Catching up again... And I've got plenty of useful thoughts for this person!
arcana75, on 05 September 2017 - 07:38 PM, said:
Hopefully the devs are considering a weekly or bi-weekly event, and hopefully centered around 3 things: XP, C-Bills, Faction Points.
Hi there,
arcana75... PGI normally does at least an Event or two per month. They don't always contain the same things, or types of things, but they're usually helpful in one way or another. Don't get too focused on 'Mech XP'/
(
C-Bills)/'Faction Reputation', though... It can become a rapid headache. Things like 'War Horns'/'GXP(
General XP)'/Decals/'Paint Colors', as well as
(
MC), all keep MWO from being a disregarded, bland nightmare. Which of course brings me to your next thoughts, not quite taken in chronological order...
arcana75, on 06 September 2017 - 07:02 PM, said:
As a new player I read that over the past years there's been a few "refund" events as systems change. When those things (eg Player Modules) changed, what was the refund proposition?
Well, you missed the most recent one of those... Pardon me while I get a tad salty about this... It was originally supposed to be a straight 1-to-1 refund of various spent things, like GXP/MXP/
(
C-Bills)/
(
MC). Unfortunately, too many were short-sighted, either because of lack of module swapping, or not understanding how things would work out. So for those of us who put in the straight, hard, Skill-Complete, Module-outfitted work, we got shorted. Those who Module-Swapped from Mech to Mech got the best shake, and the pre-provided Skill Points upon this "New Skill Tree System" release work out best for them. The ones who probably got the biggest bonus however were those who didn't use Modules/Consumables at all, as they've likely got the biggest Mech Stables, and probable mastery available for everything they hold now. Isn't it sad how you think you're making good effort, and find out it was all for nothing later? Yeah, I was one of the ones who fully decked out their Mechs under the old system, as best as I could since I was still starting out myself back then. So you can imagine how upset I am from feeling like somebody took a LB-X AutoCannon to my feet (
and probably a few other things)...
Anywho, enough salt... Excuse me while I get to this next part...
arcana75, on 06 September 2017 - 07:02 PM, said:
Also MCs? I'd like some MCs please
These come up as rewards from Events every so often, but can also be purchased with Real Life $$$... Make sure to get into Events and collect them when you can, however... it really helps! Hopefully PGI never stops awarding them from Events, as this game is supposed to be considerable as a true F2P (
As in, "Free to Play", and don't let anyone tell you it has a different definition!) MMO, and
(
MC) is currently the only way to purchase Mech Bays to enable your Mech Stable to continue growing. I can tell you right now, MWO's Community would likely be one hell of a lot smaller (
possibly on the edge of going under) if people were stuck at 4 Mech Bays without any way to expand unless they paid Real Life $$$ to continue. Which, by the way, make sure to watch for the "50% Off on Mech Bays" sales. It really helps in order to get them at a good price and have enough to last for a reasonable amount of time.
Next up, we come to this...
arcana75, on 05 September 2017 - 07:38 PM, said:
The one beautiful thing that MWO has? Incentivising gameplay over kills. You can do everything else except kill and still have progress. This one aspect is a thing of beauty.
...and it's something I have to partially disagree upon. It will likely take you a little while trying to play the various game modes, but you'll notice there's a bit of a lack of
(
C-Bill)/MXP/GXP rewards in the following Game Modes...
- Assault
Seriously, getting people to cap the enemy base is like pulling the teeth out of a dragon's mouth. Even though it's worth 3x that of a Killing Blow (4x if you're actually on the base), and it's possible to get the bonus even for dead teammates (as well as themselves) just by sitting on the Enemy Base, people still let their bloodlust get the better of them. It looks too much to me like PGI needs to double the award for Capture Success on the Enemy Base at a minimum before people will get the point across. Heck, maybe they need to also add a Penalty for failing to complete that Objective, making note as part of the gameplay that the Enemy MFB rolled away and escaped after they lost communication with their deployed Mechs.
- Incursion
This mode suffers from the same issue. But here, there's far more than just the Capture Success (which in this mode is granted either upon Enemy Team Destruction with Base Section Hit, or upon Full Destruction of the Enemy Base) involved. Each part of the Enemy Base that gets destroyed is currently worth 8x the value of a Killing Blow, which should have caused people to be less bloodthirsty. But instead, somebody just has to be a Salt-causing, Bloodthirsty Lunatic who kills the last one before thinking about wiping out the Enemy Base, so they short both themself and their whole team. Frankly, it ruins the time spent in the game mode for anyone trying to get anything worth something.
- Escort
PGI blew it on this one. From what I've been able to tell, the only bonus awarded is just an Extra Killing Blow and Extra Damage Dealt to Enemy Mechs. That only works for the Attacking Side. There's no Team-Wide Bonuses in either direction, be it for successfully defending the VIP Atlas long enough for them to Escape, or for Successfully taking out the VIP Atlas and denying the Defenders their Victory. This mode is suffering from lack of enough reward for people to actually put up with Game Mechanic Issues introduced on maps like Polar Highlands and Crimson Strait. Which, even though I like things like Escort because I used to play the 2nd and 3rd games from the Single-Player series, I pretty much have to put up with it being dodged like some plague.
- Domination
Too much "Ring Around The Roses" going on here, and yet also another situation where there's no reward for finishing the objective. Not even a minor "Capture Success", or a booster for keeping your team's MFBs alive even with as little health as they have, or even a bonus for the Team due to wiping out the Enemy's MFBs. This mode is yet another pained with something missing.
- Skirmish
Yeah, after those four, I had to come to this one. All the modes keep devolving into Skirmish, directly due to lack of rewards. There probably needs to be a bonus in all those above modes for finishing the objective without wiping out the whole Enemy Team. But then on top of it, having a straight Skirmish mode is what causes the Objectives in the other modes to be forgotten and ignored. I'm gonna have to be salty again here, and say that this mode where all you do is to kill happens to be a toxicity that needs to be removed from MWO.
- Conquest
Yeah, I'm afraid I had to cover all of them. At least, this one is most of the way to being right, and therefore slid all the way down to last place in my criticisms. The only thing it lacks is a Victory Bonus where Your Team did not wipe out the entire Enemy Team.
...and when you get done, you might end up feeling like you couldn't make enough effort to matter in one small batch of sessions (
like, 5 or so) of play. At least, that's how I end up feeling from week to week. It's rare to get an impressive Match in MWO, unless you were simply born with the battle instinct for brawling, and a computer to back it up... Neither of which I happen to have.
Which brings me to this item that I thoroughly agree with you upon...
arcana75, on 05 September 2017 - 07:38 PM, said:
If I may comment on the state of affairs of the forum... those stickies really need to be updated, many of them have outdated info for new players. For example there's still a sticky for mech mastery and buying 3 variants, buying modules, unlocking basic skills etc, which confused me cuz it's all gone. As a new player looking for info, the stickies do a bad job. I rely solely on Google and asking my unit mates on Discord. I also see some "bad" advice from players, in forums, in threads where new players ask for mech advice. I see players genuinely give new player advice, and I see some players give IMHO poor advice based on the "I did it the hard way so should you" school of thought. Every other post I see "buy X mech to learn Y". I understand the motivation behind such advice ("it's for your own good!") but IMHO new players want to have fun first, then if the game appeals to them dive deeper and start learning the lessons, not start learning from day 1 then hope it sticks, cuz it won't.
...and I'm going to have to ask your forgiveness because I'm about to go off like a quiet volcano here. Why? Too many have forgotten that not everyone's mind functions the same way, and they act unnecessarily toxic to anyone who effectively isn't the same as them. You're right, those Forum Stickies all need massive updating for starters. But on top of that, other people need to understand that...
- Not everyone can Brawl.
- Not everyone can afford a computer that's powerful enough to handle brawling anyway.
- Not everyone has a Natural Battle Instinct.
- Others are sometimes better suited to Support Roles, including Spotting/Scouting/'Back-Side Harassment'/'Missile Pitching'/Pick-Offs/Sniping/Hit-and-Run.
- Trying to force someone to brawl who is permanently incapable will pre-sabotage a team, even before the mission begins.
- Not having everyone on the front line can sometimes lead to a better victory, even if it takes slightly longer, as there will then be Mechs who can switch out with the front line bunch to help keep everyone alive.
- Spending everyone's armor early, instead of allowing build strategies to be executed, can sometimes get the whole Team killed.
- MWO must NOT be played like any kind of 'One Man Army'-style of game, such as "Call Of Duty", "Counter-Strike", "Destiny", "Halo", "Quake", or for that matter any game of a 'Nascar'-type nature.
...and failing to understand these things because they're some kind of 'Brawling Maniac' is really what hurts a team the worst, as they get many teammates killed due to not heeding the 8 above points, as well as is what causes useful weaponry (
basically anything in the 'Missile' category) to be deprecated. Yes, for reference, I'm not a natural brawler, I've been unable to gain that Natural Battle Instinct, and no matter how hard I can ever try, I simply never will be able to carry a team like some 'One Man Army'. Sadly, the MWO Community has left me with the permanent feeling of being loaded chock full of toxic folk who think everyone has to be a 'One Man Army', and can't understand the meaning of TeamWork, Locking Targets in order to seek weak points and call for Support Assistance, or even combining efforts in order to succeed. This even happens after the Tutorial has tried somewhat to teach people about using the tools provided to them. So you can see why I'm quite easily getting a tad angry here, even though that anger is directed anywhere but at you.
So we get down to this...
arcana75, on 05 September 2017 - 07:38 PM, said:
Oops went on too long lol...
Excuse me while I also laugh for a considerable moment... LOL!!!
....... Trust me, you're not the only person who blasts off with insanely-long text walls, so I know how you feel. Heck, I'm probably one of the few present in the current community who still can actively land up with nerves hit in a manner that causes them to do this, or a moment found where a short post won't handle the thoughts to be delivered. Still, though, I'm glad to see a good post worth a long reply to.
Ah... one last thing...
arcana75, on 06 September 2017 - 12:42 AM, said:
<<<snip>>>
Going by the Dev notes shouldn't we wait till the changes to supply crates before opening them? Having everything in the crate but not being able to peek in, is vastly superior to getting just one item out of eight. Although 2018 is kinda far away maybe we'll stop playing by then.
...and I get very much how you feel. Albeit that I missed out on this most recent Event, I have also reached the opinion that we should wait on opening any more Supply Caches, and stock up the Keys for an upcoming refund. I look forward as well to the rumored changes to this system that PGI has in store. I do however hope that will NOT mean the removal of the ability to earn things like Decals/'War Horns'/'Mech Bays'/
(
MC)/'New Mechs' and such from the Supply Caches. I sure would like to see an increased variety of Mech Designs on the battlefield.
Pardon me at this point... I just realized that I've been spending one hell of a while (
Upwards of 2 hours, YIKES!!!) on typing this Forum Post. I think I need to go find a restaurant where I can get some food, but also park this Mech just outside which I drove over here with. Excuse me!!! Hungry, coming through!!!!! <*runs off*>
~Mr. D. V. "
Glad to see someone new to MWO with a good mind on their shoulders!" Devnull
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