146 replies to this topic

[RussianWolf]

One word:

Stagnant

They can keep changing the lipstick, but the pig remains the same.

[Red Shrike]

Narcissistic Martyr, on 29 June 2016 - 05:32 AM, said:

Honestly? I'm not playing much anymore. It's been years and PGI still hasn't made any engaging complex game modes. FW is dull at best and feels like having your balls sandpapered raw at worst.

Pretty much this.

Edited by Red Shrike, 29 June 2016 - 09:05 AM.

[Mystere]

TheLuc, on 29 June 2016 - 05:26 AM, said:

Just want to know the thoughts of the community about the game in the current form,

[JediPanther]

Pretty boring now compared to the closed beta days really. The core function of being able to build a mech and engage another mech is the only good part of the game. Generally the art and models of the mechs are pretty dam cool which is why I went full founder. The C1 F video got me to play closed beta. Back then there was more fun in trying and using mixed builds. You didn't have to worry about fairly huge alphas insta-killing you as you do now.

Now it seems almost every mech and kill you with a single shot. Team work unless you are in a unit is pathetic at best. The only reason I still play is because I like lrm-ing it up with my catapult and I like the random 1 vs 1s in solo play as a light. When I get into a light vs another light I like all the sudden variables of the battle. Will he or I make the mistake of over heating? Will the rest of the team or another light suddenly enter the battle?

[STEF_]

Bishop Steiner, on 29 June 2016 - 07:43 AM, said:

Stagnant. Stale. Poorly balanced. Zero immersion. Too much focus fire, too low a ttk, but PGI is trying to address that in all the wrong ways.

Plays like a twitch shooter designed for three toed sloths with special needs.


And most certainly NOT a Battletech Game.

100% agree.

So maybe it's time to nerf your signature banner a bit

[STEF_]

EvilCow, on 29 June 2016 - 06:20 AM, said:

Artwork and the basic combat engine are excellent.

Stability is OKish.

Netcode is acceptable.

Balance is better than it has ever been but there is space for improvements.

FW/CW suffers from a too narrow vision of what the game should be, it is not epic as it should:
- Small maps, no need for scouts or other roles.
- Short missions, not like a real battle.
- Choke points, always the same, you know where the enemy is coming from.
- No purpose for classes, it is just combat around the gates. It is just guessing will it be left or rights side this time? yawn..
- Just two mission types, very repetitive.
- Longtom made things worse.

Now lets try exactly the opposite:
- Huge maps with random spawns and random objectives for attackers (scouts needed on both sides).
- Long missions, lets say at least one hour.
- No choke points.
- Class specific-roles, you should not want to drop all lights, all heavies, all assaults, all LRMs, all lasers, all anything.
- Random objectives can become multiple mission types: generators, bases, a player's mech, an antenna dish, etc, the objective/objectives types should be multiple and in any combination. For example: "destroy antenna dish somewhere in the combat zone THEN find the generator and destroy it THEN disable the enemy commander mech without destroying it. Defenders should not have full info about attackers objectives, it should go from 0% to 100% depending on intelligence status of the planet. It would be like a new game each time.

Please add epic.

Why does this remind me BT missions?
Pleanty of booklets with scenarios and campaigns.... but we have ZERO.

[Bishop Steiner]

Stefka Kerensky, on 29 June 2016 - 09:37 AM, said:

100% agree.

So maybe it's time to nerf your signature banner a bit

Siggy has always been ironic. Only people who could seriously think I'm a white knight are Reddiots who think anyone who isn't a full time black knight is a white one.

[Karl Streiger]

Stefka Kerensky, on 29 June 2016 - 09:37 AM, said:

100% agree.

So maybe it's time to nerf your signature banner a bit

Sometimes you realize that the need to save the game and to save the people is not the same.

Although I have to applause to the constance of PGI when ever you think there is something they can't do wrong they proof their ability again to screw it - for example Assault Mode might become awesome - but it would be stale and unbalanced just another frustrating addition.

I hope to be wrong - but men I would jump right into closed beta again

Edited by Karl Streiger, 29 June 2016 - 09:44 AM.

[KHETTI]

The Fact that there is a thread on the MWO forums discussing WoWs by peeps who essentially "used" to play MWO.
Nuff said!.

[Revis Volek]

Stagnant, Dull, Myopic.


I am still here but only because it the only Stompy Robutt game in town really. So i guess they have that going for them but i have a hard time playing more then 2 or 3 drops if there arent any friends on my TS server.

Friends in the game are the only thing keeping me here, and one unit i used to play with has already moved on to other games. So once this one does the same that may be it for me as well...

Edited by Revis Volek, 29 June 2016 - 09:47 AM.

[Revis Volek]

Bishop Steiner, on 29 June 2016 - 09:41 AM, said:

Siggy has always been ironic. Only people who could seriously think I'm a white knight are Reddiots who think anyone who isn't a full time black knight is a white one.

Your either a white Knight or a bitter vet, gray knights are mythical creatures like unicorns.


We only deal in absolutes around the interwebs.

[Teslar Kain]

If I could drop down to tier 3 (where I belong) then I would continue to play. As it is, I'm seriously considering uninstalling. I've tried to only keep mechs that are distinctive from each other, so that each one plays differently (this one has balistics, that one has lasers, this one is a hit and run, that one is a brawler, etc). but even that self-imposed variety is going to get stale sooner or later.

[Revis Volek]

Teslar Kain, on 29 June 2016 - 09:49 AM, said:

If I could drop down to tier 3 (where I belong) then I would continue to play. As it is, I'm seriously considering uninstalling. I've tried to only keep mechs that are distinctive from each other, so that each one plays differently (this one has balistics, that one has lasers, this one is a hit and run, that one is a brawler, etc). but even that self-imposed variety is going to get stale sooner or later.

Why do you think you belong in t3?


Because you arent clubbing seals? Or because you arent having fun? Whats your avg match score?

I mean once you start seeing actual competition the matches get fun. Stomping pups still wet behind there ears is just boring, it takes no skill, no hard work, no time and preparation. You can just rambo and be the victor(maybe even in a VTR).

[RussianWolf]

Teslar Kain, on 29 June 2016 - 09:49 AM, said:

If I could drop down to tier 3 (where I belong) then I would continue to play. As it is, I'm seriously considering uninstalling. I've tried to only keep mechs that are distinctive from each other, so that each one plays differently (this one has balistics, that one has lasers, this one is a hit and run, that one is a brawler, etc). but even that self-imposed variety is going to get stale sooner or later.

play some Stock Urbies for a while and you'll find yourself back down at T3.

[Revis Volek]

RussianWolf, on 29 June 2016 - 09:57 AM, said:

play some Stock Urbies for a while and you'll find yourself back down at T3.

I actually went from high T3 to T2 leveling Urbies.

That was however before Paul nerfed them.

[Tyler Valentine]

I've played 14 matches since the leader board started and those were mostly last week. The game is stale and requires frequent breaks.

[STEF_]

to OP:
yesterday I received this mail: Battletech from HBS

Campaign Setting Details!
Posted by Harebrained Schemes LLC (Creator)
[color=#020621]
Hey folks, Mike here again - we’ve got another big ol’ Lore update for you guys today, this time focused on the region of space the game’s single-player campaign will take place in. For this one I’m turning things over to Kevin Maginn, our Design Lead and resident historian. In addition to leading the charge on systems design, he’s been responsible for fleshing out all the detailed history and geography of our game - the setting material - essentially laying all the groundwork for our writers to build a great story with. What follows won’t contain any *story* spoilers, however it does provide some backstory and setting information that would otherwise only be learned during the campaign. I just love all the bits of history and context that Kevin and the team have come up with for the story campaign, and am excited to share this first peek at it all![/color]
[color=#020621]
(And if you haven't seen our previous Lore Update about your home base during the campaign, the Argo-class DropShip, you can check it out here!)[/color]
[color=#020621]
==================[/color]

Meet the Team: Kevin Maginn, Design Lead!
[color=#020621]
Hi! I’m your friendly Design Lead on the BattleTech project. You’ve maybe seen me on the forums trolling you as HBS_Thratchen.[/color]
[color=#020621]
I’ve been in the game industry for over 15 years, working as a designer for most of those years. I’ve designed MMOs, casual mobile games, browser games, and action games. Now I’m working on the kind of game I actually like to play: turn-based strategy.[/color]
[color=#020621]
I’ve been gaming since I was 8 years old, when my mom bought me the Moldvay edition of D&D (which dates me, unfortunately!) I’ve been a fan of BattleTech since 1987, when it competed for table time among my friends with Traveller and Gamma World. I’m a historian by education, and by far my favorite thing about BattleTech is the enormously detailed future history of the setting. I love future histories. I can’t get enough of them. If a sci-fi RPG comes with a timeline, it’s the first thing I read when I crack open the book. I’m the guy who read every. Single. Codex. Entry. in the first Mass Effect.[/color]
[color=#020621]
So when it was time to figure out where our game would be set, and how it would fit into the overall BattleTech world? That’s pretty much fun-time for me. Sometimes this job is just a job. Other times, you get to write fictional future histories for rich sci-fi settings.[/color]
[color=#020621]
So in this update I’m going to tell you about a little piece of the Periphery, way down in the Rimward region, caught between the Capellans, the Taurians and the Magistracy. We call it the Aurigan Reach.[/color]
[color=#020621]
(Oh, and since it’s traditional, my current favorite ’Mech is the Kintaro KTO-18. And my favorite House is not a House; it’s the Taurian Concordat. Unless I’m allowed to choose the Tetatae.)[/color]
[color=#020621]
==================[/color]

History of the Aurigan Reach

[img]https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/PXHB45-yTKhvoM9_nSRXTXqtSOXh9V38iTPjiAlHtTCYnYak_MTTiKmiCPNyUfgdw1DRQvLKArpN9ZRQp9sfhV8qlqt_HZboEx_3NWSkHhvfy9eZifPzcTYzX2fC7Bm3eX3KT5fDe7qO-IUaeXq50AoQYLzr7NTEJoC0ibk_LcHLteUMDL5ab9kaiTv5BgApMHjAPPGtsjZ9w_Gd_7cg8ScHLBze8QMVSVIGOzjNGrlYx1zqzLlWtV2PJrBa06yY=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/012/883/615/bd72cff9dc274295d8479d5835da22b7_original.jpg?w=700&fit=max&v=1467091464&auto=format&q=92[/img] The Inner Sphere, circa 3025. [color=#020621]
[/color]
[color=#020621]
At the edges of the Inner Sphere lies the Periphery. The systems there were far from the protective embrace of Earth, and were thus colonized by outcasts, misfits, renegades, and those who simply valued freedom and independence more than they valued comfort and safety. As a consequence, the Periphery has always been a somewhat lawless fringe, a haven for misfits and refugees, the Wild West to the civilized Inner Sphere.[/color]
[color=#020621]
In a very real way, though, it was the marginal nature of the Periphery that directly led to the chaos of the current era; the traitor Amaris was a product of the Periphery and was radicalized by two centuries of the Inner Sphere’s iron-fisted occupation of his homeland. His resentment and hate led to civil war, the catastrophic collapse of the Terran Hegemony, and with it the fall of the Star League.[/color]

[img]https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/YfwDz7MOdLfAUpnarihD9FBjstxhVWIGZOsgb2BX2cshpsOHwUjpW0aOQZpddNtyKXgfB5iQzBoD2ANP-jJHj4Z693nxFBQaTscebqOlczxLPyjFozLhhyUZhiP84olgFPY2YtSSEC8_yEKM96r-6hE2TpqBVXDanwYLcbZu4TnQYuwZVyf6TZZAsxXb-rDQj3kDeNNX_jRY4gneEWC98R6yMROyXwaspOCoXilHq3_1MzFJ7nZlquT6rWuIKi5L=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/012/883/642/4a6171107835acf11b3da3665d30e5c1_original.jpg?w=700&fit=max&v=1467091633&auto=format&q=92[/img] A brief timeline of the history of the Inner Sphere (2271-3025). [color=#020621]
[/color]
[color=#020621]
In the wake of that fall, the Succession Wars have crippled all of humanity, and the Periphery is no exception. With the chaos of constant war, economies have shrunk, non-essential projects have been curtailed, and planets that might have once been worth colonizing have been abandoned, their colonists evacuated or left to starve in isolation.[/color]
[color=#020621]
The rimward area of the Periphery (what looks like ‘south’ on a map) includes a lightly-settled region that’s known as the Aurigan Reach. While once divided between the Magistracy of Canopus, the Taurian Concordat, and the Capellan Confederation, all three withdrew from the region during the wars, preferring to hold more secure borders and less marginal systems. The distant, poorly-developed worlds of the Reach weren’t worth the danger of overextending one’s power, given the sudden brutality of the Succession Wars.[/color]
[color=#020621]
The Capellans, hard-pressed by their rivals in the Inner Sphere, were first to abandon the Aurigan Reach, and by 2798 they’d withdrawn to a new, more defensible line, from Repulse to Rollis, leaving over a dozen systems to their own devices. The Taurians, in the wake of the disastrous and humiliating Taurian-Canopian War in 2813, turned away from expansionism, and likewise abandoned their Reach holdings. The Magistracy was the last to hold on to any Reach systems, but their claim was always more of a line drawn in the sand against the Taurians than any real colonial ambition; by 2840, their military forces were withdrawn to their own borders, leaving a vast and lawless region behind.[/color]
[color=#020621]
Power cannot tolerate a vacuum, though, and many of the abandoned systems had significant populations, industry, and commerce. Four of those systems were particularly well-suited to continue on as though still part of an interstellar civilization: Coromodir, Itrom, Tyrlon and Guldra. Trade between them continued, and the network of JumpShips continued to serve them, and through them some of the nearby, more marginal systems.[/color]
[color=#020621]
Of the four, Coromodir was the wealthiest and retained the most infrastructure and technology from the Taurian colonization. Two major mercantile houses, the Arano family and the Espinosa family, dominated the remains of the Taurian-led economy, and were natural leaders for the newly independent world. In 2820, the Arano family displaced the figurehead governor the Taurians had left behind, and with the support of the Espinosa family, Wiremu Arano ascended to the governorship.[/color]
[color=#020621]
This independence and leadership was needed as the Taurians withdrew from the remainder of the Reach over the next 20 years. By the time the withdrawal was complete, the Aurigan Reach was a haven for pirates and renegades, warlords setting up their own petty kingdoms, and worse.[/color]
[color=#020621]
In 2860, the Arano and Espinosa families approached their counterparts on Itrom, Guldra and Tyrlon with a proposal: a mutual protection and trade agreement that would allow coordinated and unified responses to the plague of piracy. As the primary financier of the agreement, the Arano representative was given executive authority over the newly formed Aurigan Trade Partnership.[/color]
[color=#020621]
By 2910, there had been a half-century for the ties between the four systems to deepen into alliances. Uniting the eight most powerful noble families of the Aurigan Reach, Keona Arano formalized the Partnership into a government, with herself positioned as High Lady. The other Founding Lords and Ladies sat at her side as members of her advisory council. This new state declared itself the Aurigan Coalition.[/color]

[img]https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/tPhSgtbgCiDcYO20BPnfPlCdBwnCxjWmjH6dEYuiXEJ8HwsG7_IC9CCHhW0GOvtjnD4p7Gjy8k4bW26gXAZ7Y8t1losJsUAkEDlNogGNAq0qFoxQwzcMCZWJ5M2tSqYJCLofgmt_GVA64BKiN6GQot6kDWcKCmaROOzOONtsFaYCWmVSg23j45viUTY4pUDWbPf0Fedl_LLytfxI_mjsYAuyv8g2Uwai4jGF4vwll6i6GutuLVglY-dixpIctoAn=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/012/883/666/149ab9f3c902975c3d2469f1f97adee4_original.jpg?w=700&fit=max&v=1467091826&auto=format&q=92[/img] The Aurigan Coalition and surrounding environs, circa 3025. (We anticipate this map being roughly the traversable space of the campaign.) [color=#020621]
[/color]
[color=#020621]
Over the next fifty years, the Coalition grew and incorporated many other nearby systems, most of them former Capellan holdings. This included the industrial world of Mechdur, which was already successful and self-sufficient; when Mechdur joined, the Coalition gained access to a powerful industrial and manufacturing engine that allowed for a much higher standard of living than other systems of the Reach could sustain.[/color]
[color=#020621]
The Coalition’s inexorable growth was not simply ignored by its neighbors, though. The Taurian Concordat wasn’t threatened by a simple trade partnership, but now the Coalition was beginning to look like an expansionist state, and a possible rival. It didn’t help matters than some of the systems the Coalition was annexing were former Taurian holdings, many with industrial and technological resources left behind in the withdrawal.[/color]
[color=#020621]
By the second decade of the new millennium, tensions had risen to the point where the Taurians sent a dedicated envoy to their new neighbor state to discuss the legal status of several border worlds, most particularly Qalzi, which the Taurians insisted was still a viable colony and thus under their control. The matter was quickly tangled in treaty negotiations and diplomatic red tape, and the conflict continued to simmer right up to the present day.[/color]

[img]https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Vh_ERCxESPR_ktG1CZN7xIt4yS6-PyiCNosUqO4i5vSyaYbj8kblgt8x1KwhAYN4_INOpjarPYFRpJkcTljuWs23_z9pZYpGJS_pk7Rp6xdXyAqU4wWmVfinzxzVI8GAr9fUq9zbRnh3to6WjMmJwI3DF7fEE629l6Rmh4vvt8k9YpxvkFG7g1PC6h0UpETEn9KDd_vg63nchNWUvoyaZGA402SYuUgJV8YAzv3kGbR9OFIL6_Z-TiKCUPOj3-ZE=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/012/883/678/97395f767c8bb08ec4feb385181dd948_original.jpg?w=700&fit=max&v=1467091904&auto=format&q=92[/img] The High Lord of House Karosas, one of several Founding Houses of the Aurigan Coalition, entrusts the family ’Mech to his son and heir. [color=#020621]
[/color]
[color=#020621]
Now the powerful and indomitable scion of the Arano family, High Lord Tamati Arano II, has been lost in a tragic space travel accident. His daughter and heir, Lady Kamea Arano, must prepare herself to navigate her state through the dangerous pathways of the Succession Wars. Conflict with the Taurians threatens on one border, and on the other looms the vast power of the Capellan state and its devious ruling family, House Liao; meanwhile internal dissension threatens the prosperity her family has nurtured for over two centuries.[/color]
[color=#020621]
==================[/color]

Behind the Scenes
[color=#020621]
So! That’s the setting of our game, in a nutshell. I’m not including everything here, of course; there’s simply too much material to include in a Kickstarter update. And besides, some of what I’m not telling you is secret stuff that would spoil the game’s story![/color]
[color=#020621]
There are a couple of things I want to share about this history and how we ended up picking this location.[/color]
[color=#020621]
Our first priority was to find a way to coexist with BattleTech lore. This is really a lot more challenging than you might think; after all, it’s just space, right? There’s always more of it. But to make this a BattleTech story, one that had the right tone and texture, we needed to be near the Inner Sphere. On the other hand, the Inner Sphere’s history is detailed across more books and supplements than we could possibly account for. We needed somewhere interesting, close but not too close, and basically empty. A blank slate where we could do whatever needed to be done to make our story work.[/color]
[color=#020621]
I kept noticing this empty spot between the Taurians and the Magistracy, a little horseshoe of unclaimed space. What was that space? What was there? I eventually found the history of the Fronc Reaches, but that was well after our game was set. When I looked at the Star League era maps, though, I saw that before the Succession Wars, the area that was blank on later maps was owned by the Taurians and the Capellans. Interesting. So it had been colonized, and then abandoned.[/color]
[color=#020621]
The problem is that no map had any details on those systems. There were some, with some really sketchy star positions, but nothing comprehensive.[/color]
[color=#020621]
So I downloaded every map I could find from Sarna, and mined our comprehensive library of BattleTech books (thanks to Jordan’s extensive collection and the digital archives kindly provided by Catalyst Game Labs) for more maps. And then I dumped them all into Photoshop, lined them up carefully, and made a master map that included every single system labeled on any map anywhere.[/color]

[img]https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/hZKPhumourpLrNkDAxh12or9obUgNO4TSyOVLqfYK-UccseOQR465U9TsUq40VSajCXC3AvFfDYt39JKWR4p0bw974hEcQMlmAdyyQyUSR5J0ekaNNMIbfVdCQS424vHmLUBHxJkxGDGdJshyxlWmbdcw6hzDfCmE_Fybuce5RXovBPa4UhcQZ6IZ8UAa9WSWwoPcQBUnvd059Kh7yrvUPe5em_rosi20019UcpfiRZBRSCyKQpAVobj_XoLEuDb=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/012/883/708/749168579b381e0b693ac6ef05280cd5_original.jpg?w=700&fit=max&v=1467092211&auto=format&q=92[/img] The first draft (if you can call it that!) of our master map. [color=#020621]
Turns out there was a lot of stuff in that little horseshoe. Over 30 systems, in fact. The next step was to find out what we already knew about these systems. The answer, which was exactly what I was hoping for, turned out to be ‘nothing’. They were the blank slate we wanted.[/color]
[color=#020621]
It’s easy to look at the area covered by a map of the Inner Sphere and lose sight of just how massive space really is. The Periphery is 450 light years away from Terra. There are an estimated two million stars in that amount of space. The little nook we’re calling the Aurigan Reach is 120 light years across. That space contains something like ten thousand stars just in that region, and five hundred G-type (Sol-sized) stars. So this little horseshoe of space was much, much larger than we could possibly fill. Perfect.[/color]

[img]https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/XxOorU6zxoyd1K3ZF6tYCm9oRe4HGD9HRZELK8c28SUMXbr3axFdQNmoCPz3hAtAVCku0pLNk0b8NQGuja73EZMoIIiPZMm0D0vjsE27OewozX9l6RujBwvqOUcGW09juAbM8IhoxJFt2b-Zh1TeB1ZaYWsgneKNqSZlzvWjiU4_0ucv-Ae8XtXz4eyFjGeaIuEamokUp9oLfNVK0nfRLZx2EpVwphiy-CpWzHZWjnhmnLsWbmHUiMutFeYWwGOc=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/012/883/720/b46745d0e1a2a4055d3af8567ea1111d_original.jpg?w=700&fit=max&v=1467092311&auto=format&q=92[/img] The second draft of our master map. [color=#020621]
I already had a vague picture of what this ‘little’ nook of Periphery was all about, but it took a lot of discussions with Jordan, Mike and Randall about the political situation of the Inner Sphere in 3025, the kinds of meddling the Great Houses were likely to get up to in this abandoned corner of space, and the kinds of stories we wanted to tell there, before we really nailed down the shape of the history.[/color]
[color=#020621]
Our amazing Lead Writer, Andrew McIntosh, took the rough historical sketch and turned it into a grim tale of dynastic succession, murder, sabotage, intrigue and war -- and that’s just the backstory. We worked through the politics of the Coalition, the major personalities, the power players and their holdings, and the likely future of the region. We're not quite ready to share much of this material yet, but you can expect us to reveal concept art and character bios for some of the major players in our story later this year.[/color]

[img]https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/_0CTUiq0cKSv5uzFGUMgciYti68BlkqJPXBbEAcVZuUwgJebdKqM6IzIGPPt2uCEBLm84RZn3JEfsY7WAkLXssi0hMcBaduhCIpGt10jDHcJGIQIjiyzAfyem_IkcXAm_nO4IXNKAbGgdIqLd9kxGYID_k8Ik2ahRfoDT52rRFfODwV0Z-U3aCdaYSHWDlSIsYaOYp_CNUB-EHYdPYEv1IzST5McOiX11Cjk5wLJmtabiAcKen0WfXnRgm9d5oli=s0-d-e1-ft#https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/012/883/728/e0139bd30b995dd7b093688b8b1c19af_original.jpg?w=700&fit=max&v=1467092390&auto=format&q=92[/img] ...but in lieu of story details, here’s a new piece of concept art of the Argo on approach to dock with an Invader-class JumpShip. (The main engines are burning to decelerate.) [color=#020621]
[/color]
[color=#020621]
So what we’ve ended up with is a set of systems that appear in Star League sources but nowhere else, that have only minimal pre-existing history: a perfect canvas onto which you’ll paint your own tale of mercenaries, power struggles, upheavals and betrayals. We hope what we’ll create together will feel like a part of the BattleTech universe, like a missing puzzle piece we’ve found and placed right at the edge.[/color]


edit: sorry I don't fix images, but you can have an idea about what BT is going to be.

Edited by Stefka Kerensky, 29 June 2016 - 10:22 AM.

[Revis Volek]

Honestly, that email is more thought out then this entire game.


Wish i had the money to help when the kickstarter was around, i bought a new Co2 Laser Instead.

[RussianWolf]

Revis Volek, on 29 June 2016 - 10:06 AM, said:

I actually went from high T3 to T2 leveling Urbies.

That was however before Paul nerfed them.

STOCK?

I find that hard to believe. Especially in the QP queue. Maybe in group when your teammates can cover your slowness.

[Cy Mitchell]

I like the game. I miss playing it when I can't play for one reason or another. I think it is a very good game for what it is. Much of the problem I see with it is that it is being pulled in too many directions at one time. There are those that want it to be a BattleTech game. There are those that want it to be a first person shooter. There are those that want it to be a Mech sim. And finally, there are those that want it to be a MechWarrior game. It is none of those. In their efforts to satisfy everyone, PGI has not been able to satisfy anyone.

I have seen many say that the game is dead and that the player population is too low to make anything in the game work right. That is simpley not true. We have all heard that MW/BT is a niche market. That is true. The game will never have hundreds of thousands or millions of players worldwide. But there are tens of thousands playing. The leaderboard is ranking over 30,000 players who have played this since the leaderboard went active with the latest patch a little over a week ago. While that is a drop in the bucket compared to some modern FPS games, it is a decently strong showing compared to some previous MW titles.

Some of the best things about MWO are also the things that cause so many in game problems and player dissatisfaction. PGI has quite honestly given the player too much freedom in the game. The MechLab is a prime example. Players are allowed to modify Mechs extensively. While this is very satisfying and fun, it quite frankly allows the player to break the game by creating Mech loadouts that are so efficient that it makes balancing a nightmare. Whenever, PGI makes an attempt to achieve balance and reign in the power of some of the top builds their efforts are met with much angst and gnashing of teeth by those that love and depend on those machines to achieve the pinnacle of in-game performance.

Quick Play is awesome and great for the casual gamer who just wants to jump in a play a few matches. It is the most successful part of MWO. It is also vilified by the hardcore players and those who wanted to see MWO become a planetary league type game based on the BattleTech IP. This again highlights the problem with the different visions that the community has for the game. Often the visions run directly contrary to what another group desires.

My time playing FW (FP/CW) was brief. As a member of a unit on a friends account who has stopped playing MWO, I played on both the winning side and the losing side in matches. In all the time I played FW, I never once experienced a competitive game. Every drop was totally one sided with either the unit I dropped with annihilating a team of PUGs or a combination of small units or , if I dropped in a PUG group, we would get roll stomped by a organized unit. It was not fun whether I won or lost and very soon every game was exactly like the last. The maps are poorly designed, the missions make no plausible sense, the objectives are borderline idiotic and the only role is to kill as fast as possible. Not fun. I can see why the population is so low in FP and it has very little to do with an overall low game population.

Just like everyone else, I have my vision of what the game should be. I do not want a BattleTech game per se. BattleTEch is a board game and it just does not translate well as an action game. I do not want a FPS game. There are dozens of those on the market that have many years of development and advancements behind them which make it very difficult for MWO to compete with them head to head. What I want is a Mechwarrior game. That means it has to be a Mech Sim with FPS elements, RPG (as in customizing your character ie your Mech and providing some objectives in game) and it has to feel like you are at the controls of a giant war machine. MWO actually does many of these things well IMO. You have the best looking Mechs that have ever walked across a computer screen. You have a MechLab that allows you to customize your Mech extensively (too much?). You have the attempt to provide objectives (needs work). And you have the FPS elements that feel pretty good considering you are not a soldier running around in battle fatigues.

I have easily spent more money on this game since coming back to it six months ago than I have spent on any other game in my life. I have done so because I enjoy it, have fun playing it and see the untapped potential that can turn this game from a good iteration of a Mechwarrior game to the best Mechwarrior game ever produced. Things that are being developed for release later this summer have me excited and optimistic about the direction the game is going. Though I have been disappointed with some of the decisions made by PGI, I am still hopeful that they will settle on a direction and a goal for the game and stick to it despite the tug-of-war that take place every day on the forum, Reddit and Twitter.

Edited by Rampage, 29 June 2016 - 11:03 AM.