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Developer Q&A 2 - Community Warfare


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#41 TheRulesLawyer

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 03:06 PM

View PostRed Beard, on 21 December 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

No word on the OTHER factors that can decay LP? That's a biggie for many of us. What actually, besides inactivity, can make a pilot lose LP?

" From that point on, any actions taken by the Merc Corp will result in LP gains with one House and LP losses with another."


So I'd assume running missions for factions other than the house you want LP with is going to reduce it.

Edited by TheRulesLawyer, 21 December 2011 - 03:07 PM.


#42 Dayuhan

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 03:28 PM

View PostTheRulesLawyer, on 21 December 2011 - 10:44 AM, said:

I think the mech's gaining XP is the only big surprise for me here. Who woulda thunk?

I'm glad to know the the LP decay won't make we lose stuff, but I still want to know if there is zero decay as long as we are active, or if we will have to add LP just to keep where we are even if we log in everyday.


It is nice knowing that if you are loyal to the 'mech you pilot that you will actually get better at it than someone who jumps from 'mech to 'mech. I am also happy that once you attain a rank you cannot lose it through LP loss. It will be interesting to see how these three different award systems (Pilot XP, 'Mech XP, and House LP) affect actual game play.

#43 TheRulesLawyer

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 03:33 PM

View PostDayuhan, on 21 December 2011 - 03:28 PM, said:


It is nice knowing that if you are loyal to the 'mech you pilot that you will actually get better at it than someone who jumps from 'mech to 'mech. I am also happy that once you attain a rank you cannot lose it through LP loss. It will be interesting to see how these three different award systems (Pilot XP, 'Mech XP, and House LP) affect actual game play.

I guess that makes sense. Its just strange to have it phased as the mech leveling up rather than your pilot gaining a specialization on that chassis.

#44 Dayuhan

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 03:34 PM

View PostRed Beard, on 21 December 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

No word on the OTHER factors that can decay LP? That's a biggie for many of us. What actually, besides inactivity, can make a pilot lose LP?


Being Disloyal to the faction. Shooting or killing other members of your own faction in-game, swapping sides and joining an enemy faction, changing from faction to lone-wolf or Mercenary unit and then back again. For example, it you are a member of the House Liao Faction and gain LP for the Capellan Confederation and then after a bad run on the House Davion decide to jump lines and join the Federated Commonwealth you can be sure that your LP with House Liao is going to drop significantly.

#45 Brakkyn

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 04:15 PM

On the home page, WHAT is the background image for Q&A2??? It looks like a snowbound city and 'Mech.

#46 Bryan Ekman

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 04:27 PM

View PostBrakkyn, on 21 December 2011 - 04:15 PM, said:

On the home page, WHAT is the background image for Q&A2??? It looks like a snowbound city and 'Mech.


Move along now, nothing to see here... or is there.. :D

#47 phelanjkell

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 04:30 PM

View PostBryan Ekman, on 21 December 2011 - 04:27 PM, said:


Move along now, nothing to see here... or is there.. :D


Sneaky... catapult?

#48 jojobear

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 05:04 PM

I just want to thank you guys for the awesome answer to my question.

Looks to me like you guys have thought this out very thoroughly, and I like the system you came up with.

It's too bad that there are so many lesser games that don't follow your example, but perhaps PGI will start a trend.

Bring on the Loyalty Points!

#49 Paul Inouye

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 05:35 PM

View PostDihm, on 21 December 2011 - 10:53 AM, said:

So this means everyone can become a General in the end? Is there any distinction between an Honorary Captain and a Captain? If not, why have the name change? What does this dev answer mean for the quote from the Dev Blog about "at the highest levels of loyalty points, players will begin to influence their faction by being able to direct what planets are attacked"? You said they won't have command during a match, but do they have command outside of them?


I'll briefly touch on this. No.. not everyone will be a General of the Army or Archon or what have you. We have a plan in place for these top tier ranks but until we discuss it further we cannot go into great detail as to what they are and how they operate. Until then you're gonna have to hold your breath. :D

#50 Threat Doc

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 06:28 PM

No no no... no holding breath, hehe... I want to be around to play this game. Thank you all for this information. I'm going to assume it's yet another puzzle piece, and will wait until even more information is presented.

#51 Thor77

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 06:29 PM

Excited to see how this all shakes out. Have already warned friends and family not to expect to see me much when this goes live.

#52 rollermint

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 07:04 PM

View PostRed Beard, on 21 December 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

No word on the OTHER factors that can decay LP? That's a biggie for many of us. What actually, besides inactivity, can make a pilot lose LP?


Probably for losing a match. I think they are still deciding on this and not fixed the exact details yet.

#53 rollermint

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 07:08 PM

Anyways, these are all great. Other than the possible max of 12vs12 (i'm really hoping for 16vs16 max), I'm especially loving the faction stuffs, ranking etc etc. Hope they will eventually give us more details for the benefits of joining a faction and the consequences for faction switch.

#54 Sylverlin

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 09:18 PM

This is looking fantastic everyone. Thanks for the update devs!

#55 BEN123456

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 10:48 PM

View PostInnerSphereNews, on 23 October 2011 - 07:32 PM, said:


Welcome to Dev Blog 0!

Why is it called Dev Blog 0? Well, a lot has happened in the two years since we first announced MechWarrior back in 2009, and we felt a quick recap would help bring everyone up to speed on the events of the last 2 years. In order to make this blog a little more personal, we have referred to many people by first name.
The usage of we generally refers to:
  • Jordan Weisman founded FASA and co-created BattleTech. Jordan has also been responsible for numerous other ventures including WizKids, and Smith & Tinker.
  • Russ Bullock, Owner/President of Piranha Games Inc.
  • Bryan Ekman, Owner/Creative Director of Piranha Games Inc.
  • And sometimes the entire team at PGI, some 50+ awesome developers!
So let’s go back to the beginning before the 2009 announcement, when Piranha Games first began working with the MechWarrior license.
Rebooting Piranha Games

Three years ago, during the summer 2008, we put in motion a new strategy for Piranha, one that would focus our efforts on building killer original action games. With this ultimate goal in mind, we focused on three key areas.
  • Only take on action based work-for-hire games, such as Transformers 2 and Duke Nukem Forever.
  • Build an experienced development team, capable of creating fun and engaging products.
  • Develop a game by acquiring or licensing an existing intellectual property (IP).
With these goals in mind, we began identifying properties that fit the bill. In October 2008, while looking into the MechWarrior rights, Russ, learned that Jordan was working on a new venture at Smith & Tinker. Jordan, through S&T had licensed some of the digital FASA rights back from Microsoft. Not long after the initial call, we began working with Jordan on a new concept, a major update to the MechWarrior franchise.
Rebooting MechWarrior

The initial ideas revolved around revitalizing or rebooting the series by focusing on two areas:
  • Increasing the overall graphical fidelity of the entire game, especially the BattlMechs.
  • Solve some of the long standing gameplay issues from previous MechWarrior games.
From these two key areas, early design pillars emerged in the form of:
  • Urban Combat to address circle strafing and long range sniping.
  • Dynamic Battlefield further expanded on the concepts of Urban Combat and mechs having roles.
  • Dynamic pacing, introduced an early version of one of the final pillars, Information Warfare.
It would be designed for the Xbox 360 and PC. The game would take place on the planet Deshler, in the year 3015. Single player would revolve around Adrian Kohl and his exploits during an invasion by Kuritan forces. A gritty series of missions, designed to draw people deep into the rich vibrant and treacherous world of BattleTech. Multiplayer was a blend of features from previous MechWarrior games and modern FPS experiences. The package as a whole was the first step in making MechWarior cool again.
We continued to iterate on the design for several weeks, then started developing a plan of action.
Early on we decided to produce a marketing video that would demonstrate many of the core features and rebooted art style. We had three goals:
  • Announce the project and generate a major buzz within the gaming community.
  • Generate publisher interest.
  • Increase Piranha’s profile as a quality developer with publishers and the community.
The marketing campaign contained 3 teaser videos , the final full length trailer, and a feature interview on IGN. We rolled out the plan during the second week of July, 2009.
The reaction was overwhelming. We anticipated the announcement would generate a lot of buzz, however the end result outperformed even our highest expectations.
Oh Yeah, Harmony Gold

Contrary to all the press and speculation that Harmony Gold was getting in the way of a deal or development, this had no impact whatsoever on development or signing a deal for MechWarrior.
Closing a Deal

The hard work began in earnest after the video release. We had an aggressive schedule to visit publishers and gauge interest. In the month of August we met with all of the major publishers, pitched the MechWarrior game to a captive audience and waited. The answers rolled in slowly, starting with the smaller publishers. Then word showed up from the big five. The answer was no.
We knew going in, there were two major risks. No PS3 version due to a Microsoft restriction, and the epic market collapse and major recession. In the end, it was mostly the lack of a PS3 option that did us in. The scope and budget required to develop a console reboot needed the support of a PS3 SKU and we just couldn’t convince publishers to take a risk. By late fall 2009, our dreams of making a MechWarrior game, began slowly drifting away.
Through the end of 2009 and into 2010 we rallied numerous times, reducing scope and budget, re-pitching the concept as a LIVE only title, etc. etc. In the end, nothing stuck.
To be honest, 2008/09 were some of the hardest times this company has ever seen. We spent a lot of time, resources, money and energy on MechWarrior, and it wasn’t looking good.
Then, in the spring of 2010, we secured the Duke Nukem Forever contract. This was a huge achievement and a cornerstone in our development history. MechWarrior played a large role in helping us secure the deal. A few key hires filled out our incredibly talented multiplayer AAA team.
MechWarrior took a back seat, as we focused on a very challenging and time compressed project.
2010 ended, and we rolled into 2011 without much fanfare as Duke Nukem Forever entered the final phases of development.
The Birth of MechWarrior Online

In the winter months of 2011 we assessed the state of MechWarrior. We came to the realization that any further work on MechWarrior would come at great risk to PGI. If we planned to take on significant risk, we needed to control the IP. After several sessions of deliberation, we decided to plunge in head first. Russ approached Smith & Tinker with regards to licensing the MechWarrior rights and within a few weeks, we signed a deal.
Not long after signing, we quickly realized licensing the rights was one of the most important and future sighted decisions made by us in the last 12 years. Offers were coming in from all over the planet, especially to make or license a free-to-play MechWarrior game.
Because of the overwhelming interest, we decided to spend some time researching what a free-to-play (F2P) MechWarrior game would look like. We spent some design cycles adapting our previous concepts and quickly realized a synergy between F2P and the BattleTech universe. We worked hard through spring, negotiating, designing, and rejecting a few potential partners. As it turns out, we didn’t have to look very far.
During much of the past 12 months there was a local group that also had a large amount of interest in developing and publishing a MechWarrior title. Once Piranha had become the license holder they came over immediately and met with us. From this point onward we decided to combine our efforts with Piranha as the rights holder and with them as the Publisher. After about 6 months of hard work together, funding had been secured, Infinity Game Publishing was born and development could begin.
The most positive thing that can be said about the relationship between Piranha and IGP is that both companies wanted to make the same game and Piranha was free to execute upon our vision.
The road to this Blog was an adventure filled with many hurtles and momentous occasions. We are excited and proud of the direction MechWarrior is taking as a PC F2P game. It offers us the ability to make a successor worthy of the MechWarrior name, and one that fans will enjoy for years to come!
Welcome to MechWarrior Online.



#56 Odin

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 12:20 AM

Good Questions and even better answers!
Thanks for them both lads. All sound so well thought out and looks like it gonna be a blast to immerse myself into this world. Just as a thought, initial single matches over planetary control and oppression, thats means, they change hands in a rather broad way ? Do I see that right? If so, the battles should be a bit harder then just the planed average/estimated 20 min engagement? - just a thought. I am very happy about the way you lads at PGI are going to handle all this - looking forward to it.


S!

Edited by Odin, 22 December 2011 - 01:07 AM.


#57 Odin

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 12:59 AM

View Postverybad, on 21 December 2011 - 01:05 PM, said:


I've seen a lot of high player games turn into just a mess in many games. 12x12 is enough for company vrs company, so I'm plenty happy with that. I'd far rather play a low lag, high quality game with organized teams than a bunch of disorganized players charging into walls of fire and gettign slaughtered or watching mechs transform 50 yards (with the inevitable few players using lag to enhance their effectiveness like happened in MW3). Organizing large teams is like herding cats.

This is about the size of a game I was expecting, and I'm happy with that.



Right!
Better to have cool demanding visuals and high quality mechs, both, in simulating the internals and in portraying the battles, then lots of half°ssed jumpy things hopping along. As I said: Less is more.

Edited by Odin, 22 December 2011 - 01:09 AM.


#58 Celros

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 03:12 AM

Woot, this post just got me even more hyped! Cant wait get in to game ;)

Im glad theres mech exp too, and skill trees/levels on pilot and mechs. That just means you pay more attention
on diffrend level players, and deal them with their needed attention. Also Im glad hear that diffrend roles matters, and we aint just seeing heavy mechs win all, and that brings mech use skill even more intresting.

ARG now need try calm down, and try bare pain of waiting for game itself :S

#59 Adridos

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 03:33 AM

My questions were not answered again. ;)

But this is a really good Q&A... and no mistakes like the last time. <_<

#60 Red Beard

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 03:59 AM

View PostTheRulesLawyer, on 21 December 2011 - 03:06 PM, said:

" From that point on, any actions taken by the Merc Corp will result in LP gains with one House and LP losses with another."


So I'd assume running missions for factions other than the house you want LP with is going to reduce it.



I caught that part, but it seems to me that there would be other, more direct ways to take a hit to your LP, match by match. I also took the above quote to mean that, as a merc corps, if you run a mission for Liao, you run the risk of losing LP from their direct adversary, just for running that mission.





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