16 replies to this topic

[Devari]

I started playing MWO back when it was still in beta. I purchased a Founder's pack and really enjoyed the gameplay at the time. I eventually got tired of waiting for CW to launch however and lost faith in the game ever developing into anything more than an fps sandbox. I figured I'd cut my losses and move onto other games despite the money and time I had invested up to that point. That was around early 2014 and other than buying a Kodiak package and occasionally logging into the mechlab I haven't actually played the game since then.

I've always been a big fan of the battletech universe however and have decided to give the game another try. I'm wondering if anyone could give me a brief summary of what's changed since then? I realize it's been over 4 years so just looking for the main points here. In terms of my account I have a good selection of IS mechs but only a handful of Clan mechs and from what I understand I can't mix them with my much larger collection of IS mechs in the same drop deck. So it sounds like I'll need to build up a separate stable of Clan mechs? From what I've read the drop deck weight tonnage changes every so often as a way of "balancing" the Clan vs IS gameplay balance? I really have no understanding of how CW is supposed to work as I stopped playing before it was implemented.

In terms of gameplay, I tend to prefer heavy or assault mechs but also enjoy scouting/capping with lights as well. I don't really enjoy using mediums most of the time as I tend to prefer going towards one extreme or the other in terms of firepower/armor vs. speed/agility. It looks like bringing an assault mech uses up a lot of your drop deck tonnage. Do players find that bringing an assault or heavy really limits their overall effectiveness? I also haven't used the new skill system so I gather I will need to re-spec all my of mastered or elite mechs into the new system.

The complexity of the new changes is a major reason I had avoided returning to the game for so long but it looks like the game has improved significantly so I figured I'd give it another try. I wanted to get a sense of what I'm getting back into before jumping back in so any advice would be appreciated.

[PobbestGob]

Game's in a bad spot right now. Mechs are sluggish due to the "engine desync", engines got decoupled from turn and twist speeds and agility hasn't been adjusted since then. Brawling is mostly dead because srms have too much spread, small lasers hardly perform well enough to ever use. Midrange laser builds, gauss, and dakka are what's most effective nowadays, but a cloud of nerfs is approaching those at the moment. Faction war is being mostly ignored with no developments in sight. It's not all bad, what's happened lately, but I myself at least only jump in a match for the occasional event nowadays, game isn't as fun as it used to be. Overall, variety and fun seem to slowly fade away with each patch. Oh there's also a new 1v1 mode called Solaris. It's ok.

TLDR I'd like this game to thrive but it's going in the wrong direction and the community is frustrated about it.

[Anjian]

Kill2Blit, on 12 June 2018 - 12:03 AM, said:

Game's in a bad spot right now. Mechs are sluggish due to the "engine desync", engines got decoupled from turn and twist speeds and agility hasn't been adjusted since then. Brawling is mostly dead because srms have too much spread, small lasers hardly perform well enough to ever use. Midrange laser builds, gauss, and dakka are what's most effective nowadays, but a cloud of nerfs is approaching those at the moment. Faction war is being mostly ignored with no developments in sight. It's not all bad, what's happened lately, but I myself at least only jump in a match for the occasional event nowadays, game isn't as fun as it used to be. Overall, variety and fun seem to slowly fade away with each patch. Oh there's also a new 1v1 mode called Solaris. It's ok. TLDR I'd like this game to thrive but it's going in the wrong direction and the community is frustrated about it.

With everything so nerfed, might as well throw toothpicks at each other.

[El Bandito]

A lot of your questions have to do with Faction Play (CW) so you should also browse FP forums for your answers.

Basically, in FP you need to have separate Clan stable if you wish to become Clan Loyalist, or Clan affiliated Merc. I suggest buying at least three Hellbringers, and build at least one for long range and two for midrange. The specific builds and skill trees are in guides section. Currently IS and Clan drop deck are close to even, with IS having 10 tons more handicap. Clan mechs in general are more efficient, while IS mechs are more varied in specialty.

Bringing one Assault is generally fine, especially in your initial wave, but two will gimp your tonnage too much for the last two waves, unless they are light Assaults at 80-85 ton range.

My advice to you is to not be intimidated by all the big changes that had happened and just dive in an experience the game yourself. No matter what people tell you, the best way to make sure, is to play it. Also, join a FP unit, so that they will show you the ropes and help you get through the initial phase.

Edited by El Bandito, 12 June 2018 - 03:15 AM.

[Abaddun]

Hi mate, I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I found most of my builds invalidated when the clans first dropped, and a serious downgrade to my PC performance soon after left me unable to play for 3 1/2 years, so it was quite a shock to the system to find that not only the meta had changed, but the entire selection of weapons and equipment in the mechbay was completely different.

I wasn't paticularly wealthy, so I dropped a bit of cash into the bloodasp bundle whilst the event was on to claim the C-bill rewards, which gave me enough cash for a Couger. That with a Storm Raven and the free Nova Champion fleshed out a Clan stable for CW.

I've been steadily coming to grips with the change in meta by watching Youtube matches, paticularly from Moltenmetal.

[Asym]

I avoided MWO from inception: due to the seriously poor ratings..... I was talked into MWO in Dec 2016 and starting playing in Feb 2017. It was pre-skill tree and was fun ! BUT, PGI was already moving towards Solaris and the Skill Tree change was step one in the pacification of the game that is necessary for the game to be an Arcade FPS.... S7 is an arcade FPS....

FP is dead no matter what others say. Only go there with one of the few organized teams but, it's not a lot of fun and PGI is not interested in fixing it now or anytime in the next few years... The down side of FP being ignored, is that a lot of the FP teams broke up and those pilots have invaded QP/GP; and, in doing so, are ruining them as well.... HOW? Because we are an extremely small population and there aren't enough players to allow MM to work..... So, we have an escalation of skill disparity so extreme, that we see nothing but stomps in both directions...

I only play events now and even then, just enough to get the free stuff, have a night or two with old friends that only play events and then go back to sea or space to have fun! MW5 is PGI's hope. S7 isn't worth the time and BT,has taken a few more players away and that leaves very few to do anything else with.... Hope to see you in the next event not built around "buy a mech pack"....

[Devari]

Interesting, I somehow expected that CW would end up being the main game activity once it launched but it sounds like it's not as popular as I expected. Once I get my Clan mechs properly outfitted I'll start some quick play matches with them and see how that goes. Most of my Clan mechs are heavy/assault (Loki, Thor, Kodiak) with only one light mech (Uller) and no mediums so I can't really build a proper Clan drop deck anyways at this point. Would still like to get involved in some CW activities eventually but it sounds like it isn't as active as I had hoped.

[Abaddun]

Quote

FP is dead no matter what others say. Only go there with one of the few organized teams but, it's not a lot of fun and PGI is not interested in fixing it now or anytime in the next few years... The down side of FP being ignored, is that a lot of the FP teams broke up and those pilots have invaded QP/GP; and, in doing so, are ruining them as well.... HOW? Because we are an extremely small population and there aren't enough players to allow MM to work..... So, we have an escalation of skill disparity so extreme, that we see nothing but stomps in both directions...

I am very suprised to hear that, considering that the biggest thing people were clamouring for back in the day was Faction Warfare and meaningful endgame content. Reading through the forums, I am convinced the community doesn't know what they want. Prior to the skill tree, I couldn't look anywhere without somebody complaining about the 3 mech mastery system, but now that's been tossed out the window, all I'm hearing are complaints about the new tree.

With the little experience I have of the current game state, it already looks healthier then what it was a few years back. I was an outspoken critic of PGI and their mismanagement of the game, however it looks as though all of my concerns have been addressed in the time I have been away.

[MechaBattler]

Problem is CW did not turn out to be meaningful. For a while it was only 2 maps. They added a few more. Then they just lumped in all the quick play maps. At the end of the day it's the same game with 4 mechs per player. Moreover loyalist units got shafted by lumping all the queues together. But with the waning population it couldn't be helped. Plus IS loyalist units didn't want to fight clan units.

[Abaddun]

I can understand that. Pre 3065 tech didn't stand a chance against the Clans. It didn't help that the initial drop of clanner mechs included a 100 tonner assault which could boat 6 UAC/5s. But I can't blame PGI for only releasing 2 dedicated FP maps, they're not easy to make.

[Spheroid]

@Abuddun: That really not true, some of the best pilots in the game fought under the banner of House Kurita for the honor of removing Smoke Jaguar filth from the Inner Sphere.

They killed the territorial control aspect of CW rendering it pointless. Now it is just a stats race between competitive units or people looking to farm. There is no larger meaning which informs where or who you fight.

It was stupid to give up on CW as it was the perfect ongoing cashcow via mech bays sales through which people might have bought duplicate mechs or faction limited equipment. With as few a dozen mechs you can easily represent the common weapon builds in QP. Unless you pokemech, QP has no ability for longterm motivation or reason to stay with this game. Again this was and is a stupid business philosophy.

Edited by Spheroid, 12 June 2018 - 11:45 AM.

[Abaddun]

It'll suck to be a Smoke Jaguar when Operation Bulldog comes around.

I suppose it's fair to be angry at PGI if they've pulled support from CW, my old unit would have loved to engage in territory control, so it's a shame to hear such a good idea squandered.

[PobbestGob]

Abaddun, on 12 June 2018 - 12:59 PM, said:

It'll suck to be a Smoke Jaguar when Operation Bulldog comes around.

I suppose it's fair to be angry at PGI if they've pulled support from CW, my old unit would have loved to engage in territory control, so it's a shame to hear such a good idea squandered.

As far as the timeline goes, MWO already shouldn't have smoke jaguars anymore.

[Abaddun]

Kill2Blit, on 12 June 2018 - 01:14 PM, said:

As far as the timeline goes, MWO already shouldn't have smoke jaguars anymore.

Oh.......you're right, they were steamrolled in 3060.

[TLBFestus]

The games got a lot more mechs. There's that.

Community warfare was, and still is, a bust. Biggest difference is that they changed the name to "Faction Play" or something like that. For the most part it's still where organized groups go to club baby seals new players that don't know better for laughs.

There's no real permanence to the star map, no truly good benefits to doing anything except getting some more mechbays etc. It's nothing like PGI promised or the supporters envisioned. Overall it's a waste of time that perhaps 10-20% of the player base play regularly.

Now they have SOLARIS, which is simply solo or duos fighting on different maps. I suppose some like it, but for all the hoopla and fanfare it appears PGI just spent a bunch of time (again) on something that in the end does not resonate with the majority of the players.

The single biggest draw is Quick Play, the bread and butter of the game. It still punishes casual players who just want to drop in on a match or two with a friend by placing them in group queue where, if they are new and unskilled, they get punished/beat down by (you guessed it) larger and more organized groups.

They did have a short period some time ago where they actually produced new maps, but the time between releases has increased considerably in the last 2 years. Keep in mind that they did make maps for Faction play and their new Solaris endeavors though...so 20% of the players have received more new maps than the casual majority.

In closing, if you like stomping around in mechs and shooting other mechs, but aren't too worried about lore and a greater purpose to the game, it's fine. Stale as 2 week old bread, but enjoyable for what it is.

[Devari]

That's quite surprising how CW turned out. I was really hoping I'd be returning to a properly developed territory-based game and I was realy looking forward to the different factions having a unique presence in different regions. Part of why I left MWO over 4 years ago was that I was disappointed with the development focus being shifted from actually developing CW to pushing more mech sales instead. It seems that hasn't changed and despite attempts to develop CW the gameplay has come full circle right back to what is still essentially an fps sandbox game.

Fortunately I did enjoy the gameplay before I left so I will probably enjoy using some of the new Clan mechs but I was really hoping the game would reach at least some of the potential it had when the development plans for CW were originally described. It's also encouraging that at least MW5 is going to be released this year which might end up bringing some players back to MWO. At this point though I wonder how much longer MWO will be actively developed. Is there any word about the current state of the Mechwarrior licence? Last I heard it was guaranteed until mid-2018 and then potentially to 2020 based on some condition that Microsoft had put into the contract.

[Ensaine]

Devari, on 12 June 2018 - 10:28 AM, said:

Interesting, I somehow expected that CW would end up being the main game activity once it launched but it sounds like it's not as popular as I expected. Once I get my Clan mechs properly outfitted I'll start some quick play matches with them and see how that goes. Most of my Clan mechs are heavy/assault (Loki, Thor, Kodiak) with only one light mech (Uller) and no mediums so I can't really build a proper Clan drop deck anyways at this point. Would still like to get involved in some CW activities eventually but it sounds like it isn't as active as I had hoped.

CW was SUPPOSED to be all that.. we just haven't gotten to experience it.. it never materialized....