57 replies to this topic

[dr3dnought]

• Unit Recruitment Social Chat Tab

Yes and if there isn't a LFG tab, there should be.

• Remove CBill Recruitment Cost for Units

Yes

• Refer-a-Friend Program

Sounds good

• Increased API Functionality

Ah yes, quite.

[Akillius]

#1. Block List is bugged and its bad for social, bad for player retention, and unnecessarily increases PGI Support's workload.
+ Currently if adding someone to block list they are automatically muted.
- But after logging out, or DC'd then Everyone on Block list is unmuted.

50 50, on 16 November 2020 - 08:24 PM, said:

C-Bill costs for units: While this is not strictly about how it can impact Faction Play, it has some relevance in quick play.

Given the small population compared to other games and the reduction in player numbers we have seen in the last few years, is this a good time to put a limit on unit sizes if the costs are being removed?
I would be a little surprised if there were any units still in the game with active rosters of more than 30 or 40 players.

About 4 years back there was Units that were QP teams who were just about relaxing and having fun.
Some of those units didn't give 2¢ about CW or comp, while some merely dabbled with CW.
Many of those units were big because everyone wanted to play with their friends who also brought their other friends, etc.
#2. So I agree 100% getting rid of the C-Bill cost to add new members to Units can only be a benefit socially.


#3. Before Apr 2017 the FP Mercenary Career would let contract expire when leaving/kicked/disband Unit.
That April update created delays for Mercs to join friends in other units for events etc, so imo created less social interaction.
Give Merc players ability to cancel contract in exchange for some cost in CBills, or GXP, or MC.
(I haven't done any FW since 2018-ish so it might've changed, but it annoyed many especially during FW events.)


#4. Hide player tiers now, which are no longer relevant and are now pretty much only used to troll others socially, especially new players. So removal should help retain new players easier.


Unit Recruitment Social Chat Tab
#5. This sounds good to me and is the norm in pretty much all games for a very long time.


Refer-a-Friend Program
Sure but Friend must complete X achievements/missions
And get to level X (own X number of mechs?)
And have played for X amount of hours, etc.

- Do Not give anything that's un-obtainable for CBills in game to avoid refer-to-win uber weapon/ammo/vehicle/etc and exploiters. (suggest giving some free rare supply caches per completed referral, and 1mil CBills and maybe some GXP or MC.)
- Add a referral Leaderboard in-game or on forum, and each referred person who mets criteria will give 1 point
- Referred person will continue to give 1 point every month if they keep playing at least 10 hours in that month.
- Give a forum Title and Badge to referrers and for making leaderboard, another for making top 25, and for top #1.
- 1 Free mech??? Only 1 mech to a referrer account ever, but only after say 100 friends join & have met all criteria+.
Give too much good stuff away and Exploiting will be a problem. (ie. LoL had to discontinue referral program.)


Increased API Functionality
NO! API is a complete waste of time, a money-pit and offers little-to-no return to gain new players or get old players to return, and I thank Horseman for making it perfectly clear what the API is and just how friggin' useless API is to get any increase of playerbase.

Edited by Akillius, 20 November 2020 - 04:52 PM.

[Horseman]

Akillius, on 19 November 2020 - 07:07 PM, said:

About 4 years back there was Units that were QP teams who were just about relaxing and having fun.
Some of those units didn't give 2¢ about CW or comp, while some merely dabbled with CW.
Many of those units were big because everyone wanted to play with their friends who also brought their other friends, etc.

And those units broke up because PGI implemented a change that penalized large units. Not least because certain people cried how units DARE to run organized groups in FP.

Quote

#4. Hide player tiers now, which are no longer relevant and are now pretty much only used to troll others socially, especially new players. So removal should help retain new players easier.

Player tiers in the forums are OPT IN. You are welcome to not opt in if you prefer.

Quote

Increased API Functionality
NO! API and Jarl's is more often used just to harass & troll others making this forum look un-moderated and toxic as all that!
Exception if PGI adds ability for individual person to toggle Opting in/Out of sharing their personally identifiable data.

You don't understand what the term API means, do you? It has jack all to do with Jarl's List (which scrapes the data from public leaderboards).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/API

An application programming interface (API) is a computing interface that defines interactions between multiple software intermediaries. It defines the kinds of calls or requests that can be made, how to make them, the data formats that should be used, the conventions to follow, etc. It can also provide extension mechanisms so that users can extend existing functionality in various ways and to varying degrees.^[1] An API can be entirely custom, specific to a component, or designed based on an industry-standard to ensure interoperability. Through information hiding, APIs enable modular programming, allowing users to use the interface independently of the implementation.

Right now, MWO offers two APIs: one (match API) used to retrieve stats from comp / private lobby games and another (which admittedly hasn't been updated in a while) that returns lists of mechs and weapons in the game.
"Increased API functionality" is an extremely broad and indeterminate description that can mean a s***load of different things, from expanding the information produced by the match API, updating the items API or adding new APIs for things like browsing, managing and refitting your mech collection without being logged into the game.

Assuming that something you don't understand exists solely to harrass you is an indication of insecurity and paranoia. The only situations when anyone stat-shames on this forum is when a bad player tries to make nonsensical statements about the game or their performance or provide detrimental "advice" to less experienced players.

Edited by Horseman, 20 November 2020 - 12:57 AM.

[Galahad2030]

I would like to see a global 'General' chat channel.

I would also like to be able to chat, at a minimum with my group, while searching.

[Void Angel]

A recruitment social tab would be good; it's well and good to have forums, but it's better for people to do that sort of thing in-game, rather than being reliant on forums and platforms like Discord. Forum communities are great, but what about all the players that never visit the forums?

To that end, it would also be helpful for player social interaction if we had a general chat, and if chat was always visible in the UI. Currently, you have to pay special attention to the limited chat channels we have, and they're hidden by default. Enacting a general chat would be useful for maintaining a gaming community beyond our personal friends and units while we're actually playing the game.

Edited by Void Angel, 20 November 2020 - 02:00 PM.

[Void Angel]

Additionally, you mentioned removing C-bill caps on units. I think you should, since the cbill costs for units frankly, well, failed. They seem intended to be a brake on overly large units in faction warfare, but unfortunately the design of that format rewarded large units far more than the c-bill costs of adding members discouraged them. So I think that c-bill costs for adding players is an artifact of an outdated system that should be removed.

Improving faction play is off topic, but as an aside: Have you guys talked to a board game designer? That perspective might really help.

[Pz_DC]

Give only frounders or those who's here for 6-7 years a rights to give You advices and ability to post in those pinned "blue" topics.. because as for me, player with 7 year experience, most of offers are not just a trash, but even will ruin a game even more then it is for now if they will be accepted.

[Tamerlin]

Unit Recruitment Social Chat Tab - Meh. We get plenty of folks visiting our Discord, so I don't see a real need for in-client recruitment chat.

I wouldn't mind an official location on mwomercs.com for units to have a welcome page. Contact information, links to official unit pages, date unit was created and a short description can be included. Maybe even the current list of players.

Remove C-Bill Recruitment Cost for Units - This started years ago when some were abusing Unit size within Faction Play. It worked very well. However, it punished Units that don't drop in FP. Why should non-FP players/Units be punished for something that only is important within FP?

Instead how about an FP tax that increases with number of players in the same unit that have dropped in FP within last xx weeks? But only if the current FP rules still overly reward unit size. I haven't played FP in years, so I don't know.

Refer-a-Friend Program - Maybe something like a C-Bill bonus if the invited "friend" plays more than xx matches within xx months? That could be cool. Would need to determine rules for re-inviting old players who haven't played in years.

Increased API Functionality - I don't know what this means.

[Big-G]

Pz_DC, on 20 November 2020 - 03:46 PM, said:

Give only frounders or those who's here for 6-7 years a rights to give You advices and ability to post in those pinned "blue" topics.. because as for me, player with 7 year experience, most of offers are not just a trash, but even will ruin a game even more then it is for now if they will be accepted.

Now that's a bit rich... everyone's input should be taken into account. This isn't your game alone.

[Agent Super Chicken]

The social tab telling me I can't message someone because they've gone offline. That needs to be fixed.

[Brauer]

Pz_DC, on 20 November 2020 - 03:46 PM, said:

Give only frounders or those who's here for 6-7 years a rights to give You advices and ability to post in those pinned "blue" topics.. because as for me, player with 7 year experience, most of offers are not just a trash, but even will ruin a game even more then it is for now if they will be accepted.

While people have made plenty of bad suggestions here this one is certainly among them.

[VileKnight]

Big-G, on 21 November 2020 - 04:09 AM, said:

Now that's a bit rich... everyone's input should be taken into account. This isn't your game alone.

Brauer, on 24 November 2020 - 08:03 AM, said:

While people have made plenty of bad suggestions here this one is certainly among them.

I will second this. PZ_DC's suggestion is toxic to say the least, and not helpful to the conversation in any sort of way. The idea that "i am better than you because I have played this longer" needs to go away.


Back on the social topic - The social tab not updating unless you manually refresh should be addressed. Perhaps you could add some sort of auto refresh as part of loading the mechlab after a match?

Edited by VileKnight, 24 November 2020 - 08:11 AM.

[mushis]

I have a very strong opinion on the following suggestions. They are all related with CHAT.

add more chat rooms/channels / simplified chat platform:

• Last drop channels: dinamically create a channel when a drop ends. keep it alive for 24 or 48 hours, then it is deleted. Valid for all drops, quickplay, solaris, faction play... everything. the reasoning to do this simple: when a drop ends, it is likely that you will never see your drop mates again (unless you add them as a friend). No... relations should be fed. believe me, relationships and experiences is what keeps a game alive for decades.
  
• 1 channel per unit: this one is pretty straightforward.
  
• other channels: group queues chat, faction chat... i'm not sure how these would work.
  
• global channels: i see some global channels being useful. for example half a dozen for different languages. not everyone knows english; another example is nation channels, i'm from Portugal, i would have access to talk in a #portugal channel (but I wouldn't even view other nation's channels). I wouldn't create many global channels though.
  
• chat history: this is very important. of course, chat history in all channels should be kept for a reasonable period of time.
  
• finally just a disclaimer: this doesn't need to be a fully featured chat platform. i see this as super simple chat rooms, with tools for moderation and reporting. the ability to copy/paste would be nice, but not mandatory. in the end of the day, PGI would manage these channels and fine-tune them, similar to what a discord server owner does.

MWO, imo, should bet on these type of simple mechanisms to enable relationships to be fed and grow in the community, and shouldn't rely as much on external tools to do this for them. External tools will never the context needed to create relevant "rooms" to feed these relationships.


I have faith that these simple social tools will keep the game alive for another decade. There's lots of examples of multiplayer games decades old with still active community, thanks to the relationships between members of the community (example, runescape, Quake series, and many others).

Thanks for reading

edit: i don't expect an answer from a member of the staff, i just hope this request is presented to the decision-makers with decent arguments. i guess if this wasn't done before, thats because there were concerns about the chat content, privacy and so on. but i really believe the game should feed the need for social relationships. thanks, i hope we can see more chats in the game soon.

Edited by mushis, 26 November 2020 - 10:18 AM.

[Elizander]

Making it harder for people to join 'guilds' was a pretty bad idea. I get it that it was done for the sake of faction play, but you can just limit how many things a single unit can benefit from regardless of how much they participate. There has to be good incentives for people to want to start and manage their own unit outside of FP.

[ShaneoftheDead]

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 12:58 PM, said:

In this thread, lets discuss ideas for updating or adding to our current social features in MechWarrior Online, such as:

• Unit Recruitment Social Chat Tab

The idea of having more ways to encourage new players to join units or make their own is good, but don't settle for only a new chat tab. There needs to be other ways, perhaps even in game. Only adding a new tab that we cannot interact with most of the time is not going to help.

The Social Chat tool MWO has needs updating. Players need to be able to message while waiting for a drop. Heck, even when they are in a match. Also, Players need the messages sent to offline players to be cached and displayed for that player when they do come back online.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 12:58 PM, said:

• Remove CBill Recruitment Cost for Units

Fine by me. But, there are bigger issues to address than this one.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 12:58 PM, said:

• Refer-a-Friend Program

No comment.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 12:58 PM, said:

• Increased API Functionality

If this means the ability to mod some User Interfaces, than I am all for it. Custom Mechbay where we can get graphs and figures? Custom Mech Select where we can filter by exact tonnage or tonnage range or by other methods? Or where Mech Select will filter out the 'Mechs we can play that fit the current available group tonnage?

How about APIs for the Chat system so someone can mod it to make it usable at any time? That would be nice.

[Mycroft000]

The only thing I can say for social is to forget doing much, if anything, in game for it. Use other platforms, Discord seems to be the obvious choice since it has all the social organization aspects already covered. But there is no reason to spend any portion of the available programming talent on something when that effort should be spent on maps, modes, mechs, etc.

[Forgeling]

Mycroft000, on 28 November 2020 - 03:21 PM, said:

The only thing I can say for social is to forget doing much, if anything, in game for it. Use other platforms, Discord seems to be the obvious choice since it has all the social organization aspects already covered. But there is no reason to spend any portion of the available programming talent on something when that effort should be spent on maps, modes, mechs, etc.

MWO could run their own discord server.

[Elizander]

If you do implement a refer-a-friend program, add an additional in-game bonus for both players if they play as a group and queue up together. It'll be unavoidable that some people will make new accounts to feed their main account if you do something like this, so you can limit the rewards to up to (x) times per account only, time lock it to once a month or once every 3 months or require the rewards to be held in escrow and be released only after recruited account remains active for (x) days or accomplishes [x,y,z].

The usual safe bet though is to just give the recruiter like 10% of the MC the recruited account purchases for the first 3-6 months and maybe the new account has a 10% MC bonus for the first 3 purchases.

[GweNTLeR]

You should work on LFG and group gameplay
I feel like LFG has a lot of potential, but highly undervalued and underused.
Why? Because it is badly implemented.
Here are some crucial ideas about improving it.



Also, please LET PLAYERS adjust mechs in mechlab or do something in store during waiting in queue.
That absolutely necessary for FP.

[OldTeef]

I am making an effort to contribute to the community also. I am working on an ongoing series that will feature the many players of MWO. I hope to see everyone out there!