261 replies to this topic

[Nishivion]

One thing that would be really nice to see would be mixed tech with IS and Clans. Leaving everything exactly the same and just allow IS 'mechs to take a Clan XL and some Clan DHS. Allow Clan 'mechs to take the Heavy Gauss and IS non-ultra autocannons.

Each tech base has some advantages and so much of the balancing goes into which one are you using? Yeah no one will ever use IS Ferro, or Endo-steel again but maybe have a quick/bonus to keeping a 'mech completely in a single tech base.

I feel a PTS that just allows weapons alone would be really interesting.

[Reno Blade]

• Skill Tree / Grind Reduction
  -> reduce overall number, BUT also increase total max numbers possible by at least double the current number.
  e.g. max of 30 points possible, but you can spend 30 points into buffing one stat like cooldown to -30% if you want to sacrifice all the rest, or having 50% more armor... you get the point
  
• Remove Torso Heat Spike Mechanic
  -> it's nice for tabletop rules, but gameplay wise its not much fun, because the gameplay is usually close to max heat.
  If heat would not be as spiky/high all the time, it would be something different. Maybe just give it a short heat flush (e.g. +30 heat over 5seconds) or see if other changes to heatsinks would make sense
  
  I think the last update to heatsinks had a reversed effect. many builds are faster and play better than before. I would have prefered slower heat build/dissipation overall, so that you might have battles with retreat possible, because everyone is overheating...
  or give HeatScale / Energy Draw (simplified) another chance...
  
• Heat Management Values Not Representative of Heat Efficiency
  -> definitely needed in the UI, but i guess having a dps, hps and heat per alpha would also be possible
  
• Simplify Command Wheel
  -> OK
  
• Remove Time of Day Change in Matches (FPS hit)
  -> for low-spec PCs, sure.
  I get frame drops about every 60-100s but that might be related to windows (e.g. background image changes every minute maybe)
  
• UI Performance Pass / Scaling?
  -> having UI scalable via config or ingame sliders would be awesome, or having all drag&drop handles to scale elements...

[Florida Man 666]

Re Skill tree,
I think having simple, straightforward choices are the best way to go.

For example, certain 'Mechs like the MAD-Prime are really quirky. It's Missile cooldown and velocity bonus makes it one of the premier Missile platforms. Yet, it's on the lighter end of the Heavy class and can easily run over by larger Chassis or knifed to death by smaller, faster lights.

What I suggest is a system that lends itself to allow a pilot to either A: Lean into those quirks edging even more out said this 'Mech's niche. Or B: round out it's weaknesses with better armor/structure OR better speed mobility.

These choices must be signifigant, not mandatory. Each descision would be valid, steering a 'Mech toward a Pilot's playstyle.

[Florida Man 666]

On UI,

I really like the Mods on MW5 that makes it feel like you're wearing a helmet. That slight curve and head tracking feature really provides the feel that you're piloting a big, hulking machine that can tear worlds apart. I know it's more of an immersion thing but again, it really helps suspend disbelief.

[Florida Man 666]

I agree with Reno Blade,
Would love to jump into the middle of an assualt lance with my CTF-IM and a skill bonus of 50% armor.

I'd be all like, "Y'all ready for some KRUMP?!!"

[Taifune]

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:10 PM, said:

• Simplify Command Wheel

The command wheel is great as it is, but it would be great if all the commands could be bound to single keys for quick access.

[Alreech]

Skill Tree/Grind reduction
Remove the Skill tree, it's an obvious grind mechanic that cause balancing problems if used to buff Mech Quirks even further.

Pilots & Knock Downs
If you want a "grind for XP" mechanic additional to the "grind for C-Bills" pilots, pilot skill checks and knock down could replace the skill tree:

Knock Downs can happen if certain components of a Mech are damaged / destroyed: Gyro & Hip (currently without function)
A pilot skill check is made by the game to prevent the knock down
"Green" Pilots can be recruited for C-Bills
Pilot skill consists of: Mech Bonus (capped) & Class Bonus (capped) & Base Piloting Skill
Mech Bonus must be earned first before Class Bonus will increase. Mech Bonus is applied to all Variants of that Mech
Class Bonus must be earned first before the Base Piloting Skill will increase. Class Bonus is applied to all Mechs of that Class (Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault)
Pilots can be transfered to other Mechs. Transfer to other Variant of the same Mech = no loss of Boni
Pilots can be injured by head hits, high heat after life support damage & knock downs and must replaced with other pilots after the match.
Injured pilots are blocked for X hours / Y days depending on the damage
Pilots can be permanetly killed by critical cockpit hits or head destruction
Pilots can transferd to barracks = "Mechbay for Reserve Pilots"
Pilots can earn military ranks = access to stuff like Air Strikes, UAV, Coolant Shoots...

Monetization: Veteran or Elite Pilots (high base skill, class bonis) for MCs, cosmetics for MCs for Pilots (Jump Suits, Helmets, Voice Packs, Tatoos,... would require a Pilot Model next to the Mech in the Mechlab and maybe a character editor for the pilots face)


UI Scaling:
4k resolution and font size in Mechlab is a problem needs to be fixed.

Torso Heat Spike Mechanic:
Keep it if you don't want to use the same rules for Clan & XL Engines.

Heat Management:
Show Heat Capacitiy & Cooling (-Heat/sec) in Mechlab
Also show other hidden stats like sensor range, ect...

[Alreech]

Simplify Command Wheel
Why? Is anybody using them?
If you want to simplify things use the Command Wheels also in the Battlegrid instead of the current menu. Benefit: You have only to memorize one menu instead of 2.
Additional keys for each command would be fine too, because those can be used for stuff like Roccat Powergrid or Voice Attack (using a tablet or voice recognition to press keys).

Some other improvements:
Callsings for each Player to adress them correctly over VOIP (Alpha 2 is better speak out than most players nicknames in 1337).
Show the orders next to the Lances name




and show the order in the HUD:

[Galahad2030]

Skill tree problem definition: you have to gain abilities you don't want to get the ones you do want. Like range/cooldown/heatgen.

Answer: Streamline the skill tree so you don't have the mix up skills. i want heat gen, then heatgen 1-10 is available in linear fashion.

Skill tree problem definition: there are 300(?) skill nodes and the majority of us use the same firepower, survival and operations nodes 91/91. If we change weaponry on a mech we have to pay c-bills to unlock new nodes and have nodes that we can't use even though we paid for them.

Answer: Once 91/91 is unlocked, unlock the rest of the trees for free. We've paid our dues and then some to get to 91/91.
Answer #2: Add prestige levelling. Once you hit 91/91, it locks those 91 as permanent, and you can reskill additional sklll nodes up to 91 again, gaining the benefit of all nodes unlocked. Don't make us feel like we wasted c-bills on skill nodes that we can never use again.

[XDevilsChariotX]

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:10 PM, said:

• Remove Torso Heat Spike Mechanic

This was one of those things that nobody asked for, remove it please.

[coRpSE]

Well, I just came back to this game after a 5-year hiatus from the game, so I really don't have much to say about most of the stuff, However, there are a few things that I do see that is driving me nuts and like to see get addressed. This is just my opinion and nothing more.

• UI Font Scaling - This is something that is my biggest grip thus far. The default font size is about 2px too small. In web terms, it's like you are using font size 8px for most of the text. That is very small by any standards. Every website I work on that I see the main body of text that small, I always recommend going to at minimum, 10px but usually 12px with letter spacing of 1px, (depending on the font), is what is usually the most comfortable for users to read. Granted, I know this is now web stuff and the game more and likely is not using CSS like that, but that's what I do, so I just used what I know to best convey my thoughts.
  
• UI Container Scaling - Well, i have noticed a lot of dead empty space left open, mostly seen on the right. Looking at it, some tabs felt that you were going for a mobile friendly version of the game, or the game is built for screen res of 800 x 600. Overall, utilization of the available space is used poorly IMO. Maybe make them scale depending on screen res a bit better.
  
• Optimizations - This game really needs some love in the FPS side of things. I would love to see a patch or two just dedicated to optimizations and anything that can be done on the server side to improve loading, and FPS. I know a bunch of people from my clan and other clans that may be interested in coming back or trying out, and the low FPS would be a big turn off for them. A lot of the gaming clans I have helped have a lot of older players that would play this, but have older PC's from around when this game out, maybe a bit newer.
  
• Price - Coming back to the game, I notice a lot of my stuff missing and looks like not much in compensation for the stuff taken, so that forced me to start building some new loadouts, and I am noticing that, for those that are just starting in the game, it may be a deterrent to really have to grind for the little money they earn per match, to buy and upgrade. Don't get me wrong, there should be a grind, but I just see it now as being a little too steep.
  
• Waiting queue & UI Change - When running a lance, and you go to ready up, it would be nice to see either the "Group/Lance box" get a z-index higher than everything else so no matter what you do, its always on top , (can put a minimize button on it), just so it's easier to ready up and what not. For example, go play Armored Warfare, that game does exactly what I am saying with their platoons. Now, if you don't want to do that, change the quick launch to turn into a ready up button for those that are not controlling the lance. I just find it really annoying to click the small button at the bottom to just bring up the lance container just, so I can ready up. No matter how good a game may be, a poor UI can make or break a game.

These are just a few of the things that I really noticed of the past couple days I have been back.

EDIT / UPDATE:

On the login screen, well at least on the Steam version, there is a very high pitch noise, like a high pitch white noise. That needs to be addresses. I feel like a dog hearing a dog whistle.

Edited by coRpSE, 17 November 2020 - 02:56 PM.

[thievingmagpi]

Der BierVampiR, on 16 November 2020 - 09:11 PM, said:

• Skill Tree / Grind Reduction

I would be carefull with the Skill Tree. I believe it's working just fine.

It isn't. Full stop. It's poorly thought out, poorly implemented, is demonstrably worse than the previous system and adds nothing.

Der BierVampiR, on 16 November 2020 - 09:11 PM, said:

We should be carefully to take away to much of the sim aspect of MWO.

MWO isn't a Sim.

Torso heat spike isn't a realistic phenomena either and thus, even if it were a sim, it has no place.

Der BierVampiR, on 16 November 2020 - 09:11 PM, said:

If the Heat Spikes will get removed what is the point of the standard engine?

Losing both STs and surviving.

Der BierVampiR, on 16 November 2020 - 09:11 PM, said:

• Remove Time of Day Change in Matches (FPS hit)

This would render the night vision mode quite useless or? Therefor i don't know if that is good for the gameplay.

Time of day *change*

Der BierVampiR, on 16 November 2020 - 09:11 PM, said:

It would take away something important towards the sim aspect of the game.

It's trash and adds nothing to the game.

Der BierVampiR, on 16 November 2020 - 09:11 PM, said:

If people have problems with the performance of MWO (to be honest, the game has a very bad performance - and engine upgrade would be great) they could set the shadow option in the game at the lowest value instead.

No. That has nothing to do with the time of day change FPS drop.

[Panther9x]

Getting rid of the side torso destruction heat penalty is a no brainer....DO IT!

I like the idea of reducing the grind and creating a simpler mech enhancement system/skill tree.

When skilling a mech, each mech can have different values for armor and structure for obvious reasons. Why has speed not been tweaked in this fashion? Help out an assault mech and make it worth the skill point investment.

I liked that there used to be a bonus to owning three mechs of the same chassis. Perhaps a few extra skill nodes should be available to you as a reward! It will give players another reason to buy and play new mechs.

Please do NOT put in melee. I can't see this being worth the time invested to implement. Plus, I play Mechwarrior to shoot other mechs. And on that note, I would be fine with getting rid of air/artillery strikes. I want to play Mechwarrior not Airstrikewarrior! If the community votes to keep them, then they should be nerfed and limited to one per match. They put out too much damage for such little effort and require no skill to use.

[SoulRcannon]

As far as the skill tree is concerned, reconsolidating the tree is likely the simplest and therefore best path to go down at this point. For an idea of what I mean, maybe this involves reducing max SP cap to 50 skill points, cut dead nodes (and the whole Jump Jet Tree where JJ's just need to be better baseline), consolidate (combine) nodes so the advancement isn't so minuscule and have a number of nodes taken off the tree and put back separate from the tree, maybe with some lower separated nodes locked behind a prerequisite investment in that tree required to unlock them (I dub these “fruit” nodes, 'cus to get to the fruit you'd need to grow the tree).

Another idea altogether is to determine what nodes are considered mandatory once for the weight category of mech, and again for the type of mech the player wants to build (for example, it's heavy so that's survival tree, it's lazvom so it's more heatgen if there aren't enough heatsinks and operations if there are plenty of them, then throw on those coolshots) and then remove it all and incorporate it into the system somehow. What I mean to say by that is, if there isn't really a choice in what to take, why is it presented as though it is a choice? If you want to chip away at unnecessary clicking, it's an extreme idea but it's there. I'm not putting that forward as my main choice because it'd likely involve some process that isn't as simple as my first one.

For heat mechanics not shown in the mechlab, what Kill2Blit has done with mechdb is a great example of the kind of data that'd be wonderful to have access to in-game. Speaking of heat, removing the ST heat-spike is up there with putting new players in tier 4.5 as something that could be changed tomorrow and bam, MWO is a little better for it.

And time of day and weather could be a fixed value and we all gain some performance; it seems like a sure thing to me. I've heard that each client experiences different night/day and weather settings in a given match, is that true? Because if so, that seems utterly... well, it doesn't seem consistent with what should be a shared user experience in an online game, let's put it like that.

Edit: On shared user experience, would definitely appreciate any changes made to the UI to make it feel more intuitive. For example, clicking the "not ready" button to ready up in comp mode, even readying up differs depending on the mode in-game! And again around the more social aspects of the game where it could be easier to use.

Edited by SoulRcannon, 17 November 2020 - 03:55 PM.

[il1il]

Many people people claim that there is too much of a grind to the skill tree....
I think this is totally unfounded. You can 91 a mech in a couple (long) play sessions.
Compare that to leveling up a mmo rpg character its nothing.
Losing in a mech your leveling feels grindy but not the overall leveling. I find after after finishing a mech I tend to play other mechs.
Changing the skill tree to be all sidegrades would mean your mech had similar raw power to start, it would fit a theme of customizations rather than upgrades, and solve a very real power problem of trial mechs.
Trade offs could include sacrificing cooldown for range or heat dissipation sacrificing top speed for acceleration/twist. powerful game changing options like advanced zoom, ecm extension could be an equitable slot like a targeting computer although tonnage and slots would require rebalance if made as equipment, so it is less desirable than limiting their number by assigning them to a special customization slot.

[Belorion]

Even if the time of day is static, it should still be a randomized time of day.

[Eurystheus]

Time of day
It works fine for me, I don't see any performance problems, but I'd be happy with randomized TOD and weather conditions for every map that stayed static through the length of the match.

Skill Tree
I'd like to see the end of chaining unrelated skills together. If I want cooldown in firepower, let me purchase the number of cooldown nodes I want. If I want speed tweaks, let me get them without having to purchase kinetic burst or torso yaw.

Command Wheel
Is this the command wheel we get when we press the 'E' key during battle? It looks pretty simple to me as is.

[The6thMessenger]

Remove/Reduce Friendly Fire?

[Galahad2030]

The6thMessenger, on 17 November 2020 - 04:57 PM, said:

Remove/Reduce Friendly Fire?

Permanent removal might require some debate. Maybe, Update the vote screen to include options like friendly fire on/off.

[Galahad2030]

I would like a hotkey to send 'Enemy Spotted'.

Rather than tap 'R', then 'E', then mouse around to 'Enemy Spotted'.

In many QP battles i am busy pointing out flankers and targets of opportunity using the ingame system rather than voice comms.

Tap 'R' then perhaps tapping 'E" quickly does an automatic 'Enemy Spotted'.

Press and Hold 'E' brings up the command wheel for ingame comms.

OR simply 'shift+R' would target and spot the enemy in the same keystroke. (or some multi-key like tab+R)

Edited by Galahad2030, 17 November 2020 - 06:03 PM.