211 replies to this topic

[Captain Caveman DE]

2 things:

-pls explain the thought process behind the cspl and why you arrive at -2 dmg. just curious.

-more important: care to explain why you don't have a pts with the lasers, but simply roll it out untested? why don't you just pts all the time? I just don't get why you are so afraid of (for you) free testing and data..

Edited by Captain Caveman DE, 20 June 2017 - 03:34 AM.

[linux4eva]

Captain Caveman DE, on 20 June 2017 - 03:33 AM, said:

-more important: care to explain why you don't have a pts with the lasers, but simply roll it out untested? why don't you just pts all the time? I just don't get why you are so afraid of (for you) free testing and data..

Recent PTS occasions didn't work because:
1. it was not 12 vs 12 cause lacking players in the queue.
2. there were events that distracted players from participating.
3. there were no rewards or earned c-bill transfer to live account to motivate people spend their time.

So basically PTS is just a formality to be fulfilled, so there would be less arguments against proposed changes.
Ultimately this is just business and they have their own vision on how to attract player base and where the profit is.
Unfortunately this game is advertised as Battletech and Mechwarrior game that does not fulfil expectations of the fanbase.

I would happily play MWLL if there was a team to play with. Being PUG there is less fun: no matchmaker no in-game VOIP.

[Terrastras Rex]

Remember the recurring FP town halls we were supposed to have? We had 2?

edit: is there another quietly used pre-town-hall thread where we can raise FP issues?

Edited by Terrastras Rex, 20 June 2017 - 04:16 AM.

[pyrocomp]

slide, on 19 June 2017 - 08:23 PM, said:

Question for Chris Lowery,

Changing things incrementally is obviously a good thing, however from where I sit some of the changes make no sense. So what kind of telemetry do you get that would suggest that changing (for example) a large lasers duration by say .1 seconds either way would make any difference to the weapons usefulness?

For example if you increase the duration of the LL by .1 do you see a corresponding drop off in the total damage numbers by that weapon type?

The real question is just how that change in burn duration achieved - via changing periond between laser ticks or by changing number of ticks and their damage (to keep total damage unchanged). Additional 0.1 second is a huge time in the game while this is not so obvious from outside.

[Black Ivan]

What is the future of FW? Will it stay wasteland as it is or is a serious and hard look at it planned?

[Ober Steiner-Davion]

SuperFunkTron, on 19 June 2017 - 09:56 PM, said:

2 questions that address both FP depth and potentially balance.
The 2 real concepts are

1.Faction Specific Mechs- some sort of system (i.e. greater c-bill returns) to incentivize using mechs specific to one's Clan/House. This would add more meaning to the faction selection, create the first semblance of some true difference between factions on each side of the tech tree, and even potentially start stirring up some faction pride.

2. Faction Specific Quirks- quirks aimed at accentuating lore based combat styles and weapon preferences for each Clan/House. This would be more of a long term project as a lot of work would need to go in to ensuring that balance is done well. Providing each Faction with a set of positive (and maybe even associated negative) quirks, to help them stand out in certain areas. As we are currently in a Clan vs IS bucket, each house/clan could collectively offer the same/similar quirk sets so that both sides of the battle have the same cumulative set of abilities. For example, Steiner could receive a slight durability boost at the cost of speed, Liao could get buffed ECM, info tech, and missles, Wolf could get a speed/agility boost, Jade Falcon improve jump jets etc... This is a crude example but the end goal is to tweak each of the factions and help collect like minded players or encourage players to cooperate and share their particular improved skills or cover their weaknesses. The quirks could be limited to faction specific mechs so as to further incentivize fidelity to lore drop decks.


In both cases, they concepts can be either Chassis or Variant specific. The incentives could also be tiered in terms of either difficulty or how common a mech is.

There are quite a few threads out there that go into much greater depth about this.



TLDR: Faction Specific Mechs and eventually Faction Specific Quirks. Are either of them on the table or should we kill that hope now?

There are only two Ghost Bear mechs. Executioner and Kodiak. Wouldn't be fair.

[MovinTarget]

Monkey Lover, on 19 June 2017 - 11:52 PM, said:

This is not true you can improve lrms without hurting lower skilled people. Example would be buff lrms and remove shared locks.
Most pugs die because a shared lock system allows multiple mechs to rain on them. In a higher teir the more skilled players would be getting thier own locks and this wouldn't hurt them.

Another example would be to decrease spread when your target is not over the mech and increase speed/decrease spread when you have them in your target.

Lots of other ways to do this.

In other words make them better but only if you have LoS on the target?

[Chuanhao]

Could we have more Solaris type maps?

Could we have a IS only or Clan only FP campaign?

Could we have a limited Solaris style event?

When will IS Omnis appear

[linux4eva]

MovinTarget, on 20 June 2017 - 04:39 AM, said:

In other words make them better but only if you have LoS on the target?

In MWLL you fire LRM and then the spotter comes out and holds TAG on a target. Sounds very cool. This would encourage teamplay and will promote role differences.

[Cub]

Fix the Spirit Bear and other 100 tonners, that would be great. Perhaps have a minimum mechs can accelerate? 6kph is TOO LOW! Then, on top of that, don't give us nodes and equipment that only increases things by percentages, a % increase makes investing in acceleration and such worthless and leaves our 100 tonners collecting dust because of their abysmally low values.

Also, play your game once in a while, that might help too. Then again, I don't blame ya if that seems to be a chore, with the changes you've implemented in balance, feels like a chore to me too.

[MovinTarget]

linux4eva, on 20 June 2017 - 05:45 AM, said:

In MWLL you fire LRM and then the spotter comes out and holds TAG on a target. Sounds very cool. This would encourage teamplay and will promote role differences.

Sounds great on paper, but you know there will be assaults sitting in the back screaming for locks in the absolute worst scenarios for LRMs...

If we want to promote teamplay, reward playing as a team over individual accomplishment.

[Valdarion Silarius]

The real question that we have all been waiting for?

Can we expect the Rifleman IIC in the next mech pack?

[CK16]

Sneak peek of Civil war tech and mech I hope!

[SuperFunkTron]

Dann Steiner Davion, on 20 June 2017 - 04:36 AM, said:

There are only two Ghost Bear mechs. Executioner and Kodiak. Wouldn't be fair.

I may need to clarify that the goal isn't to have players play mechs that are exclusive to their faction (even then, Executioner was used by most factions and the Kodiak, despite being a totem mech, was found in all clans, though much smaller numbers). The goal is to have players utilize mechs specific to their Faction's lore toumans.

A more clear example would be the linebacker. According to masterunitlist.info, it was only used by clans Jade Falcon and Wolf (only listing in game clans). So, according to my concept, players from those two factions would get a better c-bill/loyalty points/xp payout than a loyalist from Smoke Jaguar or Ghost Bear.

The other half of the equation are the mechs that are typical of multiple factions. Timberwolf, Hellbringer, Summoner, Nova, etc were found among all the clans but in different distributions. This leads us to two issues in the Reward/Incentive system that would require consideration:
1. Mech distribution- If we consider that each Clan had a tendency to use certain mechs more than other clans, we can see that forces had clear preferences for their drops. Clan Wolf, for example, was big on Linebackers, Timberwolves, and Hellbringers and while mechs such as the Summoner and Mad Dog were also present, their numbers were much lower. To help drive the idea of diverse factions, Mech Chassis (or even variants for extreme depth) could be rated as Very Common, Common Uncommon, and Rare in order to create a tiered system that could help decide on the level of incentive offered.
Example: Very Common: Timberwolf, Hellbringer, Linebacker, Ice-Ferret
Common: Summoner, Mad Dog
Rare: Night Gyr

The rare category's low payout can be easily justified as upkeep costs and those that are less common or rare will cost more to maintain.

2. Factions with few/no exclusive mechs- Clan Ghost bear is an example of a Faction that doesn't really have many exclusive chassis despite having some very well known Chassis that are strongly associated with them. This issue can be handled by providing them a larger bonus to each of the mechs they did use.


TLDR: Faction Specific Mechs aims to incentivize the use of mechs more typical of a said Faction, not force them to use mechs that are exclusive to them.
Payout Tier System based on commonality of the mech chassis/variant
Lack of exclusive mechs may be reward other ways.

[Dee Eight]

Navid A1, on 19 June 2017 - 08:02 PM, said:

Change the damage reduction of C-SPLs to 5 instead of 4 and you won't even need a town hall to justify anything

Why? Its not supported at all in the lore... and if they don't drastically reduce the damage for the SPLs...then there's little value in introducing heavy small lasers.

[KingCobra]

The question to Russ and Chris is are we going to finally get a new Social lobby system like the old MSN GAMMING ZONE was on a tab in the main UI? MWO has for 4+ year been very barren of social aspects for new and old players to chat in a live environment get needed information about MWO related issues and actual live help and instruction on gameplay now that we have free private drops? (Thanks for the free private drop system).



The second question I have is what can we do to fix FP? Would you consider a split FP queue where on one queue you have ( 1- 2 man group and 10 pug/casual/new players VS 1- 2 man group and 10 pug/casual/new players) and the other FP queue you have (4man-12man groups VS 4man-12man groups) only for better player retention and overall fun gameplay in FP.

[MechaBattler]

Is the design intent to lower performance across the board? That idea seems to fit with the energy changes.

[Tordin]

Some wishes.

-Can you once and for all, finally add the Flea and Fire Moth to the game? At least for the Flea, there is this model quite a few want it along with Wasp, Stinger, Fire Moth etc. My Impression anyway. I would buy a Flea Ultimate pack right away and even to some friends as a thanks to think of the forgotten ones and appreciation of Light mechs.

-Can you promise to make utmost priority to not make any weapon/ equipment/ engine/ structure/ armor uselss once the new tech arrives? Seems nerfs hit some laser weapons way to hard, if so, please help out those weapons if it dosent go well for common usage of said weapons in the future. Even MG and Flamers are very useful, even if situational. Small lasers and their pulse counterparts shouldnt get stuck in year long waiting time to get that buf to once again make them useful.

-Will there ever be room for 24 pilots free for all Solaris arena style?

-More balance tweaks to the skill nodes so that certain weapons/ equipment/ mechs and their chassi, weight classes get needed boosts to relevant nodes. Like bump up uac jam chance reduction to say -10% each? Make it so, slower lights (raven, firestarter, kit fox, puma, cougar etc) get more % increase for speed tweak withouth hitting the border of slowest medium speed limits? Some examples right there.

-Will there be more maps soon. Alot seems to crave urban city maps filled to the brim of buildings, having them being tall enough to tower over even the biggest assaults somewhat. Gain more immersion.

[Wildstreak]

After the one time I showed up for one of these, I learned the only reason to go is the 1 in 1000 chance of winning something.
The rest is like going to a political townhall, get people to show up to say, "What a large crowd we have!" while ignoring most of the attendees.

[Appogee]

MW5 early adopters time already...?