108 replies to this topic

[BLOOD WOLF]

Mister Blastman, on 10 September 2016 - 12:11 PM, said:

I actually agree with Imperius on something. *sigh*

Either way, the costs involved with switching engines is prohibitive and I doubt they'll convince enough of us through mechpack sales to fund it.

people also buy MC you know. Things like Premium time and the likes of it.

I don't remember them having to convince anyone to buy a mechpack. People just buy the ones they wan't

[Moonlight Grimoire]

From what I remember hearing Russ say in the past 12 months of townhalls and tweets is that he had at some point entered long talks with Crytek about moving to a new engine, in fact it sounded more like negotiations. The last we had heard on that was "can't say anything until after GDC" and been radio silence since then. Now this could mean a few things. First is that he was just trying to cover his rear which honestly is the worst path he could have taken. Second option is negotiations went through and the new hirelings and old coders (likely who know how to work with an unmodified Cryengine) are and have been working on an engine upgrade with rewriting the game. Third option is negotiations fell through and PGI is either in a holding pattern while doing feasibility tests for different engines or trying to re-write MWO on the cryengine 3.

Things we also know is PvE is in the pipe, hence why we aren't seeing rapid development in other areas. We know that Ammo switching is actually a known issue with the earlier cryengines anyways so that is one thing that actually isn't on PGI, so a new engine would allow ammo switching making LB's a lot more powerful. While I may have a few issues with Russ' ego and competitive nature getting in the way of progress he seems to have become a bit more humble after several hours of browbeating that he took at the CW roundtable. Paul I still feel is not a good choice for head of balance, but, at the same time the willingness being shown on the PTS to adjust things makes me think he has also been humbled. That could speak to internal issues or possibly internally PGI running into a massive issue that completely defeated something they had been planning on doing to fix things their way and hence why they went to Energy Draw, a community developed idea that has cropped up every year for a while.

That is just my two cents. I wouldn't mind going to a newer engine, maybe it would let them rewrite the game to be more optimized and help deal with the issue of water nuking frame rates, maybe also a more refined video options menu to help people fine tune MWO to run as ideally as possible on their system. I do think though PGI has shifted a lot of resources to working on things behind the scenes and Mech Packs are content, just not the type of content a less green player is jumping for joy over. To that I mean new tank lines are content in World of Tanks, new ship lines are content for World of Warships, new premium tanks and ships are also content, new maps rarely happen with WoT due to it has been around for a while, so you end up seeing the same five maps all the time even though the game is I think as old or a bit older than MWO. World of Warships is still pretty fresh, about a year old as of this week and is still getting regular new maps and new shiplines. MWO gets a new map about once a quarter since the start of 2015, we get a new mech once a month. While not amazing or ground breaking the new mech tends to shuffle things a little as people sort out how to handle the new mech and where to put it on the tier list. For someone who likes mechs more mechs is not a bad thing, diversifies the battlefield at worst so I don't have to wonder if that is the same or different dire wolf from the one I saw earlier, I know it is the same one due to the other assaults are a Kodiak and a King Crab, ect.

[SupraDraco]

They made the game to make money and the more money they make, the better support we get. If they can make more money on the old engine, they should stay on the old one.

[WerewolfX]

I'm all for a new engine. Or better yet a engine developed from scratch. The latter is unlikely as those are HUGE development costs associated with those. So Unreal or a "newer" crytek engine seems the most feasible option.

[Johnny Z]

WerewolfX, on 10 September 2016 - 01:55 PM, said:

I'm all for a new engine. Or better yet a engine developed from scratch. The latter is unlikely as those are HUGE development costs associated with those. So Unreal or a "newer" crytek engine seems the most feasible option.

I keep thinking if they stay with this engine, its the same as making a new engine from scratch right?

[Tier5 Kerensky]

Very rare games get a complete rewrite once they are released. It makes a lot more sense to make a new game with new engine, than same old game with new engine.

And, a new Mechwarrior Online II? They would have to make it better and bigger. Add lots of new stuff to make a second version. I wonder how much the game could really be improved, besides technical tweaks.

Online MMOs are usually fairly simply, specially F2P games. I don't think so much of really new stuff could be invented and added.

One can of course dream of, like campaings and player/community made maps and campaing and content, everything from mechs and up. But that would make the game a lot less casual.

[Johnny Z]

Teer5, on 10 September 2016 - 06:14 PM, said:

Very rare games get a complete rewrite once they are released. It makes a lot more sense to make a new game with new engine, than same old game with new engine.

And, a new Mechwarrior Online II? They would have to make it better and bigger. Add lots of new stuff to make a second version. I wonder how much the game could really be improved, besides technical tweaks.

Online MMOs are usually fairly simply, specially F2P games. I don't think so much of really new stuff could be invented and added.

One can of course dream of, like campaings and player/community made maps and campaing and content, everything from mechs and up. But that would make the game a lot less casual.

This may be true but I don't think this will happen. For a lot of good reasons. I expect the best will be made of this game. Really. Which means a lot more updates and I hope a lot of different new features.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Johnny Z, on 10 September 2016 - 06:50 PM, said:

This may be true but I don't think this will happen. For a lot of good reasons. I expect the best will be made of this game. Really. Which means a lot more updates and I hope a lot of different new features.

...in 8 years or so

[Troutmonkey]

Johnny Z, on 09 September 2016 - 09:39 AM, said:

By the way I think the game runs great. Most things like textures and models and even animations are independent of what engine is used. I see very little reason to switch engines when basically anything can be done with the one they are using. But then I know absolutely nothing about much of what makes everything run in the background.

Both true and not true, because rendering / lighting engines and materials can make the same textures look much better depending on which settings are being used. I like how they recently re-wrote MWO's render code for decals, because everything has looked better ever since. With a modern rendering and lighting engine MWO could look even better and run better to boot.

El Bandito, on 09 September 2016 - 07:33 AM, said:

Actually, I know how to code, and unlike you, I applied for a job position for the company before.
PGI didn't respond. And I can tell you right now, that I can be better balance designer in MWO than Paul ever could.

I too applied, even offering to assist for free. No reply, but maybe that's because I'd have to work remotely from Aus