53 replies to this topic

[Novakaine]

Tanks.
Let's get some new content and something to draw new players.


Discuss.

[VonBruinwald]

A bit late, but yes.

Always felt the VIP should be a tank.

[Athom83]

Top one looks like something ripped right out of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak.

[Novakaine]

Nope that a Striker.
PGI I wanna buy some mech packs.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Put the Schrek, Partisan, and Demolisher in the game, then let people think what they will about the viability of tanks vs. 'Mechs.

[Pain G0D]

If potential players dont care for giant robots , they are certainly not going to care about tanks or jets .

Why would Tankers play a giant robot game with one or two tanks instead of a game that offered 100 or 200 tanks ?

Edited by Pain G0D, 24 November 2018 - 09:49 PM.

[Anjian]

More people do care about tanks, than robots. But not fantasy tanks, but historical ones. Furthermore, all that armor deflection mechanics used on tank games don't exist on a mech game, and if you end up using "HP armor" that's no different from a mech with tracks instead of legs.

Adding tanks and planes will not certainly bring new players in. At this stage of MWO's evolution, its far too gone down the road that I don't know anything that can bring it up back again in terms of general audience. The best it can right now is to bring back players that have left the game, and then figure out the next step after that. And to that... well, there has been a long long history of good suggestions by players that have been ignored by the developers.

And besides, if the tanks prove they can outperform, outkill the mechs, oh boy can you imagine the player base ruckus? They will start calling the game "Tankwarrior". Just like the way they did during the Mechwarrior Dark Age, when the artillery units (pogs) were becoming a dominant meta in the game, and disenchanted players began referring to the game as "Pogwarrior".

Edited by Anjian, 24 November 2018 - 11:58 PM.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Missing the point. They wouldn't put tanks or any other vehicle type in MWO to attract fans of quote-unquote "realistic" (ish) wargames. They'd do it to attract back more Battletech fans, at least some of whom left because it became clear that PGI was never going to expand the game beyond just 'Mechs shooting other 'Mechs. Throw in some combined arms stuff, put some meat behind it, and you give those people a reason to stick their noses back in.

At this point, a pack of tanks- provided they're the potentially useful ones- would rake in a hell of a lot more than any given 'Mech pack. The only players who are going to buy any new 'Mech, given the range currently available, are fans of that specific 'Mech. We have every niche filled in every weight class. There's nothing new to add in the 'Mech department without more new tech as well... and even that would be more same, now with sprinkles instead of frosting. Tanks at least have the potential to add something truly new and different to gameplay, and so might appeal to more than just (insert fans of specific chassis and/or variant here).

It's not likely to ever happen, of course, but it would be more beneficial to the game and PGI's revenue stream than whatever the next 'Mech announced after the Clan Wham is gonna be. Plus I kinda wanna see the salt threads resulting from oblivious assault pilots getting ganked by SRM carriers. That would be comedy gold.

Edited by WrathOfDeadguy, 24 November 2018 - 11:56 PM.

[Novakaine]

SRM carrier comin right at ya!.
Ya know you want one.

[Anjian]

I am not very convinced of that because Battletech is centered around big stompy mechs. Its for this reason why i don't expect adding helicopters to War Thunder or submarines to World of Warships are going to boost their player populations.

I remembered how 'mechless" armies began to dominate the Mechwarrior Dark Age venues, that the creative directors had a massive balance overhaul to make sure that the armies is about having at least one mech in it, this after the player base had a big uproar.

Edited by Anjian, 25 November 2018 - 12:13 AM.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

It works super good in Living Legends but i think MWOs maps are just too small for bigger scaled battles. Not to think about aerial battles.

I can see tank reinforces for dead players tho.

[Bluttrunken]

Tanks and Infantry would make wonderful tools to distinguish faction play from quickplay but I don't see too much attraction for them as player vehicles. Cut the drop deck for FP, let players play a supporting role for infantry and tank battles, introduce on-mission repair-and-rearm(creating viable secondary objectives, tactical choices&and giving the Unit coffers a new reason to exist).

Edited by Bluttrunken, 25 November 2018 - 02:53 AM.

[Khobai]

adding tanks wouldnt fix the game so theres no point in adding tanks.

MWO needs better gamemodes/maps more than anything else.

WrathOfDeadguy, on 24 November 2018 - 11:55 PM, said:

They'd do it to attract back more Battletech fans, at least some of whom left because it became clear that PGI was never going to expand the game beyond just 'Mechs shooting other 'Mechs

I dont think anybody quit MWO because a mech game didnt have tanks.

And honestly MWO doesnt need tanks to be a good game. Tanks arnt the missing element. Nor would adding tanks make the game better. And I certainly dont want to buy tank packs.

Edited by Khobai, 25 November 2018 - 03:13 AM.

[MechaBattler]

I keep saying they should make a moba type mode with tanks as the mobs.

[Novakaine]

Khobai, on 25 November 2018 - 03:07 AM, said:

adding tanks wouldnt fix the game so theres no point in adding tanks.

MWO needs better gamemodes/maps more than anything else.



I dont think anybody quit MWO because a mech game didnt have tanks.

And honestly MWO doesnt need tanks to be a good game. Tanks arnt the missing element. Nor would adding tanks make the game better. And I certainly dont want to buy tank packs.

Why thank you Negative Nancy.

[Khobai]

Novakaine, on 25 November 2018 - 12:11 PM, said:

Why thank you Negative Nancy.

Just being realistic. Adding tanks really wont save MWO at this point. And could actually make MWO's balance issues even worse if tanks end up being better than mechs due to high mounted weapons, smaller/lower profiles, and 360 turrets. I dont trust PGI's ability to balance mechs let alone tanks.

And you can blame PGI for my being cynical about the game. PGI constantly refuses to fix obvious problems with their game, keeps pushing dead features like solaris and paid content like mechpacks that no one wants, and doesn't seem to demonstrate any desire whatsoever to work with the community to improve their game. That doesnt inspire a positive outlook on the game.

Edited by Khobai, 25 November 2018 - 12:28 PM.

[Anjian]

I put tanks in the list that includes:

Quadmechs

FFA or Battle Royale


... in the list of things that might add spice to the game, but won't solve its core problems that are already eroding its small player base away.


The short term solutions should be:

Overhaul the game modes to objective based with dropdeck based respawns, but teams reduced to 8 vs. 8.
Remove map and game mode voting for more randomization.
Unified player queue --- cancel EU and Asia servers --- and consolidate into a single global server.

Long term solutions would be:

Transition to a new game engine.

Some top end personnel changes are also needed.

Then we can talk about tanks, quads and FFA, once the player base is stabilized and get it growing again.

Other things needed.

Better tutorial
AI robots for new players.

Note that tanks, in order to look realistic and properly moving on terrain also need inverse kinematics to ensure that tracks follow the terrain and not make the tank burrow into the slope. That would put it in the same situation as quads.

Quads vs. Tanks. Imagine having a dropdeck that would feature both bipedal, quad, and tank, maybe even VTOLs if permitted. You lose a mech, drop yourself into a quad next, lose that, drop yourself into the tank.

Edited by Anjian, 25 November 2018 - 05:27 PM.

[0Jiggs0]

MechaBattler, on 25 November 2018 - 10:33 AM, said:

I keep saying they should make a moba type mode with tanks as the mobs.

Something like this would make Incursion much more interesting.

[Novakaine]

Khobai, on 25 November 2018 - 12:18 PM, said:

Just being realistic. Adding tanks really wont save MWO at this point. And could actually make MWO's balance issues even worse if tanks end up being better than mechs due to high mounted weapons, smaller/lower profiles, and 360 turrets. I dont trust PGI's ability to balance mechs let alone tanks.

And you can blame PGI for my being cynical about the game. PGI constantly refuses to fix obvious problems with their game, keeps pushing dead features like solaris and paid content like mechpacks that no one wants, and doesn't seem to demonstrate any desire whatsoever to work with the community to improve their game. That doesnt inspire a positive outlook on the game.

Damn I stand corrected.
Apologies.

[MechaBattler]

Khobai, on 25 November 2018 - 03:07 AM, said:

adding tanks wouldnt fix the game so theres no point in adding tanks.

MWO needs better gamemodes/maps more than anything else.



I dont think anybody quit MWO because a mech game didnt have tanks.

And honestly MWO doesnt need tanks to be a good game. Tanks arnt the missing element. Nor would adding tanks make the game better. And I certainly dont want to buy tank packs.

Don't the vehicles not have internal compartments? So as soon a their breached, they are dead, right? That and imagine them having to drive the whole way around on canyon network.