Maybe email or call steam or something - or maybe even just post/run an update or promotion there or something at least so the game doesn't appear dead on the largest game marketplace, it takes longer to find a match than play a match while you have two live events.
Just posting on this site and your twitter and shooting of emails to spam folders isn't and has never been enough marketing.
If you want the game to keep on floating along the profit line you are going to have to do something other than just release occasional mechpacks that you also don't promote.
0
Pgi Please Do Some Marketing
Started by sycocys, Mar 12 2025 06:31 PM
32 replies to this topic
#2
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- Moderate Giver
- 399 posts
Member
Posted 13 March 2025 - 12:52 AM
It was a choice to not make mechwarrior 5 : clans into a trilogy with presequel and sequel as nobody knows about it.
Only mechwarrior fans knows about Robot Jox where Alexander Kerensky realize he is the lesser evil as he doesn't want anyone else to take his place and he create a new alliance who would later create "The exodus war" where inner sphere kept people as prisoners from reaching the periphery. This influence of houses ended the star league by plotting behind their back to take over the galaxy by replacing mechwarriors with loyalists to Comstar. The mechwarriors of old ways were sent to prisons while children were conscripted by tyrants of a directorate. As the exodus war ended when Alexander finally escaped inner sphere is as well why Clans of the old ways fear to return while the infant clans want to war as they were bred into warmachines.
Mechwarrior 5 clans never explain the motivation behind the clans. There is no world building and since the world doesn't exist there is no destination. Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries had at least the concept of a world outside the mech.
The main reason why , if you heard about Titanfall , the game was released in such way in purpose ensure nobody would find it as technological achievements were considered impossible to continue improving. Nobody has copied Titanfall for a reason. It takes innovation but it doesn't change that Titanfall is forgotten as this is what the company wants.
The fact is that the mechs you see in the games is not the lore but the mechs allowed to be used. Mechs who were common like the wasp is unseen. And how many years of stagnation and we see the same mechs, again. Light mechs are common and was a constant challenge on who could make the best warmachine that it became a piss contest to have the biggest mech, no matter if the mech itself was any better. The penalty of engine size increases at 70 ton while 55 to 65 ton mechs have the best engine sizes.
The inner sphere didn't dropped 100 ton mechs inside a Leopard and I had voice chat wars inside MWO where certain fans start to rage about the false lore. The inner sphere used fortress dropships for 100 ton mechs who were guards. Inner sphere didn't had a drop tonnage limit but a total tonnage limit of all mechs combined. The 100 tons are bosses to be feared.
Drop location as one side is clustered by dropped in 30 seconds 30s x 4 = 2 mimutes delay while the other side are all spawned inside a big dropship. One side has to wait and becomes defenders. Both sides gain 2 mechs each but one side has to wait until enough are defeated to create a lance as them need leopards while a fortress has everything.
This changes a lot how each side is favored strength. The players are self unable to create lances but can be pushed around to favor teamwork as part of a social experiment.
Mech sizes has to be given a chance to shine. Light mechs works in lances while a 100 ton works in pairs.
The 2 mech system could further benefit 2 player based games or 4 player based games up to 6 players. Since mechwarrior games used to take place outside big battles. 2 players are able to create a lance and autobots been around since the battletech game was released. But this concept works in singleplayer. You don't need 4 mechs and use the lance system who even the inner sphere had stopped using and instead used odd drops like 2 mechs,2 support vehicles, 2 vtols. These 2 vtols they're the camera for each player.
Yes even in the mechwarrior universe there are drones but it's cold war drones.
People are attached to cats and dogs as they're children to them. That's why Gundam was selling children to adults.
As people getting older they have less compassion for young adults and higher as such for children. Since old people in their mind recession back to young adulthood they don't see it romantic to have a black mirror of themselves , adult but helpless to people stronger than them, awkward attempts to be adult but incapable. It's a cliche that young adults are sent to fight wars of old men, in jealousy of the young men who have become equals.
Only mechwarrior fans knows about Robot Jox where Alexander Kerensky realize he is the lesser evil as he doesn't want anyone else to take his place and he create a new alliance who would later create "The exodus war" where inner sphere kept people as prisoners from reaching the periphery. This influence of houses ended the star league by plotting behind their back to take over the galaxy by replacing mechwarriors with loyalists to Comstar. The mechwarriors of old ways were sent to prisons while children were conscripted by tyrants of a directorate. As the exodus war ended when Alexander finally escaped inner sphere is as well why Clans of the old ways fear to return while the infant clans want to war as they were bred into warmachines.
Mechwarrior 5 clans never explain the motivation behind the clans. There is no world building and since the world doesn't exist there is no destination. Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries had at least the concept of a world outside the mech.
The main reason why , if you heard about Titanfall , the game was released in such way in purpose ensure nobody would find it as technological achievements were considered impossible to continue improving. Nobody has copied Titanfall for a reason. It takes innovation but it doesn't change that Titanfall is forgotten as this is what the company wants.
The fact is that the mechs you see in the games is not the lore but the mechs allowed to be used. Mechs who were common like the wasp is unseen. And how many years of stagnation and we see the same mechs, again. Light mechs are common and was a constant challenge on who could make the best warmachine that it became a piss contest to have the biggest mech, no matter if the mech itself was any better. The penalty of engine size increases at 70 ton while 55 to 65 ton mechs have the best engine sizes.
The inner sphere didn't dropped 100 ton mechs inside a Leopard and I had voice chat wars inside MWO where certain fans start to rage about the false lore. The inner sphere used fortress dropships for 100 ton mechs who were guards. Inner sphere didn't had a drop tonnage limit but a total tonnage limit of all mechs combined. The 100 tons are bosses to be feared.
Drop location as one side is clustered by dropped in 30 seconds 30s x 4 = 2 mimutes delay while the other side are all spawned inside a big dropship. One side has to wait and becomes defenders. Both sides gain 2 mechs each but one side has to wait until enough are defeated to create a lance as them need leopards while a fortress has everything.
This changes a lot how each side is favored strength. The players are self unable to create lances but can be pushed around to favor teamwork as part of a social experiment.
Mech sizes has to be given a chance to shine. Light mechs works in lances while a 100 ton works in pairs.
The 2 mech system could further benefit 2 player based games or 4 player based games up to 6 players. Since mechwarrior games used to take place outside big battles. 2 players are able to create a lance and autobots been around since the battletech game was released. But this concept works in singleplayer. You don't need 4 mechs and use the lance system who even the inner sphere had stopped using and instead used odd drops like 2 mechs,2 support vehicles, 2 vtols. These 2 vtols they're the camera for each player.
Yes even in the mechwarrior universe there are drones but it's cold war drones.
People are attached to cats and dogs as they're children to them. That's why Gundam was selling children to adults.
As people getting older they have less compassion for young adults and higher as such for children. Since old people in their mind recession back to young adulthood they don't see it romantic to have a black mirror of themselves , adult but helpless to people stronger than them, awkward attempts to be adult but incapable. It's a cliche that young adults are sent to fight wars of old men, in jealousy of the young men who have become equals.
#3
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- The 1 Percent
- 332 posts
Member
Posted 13 March 2025 - 06:25 AM
What the ever-loving Christ are you talking about?
#4
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- Ace Of Spades
- 3,110 posts
Member
- LocationBehind You
Posted 13 March 2025 - 10:53 AM
Marketing could be as easy as hitting up popular streamers with an offer to play the game on a special 'press' account which has a nice selection of mechs ready to roll in addition to the trials. Robbo is a good example of some random twitch wargamer who stumbled upon mwo and now loves it and streams it almost daily to a decent audience who also didn't know mwo existed. He has brought dozens and dozens of new players into the game. Also a nice round of emails with a special come back to mwo promotion and explanation of the changes to the game to inactive players would probably claw a fair few back.
#6
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- Ace Of Spades
- 3,110 posts
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- LocationBehind You
Posted 13 March 2025 - 12:42 PM
LordNothing, on 13 March 2025 - 12:35 PM, said:
way too late for that.
Marketing? Why? The game is in its best state its ever been and easier now for new players to get a foothold via the revamped trial mechs and plethora of qol changes.
#7
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- Ace Of Spades
- 17,444 posts
Member
Posted 13 March 2025 - 05:41 PM
its funny, jarls list global stats pegs our current population at 12222 players. this is the second lowest datapoint in the entire set! 824 new players. people are also playing fewer games. all these may go up on the next update due to the lootbag event, but here be dragons.
would advertising fix that? maybe. for awhile. advertising is expensive. would probibly cost a couple months of updates. we saw what happens to the population when the updates stop (that is the lowest datapoint), its not a thing to be repeated.
would advertising fix that? maybe. for awhile. advertising is expensive. would probibly cost a couple months of updates. we saw what happens to the population when the updates stop (that is the lowest datapoint), its not a thing to be repeated.
#8
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- Rage
- 9,967 posts
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- LocationOn the farm in central Minnesota
Posted 13 March 2025 - 07:07 PM
Fwiw, this game, as well as Battletech, MW5, amd MW5 Clans, have all been nostalgia driven properties. No amount of advertising is going to draw significant numbers of otherwise ignorant players/purchasers to this property without significant updates and evolutions to the predilections of modern gamers ("Dude! There is a game where you can drive a stompy robot against other player's stompy robots but with no knowledge of what their stompy robots are or can do, and with graphics that are nearly 15 years old! Lets do it!!" Really?). If PGI or some other theoretical dev undertook that effort it would result in a game none of the nostalgia motivated players/real money purchasers would play and that modern gamers would care about (oh boy! Another 15 minute match of which 5 is spent hunting for the last guy!!).
#9
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- 782 posts
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- LocationJapan
Posted 13 March 2025 - 10:59 PM
I read several books (Kerensky-clans trilogy first) and I ll read again in my journey.
Bad, so superb content not used in games or cinema.
Bad, so superb content not used in games or cinema.
#10
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- 732 posts
Member
Posted 13 March 2025 - 11:01 PM
This would be nice, but it's not going to happen. The game is barely paying for itself at best, and even great advertising won't find many people willing to spend money on a 13-year-old game with a steep learning curve.
You'd have much better chances (still a snowball's chance in hell) by trying to use social media to promote the game yourself. Most of the content on Youtube nowadays is strongly tailored to people who already know the game; build guides, full matches, etc.
I have seen a video essay or two discussing the game, but it's all been pessimistic. Like how much missed potential the Mechwarrior series has, or criticizing F2P monetization schemes. I've never seen content that is simultaneously positive towards the game, and something I could see myself watching if I weren't already familiar with the game.
There are a lot of interesting and extremely unique mechanics in BT/MW/MWO, and game design analysis videos occasionally get decent view counts. Video essays discussing what the game got right in terms of game design would be what I'd try... if I had the skillset and time to maintain a gaming Youtube channel. Other options could be short clips or frag montages, but MWO is relatively difficult to demonstrate why the game is so cool with just gameplay clips.
You'd have much better chances (still a snowball's chance in hell) by trying to use social media to promote the game yourself. Most of the content on Youtube nowadays is strongly tailored to people who already know the game; build guides, full matches, etc.
I have seen a video essay or two discussing the game, but it's all been pessimistic. Like how much missed potential the Mechwarrior series has, or criticizing F2P monetization schemes. I've never seen content that is simultaneously positive towards the game, and something I could see myself watching if I weren't already familiar with the game.
There are a lot of interesting and extremely unique mechanics in BT/MW/MWO, and game design analysis videos occasionally get decent view counts. Video essays discussing what the game got right in terms of game design would be what I'd try... if I had the skillset and time to maintain a gaming Youtube channel. Other options could be short clips or frag montages, but MWO is relatively difficult to demonstrate why the game is so cool with just gameplay clips.
#11
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- The Lightning
- 864 posts
Member
Posted 14 March 2025 - 03:37 AM
Steep learning curve is no joke, and not just in the actual game play.
Even if a person has the hand eye coordination, tactical mindset, and spacial awareness, they still face the obstacle of the fact that very few mechs even come close to playable in their stock configuration
For starters, almost all stock IS loadouts are basically meme builds. I actually spent several weeks testing optimized versions of IS mechs (And I was cherry picking mechs that already had the most reasonable stock loadouts, not ones like the banshee that has a single PPC a single AC5 and a single small laser
... keeping the same weapons, but upgrading everything else) and I still struggled to maintain my tier rating.
I absolutely love playing in the mech lab, but I get that it's not for everyone, and the mech lab also has a steep learning curve.
It was a massive gut punch to see MW5's lack of a REAL mech lab, making me dependent on Nexusmods to have an enjoyable experience. I get that in "real life" lore you wouldn't have as much opportunity to swap out parts, especially engines, but it's basically a requirement to do well in MW5 (in solo play at least) as your AI team mates are potatoes, especially early in the game, you really need to ditch the stock engines for smaller ones so you can armor up and carry enough ammo to finish missions.
I do ok in MWO but I started playing MW2 in 1996, I can't imagine trying to pick it up and learn it as a new skill, much less dropping into a match against live humans, even at Tier 5 you still go against tier 3 people who are no joke. It was hard enough getting back into the cockpit when I took up MWO, it still took a few weeks to get the hang of it again.
This meme comes to mind.
https://forums.eveon...ing-curve/13988
Even if a person has the hand eye coordination, tactical mindset, and spacial awareness, they still face the obstacle of the fact that very few mechs even come close to playable in their stock configuration
For starters, almost all stock IS loadouts are basically meme builds. I actually spent several weeks testing optimized versions of IS mechs (And I was cherry picking mechs that already had the most reasonable stock loadouts, not ones like the banshee that has a single PPC a single AC5 and a single small laser
... keeping the same weapons, but upgrading everything else) and I still struggled to maintain my tier rating.I absolutely love playing in the mech lab, but I get that it's not for everyone, and the mech lab also has a steep learning curve.
It was a massive gut punch to see MW5's lack of a REAL mech lab, making me dependent on Nexusmods to have an enjoyable experience. I get that in "real life" lore you wouldn't have as much opportunity to swap out parts, especially engines, but it's basically a requirement to do well in MW5 (in solo play at least) as your AI team mates are potatoes, especially early in the game, you really need to ditch the stock engines for smaller ones so you can armor up and carry enough ammo to finish missions.
I do ok in MWO but I started playing MW2 in 1996, I can't imagine trying to pick it up and learn it as a new skill, much less dropping into a match against live humans, even at Tier 5 you still go against tier 3 people who are no joke. It was hard enough getting back into the cockpit when I took up MWO, it still took a few weeks to get the hang of it again.
This meme comes to mind.
https://forums.eveon...ing-curve/13988
Edited by kalashnikity, 14 March 2025 - 03:52 AM.
#12
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- The Lightning
- 864 posts
Member
Posted 14 March 2025 - 03:51 AM
And there are some serious unresolved issues...
Just for starters, half the tool tips are either misleading or just plain wrong... nobody has time to go through 13 years of patch notes to track down what tool tip should read.
Is it really that hard to up date the tool tips every time things get changed?
Just one example, C.A.S.E. does NOT work like the tool tip says it works, as it also protects the component it is in from ammunition explosions coming from outside of that component (not just keeping ammunition explosions from spreading from the C.A.S.E. protected component to other components).
Another really easy example is the splash damage from PPCs, how hard is it to add that to the tool tip? And I notice the plasma cannon doesn't even mention splash damage. Why not?
Nor are ECM mechanics properly described anywhere, and ECM is a very important part of the game. as a new player I shouldn't need to pair up with a buddy and spend hours in private matches investigating how basic game mechanics work. This is day one stuff, guys.
And I shouldn't need to read through over a decade of forum posts to try and figure this stuff out, that's why tool tips exist, but they aren't being properly used! That's just plain sloppy and lazy, and there is no excuse for this game to be ~13 years old and still have wrong tool tips.
Just for starters, half the tool tips are either misleading or just plain wrong... nobody has time to go through 13 years of patch notes to track down what tool tip should read.
Is it really that hard to up date the tool tips every time things get changed?
Just one example, C.A.S.E. does NOT work like the tool tip says it works, as it also protects the component it is in from ammunition explosions coming from outside of that component (not just keeping ammunition explosions from spreading from the C.A.S.E. protected component to other components).
Another really easy example is the splash damage from PPCs, how hard is it to add that to the tool tip? And I notice the plasma cannon doesn't even mention splash damage. Why not?
Nor are ECM mechanics properly described anywhere, and ECM is a very important part of the game. as a new player I shouldn't need to pair up with a buddy and spend hours in private matches investigating how basic game mechanics work. This is day one stuff, guys.
And I shouldn't need to read through over a decade of forum posts to try and figure this stuff out, that's why tool tips exist, but they aren't being properly used! That's just plain sloppy and lazy, and there is no excuse for this game to be ~13 years old and still have wrong tool tips.
Edited by kalashnikity, 14 March 2025 - 03:55 AM.
#13
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- Moderate Giver
- 7,691 posts
Member
Posted 14 March 2025 - 07:44 AM
Niche game/market or not they don't do barely any of the things that even solo indie devs with no budget at all and a full time job in addition to developing a game do to get and keep their game in places that get eyes on it.
They also for some reason chose to take a route that completely separates all of the MW games from each other. If you want to do the laziest marketing at least draw all your games webspace under one hub away from the 2 main marketplaces so you can effectively cross-promote and communicate with the players of your games.
-My opinion is that they should be operating them all out of a singular launcher as well. If they ported them all to run on the same engine on top of that they eliminate a lot of the cost in asset creation and maintenance as well as open up the ability to do actual game cross promotion where you can unlock skins or even special story arcs for the other games - crazy that you could actually use your games to actively promote your other games I know.
Even with a small player market they have a rabid one that if they just shifted away from old sales models and started doing something that actually worked to build out the games they have going on they'd have a model that would be able to sustain their MW titles for a decent amount of time.
They also for some reason chose to take a route that completely separates all of the MW games from each other. If you want to do the laziest marketing at least draw all your games webspace under one hub away from the 2 main marketplaces so you can effectively cross-promote and communicate with the players of your games.
-My opinion is that they should be operating them all out of a singular launcher as well. If they ported them all to run on the same engine on top of that they eliminate a lot of the cost in asset creation and maintenance as well as open up the ability to do actual game cross promotion where you can unlock skins or even special story arcs for the other games - crazy that you could actually use your games to actively promote your other games I know.
Even with a small player market they have a rabid one that if they just shifted away from old sales models and started doing something that actually worked to build out the games they have going on they'd have a model that would be able to sustain their MW titles for a decent amount of time.
#14
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- Ace Of Spades
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- LocationBehind You
Posted 14 March 2025 - 10:01 AM
LordNothing, on 13 March 2025 - 05:41 PM, said:
advertising is expensive.
The two methods I lined out are perfectly free past paying the intern to generate the emails and press accounts. I'm sure our volunteers could be tapped to help built up a mech list for a press account too so that it only has the most viable mechs.
#15
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- Ace Of Spades
- 17,444 posts
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Posted 14 March 2025 - 10:14 AM
Meep Meep, on 14 March 2025 - 10:01 AM, said:
The two methods I lined out are perfectly free past paying the intern to generate the emails and press accounts. I'm sure our volunteers could be tapped to help built up a mech list for a press account too so that it only has the most viable mechs.
allow me to rephrase. effective advertising is expensive.
free advertising is not effective. especially when there are so many other newer games that are also trying to get free adverts from streamers which not many people watch. lets say you are a streamer, you get an email from a 15 year old f2p in a niche franchise, and one from a newer indie game with good reviews on youtube, which are you going to promote? streamers and people with review channels know which is going to get more views and would make the wise decision to go with the fresh new game.
Edited by LordNothing, 14 March 2025 - 10:19 AM.
#16
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- Moderate Giver
- 7,691 posts
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Posted 14 March 2025 - 11:35 AM
Probably the single best method of advertising in the current market is interacting with your community of players and potential players - which is basically free.
Not being blasted drunk when you are doing so would help a lot.
Not going out of your way to separate your games that are all built in the same universe would help.
Actually posting consistent updates and starting/engaging with discussion about the future of the games at the marketplaces the games are being sold would be a massive improvement. As far as the steam marketplace can see MWO is dead, MW5 is dead, Clans is steering the same direction.
Boosting on steam would definitely help get eyes on the games and sale, pretty silly to see Eurotrucker Simulator and TGC Card Shop Simulator on the front page while a game studio that should have at least some marketing budget isn't.
Not being blasted drunk when you are doing so would help a lot.
Not going out of your way to separate your games that are all built in the same universe would help.
Actually posting consistent updates and starting/engaging with discussion about the future of the games at the marketplaces the games are being sold would be a massive improvement. As far as the steam marketplace can see MWO is dead, MW5 is dead, Clans is steering the same direction.
Boosting on steam would definitely help get eyes on the games and sale, pretty silly to see Eurotrucker Simulator and TGC Card Shop Simulator on the front page while a game studio that should have at least some marketing budget isn't.
#17
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- Littlest Helper
- 32 posts
Member
Posted 14 March 2025 - 12:12 PM
"the sea of marketing swallows me"
small business owner
small business owner
#18
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- Ace Of Spades
- 3,110 posts
Member
- LocationBehind You
Posted 14 March 2025 - 12:37 PM
LordNothing, on 14 March 2025 - 10:14 AM, said:
allow me to rephrase. effective advertising is expensive.
free advertising is not effective. especially when there are so many other newer games that are also trying to get free adverts from streamers which not many people watch. lets say you are a streamer, you get an email from a 15 year old f2p in a niche franchise, and one from a newer indie game with good reviews on youtube, which are you going to promote? streamers and people with review channels know which is going to get more views and would make the wise decision to go with the fresh new game.
Something is better than nothing. Even if you get a 1% return rate one good score on a streamer can inflate to much broader exposure. From robbos stream when he first started most of his viewers were like wtf is this game any why have I never heard of it? You don't need to score on mega viewer streamers as a handful of niche streamers can get much closer to the wanted audience. So you would mainly send out invites to war gamers and sims players etc. Games that are similar in setting and such.
#19
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- Moderate Giver
- 7,691 posts
Member
Posted 14 March 2025 - 01:02 PM
Meep Meep, on 14 March 2025 - 12:37 PM, said:
snip
Or party players, as in the streamer groups that pop on with 3-4+ friends into games. For a game like this where unit play generally works out better on the whole, that would probably get a nice pop.
The few people on youtube that I've seen with a focus on this game aren't entertaining personalities at all, so if you aren't a current player looking to see different builds and strategies they don't do anything for the game.
There's been a few decently good streamers that did MW5 on their own, but the problem there is that the end-game is basically the same as the mid and early game outside of the few bits of story drops.
They never bothered to build any progression into the game outside of you use heavier mechs. You don't get further along and unlock advanced mechbays, search out rare loot drops (all the map crates are absolutely terrible through the entire game), there's no pattern unlocks or mini-quests for heroes. They just basically made single player on the FP map and walked away.
Which is really too bad because they have the framework there for a pretty good single player or coop game that could have done DLC mission packs with custom patterns, icons and/or new drop modes for years and years.
#20
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- Survivor
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- LocationHell, otherwise known as Ohio
Posted 14 March 2025 - 03:44 PM
i have been calling for some adverting for YEARS with no go. the best we got was when MW 5: MERCS came out we a got a small influx of people who liked it but wanted PvP (the death of all single player games is when you try to tack on PvP to single player game. bast to keep it two separate games). we got some when HBS Battletech came out as well. at the same time though we lost a bunch as MWO left to play play the other games (i know i did).
sadly the devs rarely even look at these forums much unless there are violations of rules or something of that order. the only ones they seem to listen to are folks at Cauldron and i have a few words for them that i wont speak here. sadly i think we all need to realize that MWO wont be making a comeback. best we can hope for is the current state for a few more years.
sadly the devs rarely even look at these forums much unless there are violations of rules or something of that order. the only ones they seem to listen to are folks at Cauldron and i have a few words for them that i wont speak here. sadly i think we all need to realize that MWO wont be making a comeback. best we can hope for is the current state for a few more years.
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