339 replies to this topic

[Vampyreq]

Looks like I somehow missed this. And seems like this is the place I can give feedback?

Quality of life I believe has been mentioned many times. Let players have the ability to browse the store or do something while searching for a match. Chat, browse the store, mess with the store mechlab, or mess with your own mechlab. But, you won't be able to enter testing grounds, nor save any changes made while searching for a match.

Reduce commands for Company/Lance commanders. I took a look into it and got a shock, that many commands and for 3 lances?

Mech lab: Make Endosteel, Ferrofibrous, Light Ferrofibrous, Stealth, Artemis a 1-time purchase instead of paying per switch.

Spawn points: This needs fixing. I've experienced so many times I drop in a slow *** assault, 3 other lancemates are way faster than I am and the opposing team's lights drop closest to me and there's just no fighting chance. The other 2 friendly lances are too far to do anything or they don't bother.

I will suggest to shift spawn points so the above is minimised or eliminated. We can even have all 12 drop very close to each other maybe like A1, A2, A3 for an example.

Some spawns need to be shifted slightly. I think it's Charlie lance on Tourmaline desert, you just spawn right at the edge of the hill thing. It looks like you can, but you cannot actually walk forward as you don't have the momentum to climb as a heavier mech and you have to walk around it.

Invisible walls:
I think this is a good to fix but not priority, there are other things that are more important.

Map size, I think there are a bunch of maps that can have their sizes reduced. I think a good gauge is at most 30~ seconds of walking to see an enemy. Polar highlands literally require 1 minute of walking sometimes even up to 2 before you can shoot at something.

Map aids:
This is more for new players, but can benefit regular players also. Have a way to hit a button and show the exits from spawn. Something like what Unreal Tournament has. Or maybe just bake it onto the (mini)map that is there for 30 seconds or so.

Non company/lance leaders can mouseover map grids but clicking does nothing. Make it such that we can open the map and also make a mark on the map like "Enemy spotted" which disappears after 10 seconds or something. Sometimes a mech comes into sensor range for that split second but is too quick for us to use the "Enemy spotted" comms.

"Enemy spotted" is a free map hack, it lasts way too long. Not sure how long it lasts now but I think 5 seconds would be okay.

Side Torso Heat Spike:
The penalty is way too much. I came back to this game from 4 years ago and when I did, I was wondering why do I overheat for "no reason" and then shut down twice in a row. Now I know it's this penalty at play, tuning it down to 75% of its current value will be a good start imo. For some mechs, the heat dissipation gets so atrocious that you literally cannot fire for 20 seconds unless you setup new weapon groups on the fly for chain fire or something.

I like the merging of solo and group queue. More players more games I like. Make FP and Solaris event/time based I agree.
I will also like to suggest shifting the current FP rewards to QP. FP is already quiet as it is, but QP sees action 24/7. Putting the rewards of mechlab, cbills, GXP into QP makes them more accessible, and also gives new players something to work to.

Mech skills:
Can I suggest renaming Skills to Upgrades or Enhancements?
I'm not sure what the justification of naming it "Skills" come from, but I when I think Skills, I think pilot skills.
So how is a better skilled pilot able to extend the range of a laser weapon?

Regarding the grind for skills: I don't think it's too long of a grind as a regular player, but it may be overwhelming for new players.
Hence, I will suggest, halve it down to say 40 to 50 skill points.
Reduce or remove the c-bills commitment.
Reduce the xp commitment.

Reduce the number of nodes and increase their gains. I think a good balance will be a minimum of 4, and a max of 7 nodes. So there needs to be some commitment (speed tweak, laser duration etc), but not too many as well (Heat, Range, Cooldown etc.)

And regroup the skill tree to:
Laser (Range, cooldown, duration etc.)
Missile (Range, cooldown, spread, rack, high explosive etc.)
Ballistics (Range, cooldown, spread, magazine capacity etc.)
Survivability (Armor hardening, skeletal density, crit reduction etc.)
Heat (Heat gen, cool run, heat containment etc.)
Mobility (Speed tweak, jump jets, hard brake, kinetic burst, torso stuff etc.)
Auxiliary (Consumables, capture, sensors, ams etc)

Then make it that the skill tree are not so interlinked (Vertical arrangement). For instance if you want to invest into Laser range and there are 8 nodes, you can just invest 8 into the range points. but for heat management, then it can be more interlinked so no one can instantly get 10% cool run with 5 points.

On the topic of skill points. Let hero mechs purchased with money come with 91 GSP. Let people be able to buy the mech and immediately skill it out and have fun with it instead of having to grind through 91 skill points.

Edited by Vampyreq, 12 November 2020 - 05:30 PM.

[Akillius]

SKILL TREE NODE REDUCTION CONCEPT:

Just my idea on how to reduce the Skill Tree node
This will keep the speed of redoing skill tree by PGI at an absolute minimum.
Keeping costs and time at lowest and basically just change existing database values.
If PGI decides later on that skill tree needs bigger changes then they should as this gave PGI minimal time+money invested.

The spreadsheet below contains all the maths behind it.
Most of the math is simple. ie) reduce 5 nodes to 2 and change values
Some nodes need special attention to avoid problem players.
84 nodes can be unlock, but only 16 active nodes max.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14011i8S2Esfjm8ns3vIjapbMwcdT613nceqkrN5nQns/edit?usp=sharing


Here's rough concept art of how it could look: (Click to Enlarge)
NOTE: Only the few nodes that say 1, 2, 3 and are chained together have requirements.
The majority of nodes can be unlocked, changed, or made active at any time as the image example shows.




EDIT: Nov 13th, 2020 8:00pm EST

Added simplified skill tree visual appearance and layout.
Updated spreadsheet with links to the image and added image here.







PS. I expect this post of mine will be lost/ignored because its not on page 1... and there's nearly 300 posts before it.
PS2. I expect Russ will ignore 99% whats posted here and only read what his dozen favorites tell him via twitter.

Edited by Akillius, 13 November 2020 - 05:03 PM.

[Bowelhacker]

Daeron is getting paid for this job, right?

[Big-G]

Vampyreq, on 12 November 2020 - 05:18 PM, said:

Mech lab: Make Endosteel, Ferrofibrous, Light Ferrofibrous, Stealth, Artemis a 1-time purchase instead of paying per switch.

Agreed on this one, this is just plain c-bill grabbing... if you bought enough of a certain type of armor, only charge for the tons/points needed to complete a build. Same for the structures, I've bought an endo-steel structure, it should be re-usable.

Bowelhacker, on 12 November 2020 - 08:13 PM, said:

Daeron is getting paid for this job, right?

As far as we know...

[XDevilsChariotX]

So haven't really played the game since before the addition to groups in QP so decided to play some today. All this talk about making things "new player friendly" first thing I noticed the groups have way to much of an impact in the match. 3-4 good players make way to much of an impact. My opinion QP should be just that QP and solo only.

[NocturnalBeast]

I am barely coming back from the game after a break, but some decent stuff on the list. I am not sure about allocating too many resources to a "new player experience", unless you put the game on consoles and make it cross-play, there is never going to be a significant increase in the number of new players (also putting it on consoles would likely require a port to Unreal engine). Also, my opinion is that 8v8 was always better, and would be great on the larger, newer maps New maps are always welcome, as well as new game modes. A time jump to the Jihad era would be interesting, but would require you to un-nerf the Clans, or severely nerf WOB tech.

And for Faction play I think you should just make it so quick play games are battles for planets on the map and just give points to each faction based on the factions of the players in the match (example 4 Clan Wolf players = 4 points towards capturing the planet). After a set timeframe, have the faction with the most points capture the planet and give players who are part of that faction a bonus (like more C-bills, mech lab discounts, etc...). More ideas, but out of time for now.

[thievingmagpi]

Ed Steele, on 12 November 2020 - 09:51 PM, said:

I am barely coming back from the game after a break, but some decent stuff on the list. I am not sure about allocating too many resources to a "new player experience", unless you put the game on consoles and make it cross-play, there is never going to be a significant increase in the number of new players (also putting it on consoles would likely require a port to Unreal engine).

There is still a fairly steady stream of new players in the game. NPE has always been one of the biggest issues with this game and with some fairly simple fixes has the potential for actual real player retention.

[Bistrorider]

BuckleUp, on 10 November 2020 - 06:19 AM, said:

Quick thoughts:

3) +1 vote for removing time of day change within matches. The game basically freezes on my machine when the change happens. After 4 or 5 seconds it will catch up and I'll get to find out where my mech has continued walking in the meantime (hopefully just into a wall and not the enemy team!)

Know what you feeling but it's -1 for me. Imo this way we gonna lose cool feature. On the other hand it's small think for me. I can go whole night long.

EDIT: Make Incursion attack or defend game mode. By random one team is defending the base, other is attacking. So only one team has a base. Sure, attacking is harder but this way people will have to play some teamplay in QP. Sucha Incursion would be a good introduction to Faction siege mode.

Edited by Bistrorider, 13 November 2020 - 12:46 AM.

[The6thMessenger]

Ed Steele, on 12 November 2020 - 09:51 PM, said:

I am not sure about allocating too many resources to a "new player experience", unless you put the game on consoles and make it cross-play, there is never going to be a significant increase in the number of new players (also putting it on consoles would likely require a port to Unreal engine).

I don't think crossplay is a good idea. We have a culture that kind of worship good aiming, so much so that they degrade homing weapons. While making everything else also autoaim would be balanced, they didn't exactly liked it.

War Steiner, on 12 November 2020 - 03:46 PM, said:

I want to cast my vote as NAY! for 8v8. If I wanted to play that, I'd power up MW4.

8v8 will immensely help with the matchmaking, seeing that you just need to find 15 more players to play with than 23. To a player of 100 online, that is 6 matches versus 4 respectively.

Low population is what MWO has to contend with, and so that is what we must plan around.

On another note, with low population, I think that the T1s would be inevitably be matched with Cadets just to have a match at all. And while 8v8 would lessen the burden, going through the same bucket will match the same people regardless over and over.

I think, and it's an unpopular opinion, that the game should at least have AI for new players to play against - either an entire lobby, or filling in for missing slots. Vets churning in new players isn't helping player retention.

Edited by The6thMessenger, 13 November 2020 - 03:12 AM.

[Daigoro 3]

IbiEvacua, on 09 November 2020 - 09:24 PM, said:

Let's see AI bots. I know the community hates them, but every other game with this business model manages it just fine.

If anything, you'll get some bot match players who are happy to spend $$ on a pretty stable of 'mechs, and it'll keep the filthy casuals out of random 12v12s.

this is nice idea, and besides, by adding the AI bot game mode (solo and co-op), the new player(s) can learn the game mechanics more easy and preparing them into the pub battle

[Thornhold]

Greetings mr. Bombadil & all the mechwarriors!
I appreciate this opportunity to discuss MWO future & I'd like to take part if I can.

I want to talk about faction play. One of the FP problems is pugsstomping. As I can see that there are high skilled pilots & low skilled pilots (disclaimer: I am NOT talking here about cadets in trial mechs). Very often the high skilled pilots gather up on the same side of the conflict (with premade or without it) & stomp any low skilled pilots on the other side. I see that all the time. We need new players for FP. When a new player comes to FP he gets stomped & never comes back (& we actually wont need that coward - his place is in QP). But other new players come again. & get stomped again & again & then STOP PLAYING it. & we should fight for these ones. Also those low skilled pilots which are not new to FP stop playing it in such situation.
I believe we need all those players to keep Faction alive. I believe any pilots, whether low or high skilled, have a right to play this game & to have more or less equal opponents.
But how can we make that?
I'm gratefull to PGI team for developing the FP matchmaking system this spring. But it obviously wont work these days with current low players population. So stomps will happen.
The good decision is to make the high skilled pilots carry low skilled ones instead of stomping them since they cannot play separately from each other. We all know how to do that: for example make 2 groups of 4-6 men & drop against each other to give the pugs a chance. Unfortunately only few players do that (o7 G-NX, LoDD & some others). The rest just enjoy stomping weak opponents.
So here is my suggestion. I call it elo-based optimizing tier awards (EBOTA). This is how it works. Imagine we have a low skilled pilots team (L-team) & a high skilled pilots team (H-team) & they meet each other in faction play (which is usual). When the match starts, the matchmaker counts those teams' ELO & EBOTA. Let's assume the L-team's ELO sum is 2000, H-team's ELO sum is 3000. So their EBOTA coefficient is 3000/2000=1.5. When the match is over & the L-team gets stomped (obviously), everyone will get his reward. Every player from L-team gets all his rewards (CB, LP, XP) 1,5 times increased, every player from H-team gets those 1,5 times decreased. I offer to implement this solution to any FP matches, not the stomps only.
This little solution (EBOTA) will encourage low skilled pilots to keep playing even if they get stomped.
It will force high skilled pilots to look for equal opponents.
It will reward those high skilledd pilots who spend their time to carry low skilled ones.

So I believe that EBOTA should appear in this game!

Edited by Thornhold, 13 November 2020 - 06:42 AM.

[AnAnachronismAlive]

Still waitin' for some sub-forum and designated threads within there to discuss/adress the points given / points to add to the list in a sophisticated and conclusive manner ... anyone please?! Should not be that hard to set a sub-forum up and pin some threads there, right? Thank you!

Kind of "un-moderated / structure-less discussions" makin' me bonkers tbh and likely lead to shietz only IMHO. Sry for bein' that blunt, but this just starts feelin like some sort of stalling tactics. Was a short trip from "Everything is on the table!" (as realistic that might have been anyhow) to ... ye, to what exactly?

Edited by AnAnachronismAlive, 13 November 2020 - 04:38 AM.

[Soviet Alex]

As someone who hasn't played the game for a couple of years, here's my 5 minutes' worth:

1) I love playing MWO, but I never NEEDED to. Compare that to World of Tanks, World of Warships, etc, where you need to grind the game for months if not years to get to the good stuff. I'm so grateful that MWO doesn't work that way, don't get me wrong. But time-limited events with prizes worth grinding for would make me feel like I needed to be playing MWO instead of another game or I'd be missing out on something I really wanted. Take a look at the dailies/monthlies in World of Warships for a good example of a game rewarding you for logging in & playing for a couple of hours every day.

2) I stopped buying mech packs a couple of years ago because I wasn't going to throw £40-50 at a game that might vanish in a puff of licence-expired smoke. Now you have another 5 years, I could justify the expense if I was playing regularly.

3) My favourite Event was a few years ago, when we had to accumulate damage in every kind of autocannon. I called it "The Dakka Event". Having to use 'mechs I wouldn't normally play & weapons I wouldn't normally own forced me out of a rut. If the bulk of the players are running cookie-cutter super-optimised builds, battles get boring fast. But events which required us to use sub-optimal chassis & non-meta weapons would make it fun again.

4) The last match I remember playing was Frozen City in a Kit Fox. Both teams lined up on opposite sides of the central valley & sniped at each other while I provided ECM cover because I couldn't get close enough to deal damage. Trench warfare isn't fun, even in "big stompy robots" ™. That's part of why I haven't been back since.

5) I bought most of the Steam packs when they first came out. Good value for money & some fun 'mechs. New Steam pack notifications would pop up automatically for everyone who has MWO installed through Steam, whether they still play or not. Cheap advertising to ex-players you might otherwise struggle to reconnect with & a revenue source. Likewise, new camo patterns (still waiting for 7th Ghost Regiment) & metallic paint would encourage me to flex the credit card, if I was playing.

Looking forward to seeing where this project goes.

[DeadWeight18]

Waiting for Monday update and an event!

Lot of nice ideas here but nothing which promising LOT of new players or PLENTY of cash for PGI.

Would be nice to know how much revenue in a year PGI expects to run MWO and make some continious development.

[The6thMessenger]

DeadWeight18, on 13 November 2020 - 06:15 AM, said:

Waiting for Monday update and an event!

Lot of nice ideas here but nothing which promising LOT of new players or PLENTY of cash for PGI.

Would be nice to know how much revenue in a year PGI expects to run MWO and make some continious development.

Isn't this the update?

[Hammer Hand]

In the wall of information I read that there was a proposal to make Faction and Solaris event based only. I really hate that idea.

I got lucky last night and there were enough people to do 2 FW drops. The team I was on won both. I got to drop with Nightbird, Fusion and some others as a Nova Cat. Usually I look, and choose the side that needs people we get a drop and because we are a skittles group we get rofl stomped. I don't like getting stomped but I like playing FW. I was talking, last night, to some of the new players on discord and talking about the battles for Wasan, Wassat and many others. Days when units ran multiple 12 mans for 2 days or more. Last night was a hint of the old days. For me CW/FW is the reason I play. I play quick play because I cant get a FW match. 8v8 or 12v12 in quick play don't matter to me either are fine and which ever wins works for me.

There are a lot of great ideas from players that do a lot of FW. I will leave the technical and balance stuff to you all. I am a carpenter and just want to shoot mechs So I leave most of my posts to a "Like" when there is a good idea.

I know posts about the good ol days can be boring and get tossed to the side. I just wanted to share my opinion.

For those that were not here. A unit called Pheonix Legion used to put "News casts" from Zoe Black (Press Officer) up during big fights. Here is a link to them in case you want a hint of what FW could be again. ...Yes, Merc units used to negotiate which houses they served in for battles.

https://soundcloud.c...archild_corsair
or Merc News
https://soundcloud.com/merc-radio

@Daeron I have faith you will fight hard for us!

Thank you all for you time and thanks to the mech warriors for last nights drops. <S>

[DAEDALOS513]

Soviet Alex, on 13 November 2020 - 04:33 AM, said:

4) The last match I remember playing was Frozen City in a Kit Fox. Both teams lined up on opposite sides of the central valley & sniped at each other while I provided ECM cover because I couldn't get close enough to deal damage. Trench warfare isn't fun, even in "big stompy robots" ™. That's part of why I haven't been back since.

Games get more aggressive once you tier up.. so early on in your career, go with pokier mechs.. enjoy it while it lasts cuz after that comes alot of aggressive nascar'ing..

Edited by DAEDALOS513, 13 November 2020 - 09:36 AM.

[Alreech]

Seth Kalasa, on 12 November 2020 - 12:48 AM, said:

It’s quick and easy but not smart.
I read a lot of whine about IS XL engine survivability in case of losing torso.
This indefinite desire to balance and equalize everything...
So what would be the difference between Clan tech and IS tech then?!

Clan Mechs can mount CASE in any limb, IS Mechs only in Side Torsi (and it's useless with IS XL).
Clan Endo Steel needs only 50% of the slots compared to IS Endo Steel
Clan Ferror Fibrous boost armor better and needs only 50% of the slots compared to IS Ferror Fibrous
Clan Missles & Machine guns weight only 50% of their IS counter parts
Clan Medium & Small lasers do more damage & have more range
Clan Lager Lasers weight less and do more damage
Clan PPCs weight less and need less slots
Clan Autocannons & Gaus Rifles weight less and need less slots
Clan LRMs don't have minimum range
...
isn't what enough?

Edited by Alreech, 13 November 2020 - 09:46 AM.

[Alreech]

K4I 4LL4RD LI4O, on 12 November 2020 - 03:48 AM, said:

Balance the Game, balance EVERYTHING, balance it until it is DEAD!!! Man we were balancing 2 years ago with no end and it was a f'in mess! IS XL destruction is and always was the death of a mech. Do not touch those core rules or you can just merge clan and is tech for good and be done with it.

Just don't play IS Mechs with XL Engines.
And PGI don't need to release IS Omni Mechs with Standard or XL Engines because the are just useless.

Balancing went of the window not 2 years ago, it died in 2012.
"Plz PGI don't restrict the Mechlab like in Mechwarrior 4, I want to run 6 PPCs in my Stalker!!!111111"
"ZMG, the 6 PPC Stalker is OP, PGI plz nerf"
And boy, PGI nerfed it with Ghost Heat instead restricting the Weapon Loadout...

[LeucippusK]

looks good to me.