261 replies to this topic

[pattonesque]

Catra Lanis, on 01 July 2021 - 08:02 AM, said:

I feel that the laserfish and others that need absolutely no help get buffed but already underperfoming tincans get no help. I returned this easter after a long breakand now I'm reminded of why I quit.

the piranha got some mobility buffs

other mechs got larger mobility buffs, like the firestarter

some got smaller mobility buffs

you gotta express your criticisms in reality if you want them to be taken seriously

[LordBraxton]

Khobai pointed out the obvious a few pages ago and nobody acknowledged it.

Not a SINGLE person new to this game would even KNOW what the cauldron is. Full stop. Nobody reads these forums except people who are already playing the game or used to play it. If there are actual NEW players, not just alt accounts, they are coming from steam or word of mouth. I dont even think MWO has ads online anymore. The cauldron is NOT attracting new players.

The Cauldron HAS brought old players back, but will they stay? Personally I think faster TTK is always a bad thing in MWO. If you want to peek-n-poke go play world of tanks or something. I'll be waiting for the bigger armor quirks to show up to counterbalance all the damage buffs. If they dont show up, I just wont come back. I got my money's worth out of MWO years ago, nbd.

Game was best in 3025 when mechs had half the firepower and heatsinks. Also knockdowns were great.

[Leone]

They're actually using the mobility to counter the 'Increased damage' buffs that were trying to bring other weapons to parity with meta weaponry. I doubt you'll see huge armour buffs anywhere.

~Leone.

[pattonesque]

Anc1ent, on 01 July 2021 - 10:28 AM, said:

By not being able to see the big picture I mean they are imbalancing the game more and more. Not everybody want's to peek, fire their min-maxed alpha and roll back to cover. What they need to do is to give every playstyle opportunity to shine regardless of the map and teammates because obviously some styles are more viable than others on certain maps and some are useless w/o proper team support and we all know that we can’t control with whom we wind up on a team and we have a very limited way to affect map choice. I confess, I like to brawl and yet I'm trying to keep an open mind here.

Brawling is extremely viable now, man, lots of brawling weapons got big buffs (to the point where they had to tone down SNPPCs) and mobility increases mean you can twist damage really well.

[Catra Lanis]

pattonesque, on 01 July 2021 - 08:52 AM, said:

the piranha got some mobility buffs

other mechs got larger mobility buffs, like the firestarter

some got smaller mobility buffs

you gotta express your criticisms in reality if you want them to be taken seriously

It didn't need any mobility buffs at all, that's my point. It was borderline as it was. The difference was that before you could hit X and from the pedal to the metal it was like running into a slightly flexible wall. Now the wall is made of steel. It might not matter anyway, come to think about it.

[Bud Crue]

Anc1ent, on 01 July 2021 - 10:28 AM, said:

Now pretty much all you see once you start getting matched against tier 1 are LPL boats ranging from 3-7 LPL firing up to 4 at once w/o quirks.

Can you provide me with the variant and build running 7LPL? I can fit 6 in a Battlemaster (I think, I only have five in it at the moment but I’m pretty sure I could drop the engine and get a sixth in there) but I am having difficulty trying to think of what can viably handle 7, but I’d love to give it a try.

[Bud Crue]

Anc1ent, on 01 July 2021 - 11:08 AM, said:

I was talking about clan LPL of course... I think IS LPLs are in OK-ish spot having pretty limited range and also cooling capabilities due to larger heatsinks...

Darn. I was legit hopeful that you had something IS specific in mind. Pardon the interruption.

[Anomalocaris]

Vxheous, on 30 June 2021 - 07:20 PM, said:

Personally, I think July and August populations are going to tank, and then September will be an uptick, even more so than in previous years due to lock downs and such being lifted after various countries for summer. People are going to be doing stuff outside the home even more so than in years past because many of us have been "stuck" doing indoor stuff for well over a year.

Jarl's numbers are out. Here's what should be looked at.

Total population numbers dropped from 26,377 to 22,892.

New players remained near recent highs at 3155. That's higher than anytime since July 2018 onward except May 2021.

That means that last month MWO lost over 6600 existing players. A full 25% of the people who played in previous 3 months left last month. Start looking hard because that's actually much worse than a 15% drop in players online from a long term perspective I think.

[KodiakGW]

Anomalocaris, on 01 July 2021 - 11:12 AM, said:

That means that last month MWO lost over 6600 existing players.

Yet look how they are changing the narrative from how well things are going because people are coming back to play with friends, to the expectation that future months are going to see players leave in droves. Also one of the main reasons why people left last month is because they went to MW5 100%, and they knew that at the beg of the month. All to continue justifying not touching SoupQ, or paying attention to solo player experience.

Wonder what they are going to say is the issue if (I think when) PGI puts further changes on hold because player number are dropping. Move programming assets over to the “next project” instead of supporting a dying one.

[Khobai]

Typically you would expect player numbers to go up during summer months. Since kids get off school and play video games more.

I surmise the reason player numbers are going down is because covid lockdown restrictions were lifted in many countries globally in the last month or so.

Which also means covid is the reason so many new players joined the game. Not cauldrons patch.

[Valdarion Silarius]

Anc1ent, on 01 July 2021 - 10:28 AM, said:

What they should have done instead was balance the class within itself while nerfing the strongest of the lasers such as CERLRG, CLPL, CERMED and newly also ISLRG by increasing their heat. That would also fix the problem with people ignoring the ghostheat which btw should also be increased. I mean no mech should ever be able to fire 4 CERLRG or 4CLPL w/o quirks without cooking themselves.

Lol no.

[pattonesque]

Anc1ent, on 01 July 2021 - 01:18 PM, said:

Your eloquence knows no bounds, doesn't it. I understand making coherent sentences doesn't come easy to everyone. Allow me to elaborate on my point. The cLPL/cERMED combo was already insanely strong before and Caludron made it even stronger for absolutely no reason. I'm no laser specialist but I took it out for a spin post buff on the event TBR(C) just for kicks and ended up getting 9 kills and over 2k damage in one game and regularly doing 1k+ damage. They tried to find the right spot for them within the laser class but ended up making them too powerful at the expense of other weapon classes. The overabundance of cLPL boats is another proof of it. As the saying goes they were unable to see the forest for the trees and same goes for other changes they did.

it's powerful but not overwhelmingly so. PPCs, brawling weapons, dakka, all competitive with laservom these days

[justcallme A S H]

LordBraxton, on 01 July 2021 - 09:41 AM, said:

Khobai pointed out the obvious a few pages ago and nobody acknowledged it.

Not a SINGLE person new to this game would even KNOW what the cauldron is. Full stop. Nobody reads these forums except people who are already playing the game or used to play it. If there are actual NEW players, not just alt accounts, they are coming from steam or word of mouth. I dont even think MWO has ads online anymore. The cauldron is NOT attracting new players.

Nobody acknowledged it because as usual the statement was misinformation and completely wrong as we've come to expect.

MWO Comp discord and my own discord has a significant number of new users of late (last 3 months). These new players are engaging in discussions and learning about the changes and why they are happening. With guidance from skilled players these guys are improving at a very rapid rate.

I can absolutely say it's happening because I engage with them regularly. Other people making comments like "there aren't new players" don't know because they don't engage with the broader community.

[justcallme A S H]

Anomalocaris, on 01 July 2021 - 11:12 AM, said:

Jarl's numbers are out. Here's what should be looked at.

Total population numbers dropped from 26,377 to 22,892.

New players remained near recent highs at 3155. That's higher than anytime since July 2018 onward except May 2021.

That means that last month MWO lost over 6600 existing players

Did they leave never to return it did they leave to play another game for a bit?

Did they take a month off because of balance changes or because of Northern Hemisphere summer?

KodiakGW, on 01 July 2021 - 12:04 PM, said:

Yet look how they are changing the narrative from how well things are going because people are coming back to play with friends, to the expectation that future months are going to see players leave in droves

Who said future months Cauldron expects players to leave in droves?

Could you please link me to that as I'm having trouble finding it which would lead me to believe once again that you are completely misrepresenting what's been said or you don't understand what was said. If it's the latter I am more than happy to clarify it for you.

[El Cid]

I been an on and off player ever since, you should play other games, live life, have fun, if you like this game, invite others be kind to everyone, and dont hold grudges, lifes to short.

[Valdarion Silarius]

Anc1ent, on 01 July 2021 - 01:18 PM, said:

Your eloquence knows no bounds, doesn't it. I understand making coherent sentences doesn't come easy to everyone. Allow me to elaborate on my point. The cLPL/cERMED combo was already insanely strong before and Caludron made it even stronger for absolutely no reason. I'm no laser specialist but I took it out for a spin post buff on the event TBR(C) just for kicks and ended up getting 9 kills and over 2k damage in one game and regularly doing 1k+ damage. They tried to find the right spot for them within the laser class but ended up making them too powerful at the expense of other weapon classes. The overabundance of cLPL boats is another proof of it. As the saying goes they were unable to see the forest for the trees and same goes for other changes they did.

And I'll say that cLPL does not need any nerfs. It still suffers from high heat output. The dominant energy weapons for the clan side is still the cERPPC and the cERLL. Even with the buffs from the cauldron that the cLPL received, it still did not change the meta as a predominant weapon to both of those weapon systems. I think if anything the cauldron did a good job making it more of a viable alternative to the two predominant clan energy weapons. Any nerfs to the cLPL will discourage general usage of it, and will encourage more of the usage of cERPPC's and cERLL's.

[justcallme A S H]

cERL is definitely not the dominant weapon for Clan Laser. How often do you see it in QP?

cLPL is the strong one.

[Anomalocaris]

justcallme A S H, on 01 July 2021 - 01:53 PM, said:

Did they leave never to return it did they leave to play another game for a bit?

Did they take a month off because of balance changes or because of Northern Hemisphere summer?

Only takes about 1.5 hours of play time to get counted on Jarl's. Given that we had an event and new map in June, it would seem surprising if someone interested in the game didn't log on for at least one decent play session all month.

According to Jarl's there are 41k players who have played at least 10 games in the last 3 months. But only 22k played 10 games or more in June.

If we make the case that it's just seasonality then nothing the Cauldron and PGI have done matter. I don't buy into that (even if the numbers are extremely well correlated). But if what Cauldron and PGI have done made a difference, then we have to assume the drop is at least in part attributable to what they've done. Can't jump back and forth to whatever is most favorable to one's particular worldview.

[Thorqemada]

Khobai, on 01 July 2021 - 12:07 PM, said:

Typically you would expect player numbers to go up during summer months. Since kids get off school and play video games more.

I surmise the reason player numbers are going down is because covid lockdown restrictions were lifted in many countries globally in the last month or so.

Which also means covid is the reason so many new players joined the game. Not cauldrons patch.

Its really not easy to come to spot on conclusions...

MWO for sure did not have lockdown increased player numbers initially which is for a low profile 2012 product to be expected i guess,

Still there is a playerpool of players that has no game that caters to their needs bcs there is no other Mechwarrior PVP game, so there is allways a chance - especially in this lockdown situation - that folks will take a look when things seem shifting but taking a look is not yet a turnaround.

And key issues still be untouched...some types of players were sacrificed to please other types players...do they make up the sacrifice churn?

Time will tell...

Edited by Thorqemada, 01 July 2021 - 04:21 PM.

[KodiakGW]

justcallme A S H, on 01 July 2021 - 01:53 PM, said:

Who said future months Cauldron expects players to leave in droves?

Could you please link me to that as I'm having trouble finding it which would lead me to believe once again that you are completely misrepresenting what's been said or you don't understand what was said. If it's the latter I am more than happy to clarify it for you.

Vxheous, on 30 June 2021 - 07:20 PM, said:

Personally, I think July and August populations are going to tank,

Please link where I specifically said Cauldron members. But, he is a member of your team.

Yep, again "completely misrepresenting" just like last time when I posted about the queues never splitting again. Just need to read posts, see who likes them, and make a determination what is not being directly said.

https://i.imgur.com/v7WOGvi.jpeg

I hope I'm proven wrong about all my points. But, from I see NOT being done, I doubt it.

Plus, I do enjoy...

justcallme A S H, on 30 June 2021 - 07:29 PM, said:

where JUN patch was comparatively small.

So the June patch containing a significant redesign of an existing map, instead of adding ramps and tunnels to an existing small map like the prior month, which probably took significantly more programming hours. It also updated the mobility of 97 chassis, that is hundreds of variants. Where May was only 48 variants from 8 chassis. So that was "comparatively small." Seemed to me like a lot more than either of the prior two month's patches individually. We won't even discuss that March patch. And yet we lost 6640 active players.