144 replies to this topic

[XX Sulla XX]

So I was thinking. What is the very least PGI has to get right to start getting players back in decent numbers?
Here are things I think they could do that are low risk and high reward.

• 
  Buff mobility on most mechs. With under performing mechs getting the largest buffs. This makes the game more fun over all, increases time to kill and buffs under performing mechs.
  
• 
  
• 
  Buff under performing mechs that have bad hard points, tiny engine caps, terrible hit boxes etc. Stop being afraid to make things work better. There are so so many mechs never used because they are just bad.
  
• 
  
• 
  Figure out a way to cut down on match search times and waiting times in general. The matches are already terrible because of the low player base and terrible tier system. So if we are going to get bad matches at least give us fast matches.

Just those three things would get me to play a lot more and have hope they would fix more complex things later. What do you guys think?

[KingCobra]

Ok here is my take on the MWO situation after 5 years of playing it. STOP WITH THE HORRABLE WEAPONS BALANCE BS AND NERFS.

Make a universal Social lobby system and place it on the UI next to the mechlab tab for new players to find info on mech builds and get to know other players for private drops to learn skills in QP-FP-and Solaris. ETC.

QuickPlay

First thing to do is get rid of the horrible map and game mode vote system and go random maps and game modes.Then put back in all the older maps with different names to double the map choices. Then make a few new game modes and fix the ones you have PGI.

CW/FP
Make 2 FP queues one for 8man-12man premade teams using even matched groups of 2-12 players no odd teams. Then make a solo and small group queue only allowing 2-2man groups per side or 1- 4 man group per side. Then fix a few maps for bugs and spawn points.

Solaris
First off just make 4 divisions (assaults)(Heavies)(mediums)and(lights) allow all your mechs in your mechlab to be played in any of the 4 divisions STOP MIXING DIFFERENT CLASS MECHS PER DIVISION ITS JUST DUMB AND SO UNBALANCED.

This is a good start.

[MechaBattler]

I think at this point it's a question of what they're willing to invest. It seems to me that the MechWarrior Academy showed them how much work would go into creating meaningful content. And they probably realized that given the low interest in the game from the broader mainstream gamer populace. It wouldn't be worth investing in a janky franken-engine game.

Which is probably why they decided to make MW5 instead with Unreal4. And from some of Russ's remarks, it's proven to be a much more positive experience than they'd had with Cryengine.

I think what they could do to improve MWO. Is expand the mechwarrior academy to include mech builds and equipment descriptions. MWO has a steep learning curve. It's one of the few games where you can build your mech bad enough to be near worthless. It's not enough to learn the controls and learn tactics. You have to know how all the equipment works. Even now people have some misconceptions about pieces of equipment.

The other thing is they really need to improve on their core game modes. We were once promised an assault mode that involved a destroyable base for one side. But that hasn't manifested at all. Escort is largely disliked. We need some more refined modes.

And faction play should be a get for the game. Not an exclusive 'hardcore' mode. The game is niche enough as it is. It can't really afford to gate off part of the game as 'hardcore'. Even a little quality control would help. : /

Edited by MechaBattler, 20 August 2018 - 12:10 PM.

[Athom83]

XX Sulla XX, on 20 August 2018 - 10:22 AM, said:

Buff mobility on most mechs. With under performing mechs getting the largest buffs. This makes the game more fun over all, increases time to kill and buffs under performing mechs.

I seriously don't want to go back to the days of the ballerina dancing assault mechs. Some mechs here and there could use some buffs, only a small amount of them need it, the rest are pretty much fine.

XX Sulla XX, on 20 August 2018 - 10:22 AM, said:

Buff under performing mechs that have bad hard points, tiny engine caps, terrible hit boxes etc. Stop being afraid to make things work better. There are so so many mechs never used because they are just bad.

Except with new tech having low amount of hardpoints isn't such a bad thing as it previously does. I mean, you can do 100 damage alphas with 3 hardpoints nowadays.

XX Sulla XX, on 20 August 2018 - 10:22 AM, said:

Figure out a way to cut down on match search times and waiting times in general. The matches are already terrible because of the low player base and terrible tier system. So if we are going to get bad matches at least give us fast matches.

If you want horridly balanced teams where half of each team is essentially useless in the fight, then sure. Wait times have never really been a problem for me. Even with only NA server selected I rarely wait longer than 30 seconds.

[XX Sulla XX]

Athom83, on 20 August 2018 - 10:44 AM, said:

I seriously don't want to go back to the days of the ballerina dancing assault mechs. Some mechs here and there could use some buffs, only a small amount of them need it, the rest are pretty much fine.


Except with new tech having low amount of hardpoints isn't such a bad thing as it previously does. I mean, you can do 100 damage alphas with 3 hardpoints nowadays.


If you want horridly balanced teams where half of each team is essentially useless in the fight, then sure. Wait times have never really been a problem for me. Even with only NA server selected I rarely wait longer than 30 seconds.

From looking over Reddit and these forums and people I know. I believe the majority want mechs to have decent mobility. The more sim feeling game will be the single player game coming out.

Most of the worst mechs are bad because of limited and or bad location hard points. Many times combined with other problem.

"If you want horridly balanced teams where half of each team is essentially useless in the fight, then sure." This is exactly what we have right now. And many times of day it take 15 minutes or more to get a group game. And at some times of day it is impossible to find a group game. I have waited almost 3 hours in a two man trying to find a group drop before. And the population is even lower now. Even solo games can take a long time some times of the day.

Edited by XX Sulla XX, 20 August 2018 - 10:52 AM.

[Mystere]

Athom83, on 20 August 2018 - 10:44 AM, said:

Except with new tech having low amount of hardpoints isn't such a bad thing as it previously does. I mean, you can do 100 damage alphas with 3 hardpoints nowadays.

You're going to have to give a concrete example.

[Athom83]

Mystere, on 20 August 2018 - 10:56 AM, said:

You're going to have to give a concrete example.

UAC/20 with 2 MRM30s. HGauss and 2 MRM40s. 3 UAC/20s (nothing more than a troll build on the Victor or the Drirewhale, but possible). 3 MRM40s.

Edited by Athom83, 20 August 2018 - 11:18 AM.

[Khobai]

MW5 has to be successful to bring people back to MWO

and then PGI has to fix MWO so it retains players

so basically its not gonna happen

[Bud Crue]

To get players “back” via some change in PGI’s conduct or change to the game first requires that players who have left would be made aware of such changes correct?

So that would seem to me then to be a very limited population of folks being targeted for return. Namely, the few dozen bitter vets that hang around the forums and reddit despite no longer playing (in some cases, for years). Or are we presupposing that PGI is, after all these years, going to suddenly advertise their theoretical change in conduct or changes to the game in order to make a presumably larger larger population of expat players aware of said changes in an effort to entice them to return? Given the history around here, I highly doubt that this will occur.

In any case, as I suggested on the similarly titled reddit thread, there is no telling of those that have left what it would take to get them to return. Go to K-town and look at a small sample of the few good by threads that have been allowed to remain of record. Folks assert that they quit for some seriously stupid reasons (people being mean in voip) from my perspective, but others seem to have legit gripes (founders feeling cheated by PGI’s failures and transverse shenanigans). In more recent times we have the exodus of competitive players leaving due to LRMS, the stock mode WC, Chris and his never ending changes (see also LRMS); just as we have lorenerds, casual, and others leaving due to lack of immersion, lack of lore, lack of a satisfying CW experience, etc.

So what would get ANY of these folks back? Who the hell knows. I guarantee though that more efforts by PGI to entice one group to return will piss off more from another.

Edited by Bud Crue, 20 August 2018 - 11:22 AM.

[JediPanther]

Quit nerfing things mechs with pos hard points or weapon location needs to be useful. 14 arm armor on the j7r-f. Spider 5v still a pos with 2 ct only lasers.

Remove pos engine caps like 250 on a light mech.

Increase torso twist speed and turning on assaults that need it like the atlas that can't even make use of those 80 armor arms.

[Mystere]

Athom83, on 20 August 2018 - 11:18 AM, said:

UAC/20 with 2 MRM30s. HGauss and 2 MRM40s. 3 UAC/20s (nothing more than a troll build on the Victor or the Drirewhale, but possible). 3 MRM40s.

I see.

However, I don't consider UAC double shots as alphas, especially the Clan versions.

[Xetelian]

Increase mobility so people can get out of bad situations BEFORE their mechs are dead.

Increase agility so people can turn away from the enemy and take a shot to a less damaged component BEFORE they die.

Undo the nerfs to SRM spread and Artemis spread.
Undo the nerfs to UAC jam durations and chance.

Make better champion mechs so people have a good place to start from.

Educate people as to what is a good idea to bring to the battle field. I'm on a discord and this guy was bragging about this TC7 BAP Cyclops with an AC2 and not much else, being a scouting assault. We tried to talk him out of it, if you know me then you know the discord I'm talking about and the garbage that gets posted there as legit builds from people.



Having an in game Jarl's List like Solaris, where you can look at the top performers mech builds that is easy to find for a new player would go a long way towards helping them come up with builds that aren't bracket builds and don't lose 90% of their matches.




Having a tier system that you can actually fall off from would be great. Decay over time would be nice as well, I'd love to let my account decay back down to tier 3 where I belong.

[Jackal Noble]

Mystere, on 20 August 2018 - 12:53 PM, said:

I see.

However, I don't consider UAC double shots as alphas, especially the Clan versions.

ya the 3 UAC20 DWF is terrible lol.

[Nightbird]

Change Tiers to reflect player skill, change MM to balance teams based on skill, and in cases where there is no MM (FP) adjust tonnage limits based on team skill difference.

[Vonbach]

Remove engine de-sync.

[BlueVisionWarrior Online]

Bring back predator mode heat vision and I'll come running

[Kaeb Odellas]

Mystere, on 20 August 2018 - 10:56 AM, said:

You're going to have to give a concrete example.

You can do a 140pt alpha on an Osiris with 3 RL20s and 4 MLs

Granted, you can only do it once per match, but one-shotting a fresh assault mech from behind with a 30-ton light is a pretty good trick for a one-trick pony.

[Anjian]

There are games that managed massive turn around and they make great case studies with. The most obvious is Final Fantasy 14. There is a complete overhaul of the game under brand new management. Even as the MMORPG market is gradually fading away, this epic and historic effort of reviving a damaged game to one of the most played MMORPGs will go down forever in the books.

Another game that has managed to do a complete turnaround is No Man's Sky. Simply by delivering the features the game promised.

There are games that managed complete graphics and game engine overhauls, one being EVE Online and the other, World of Tanks. These are interesting studies from a technical point of view.

[Grus]

[Redacted]

Edited by draiocht, 22 August 2018 - 09:53 AM.
unconstructive

[LordNothing]

im pretty much only playing for bribes now.

if you want ideas to make the game better, read the damn forum. its full of great ideas that either go mostly ignored or pgi ruins with their shoddy implementations. if there was a way to pull it out of the gutter i dont think pgi could pull it off.