125 replies to this topic

[RePlayBoy101]

No One Lives Forever, on 04 June 2019 - 10:50 AM, said:

Wow, so congrats, PGI, last few days steam charts showing more than 50% drop in steam users playing MWO. Looks like its gonna die sooner that expected.

the sooner the better ... the only reason why it lasted so long is becouse people had deep pockets and deep feelings

[Znoop]

No One Lives Forever, on 04 June 2019 - 10:50 AM, said:

Wow, so congrats, PGI, last few days steam charts showing more than 50% drop in steam users playing MWO. Looks like its gonna die sooner that expected.

Where do you get your data from? Just looked it up on SteamDB.

[Karl Streiger]

1000 players? well to have adequate match waiting times 24/7 you might need 3500 a day

[N a p e s]

Karl Streiger, on 04 June 2019 - 08:00 PM, said:

1000 players? well to have adequate match waiting times 24/7 you might need 3500 a day

where does the 3500 number come from, I'm curious?

also, the steam charts don't take players using the standalone client into account though how many people that actually represents is anyone's guess.

[Karl Streiger]

N a p e s, on 05 June 2019 - 05:13 AM, said:

where does the 3500 number come from, I'm curious?

for QP: 24 players per game - during that time 23 other players need to wait for a game, as soon as a guy disconnects from game one and starts a new - those 23 stop waiting and get their game. Thanks to disconnecting players you have a faster performance.

To have ~100 players at the "ready" at every day and night time might be a good idea. At least it worked good enough in closed beta when we had a ticker for actual online players. but the sad truth is with the MM and tier systems and mech classes you need more players now then you would have needed then.

so idealy you need 24 assault 24 heavy players... and as well those for at least two different tier areas. (4-5 and 1-3) so we end at 200 and those for just a single game with minimal wait time only in QP.

Some play only 30minutes but other comes on, other play for 3-4hours and so on - 3500 was a rough estimate as said world wide. Aussies have more problems then european or america players because of time zones.

(the regional servers would have been a smart thing in 2013 - better then HSR)

[justcallme A S H]

N a p e s, on 05 June 2019 - 05:13 AM, said:

also, the steam charts don't take players using the standalone client into account though how many people that actually represents is anyone's guess.

I remember ~2 years, maybe a tad more, Tarogato did some estimating around known data from PGI vs Steam and worked out somewhere around 35-40% used Steam. I wish I could find the post but I do remember it coming up in a larger thread.

Obviously that was a fair while go so that number could very well have changed quite a bit - either way to boot.

That was interesting at the time to give at least some indication.

[No One Lives Forever]

Znoop, on 04 June 2019 - 12:20 PM, said:

Where do you get your data from? Just looked it up on SteamDB.

https://steamcharts.com/app/342200#7d
https://steamcharts.com/app/342200#1m

June 4th 24 hour peak was barely 500 while usually it's over 1100. And even on your charts there's clear dip (they're the same charts).

Edited by No One Lives Forever, 05 June 2019 - 09:42 AM.

[N a p e s]

No One Lives Forever, on 05 June 2019 - 09:04 AM, said:

https://steamcharts.com/app/342200#7d
https://steamcharts.com/app/342200#1m

June 4th 24 hour peak was barely 500 while usually it's over 1100. And even on your charts there's clear dip (they're the same charts).

Looking at those charts isn't the peak value for June 4th 856 players at 22:05? That being said, not saying there isn't an overall dip.

[Znoop]

That's strange, SteamDB graphs show about 700 peak. What's your timezone? (I'm GMT+2)

There is no way to get offical numbers I assume?

[HGAK47]

Posting in as one of those who has never used steam for this game, some sad yet unsurprising news. Ive played this game on and off since beta and its been a blast but the last however many months ive not even thought about this game until now.

I really hope MW5 is a decent enough game that in time mods and multiplayer similar to MWO can be incorporated into that as with the capability for community mods, that really does change things I think.

[Chuckie]

The biggest problem is communication and a easy way for the community to connect to one another.

Now they have made Units useless..

So no chat ( other than in game ), no chat groups in the game, etc.. etc.. there are things World of Tanks did that PGI could have done years ago.

So how can new players find units and join in with other social groups to play with.. they really can't not without a lot of work.

THAT my friends in the problem.. it always has been. Discord, Teamspeak, etc.. are all patches.. they should have built chat and such into the game.. Cant engage the community if all the have to get engages is a forum like this that no one uses.

Znoop, on 05 June 2019 - 11:56 AM, said:

That's strange, SteamDB graphs show about 700 peak. What's your timezone? (I'm GMT+2)

There is no way to get offical numbers I assume?

Nope but Sure the trend at Steam is at least reliable.

PEAK for the game at Steam was 4100 players 3 years ago.. now it averages 700..

Mind you I only started using it on Steam, and 3 years ago I was one of those just using the standard launcher. So the number should have gone up.

Edited by Chuckie, 05 June 2019 - 05:56 PM.

[PheonixStorm]

If this played more like the old Multiplayer Battletech from GEnie I'm sure there would be a very large number of players. Now THAT was true faction play. Plus the player base had much more control over the factions including missions etc. iirc

[Vellron2005]

Appogee, on 31 May 2019 - 06:12 PM, said:

Acknowledged concerns about ongoing monetisation of MWO given core customer base has so many Mechs and therefore less incentive to buy more packs. Floated general idea that maybe down the track might need to change to a base subscription model. Not going to happen anytime soon. (Note: pains were taken to point that this is just 'spitballing' about the future, in response to questions in chat, not a plan.)

Switch to a subscription model, and you immediately kill this game in one fell swoop..

The only reason MWO survives is because it's free..

You have to deliver a game several levels better in most of it's core aspects (graphics, stability, re-playability, bughunting, core gameplay, balance) to be able to charge a subscription..

But I do applaud the blatant recognition of the fact that MWO is no longer able to fund PGI on it's own..

It's pretty obvious, but at least they admitted it..

You know why that is?

Because people have, for various reasons, (most of which are PGI's own fault), left the game. And new people didn't come in..

Low population is the main reason for most of the problems faced by PGI and MWO right now..

Edited by Vellron2005, 02 July 2019 - 11:04 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Vellron2005, on 02 July 2019 - 11:02 PM, said:

Switch to a subscription model, and you immediately kill this game in one fell swoop..

It doesn't have to go into full-on Subscription model. Just give PT, some bolt-ons and the ability to pick mechs a la carte during mech pack purchases for people who decide to pay 20 bucks a month. The game will remain F2P to others who want it the way it is currently and buying mech packs whenever they're released, doesn't change for them.

[Wildstreak]

Found this looking up information for HBS Battletech.
Not surprised.

1 - The method of making money over the years defied the standard in other MMOs. I have done RPGs, MOBAs, several types, they usually rely on charging real money for cosmetic stuff while the characters you play with are mainly free.
MWO charged for slots to store their 'characters' (Mechs) while other games usually gave you either enough free slots you would never need more or unlimited slots like a current game I play, Smite, pay one price get all their current and future characters forever.
RPGs gave you limited slots for characters but their adventures go on so long and they keep adding more you never need a lot of characters.
Even shooters like this never charged for so much character storage.

2 - The way some variants were designed made no sense. This is also where other games by comparison showed how the MWO system should have been something else.
Yeah it was understood why hardpoints were done. I played BT back when it was a PnP game and there were no hardpoints, just limits by tonnage and space, saw the problems firsthand when I went to a convention.
Still the system here had problems and some of what carried over into HBS BT shows it too. Combined with the need to buy more MechBays with real money, I am surprised this was tolerated for so long.

3 - Practically all Support left the forums and went to of all places Twitter. Sure there was the occasional update post on the forums but no communication at all.
Most successful game companies when they have forums use them as their PRIMARY form of communication with customers, so far the only other companies I have seen not use their official forums is Hi-Rez Studios and now including their 'spin-off' companies (a bad sign for them but I will not digress on that) and that is not working either plus Epic when it came to games that seemed to lose player interest, suddenly Epic support would just disappear until the 'Game will close' announcement came aka Paragon. Then there was NCSoft.
When game companies abandon their forums, not a good sign.

4 - Faction Warfare, I am not going over it all again, players expected A, got B, got stuck with B, some figured out how to abuse B and FW became a ghost town dominated by a small number of teams.

5 - After 2017, I am not sure what else caused this as I suddenly was unable to play MWO anymore for reasons STILL not understood. Not banned as I got no notice unless someone decided not to give one, something unheard of in any game, players ALWAYS get a notice of banning including permanent.
No I got permanent lag that I did not want to suffer through or burden other players with. Saw outages on route traces but suddenly for no reason PGI told me to try a completely different method than used in previous outages, short version this method failed, outages STILL exist today PLUS I have proof 2 companies lied to me, PGI and Spectrum, and discovered a lot of strange stuff going on in the routes to the servers. I have worked in telecommunications that includes designing these routes and keeping them in service, a lot of what I was put through for 2 months was not right and quite possibly illegal.
Have not touched MWO since 2017 when that happened.

6 - What others said in places I have read about MW5 needing to save MWO is already proven to be a bad business model.
Example, I played a program called Trainz that once had a promising future and positive reception through 3 versions. Then around version 4 things got strange, they changed it in ways that left a lot of people scratching their heads or outright annoyed, people left. This was followed by the company shifting focus to other programs that failed.
Short version, over many mistakes and about 5 versions the company learned to stick with what it did well and relearned to interact with the community properly including communicate through their forums. The current version of Trainz is still going and again has positive feedback and player support, the company has no reason to branch off into other products and interacts properly.
Some companies never seem to learn from the mistakes of others.

PS - I am surprised, I have not logged into or posted on these forums in over a year yet I still get post liking notices for stuff years old, I am more amazed people are reading stuff that old.

[Foxwalker]

Once they stopped making it necessary to buy multiple variants to level, made the the mechpack model obsolet. They should have considered a different model.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Heres to hoping MW5 does in fact hold out for a good long while.

When will the game go back on preorder without MWO stuff attached to it?

Lets hope some modders add MWO 3050+ mechs to the 3025 game lol. Id lvoe to rock a Warhawk in the 3025 campaign. I wouldnt even care if I had to jerry rig it with IS tech lol(which would be an interesting sight to see). See what kind of build you could slap on a Warhawk using IS tech.

Edited by LordKnightFandragon, 03 July 2019 - 09:57 PM.

[Vellron2005]

LordKnightFandragon, on 03 July 2019 - 09:55 PM, said:

Heres to hoping MW5 does in fact hold out for a good long while.

When will the game go back on preorder without MWO stuff attached to it?

Lets hope some modders add MWO 3050+ mechs to the 3025 game lol. Id lvoe to rock a Warhawk in the 3025 campaign. I wouldnt even care if I had to jerry rig it with IS tech lol(which would be an interesting sight to see). See what kind of build you could slap on a Warhawk using IS tech.

Don't worry..

If the game does well, PGI will add clan mechs.. In a DLC..

[Karl Streiger]

Vellron2005, on 03 July 2019 - 11:49 PM, said:

Don't worry..

If the game does well, PGI will add clan mechs.. In a DLC..

I would not be surprised if this "sure to come" Clan DLC will be announced at the end of this year - might cost as much as the whole title.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Karl Streiger, on 04 July 2019 - 02:30 AM, said:

I would not be surprised if this "sure to come" Clan DLC will be announced at the end of this year - might cost as much as the whole title.

"Pre-order MW5 Clan DLC and get rewards for MWO"