I played MWO since Beta. I quit playing a month after it went live and have come back to check in once in awhile to see if the power that be have pulled their heads out of their butts and started to listening to the community. I see nothing has changed and they still live in their fantasy world. Nothing we discussed or wanted was incorporated in the Game play. Releasing the clan TO&E was dumb. Faction warfare has never been worth playing. It is like they could careless. As I have said before this is nothing more than World of Tanks with legs. Nothing more than Atar1 2600 Tanks with better graphics. Which might keep the adhd kids entertained, but the adults would like something with a little more flavor.
How to fix FW. Not sure if this version is fixable. The bar is ok for what they have now in FW. I know we are not supposed to blasphemy by bringing up competitions names in here but oh flipping well. I have played this game since the first day it came out in table top form and every version of the video game since. I have played in dozens of leagues in the various computer games and only 1 ever kept me coming back as much as possible. It was a league called NetBattleTech.com. They got it right from day one. As far as I know they do not exist anymore because they were big in to MW4 etc. But they understood faction play. We could learn a lot from how they set up their FW play.
1.- They had people in charge of houses, house units, merc. units, pirates etc.
2.- They had various forms of attacks you could use against an opponent. From Planetary Assaults(taking a planet), raids of various types, to small recons. This incorporated tonnage based drops from 70 tons to 1000 tons depending on the mission.
3.- They had jump ships they carried x amount of mechs to use how the commander saw fit. This determined what kind of mission you were going to undertake. PA, raid , or recon. Most mission were raids.
4.- Once the mission was over both sides submitted their mech losses and if they won or lost. The opposite side had to check and agree such mechs were used and the outcome was correct. Then submitted to a GM. They would deduct the mechs lost, salvaged, or stolen and any planet losses.
5.- House Mercs were used if house troops could make it to a drop or any merc if neither of the first two were available. Mercs were paid and agreed upon amount.
6.- All units had a monthly maintenance amount that had to be played. So mercs/ pirates could not sit on their butts etc.
7.- All canon factions were available to play.
8.- Factions had mech factories that they could utilize and sell mechs from. There was also a black market where any unit could pick up mechs for the set price plus BM mark up.
9.- Equal tonnage with any advantages in tonnage doing to IS. Clans bid to fight and do more with less.
I know, 2 different games. But these were the things that made MW4 fun to play. It was like the being in the books. You had Mech vs Mech combat and also strategic warfare. This game has no flavor. FW appears damn near dead to me. I sat for 9 minutes today waiting to join up. I watched the wheel spin around and around and never made it to a battle before I got frustrated and canceled. Something has to be done. I mean doing nothing has gotten them this far. Why not try something different and maybe see people returning to play. Use what other leagues/games have done that were successful. There are numerous other Battletech games coming out soon that will strip away players. Time to act before this game fades away like many others have. I see the same complaints and issues that people brought up in Warhammer online and look how fast that game died. All because the devs knew what the community wanted more than the community did in that game.
Too often the developers do not want to change their baby they have created. The key to a successful business is being able to take what you have created and change it to fit what is relevant and wanted for/by the community. Not what you want to be. I think that the best bet would be to start from scratch. Set the maps so IS and can attack IS and Clan can attack Clan, to keep us occupied. Then have a real open discussion with the community about making real changes. Otherwise this game will fade away. So I know I have said a lot and helped little. But coming back to see if anything had changed and seeing the same Emperors new cloths mentality still going strong is disappointing. But I will uninstall again, occasionally step into the forums and hope I will see this game hit its potential. But it will not until the devs start going away and someone who loves this game takes over. But I bet, it will be sold off to someone else like Standing Stone games or whomever, to take charge of, but not change anything. Lets hope I am wrong.
Edited by X Grunt, 14 July 2017 - 12:27 PM.