53 replies to this topic

[TLBFestus]

Bishop Steiner, on 12 March 2017 - 01:31 PM, said:

I said you seem content to rabidly back those who post a narrative YOU agree with, while rabidly attacking anyone who post a Narrative you don't agree with.

Ummm........ should he rabidly back the narratives of peoples with which he disagrees with?

Truth is he has a differing opinion and has chosen his position based the information and sources that he trusts the most. I think that's pretty much what anyone does, you included.

[Bishop Steiner]

TLBFestus, on 12 March 2017 - 07:04 PM, said:

Ummm........ should he rabidly back the narratives of peoples with which he disagrees with?

Truth is he has a differing opinion and has chosen his position based the information and sources that he trusts the most. I think that's pretty much what anyone does, you included.

or maybe he should rabidly back none of the above, until he can collect the data to make an informed decision...., or at least not attack those with a differing opinion. Crazy thought, I know.

[4rcs1ne]

I've spent approximately $500 on this game. While this is not a lot by some people's standards, it certainly is for a college student. Also, might I add that I am a module swapper... so yeah, I'm pretty much ****** from the start.

Right now, I have neither the energy nor the will to grind and master the 75 mechs I currently own. The sad part is that this is a great idea, but with absolutely terrible implementation. If this skill tree goes live in its current state I will leave the game, possibly for good unless PGI rights the ship...

Edit: Can't wait for the Battletech Beta to come out!

Edited by Matt2496, 12 March 2017 - 07:43 PM.

[Fleeb the Mad]

Hi there.

While it's not exactly flattering, I'd admit to being a blubber-bound anachronistic analogy for currency harvested. I'm not alone in my little play group and, uh, we're not actually being bent out of shape about the changes.

There are people who are goal oriented in the sense they want mechs to be 'done' but I'd hesitate to call that a demographic in any particular pay scale. In fact the idea of a mech being 'done' is pretty much going away. Skilling up a mech is now in support of how you use it with no definite end to how much XP you can sink into it. The changes seem to be going in the right direction, even if we expect there'll be some bumps in the road. I personally appreciate being able to do more/different things with my favourites, rather than have them shoehorned into a particular build by their quirks. For example, I had a blast with the first quirked Awesome, when it wasn't weapon-specific and I could experiment with all kinds of different things while still reaping the benefits.

No more needing three mechs to master a chassis is late, but still good. That sort of thing seems to naturally require a bigger XP sink per chassis because people are invariably just going to buy the 'best' one and that'll be that. So from that respect I get it. The mechs I play most have a hilarious amount of XP built up, though I'm not alone in liking having something to do with that extra XP now, or needing a reason to break out older mechs that have been mastered for ages.

So. The bumps. Yeah, balance is going to be upset while they try to set a new baseline. They've been struggling to make balance work with clantech for a long time and we're not really getting there. I'll let them take a shot at it because the current dominant style of long-range poke gameplay is pretty stale, honestly. It's also probably the driving reason behind a timeskip, which gives many field-leveling technologies to the IS side.

Let it roll. While I can't speak for everyone, my little pod is patient. If they screw it up we'll wander away and check back in a few months to see if they've sorted themselves out.

[QuePan]

Matt2496, on 12 March 2017 - 07:40 PM, said:

I've spent approximately $500 on this game. While this is not a lot by some people's standards, it certainly is for a college student. Also, might I add that I am a module swapper... so yeah, I'm pretty much ****** from the start.

Right now, I have neither the energy nor the will to grind and master the 75 mechs I currently own. The sad part is that this is a great idea, but with absolutely terrible implementation. If this skill tree goes live in its current state I will leave the game, possibly for good unless PGI rights the ship...

Edit: Can't wait for the Battletech Beta to come out!

I am in a similar situation ,with this skill tree i feel that i loose alot of the time spent in leveling mechs and getting very little in return for that investment ,I know from playing the PTS that my stable will be very under performing if i choose the way i like to play .I personally fee that my time and money is undervalued by the DEVS , Because my in game spending doesn't match what they envisioned , Even though i bought MC for mech bays , mechpacks , i think i purchase maybe 4 chassis with cbills out of my whole stable of mechs ,And i can field basically almost any weight class for groups with the current system . It will be very hard to do the same in the new system without using severely under performing unskilled mechs even though i might have the exp on them i wont be able too .
From what ive seen without certain unlocks unskilled mechs are WAY below the bar they should be and skilled mechs are WAY above that , adds so many quirks that makes it hard to see on the screen in the mech lab .makes mechs that dont need boosts a big boost and those that need them loose and balencing boost in the old system . the system is flawed by what i saw with the last pts W
hile some things we could adapt too such as the inertia changes others not so much . It really breaks the system and makes player time devalued on top of it . And you never want to Devalue a players time .

Edited by QuePan, 12 March 2017 - 10:04 PM.

[oldradagast]

TLBFestus, on 12 March 2017 - 07:04 PM, said:

Ummm........ should he rabidly back the narratives of peoples with which he disagrees with?

Truth is he has a differing opinion and has chosen his position based the information and sources that he trusts the most. I think that's pretty much what anyone does, you included.

The reason for his venom he's demonstrated - "the rest of us" aren't allowed opinions. There's a reason he's normally on my ignore list. I've only been checking his posts on the skill maze to see if anything has been learned since the CW mess, where we were to believe a stomp-based format will still attract players. Guess what - it didn't, just as many of us predicted. Then, as now, the white knights told us to "shut up" with our facts. They were wrong then, and are wrong now.

The facts do not support the skill maze. The worst irony - those of us he so rabidly hates are actually trying to HELP HIM by preventing PGI from making a horrible decision that will render the hundreds or thousands he's poured into this game worthless. He has a far greater stake in this coming failure than I do, what with my merry little ~$150 approximate investment. Why he's so eager for failure just to support PGI regardless of the facts is beyond comprehension.

Edited by oldradagast, 13 March 2017 - 03:27 AM.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

48 Airstrikes/Artys the best for the Future of MWO with the Matchmaker and drop T1 against T5 and terrible Hitreg +new Weapons the Gamebalance is fantastic ...the better mechs > better , the others not seeing of the Field (dragons ,Vindicators )

[NeoCodex]

I'm in group 1 probably just the same as most of you here as well. Personally I'm more of a collector and builder, I skip the bad ones like the Supernova but the ones I like I'll always buy. I'm barely even playing the game anymore, but I'm still willing to give it a chance and keep the wallet open if they make the skill tree interesting and worthwhile. Right now it isn't. It all pretty much depends on this.

Edited by NeoCodex, 13 March 2017 - 04:22 AM.

[Lily from animove]

whale here (103mechs of which most are paid with €uros), and even if I have the time and cbill, thinking about speccing all these mechs, wow my brain wants to cry and run away.

hosever support this

https://mwomercs.com...for-skilltrees/

while it does not help people like me since I can afford reskilling whenever needed, and the true pain is about rethinking and retinkering every mechs own skill trees, this should at leats be to help the not so cbill rich people to not even spent laods of cbills they don't have to close the gaps between people like me who can afford it easily.

Edited by Lily from animove, 13 March 2017 - 08:05 AM.

[CDLord HHGD]

Talorien, on 12 March 2017 - 06:45 AM, said:

1) The Whales

Profile: 100+ mechs. Cash-rich, time-poor. Diehard Battletech fans.

Play motivation: Collectors, builders. Like to collect mechs and master them steadily.

PR/perception gap: PGI is 'taking away progress' and it'll take years to remaster - years where there's no reason to buy new mechs.

Issue: New skill system, perversely, hits hardest those who have spent the most on the game.

Solution: Throw a large bone to show past cash support is appreciated. Something like 1 'full mastery' redemption for every 5 mechs owned.

TLDR

Please don't let the new skill system send the game into a death spiral.

Please address the concerns of these groups. It's ultimately a PR exercise, give them something to keep them.

Proud #1 here!

And I'd prefer the ratio be to mech's mastered vs mechs owned. I've already sold so many mechs....

Edited by CDLord HHGD, 13 March 2017 - 08:40 AM.

[MischiefSC]

meteorol, on 12 March 2017 - 07:23 AM, said:

And non of that substantiates the assumption that

a) 1/3 of MWOs playerbase are whales
b ) 1/2 of the whales will close their wallets.

Neither you, nor i, nor anyone here has an idea how large the proportion of whales is for MWOs playerbase. Neither does anyone know how many whales will stop spending money due to the skill tree changes.

It could be 5000 like in your example, it might aswell could be 15. Or 150. Maybe 300. No one knows.

Based on the data we have, it's simply not possible to make a valid guess on how much the skilltree will impact MWO financially. Losing 30 whales wouldn't have a noticable impact in the grand scheme of things, losing 3000 would.

What we don't know at all is the amount of people who like the skilltree and "open their wallet" again. You probably want to argue they don't exist, but it's simply a unknown factor aswell. This playerbase acts highly irrational at times.

Using "because math" as argument for something and then simply make up the base values to fit your argument makes no sense. I'm not saying the skilltree won't have an noticable impact on MWO. Maybe it will take a massive finanical hit. Who knows. I'm just saying your math argument is flawed.

Paying customers are usually about 14% for F2P games, with less than 5% being big spending 'whales'. They also churn less often than free players. Mobile is even worse; on mobile games less than 3% pay. Cheapskates!

Whales on PC tend to stay longer. It's hard to predict how that will play out in MWO however those who do churn tend to do so more over customer service issues/bad PR experiences than game changes. Honestly part of it is that paying customers tend to be on the winning side of game balance issues because they buy the OP stuff, as such game balance issues are less of a problem for them. However if they feel like they're getting screwed or mistreated or getting bad customer service they're likely to go and not look back.

As a side note, 'customizers' are whales. If you spend more than a few bucks on this game you're a whale.

[Splatshot]

Based on the above I am a whale, I closed my wallet after clan wave 3 however.

I think we have bigger number issues in regards to long time BT fans, than people think.

I was part of the first MWO tourney, the one they did on twitch a long time ago.

Out of that team/unit 2 other people still play, this unit was full of long time BT fans and players.

They are all gone. You can ask Deathlike to verify if you want.

As much as I hate the new skill crap, and what it does to my mechs. I do not see the overall numbers dropping that badly as everyone says, as the people that are still here are here to stay, or they would have left long ago.

I play several matches one or twice every couple months. I hazard a guess that allot of people do that now a days as there really is not reason to play anymore besides to shoot robots every so often.

Edited by Splatshot, 13 March 2017 - 11:38 AM.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

Broken Matchmaker
Terrible broken Hitreg
Broken FW
+
new Skilltreee
New Weapons
-full speed Ahead PGItanic

[GenghisJr]

Um...45 years old, time poor, cash rich (im about to go play with our off road buggy), dont have the time to remaster 145 mechs (expected 250,000,000 refund and would still be short by 100 or so mechs). For me the issue as a light pilot is having to choose between mobility, firepower or TIG. This was the game breaker.
Has anyone heard the expression if you want to get there - dont start from here. I think this applies to this game, how can you balance IS v Clan and still keep IS balanced against IS.