18 replies to this topic

[Pr8Dator2]

I started this alternate account especially to play FP as a dedicated clan pilot hoping for an engaging and immersive experience fighting as part of an elite clan from planet to planet, making this whole game more meaningful than the 3 years of pug drops that I have engaged in.

1 month into it...

I find myself pug dropping most of the most once again and the reasons are as follows:

1. I simply don't feel like I am playing a part of a grander warfare. The fights were as disjointed and lack of background as the pug drops that i have been playing anyways.

2. There's simply no sense of what is going on in the macro picture and therefore no immersion at all. I remembered back in Mechwarrior Mercenaries, the simple of a comstar news update provided me a full sense of being in a bigger part of things as the battles that i completed gets reported etc. These are simple computer gaming designs that are sorely missing here.

3. Complete imbalance in the mechs being fielded... at one time you might get a field full of tyrannids like light mechs and the next moment a field full of only KDK3s... there is simply no balance. In fact, PUG drops have more balance and therefore more role warfare than FP at this moment.

4. Its basically meaningless to score FP points apart from just being a grinding tool for mechbays, there's no reason nor meaning to rise through the ranks.

All these reasons made me prefer PUG drops now more than FP and I only do FP whenever I solely need a mechbay...

FP needs to be redesigned from scratch and mechwarrior mercenaries is a good game to copy some ideas from in this aspect. I really loved how in that game I felt like part of a developing story with every battle of my own choosing and how I am managing my mechs income and expenses (ok, PGI tried this early in the development and failed because very often, income from winning rounds barely cover the cost of repair and ammo replenishment and losers usually get stuck with no means of repairing nor rearming... its a nice idea that needed alot more design)

[El Bandito]

Wish there was an automated announcement at least, when a planet is taken, and by which unit. Would be extra nice if the announcement also includes the number of mechs that had participated in the fight, and how many in total were destroyed, per side.

[Pr8Dator2]

El Bandito, on 16 April 2017 - 11:59 PM, said:

Wish there was an automated announcement at least, when a planet is taken, and by which unit. Would be extra nice if the announcement also includes the number of mechs that had participated in the fight, and how many in total were destroyed, per side.

Yes, basically every piece of information about every battle fought so that each battle is a significant event rather than a passing game round which is as immediately forgettable as a pug drop.

[Xetelian]

Pr8Dator2, on 17 April 2017 - 01:06 AM, said:

Yes, basically every piece of information about every battle fought so that each battle is a significant event rather than a passing game round which is as immediately forgettable as a pug drop.

Sounds like an unending nightmare for the person or persons that have to put context to the Faction Warfare.

Pr8Dator2, on 16 April 2017 - 09:14 PM, said:

I started this alternate account especially to play FP as a dedicated clan pilot hoping for an engaging and immersive experience fighting as part of an elite clan from planet to planet, making this whole game more meaningful than the 3 years of pug drops that I have engaged in.

1 month into it...

I find myself pug dropping most of the most once again and the reasons are as follows:

1. I simply don't feel like I am playing a part of a grander warfare. The fights were as disjointed and lack of background as the pug drops that i have been playing anyways.

2. There's simply no sense of what is going on in the macro picture and therefore no immersion at all. I remembered back in Mechwarrior Mercenaries, the simple of a comstar news update provided me a full sense of being in a bigger part of things as the battles that i completed gets reported etc. These are simple computer gaming designs that are sorely missing here.

3. Complete imbalance in the mechs being fielded... at one time you might get a field full of tyrannids like light mechs and the next moment a field full of only KDK3s... there is simply no balance. In fact, PUG drops have more balance and therefore more role warfare than FP at this moment.

4. Its basically meaningless to score FP points apart from just being a grinding tool for mechbays, there's no reason nor meaning to rise through the ranks.

All these reasons made me prefer PUG drops now more than FP and I only do FP whenever I solely need a mechbay...

FP needs to be redesigned from scratch and mechwarrior mercenaries is a good game to copy some ideas from in this aspect. I really loved how in that game I felt like part of a developing story with every battle of my own choosing and how I am managing my mechs income and expenses (ok, PGI tried this early in the development and failed because very often, income from winning rounds barely cover the cost of repair and ammo replenishment and losers usually get stuck with no means of repairing nor rearming... its a nice idea that needed alot more design)

If you really want story wait for MW5.

MWO is mech on mech TDM and nothing more.

I'd love if there was more to it than that, like mercenary contracts (not like we have now) and goals. However little has changed since beta in regards to how this game is played and presented.





I did a lot of faction dropping when it started, up to season 3 before I gave up. I didn't want to join a unit because all the good ones require 'trials' and certain levels of performance that I just don't think I've met yet and I am not super social outside my group of friends much anymore.

[Pr8Dator2]

Xetelian, on 17 April 2017 - 01:25 AM, said:

Sounds like an unending nightmare for the person or persons that have to put context to the Faction Warfare.




If you really want story wait for MW5.

MWO is mech on mech TDM and nothing more.

I'd love if there was more to it than that, like mercenary contracts (not like we have now) and goals. However little has changed since beta in regards to how this game is played and presented.

And, I have been around since there were only Catapult + Cataphract and only 2 maps so I know the issues as well as you do...



I did a lot of faction dropping when it started, up to season 3 before I gave up. I didn't want to join a unit because all the good ones require 'trials' and certain levels of performance that I just don't think I've met yet and I am not super social outside my group of friends much anymore.

FP is already losing support and flavor without context. Seriously, you can't have community warfare without context or you are just unnecessarily creating another queue for yet another pug drop type game.

I have been around since there were only catapult and cataphracts and 3 maps, so I know the issues as well as you do... and trust me, without context, any TDM game loses flavor quickly and dies off.

Edited by Pr8Dator2, 17 April 2017 - 01:44 AM.

[naterist]

Two things would fix this.

1-improved lfg with voice comms inbetween games, and a social hub were those groups can put themselves out there (and units can recruit and whatnot)

2-A popup message in the corner or top of the screen everytime a fw game ends while your ingame that simply and easily says who won, what map, what mode.

Ex) "i.s took the polarhighlands regions resources"

Meaning- IS won a conquest match on polar highlands

Or ex) "IS annihalated a patrol in the grim plexus region"

Meaning IS won on skirmish in grim.... etc etc.

[Shifty McSwift]

Several of the things mentioned above, plus making joining a clan a much more communicative system, the process of joining a clan and probation/exile is great, but the main problems I found was once in a clan there was barely any faction communication between players in a given faction, you often end up fighting with more other clan members than your own and there is just way too much choice within the inner sphere options, to the point of real confusion.

I felt like when I joined a clan there would be a board of who is in the faction, who the already established leaders were for that time, who was currently online, postings for units and groups and general chatter going on, but I got none of that.

[G4LV4TR0N]

I'd like a real damage mechanic for CW. Like after each game, depending on damage taken, your damaged mechs would need to be repaired and it would take certain amount of time to do so. But anytime you could do instant repairs by paying with C-Bills/MC's. Finally there would be some money sink. Additionally, mechs with damaged Ferro/Endo would take much much much longer to repair and it would cost much much much more to repair them. Because by BT lore, some mechs were specially developed with weaker armor to make their repairs cheaper and faster. Has no use in MWO.

[Pr8Dator2]

G4LV4TR0N, on 17 April 2017 - 02:19 AM, said:

I'd like a real damage mechanic for CW. Like after each game, depending on damage taken, your damaged mechs would need to be repaired and it would take certain amount of time to do so. But anytime you could do instant repairs by paying with C-Bills/MC's. Finally there would be some money sink. Additionally, mechs with damaged Ferro/Endo would take much much much longer to repair and it would cost much much much more to repair them. Because by BT lore, some mechs were specially developed with weaker armor to make their repairs cheaper and faster. Has no use in MWO.

Actually, this was what MWO was like originally when I first joined during Beta about 4 or 5 years ago, can't remember exactly. The problem then was that more often, the cost of repair or rearm outweighs the amount you make from each match and it can come to a point for really new or poor players to be unable to field any mechs anymore due to lack of funds for repairs. As such, they removed that system a few months later and it has never returned since.

[G4LV4TR0N]

Yeah but this version introduces free auto repair that just takes time. C-Bill repairs are instant.

[Carl Vickers]

Repair/re-arm has been tried before and removed from the game, in the current form of FW the puggles will never have any spare space bucks, add to that, game play will suck as people wont want to take damage.

[Appogee]

Are you saying Mercenaries had an ongoing, open-ended planetary conquest system?

I don't remember that.

[Pr8Dator2]

Appogee, on 17 April 2017 - 02:35 AM, said:

Are you saying Mercenaries had an ongoing, open-ended planetary conquest system?

I don't remember that.

Nope, I don't mean that. I was referring to how the game design makes a string of battles seem like part of a grander thing to the players using certain gameplay elements and tools that can be learned for just about any combat games.

G4LV4TR0N, on 17 April 2017 - 02:27 AM, said:

Yeah but this version introduces free auto repair that just takes time. C-Bill repairs are instant.

Well, I am not for any systems that limits gameplay

[G4LV4TR0N]

Carl Vickers, on 17 April 2017 - 02:32 AM, said:

Repair/re-arm has been tried before and removed from the game, in the current form of FW the puggles will never have any spare space bucks, add to that, game play will suck as people wont want to take damage.

Well, just like in real Battletech. Especially non-loyalists who never want to take any damage because they are there for money. It was depicted in previous single player MW games where you were sometimes forced to drop with damaged mech or try to avoid taking damage to not face repair costs/conserve ammo. Such damage system would be only for CW and not for any other mode. But probably concept doesn't matter, as CW playerbase is too tiny for any drastic changes.



Anyway, there were very many forum posts about CW changes but it seems nothing really matters. Here is one of my earlier attempts here:

https://mwomercs.com...ctible-weapons/

There's a youtube link posted there where you can listen to what developers were saying few years ago.

Edited by G4LV4TR0N, 17 April 2017 - 02:56 AM.

[Pr8Dator2]

G4LV4TR0N, on 17 April 2017 - 02:56 AM, said:

Well, just like in real Battletech. Especially non-loyalists who never want to take any damage because they are there for money. It was depicted in previous single player MW games where you were sometimes forced to drop with damaged mech or try to avoid taking damage to not face repair costs/conserve ammo. Such damage system would be only for CW and not for any other mode. But probably concept doesn't matter, as CW playerbase is too tiny for any drastic changes.



Anyway, there were very many forum posts about CW changes but it seems nothing really matters. Here is one of my earlier attempts here:

https://mwomercs.com...ctible-weapons/

There's a youtube link posted there where you can listen to what developers were saying few years ago.

And it would remain little and probably die off the way it continues to be...

[G4LV4TR0N]

PGI could alter CW gameplay by doing few simple tricks that are cheap and easy to implement.

As I posted earlier - "variable Drop Deck tonnage", which would mean that total min/max tonnage for CW changes every period of time(for me it could be single 8h planetary Invasion session, but some people suggested tonnage changes based on different things like map progress). This would cause battles to look much different because of different mechs used.

Special short-term bribing contracts for mercs/freelancers. Those would pop-up like Invasion call boxes are popping now but merc unit/freelancers would be able to instantly change sides. Their original contract would be terminated but new one would grant them some special extras like triple C-Bills for time being or something else(for example tiny bit of MC's for capturing planet during that contract, extra faction points etc). Those contract bonuses would be really short like few hours or days. As a penalty for breaking original contract, betrayed faction could for example not accept services of Unit/freelancer for certain period of time(like two weeks minimum) and then they would offer them reduced payment(like another two weeks). Currently there are situations when 4-5 full teams on one side are seeking CW game while other side is waiting to assemble single PUG.

I do believe changes of this kind would take just tiny bit of programming and scripting, as opposed to more "revolutionary" proposals, which while perfectly viable, would take months of implementing and testing.

Edited by G4LV4TR0N, 17 April 2017 - 03:59 AM.

[Carl Vickers]

G4LV4TR0N, on 17 April 2017 - 02:56 AM, said:

Well, just like in real Battletech. Especially non-loyalists who never want to take any damage because they are there for money. It was depicted in previous single player MW games where you were sometimes forced to drop with damaged mech or try to avoid taking damage to not face repair costs/conserve ammo. Such damage system would be only for CW and not for any other mode. But probably concept doesn't matter, as CW playerbase is too tiny for any drastic changes.



Anyway, there were very many forum posts about CW changes but it seems nothing really matters. Here is one of my earlier attempts here:

https://mwomercs.com...ctible-weapons/

There's a youtube link posted there where you can listen to what developers were saying few years ago.

But the whole game play style would be snipe with ppc's and gauss across the maps, boooooring.

[G4LV4TR0N]

And it ain't like that right now? Two most fielded mechs are PPC/Gauss Night Gyrs and Large Laser Battlemasters.


Additionally, by BT lore - Night Gyr is "state of art" end-game Jade Falcon platform. It has Endo, Ferro and probably super long repair times. Possibly lots of special systems that won't ever be implemented in MWO. We can compare it to Gargoyle, that by BT lore was developed in such way, that it was supposed to have super short repair times. It should have a special quirk reflecting that, but as repair is not implemented it doesn't matter. Again, by BT lore Gargoyle purposefully lacks Endo-Steel because it was made out of cheapest and most common components, only to save money and time to repair.

And currently, if we're taking MRBC games seriously then by MWO standards Gargoyle is a premier brawling platform. Followed by Nova another mech that is lacking not only Endo-Steel but also Ferro-Fibrous. And third most common brawler in series is Summoner, also without Endo. And I guess those are current anti-sniping "meta" builds.

By BT lore, it's possible that repairing severely damaged Night Gyr would take weeks if not months, and costs would reach millions of C-Bills. Costs of fixing similarly damaged Gargoyle would be few times lower and repair times counted in days. Of course, such values would be too harsh for MWO. But do you know any reason to not use Endo-Steel when it's available?

Edited by G4LV4TR0N, 17 April 2017 - 04:57 AM.

[Pr8Dator2]

Carl Vickers, on 17 April 2017 - 04:07 AM, said:

But the whole game play style would be snipe with ppc's and gauss across the maps, boooooring.

It already is...