25 replies to this topic

[razenWing]

Because of the upcoming Black Friday sell, I've been looking through all the packs a lot. And it hit me, why didn't PGI add a mech description outside of the technical spec?

Like, wouldn't it be cool if they introduced the various mechs somehow...

Maybe not verbatim copy from Sarna, but more like... take Alex's design process, and use his words as a basis for the design lore. You instantly combine Alex's contribution with a back story tie-ins. It will be a cool read, and certainly strength your sell.

Cause despite a lot of fanboys that can spin things up and down (and even then, they only know the official Sarna backstory, but never the Alex's designer backstory), a lot of "mechwarriors" know absolutely nothing about the universe. They just got attracted to giant robots fighting. Would it not be more of a draw for them to give them some sort of context?

Let me give you guys an example:

http://us.battle.net...e/unit/overlord

An overlord is just a unit in the Starcraft universe. But note how Blizzard went above and beyond to write an entire backstory to make it interesting? Now, they could have stopped at this page:

http://us.battle.net...game/unit/#zerg

Which is pretty much what we have now... all the technical knowledge that you need, but means absolutely nothing.

----------------

What do I mean by combing Alex's design process to write a neat little story?

For example, Alex decided to draw joints more flimsy to get the feel of a mobile spring. You take that and write maybe something like this:

"Grasshopper is a relatively new Inner Sphere battlemech that defied conventional thinking. The legs were designed to be less bulky with revolutionary gyro designs for the unparalleled handling performance over rough terrains."

etc etc.

If you have that directly on the store page instead of the shortly before release, the short lore tie-in that maybe 10% of the people read... I think this is much more interesting.

What you guys think?

[DiabetesOverlord Wilford Brimley]

Many people including myself in the community have suggested this.

[Bud Crue]

DiabetesOverlord Wilford Brimley, on 06 November 2016 - 05:24 AM, said:

Many people including myself in the community have suggested this.

Yup.

Backstories would certainly be nice. But how about even more basic descriptions, so that potential new players have some idea of wth is going on? What makes mech A theoretically different/better than mech B? That sort of thing. Anything would be better than nothing, and nothing is what we have. I mean if a new player is not a forum user or is aware of Sarna, they would have no idea what is going on with half the content in this game...perhaps that is a big part of the dissatisfaction with the NPE of this game?

[razenWing]

DiabetesOverlord Wilford Brimley, on 06 November 2016 - 05:24 AM, said:

Many people including myself in the community have suggested this.

As cool as the video, it's still only tech readout. I want some true backstory. Something... human... to tie into the universe. Numbers are just numbers. Stories are what move people.

[DiabetesOverlord Wilford Brimley]

razenWing, on 06 November 2016 - 05:33 AM, said:

As cool as the video, it's still only tech readout. I want some true backstory. Something... human... to tie into the universe. Numbers are just numbers. Stories are what move people.

Oh you mean like overwatch? Yeah that will never happen. I've asked for PVE (4years) and a lore button in the mechlab (2years) and still have got neither.

Would you like to buy a mechpack?

[Bombast]

I think pretty much everything PGI does could use improved presentation. Sales, in game mechs, gambling crates... pretty much everything fells worse then it needs to because it's presentation is atrocious. Though...

razenWing, on 06 November 2016 - 05:20 AM, said:

"Grasshopper is a relatively new Inner Sphere battlemech that defied conventional thinking. The legs were designed to be less bulky with revolutionary gyro designs for the unparalleled handling performance over rough terrains."

You could at least get the Grasshopper right when you're using it as an example.

DiabetesOverlord Wilford Brimley, on 06 November 2016 - 05:24 AM, said:

Many people including myself in the community have suggested this.

Nice. Reminds me a lot of Wargamings introductions.

And really, that's all the further Pirhana needs to look. World of X do a good job of showing off new stuff.

Of course, as soon as I say that and try to find said videos, I can't - They're buried in a see of other videos Wargaming has done, and ones done by fans.

No such issue there with MWO, though...

Edited by Bombast, 06 November 2016 - 05:40 AM.

[Wrathful Scythe]

Just look at this master piece


I really do miss those trailers. This trailer sold me the Misery.

[Bandilly]

Stuff like that seems to be in the countdown week at best. The problem is the primary decision to buy is during early adopter. The mech needs to be marketed better during early adopter, unfortunately it likely isn't complete enough at that time to really make a video.

The other option is to extend early adopter until release, but then people would hold off buying until that last week. This brings up another problem that we are pre-ordering 4 months out.

The proper solution is to not advertise a release until about one month out, drop some serious hype train on it, and call all orders before release early adopter...also give a discount on the Ultimate pack.

Unfortunately PGI is backed into a corner with their current model. We expect to hear about a mech every month now and they have to work over time to release all the future promises on time. Switching from a 4 month to a 1 month model would not be easy, while statistically it would be the same amount of programing there would be a 3 month game hype and income gap for them, causing at least a short term falloff of players and money.

[Oldbob10025]

DiabetesOverlord Wilford Brimley, on 06 November 2016 - 05:24 AM, said:

Many people including myself in the community have suggested this.

They wont put some lore into the game even though almost 2/3 have played the board game or love the lore of the HUGH battletech universe. There is so much lore that they can draw from and also they have the licence I cant phantom WHY THE HELL NOT?

I wont go into detail of the things they can do but it boggles the mind...

[Novakaine]

So much potential wasted by striving to be minimally viable.
Makes me sad.

Edited by Novakaine, 06 November 2016 - 05:58 AM.

[Mystere]

Well, PGI knows very well that PokéMech collectors will buy them in droves anyway. So why spend the effort? That involves time and money.

[Alteran]

Just remember, if you purchase the full complete Mechpack, you are spending the equivalent $$ cost for a full AAA game release, like Battlefield 1.

[razenWing]

Bandilly, on 06 November 2016 - 05:50 AM, said:

Stuff like that seems to be in the countdown week at best. The problem is the primary decision to buy is during early adopter. The mech needs to be marketed better during early adopter, unfortunately it likely isn't complete enough at that time to really make a video.

The other option is to extend early adopter until release, but then people would hold off buying until that last week. This brings up another problem that we are pre-ordering 4 months out.

The proper solution is to not advertise a release until about one month out, drop some serious hype train on it, and call all orders before release early adopter...also give a discount on the Ultimate pack.

Unfortunately PGI is backed into a corner with their current model. We expect to hear about a mech every month now and they have to work over time to release all the future promises on time. Switching from a 4 month to a 1 month model would not be easy, while statistically it would be the same amount of programing there would be a 3 month game hype and income gap for them, causing at least a short term falloff of players and money.

Well, as you can see from my quoted website. I am merely asking for a nice description of lore and backstory. No video needed. Basically, combine what they will publish on release week (the lore tie-in) with a design process specifically cater to Alex's design philosophy.

I even worked out how the interface will work. You can click on a button below the specific mech that you want to know about:

[Learn More] or make the mech image a selectable item

Once you click it, it opens a pop-up with 2 tabs:
[Lore] / [Design]

Click on either will have a internal frame switch that tells you either the lore tie-in
or
the design specification (why is there an antenna on the head, why is there a missile pod on the left shoulder, why did Alex draw this or that) with a created story tie-in

None of these are very hard. With a once a month mech release, PGI totally have the time to set this up, enhance the buying experience, and give more context to new players. (If they have REALLY good writers, they can probably write this in under 2 hours, and create a uniform platform of format to publish this quickly)

But to be honest, a short video is not too difficult to make either. it will take a few more days. but yea, it's like trying to sell a laptop by telling you just "i7 quad core, amd 2000, pci, sata" instead of "the award winning sleek featherweight design is combined with soft dolby surround sound feature to not bother your partner while he/she sleeps"

Doesn't one sound absolutely more appealing? PGI marketing, you can literally take ALL of this page of ideas for free. Make it happen!

[Vellron2005]

If this game was "up to my standards", EVERY mech would have a very detailed description, full technical read-out, lore references, and a short live-action promo video showcasing the cockpit and the mech murderizing stuff - all in the store!

And you could edit the mech, and then immediately take it into training grounds, and then buy it all customized and decked-out, right from the store.

That's how it should be done.

[xWiredx]

Yeah, we've been asking for ANY kind of fluff at all for years and gotten nowhere. PGI doesn't care enough.

[Hunka Junk]

That's a Year 1 kind of improvement. Doesn't take a lot of programming. Doesn't really take a lot of effort. It's pretty much a no-brainer.

It's too much to ask for in this game.

Mow the front lawn? Nah, let's just put a car there sitting up on cinder blocks.

[Lyoto Machida]

Hunka Junk, on 08 November 2016 - 06:59 AM, said:

That's a Year 1 kind of improvement. Doesn't take a lot of programming. Doesn't really take a lot of effort. It's pretty much a no-brainer.

It's too much to ask for in this game.

Mow the front lawn? Nah, let's just put a car there sitting up on cinder blocks.

Would that be mech #16 on cinder blocks in the front yard?

[GRiPSViGiL]

So you want meaningless words added to the sales page? PGI already gave presentations full of what amounted to meaningless words to get Founders and early backers money and we all see how that went.

By all means give PGI more of your money for more meaningless words. That has actually been their long term revenue plan the whole time. They consider that development.

[Nemesis Duck]

As the product is immaterial it should be dressed up as much as possible. Making it attractive is what will get you sales, not just visually but with back stories too. The product is largely for our imaginination, it should have aspects which give it an advantage in the area where it needs to perform.

The Blizzard examples are great. Magic the gathering does/did this well too.

Edited by Nemesis Duck, 08 November 2016 - 12:39 PM.

[GRiPSViGiL]

Putting lipstick on the Pig that MWO is will not help this game at this point. The kind of polish you are talking about here should have been in place before it left Beta. PGI has no motivation to do anything outside of sell mechs because the herp derp brigade of low standard PC gamers keep buying them.

Edited by GRiPSViGiL, 08 November 2016 - 12:58 PM.