281 replies to this topic

[MW Waldorf Statler]

time to seeing a Feedback for all this idas from the Community managers and real Words from PGI was is realistic and was not in each way, or all Ideas only Hollow Words in the Wind, like many (not all) in the last 7 Years ?..only we becomes podcast with Ideas and ...we thinking ...we will see... its a Idea....

[Kurt the Merc]

Customisable pilot, possibly tied to certain skills?

[VileKnight]

Will9761, on 11 December 2020 - 02:50 AM, said:

Back on topic, give us some more unit decals for the Inner Sphere:

I'm glad that I had these mothballed images from 3 years ago from the decal thread. Anyway.

Draconis Combine:
1. Otomo
2. Legion of Vega
3. Arkab Legion Since the Arkab Legion Decal is already in the game, I had to edit it out.
4. Ryuken-ni
5. 1st Sword of Light
6. 2nd Sword of Light
7. 5th Sword of Light
8. 7th Sword of Light
9. 8th Sword of Light
10. Sword of Light (Default)


Lyran Commonwealth/Alliance:
1. Lyran Guards The Lyran Guards decal is already in the game so I'm marking it out
2. Donegal Guards
3. Lyran Regulars
4. Lyran Royal Guards
5. Arcturan Guards


Capellan Confederation:
1. 1st St.Ives Lancers
2. Death Commandos
3. Red Lancers
4. House Imarra
5. Shin Legion


Federated Suns:
1. Davion Brigade of Guards
2. Deneb Light Calvary
3. Syrtis Fusiliers
4. Robinson Rangers


Free Worlds League:
1. Free Worlds Legionnaires
2. Regulan Hussars
3. Atrean Dragoons
4. Marik Militia
5. 1st Free Worlds Guards
6. Free Worlds Guards
7. Orloff Grenadiers

I like this idea. We should also get something like this for the Clan's as well. I would love to see some of the different Galaxy decals to throw up on my mechs.

[General Solo]

What about Premium Match Making Time
Kind of like normal Premium time but you get the best premade group in the queue on your team
So if you need to improve your win rate they get to carry you

Could be popular
A little pay to win kinda sorta

Edited by OZHomerOZ, 23 December 2020 - 09:44 AM.

[Mendu]

So I have a couple of things to throw out there, and I'm ready to cover my head when it comes to the responses but hear me out first:

1. Make all of the existing paints free for everyone. People want to customize their mechs right out of the gate, let them. It feels bad to have zero customization on a brand new mech that you're going to spend hoooours in. I think this would make new players feel like their mechs are their mechs (if you follow me) which only increases their connection with the game/content. If they have to grind out CB to buy engines, weapons, upgrades, etc etc etc, at least let them not be drab green while they're doing it. Mind you I recommend this as an owner of a truly shameful number of paint colors (just so it's clear I'm not suggesting this because of any personal desire).

2. Make new camo patterns and paint types like chrome, opaque, mattes, whatever, and sell those for a reasonable fee for people that want more than base color choices. Add new a few new options (maybe in camo) to have your mech look factory new, or worn, or beat to hell, etc. Maybe these would / should function more like skins and you could apply camo over them? Just brainstorming.

3. Every two to three months, release a new map and a new mech, and build a battle pass around them. Charge the usual $10 admission fee that most other games are using, also purchasable with MC after season 1 or 2 (because going MC purchase on season 1 would probably not be great in terms of ROI). Pepper the battle pass with the usual stuff like Cbills, weapons, engines, etc. Add in stuff like tokens to do fero/endo upgrades, XP boosts, unlock avatars (in place of a whole system to design a pilot) to use in social / game lobbies (maybe they could pop during command wheel use etc). I'm getting off-topic, just put the new special variant mech at the "level 100" spot. Sell the normal variants in a pack at the start, but hold the special variant until ... I don't know, the launch of the next battle pass? Possibly give the battle pass model a unique geometry or skin? Give players the option to buy tiers (I do this in Warzone off an on depending on my time to cash ratio).

4. Ditch any "random rewards" system (assuming there still is one I've been gone for a while) like loot boxes you can purchase etc. No one thinks this is a good look anymore and a lot of people see it as a red flag. Replace it with frequent free boxes for performance, or your birthday, or codes you redeem from social media (like golden keys in the Borderlands series). It will make you look generous (for literally zero cost) AND give a good bump to immediate social media follows.

5. As the player base builds, get advertisers. I don't care if a static screen in my cockpit has a Twitch logo if it makes money to keep the game going, especially if it's for a revamp of the engine etc (which if we're being honest is WAY overdue)? I don't think anyone would care a whole lot.

6. Build a simple system in which players can spend a few MC to make any mech or item in their inventory "sellable" and allow them to sell it for whatever price they want to another player they've been friends with for xxyyzz days, months, whatever. Optionally, you could put a bit more time into it, but make the amount of MC the seller invests, directly impact how cheap they can sell it? Like 100MC = 50% of value, 200 = gift it? Again, I'm just throwing darts at a wall of nonsense as it pops into my head.

These are just some of the ideas I'd roll with if it was "my game" that I had to worry about the future of (from a strictly business perspective). If you like or hate these ideas, I don't just welcome your feedback, I want your feedback. I'll check back later and maybe we can work together to develop some of these random ideas further? If you have anything to add or something you find exciting amongst all my rambling, please please please throw it out there. We've hit rock bottom (where we all thought the game was going into maintenance mode). It might not be my ideas, or interpretations of them, or inspired thoughts from them, but your original ideas that will be the difference between us playing this game in 2025 with all-new content, or reminiscing about how great it was when it was still up and running.

[Horseman]

Mendu, on 25 December 2020 - 09:49 AM, said:

4. Ditch any "random rewards" system (assuming there still is one I've been gone for a while) like loot boxes you can purchase etc. No one thinks this is a good look anymore and a lot of people see it as a red flag. Replace it with frequent free boxes for performance, or your birthday, or codes you redeem from social media (like golden keys in the Borderlands series). It will make you look generous (for literally zero cost) AND give a good bump to immediate social media follows.

The lockboxes were cycled out entirely. The current loot boxes are only obtainable through in-game performance.

[Forgeling]

Mendu, on 25 December 2020 - 09:49 AM, said:

So I have a couple of things to throw out there, and I'm ready to cover my head when it comes to the responses but hear me out first:

1) The free paint stable should be the basic paint (plus a new basic yellow) C-bills for a ROYGBIV+white, black, grey, and brown.

2) Then the premium paints should be as you said, Special colours, textures, etc

3) I've never understood what a battle pass is

4) Free C-bill items for advertising the game seems like a good way to get the word out...except it quickly becomes spam and might reflect poorly on the game.

5) I think I'd be fine if the cockpit screens had ads but it might break a lot of people's immersion.

6) Absolutely 100% players need the ability to trade. A trading system where you can trade your mech for someone else's cockpit item, or something would do wonders for the community. Also it could work with the existing steam market where MWO takes a cut of each trade.

[ImperialKnight]

maybe DON'T replace a good sale immediately with a worse one.

[MW Waldorf Statler]

we will seeing whats come after the 7EG Shareholder Collective has assimilated MWO...im thinking ...nothing

Edited by MW Waldorf Statler, 26 December 2020 - 09:17 PM.

[Vlad Ward]

I do not really care that much about glamour and already own enough paint colors to upgrade from stock green.

I'm also generally past the point of investing heavily in Mech Packs. Any given pack has me running "Meta per dollar" calculations which is a little exhausting and feels wasteful now that we no longer have to own 3 variants to master the skill tree.

I'm totally comfortable with a $10-$12/month subscription that comes with a small MC stipend and active premium time. You could throw in some rotating glamour unlocks each month for players to passively accumulate for value add if needed.

This lets me support the game without having to commit to buying a specific thing.

[bilagaana]

I have posted elsewhere: Custom user-generated decals for a price. User to provide the image in a designated file format and to meet specified parameters (size, resolution, colors, etc.).

The only overhead to PGI should be reviewing for appropriate content and uploading to the individual user's account. Charge a one-time fee for the privilege.

I could see units wanting their own artwork, besides solo players.

Presumably, the decal files currently in use are vector images but, whatever the format, there are many very capable graphics editors (including free packages) which should make this feature accessible to anyone interested.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Vlad Ward, on 27 December 2020 - 01:03 PM, said:

I do not really care that much about glamour and already own enough paint colors to upgrade from stock green.

I'm also generally past the point of investing heavily in Mech Packs. Any given pack has me running "Meta per dollar" calculations which is a little exhausting and feels wasteful now that we no longer have to own 3 variants to master the skill tree.

I'm totally comfortable with a $10-$12/month subscription that comes with a small MC stipend and active premium time. You could throw in some rotating glamour unlocks each month for players to passively accumulate for value add if needed.

This lets me support the game without having to commit to buying a specific thing.

This essentially what battle passes end up being.

[Will9761]

bilagaana, on 27 December 2020 - 01:21 PM, said:

I have posted elsewhere: Custom user-generated decals for a price. User to provide the image in a designated file format and to meet specified parameters (size, resolution, colors, etc.).

The only overhead to PGI should be reviewing for appropriate content and uploading to the individual user's account. Charge a one-time fee for the privilege.

I could see units wanting their own artwork, besides solo players.

Presumably, the decal files currently in use are vector images but, whatever the format, there are many very capable graphics editors (including free packages) which should make this feature accessible to anyone interested.

I said the same thing about custom decals, my friend.

Will9761, on 07 December 2020 - 03:29 PM, said:

Given the fact that competitive units are the only group who get the exception to have their decals made for free when they make it to the Mechwarrior Online Championships has me thinking. It would be nice if this type of gratitude was extended for those unit leaders who want to make their own type of decals, provided they're willing to pay for them. The way it should be done is that PGI should allow the unit leader of their group to upload a picture for decals that the PGI artist can interpret into MWO, as long as the upload images are used as a reference.

Instructions:

• Upload a file that is either a GIF, PNG, JPG, or a JPEG.
  
• Fill out the name of your unit and the tag of that unit, so that the image can be transferred to that unit in game once the unit logo is completed.

Guidelines to Follow:

• The image must not infringe on an existing intellectual property.
  
• It must not be done as a way to disrespect PGI members or the company as a whole.(i.e. F' Russ, Daeron Sucks, PGI Derpy face or PGI Troll face)
  
• The imagery must not be offensive or sexually explicit. (Swastikas, genitalia, racial caricatures, etc)
  
• The image in question must not be made for personal use [i.e. Solo Units] (well, it can be, but it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine).
  
• The image in question must not already be used by someone else.
  
• After you have submitted your logo to PGI, it should take around three days or a week to review the logo that was created for your unit.
  
• If your decal did not become approved, you will receive a refund in MC. As long as you did not break the guidelines.
  
• If you have broken one or more of the guidelines stated above, then you will not be refunded your MC.
  
• In either case, you will be asked to change the image accordingly to fit the guidelines. It will also tell you where you went wrong and how to fix the problem.

Here is a bit of a sketch-up of what the system could look like. The other route that PGI could do is create a "Show Your Unit Decal" Thread and see how they could interpret the unit decal art into the game.



But still, here is my mock-up of it.

Main:


Evaluation:


Approved:


Disapproved (Good Terms):


Disapproved (Bad Terms):
Because why should you be rewarded for bad behavior? This is in case if the leader is using the unit decal system to promote hate speech, act a fool, or take personal jabs at people, PGI or events. In that case they just wasted money.

[Vlad Ward]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 27 December 2020 - 01:37 PM, said:

This essentially what battle passes end up being.

What's the difference? Opt-In versus Opt-Out?

Personally I prefer subs because it's easier for me to set it and forget it. Micromanaging a subscription month-to-month is no more effort than buying each new battle pass for the people who want to do that anyway.

That distinction also gives PGI more confidence when forecasting projected revenue.

[3RoyalStar1]

Mendu, on 25 December 2020 - 09:49 AM, said:

So I have a couple of things to throw out there, and I'm ready to cover my head when it comes to the responses but hear me out first:

1. Make all of the existing paints free for everyone. People want to customize their mechs right out of the gate, let them. It feels bad to have zero customization on a brand new mech that you're going to spend hoooours in. I think this would make new players feel like their mechs are their mechs (if you follow me) which only increases their connection with the game/content. If they have to grind out CB to buy engines, weapons, upgrades, etc etc etc, at least let them not be drab green while they're doing it. Mind you I recommend this as an owner of a truly shameful number of paint colors (just so it's clear I'm not suggesting this because of any personal desire).



2. Make new camo patterns and paint types like chrome, opaque, mattes, whatever, and sell those for a reasonable fee for people that want more than base color choices. Add new a few new options (maybe in camo) to have your mech look factory new, or worn, or beat to hell, etc. Maybe these would / should function more like skins and you could apply camo over them? Just brainstorming.

3. Every two to three months, release a new map and a new mech, and build a battle pass around them. Charge the usual $10 admission fee that most other games are using, also purchasable with MC after season 1 or 2 (because going MC purchase on season 1 would probably not be great in terms of ROI). Pepper the battle pass with the usual stuff like Cbills, weapons, engines, etc. Add in stuff like tokens to do fero/endo upgrades, XP boosts, unlock avatars (in place of a whole system to design a pilot) to use in social / game lobbies (maybe they could pop during command wheel use etc). I'm getting off-topic, just put the new special variant mech at the "level 100" spot. Sell the normal variants in a pack at the start, but hold the special variant until ... I don't know, the launch of the next battle pass? Possibly give the battle pass model a unique geometry or skin? Give players the option to buy tiers (I do this in Warzone off an on depending on my time to cash ratio).

4. Ditch any "random rewards" system (assuming there still is one I've been gone for a while) like loot boxes you can purchase etc. No one thinks this is a good look anymore and a lot of people see it as a red flag. Replace it with frequent free boxes for performance, or your birthday, or codes you redeem from social media (like golden keys in the Borderlands series). It will make you look generous (for literally zero cost) AND give a good bump to immediate social media follows.

5. As the player base builds, get advertisers. I don't care if a static screen in my cockpit has a Twitch logo if it makes money to keep the game going, especially if it's for a revamp of the engine etc (which if we're being honest is WAY overdue)? I don't think anyone would care a whole lot.

6. Build a simple system in which players can spend a few MC to make any mech or item in their inventory "sellable" and allow them to sell it for whatever price they want to another player they've been friends with for xxyyzz days, months, whatever. Optionally, you could put a bit more time into it, but make the amount of MC the seller invests, directly impact how cheap they can sell it? Like 100MC = 50% of value, 200 = gift it? Again, I'm just throwing darts at a wall of nonsense as it pops into my head.

These are just some of the ideas I'd roll with if it was "my game" that I had to worry about the future of (from a strictly business perspective). If you like or hate these ideas, I don't just welcome your feedback, I want your feedback. I'll check back later and maybe we can work together to develop some of these random ideas further? If you have anything to add or something you find exciting amongst all my rambling, please please please throw it out there. We've hit rock bottom (where we all thought the game was going into maintenance mode). It might not be my ideas, or interpretations of them, or inspired thoughts from them, but your original ideas that will be the difference between us playing this game in 2025 with all-new content, or reminiscing about how great it was when it was still up and running.

Yes this is great all these ideas amazing!!just also it would be great if engines were cheaper

[MW Waldorf Statler]

Will9761, on 27 December 2020 - 04:00 PM, said:

I said the same thing about custom decals, my friend.

Problem ...many Unit Names you not can use by PGIs Codes of Conduct

[Alreech]

Mendu, on 25 December 2020 - 09:49 AM, said:

If you like or hate these ideas, I don't just welcome your feedback, I want your feedback.

Here it comes, and i can't put it in less harsh words, sorry for that.

1 Free Paints:
If you feel bad about having a green Mech you should buy colors and cameos for MCs (it's PGIs bussiness model and it's called mircotransactions).
Colors & Cameos are also regualry sold with discount or given out as reward at events (150MCs for a discounted one shoot?, 500 MCs for a discounted color).
MCs are also given away as reward, so why should PGI make Colors and Cameos "free" if the players don't care enough about them to spend their "free MCs" on them, even with discounts?

That doesn't mean everything is fine with them.
If you buy a Mech for real cash the option to select a cameo for free whould be nice (the function for that is already in the web store and is used for the Invasion 2 & 3 and the Resistance Mechpacks).

The option for units to define some colors and cameos as "Unit Uniform" and get a permanet discount on them would be also nice to promote the selling of those.

2. New Camo patterns & Colors
Who should pay for them, if they should be free?

3. Battle pass
Why not, but with the state of MWO quickplay now most new Mechs would be useless (because you can run the same loadout on existing mechs) and most new maps won't be played because most players prefer simple short range maps like HPG & Canyon Network or Mining Collective.

Access to social & game lobbies for battle pass owners is a bad idea.
The two game lobbies now in MWO, the Group function and the LFG are mostly ignored by the majority of players.
Do you think the Solo Quickplay crowd will spend real money on game lobbies they don't use?

Even player groups only use the group lobby and use 3rd party tools and websites for social lobbies like VOIP, websites and private forums - most of them even for "free" (payed by advertises).

4, Random rewards.
The reward system for Solo Quickplay isn't random, you get stuff (C-Bills, GXPs, forum titels) for achivements.
The reward system for Faction Play isn't random, you get stuff for ranking up, but most of those stuff has nothing to do with your faction ("no, you don't get a faction warhorn, here take a hamster huey cockpit item instead and be proud of your faction")
Do you know what is a random system of rewards? Giving out rewards for watching a game on twitch or visting it's twitter account instead of playing it.

5. Player base & advertising
The player base of MWO is astounding, it's still here after 8 years of broken promisess.
The player base would be bigger if not many left because PGI took too long to introduce the "Dropship mode" & Faction Warfare.
Most of the players now are solo players who don't bring friends into the game or organise events, and advertising (on twitch or elsewhere) won't change what.
In fact MWO has still some popular content creators on you tube and most of the gaming press and websites haven been very positive about MWO during the beta and after the launch.

PGI did a bad job to maintain a healthy base of player groups.

• You are a small group of players? Sorry, Faction play isn't for you, it's only for big groups, have fun to get stomepd by the 12 player premade.
  
• You are a small group of players? Sorry, no match balancing in group quickplay, have fun to get stomepd by the 12 player premade.
  
• even if you are in a big group you have to grind XP in Solo Quickplay because you can't do that in Faction Play (without getting dissed) and grinding in Solo is faster.

... ups, why the hell the player numbers in Faction Play and Group Queue went down?


You are a player Unit and want to promote your unit?

• Go to an external hoster to get a webpage, a private forum and a teamspeak instead of renting that for a monthly MC fee from PGI.

...ups, why the hell the player base is split on X teamspeak servers, and why the hell you have to go to a different web page / forum to join a unit?


Player Groups - like the Guilds in MMOs or Units in MWO - are the backbone of each player base.

• They are the players that recruite and train new players.
  
• They are the players that play on regular base the end game content, and make videos about it / stream on twitch
  
• They are the players that spend real cash on cosmetics and are willing to pay for new content like maps & mechs.

Drive them away and your game dies.

And all what PGI did was to improve the game for the Solo Quickplay players.
To be honest, it's also partly fault of the player base, because improving match making in group modes would need unpopular stuff like sensible group sizes restrictions to improve balanced match making and in-game coordination.

6. Selling stuff to other players.
So PGI should allow players to sell or rent content (Mechs & cockpit items) for a lower price whan PGI sells it?
Does that sounds like a solid business model to make more money by selling MCs for real cash?

Selling unwanted stuff (like hamster hueys get as faction reward) for 50% of the MC value would be fine, but i have doubt that any other player would buy it.
Selling unwanted stuff for C-Bills is in the game now, thats one of the reasons why most long time players "are richer than Blake"

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Alreech, on 28 December 2020 - 06:34 AM, said:

... ups, why the hell the player numbers in Faction Play and Group Queue went down?

The numbers went down because the overall population went down. Groups disappearing had little to do with what you describe and more to do with the game just being not that good. The core gameplay is solid, but everything built on top is just....a mess. So the game churned players without gaining new ones and one of the things that went with it once the playerbase got small enough was group/faction play. Comp play started going down hill several years ago with units shrinking due to churn of players, it was inevitable everything else would follow suit.

[Alreech]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 28 December 2020 - 09:05 AM, said:

The numbers went down because the overall population went down. Groups disappearing had little to do with what you describe and more to do with the game just being not that good. The core gameplay is solid, but everything built on top is just....a mess.

Yes, the core gameplay is good. MWO is a solid shooter.

It's just not "the thinking mans shooter" PGI advertised, and it's faction play has little to do with the faction lore from Mechwarrior & Battletech, while quick play is ignoring that faction stuff.

I also agree with you that Quickplay is a mess.
Most of the remaining player base don't mind that mess, instead they want to be that mess even bigger (make MWO 50 vs 50!!!!) or want more free stuff "to make the game more popular"

to be honest, i think MWO is a great game if you like simple team death match, don't want to play in a group and don't mind about the Mechwarrior & Battletech lore.
Why the hell so many players who want more than Deathmatch or want to play in a group and like the Lore left? It's a mistery no one will ever solve...

Quote

So the game churned players without gaining new ones and one of the things that went with it once the playerbase got small enough was group/faction play. Comp play started going down hill several years ago with units shrinking due to churn of players, it was inevitable everything else would follow suit.

I agree.

And do you know who recruits new players and trains them and advertise the game?
Player Groups do.
A game can't gain new players without active player groups, unless it's a new game with a lot of hype.
Yes, new players may try out a game without being in a group, but they chance that they stay with that game is bigger if they can play in a group.

Edited by Alreech, 28 December 2020 - 12:19 PM.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Alreech, on 28 December 2020 - 12:18 PM, said:

And do you know who recruits new players and trains them and advertise the game?
Player Groups do.
A game can't gain new players without active player groups, unless it's a new game with a lot of hype.
Yes, new players may try out a game without being in a group, but they chance that they stay with that game is bigger if they can play in a group.

It's about friends not really groups, in my experience, groups are generally trying to recruit unaffiliated people already in the population than bringing in friends. That said games need to fix the issues that initially chased people off to grow like No Man's Sky and Warframe managed to do, this game has failed to do that.