12 replies to this topic

[Lux Monolithic]

I can't imagine what PGI was thinking when they decided to not put multiplayer into MW5.

MWO used to be a lot more popular, and could be way more popular if it was managed better. So now, they have this dead game MWO hanging out there... not making any money (hopefully there aren't suckers out there still buying mech packs).

And no new revenue stream from MW5 online play, only purchases of the game.

It would make sense to just re-make MWO as a part of MW5.

What is the point of having spent thousands of dollars on mechs (as I know some have) and playing them in a dead game?

Find a way to recycle whatever amount people spent into some XP in MW5 multiplayer or some such conversion. Or just outright offer no conversion who cares.

I think people would be willing to throw away their old mechs to play a new, better, current version of MWO that hopefully, will be better managed than MWO.

What are they thinking... that they're just going to continue to sell copies of MW5 for years?

I guess that could cut it, if they barely spent anything on MW5 which is possible since it just looks like a slightly better version of MWO.

I'm not going to pay 50 dollars (42, wow) to play a single player version of MWO. Ever.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Lux Monolithic, on 18 February 2020 - 08:38 AM, said:

I'm not going to pay 50 dollars (42, wow) to play a single player version of MWO. Ever.

Would people be willing to pay thousand dollars to re-purchase everything again in a different version of MWO? MW5 goes on sale every now and then. I think it is currently $15? Either way, PGI aren't making good decisions, tbqh.

[martian]

Lux Monolithic, on 18 February 2020 - 08:38 AM, said:

I can't imagine what PGI was thinking when they decided to not put multiplayer into MW5.

I guess they expected MW5:Mercs players, who have completed their SP campaigns, to create MWO accounts.

[n00biwan]

I don't reckon... or else they'd have laid out a welcome spread for those people to encourage, entice and retain those guys over here.

You'd expect to see some or all of the following (or things like these):

-More promotion of MWO in MW5
-Welcome messages from dev team directed at MW5 players. "Hey, welcome to MWO, the vibrant destination for your pvp meching!"
-New player sales (iconic, popular and meta mechs, mech bays), maybe a new player discount of 50% off everything for the first month, maybe a ticket for half price mech, you get the idea.
-Simple events (24/7) as well as more involved challenges for the rest of us.
-Maybe a tutorial mission sequence where after completing stepped challenges you get to pick a mech as a reward. (much like WoT)
-Regular dev contact with more than just the one guy who does events (love you Matt)


Basically, enticement and dev activity.

We don't have any of that, despite how low impact it mostly would have been for them to do.

[Vellron2005]

Lux Monolithic, on 18 February 2020 - 08:38 AM, said:

It would make sense to just re-make MWO as a part of MW5.

You mean make MWO2?

I've been saying it for over a year now.. and people mega-complained about it..

But mark my words.. sooner or later.. it will happen.

[Mawai]

Lux Monolithic, on 18 February 2020 - 08:38 AM, said:

I can't imagine what PGI was thinking when they decided to not put multiplayer into MW5.

MWO used to be a lot more popular, and could be way more popular if it was managed better. So now, they have this dead game MWO hanging out there... not making any money (hopefully there aren't suckers out there still buying mech packs).

And no new revenue stream from MW5 online play, only purchases of the game.

It would make sense to just re-make MWO as a part of MW5.

What is the point of having spent thousands of dollars on mechs (as I know some have) and playing them in a dead game?

Find a way to recycle whatever amount people spent into some XP in MW5 multiplayer or some such conversion. Or just outright offer no conversion who cares.

I think people would be willing to throw away their old mechs to play a new, better, current version of MWO that hopefully, will be better managed than MWO.

What are they thinking... that they're just going to continue to sell copies of MW5 for years?

I guess that could cut it, if they barely spent anything on MW5 which is possible since it just looks like a slightly better version of MWO.

I'm not going to pay 50 dollars (42, wow) to play a single player version of MWO. Ever.

I think they were thinking "We can't easily build a server authoritative multiplayer game engine using the MW5 game engine".

PGI spent a lot of time and effort (along with other companies) trying to turn Cryengine into a server authoritative game engine so they could minimize cheating and hacking.

All the features like destructible terrain, vehicles, NPC mechs that are present in MW5 can become issues in a multiplayer environment with players on both sides. It doesn't really matter for coop play if hit registration isn't ideal or if that NPC isn't in exactly the same place. It probably doesn't matter if you are playing on a LAN with a few milliseconds of lag. It won't be noticeable. However, add in 250 to 500ms ping time (which aren't uncommon for some folks on MWO) and you suddenly need to introduce techniques like host state rewind to see if the target that the client claims the person was shooting at was actually where the person was aiming on the server at the time the person took the shot. Especially since that target may also have 250 to 500ms of lag to the server and is constantly changing course. The chances that the client is actually drawing the target at the same place where that target actually is may not be that great and it is up to the server to adjudicate whether the shots hit or not.

None of this is required for MW5. MW5 required development of art assets (which they had a lot of from MWO) plus some storyline, procedural mission generation and a few other features on top of a known game engine. Trying to add multiplayer, as far as I know from my non-expert perspective , is a different scale of problem altogether.

(As soon as you add PVP multiplayer to a game, there will be folks who want to cheat, which will ruin the experience for most folks ... so the developer has to invest significant resources on the basic mutliplayer design that is not required for a stand alone PVE or small scale local coop title).

P.S. I'd love to see MWO2 but PGI would need to learn from their experience with MWO and choose a game engine designed both for stunning visuals and server authoritative multiplayer gaming.

Edited by Mawai, 19 February 2020 - 12:13 PM.

[martian]

Vellron2005, on 19 February 2020 - 05:13 AM, said:

You mean make MWO2?

I've been saying it for over a year now.. and people mega-complained about it..

But mark my words.. sooner or later.. it will happen.

Not going to happen:

• The MWO players buying all their stuff again to finance MWO 2. Not likely. Or ...
  
• PGI making MWO 2 for free and transfering all players' accounts to MWO 2. Not likely.

[MischiefSC]

SP games are still more popular than MP games. MP games get a huge amount of press because they are a safer investment - the players are the content. SP games require a lot more content creation. However, SP games are still (by far) the biggest market segment.

MW5 Mercs likely sold 2 or 3 x more copies (at least) than MWO has total players in a given month. As MWO is F2P it's never going to have been (or will be) a steady revenue stream. Especially for being so old. It's possible, even likely, that if PGI works a good deal out on the license with Microsoft they may do an MWO2. At that point you absolutely would need to start from scratch. There's no realistic way to say that the money you spend on MWO will carry forward to MWO.

[Acid_Rain]

Lux Monolithic, on 18 February 2020 - 08:38 AM, said:

I can't imagine what PGI was thinking when they decided to not put multiplayer into MW5.

MWO used to be a lot more popular, and could be way more popular if it was managed better. So now, they have this dead game MWO hanging out there... not making any money (hopefully there aren't suckers out there still buying mech packs).

MW5 is inherently a single player game. Why does it surprise you that they didn't design it with multiplayer in mind? Not all games need to be multiplayer.

[n00biwan]

While I agree that not all games NEED to be multiplayer (many need to never be), mechwarrior titles have had multiplayer since at least MW2. They were all story based campaigns, with clear progression (some with choices that matter)... and also had multiplayer.

If PGI are binning MWO, then the mp audience will wander off, even if many will try MW5 "in the sale" or "when it gets to steam".

I just hope MWO 2 does happen and it's not a bag of poop.

[ShiverMeRivets]

martian, on 21 February 2020 - 03:04 AM, said:

Not going to happen:

• The MWO players buying all their stuff again to finance MWO 2. Not likely. Or ...
  
• PGI making MWO 2 for free and transfering all players' accounts to MWO 2. Not likely.

If they make MWO2 you will have to buy the mechs in that game (assuming this is the business model). MWO2 and MWO will be entirely separate entities, so it makes no sense that your investment in one game should carry over to another.

New game, new purchases.

[martian]

ShiverMeRivets, on 21 February 2020 - 01:32 PM, said:

If they make MWO2 you will have to buy the mechs in that game (assuming this is the business model). MWO2 and MWO will be entirely separate entities, so it makes no sense that your investment in one game should carry over to another.

New game, new purchases.

I know one proverb too: “Don’t throw good money after bad.”

And before you say that the game (MWO 2) would be a new one - sure, but the company would be still the same old PGI.

[thievingmagpi]

ha ha ha