289 replies to this topic

[BLOOD WOLF]

Alistair Winter, on 08 August 2016 - 01:00 PM, said:

I'll just write this here, because I don't know where else to put it. I just want to write some honest, constructive, civil feedback about the state of the community, and that sort of stuff doesn't seem to have its own place on the forum.

Long version

Spoiler

Preamble (You can skip this)
Like I said in a different thread, I think the mood on the MWO forum right now is the most gloomy it has ever been. And I don't think this is a direct result of the current state of the game. While I do concede that MWO is missing a lot of stuff that hardcore and casual players have both been asking for, I also think there are a lot of positives. And really, sometimes when I fire up the old Mechwarrior 2 soundtrack by Jeehun Hwang as I play this game, I am grateful that I can play a relatively new Mechwarrior game in 2016 instead of just playing Mechwarrior 2 or Mechwarrior 4. You could say that MWO is a very narrow, simple game. But I would say that it's still better than most FPS games by a wide margin (I wouldn't play Overwatch or Call of Duty if you paid me) and on top of that, it's... a Mechwarrior game.

The state of the community (Don't skip this)
I'll repeat it again; the mood on the MWO forum right now is the most gloomy it has ever been. Now, a lot of MWO players never even visit the forum. But I would say that the forum is an important part of the MWO community, if not the most important part. If you see who is actually participating in Town Hall meetings, talking in the chat box, it's mostly people from the forum. There's also another part of the MWO community mostly posting on Reddit, and those guys are also quite active in MWO current events (tournaments, roundtable, etc), but I can't speak for them. But let me tell you one of the major reasons why the mood is so low on the MWO forums right now.

We have too little information.

I'll break it down:

• A lot of people are upset because PGI is missing features they consider important (e.g. info warfare, role warfare, pve, solaris) and they were expecting to see in the game. There is no easy solution for this.
  
• A lot of people are upset because they don't know where this game is headed. Now that PGI has reached their goals for UI 2.0 and CW Phase 3, there's no big feature in the horizon that people are talking about. Frankly, we don't know much about anything, except... mech packs.
  
• The absence of information about the future not only kills interest (nothing to talk about these days except mech packs) but it also makes people worried that PGI is taking money from MWO and investing it in another game, like Transverse. In other words, they feel like this game is no longer a priority for PGI, which means there's no reason to keep investing in new mech packs.
  
• We've had 3 community managers since 2012, I think. They don't generally interact too much with the players on the forum. There doesn't appear to be a lot of information going from the players to PGI through the community managers, and there is very little information going the other way too (so we have to keep checking Twitter all the time).

The real issue (don't skip this either)


Basically, PGI needs to talk more with the community and try to generate interest in future content. Because content is coming, at some point. And we know that PGI can't say exactly when, and shouldn't give out dates too early, but that doesn't mean they should keep everything secret either.

Look at the latest roadmap for August, September and October. There is very little talk about new content, actually. New mechs, cosmetic update for maps, UI fixes, and a bunch of quality of life improvements. In terms of new content that will add significantly to the game, I think it comes down to this:

• Terra Therma will be a new map in September
  
• Energy Draw coming at some point. PTS coming soon.
  
• Assault mode changes coming at some point. PTS coming at some point.
  
• Faction play changes coming at some point.
  
• Skill trees coming at some point. "Top secret"

And some of you will say "Well, what about Stock Mode?" and "What about Customer Appreciation mechs?" and things like that. Well, yes, that's all well and good. But in the big picture, those aren't significant updates to a game this old. They're nice, but they're not going to change the MWO experience significantly for most players.



The big things that have been discussed for MWO are:

• Faction play changes
  
• New skill trees
  
• Information warfare / Infotech
  
• Solaris
  
• PVE campaign

But we don't know anything about any of it.



The Solution (this is the most important bit)
Basically, PGI needs to communicate more with the players and keep us interested and invested in the game. If the community manager is busy with other tasks (like responding to emails, planning the world championship, creating vlogs or whatever) then PGI needs to have another person that interacts more with the community. It's very hard to have a complex discussion with PGI when the main channel of communication is 140 character long tweets with the president of the company.

But most importantly...

Don't keep the future content - the major things that players should look forward to - "top secret"

You don't have to say when it's coming out, but write some devlogs about what it will be like. Of course you can go back and change your ideas as time goes on, but show the players what you're thinking. Will there be 1 skill tree for all mechs? Will there be different skill trees for each mech? What can you tell us about the PVE campaign? Will there be coop? Will it be free or DLC that we pay for? Will Solaris replace QP or will it be a separate product? Will Solaris use the existing maps or new ones?

PGI used to write Dev blogs like this and this. They keep the players excited, they show the players what features are coming in the future. They give us something to talk about, besides mech packs. They have nice diagrams for us to look at. If future content wasn't "top secret" then, it shouldn't be "top secret" now.

Tell us more about what is coming. Give us a reason to invest in the game. Right now, all this silence only gives credence to the idea that PGI put the whole game on the "back burner", not just certain features.

TL;DR version!

• One major reason why the community (especially on the MWO forums) is so disgruntled is the lack of communication and lack of information about future content.
  
• A lot of people feel like PGI is investing less in MWO and that things are slowing down. This makes the players hesitant to invest more money.
  
• The community needs a community manager that regularly interact with players on the official forums.
  
• In order to give the players faith in future content, we need more information. These short roadmaps about future mechs and small updates aren't enough. We need to know more about the big features, like PVE, Solaris, Infotech, Skill trees, etc. Give us something to keep faith in the game, give us something to talk about besides mech packs and small fixes here and there. Give us something to look forward to.

Let me be serious and try to actually adress what you said.

As far as lack of communication, i agree that they can do a better job of being on their forums and giving players a little more insight on whats in the works. Human to human interaction goes along way. with that being said how much? how frequent and to say that their has been no communication is disingenuous. We have had town halls and things of the sort. To me that is more like, they are going to give us information about the game, a framwork or roadmap and that is a way we know what they are working on. Thats a lot better than not knowing what was coming down the works and reading it on patch day.

The idea that they are investing less is conjecture, and i dont deal with things that can not be substantiated. I don't see how things are slowing down. Since late 2014 a roadmap has been introduced with the evident signs of work to be done. there is a difference about what you feel, and what actually is.

Yes, an active community manager is a must. With that being said, we must all acknowledge that we must treat that person with respect. Unless i need to spell it out there are a few reasons why somebody doesnt want to engage. Being the community manager is interacting with the community, but only a community worth interacting with. If you are thinking it being a patron doesnt win you everything.

The last part i believe is purely subjective on your part. I also believe you are demanding things beyond what they can possibly give you. The roadmaps at least do their job of highlighting features that are in the works. They do seem to reflect what russ has talked about in the townhalls, so i can assume they are accurate.

also you need to go and actually read them, because They said the skill trees are in the works for a revamp. Like i said before it is asking to much to demand what can be done. They have a capacity at which they can work and striking them for things yet to come when things are being worked on is at least in my book not a fair thing to do.

[slide]

PGI do not know how to communicate.

If they manage it at all it is done badly.

Hubris makes them almost incapable of listening, even to the most basic of issues (ie Long Tom). There have been rare occasions when the community is almost unanimous on an issue, they did not hear.

The last time PGI acted on the communities advice was way back in closed beta when they delayed the Open beta launch, because most people agreed it wasn't ready. Since then they have squandered several opportunities to capitalize on population boosts, ie open beta relaunch, Steam Launch etc but they weren't ready and couldn't capture those new players and keep them. Players told them the game wasn't ready, but again they didn't listen.

If any of the community managers did their job properly then the remaining few forumites might be a little less bitter and more willing to help rather than knock. But it has really come down to "what's the point?".

For me I have given up, my last purchase was the Archer (another disappointment, so squishy), CW3 was so overwhelmingly disappointing on almost every level that I actually went back to QP after not playing it since CW came out, but frankly I can't stand the map voting so I haven't played in almost 2 weeks. I logged in once, looked at the CW queues and logged out.
This game is nothing like the game that was proposed to the people who became Founders and it never will be. There is nothing in the current road map that inspires me to keep playing and it is painfully obvious even to the most uninformed that CW is going to continue to bleed players.

PGI really need to ask themselves why they can't hang on to players like me who have $1200+ invested in this game and a passion for all things Battletech? If they can figure that out they might be able to attract and keep old and new players alike.

[Alex Morgaine]

Antares102, on 08 August 2016 - 01:52 PM, said:

No mate you didnt like the ORIGINAL new minimap without directional arrows and without rotation based on your mech's heading. Don't lie to me...
The current minimap is ok though since it (still/again) has directional arrows and rotation based on your mech's heading.

Ugh. Tbh i use no rotation on google mapson my gps but at least i know North and land marks irl. Couldn't figure out where the {beep} i was in relation to anything with minimap 2.0

At least 2.1 rotates again.

[Mechwarrior1441491]

On "my island", our E-Commerce doesn't traffic in single mechpacks. We have voted democratically to ignore them until the product is something that stands on it's own. If this game didn't have the IP supporting it and the mechs and content were PGI created, it would have flopped years ago. They know this. We know this. We all know this.

Edited by Mechwarrior1441491, 08 August 2016 - 09:42 PM.

[BLOOD WOLF]

Mechwarrior1441491, on 08 August 2016 - 09:40 PM, said:

On "my island", our E-Commerce doesn't traffic in single mechpacks. We have voted democratically to ignore them until the product is something that stands on it's own.

theres virtually no money if there are no mech packs. What would you do if you were the president of the company? charge me for what? dropping in a match

maybe people buy MC every now and then. if you look at it thats the major thing they sell. its not as if mechs are ever the only item in a patch.

Edited by BLOOD WOLF, 08 August 2016 - 09:43 PM.

[Deathlike]

Kali Rinpoche, on 08 August 2016 - 08:37 PM, said:

Exactly and all the gloominess is bumming me out.

And that gloominess scares off those that want to get involved on the forums. We have certain folks that talk down to,overwhelm every comment, and talk around new folks. I think some of us could benefit from a break from the forum nastiness.

Let's be honest here.

Most of the bittervets had ideas... whether they were good enough or even unified.. it doesn't matter as long as PGI doesn't take kindly to feedback... even if it were for the simplest of ideas or improvements.

Bittervets aren't born... they are created through massive apathy from the developers with a pinch of wild and bad ideas.

[Appogee]

The move to monthly patches, the move to three-monthly road maps, the late delivery of the three-monthly road maps ... they are all symptoms of a broader development malaise.

MWO isn't quite yet in 'maintenance mode'. But PGI clearly believe they've delivered the major pillars, and what comes from here is tweaking of existing content and milking of the playerbase through Mech Packs, crates, pay-for-dropdecks and the like.

MechCon is going to be the culmination of their work, and after that we'll be in full maintenance mode.

The devs are focused elsewhere - probably working on another title in the background. They can't be bothered communicating with us because it's too much effort on a lost cause, it's hard to defend the ongoing slow progress, and promising "one day" isn't cutting it anymore.

I don't like to be this pessimistic. But this is what I see and infer.

It's also why, after $1500 spend, I am not buying any more Mech Packs.

Edited by Appogee, 08 August 2016 - 10:39 PM.

[DAYLEET]

BLOOD WOLF, on 08 August 2016 - 09:42 PM, said:

theres virtually no money if there are no mech packs. What would you do if you were the president of the company? charge me for what? dropping in a match

maybe people buy MC every now and then. if you look at it thats the major thing they sell. its not as if mechs are ever the only item in a patch.

And obviously all that money is used to create another mech pack. I know it does not make much sense but ive seen vids of Tina and Lauren playing or working and i trust me when i say that i saw nobody, NOBODY, doing coke on a classy w*ore in the background so obviously all that money is being used on the ingame content that gets created which is mechpack. We dont get anything else that warrant anyone getting paid.

Appogee, on 08 August 2016 - 10:38 PM, said:

The move to monthly patches, the move to three-monthly road maps, the late delivery of the three-monthly road maps ... they are all symptoms of a broader development malaise.

MWO isn't quite yet in 'maintenance mode'. But PGI clearly believe they've delivered the major pillars, and what comes from here is tweaking of existing content and milking of the playerbase through Mech Packs, crates, pay-for-dropdecks and the like.

MechCon is going to be the culmination of their work, and after that we'll be in full maintenance mode.

The devs are focused elsewhere - probably working on another title in the background. They can't be bothered communicating with us because it's too much effort on a lost cause, it's hard to defend the ongoing slow progress, and promising "one day" isn't cutting it anymore.

I don't like to be this pessimistic. But this is what I see and infer.

It's also why, after $1500 spend, I am not buying any more Mech Packs.

I get the same feeling, the game is done for them and we're eSport now which is just another nail in the coffin.

Edited by DAYLEET, 09 August 2016 - 11:09 AM.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Deathlike, on 08 August 2016 - 10:12 PM, said:

Let's be honest here.

Most of the bittervets had ideas... whether they were good enough or even unified.. it doesn't matter as long as PGI doesn't take kindly to feedback... even if it were for the simplest of ideas or improvements.

Bittervets aren't born... they are created through massive apathy from the developers with a pinch of wild and bad ideas.

yup. Hell I used to be a white knight

[Alistair Winter]

BLOOD WOLF, on 08 August 2016 - 09:30 PM, said:

Let me be serious and try to actually adress what you said.

What a weird way to start a post. I guess... I'll also be serious and try to actually adress what you said?

BLOOD WOLF, on 08 August 2016 - 09:30 PM, said:

As far as lack of communication, i agree that they can do a better job of being on their forums and giving players a little more insight on whats in the works. Human to human interaction goes along way. with that being said how much? how frequent and to say that their has been no communication is disingenuous. We have had town halls and things of the sort. To me that is more like, they are going to give us information about the game, a framwork or roadmap and that is a way we know what they are working on. Thats a lot better than not knowing what was coming down the works and reading it on patch day.

Did I really say there had been "no communication"? I don't recall saying that, and I certainly didn't mean it to be taken literally, if I did. I would have thought that was obvious. Town halls are good, but there's also the perspective that there's less and less direct communication between the players and the devs. We once had a feature called "Ask the devs". Now we have "Town halls", which aren't really town halls in the real sense of the word. They are interviews conducted by NGNG, who are paid by PGI. They don't represent the community, except in the rare case where they actively try to get questions and comments from the players, such as the latest roundtables.

BLOOD WOLF, on 08 August 2016 - 09:30 PM, said:

The idea that they are investing less is conjecture, and i dont deal with things that can not be substantiated. I don't see how things are slowing down. Since late 2014 a roadmap has been introduced with the evident signs of work to be done. there is a difference about what you feel, and what actually is.

Conjecture is the name of the game when you're deciding whether or not to invest in a game. If you're buying the new Sim City game, you have to decide whether you want a single player game that can only be played online and whether it's likely that you can play this game a few years in the future, based on conjecture.

BLOOD WOLF, on 08 August 2016 - 09:30 PM, said:

The last part i believe is purely subjective on your part. I also believe you are demanding things beyond what they can possibly give you. The roadmaps at least do their job of highlighting features that are in the works. They do seem to reflect what russ has talked about in the townhalls, so i can assume they are accurate.

Isn't that... conjecture? I believe they can give us those things. And that it would be in their interest to do so.

BLOOD WOLF, on 08 August 2016 - 09:30 PM, said:

also you need to go and actually read them, because They said the skill trees are in the works for a revamp. Like i said before it is asking to much to demand what can be done. They have a capacity at which they can work and striking them for things yet to come when things are being worked on is at least in my book not a fair thing to do.

That's basically no information at all. We had more information about multiple skill trees in 2011 than we do in 2016. For a game that was released in 2013. Come on, son! You're acting like Russ saying "skills trees will be revamped" is the pinnacle of what we can expect.

Big Tin Man, on 08 August 2016 - 04:29 PM, said:

The problem with steering 100+ threads a day is people complain about what is constantly bothering them, and not what they Examples of success: The recent Viridian Bog conversation for the map rework. Though it didn't make it an absolute favorite of everyone, it made things a lot better. From a while back there was a big list of 'things that need polish' and the community voted on their top issues. PGI cranked out a ton of those QOL improvements and focused on our feedback, because PGI wanted/needed to do a big QOL pass (it was sometime after UI 2.0)

I agree with most of what you said, but I wouldn't list Viridian Bog as an example of success. They got 119 replies with different ideas for how to change the map, and the only thing they did was to add a single set of stairs to one of the plateaus. They ignored most of the important feedback, in my opinion, which was about how the combat always takes place around the same tiny area with very limited options for different maneuvers. I actually contributed to the feedback, even though I hesitated because I felt they would probably take the easy way out and look for a cheap fix, like with Forest Colony.

I won't be participating in those feedback threads again. If others are still motivated to keep trying, godspeed.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

Some selective retention going on there.

It's hard to remember everything that has happened, to be honest.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

Skirmish - player requested game mode since closed beta, finally added to the game. Much to the disdain of players who wanted more objective based game play.

Indeed. But adding Skirmish was good.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

King of the Hill aka Domination was and has been a player suggested game mode for years that finally was (badly) put into the game.

At the time when it was added, most players were asking for something completely different. Domination doesn't really add anything new on most maps. So yeah, some players asked for King of the Hill in 2012 and 2013, but it's not like this was the most popular idea that everyone had been thirsting for since the beginning. They conveniently skipped the ideas about escorting convoys, asymmetrical game modes, etc.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

4x4 scouting mode - player idea, poorly implemented.

I was very happy when they gave us 4v4. I thought this would restore my interest in CW, as many others probably did too. A nice break from 12v12. But again, same as CW Phase 1 Invasion mode, they players immediately recognised the problem after just a few days of testing. This could have been avoided by playtesting.

Now, I don't recall that anyone ever asked for a game mode like this. But you're right, they gave us 4v4, and a lot of players were looking forward to that.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

Heat Scale, aka Ghost Heat, was a player created idea to limit weapon boating that was (badly) put in the game by PGI.

I don't recall that.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

Desert maps were asked for when River City and Forest were the main maps -> Tourmaline Desert. Large maps were requested by players -> alpine.

This is a poor argument, in my opinion. It's like saying "Star Wars fans wanted light sabers and force powers in the new Star Wars movie, and they got what they asked for."

There are 14 QP maps in the game. Eventually, they would have inserted some desert maps anyway, simply by virtue of trying to add different environments. Desert maps, snow maps, jungle maps.. they'd have a hard time adding new environments without eventually getting something that resembles the classic environments you see in most FPS games. Furthermore, the most commonly requested map types, from what I recall, (urban metropolis and rolling grasslands) are nowhere to be seen. When they finally fixed River City, they didn't adress the main complaint from the players, which was how the river and the Citadel dominates the map and creates predictable gameplay. People were hoping for a sprawling cityscape, but most of the new parts of the map are barely being fought over. Same as with all the expanded maps, except Frozen City 2.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

Elimination of Ghost heat on AC2s

In this case, I would return the accusation of selective retention back at you. Or cherry picking, if you will.

MrJeffers, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

There are plenty of examples of feedback being used, it's just nearly always implemented poorly. Sure they don't listen well, but the bigger problem is when they do listen their implementation more often than not is poorly executed.

I'm not really convinced that all of your examples show feedback being used. It seems very coincidental at times, and this impression is amplified by its poor execution.

KBurn85, on 08 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

What we wanted:
- Fix the dud weapons, LBX, PPC, MG
- Fix hoverjets
- More game modes
- PvE

What we got:
- Do you want to buy a mech pack?
- Ghost heat 2.0, capped at 30dmg to cater to the steering wheel underhive
- Massive new maps, with a 5 minute walk to destination, so TTK can be even longer now
- WoT minimap

To be honest, I agree with Russ' idea that alpha strikes should be an exception rather than the rule for most mechs. Power draw is trying to recreate mech warfare as portrayed in older Battletech material, where alpha strikes are a big deal. Whether or not they can accomplish this remains to be seen, but I applaud the basic premise.

The massive new maps were also requested by the players, because there's simply no way to get any kind of role warfare where light mechs can make use of their speed and agility or where long range mechs can pin the enemy down with sniping, if all the maps are the size of the original Forest colony or Frozen city. On those maps, scouting was over in exactly 10 seconds. gg rolewarfare. The problem, however, is that we still don't really have role warfare and the maps are designed to force players to fight over the same location anyway, so there's still not a lot of stuff for light mechs to do, and scouting still takes 10 seconds. I mean, does anyone ever go north of the E-line on Forest Colony 2? Of course not. You check water. If they're not in water, you know where they are.

Minimap was an initial failure, but if they can manage to integrate the skill trees and command wheel better with the new minimap, I'll consider it an improvement. I was hoping that they would make monthly changes to the minimap and command wheel, but unfortunately it seems like they're considering it a finished product, almost. (Yeah, yeah, we get some directional arrows now. I know.)

[RedDragon]

Alistair Winter, on 08 August 2016 - 01:00 PM, said:

• In order to give the players faith in future content, we need more information. These short roadmaps about future mechs and small updates aren't enough. We need to know more about the big features, like PVE, Solaris, Infotech, Skill trees, etc. Give us something to keep faith in the game, give us something to talk about besides mech packs and small fixes here and there. Give us something to look forward to.

I think the problem is not that we're getting no info, but that there just IS no info to get. Over the course of the last 5 years, PGI have time and again shown some grand plans that turned out to be nothing more than hot air. I am pretty sure by now that they themselves have no idea where they are going. They promise grand new features while doing nothing else than working on new mech packs, and just when the community is about to riot because of stagnation, they realize they have to bring something new and throw out some half-assed feature that has nothin to do with what was once promised.

So, every bit of info we might get has no relevance because they will ignore it anyways and rush out something "minimally viable" in a few days instead.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Alistair Winter, on 09 August 2016 - 01:03 AM, said:

snip

Don't waste your time on rosey. He is afflicted worse than Bishop ever was.

[Lily from animove]

Alistair Winter, on 08 August 2016 - 01:00 PM, said:

I'll just write this here, because I don't know where else to put it. I just want to write some honest, constructive, civil feedback about the state of the community, and that sort of stuff doesn't seem to have its own place on the forum.

Long version

Spoiler

Preamble (You can skip this)
Like I said in a different thread, I think the mood on the MWO forum right now is the most gloomy it has ever been. And I don't think this is a direct result of the current state of the game. While I do concede that MWO is missing a lot of stuff that hardcore and casual players have both been asking for, I also think there are a lot of positives. And really, sometimes when I fire up the old Mechwarrior 2 soundtrack by Jeehun Hwang as I play this game, I am grateful that I can play a relatively new Mechwarrior game in 2016 instead of just playing Mechwarrior 2 or Mechwarrior 4. You could say that MWO is a very narrow, simple game. But I would say that it's still better than most FPS games by a wide margin (I wouldn't play Overwatch or Call of Duty if you paid me) and on top of that, it's... a Mechwarrior game.

The state of the community (Don't skip this)
I'll repeat it again; the mood on the MWO forum right now is the most gloomy it has ever been. Now, a lot of MWO players never even visit the forum. But I would say that the forum is an important part of the MWO community, if not the most important part. If you see who is actually participating in Town Hall meetings, talking in the chat box, it's mostly people from the forum. There's also another part of the MWO community mostly posting on Reddit, and those guys are also quite active in MWO current events (tournaments, roundtable, etc), but I can't speak for them. But let me tell you one of the major reasons why the mood is so low on the MWO forums right now.

We have too little information.

I'll break it down:

• A lot of people are upset because PGI is missing features they consider important (e.g. info warfare, role warfare, pve, solaris) and they were expecting to see in the game. There is no easy solution for this.
  
• A lot of people are upset because they don't know where this game is headed. Now that PGI has reached their goals for UI 2.0 and CW Phase 3, there's no big feature in the horizon that people are talking about. Frankly, we don't know much about anything, except... mech packs.
  
• The absence of information about the future not only kills interest (nothing to talk about these days except mech packs) but it also makes people worried that PGI is taking money from MWO and investing it in another game, like Transverse. In other words, they feel like this game is no longer a priority for PGI, which means there's no reason to keep investing in new mech packs.
  
• We've had 3 community managers since 2012, I think. They don't generally interact too much with the players on the forum. There doesn't appear to be a lot of information going from the players to PGI through the community managers, and there is very little information going the other way too (so we have to keep checking Twitter all the time).

The real issue (don't skip this either)


Basically, PGI needs to talk more with the community and try to generate interest in future content. Because content is coming, at some point. And we know that PGI can't say exactly when, and shouldn't give out dates too early, but that doesn't mean they should keep everything secret either.

Look at the latest roadmap for August, September and October. There is very little talk about new content, actually. New mechs, cosmetic update for maps, UI fixes, and a bunch of quality of life improvements. In terms of new content that will add significantly to the game, I think it comes down to this:

• Terra Therma will be a new map in September
  
• Energy Draw coming at some point. PTS coming soon.
  
• Assault mode changes coming at some point. PTS coming at some point.
  
• Faction play changes coming at some point.
  
• Skill trees coming at some point. "Top secret"

And some of you will say "Well, what about Stock Mode?" and "What about Customer Appreciation mechs?" and things like that. Well, yes, that's all well and good. But in the big picture, those aren't significant updates to a game this old. They're nice, but they're not going to change the MWO experience significantly for most players.



The big things that have been discussed for MWO are:

• Faction play changes
  
• New skill trees
  
• Information warfare / Infotech
  
• Solaris
  
• PVE campaign

But we don't know anything about any of it.



The Solution (this is the most important bit)
Basically, PGI needs to communicate more with the players and keep us interested and invested in the game. If the community manager is busy with other tasks (like responding to emails, planning the world championship, creating vlogs or whatever) then PGI needs to have another person that interacts more with the community. It's very hard to have a complex discussion with PGI when the main channel of communication is 140 character long tweets with the president of the company.

But most importantly...

Don't keep the future content - the major things that players should look forward to - "top secret"

You don't have to say when it's coming out, but write some devlogs about what it will be like. Of course you can go back and change your ideas as time goes on, but show the players what you're thinking. Will there be 1 skill tree for all mechs? Will there be different skill trees for each mech? What can you tell us about the PVE campaign? Will there be coop? Will it be free or DLC that we pay for? Will Solaris replace QP or will it be a separate product? Will Solaris use the existing maps or new ones?

PGI used to write Dev blogs like this and this. They keep the players excited, they show the players what features are coming in the future. They give us something to talk about, besides mech packs. They have nice diagrams for us to look at. If future content wasn't "top secret" then, it shouldn't be "top secret" now.

Tell us more about what is coming. Give us a reason to invest in the game. Right now, all this silence only gives credence to the idea that PGI put the whole game on the "back burner", not just certain features.

TL;DR version!

• One major reason why the community (especially on the MWO forums) is so disgruntled is the lack of communication and lack of information about future content.
  
• A lot of people feel like PGI is investing less in MWO and that things are slowing down. This makes the players hesitant to invest more money.
  
• The community needs a community manager that regularly interact with players on the official forums.
  
• In order to give the players faith in future content, we need more information. These short roadmaps about future mechs and small updates aren't enough. We need to know more about the big features, like PVE, Solaris, Infotech, Skill trees, etc. Give us something to keep faith in the game, give us something to talk about besides mech packs and small fixes here and there. Give us something to look forward to.

The kids are spoiled, seriously form all the games I palyed PGI does quite a lot communication when it comes to showing what they are going to do.
Further PGI does quite a lot stuff, I sometimes think they do unecessary stuff no one wanted or asked or is just flawed in theory, whichmakes it a asted amount of time spent.
Yes Forum communication is bad, as they seem to rarely care about the Forum, twitter ftw it seems.
Well we have informations about the future, yet they won't give more detailed ones as they do not exist yte or people then will just get mad if those planned future thinsg are changed. The Twonhalls and Devlogs are giving a vague sight in the future, people just demand too much which would end up in a disappointement if that sin't goign to be how explained in detail too early.

In fact too many poeple in the community have 0 idea about IT and want stuff thats unrealistically.
MWO si doing a fine job, regular fun events constantly getting new mechs and work on the maps.
yes the blance department is of questionable quality as they do things objective comparison already would fgure out to make no sense. But overall MWO is doing fine and PGI a rather good job.

[Sjorpha]

I don't think neither the speed of development or the lack of communication is the main problem, the main issue is that PGI does things so badly. They frequently break their own game or introduce mind bogglingly silly ways to do things , and their balancing betrays alarming ignorance of the metagame.
If they actually did things consistently well there wouldn't be such a big problem with communication, but now we want all the details because we just don't trust them to do anything right on their own, we are afraid that each new thing PGI designs in secret will be a new long Tom or minimapocalypse etc, and we have good reason expect that. No wonder people require more communication when they know there is a 50%+ chance of it being broken at release, if you have info you can at least protest the most obvious catastrophes like the original design of supply caches. Do some major things well, bug free, intuitive, solid and elegant design, and I would stop worrying about getting prior information.

[TELEFORCE]

I'm unhappy because there isn't enough fluff or lore in this game about a universe rich in fluff and lore.

[BLOOD WOLF]

TELEFORCE, on 09 August 2016 - 02:17 AM, said:

I'm unhappy because there isn't enough fluff or lore in this game about a universe rich in fluff and lore.

well, seeing from what they can do with putting voices in the game, a good month of dedication would do the job.

[Juodas Varnas]

PGI has their heads waaaay too far up their own arses to even hear us.
.
.
.
.
Hmfff... Circus mechs...
YES. I'M STILL SALTY ABOUT IT.

[Scout Derek]

Juodas Varnas, on 09 August 2016 - 02:41 AM, said:

PGI has their heads waaaay too far up their own arses to even hear us.
.
.
.
.
Hmfff... Circus mechs...
YES. I'M STILL SALTY ABOUT IT.

About a game that should be, as all other games are usually, fun.


Even then, how many are actually upset as to how many are fine or do not care for the state for the game and play as is? How many?


I've been pondering thought about this awhile.

And I'm still thinking and watching, hearing, and taking them into consideration, from the ugliest nastiest opinion about the game to the loyal and respectful opinion of the game.

And I gotta say, it's actually interesting what I see, who I play with, and how I see it.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Alistair Winter, on 08 August 2016 - 01:00 PM, said:

In order to give the players faith in future content, we need more information.

Hell, any real communication that doesnt involve Twitter or Facebook would be nice. How long has it been since Bryan, or Russ or Paul actually interacted with people HERE?

And if theyre too afraid to interact with us here on these, THEIR OWN forums, then that says enough to be honest

[Spleenslitta]

You hit the nail on the head Alistair. The only thing the community can do to make PGI take notice of the problem is to keep threads like this on top all the time.
Make it stand out by posting here constantly.

If i had some info on Solaris i would have something to look forward to. I do have some info on Energy draw but that is not enough and i don't see much future in it.
I haven't played MWO seriously for a long time...i think it's been over 2 years since i was really active.