16 replies to this topic

[Duke Ivan Nikolajewitsch]

Hi everyone!

It's me, Ivan. I am a huge BattleTech fan and experienced in all MechWarrior titles so far. Yes even the ones in the pre Pentium Prozessor age. I never did multiplayer in a BattleMech, but hey, lets try I thougt. After some playtime I want to give you some feedback. Because, feedback has always value and I am willing to share.

So, I just downloaded the game and am starting to wonder. What a nice tutorial! But after some running and shooting I get slammed with bugs. After changing my BattleMech I lose my HUD. Nothing helps so I try desperatly to go without, but nope. I'm getting grilled. Eventually I find out, that I can mitigate that by restarting my BattleMech. So I need a tuutorial to play the tutorial. Now thats new!

Ok, tutorial is done. I feel ready to go out there, meet interesting people, well and shoot them.

First impression of the menu: I get spammed with diolog boxes about how I can't save any configuration without owning a BattleMech. Like all the time. Ok, so 80% of my clicks in the menu so far are now exclusive to get rid of these diolog boxes. Great, eventually an inside minigame... Thats more annoying than porn popups in the web browser while trying to watch a streamed movie with the grandparents.

"Fine..." I think. Lets buy a light mech. Store, store, ah! Up there, ok. So I need something in exchange for a Battle mech. Some numbers occur. Seems like a currency. TWO currencys a blue and a yellow one. I got some blue one. Don't know why, but hey.. So now I need some yellow one. At this pint I start to wonder wehether they have names. Nope nothing here. Lets google again...

Aha, the blue one is called "ComStar Bills" and the yellow one is claled "MechCredits" after some random clicking I find out that I can buy the yellow one for money. Whether I can earn it somehow? I don't know. Thats not explained anywhere. Ok, so no BattleMech for now. I have build up enough trust issues till this point, that I am not willing to throw money in this weird menu which is mocking me with its dialog boxes and non explained features.

Lets go and play a quick match. Seems like I can still choose between some BattleMechs. I am basically going to a Battlefild with the property of someone else? Well.... ok. Now some tiles with pictures of landscapes appear.

Percentages start to grow and shrink before my eyes. Eventually I find out that this is a voting mechanism. So painting your BattleMech white for snowy enviroments is practically useless. It's does not matter what paintjob you choose. You will end up in a random environment anyway...

The match begins. An what a feast of battle that is! Awesome! I like that a lot!

After 2 matches I am still quite confused about all these EMC, NARC etc. systems because they are never explained. So I probbably have to use google again... I have a dark feeling that these were also used in previous titles, but than was more that a decade ago.

So after my first glimpse into this game I want to sum it up. The gameplay is awesome. Graphics and especially the sound desing are absolutely great! The UI in the cockpit is also a masterpiece. Way better than seen in the old MechWarrior titles. The UI in the menu is horrible. Nothing is explained, I get nudged all the time by these GOD DAMN dialog boxes. And most of the time I have no Idea how to go back to the page I was on before. Horrible. Now what I did not test is the MechLab. Since I am not able to save any configurations without spending real money. I had no feeling to do it anyway. And I got that message after the first dialog box. No need to repeat that 500 times.

Now I know that this title is free and that some people may argue about my feedback because they feel like critizm is not a goody thing to do about games which are free. To these I have to say: You are wrong. Feedback is an extremely important thing for the developers and the companies behind it. Especially when we talk about a commercial game. And MWO IS commercial. So commercial, that its feels ok to spam new players with dialog boxes to remind them that they need to spend money to probably get rid of this treatment. Well I found another solution...

Best regards
Duke Ivan Nikolajewitsch

Edited by Duke Ivan Nikolajewitsch, 02 March 2017 - 10:12 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

feedback is good, but let me try to help with some of your concerns.

the popup about being unable to save changes should only show up if you are in the Mechlab, as you cannot change the loadout on a trial Mech they are just warning you of that, I am sorry that you find them annoying ^{(I do too on the rare occaisions I see them)}

the currency in the store, you use one or the other, not both.

you get cbills for playing the game, the turorial gives out 5 million, and your first 25 games pay match earnings + a total of 12 million. so after 25 games you should have 18-22 million depending on how well you do.

a Light Mech may look cheep but most will cost a lot to outfit with a useful loadout, figure you will need 3 times purchase cost to buy and outfit most Light Mechs, however the Arctic Cheetah is a good Light Mech which is reletively cheep to outfit.

as for MC, you can earn some from events, achevements and faction play, but earning enough to buy even the cheepest of Mechs will take a long time, as in years.

we do not usualy recomend Light Mechs for the first Mech, as they are the hardest weight class to do well in (closely followed by assualts) Lights are relitavely fragile and cannot take a solid hit without suffering serious damage, however a good pilot can make them realy hard to hit, assualts have the opposite problem, while they can take a lot of damage they cannot get out of a bad position, so if you find an assualt seporated from other Mechs the 12 players on the enemy team will kill it, if they are bad shots or playing with you it may take 30 seconds, however if 12 Mechs are shooting at you that 100ton assualt can go down in less than 5 seconds, and some Light Mechs can get behind you and kill your Mech in 5-10 seconds.

below is a basic explanation of some of the equipment

ECM, Electronic CounterMeasures (unfortunately I have heard a lot of people refer to it as EMC), scrambles enemy sensors, making it harder for them to target the carrier or any Mech within 90m of the carrier, also slows targeting for Mechs within 90m, and disrupts their locks, there is also a counter mode to counter 1 enemy ECM within 90m.

NARC, is a dumb fire missile, it attaches a hoaming beacon to any enemy Mech it hits, the beacon disables that Mechs ECM if it has one, broadcasts that Mechs location (unless that Mech makes it to an allied ECM) allowing for target locks and missile locks, speeds missile locks and improves LRM grouping, lasts 30 seconds.

TAG, Target Acquisition Gear, a laser pointer, helps speed missile locks, and improves LRM grouping as long as the laser pointer is held on target and the Mech using it is not within 90m of an enemy ECM, allows targeting of an ECM Mech it hits.

Active Probe, increases targeting range, allows detection of shutdown Mechs in range, speeds target ^{(but not missile)} lock and target info, counters 1 enemy ECM within 240m

MASC, gives you a up-to 30% speed and 250% acceleration and agility boost when active, if active for too long will cause leg damage, you get a gauge on the HUD and a sound effect to show if you are at risk of leg damage ^{(try it out on the trial Shadow Cat, I think the default was [ctrl] to activate, or if I am wrong pressing [f1] will show you the default keybindings)}.

if there is anything else you would like explained please ask.

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 02 March 2017 - 10:40 AM.

[Roughneck45]

Sounds like a typical new player experience, especially the two currencies displayed on mechs to buy, that seems to confuse people more than I would have guessed.

Glad you enjoyed the combat, for a lot of new players that's the most overwhelming part. I'm sure your previous MW experience helped you with what to expect.

You are right about things not being explained. There is a lot to learn and you'll have to go outside the game to do it. These forums are very helpful so feel free to ask whatever you'd like,

[jss78]

First, welcome to the game!

As far as the disappearing HUD in Academy. It's not just you, happens to me too -- if I remember correctly, you can work around this by powering your 'mech off and then on again. It's the P key for me.

About nothing being explained anywhere, all I can say is it's a well-known and persistent weakness in this game.. you basically have to google up answers, and even that can be perilous because you can never know whether the information you find has been obsoleted by a later patch.

About the underlying economy, and different currencies. Sure enough it's complex -- I guess they assume people can figure it out easily, because it's basically the same logic as in other free2play multiplayer games. E.g. World of Tanks/Warships etc. has a basically identical system.

The basic idea with the economy is that there's a strict division between "premium" and "non-premium" content. "Premium" content being stuff you can only get with real money. In MWO terms, you get this premium content with the Mechwarrior Credits (MC), which you generally only get buy paying $/£ (though you can occasionally get a small amounts of MC from events). By comparison non-premium content can be bought with "c-bills" which can get by simply playing the game.

These are equivalent with the dubloons ("gold" or "premium" currency) and credits ("silver" or "non-premium" currency) in World of Tanks/Warships.

A third commodity you need to progress in the game is experience points (XP) ... this too is further divided to "mech XP" and "general XP". The normal mech XP can be used to upgrade the 'mech in question, while you also gain a small amount (5%) of free XP for every normal XP gained. These can be used for OTHER 'mechs. (These are again equivalent to the "normal" vs. "free" XP system in World of Warships/Tanks).

Anyway, you've done the best possible choice by coming to the forums, especially this subforum is extremely friendly and helpful. Basically your best option for getting up-to-date info,

[Deltree Zero]

Strap in my friend.

This road of twisting madness will challenge the very core of your being.

Glorious rewards exist, but you must create them for yourself.

Welcome to the most inescapable abusive relationship of your life.

Good luck and remember, PGI does it because they love you.

[Duke Ivan Nikolajewitsch]

Hi again everyone,

thanks for the answers to my feedback. Lets add a friendly community to the feedback. Also thanks for the system explanations Rouge Jedi and thanks for explaining the economysystem jss78.

Best regards
Duke Ivan Nikolajewitsch

Edited by Duke Ivan Nikolajewitsch, 02 March 2017 - 11:49 AM.

[Koniving]

Good news is the pop-ups about the much config is only when looking at config for the trial mechs. Things like ghost heat warnings, ammo missing, other warnings appear as icons with details when clicked.

Ecm doesn't work much like battletech. Just remember if your weapons lock bring bap. Ecm won't be much trouble then.

Haven't had a HAD bug since 2013. Make sure your computer is suited for the game. Mwo is VERY CPU heavy. Ridiculously so. Keep an eye on your real life computer heat. Especially on a laptop.

Welcome to Mwo. Some advice: mechs are available for either c-bills or mc.
Don't get them for mc except for "hero" mechs. Will let someone else explain those. Trial mechs (champions) are community builds on regular mechs. An XP bonus a champion mech's only real merit.

[mxs]

There's a Public Test running again. You might want to try it out. You get a boat load of cbills, exp, even Mech Credits. You can purchase any mech you want, to see if you like them.

[Rogue Jedi]

there are 2 billion cbills, and 2 million each MC and XP available on the Public Test Server, they usualy take a snapshot of everyones account a few days before the PTS session starts, so if you are a brand new player as in only created an account within the last 2-3 days there may not be an account for you on the PTS but otherwise that ammount of Cbills and MC is enough to buy and outfit 100+ Mechs, so is as mxs said this is the perfect chance to try before you buy.

what happens on the test server stays on the test server, so you cannot transfer anything back to the live server

[Ayaka Quinn]

Experiencing the same thing today!

[Catalina Steiner]

I want to let you know about this guide collection: new-list-of-community-created-guides-and-tutorials/

You will find nearly anything here. You might be interested most in the HUD-thread. That's what was most interesting to me when I started. Thanks for your feedback and have fun!

[Koniving]

Ayaka Quinn, on 02 March 2017 - 02:50 PM, said:

Experiencing the same thing today!

Tell ya what.

Are you using the bootstrap launcher (downloaded on this site?)
If so try the repair tool. The public test server thing tends to mess with some installs.

If using the steam version right click Mwo on your list then properties. Look for "verify file integrity". Usually a 5 second download after the check will fix recurring issues.

Out of the two I have considerably fewer problems on steam. (Like 2, versus a Whole lot more with the other).

Note... If using right shift for whatever reason.... A button combination disables the hud.

Don't use this.

Note 2... If you mean this happens in the tutorial.... That is a whole different issue with a super easy fix.

Press P to shut down
Press P to power up. Hud fixed. Some bug that occurs from the "change mech" cinematic.

Edited by Koniving, 02 March 2017 - 06:48 PM.

[aGentleWarrior]

You should have seen the "non-battle-user -interface" some years ago... for me it seemed to run in a browser window and started a seperate clientwindow for a battle ...
The trial mechs - no mech - mech overview confused me even more.
Finally the steering was more joystick like with accelerate decelerate and steer -> I was gone after 2 battles ... one year after that I tried again ... and somehow i keep playin from that time.

[Koniving]

aGentleWarrior, on 06 March 2017 - 06:46 AM, said:

You should have seen the "non-battle-user -interface" some years ago... for me it seemed to run in a browser window and started a seperate clientwindow for a battle ...
The trial mechs - no mech - mech overview confused me even more.
Finally the steering was more joystick like with accelerate decelerate and steer -> I was gone after 2 battles ... one year after that I tried again ... and somehow i keep playin from that time.

This one?

[B L O O D W I T C H]

Awww feedback.
Yes, the UI really is that BAD, as in reaaaally reaaaaaaaaaallly bad.
(and it is getting worse with every iteration, i **** you not.)
Likewise, the game doesn't explains jackshi.. to anything. BUT, we do have a very helpful community.

On a sidenote, devs hardly if ever show up on forums (they may ninja it once in a while, nobody knows).
They generally only listen to a small but vocal portion of the playerbase and the vast majority of "normal" players just has to follow through with thier weird a$$ decisions.
Game is still fun tho, keep it up. Can't get a better "rompy stompy robot action" experience anywhere on the planet currently anyways.

Cheers mate and welcome aboard.

[Tarl Cabot]

It is funny when looking for MWO screenshots online and run across the older UI pictures. I see them and go.. frak, "I remember when it looked like that!!!" and then go, I am glad changes were made!!!

Koniving, on 06 March 2017 - 07:20 AM, said:

This one?

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 06 March 2017 - 05:04 PM.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Ah, another case of "wouldn't it grand if PGI explained their own game to players?"