35 replies to this topic

[Black Fish]

Would you like to buy a 'Mech-pack?

[El Bandito]

Downtime eh? Grabbed my attention more than the rest.

[Alistair Winter]

Here's some other MWO news:

• "We are working on new skill trees. Can't say anything about what they will be like."
  
• "We are working on PVE. Well, we've got a guy working on AI. That's pretty much all we can tell you. We want to have single player content. Some day. That'd be cool."
  
• "Solaris is coming. Can't say anything about how that will work or what we'll do with the queue buckets."
  
• "Information warfare is coming back. No information about this, sorry."
  
• "New maps are coming. Eventually. And maybe we're fixing some old maps. Can't really say too much about this."
  
• "We will move the timeline forward. At some point. Maybe. Unfortunately, we have no information about this."
  
• "We are updating assault game mode with public testing. Replacing MFB's with proper bases. Will we do it on all existing maps? Do we have a date for public testing? I think we wrote it down on a napkin, let me check."

Way to keep the players interested in the long-term plans for the game.

[Black Fish]

I really wish they would at least add some context as to why they are changing or doing, such as nerfing a 'Mech that is not that great like QKD... there might be a good reason, but we just dont know it...

[Bishop Steiner]

Black Fish, on 20 July 2016 - 12:06 AM, said:

Would you like to buy a 'Mech-pack?

No News is Good News, or something like that?

*shrugs*

[Bud Crue]

Reading Alister's list above,for some reason made me think of the current state of Faction Play, and how Russ said it is supposed to be in its final state with only incremental changes being made in the future.

Sigh.

I really want to be supportive. I really want to be positive. But man, they make it so hard.

[AWOL 01]

Alistair Winter, on 20 July 2016 - 12:23 AM, said:

Information warfare is coming back. No information about this, sorry.

Made me chuckle. Then cry.

[1453 R]

Bud Crue, on 20 July 2016 - 08:57 AM, said:

Reading Alister's list above,for some reason made me think of the current state of Faction Play, and how Russ said it is supposed to be in its final state with only incremental changes being made in the future.

Sigh.

I really want to be supportive. I really want to be positive. But man, they make it so hard.

To be fair, what Russ actually said was "no more 'Phases' for Faction Play." Incremental changes doesn't mean no changes, it means they're not leaving FP untouched for months on end while they build up one gigantic overhaul. Sorta like how the base game doesn't get "Quickplay Phase 6" or whatever, it just gets changes whenever changes are ready to go.

Not that it matters, since FP is going to be an awful wasteland until either the last pitiful lingering remnants ot the original FP playerbase finally dry up and blow away, or until those pitiful lingering remnants stop blowing their lids sky-high every time Piranha does something to try and make the game mode more accessible for the regular schmuck who holds down a job, maybe has a family, and can't spare the twenty hours a week FP pseudo-military House units demand of their players.

Oh well.

On the original topic: are we ever going to stop demonizing Piranha for being a business that is in the business of selling things? When did "would you like a 'Mech pack" become a curse to castigate both the company and your fellow players with?

If you don't want a 'Mech pack? Guess what? There's this really cool thing you can do to signal your lack of interest in the 'Mech pack in question to Piranha, a special little life hack people 'round here seem to be unaware of. You ready for it? here it is...!:


DON'T FRIGGIN' BUY IT

Edited by 1453 R, 20 July 2016 - 09:30 AM.

[Deathlike]

You know... there are still things that stand to improve, like the Commo Rose that was added recently (Sorry!) or even the minimap (what's the next change, if any?).

I'm resigned to expect half-arsed deployments (like CW Phase 3) and waiting 60 to 90 days for "something" related to happen... to find out nothing new is on the pipeline.

[Rhaythe]

The PGI Informational Black-Hole Crisis of 2014 is back.

[Black Fish]

1453 R, on 20 July 2016 - 09:29 AM, said:

On the original topic: are we ever going to stop demonizing Piranha for being a business that is in the business of selling things? When did "would you like a 'Mech pack" become a curse to castigate both the company and your fellow players with?

If you don't want a 'Mech pack? Guess what? There's this really cool thing you can do to signal your lack of interest in the 'Mech pack in question to Piranha, a special little life hack people 'round here seem to be unaware of. You ready for it? here it is...!:

You know the news board is supposed to be there to highlight, well... news...
I don't mind if they put up 100 'Mech packs in the news board (although that might clutter things up a little bit), I just want them to also include some information about what they are up to. They talked about so many things like Info warfare which raised my and many others's curiosity quite a bit and then for a long time said nothing about it.

P.S We all know PGI is a business that needs a revenue... "would you like a 'Mech pack" is a joke, no-one should take it seriously... I bought the Night-Gyr and am looking forward to play with them...

Edited by Black Fish, 20 July 2016 - 10:05 AM.

[Zolaz]

Promises are just PGI's position at the time. Cant let things gameplay get in the way of that mech pack development.

[Bud Crue]

Black Fish, on 20 July 2016 - 10:02 AM, said:

You know the news board is supposed to be there to highlight, well... news...
I don't mind if they put up 100 'Mech packs in the news board (although that might clutter things up a little bit), I just want them to also include some information about what they are up to. They talked about so many things like Info warfare which raised my and many others's curiosity quite a bit and then for a long time said nothing about it.

P.S We all know PGI is a business that needs a revenue... "would you like a 'Mech pack" is a joke, no-one should take it seriously... I bought the Night-Gyr and am looking forward to play with them...

I had assumed that the town halls, and the road maps had essentially replaced the "news" feed. Yes, I recognize that neither the town halls or the road maps provide much in the way of details of substantive information, but still I had just assumed that those two things were now the "news" for good or ill.

[Coolant]

Alistair Winter, on 20 July 2016 - 12:23 AM, said:

Here's some other MWO news:

• "We are working on new skill trees. Can't say anything about what they will be like."
  
• "We are working on PVE. Well, we've got a guy working on AI. That's pretty much all we can tell you. We want to have single player content. Some day. That'd be cool."
  
• "Solaris is coming. Can't say anything about how that will work or what we'll do with the queue buckets."
  
• "Information warfare is coming back. No information about this, sorry."
  
• "New maps are coming. Eventually. And maybe we're fixing some old maps. Can't really say too much about this."
  
• "We will move the timeline forward. At some point. Maybe. Unfortunately, we have no information about this."
  
• "We are updating assault game mode with public testing. Replacing MFB's with proper bases. Will we do it on all existing maps? Do we have a date for public testing? I think we wrote it down on a napkin, let me check."

Way to keep the players interested in the long-term plans for the game.

Deadlines are expected in the newspaper industry. First paper to break a news story may gain or keep readers. The fluid software industry where decisions are made constantly and by so many different departments is not realistic. PGI has said what they are working on or want to work on and they are not required to do more. They are communicating even if you don't think it's enough. They may have internal deadlines, but they are not required nor is it wise for them to make it public. If they were a newspaper they would have to set deadlines - they are not.

Edited by Coolant, 20 July 2016 - 11:33 AM.

[Bud Crue]

Coolant, on 20 July 2016 - 11:31 AM, said:

Deadlines are expected in the newspaper industry. First paper to break a news story may gain or keep readers. The fluid software industry where decisions are made constantly and by so many different departments is not realistic. PGI has said what they are working on or want to work on and they are not required to do more. They are communicating even if you don't think it's enough. They may have internal deadlines, but they are not required nor is it wise for them to make it public. If they were a newspaper they would have to set deadlines - they are not.

I don't think anyone is asking PGI to make or meet any "deadlines" but rather to give information out on what is in fact the future of the game or even what they intend that future to be, but perhaps with just a touch more specificity than: "coming soon^TM" or "yeah were working on that I guess."

[Alistair Winter]

Coolant, on 20 July 2016 - 11:31 AM, said:

Deadlines are expected in the newspaper industry. First paper to break a news story may gain or keep readers. The fluid software industry where decisions are made constantly and by so many different departments is not realistic. PGI has said what they are working on or wand to work on and they are not required to do more. If they were a newspaper they would have to set deadlines - they are not.

That's all very, very, very irrelevant.

First of all, you'll note that my list was not about deadlines, but rather about content. We don't know anything about Solaris will look like, except that it will be called Solaris and have free-for-all and pre-made 8v8. That's it. We don't know anything about future maps, we don't know anything about the new skill trees, etc.

I could point to how other games are doing it. Other game developers will say something like "We're planning to make a new dungeon system and here's how it's going to work. We don't know when this will be in the game." But I don't even have to reference other games. We can go back and see how PGI used to do things in 2012 and 2013, when they presented their vision of MWO to the players, told us how they wanted to create information warfare, role warfare, community warfare, etc, and made videos and command chair posts and news articles about it.

They've stopped doing all that. We don't know when things are coming, that's fine. But we also have no idea what things are coming and what the game will look like when they deliver those things. CW Phase 3 was the last major project after UI 2.0 and previous CW Phase 1 & 2. And the current major project is.... what? Nobody knows.

PGI doesn't owe anyone anything, but it would be smart to give the players some indication that major things are being worked on and give the players something to look forward to beyond.... mech packs.

[1453 R]

Alistair Winter, on 20 July 2016 - 12:23 AM, said:

Here's some other MWO news:

• "We are working on new skill trees. Can't say anything about what they will be like."
  
• "We are working on PVE. Well, we've got a guy working on AI. That's pretty much all we can tell you. We want to have single player content. Some day. That'd be cool."
  
• "Solaris is coming. Can't say anything about how that will work or what we'll do with the queue buckets."
  
• "Information warfare is coming back. No information about this, sorry."
  
• "New maps are coming. Eventually. And maybe we're fixing some old maps. Can't really say too much about this."
  
• "We will move the timeline forward. At some point. Maybe. Unfortunately, we have no information about this."
  
• "We are updating assault game mode with public testing. Replacing MFB's with proper bases. Will we do it on all existing maps? Do we have a date for public testing? I think we wrote it down on a napkin, let me check."

Way to keep the players interested in the long-term plans for the game.

As a counterpoint: Piranha laid down their tentative plans for Supply Caches, including the in-game acquisition method, in a SUpply Cache news post, giving players insight into something they had admitted was still in development and was not yet nailed down.

The playerbase as a general collective whole blew 107% of their gaskets and went absolutely banana-bonkers bugnuts on Piranha over a feature that had specifically been labeled as experimental.

This playerbase - much like every other video game player base I've ever seen - is completely and utterly incapable of dealing with "Experimental". They see a thing, and no matter how tentative or early-prototype or concept-stage the developers repeatedly inform the playerbase the thing is, the playerbase assumes that the plan laid out in whatever news post they're getting is Absolute Inviolable Fact and proceeds to flipp more schittes than an earthquake in a cow pasture.

There's a reason Piranha - or Grinding Gear, or ArenaNet, or anyone else I've seen/interacted with in terms of live support of an ongoing online game - are incredibly reticent to share any sort of information that hasn't been 100% locked in. Because their player base always assumes anything they hear from any source for any reason is 100% locked in anyways, so why should they bother treating us as if we're capable of understanding the word 'prototype'?

[Raso]

Black Fish, on 20 July 2016 - 12:06 AM, said:

Would you like to buy a 'Mech-pack?

It doesn't have to be a mech-pack....

[Mystere]

1453 R, on 20 July 2016 - 11:40 AM, said:

As a counterpoint: Piranha laid down their tentative plans for Supply Caches, including the in-game acquisition method, in a SUpply Cache news post, giving players insight into something they had admitted was still in development and was not yet nailed down.

The playerbase as a general collective whole blew 107% of their gaskets and went absolutely banana-bonkers bugnuts on Piranha over a feature that had specifically been labeled as experimental.

This playerbase - much like every other video game player base I've ever seen - is completely and utterly incapable of dealing with "Experimental". They see a thing, and no matter how tentative or early-prototype or concept-stage the developers repeatedly inform the playerbase the thing is, the playerbase assumes that the plan laid out in whatever news post they're getting is Absolute Inviolable Fact and proceeds to flipp more schittes than an earthquake in a cow pasture.

There's a reason Piranha - or Grinding Gear, or ArenaNet, or anyone else I've seen/interacted with in terms of live support of an ongoing online game - are incredibly reticent to share any sort of information that hasn't been 100% locked in. Because their player base always assumes anything they hear from any source for any reason is 100% locked in anyways, so why should they bother treating us as if we're capable of understanding the word 'prototype'?

You're probably missing one very important thing. Who on Earth wanted those supply crates? It most certainly was not at the top of anyone's wish list, especially when compared to CW, IW, RW, and all other things missing from the game. As such, players blowing their gaskets was very much understandable.

Edited by Mystere, 20 July 2016 - 11:51 AM.

[Bud Crue]

1453 R, on 20 July 2016 - 11:40 AM, said:

As a counterpoint: Piranha laid down their tentative plans for Supply Caches, including the in-game acquisition method, in a SUpply Cache news post, giving players insight into something they had admitted was still in development and was not yet nailed down.

The playerbase as a general collective whole blew 107% of their gaskets and went absolutely banana-bonkers bugnuts on Piranha over a feature that had specifically been labeled as experimental.

This playerbase - much like every other video game player base I've ever seen - is completely and utterly incapable of dealing with "Experimental". They see a thing, and no matter how tentative or early-prototype or concept-stage the developers repeatedly inform the playerbase the thing is, the playerbase assumes that the plan laid out in whatever news post they're getting is Absolute Inviolable Fact and proceeds to flipp more schittes than an earthquake in a cow pasture.

There's a reason Piranha - or Grinding Gear, or ArenaNet, or anyone else I've seen/interacted with in terms of live support of an ongoing online game - are incredibly reticent to share any sort of information that hasn't been 100% locked in. Because their player base always assumes anything they hear from any source for any reason is 100% locked in anyways, so why should they bother treating us as if we're capable of understanding the word 'prototype'?

Totally disagree. Go back and read the post regarding PTS2 and particularly info-tech. The vast majority of players who participated in the testing liked and were supportive of most of what was being proposed...with the notable exception of ghost targeting. It was PGI who threw a fit and decided that if the players were unwilling to uniformly laud ALL of what they had proposed, well then we wouldn't get ANY of it. By doing that they created a self-fulfilling prophecy based on "see the players don't like or want change so why bother asking them". We did want change, we just recognized a poor aspect of the proposed change and rather than tweek or even discuss it with us, they threw out the baby with the bath water.

Moreover, look at the recent past, every correction that this community has gone nuts over, and PGI eventually did indeed fix (see original flamers and subsequent correction; see long tom...multiple times...so far; and yes, see supply crates, could have been avoided by having a friging discussion with us, by simply posting what was intended and why. But they don't. That is on PGI, not the community.