39 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

Greetings MechWarriors

THE DEBACLE

In the recent event "Resistance vs Invasion" we awarded the Arctic Cheetah Challenge with Arctic Cheetah Knuckles Left Bolt-on. This event was the first time we had awarded Bolt-ons as an event prize and at first, everything was fine. Alas, it did not last. Players excited at the prospect of equipping knuckles on their Arctic Cheetah quickly discovered 3 issues.

1. The Bolt on was not supported on the Prime variant
   
2. When players removed the Hand Actuator on the Arctic Cheetah the bolt on floated in mid-air "in much the same way that bricks don't."
3. When players equipped Weapons they were covered or partially obscured by the Bolt-on

THE RESOLUTION

Initially viewed as a Minor issue (most bolt-ons do have some variant restrictions) and players could still equip and un equipt the Bolt-on depending on their loadout. However, all 3 issues combined lead us to determine it would be best to just remove the Bolt-on from the game.

THE CONCLUSION

As the result, we will remove the "KNUCKLES" bolt-ons (right and left) from the game during our next downtime on October 16th. The players who own those particular bolt-ons will be refunded their MC price (500 MC) per Bolt on owned. Yes, both left and right bolt-ons will be removed.

Thank you for your understanding.

The MechWarrior Online "Bolt-on Decision making" Team

THE BUG BOUNTY

AKA "BOLT-ON, BOLT-OFF" MINI-GAME:

Can you discover any more Bolt-ons that fit the above criteria that should be removed?

Let us know in the comments with screenshots of the offending Bolt-on and if you are the first to post the bug (Per Chassis) you will get 300 MC!

[Mechwarrior8985372]

Daym wish id suffered through that terrble event for 500 mc now.

[Shadowomega1]

ReichKaiser, on 04 October 2018 - 03:30 PM, said:

Daym wish id suffered through that terrble event for 500 mc now.

Dang it would have looked good on my 6ERSL ACH prime, but I can't argue with the 500 MC either.

[_____]

Hallooooo, I think I posted the first evidence of the ACH floaty knuckles issues thing. It was on Reddit on Oct 1st. I went through the Invasion vs Resistance thread and didn't see anyone mentioning the problem before then. Is this deserving of 300 MC?

[Cryzak]

And i didnt do it complete becouse it was just for 1 hand...

[D V Devnull]

I don't get this. Why can't PGI just fix the HardPoint display to accommodate having the Hand-Equipped Bolt-Ons??? And why can't they fix their code to not equip the Knuckles or such when the Hand is non-present??? Hell, why can't they set things up to refuse equipping a Hand-Equipped Bolt-On when it would block a weapon??? This screams of total inability to properly program stuff, and the insanity of unwillingness to write the code better.

~Mr. D. V. "I can hear my brain screaming, just from the insanity alone." Devnull

[tee5]

THIS gets attention? And is called a debacle.

While a constant crashing game, when you want to close a chat-window or a never updating friends list get NO attention?

[Koniving]

tee5, on 04 October 2018 - 06:35 PM, said:

THIS gets attention? And is called a debacle.

While a constant crashing game, when you want to close a chat-window or a never updating friends list get NO attention?

If you're crashing and no one else has been complaining....

Maybe the issue lies elsewhere. This said if you contact tech support with the crash logs they can tell you what happened why it's happening and if it is their end or yours and what can be done to remedy it. I have personal experience with that.

That said my friends list updates on menu change (swap home and mechlab and list will update). Not sure why it's like that.

Edited by Koniving, 04 October 2018 - 06:58 PM.

[Sable Dove]

Koniving, on 04 October 2018 - 06:58 PM, said:

If you're crashing and no one else has been complaining....

I did crash practically every match until I switched from Fullscreen to Windowed Fullscreen.

[laio scotsman]

I decided to do a quick check for bolt ons that have the weapon coverage or clipping issue. The Omnis I checked over quickly didn't have any problems, but the Panther did have a few. I've put some images into this imgur album, but in text:

• The Curved Nails (Right), 1-4, clip into or partially obscure the 3rd energy hardpoint on the PNT-8Z and PNT-9R.
  
• The Straight Nails (Right), 1-4, clip into or partially obscure the 3rd energy hardpoint on the PNT-8Z and PNT-9R.
  
• The Saw Axe (Left), Tree Club (Left), Tree Hammer (Left), Tree Pike (Left), and Tree Staff (Left) clip into or seriously obscure the 2nd energy hardpoint on the Katana Kat. Due to the geometry of the handle, I do not think these can be kept by adjusting the grip.
  
• The Propeller Axe (Left) clips into or seriously obscures the 2nd energy hardpoint on the Katana Kat. Unlike the previous 5, the Propeller Axe can probably have the grip adjusted to still fit with the Katana Kat model, though that may look awkward on the other variants if the same positioning is used.
  
• The Royal Sword (Left) clips into or seriously obscures the 2nd energy hardpoint on the Katana Kat. A slight adjustment of the grip position will move the pommel out of the line of fire.

These last two don't technically fall under the conditions listed, but:

• The Datemono Crest obscures the "eye" lights of the Panther. Moving it just a bit up the head so that it's above the eyes would make it look much better.
  
• How can people properly pretend to be space samurai if we have a knightly sword but no Katana to put on our Drac mechs? Make it happen PGI, you know you want to.

If you need screenshots for each bolt on I listed above, instead of representative pictures of the groups with the issue (since the geometry is extremely similar between the groups), I can provide those tomorrow after around 5 EDT.

Also, some clarification questions:

• is the bounty only for bolt ons that hit all three criteria, more than one, or any one?
  
• Are the bounty awards per bolt on, per direct family of bolt on (such as all Curved Nails or all Tree weapons), per extended family of bolt ons (all nails, all hand weapons), per location (left arm), or per chassis/variant (any number of issues with the panther's bolt ons is 300MC, regardless of the number problems spotted)?

[KrocodockleTheBooBoxLoader-GetIn]

Ain't nobody got time for that

[BumbaCLot]

So how / when do we get the 500MC? I only have 450 in my account and I hit claim a day or two ago.

[Sable Dove]

BumbaCLot, on 04 October 2018 - 09:06 PM, said:

So how / when do we get the 500MC? I only have 450 in my account and I hit claim a day or two ago.

During the next downtime on October 16th.

[Aramuside]

D V Devnull, on 04 October 2018 - 04:47 PM, said:

I don't get this. Why can't PGI just fix the HardPoint display to accommodate having the Hand-Equipped Bolt-Ons??? And why can't they fix their code to not equip the Knuckles or such when the Hand is non-present??? Hell, why can't they set things up to refuse equipping a Hand-Equipped Bolt-On when it would block a weapon??? This screams of total inability to properly program stuff, and the insanity of unwillingness to write the code better.

~Mr. D. V. "I can hear my brain screaming, just from the insanity alone." Devnull

Oh I don't know I'll take the MC thanks.

I know some people love bolt ons but for a lot of people I chat to they're an irrelevance. That said there seems to be a correlation with urbie usage and bolt on usage from matches recently so we can probably blame both of those areas on the same people.

[Merata Kell]

Double whammy! The Gargoyle Prime Invasion geometry isn't painted when a color is applied to your camo spec. Second, the Iron Jaw (which I use to cover up the geometry grey) clips through said geometry.

[General Solo]

well played PGI well played....bad effort to profit ratio, I totally understand (Hysterics/MechPacks ratio)

I dont blame ya PGI, thanks for the clear communications and refund

Have a nice day

[Ryoma2040]

Sable Dove, on 04 October 2018 - 07:42 PM, said:

I did crash practically every match until I switched from Fullscreen to Windowed Fullscreen.

This. Me and my friends all switched to Windowed Fullscreen a while ago and the number of crashes have dropped dramatically.

[Yondu Udonta]

I don't have bolt-on bugs to talk about, but can I talk about other bugs that matter more e.g. gameplay, chat UI, friendslist?

[Rebel Ace Fryslan]

I wish you would have more test-gamers that can help you with the game.
And rotate them every month?

[D V Devnull]

And I'm catching up again... Time passes, and more calls for discussion...

---

Aramuside, on 04 October 2018 - 10:30 PM, said:

I know some people love bolt ons but for a lot of people I chat to they're an irrelevance.

What bothers me is that I haven't even had a chance to ever check them out. Now they're just gonna disappear from the game, instead of PGI taking the time to work out a better solution. I can't form an opinion over something I've never gotten to touch, except for the thought of wanting a solution that allows me to eventually see those items in my own hands.

I guess this is just another case of an idea gone corrupted. Ultimately, it's all the little folk that suffer over the matter, not the top players or the company or such.

Rebel Ace Fryslan, on 05 October 2018 - 06:35 AM, said:

I wish you would have more test-gamers that can help you with the game.
And rotate them every month?

Heck, PGI just needs a bigger QA Team in general, possibly even several divisions to have proper coverage in catching Bugs. I personally would have plugged through everything if I were working for them, and made sure they knew about every single problem I could find. If you look over in the Patch Feedback and Map Feedback areas, you'll even find numerous Bug Reports from me, both current and in the archives. Those include things persisting since Past Updates, new things with the Latest Release, and so on.

Sadly, that includes one time I goofed up with a report on a one-off glitch because I hadn't restarted the Game Client recently, and it caused the Tutorial to not function. But, I haven't let that become nails in a coffin about reporting things gone wrong. I've gone on since then to discover some real annoying problems that keep recurring, but PGI hasn't seemed to pick up on them yet or is intentionally leaving me in the dark as to what's going on.

---

Pardon me now, everyone, for the battlefields call. I need to clear my head out there.

~D. V. "so much to see and find, but yet it all gets sunk away when it shouldn't" Devnull