CROSS-POST from the other thread:
I noticed Russ brought up the issue of rescale in the podcast and how they did volumetric scaling as community wanted and then according to him then hated it because things got huge.
That on itself is an answer to the question.
Volumetric scaling only refers to the relative size of mechs with regards to eachother. Problem was that PGI took the largest mech in the game as a reference and then enlarged the rest of the roster to match that.
That is what went wrong.
Light mechs were fine were they were at. Heavier mechs were just gigantic compared to them, a volumetric scaling in many people's minds was those heavier mechs getting smaller, not the other way around.
Even on the concept of pure volumetric scaling, there are massive mistakes in there, specially between 20 and 25 ton mechs and 35 ton mechs and above. I do 3D modeling as a hobby and at the same time work as a PhD in engineering, and I can tell you that there is nothing Volumetric between the proportions of a 25ton commando and a 35 ton panther, and that is measurement to the last cubic pixel. Even assuming constant mass and volume for the cockpit, and such... the proportions are so out of whack.
In the podcast, Phil almost brought it up. The major reason larger mechs are so easy to pinpoint is that they are so damn gigantic. And the fact that their sheer size does not allow them to use pieces of cover effectively, even at all. For example, an Atlas should really be 77% of what it is now. Choosing the commando as a reference.
I recently did a mod for Mechwarrior 5 (MW5 Reloaded) which also included a proper volumetric scaling with the commando as a reference (you can give it a look). I can have a pretty good guess why the volumetric scaling was done in the opposite direction. As you shrink the size of the bigger mechs, you need to have faster animations for them (since linear speed should remain the same) and animation team was busy doing something else at the time.
If PGI wants to ever brings re-scale back to the table... many... MANY would love to see it done in the other direction (basing the reference on the smaller end, rather than the already gigantic ones)
In the podcast Russ also wanted to focus on things that can generate revenue.
First off, let's make one thing clear, MWO is in its 8th year now. So far the monetization model was based on a collect'em all approach with mechs.
It has been a long grind. For most it has been years. But we need to focus on new players that come in.
Right now a new player that is coming in gets to have 4 mechbays only. The usual approach is that the player will go through the cadet phase and often blows the cbills from that on a completely useless chassis with a bad build which struggles to perform in matches.
The ones who do not quit at the moment face a choice... to buy a mechpack or not.
And sadly this is where the current MWO store fails, as it has no option to allow a paying new player to hit the ground running or save on grind time.
The entire mechpack options offer three almost identical mechs for 20$ (btw, three variant model is based on a skill system that is no longer in the game). With $20 you can get major AAA games 8 years after their release, while in MWO it gives you practically NOTHING!
No sane person would spend that money to get something that can be bought in the game after a few days of playing.
In order to revitalize your store, you need to think about how the game dynamics and content releases has changed. I cut the BS and go right to the point.
You want money?
Then consider this:
- Make a starter pack for $20.
- Include 8 good mechs in it (2 good mechs per class, clan and IS.).
- Make sure 2 of those 8 mechs are hero mechs.
- include enough GSP to instantly master 2 mechs
- include a bunch of Cbills to fully deck 2 mechs
- Include at least 10 colors covering a wide spectrum
- include 2 camo patterns for the mechs in the pack.
THAT will sell.
You can even have higher Tier starter packs for $30 and $40 with bigger gains.
In a game that is in its 8th year you should be thinking about how to bring a new account up to a point to look like how a one year account would look like.
All the mech collectors have collected all the mechs and their wallets dried up... think wider... think more open.
Of course... it would be more challenging to find something a MWO veteran player would spend money on.
On that regard, I would refer to myself.
I have almost 500 mechs, most of them are fully mastered. I have about 100k MC, more than 3.5 Billion Cbills. almost all the colors.
And I really find it hard to think of something... perhaps some brainstorming would be needed on this front.