78 replies to this topic

[El Bandito]

You are not giving a lick about the lore of Battletech, the very thing that made me a dedicated Mechwarrior fan.

Take a simple example: During the recent FW event, the Jade Falcons had attacked Hesperus II (spearheaded by mercs, which in itself is extremely lore breaking, but lets stick to the point). THE Hesperus II--hosting the most well known mech factory, Defiance Industries--the site of so many famous sieges, and mentioned in so many source materials. Even in your barebones of a FW, I felt compelled to defend the place against all odds the Falcons could throw at it, since I am attached to its lore.
Yet when the match load screen came out what did I see in the planetary info? Not a damn thing. That's right, one of the most well known planet has no planetary info. And you call yourselves BT fans?

It is the small things that matter PGI, I hope you realize that soon.

[3xnihilo]

Too bad they don't have the planet info set up as some kind of a wiki, so that people could add, review, and edit planets as they came across familiar ones.

[YourSaviorLegion]

I've stated one thing I would like to see is a mechworks facility as a warfare map where the defender mechs actually spawn out of instead of a dropship.

[Summon3r]

"realize that soon" you mean like sooner then the what 5+ years of minimally viable product we have?

good lord we cant even get a lore related description of each mech.

[El Bandito]

3xnihilo, on 23 July 2016 - 06:17 PM, said:

Too bad they don't have the planet info set up as some kind of a wiki, so that people could add, review, and edit planets as they came across familiar ones.

That works too, but all PGI had to do was to copy paste a brief info from sarna.net.

[DaZur]

When the five four pillars were toppled to make way for the asinine e-Sport premise, Lore became nothing but a frame of reference for the artwork and a loose abstract to the mechanics...

What we have here is what I not so affectionately call "Bubblegum Battletech".

Edited by DaZur, 24 July 2016 - 07:40 AM.

[TELEFORCE]

This game would be so much better with the proper implementation of lore. I hate going into FP matches where other players have no idea what they're in combat for other than just to shoot up the other side.

While the shoot-'em-up part is a lot of fun, BattleTech has 30 years of lore and fiction shaping the universe. We really need that. Heck, I remember the creator of BattleTech, Jordan Weisman, expressing disdain over the lack of attention the lore has been getting in recent MechWarrior games. And it seems like MWO is continuing that trend

[CycKath]

El Bandito, on 23 July 2016 - 06:23 PM, said:

That works too, but all PGI had to do was to copy paste a brief info from sarna.net.

I contribute heavily to Sarna and think this is a bad idea. Ideally taking info from official sources and not a fan wiki should be the goal.

Of course PGI's own official wiki will likely fall into the same trap...

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

DaZur, on 23 July 2016 - 06:28 PM, said:

When the five pillars were toppled to make way for the asinine e-Sport premise, Lore became nothing but a frame of reference for the artwork and a loose abstract to the mechanics...

What we have here is what I not so affectionately call "Bubblegum Battletech".

and an excuse to make the people who like lore to stab each other over why you cant have a mech. IE timeline

[Chuck Jager]

Lore should not incorporate TT stats. That is a completely different game.

My whole experience with BT is mechwarrior and I only really care about the online gaming experience. I do like the storyline and images, and like all stories they should and will change based on the audience.

Also, a huge percentage of effort is wasted trying to placate TT fans instead of dealing with what needs to be done. Yes I know they incorporate a large part of the initial player base, but their numbers have just as much as a negative impact as positive when it comes to directions and allocating funds.

I am not a hater, I have had to learn this lesson the hard way with the Starwars universe and WW2 aircraft sims. Online game play has a set of expectations that have to trump the lore, because their play styles and expectations will determine how the game plays.

[RestosIII]

I haven't touched the books of Battletech (I keep forgetting to go hunting for them, they don't exist at my local book stores and I'm too poor to order them online) but even I knew about Hesperus II. Sadly, PGI, the creators of a Mechwarrior game, apparently don't.

[Tarl Cabot]

Are there any opinions that PGI would really fubar the lore bit?

But Chuck, I think what many are getting at is that the info is available, something that could add just the right touch to give... flavor... to the game. You see something about a planet, and once you are finished you go off looking for additional info.

When a friend gave me a copy of the original Mechwarrior game without the manual with the codes, I went looking for the codes, learning more about the military alphabet but was caught, line, hook and sinker into the BT/MW universe.

At least with the info, that info is a lot more accessible now than it was when I started back in 1990s.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 23 July 2016 - 08:34 PM.

[RestosIII]

Tarl Cabot, on 23 July 2016 - 08:29 PM, said:

Are there any opinions that PGI would really fubar the lore bit?

But Chuck, I think what many are getting at is that the info is available, something that could add just the right touch to give... flavor... to the game. You see something about a planet, and once you are finished you go off looking for additional info.

When a friend gave me a copy of the original Mechwarrior game without the manual with the codes, I went looking for the codes, learning more about the military alphabet but was caught, line, hook and sinker into the BT/MW universe.

At least with the info, that info is a lot more accessible now than it was when I started back in 1990s.

"You see, Kerensky instituted a system where people could buy mechs with MC, and then stick smiley faces all over their Mad Cats..."

[Mystere]

DaZur, on 23 July 2016 - 06:28 PM, said:

When the five pillars were toppled to make way for the asinine e-Sport premise, Lore became nothing but a frame of reference for the artwork and a loose abstract to the mechanics...

What we have here is what I not so affectionately call "Bubblegum Battletech".

Five? When did the last pillar come about?

TELEFORCE, on 23 July 2016 - 07:21 PM, said:

This game would be so much better with the proper implementation of lore. I hate going into FP matches where other players have no idea what they're in combat for other than just to shoot up the other side.

While the shoot-'em-up part is a lot of fun, BattleTech has 30 years of lore and fiction shaping the universe. We really need that. Heck, I remember the creator of BattleTech, Jordan Weisman, expressing disdain over the lack of attention the lore has been getting in recent MechWarrior games. And it seems like MWO is continuing that trend

WUT? What recent games are you talking about?

[Mystere]

Chuck Jager, on 23 July 2016 - 08:01 PM, said:

Also, a huge percentage of effort is wasted trying to placate TT fans instead of dealing with what needs to be done.

I'm going to have to disagree with you a bit on this point.

PGI has so far wasted a whole lot of time, effort, and limited resources just trying to placate the loud crybabies who use matchmaking as an excuse to cover for their deficiencies.

[Kin3ticX]

wrong forum

please post this in the CW forums where it can better go ignored

[DAYLEET]

El Bandito, on 23 July 2016 - 06:07 PM, said:

You are not giving a lick about the lore of Battletech, the very thing that made me a dedicated Mechwarrior fan.

Take a simple example: During the recent FW event, the Jade Falcons had attacked Hesperus II (spearheaded by mercs, which in itself is extremely lore breaking, but lets stick to the point). THE Hesperus II--hosting the most well known mech factory, Defiance Industries--the site of so many famous sieges, and mentioned in so many source materials. Even in your barebones of a FW, I felt compelled to defend the place against all odds the Falcons could throw at it, since I am attached to its lore.
Yet when the match load screen came out what did I see in the planetary info? Not a damn thing. That's right, one of the most well known planet has no planetary info. And you call yourselves BT fans?

It is the small things that matter PGI, I hope you realize that soon.

Lore could also be when you buy mech but all we get is their price. The game could be an encyclopaedia of sort. A little bit of info about everything here and there goes a long way to immerse you in a world. Many game are like this now. Elite Dangerous has immersive lore too if you read the 1984 handbook. The description of the ship interior and living quarters were awesome and you wanted to own a particular ship. But now we only know the prices of ships and commodity and so everyone just grind to get a more expensive ship. Its damning when half the job is copy/pasting.

[Johnny Z]

DAYLEET, on 23 July 2016 - 11:29 PM, said:

Lore could also be when you buy mech but all we get is their price. The game could be an encyclopaedia of sort. A little bit of info about everything here and there goes a long way to immerse you in a world. Many game are like this now. Elite Dangerous has immersive lore too if you read the 1984 handbook. The description of the ship interior and living quarters were awesome and you wanted to own a particular ship. But now we only know the prices of ships and commodity and so everyone just grind to get a more expensive ship. Its damning when half the job is copy/pasting.

So well said.

Really this game could be the ultimate Battletech/MechWarrior resource.

[ComradeHavoc]

THIS GAME HAS LORE?!

[Warchild Corsair]

Back last year I wrote to Paul asking to contribute to the planet's descriptions as I am a lore fanatic myself.

He basically said "No thanks, we have Randall Bills doing those. We will add more and more as he provides them to us."

Then nothing happened.