft sim than a Mechwarrior sim game.

There are real numbers out there - the numbers that publishers and investors would look at, and they are all very, very clear. More Arcadish/action/simple > hardcore realistic sim, by a mile.

[Johnny Z]

Wintersdark, on 18 June 2016 - 01:08 AM, said:

I didn't say challenging. I said, specifically, complex sim.

While (very specifically) the right complex sim may work out, odds are long and definitely not what would be publishers are going to be very interested in funding.

XCOM is a turn based strategy game. There's a pre existing market for turn based strategy games, and it's pretty reasonably sized. Even so, the first (new) XCOM was released on a shoestring budget they were able to make work largely due to the TBS nature of the game, which really pulls down dev costs. And even then as much as it was awesome it was also a hot buggy mess for some time. Also, being predominantly single player, so many issues are sidestepped (complex netcode, server costs, etc) allowing a simple buy-the-box model.

Dark Souls was risky, but isn't actually very complex, it's just hard and punishing. If anything, Dark Souls is an old school arcade game in many ways, so it appeals to people who miss that hard element of challenge and no-hand-holding.

There hasn't been anything that would show much interest in hardcore much sim action, except MWO. From a game industry standpoint, this is a pretty complex much sim, despite how people like to deride it.

MWO hasn't been a massive success, though it's clearly profitable. There's certainly no indication that a MORE hardcore sim mechwarrior game would be more successful, and one could easily argue that going simpler and faster would draw more Steam players. Keep in mind, easy/hard is not linked to simple/complex.

I want a complex, hardcore much sim. But it's not going to happen.

Look at War Thunder. Compare it's populations between Realistic mode and Arcade mode. And I guarantee there are orders of magnitude more gamers out there looking for a realistic historical military aircraft sim than a Mechwarrior sim game.

There are real numbers out there - the numbers that publishers and investors would look at, and they are all very, very clear. More Arcadish/action/simple > hardcore realistic sim, by a mile.

This is all right.

On the other hand MechWarrior online found a great balance between sim and arcade. With more addition like pilot eject animation and other additions to realism and improvements to balance, the entire thing will only improve.

I forgot to mention improvements to showing the scale of the mechs and many other improvements that can be done.

Biggest weakness in the game now is the static mechbay.... Not to mention lack of player character, NPC's, Theme/story, and a few other elements either completely missing or nearly painful like the static mechbay. Oh and the spinning wait circle of suck while waiting for a match. Ouch.

Edited by Johnny Z, 18 June 2016 - 02:07 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

Mech The Dane, on 18 June 2016 - 12:25 AM, said:

Alistair I've began my campaign, add this to your cliffnotes:
The people must know of their champion.

Done. I trust there's some sort of promotion in it for me. Head of Scandinavian Operations?

[Jarl Dane]

Alistair Winter, on 18 June 2016 - 02:06 AM, said:

Done. I trust there's some sort of promotion in it for me. Head of Scandinavian Operations?

I'll even make the stars in your banner move

[Alistair Winter]

Wintersdark, on 18 June 2016 - 01:08 AM, said:

I didn't say challenging. I said, specifically, complex sim.
While (very specifically) the right complex sim may work out, odds are long and definitely not what would be publishers are going to be very interested in funding.

Yeah. And to make matters worse, all the popular simulation games tend to be about stuff like trucks, airplanes, helicopters, farming machines, trains and ships. Real life stuff that a lot of people are fascinated with to begin with, or may indeed work with in real life.

There's not a lot of popular simulation games that revolve entirely around fictional settings, let alone science fiction. There are no popular Jupiter Gasworm Fishing simulators or Blackhole Mining simulators.

The Mechwarrior franchise has the challenge of being a sci-fi simulation. However, the game that comes to mind there is Star Citizen. Hopefully, Star Citizen will be a huge success, and this will give devs more faith in the sci-fi simulation market.

Mech The Dane, on 18 June 2016 - 02:08 AM, said:

I'll even make the stars in your banner move

Awesome. That should improve my forum street cred nicely! Not even Tarogato has that.

[Kshat]

Mech The Dane, on 18 June 2016 - 02:08 AM, said:

I'll even make the stars in your banner move

New title applied: the starmover

[Juodas Varnas]

Russ Bollock's mother was a hamster and his father smelled of elderberries.
And he belongs in a circus.
.
.
.
.
.
The rescales are nice, though.
Was hoping the Frozen City would be more... City. Hoped it'd be the first large mostly Urban map, but PGI sure does love to disappoint, i guess.

Edited by Juodas Varnas, 18 June 2016 - 03:25 AM.

[invernomuto]

Thanks a lot!

[627]

thanks for the work Al

Sounds good overall, a bit too much soon™ things but that's pgi.

But those minimap changes... not sure if I like that. especially on the larger maps this will be problem when you press the whole map into like 120pixels, doubtful that it will be of any use that way.

I like the different icons and not telling the mech direction, though.

[Deathlike]

Mech The Dane, on 18 June 2016 - 12:25 AM, said:

Alistair I've began my campaign, add this to your cliffnotes:




The people must know of their champion.

I can't stop laughing at the absurdity and insanity that is this promo ad.

Needs moar chair camo.

[Bud Crue]

Alistair,

Thanks for the summary. Just finished the video. Spot on.
Will give credit where credit is due: I think Russ did a better than average job on this TH. While I maintain that he didn't really give any insight on anything that the patch notes didn't already cover, it was nice to see him trying to show some excitement for the game and even humor the online participants. Appreciate that he threw out some "coming soon" things as well (skills tree). Only real criticism is the total lack of CW vision or fixes that many here were hoping he would mention. Getting rid of Ghost Drops is not going to save CW.

In the end, I am feeling a bit more positive about the game following this patch and TH and glad that Russ didn't insult anyone (he really needs to stop telling us that we really need to appreciate him for making MWO). So mission accomplished I guess.

[Juodas Varnas]

Bud Crue, on 18 June 2016 - 04:36 AM, said:

glad that Russ didn't insult anyone

Except for anyone who likes Quadrupedal mechs that is, right?

Bloody Canadians.

He literally went out of his way to insult anyone who likes them. What an absolute bloody arse. "Not real mechs", HAH, they're more "real mechs" than he is a "real dev"...


....*sigh* i'll just go eat ice cream and be miserable.

Edited by Juodas Varnas, 18 June 2016 - 05:55 AM.

[Bud Crue]

Juodas Varnas, on 18 June 2016 - 04:42 AM, said:

Except for anyone who likes Quadrupedal mechs that is, right?

Bloody Canadians.

He literally went out of his way to insult anyone who likes them. What an absolute bloody arse. "Not real mechs", HAH, they're more "real mechs" than he is a "real dev"...


....*sigh* i'll just go eat ice cream and be miserable.

I'm sorry Judas, I forgot about that. I was so wrapped up in my own relief that they didn't gut the Quickdraw in light of the rescale (I was really worried about that) that I did not see the pain Russ was causing others. Again my sympathies for your lost hope of Quads. I suppose it hurts even more given that reverse kinematics is apparently coming back too. DOh! Sorry man, didn't mean to rub it in!

[Alistair Winter]

Juodas Varnas, on 18 June 2016 - 04:42 AM, said:

Except for anyone who likes Quadrupedal mechs that is, right?
Bloody Canadians.
He literally went out of his way to insult anyone who likes them. What an absolute bloody arse. "Not real mechs", HAH, they're more "real mechs" than he is a "real dev"...
....*sigh* i'll just go eat ice cream and be miserable.

Come now, he just insulted the mechs, not people who like them.

Join me in Star Citizen, I'm sure we'll have quad mechs there.

[Juodas Varnas]

Bud Crue, on 18 June 2016 - 06:33 AM, said:

I'm sorry Judas, I forgot about that. I was so wrapped up in my own relief that they didn't gut the Quickdraw in light of the rescale (I was really worried about that) that I did not see the pain Russ was causing others. Again my sympathies for your lost hope of Quads. I suppose it hurts even more given that reverse kinematics is apparently coming back too. DOh! Sorry man, didn't mean to rub it in!

Quickdraw?
I'm honestly, disappointed that they didn't really DO anything to it, apart from the general rescale.

It's probably the mech that needed it the most, by that i mean, the whole proportion-messing they did to the Mad Cat, Vulture, Dire Wolf, Awesome, Catapult, etc.
But i guess, knowing PGI, it's a good thing, because they would've made it even worse.

[LordKnightFandragon]

PVE and AI, announcement at MechCon in December.....ugh, so far.

[Y E O N N E]

As far as information dumping goes, I think this was a fantastic Town Hall.

And, I think Russ is right. Another company taking up the MechWarrior franchise is very likely to give us a more streamlined version because that makes it easier to pick up and play. Which makes it appeal to a broader audience. Which gets more players. Which bring more money. I don't actually think MWO is half as bad as some make it out to be, even if I find some of the details that have emerged in its development rather puzzling.

[cazidin]

Yeonne Greene, on 18 June 2016 - 09:29 AM, said:

As far as information dumping goes, I think this was a fantastic Town Hall.

And, I think Russ is right. Another company taking up the MechWarrior franchise is very likely to give us a more streamlined version because that makes it easier to pick up and play. Which makes it appeal to a broader audience. Which gets more players. Which bring more money. I don't actually think MWO is half as bad as some make it out to be, even if I find some of the details that have emerged in its development rather puzzling.

Like say, EA or Ubisoft or Activision? I'd probably trust Bethesda with this series.