10 replies to this topic

[Solanthus]

New player here.

Myself and a few friends decided to try FW out last night.

I understand that there may be ways to counter the Long Tom, but we basically just decided that FW was garbage with this mechanic.

Admittedly we have only played a few matches, but honestly, it was about an hour and a half of very unpleasant gaming.

I can not properly explain the frustration of walking... across the map... then getting killed by automated artillery. In some chassis, it does not even seem possible to "get out of range".

By the time you have respawned in a new 'mech, the long tom cooldown is ready again.

Is this for real necessary in this game?

One of our unit members lost all 4 of his 'mechs to the Long Tom in a match last night.

Sure, maybe it has a lot to do with experience, but we have never had a problem with dying to other people in mechs. We definitely have a problem with this.

I doubt we will do any FW at all until this is removed, unless there is no artillery in play.

I realize there are threads about this already, but I feel like it needs to be drilled into the developers minds how dull this makes gameplay.

We want to play a tactical mech game. Focus on the stuff that people already like in your tactical mech game. Does this really enhance gameplay?

Look at the droves of threads and angry players complaining about this mechanic. Does this really enhance your game?

[Triordinant]

Maybe if the Faction Play population drops below 5% of the playerbase after the current Event PGI will have reason to shut Faction Play down and rework it from scratch? Nah...

[Bud Crue]

Triordinant, on 04 July 2016 - 03:48 PM, said:

Maybe if the Faction Play population drops below 5% of the playerbase after the current Event PGI will have reason to shut Faction Play down and rework it from scratch? Nah...

Before P3 Russ stated that less than 10% of the community played CW. Pretty sure it is significantly less than half that now. Maybe if it drops below 2.5%? Nah...

[Kael Posavatz]

Bud Crue, on 04 July 2016 - 04:09 PM, said:

Before P3 Russ stated that less than 10% of the community played CW. Pretty sure it is significantly less than half that now. Maybe if it drops below 2.5%? Nah...

And that 10% is too low to implement the kinds of features that would make FW more playable *cough*Match Maker*cough*

Unfortunately, CW, or FW, or whatever we are calling it this week was left to languish for nearly a year. A lot of people who played regularly way back when have left for a number of reasons, a lack of playability, perception of favoritism by Devs for (insert faction), over-nerfing or buffing (insert faction here), perception of favoritism for mercs (since they got a spiffy new rewards tier and Loyalists didn't), etc...

Phase III produced a nice picture frame for the portrait that was FW. Some of it was features we should have had from, if not the beginning, then soon after (unit management tools). But the big problem was that it did not address the problems (perceived or real) with the invasion game mode, or introduce sufficient incentive to increase population.

I, for one, love the idea of scouting. I like the rewards it offers. In fact, if the population was there I'd say run two scouting modes in parallel so that both sides could gain (or deny the other) the buffs. But the population isn't there, and too often what I see is that one side gains the LT, the other stops playing invasion and stops trying to counter-scout, then the side with the LT just stops playing even to ghost win (since you no longer drop) to victory. And when you do get people willing to drop against the LT (generally pugs trying for event points), too many see three or four mechs destroyed when trying to face off against a team with a 6-man. And then they see it again and again as the LT usually takes three or four passes to wipe out 48 mechs.

As fragile as Invasion is, that Long Tom is like a blind-folded operator swinging a wrecking ball at a building compromised by termites. Sooner or later something is going to give, and from what I've seen in in-game chat or heard over VOIP, it's going to be the player base.

The new maps are pretty, they can be used for scouting. Aside from LT, scouting is pretty and nice, but the rewards aren't game-breaking. But it doesn't address the issues with Invasion. Until those are, I'm not sure the player population (of FW) can improve.

[oldradagast]

It is difficult to imagine a worse decision to make amid the smoldering wreck of faction play than the Long Tom artillery.

So... we have a game mode that's in trouble thanks to it be allowed to rot on the vine for over a year after it was introduced. This game mode is riddled with flaws from bugs to crummy maps and game modes to endless seal-clubbing and bad attitudes; its player base is dwindling from already low numbers and it's sink or swim time.

Solution? Add an auto-kill mechanic to the game mode to wipe out PUG's and casuals and basically kill any fun anyone might still be having. I don't even...

How anyone thought that was a good idea is beyond me. If the goal of the Long Tom was to blow faction play away, it has succeeded in dealing that finishing blow to the player base.

Edited by oldradagast, 04 July 2016 - 05:01 PM.

[Sadistic Savior]

I posted in another forum on here complaining about the long tom and got blasted by everyone. "OMG you totally don't know how it works noob".

If the mechanic is legitimate, then PGI has done a really bad job at explaining it to players. Because it really feels like an I-Win button to me. I got one-shotted in a pristine Archer. Being One Shotted is not fun or challenging...it's just annoying.

I still play FP...in the Scout tab you can see if the Long Tom is unlocked. If it is, I don't play on that planet. I am boycotting anything with the Long Tom.

[R3av3r]

oldradagast, on 04 July 2016 - 05:01 PM, said:

It is difficult to imagine a worse decision to make amid the smoldering wreck of faction play than the Long Tom artillery.

So... we have a game mode that's in trouble thanks to it be allowed to rot on the vine for over a year after it was introduced. This game mode is riddled with flaws from bugs to crummy maps and game modes to endless seal-clubbing and bad attitudes; its player base is dwindling from already low numbers and it's sink or swim time.

Solution? Add an auto-kill mechanic to the game mode to wipe out PUG's and casuals and basically kill any fun anyone might still be having. I don't even...

How anyone thought that was a good idea is beyond me. If the goal of the Long Tom was to blow faction play away, it has succeeded in dealing that finishing blow to the player base.

This. Honestly, I'm at the point where I absolutely stand incredulous about the lack of response from the Dev Team.

How. On. Earth. Do. You. Not. Get. This?!

This isn't difficult. The moment Long Tom is active on a planet the planet basically becomes a ghost town. If you care at all about your game then you should take it pretty seriously that something you introduced is STOPPING PEOPLE FROM PLAYING.

I'm pretty sure if nobody showed up to play Call of Duty or Battlefield their team would get a pretty good clue that something was wrong and work pretty hard to fix it.

[Baulven]

Triordinant, on 04 July 2016 - 03:48 PM, said:

Maybe if the Faction Play population drops below 5% of the playerbase after the current Event PGI will have reason to shut Faction Play down and rework it from scratch? Nah...

If you stopped before the rework it from scratch bit you would have been right on the money I think. Seriously it takes effort to bork something as badly as CW is currently hosed.

[Triordinant]

Baulven, on 08 July 2016 - 04:53 AM, said:

If you stopped before the rework it from scratch bit you would have been right on the money I think. Seriously it takes effort to bork something as badly as CW is currently hosed.

You're probably right. From a business standpoint it actually makes little sense to put in more time, money and effort into something that appeals to only 5% of the playerbase.

[FallingAce]

Triordinant, on 04 July 2016 - 03:48 PM, said:

Maybe if the Faction Play population drops below 5% of the playerbase after the current Event PGI will have reason to shut Faction Play down and rework it from scratch? Nah...

Thought it was already below 5% even with the event

Why would they shut it down, when they do nothing to support it? It's not like they need the servers for the growing playerbase in quickplay.

They'll throw an occasional event at it when it doesn't interference with an event associted with a new mech pack.

Would you like to buy a mechpack?

[Nightmare1]

Just had my first match with Long Tom and am ready to see it disappear from the game. It killed half our Mechs before we even reached the gates. As soon as it hit, it would kill three fresh Mechs, then the Reds would push out and hit us 9v12. We'd scrap for two minutes, then Long Tom would kill another three of us and the Reds would mop up the rest. Our players pretty much quit even trying to fight back; none of our efforts even mattered.

PGI, please, please remove this from the game! It completely nullifies any reason anyone has for playing CW.