57 replies to this topic

[Elizander]

Some people might find it annoying because this is what mobile games do, but there are also some extra options that can be done if implemented properly.

• Share good victory (high damage, high kills, etc) or win streak splash page on Twitter/Facebook (in-client option) for extra c-bills or GXP. Make this optional and allow people to turn it off in the options menu if they do not want to participate in it.

Here is a crappy Facebook post template made by a non-designer (me) as an example of what I mean:



These can be fixed templates of each mech that are stored as images because creating some convoluted system where the client creates a screenshot of the player's current mech from scratch is just too tedious. Would be cool, but the returns on creating that tech probably isn't worth it. A screenshot template of each chassis is probably fine.

The backend for the stats needs to be made though because it'll pick the best and most complimentary stats to post in a positive tone. If a player was absolute **** in the games today, it'd just show things like C-bills earned, components destroyed and damage done without showing kills at zero. If a stat is zero, it won't display. The bare minimum to display would be matches played and cbills earned because those would always be a positive number. The other stats will only be included if they are above zero. Again this is to promote the player and the game in a positive light so don't post negative stats here.

In exchange for doing this once per day or once per week (up to you or maybe let the player decide if they want daily or weekly shares), after successfully sharing that template post then reward the player with a reasonable amount of c-bills or general xp or both for being nice enough to increase MWO's social media presence. I'm sure different people will have different opinions with what's 'worth it' and those that don't find it worth it can just turn the option off so they don't get prompted after every match with the 'share your accomplishments on FB' button.

Possible rewards for sharing:

• 200-400 GXP
  
• 25,000 - 50,000 c-bills
  
• Special daily supply cache that PGI creates with small chance for good stuff.

The numbers are just examples. Too low and players won't bother and too high and it can ruin the in-game economy. Anyway, this is just a suggestion. As long as it's not too obnoxious and in-your face like it is in mobile games then it shouldn't bother too many people.

[Elizander]

Forum edit is just bonkers today so I'll append my post here.

The other option is to of course let players post something similar, but with the stats coming from their recent match that they just finished if they want to show off some high damage or high kill match that they just played. From what I've seen, both these options are usually available with the "share today's stats" button in the home screen and the "share this match result" button being in the after-match screen.

You can also make the rewards for sharing daily stats on social media scale with the number of matches they played up to a certain number. Say the reward is based off the total earnings out of their first 10 matches. If they play 10 matches before sharing, they get 5%-10% of their C-bill/GXP earnings as the share reward. Of course if they play less matches, the share reward is also less, but this makes the reward scale with player activity in-game. It encourages them to play several matches, up to 10, before sharing to max out their daily share reward.

Edited by Elizander, 01 December 2020 - 07:31 PM.

[IceHawk00]

I'd love to be able to have global chat functionality with an online player list. It would really make connecting with other players as well as the devs much easier. Yeah, there's Discord and the forums, but that's over there and not in-game.

[Alreech]

IceHawk00, on 02 December 2020 - 02:11 PM, said:

I'd love to be able to have global chat functionality with an online player list. It would really make connecting with other players as well as the devs much easier. Yeah, there's Discord and the forums, but that's over there and not in-game.

MWO has a friend list, and you can send friend requests from the Ingame Score board.
If none of your friend are active, you can use the LFG to group up before the game.

MWO uses Teamspeak as VOIP solution for ingame VOIP, creating a VOIP channel with group creation would make external VOIP servers obsolete.

Edited by Alreech, 08 December 2020 - 10:29 AM.

[Erik Ouzbel]

IceHawk00, on 02 December 2020 - 02:11 PM, said:

I'd love to be able to have global chat functionality with an online player list. It would really make connecting with other players as well as the devs much easier. Yeah, there's Discord and the forums, but that's over there and not in-game.

Is there a way to integrate the discord chat into the game? Seeing messages and getting help using voice over that would work if they're determined to make it the primary source of communication for the game.

[Gold13]

Elizander, on 01 December 2020 - 06:57 PM, said:

• Share good victory (high damage, high kills, etc) or win streak splash page on Twitter/Facebook (in-client option) for extra c-bills or GXP. Make this optional and allow people to turn it off in the options menu if they do not want to participate in it.

Just want to go on the record and say: please no.

First, who actually wants to see that kind of thing on facebook.

Second, you can't say "if you don't like it don't use it" and also say there should be in game rewards for doing so. Incentive tied to the in-game economy makes people feel like they have to be doing this every match in order to maximize their earnings. And if they don't want to spam their own social media page, then they feel like they are being punished with lower earnings.

[Forgeling]

This post mixes some new ideas and some repeats. I'm trying to combine everything from this thread that I think is a good idea into a single post.


Social:

• Public Chat and furthermore; chat at all times, including the loading screen. Being in a match should add some tabs. Voice lobbies outside of matches (Opt in, only). Have a discord link pop up in game if you must. The chat systems should not be page dependent, it should be an overlay.

• In order I'd say we need the following chat tabs. (Also a mute checkbox for any chat we don't want alerts from.)
  
• Everyone Currently online Chat

• Clan Chat (replaces faction chat)
  
• IS Chat (replaces as faction chat)
  
• Merc Chat (replaces faction chat and is the default if you're not in a faction.)
  
• Recruitment Chat (LFG, Unti recruitment, etc)
  
• Unit Chat (Same as before)
  
• Group chat (Same as before)
  
• Match chat (Replaces the in game text chat and is the default channel open while in a match. Stays open until you get added to a new match (or log off) in the matchmaker so you can continue communicating with both teams after the match)
  
• Team Chat (Same as match chat but only blues and cyans. closes out at end of match)
  
• Lance chat (same as team chat but only cyans. closes out at end of match)

Also the chats need moderators. Chat History should last a reasonable time. If the games chat system gets replaced with a discord channel I wouldn't even be mad.

• Player mentor programs, and not just for new players only. Players playing a new mech frame for the first time or starting a new playstyle for the first time or any number of things should be able to apply for a mentor.

• Referrals should be a thing but should be trickle up, rather than one and done. Two people, one played 6 years and the other played 4 years? Let them do it anyways. Perhaps GXP, c-bills, or some other esoteric metric. A lesser version should be in play for group members. New players brought in should confer a more siginificant but single time bonus.

• Increased API functionality such as additional sorts in the store and mechlab. Why can't the store be sorted by clan/IS? How about a search function for things like Jumpjets? There are so many mechs now that new players really need something like this and it would be very helpful for veterans as well.

• Unit visibility: There should be a decal in the camo lab that says your unit tag (or Merc if you have no unit) unit tags need to be moderated first to remove crass tags. An opt out function that shows your unit tag at the end of your name in game. A sortable, searchable list of units that shows such things as casual, competitive, clan, IS, Merc, active times, etc. Let Units pay C-bills from their coffers to advertise, perhaps?

• Unit C-bill cost: Instead of progressively charging more for new players, let us add players for free but charge C-bills to join faction play or competitive and make QP free.

[Garlion]

Add VOIP to users in a group (but outside a match). We have it in the lobby, why not extend this to the main UI?

[Alreech]

Garlion, on 23 December 2020 - 08:55 AM, said:

Add VOIP to users in a group (but outside a match). We have it in the lobby, why not extend this to the main UI?

Well, MWO uses Teamspeak as VOIP solution.
So PGI has payed a License fee to use it in MWO, and has at least one Teamspeak Server running (or 3, one per region to keep Pings low).

It's obvious that PGI uses 12 player Channels (one for each team), and a player gets connected to the team channel after the matchmaker puts him into the server lobby after matchmaking is done.

To add VOIP to the main GUI MWO would have to connect a player to a Teamspeak Channel (Faction or Group Lobby) before matchmaking, and move the player to the team channel if a match starts.
This can be done with Teamspeak scripts, and that idea was submited multiple times in the last years

It's obvious: PGI don't want that players can use MWOs VOIP outside of the matches, so it won't happen.

Erik Ouzbel, on 13 December 2020 - 07:31 AM, said:

Is there a way to integrate the discord chat into the game? Seeing messages and getting help using voice over that would work if they're determined to make it the primary source of communication for the game.

And no, changing to Discord won't change what PGI doesn't want that feature.

[Honeybadgers]

I feel like the social can only be improved if the community is grown. We're just too small these days to really benefit from a lot of social features.

Honestly, marketing is what this game needs more of (along with fun interesting things that encourage players to be in units), over social features.

[Vlad Ward]

I mean, there are some social features which could help a lot in making the game more accessible.

For example:

• VOIP in Groups when outside matches
  
• Auto-grouping of teams after matches. People can still leave if they want, but anyone who wants to continue to play together can do so effortlessly.
  
• Voice Channels (Group, Team, Lance?) and *simple* Channel Switching in-game

These are all just coming straight from Overwatch which is a very successful game with excellent social features. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Edited by Vlad Ward, 05 January 2021 - 02:15 PM.

[Big-G]

Ok, after trolling this section, I've compiled a better "wish list" from my point of view regarding Social features:

• API integrations:
  
  • Don't bother, it's not really useful from my perspective
• Referral programs:
  
  • Only available to be sent to new and/or players that haven't played for more than 90 days
    
  • If the referred player joins/plays another game within 7 days of referral:
    
    • Referrer gets a small c-bill bonus + mc bonus + gsp bonus
      
    • Old player gets a small c-bill bonus
      
    • New player gets a small MC bonus
  • Players on completion of the cadet training program:
    
    • For a 2 week period:
      
      • 10% bonus MC on purchase
        
      • 10% bonus GSP on purchase
        
      • 10% discount on other purchases
  • If the old returning player keeps playing for 2 weeks:
    
    • Referrer gets a title/badge - Necromancer
      
    • Player gets a title/badge - Zombie
  • Every 10th referral can also trigger some sort of random supply cache/mc/c-bill/gsp bonus
• Units
  
  • Recruitment
    
    • Units can choose to be either for fun or competitive
      
    • Those for fun are free to join, the others can have recruitment costs that are low when the unit forms, but will incrementally increase as the team starts growing past 8 players
      
    • Recruitment fees will be available in unit coffers for management by the unit owners/managers
      
    • Units could setup a "salary" payment for players based on a % of coffer values to be paid to members on monthly basis
  • Structure
    
    • Owners/Managers should be able to define the structure and level naming
  • Games
    
    • Each 5th game a unit plays, the members receive a "Unit Supply Cache" (can be forked off the existing supply cache mechanic)
  • Units should be able to upload custom logo's (moderated by PGI)
• Player of the week/month
  
  • Possibly on the home screen of the game UI, sort of showcase for the top performing player of the month/week

[xABSOLUTIONx]

I have been an on/off player since beta.
Every time coming back I missed only one thing - global chat and better chat interface.
It's really hard to find friends while being online.

[R E T I]

I dont see this mentioned but is very annoying. When you message people if they have any room in their group and then you go ahead and LAUNCH as a single player there is no way to tell if they have invited you while the timer is going.

[PocketYoda]

Fix the social tools asap if you want to fix Units. Allow us to chat all the time.. and type all the time.

Edited by Samial, 21 January 2021 - 06:02 PM.

[Thilas]

Is it possible to add unit tags to player names in the friends list and alerts? Maybe also chat channels.

I can't be the only person who has people on my friends list from several months or longer where I have no idea if I want to keep them on there or not, and unit tags can help to identify who they were (ex: old unit mate, somebody from a faction play game where I ran with their unit, etc).

[mushis]

after one trimester it would be nice to have feedback about our feedback

[Kurt the Merc]

We really need a revamp of the group system sending invites and launching group feel really clunky

also searching for a match doesn't have to hold you in a locked screen till it finds a match, let me browse my mechs at least