78 replies to this topic

[Tina Benoit]

Greetings MechWarriors,

Here's a short summary of the recent Developer Update podcast that occurred on NGNGtv last week!

Mech Packs
Over the years, our regular monthly 'Mech releases have filled in many many core roles for our Mechwarriors. We are switching gears to utilize resources more efficiently in other places. This could eventually help us take some time in the future to figure out a new release format or develop a special plan for current existing ‘Mechs and/or new ones, for a refreshing release of more iconic ‘Mech chassis from lore. Unfortunately there is no estimation as to when that will be yet but rest assured that this does not mean the end of seeing new ‘Mechs in MWO.

Faction Play
Faction Play changes occurred last patch, following up with three hot-fixes directed from the feedback received.
With the Public Test Sessions, we had communicated that the initial release of the changes would be oriented around the new Match Maker and the Story missions.
Since then, Paul has been continuously working with the engineers to make gradual improvements while reviewing feedback and communicating in the Faction Play sub-forums with the community.
We understand that Mechwarriors are very eager for further improvements to Faction Play and we are dedicated to continue communicating and iterating improvements over the course of future patches.

MechCon and MWO World Championships
We're highly considering hosting a MechCon 2019, and in that consideration, we'd like to hear the community's interest in it. Note that organizing this event does not interfere with the development of MWO or MW5.
MechCon 2019 would be hosted in the same venue as last year, the Vancouver Convention Center at the beginning of December with very similar content to participate in, such as the MW5 Sim Pods, Table Top gaming booth, MWO Solaris, a live stream booth from our Twitch channel, Developer Q&A’s in addition to having special guests in attendance.
However, the catering and the on-site World Championship finals are the only items which we would not repeat this year. That being said, a MWO World Championship is still happening if there is competitive interest for such a tournament in which we would support with Tournament Supporter Packs.
These two items will depend on hearing the community’s interest following this Dev Update

[The6thMessenger]

First.

EDIT:

That's basically every other summary the community gave us. The MechCon is kinda new though. I thought you're no longer doing it.

Edited by The6thMessenger, 04 June 2019 - 03:07 PM.

[CFC Conky]

Thanks for the summary Tina. I hope MechCon come to Vancouver again. I wouldn't worry about catering and such, lots of good places to eat & drink there .

Conky

Edited by CFC Conky, 04 June 2019 - 04:04 PM.

[Y E O N N E]

I'd definitely support another MWOWC with a Tourny Pack purchase, just please not stock mode again.

I'm slightly upset at the Mech Pack slow-down. I really wanted to play IS Omnis...

[Valdarion Silarius]

As someone who has never been to MechCon before (I would honestly go if I had the money, but I can't afford a trip to Vancover nor pay for a hotel over there), I'd prefer if you guys took the time, money and manpower into further developing and fixing Mechwarrior Online instead of focusing on another MechCon. I wish no negative feelings against the people who enjoy the event, but I think most of the people here that enjoy Mechwarrior Online would rather prefer more focus on fixing mechs that need help, another revisit on mech scaling, and more community balance input for the game before the license expires in 2020.

I wish there could be a balance for the development of time and resources for Mechwarrior Online, but I understand that Mechwarrior Online is not generating enough revenue to sustain the company. I implore that you refocus your intentions on properly advertising Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries. I also hope that you reconsider developing MW:O besides faction play since the game still has potential, and that it leaves a positive impression on everyone after MW:O development is officially over. Many of us only wish the best for PGI in the long run and we want both games to be successful.

Edit: I completely missed that last two paragraphs when i skimmed though it. I would be interested in MechCon '19 but unfortunately I don't have the financial resources to do so. I would really love to experience those mech pods personally.

Edited by Arnold The Governator, 04 June 2019 - 05:00 PM.

[Anomalocaris]

Y E O N N E, on 04 June 2019 - 04:10 PM, said:

I'd definitely support another MWOWC with a Tourny Pack purchase, just please not stock mode again.

I'm slightly upset at the Mech Pack slow-down. I really wanted to play IS Omnis...

I'm definitely still in to support MWOWC (about the only thing I'll open my wallet for right now) as it is players supporting players. Count me in for a supporter pack if offered.

[RickySpanish]

Can't make it to BC but would buy a supporter pack, you lot have done a good job with the franchise, thanks for keeping the Battletech dream alive.

One little thing - Double XP weekend was surprisingly fun, earning SP unlocks at that rate felt rewarding and I hope to see more of such events.

[Wolfos31]

I'd definitely purchase a tournament supporter pack and would even consider travelling to Vancouver for the MechCon. I'd love to play some TT.

[50 50]

Thanks Tina.

[Khobai]

as long as mechcon and mwowc are funded by ticket purchases and tourney packs im fine with both. that way the people that actually want those things can pay for them. And the people that dont want them dont have to pay for them.

I dont think money should be diverted from mechpack or MW5 sales for mechcon/mwowc. Id rather see that money spent on improving MWO or developing MWO2. mechcon/mwowc should have to pay for itself with its own ticket sales/supporter packs.

Edited by Khobai, 05 June 2019 - 12:35 AM.

[Novakaine]

Thanks Tina.

[LordNothing]

Y E O N N E, on 04 June 2019 - 04:10 PM, said:

I'd definitely support another MWOWC with a Tourny Pack purchase, just please not stock mode again.

I'm slightly upset at the Mech Pack slow-down. I really wanted to play IS Omnis...

make a mapdev supporter pack and you might sell those. one of the perks might let you vote for map concepts and features. perhaps give an item that gives you +1 map vote when you drop a mech with that item. id just rather fund the game than the top players.

mwowc is fun to watch but i could just as easily watch it from a twitch feed. you could just as easily stream the games live at mechcon with multiple feeds from different players and live commentary (brownie points if its duncan fisher). they could still make a show out of it. you might be able to fund the travel expenses through sponsorships. allow the wc teams the ability to submit custom skins and dekkles on the mechs for sponsor logos for the wc build.

Edited by LordNothing, 04 June 2019 - 07:55 PM.

[Y E O N N E]

I wish PGI would can MechCon itself and use that money to support MWO development. I don't need live finals, I don't care about MechPods that will be useful for all of two days, and I won't care about MW5 because it will ostensibly be released already. The only thing PGI does after MW5 that I care about is MWO.

[Nightbird]

Sigh

[Nightbird]

The WCs are great, fun to play in, fun to watch, but what about the cost?

The statement about the WC costing 100k $ is just **, maybe just for the final matches themselves at the MechCon plus the prize money costs 100k from PGI's end, but the dev time into the comp mode itself, investigating/patching the game to support the WC, staff hours to run the matches from the prelims to the final three teams, the mind space for all involved at PGI. There is no way the WC costs less than 500k $ per year to run and more likely consumed 1 million $ /year in resources.

Put into other words, the cost of 3 WC is the same as an additional tech time skip + 4 maps + a new game mode + a few updates to QP/FP game mechanics.

Given that choice 3 years ago, everyone would pick the WC as the better investment.

Edited by Nightbird, 04 June 2019 - 08:39 PM.

[LordNothing]

i knew the wc wasn't going to do **** for the average joe blow mechwarrior. as a publicity stunt it would have worked out great, but doing it at mech con is like preaching to the choir. you should be putting the money into advertising to bring in people not previously affiliated with mechwarrior/battletech. the only demographic that has any retention are the grognards who have always been here and will be here until the lights go out.

[denAirwalkerrr]

TLDW of dev update where nothing bad happened

[Khobai]

LordNothing, on 04 June 2019 - 08:45 PM, said:

i knew the wc wasn't going to do **** for the average joe blow mechwarrior. as a publicity stunt it would have worked out great, but doing it at mech con is like preaching to the choir. you should be putting the money into advertising to bring in people not previously affiliated with mechwarrior/battletech. the only demographic that has any retention are the grognards who have always been here and will be here until the lights go out.

it was all part of Russ' misguided attempt to push MWO as an esport. PGI literally had to create their own venue to showcase the game as an esport, at great personal expense.

[justcallme A S H]

Khobai, on 05 June 2019 - 12:40 AM, said:

it was all part of Russ' misguided attempt to push MWO as an esport. PGI literally had to create their own venue to showcase the game as an esport, at great personal expense.

LOL what venue did they build exactly? Any show/expo "creates" their own venue. It is not as if PGI built a building for it out of their own funds. A rented venue just like any other company holding an expo/event.

So of course it was an expense. An expense to promote MWO and other Battletech related stuff (HBS, TableTop, MW5 etc etc), that is all promotional / advertising expenses.

[Khobai]

I didnt say PGI built a venue. i said they created one: mechcon. Obviously they didnt build a physical structure, but they still created the venue and rented a space to host it in. And yes mechcon cost PGI quite a bit of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in fact.

And no it was not an effective use of advertising lmao. It was literally only marketed to people who already knew about MWO.

I feel like I shouldnt have to explain this to you. But the point of advertising is to make people aware of your product who were previously UNAWARE of it. lmao.

Seeing how the game isnt doing too well I think its fair to say the esports experiment failed. Theres even a strong argument to be made that pushing the game competitively helped hasten its demise. Since the game has a well documented history of throwing casual players aside and allowing elite players to stomp them. Thats precisely why the game has such lousy player retention and turnover rates for free players becoming paid players.

Im also not saying there shouldnt be another mechcon or MWOWC. Just that the money for those things should come solely from ticket sales and selling tourney packs. PGI shouldnt divert money from mechpack/MW5 sales that could otherwise go to improving MWO or developing MWO2. If I spend money on MWO/MW5 I want it going back into developing new MWO content and/or MWO2. Let the people that enjoy mechcon/mwowc pay for it themselves.

Edited by Khobai, 05 June 2019 - 01:41 AM.