66 replies to this topic

[JC Daxion]

title kinda says it all.. after a quick FW update to hold us over.. would you rather have them upgrade the engine so we can.......


have recorded matches/replay

Maps with multiple builds... aka DOM point moves, conquest points move, different aspects random


Hopefully hitboxes tweaked... and hit boxes fixed..

animations fixed

Inverse kinetics..


Over all animations/textures to the next phase.. maybe even raytracing..



Would that be something the community wants?

[El Bandito]

Nah, just keep MWO on life support til they can transfer it over to Unreal engine. Screw Cryengine, period. It is limiting the game too much, and PGI doesn't know **** about coding--otherwise we would already have select ammo for the LBX series.


And ray tracing can burn in a dumpster. My good rated gaming computer constantly has fps issues with MWO in combat due to the game's stupidly bad coding (which doesn't happen to other more resource hungry games), so the last thing I need--before PGI fixes the actual code, which is nigh impossible for them--is to have more things that can lower my fps.

Edited by El Bandito, 30 December 2018 - 04:41 PM.

[HammerMaster]

Fw was dumpster fire from inception.
If they plan new engine and TOLD us so I would deal with maintenance mode.
F fw.

[Stinger554]

If by upgrade the engine you mean drop cryengine and move completely over to unreal engine then sure; if that's not what you mean then no.

PGI if you guys are reading this please for the love of Kerensky switch to using Unreal for MWO

[Prototelis]

Yeah, not unless their license is renewed.

That remains to be seen.

[CanadianCyrus]

Prototelis, on 30 December 2018 - 04:48 PM, said:

Yeah, not unless their license is renewed.

That remains to be seen.

I would be surprised if they had issues renewing it. Considering they got one of the biggest monkeys (Harmony Gold) of the MechWarrior franchise off it's back when not even Microsoft was willing to put in the effort, I have to imagine that counts towards Microsoft having good faith in PGIs intentions.

Edited by Funzo, 30 December 2018 - 05:05 PM.

[The6thMessenger]

MWO's gonna die man, I bet they're going to pull the plug after MW5 drops. Hopefully our accounts are transferred to an online version of MW5.

[LordNothing]

fp is where its somewhat tenable. there is nothing pgi could do with it that is significantly better than what we have now. id rather them just dive head long into an 18 month dev process to port, upgrade, document, and improve upon it. moving on to ue4 with a maintainable codebase that is easier to extend. access to a mwo 2.0 beta server could come with mw5 as kind of an early adopter bonus or as part of some kind of founders pack. some time after the release of mw5, roll out mwo redux and port over user accounts.

[Dee Eight]

Funzo, on 30 December 2018 - 04:59 PM, said:

I would be surprised if they had issues renewing it. Considering they got one of the biggest monkeys (Harmony Gold) of the MechWarrior franchise off it's back when not even Microsoft was willing to put in the effort, I have to imagine that counts towards Microsoft having good faith in PGIs intentions.

The problem with licensing is two fold... one...getting Microsoft to extend the license for the online version... they may after all have had other plans in the works to do something else with the property more suited to Xbox. Two.... whether the original license for cryengine involved "exclusive" usage of that engine for the game called Mechwarrior Online, as star citizen has had a lawsuit served against them by Crytek a year ago over a similar situation of changing game engines. This of course MIGHT be why Mechwarrior online was re-branded as MWO:S7. Its pointless to go to a new version of cryengine since even CE4 is already an obsolete game engine compared to Unreal 4.

[Luminis]

Would I like to see MWO get ported to Unreal Engine? Yes.

Would I be okay with maintenance mode for 6 to 12 months? Yes (especially since the only real updates have been XML file tweaks and MechPacks, so no major losses there).

Do I believe it'll happen? No.

I don't think PGI is gonna invest the resources necessary for an engine switch into MWO. Lots of potential things I can see them do, but straight up upgrading MWO isn't one of them. MW5, DLC / AddOns, eventually MW6 (maybe with PvP). MWO2 won't happen, I believe, until the guys at PGI feel like they can get players to start (and buy) from scratch.

[Kingfucius]

The6thMessenger, on 30 December 2018 - 05:14 PM, said:

MWO's gonna die man, I bet they're going to pull the plug after MW5 drops. Hopefully our accounts are transferred to an online version of MW5.

So they sell stuff to people and say:"Hey, we sell you stuff but we cannot guarantee that you may keep it". That's a strange business model. I wonder wether that' s legal. I already begin feeling stupid I bought some mechs.

[Monkey Lover]

This is not a real question.There is nothing they could do in 6 to 9 months that would really matter. They been making a word doc for about this long.

The real question is, are you willing to keep buying mechpacks for 2 years with no updates as they change to a new engine?

[Luminis]

Kingfucius, on 31 December 2018 - 01:00 AM, said:

So they sell stuff to people and say:"Hey, we sell you stuff but we cannot guarantee that you may keep it". That's a strange business model. I wonder wether that' s legal. I already begin feeling stupid I bought some mechs.

"Games as a service". The concept that a game is a service, not a product, eliminates these legal issues. Back when we bought games in stores on an actual data medium, it was hard for publishers to argue that these games were services rather than products.

A service (in this case, access to the game) can eventually be terminated, making all the money you spent nothing more than a fart in the wind. You've got zero rights to the game you paid for, including the right to resell it or demand access to it after the provider sees fit to discontinue the "service".

[El Bandito]

Kingfucius, on 31 December 2018 - 01:00 AM, said:

So they sell stuff to people and say:"Hey, we sell you stuff but we cannot guarantee that you may keep it". That's a strange business model. I wonder wether that' s legal. I already begin feeling stupid I bought some mechs.

That's a silly way of thinking. I already paid about $400 worth of money during my 6 years of MWO, and I don't regret any of that since those 6 years were worth every one of those penny. It is about the experience.

I am 100% fine with starting over from zero if PGI ports MWO over to Unreal.

I'm more worried about being able to find my Mercstar mates when the time comes.

[NimoStar]

The things you said can be better done with new engine.

But you should NOT start from zero. There is no way records cannot be transferred.

Im fine if my favourite camo, decals or cockpit items are unavailable because they haven't been reimplemented. But they should still be "on hold" on the database of my account.

Edited by NimoStar, 31 December 2018 - 05:13 AM.

[Peter2k]

As long as we are talking about Unreal, then yes, though development has already been stopped.
Those FP things are 90% negligible changes, map reworks have not been promised in any time frame I'm aware of

HOWEVER

I always was hoping that switching to UE would make things easier, faster, less clunky for PGI ( I mean seriously, I remember Paul or Chris saying changing a few weapon values is a big complicated endeavour)

And on top of that PGI is obviously already happy about UE and gathering experience with it

El Bandito, on 31 December 2018 - 04:56 AM, said:

I am 100% fine with starting over from zero if PGI ports MWO over to Unreal.

I hear what you say, but I think players are very divided on such an issue
I spent 4 times as much as you do and my $ to hour ratio for entertainment is better then Netflix, so I've had my fun.
But I think many would be quite sour if you don't find a way of bringing something over, although personally I think that it would be either for free or cost a fee in some kind of way

El Bandito, on 30 December 2018 - 04:39 PM, said:

And ray tracing can burn in a dumpster.

Ehh, I'm hopeful that it means they get plenty of support from Nvidia for optimizing.
Raytracing obviously costs a lot of performance, and all we have seen yet are indoor shots in MW5 using it.

Just like Battlefield having a terrible DX12 API traditionally, if they want to use the feature they have to get everything else running optimal first or performance would suffer a lot more.

Luminis, on 31 December 2018 - 03:21 AM, said:

snip

While that is true, all PGI has sold us over the years is nostalgia.

I'm not sure they want to burn even more bridges by being overly stingy.
Especially if they can just ask for a fee, somehow that would fit the M-O

NimoStar, on 31 December 2018 - 05:12 AM, said:

The things you said can be better done with new engine.

But you should NOT start from zero. There is no way records cannot be transferred.

Im fine if my favourite camo, decals or cockpit items are unavailable because they haven't been reimplemented. But they should still be "on hold" on the database of my account.

I'm fine with not getting my camos, as long as I can get my mechs, or at least my top 50 or whatever.

New game -> new camos, fine, paint is just eye candy, mechs aren't (hell PGI considers them main content after all).

Monkey Lover, on 31 December 2018 - 02:38 AM, said:

This is not a real question.There is nothing they could do in 6 to 9 months that would really matter. They been making a word doc for about this long.

The real question is, are you willing to keep buying mechpacks for 2 years with no updates as they change to a new engine?

You could be creative and offer the stuff you buy to appear in the new MWO/MW5 whatever.
But then PGI could've been creative and ask catalyst to include a voucher for some free MWO stuff and a promo for MW5 in every box.

Edited by Peter2k, 31 December 2018 - 05:45 AM.

[Timuroslav]

I want to see at least 6 new maps for quick play before jumping development into cryostasis. Mechs are great for short spike in the population, but they peter out pretty quick too. More maps and map variety adds to the game. We need a lot less cold maps. More neutral and other maps. That will keep interest in the game more than anything.
Assymetrical maps with routinely move spawns would help too.

Too many maps are bowl shaped, which causes nascaring in pugs.
Damn the Haters maps maps maps, before going to Unreal.

ideas for maps:
Launch pad
Refinery,
Swamp,
Tank Armory
Oasis (I wanna laser ostriches),
Burnt moon under a red star
River Delta (think the Nile)
Mountain plateau (think Switzerland)
Tundra dock yards

etc.

Edited by Timuroslav, 31 December 2018 - 05:48 AM.

[Peter2k]

Dee Eight, on 30 December 2018 - 05:32 PM, said:

The problem with licensing is two fold... one...getting Microsoft to extend the license for the online version... they may after all have had other plans in the works to do something else with the property more suited to Xbox. Two.... whether the original license for cryengine involved "exclusive" usage of that engine for the game called Mechwarrior Online, as star citizen has had a lawsuit served against them by Crytek a year ago over a similar situation of changing game engines. This of course MIGHT be why Mechwarrior online was re-branded as MWO:S7. Its pointless to go to a new version of cryengine since even CE4 is already an obsolete game engine compared to Unreal 4.

But SC is using the same engine basically, so switching was probably not that much of a change.
So they went for it, which they shouldn't have done because of the contract with CryTech.

In PGI's case they would probably "just" rebuild MWO using existing assets, like they imported mechs from MWO and not actually do a switch.
Somehow I don't think that is possible anyway.

That said, what would you actually miss from MWO if they just take the mechs and just do everything else new?
Are the maps and modes that good they cant be done again or replaced?

How is the friends list working? Are the social features so good in MWO?
Is FP actually so popular you can't do without? Or Solaris?
Or is the skill tree so unique PGI cant do another one like it?

So aside from the mechs, ehh, not much lost really.


All PGI has to do is import more mechs, open the rules in the mechlab more, add some maps with team death match and it would feel right at home again.
Beyond mechs there just isn't that much substance to MWO that isn't maps or grind.

Hell with the sort of procedural map maker they use, as long as the starting positions are balanced (which funnily enough isn't PGI's strong point in MWO either) they could do some interesting things, maybe.
Not that I would trust them to get it right in under a decade, but just like with MWO in the past, there is potential.

[Peter2k]

Timuroslav, on 31 December 2018 - 05:42 AM, said:

I want to see at least 6 new maps for quick play before jumping development into cryostasis. Mechs are great for short spike in the population, but they peter out pretty quick too. More maps and map variety adds to the game.

If you cont the classic ones then your in luck.
If not not good luck with that.

The height of map making idea was reintroducing the old maps and re skinning existing ones. Which might work and I'd be happy to get, but taking the FP "improvements" from a list to implementation took half a year.
And those changes are mainly changes in some xml file (like a timer or a value n stuff).

If you want PGI to make new maps, good luck getting even a single one this year.

Russ already said anything else comes after the FP improvements, that's March or April as a starting point.
And the max of maps PGI made is 2 a year, without MW5 in the background.

Timuroslav, on 31 December 2018 - 05:42 AM, said:

More maps and map variety adds to the game.

Many have been saying that for, maybe always, see where that got us.

[My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ]

There is too much up in the air to really make such a big move like updating or moves the game across to a different engine. Its more likely that anything like that will happen after MW5 and not before because there is the chance that game will kill this one.