348 replies to this topic

[TercieI]

LordLosh, on 28 January 2017 - 09:08 AM, said:

so we focused on 3 topics that don't even scratch the surface of the problem..... cool if it wasn't for the art department and such a rich lore fan base this game would have tanked years ago but i keep dumping money hoping they will listen but they dont.
No depth to FP and no reason to play it. its a dead system that we are all just beating like a horse.

To be fair, most of us are ignoring it completely, as we have been for a couple years.

Edited by TercieI, 28 January 2017 - 09:42 AM.

[Mcgral18]

Peiper, on 27 January 2017 - 06:14 PM, said:

Okay, got through four pages and kept reading the same thing, which basically says: let's think inside the box. XL engines, balance stuff, and feel good reward adjustments.

I disagree with all of that. Balance will happen anyway over time, and is not necessarily a CW thing, but just a game thing. XL engines. More trivial stuff that gets sorted out in balancing. Rewards? The game should be fun to play with or without extra stuff. What is the use of extra stuff if you're doing the same thing all the time and not actually affecting the MAP.

Things haven't been balanced over 4 years, without even considering Clams
They aren't about to magically balance them randomly, with the help of the Dartboard

Hades Trooper, on 28 January 2017 - 12:18 AM, said:

Another example of a blind eyed IS pilot not understanding all the down sides for clans but picking on the only good thing after the hundreds of clan nerfs.

Good one PGI keeping nerfing clans and making me consider other games

PSST, I pilot almost exclusively Clam mechs, because they're superior
I don't play CW, because it's boring.



If there are so many nerfs, why do I only pilot them?

Edited by Mcgral18, 28 January 2017 - 10:11 AM.

[Deathlike]

Tarogato, on 27 January 2017 - 10:22 PM, said:

I do kinda like your solution. I'm not sure if I grasped all of it, but the way I might adapt it is thus:

1. every team in CW must be always kickstarted by an 8+ group. There is no such thing as a pug group anymore.
2. solo players can only fill in the gaps left open by the larger groups. So if there is a 9-man group in queue, then three solo's get thrown in.

Thus, if you have a hard time finding a match as a solo player (long queue times), bam there you go, incentive to join a unit and drop as a group.


The other solution of course is the matchmaker boogeyman, which tries its best to wait for a fair match before throwing a pug team into a premade tryhard meatgrinder.

The only reason I formed the arrangements the way I did, is because it is easy to manage, but also addresses the various types of players (large group, small group, solo) with bonuses commiserate of what is put forth (large group gets bonus money into coffers, small group gets bonus c-bills, solo player... well, gets free consumables). The structure is also meant to promote grouping up (free consumables are not really worth their weight IMO).

I know it sounds convoluted, but it's structured in the way that it needs to an ideal manner... as there's an incentive for players as designed. I'm not saying this will be perfect, but I don't know any other productive way to mitigating the awful rainbow PUG phenomenon w/o some MM intervention of sorts (breaking down groups dynamically as needed, so a 9-man and 4-man would just stall the MM - someone would have to go/drop out in that instance). I'm doing my suggestion/system in a super MM friendly way to boot.

[MT Slayer]

Bombadil, on 24 January 2017 - 07:35 PM, said:

If you agree or disagree with what is being discussed, please post your suggestions here. Even if you're not listening, but have suggestions to improve Faction Play, please post here.

START FROM SCRATCH

[Aargh Tenna]

I want 4 more dropdecks. I am a whale, and I have 4 dropdecks now: green, black, white and yellow. I want to have 2 of each colour, basically for attacking/defending.

I would also like, before any new features are implemented for CW, that PGI fixes their damn bugs. Like, today I got stuck in FP match on a mech selection screen. Sometimes it unfreezes on next drop, but sometimes it does not. Also getting dropped into space etc - what new features are you talking about? Your programming is immature - fix what you have got first, then move on.

Makes me really regret the money I spent. See, I do not mind being farmed - cause I learn. But when I am stuck, cannot move, cannot shoot - and all I hear is screams of my buddies dying, it is like no fun at all. So IMNSHO, fixes for spawns etc can come later, once the stuff you already have in game works. Not to mention shooting at enemies at the right distance, hitting them and yet not making any damage (like it says 52 damage done before respawn and I know it could not be right).

In any case, current bugs DO NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE in your ability to deliver anything really apart from pretty pictures (mech porn in mechlab). The first thing you need to improve is faith of your customers in your ability to deliver. Start please by fixing bugs.

[Odanan]

Is there a recording (or transcription) of the roundtable?

[anfadern]

Hey, where can I watch the Town Hall?

[Van mw]

Odanan, on 28 January 2017 - 11:02 AM, said:

Is there a recording (or transcription) of the roundtable?

anfadern, on 28 January 2017 - 11:10 AM, said:

Hey, where can I watch the Town Hall?

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/117877515

[Tarogato]

Aargh Tenna, on 28 January 2017 - 10:33 AM, said:

I would also like, before any new features are implemented for CW, that PGI fixes their damn bugs. Like, today I got stuck in FP match on a mech selection screen. [...] In any case, current bugs DO NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE [...] Start please by fixing bugs.

Seconded. There are two bugs that are pretty pervasive right now that absolutely need to be fixed ASAP:

• sometimes it drops you in your mech, but the mech selection screen never goes away. You have to close the game and relog to fix it. This bug has been in the game for months.

• sometimes the dropship will drop your mech out of bounds from staggering heights. Goodbye 20 points of armour from your legs. This bug is new since the 4.1 patch, and seems to happen at least once per match per player, it's very common.

[Davegt27]

to me the #1 issue is the anti spawn capping walls

some of the placement of the walls has you going to dead ends and are not navigable
need to make sure an exit is an exit

spawn camping happens near the end so not a big problem

[MrHufic]

My suggestion for FP

First thing neccessary to be done from my point of view is to restrict acces to FP matches.

Beside the fact that FP implements the roleplaying aspects of Battletech to MWO, it is supposed to be a more competitive game mode than QP modes. It should be clear to all that being successfull in such a game mode demands a certain minimum level of skill, suitable mech builds, and most important a good working team.
Therefor I would suggest to restrict access to grouped players only or to players listed in LFG.

Beside some questions of balancing the main problem is the bad quality of matches due to the bad quality of teams as a result of random team generation.

[Guile Votoms]

I feel like they only addressed minor problems and discussed really jarring suggestions like map voting in CW.

As many players say (and rightly so) Faction has turned into Quick Play 2.0.

If you want Quick Play then do PUGs.
Faction is supposed to be something different, not just Quick Play with a semi-functional dropship feature dumped on top.

What Faction Play needs is a complete overhaul to make it unique.
Faction Play is where you should take the practise from QP to the next level.
Where you should be able to experience complex and rewarding gameplay.

Give each faction their own platform where people can meet, chat, group up or plan coordinated attacks on specific planets.

Give us large, sprawling maps that allow us to employ advanced tactics and make use of diverse loadouts.

Let us plan ahead and prepare for matches. Don't just throw us into random matches where chances are 50/50 to have a fitting mech and loadout.

Everything you need is already being discussed here at great length:
https://mwomercs.com...igger-maps-fun/

And regarding those "problems" you discussed:

If mercenaries cause problems just remove them. Change Freelancers to Mercs and call it a day.
Being able to switch between Clans and IS is already a big advantage. They don't need extra rewards.
Just give them a c-bill bonus for their contract depending on how well the respective faction does.
They should not be allowed to take over planets.

Loyalists are limited to Clans or IS only and thus should get all the good rewards.

Dropship camping and weight class imbalance are mainly an issue because of the small maps.
If you can plan ahead accordingly and prepare for matches there is also a lesser need to go meta.

Edited by Guile Votoms, 28 January 2017 - 12:13 PM.

[Jarl Dane]

Odanan, on 28 January 2017 - 11:02 AM, said:

Is there a recording (or transcription) of the roundtable?

Here ya go.

[naterist]

Mech The Dane, on 28 January 2017 - 12:28 PM, said:

Here ya go.

somehow both hilarious and accurate for a summary.

9/10 (o.o)b

after rewatching some of the stream, it seems like balance is stopping us from getting faction quirks, though we agree the concept is really cool. i wanna re-bring up my idea here that i posted in the fw forum faction quirk thread, which is to replace quirks with a stackable cbill bonus, like hero and champion mechs, if they match your factions lore related mechs. ill copy and paste it below.

naterist, on 27 January 2017 - 12:54 AM, said:

how bout instead of a gameplay changer like quirks, we look at it in a different light, but in the same spirit. give lore based faction specific mechs a 10% cbill bonus when used in fw (in qp too is a possibility as well, but i dont think its the best way to go, limited to fw is better i think).

to compensate for the fact that certain mechs are better, your going to want to have multiple combos of mechs. so say steiner gets a cbill bonus on a battlemaster, well steiner doesnt have exclusivity to battlemasters because davion gets a bonus for them too. but unlike steiner, davion has a jagermech, and steiner doesnt. know who else has a jagermech? frr. so really make it combinations of mechs so everything is a different slice of the pie with a decent bit of crossover, so theres incentives for taking your factions mech, without giving anyone a monopoly on a specific chassis, and no punishment for not being in your factions mech.

this system also doesnt punish or buff in game, which i see causing a crud-ton of complaints. it also gives a bit of light roleplaying, and the cbill bonus shouldnt be labeled as a c-bill bonus, it should be some fancy word for "money saved since your faction gets repair parts at a discount and tarriff free." but dont add a punishment, just imply it to the player that all along theyre earnings are what theyve been getting after paying for repairs. no need to hypothecize on negatives that will hurt people who want to bring a zeus as a laio for example. im not trying to imply that type of system, but if they want to bring a zeus as a steiner, then they get a bonus for it cbill wise.

one thing that ive suggested intermitently in addition to the above idea, is that planets can be asigned mechs, and capturing a planet with that mech transfers the cbill bonus to that faction. this works as you can have a lot of duplicates, each planet giving x%, and multiple planets. so coventry might fall to the falcons, and steiner loses that X% of cbill bonus for it to the falcons, but theyve still got hesperus, or some small planet that also got assigned zeus's and they still have a bonus from them. nemerically, if 3 planets have the bonus, and you lose 1, then you go from 15% cbill bonus to 10, and those falcons now have a 5% cbill bonus for their zeus's in quickplay (or if mixtech ever becomes a thing, there too, but idk about mix tech).

due to mix tech concerns (like clans only getting theyre bonus in qp if they capture an IS mech planet, and vice versa), ive considered another way of implementing this, maybe you just have faction specific mechs with the above cbill bonus, and you fight to gain that cbill bonus as a faction wide reward for a chosen same tech contest. so marik might fight steiner over a planet in a same tech conflict, and if they win, then they get all or part of steiners cbill bonus as a reward, and same tech conflicts are for that.

or, the extremely simplified version, just give the bonus's and thats it. you can add a description of what faction gets the cbill bonus for what mechs and variants and that never changes. then you can add a list of them to the faction description, so people try and join the faction that has theyre favorite mechs when first getting into FW, i also want to ask that the official teamspeaks be added to the faction description, to assist people straight off steam whove never been to the forums to know were to go.

Edited by naterist, 28 January 2017 - 02:00 PM.

[Tryh4rd3r]

Tarogato, on 27 January 2017 - 10:22 PM, said:

I do kinda like your solution. I'm not sure if I grasped all of it, but the way I might adapt it is thus:

1. every team in CW must be always kickstarted by an 8+ group. There is no such thing as a pug group anymore.
2. solo players can only fill in the gaps left open by the larger groups. So if there is a 9-man group in queue, then three solo's get thrown in.

Thus, if you have a hard time finding a match as a solo player (long queue times), bam there you go, incentive to join a unit and drop as a group.


The other solution of course is the matchmaker boogeyman, which tries its best to wait for a fair match before throwing a pug team into a premade tryhard meatgrinder.

I actually really like that idea It prevents full on pug stomps while also incentivizing people to join units. If that were coupled with better unit recruiment tools/better tools to help people find units I could 100% get behind that sort of solution.

[Ebins]

Just wanted to say that mercs should never be able to do Clan whatsoever. Clans would never stoop so low as to "hire" mercenaries. The fact that you allowed this to happen shows that you really don't care at all about what made Battletech great in the first place. Sure, people like myself get called "loretards" and all other horrible insults, but the fact of the issue is that MWO should no longer be called "mechwarrior." It should be called "mech shooter sim that kinda looks like Mechwarrior, but really isn't."

You have now grouped all IS together and all Clan together. There isn't really even any "inter faction" battles anymore (i.e. Jade Falcon vs. Wolf, Davion vs. Liao). This game is just created for a few groups of people who meta the hell out of mechs, don't give a crap about what side they're fighting for or why, and are just looking for the big kill scores. This isn't Mechwarrior/Battletech at all.

I've been playing multiplayer since Mech2 (playing Battletech way before that), and until this current disgrace, have never once felt shafted or degraded simply because I chose to adhere to the lore of the game, which is what made it great in the first place. People have constantly made mech shooters and the franchises have never lasted very long. Well, all except Battletech, and those "in charge" need to realize why this game has lasted as long as it has.

1996 Mechwarrior 2 was released. 21 years later, it's being run into the ground because you guys at PGI obviously don't give a darn.

Blizzard made the same mistake with Starcraft 2. That's why their player base is dieing, and that's why yours is as well. At this point, I don't see a reason to be clan at all. You keep hitting us with the nerf bat, keep buffing IS (with the lone exception of the Warhammer this most recent patch), and the only people you care to listen to are the metafreaks who care nothing about the actual game itself except to win at all costs.

I won't be throwing any more money PGI's way until if/when they fix this crap.

Edited by Ebins, 28 January 2017 - 02:37 PM.

[naterist]

can we balance population by having mercs contract bonus go up and down based off w.l ratio for a faction, instead of population?

[LORD ORION]

Remove non-faction play maps.
Remove scouting.
Add more FP only maps.
Go back to crazy quirked mech balance, like the DRG-1N... instead of the boring best mounts = best mech.

Not happy with high alphas? Stop F'ing releasing so many hard points on mechs.
Infact why not scale back hard points on problem mechs?
While you're at it redo the Pretty Baby FFs, and unsuck hero mechs.

For now I'm done with the game, because it is dead, and the same thing I've been playing for 2 years with stuff I hate added to FP.

I'll come back with new tech just to try it out.... but reality is the game sucks now, so I don't play it.

[Rick Windwalker]

Would be nice to have ANY responce on all those good community and FOUNDERS suggestions by ANY pgi responsible staff in here! (your official forums...)

PGI, do you care?

Any community managress/manager???

Any major game developer?

Any "boss" in charge?

Anyone in PGI? (....who likes to have my money in the future?)

Oh dear, i'm on Battletech TableTop since 1992, have been on all Mechwarrior PC games and MWLL since release...what is happening in here?
No Battletech-clue? No programming-clue? No gamedesign-idea? This game could be so much more!

PGI WTF are you doing with this great game/lore/story/franchise/...and community?

WHAT YOU DO IS NOT ENOUGH...
(...if you are not capable of doing more please use your community ressources offered by so may ppl)

Four years of hoping and spending money, so many dissapointments...

Rick out

Edited by Rick Windwalker, 28 January 2017 - 04:40 PM.

[Jarl Dane]

bye rick