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[InnerSphereNews]

MWO 2023 DEV VLOG

Matt and Daeron talk about the Dev Plans for MWO 2023

Watch on Youtube>>>

Intro - 00:07 - 00:50

Matchmaker - 00:51 - 01:42

Mechs - 01:43 - 04:00

Maps - 04:01 - 06:25

Rebrand Name - 06:26 - 08:04

Rebrand Expanded - 08:05 - 09:54

Rebrand Content Plan - 09:55 - 13:02

Cauldron - 13:03 - 15:01

New Weapons - 15:02 - 15:37

Faction Play - 15:38 - 16:28

Store Platinum Collections - 16:92 - 17:23

Store Mech Packs - 17:24 - 18:52

MISC items - 18:53 - 22:12

2023 Patch Dates - 22:13 - 23:10

Final Thoughts - 23:11 - 27:30

[Znozoic]

1st

[Nightbird]

Issues with Legend
Clearly pay to win as legend mech has more hardpoints and quirks than existing variants, no promise to make it free. Fix: Give a no bonus version of the mech to people who finish the "free battle pass"?

Matchmaker... Fix: Hire a professional to design the formulas. Don't ballpark it.

Regarding heroes > standard, it's just not true. Many Heroes that are < standard C-bill mechs. A bonus to C-bill earnings means little if the quirks and hard-points on the mech make it under-perform the standard free variants by 30% or more. Check my account for how many Heroes I own lol. There has been little interest in remedying previous paid mechs to bring them to free mech performance levels and a breach of trust here. Fix: Rebalance heroes up to par with free standard mechs.

No discussions on the map modes, which are stale. At least add a quick end mechanic to Skirmish to prevent hiders from dragging out matches. Fix: Compare current game modes against modern games, update them one at a time.

FP, no promises made in the last 3 years have been kept, so it's a deliver first scenario for me. No trust here at all. Fix: Deliver an update.

Good luck with rebranding.

Edited by Nightbird, 13 January 2023 - 07:15 PM.

[ghost1e]

I really like the idea of legendary mechs, but I see a big issue with P2W. Would be cool to either have CB versions of the same mechs or make them available for MC. Otherwise I'm afraid especially with "unique quirks" (which in my mind reads as "very strong quirks"), these will turn into P2W content. I cannot see them being allowed in comp assuming this is the case, which would be a shame imo.

[Rhaelcan]

Please please please have the plat hatchetman have the speciality of the first two plat packs

[KingCobra]

First off thank you for keeping Mechwarrior alive I have enjoyed MWO since day 1 and MW5 and its expansions. You mentioned new maps they sound great i would recommend your designer go over all the Mechwarrior4 maps as many were great and fun designs and I have all 500 + maps still if you need any .

Also I might recommend on the map subject you go back to random maps for game play and just let players pick the game mode that way we actually get to play all MWO maps not just a few maps every night.

I like Daren have played Mechwarrior for over 30 years and will add my recommendations for a revival of MWO in the coming discussions.

P.S once again thanks for all your hard work.

Edited by KingCobra, 13 January 2023 - 06:43 PM.

[ghost1e]

Another big point I want to bring up, afaik this year will be the 10th anniversary of the MWO launch, so please don't miss out on that moment, give us something special

[Enamillion89]

Question. Will the “Legend” Battlemech variants be loosely based off of Clanner and Inner-sphere pilots? Ex: (Angus Drummond) Spirit Cats- Mad Cat Mk. II Pilot…. Or (Elora Wolf) Steel Wolves- Firestarter? (From the Clix table top miniature set “Fire For Effect”). As an example for a Legendary Pilot(s).

As per-next PVP game. I’d like to see a different era of wars.. for example, presently I think MWO Is within the clan wars? Next I’d like to see the Jihad war style mechs. I understand it’s a lot of work, but that’s my proposition.

Also, I like the play on “Legendary Pilots” for truly One-Of-A-Kind mechs. IMO It’d give the battlefield a truly unique flair of color and experience for players/pilots.

P.S. THANK YOU, for keeping Mechwarrior alive!! I’m sure you must hear that a lot. But for the robot-game genre community. There isn’t much of this game type out there for us to play.. Thank you

Edited by Enamillion89, 13 January 2023 - 07:20 PM.

[Lockheed_]

Best Dev Vlog by a mile, great presentation, on point and solid content and plans.

Edited by Lockheed_, 13 January 2023 - 07:04 PM.

[RoyKilroy]

I am excited to see all the plans for the year. These plans have the potential to make the game seem almost new again. One thing that I would like to be considered is an update to the pilot skill rating system so that it doesn't depend on teammates so much.

[Rhaelcan]

I'd love to see a thunderbolt legendary mech, with lightning patterns and gold/blue around it.

[Heavy Money]

Great stuff guys. I'm glad to see that development is continuing!

That's really good of you to add more to and extend the Hatchetman!

I'm also not sure that Legend is the best term, but I don't really mind either. I assume you've considered things like Veteran and Specialist? Special Forces? Elites?

I certainly like the legendary mech concept. Please start with classics like the Marauder, Catapult, and Rifleman!

[Ilostmycactus]

If the battlepass runs off of fomo then I'm not interested.

[By Any Other Name]

I'm actually looking forward to watching this when I get home. Hopefully it'll kind of wash a bit of the sour taste another recent communication left in my mouth.

[Big-G]

I'm excited for 2023 indeed

[Wraith 1]

I've never liked the battle pass model, but it kinda seems like that's what F2P games have to do nowadays. It if keeps the game alive longer, do it. The legends concept at least looks fun to play, and there are absolutely still quirks that could be added which would be unique and game-changing, but still impractical/not overpowered.

Raven with +200% AC/20 range, Highlander with +1000% forward JJ thrust, Annihilator with -100% MG spread, etc. I'd pay for a silly mech like that, but it (probably?) wouldn't be the best option for trying to win.

-----

The possibility of another PvP Mechwarrior is VERY exciting to hear, but I do worry that a potential "MWO2" would fall into the same problems MWO has for its entire lifespan. I would argue that MWO is the best Mechwarrior game as far as the core mech combat gameplay is concerned: the smoothest controls, the biggest weapon/mech variety, and the best PvP balance.

However, the grand strategy and resource management that the series is renouned for are almost entirely absent, and the gamemodes are inconsequential to the gameplay of most matches. PGI has put a lot of effort into experimenting with this over the years, probably more than any other developer I've ever seen—but with only one life per match, you can't really incentivize players to do anything but try to not die before all of the opponents.

I'm not sure it's even possible to fix this issue without adding unlimited respawns and allowing players to join/leave in the middle of matches. I know many of the current playerbase hate this idea, but Hawken (rip) had a gamemode that was nearly identical to Conquest, but the unlimited respawns resulted in much more dynamic movement around the map and more intense fights over the capture points.

Without unlimited respawns, I imagine a way to make gamemodes more strategic and impactful would either look like some sort of "round" system, vaguely like TF2's Terriorial Control gamemode, or something like MWLL's ticket buy system for limited respawns.

In short, MWO has fantastic core gameplay; a potential sequel would need to focus on gameplay/game formats in order to be more than a reskin of MWO.

-----

As always, thanks for keeping my favorite game supported and updated for all these years.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Really glad to hear about the work ethic of the new map designer. I work in IT and it gives me a personal sense of joy to see improvements in old or messy systems, so happy they think like that and are incrementally improving maps which should have been a major job for the entirety of MWO's existence, imo.

Can we get a better way to communicate with map changes/issues? There is a section of the forum here that I feel is ignored. The forums in general are a bit antiquated and maybe there's a more efficient way to do this? Like a global bug list that can have things scratched off as they're addressed?

For Legends, you could also potentially go with Ace? I don't know if that's a canon rank but MechCommander 2 used it for the rank above Elite. I just feel like "Legends" isn't original enough (League of Legends, anyone?). But I'm not picky. Anyway, to set those mechs apart as being "better" than Hero mechs, I'd like them to have unique geometry to set them apart (bolt-ons). I'd actually be ok with it being a completely separate, one variant chassis, as long as it's designed fairly--which would be the tough part. Why not give it a cbill and xp boost? Honestly, I am ambivalent to the idea anyway.

New weapons will be nice to mix things up. What about IS omnis?

I like the cleanup of the mech packs. Just make them all single-chassis at this point. Maybe each mech pack is one of each standard variant and the "add-on" choice is the Hero mech(s) for that line. Maybe remove all the new player mech packs and stuff like that too and just start over with a new store. I'd offer color and decal packs as standalone packages too. Maybe you can have a recommendation system when you're looking at a mech pack for cosmetics packs? An opportunity to adjust the prices finally too.

I'd love to see a simplification of the xp system. We have Mech XP, and General XP and you can convert from MXP to GXP but I've never seen a reason to. Then you have to have cbills and mech xp to buy GSP. Can we cut to the chase and either reward matches with GSP instead of XP in matches or drop GSP and only use XP as currency for skills? Think of it as improving the new player experience.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 13 January 2023 - 08:11 PM.

[Raining Fire]

I'm just going to throw in my guess that the new 'mech will be the Axman, purely based on the fact that we got the Hatchetman and MW5 Mercs has melee now.

Crossing my fingers I'm first to get it if it's right, lol!

I'm looking forward to the map updates, brand new maps, and new weapons. The Legendary 'mechs sound fine to me, but I agree with an earlier commenter that a free version of the battlepass should exist, with limited rewards and the end reward being an un-boosted version of the legendary 'mech.

[mytilus edulis]

I think the overall monetization strategy is somewhat misguided and directed at squeezing more money out of a declining player base.

With a modest investment of development resources towards demand generation, the new player experience could be made much less confusing and intimidating.

While MWO is an old game, it is still fairly unique. And there is a significant population of gamers who don't really care about new games anyways.

I think it's a mistake to rely on the existing player base for revenue generation. It might work for another year or two, but making the game easier to understand for new players could result in sustainable population growth that would, through increased demand and retention:

1) sustain higher average revenues and 2) lengthen the profitable lifetime of all the existing sunk costs.

It would also have the added benefit of making it more likely that development could be paid a living wage.

I understand that the existing model is tempting to continue repeating, but I also think it vastly underrates the potential value of the property that has been developed so far.

Don't make the same mistakes as Overwatch 2 and Halo Infinite. You have a unique property

[RaptorPhoenix]

All good stuff. Hope the next mech is a Clan Mech, maybe the Firemoth (yes another annoying light mech, but we can recreate the MWII training missions). I think "Mechwarrior Online Legends" is good, I would like something closer to the original "Mechwarrior Online A Game Based On BATTLETECH". Some people will be upset about the Legendary mechs, calling them "pay to win", but you don't have to buy them and plenty of players do well with mechs they never paid any real money for and the income will help MWO stay alive. If you want to see a Modern Mech game monetization system, look at the Mech Arena mobile game (although if you go with that system no one would ever say that the existing MWO model is P2W). Hope the new MW PVE game is MW5 Clans, similar to MW2 and Ghost Bear's Legacy, maybe a game about the "War of Reaving" I want to kick some Clan Wolf butt, I am always excited for new maps, but maybe give some bonus rewards for playing on hot maps, since no one votes for them.

A new MW PVP game would be cool as long as it is just MWO in the Unreal engine, just use the existing assests. Don't tell me you can't do a PVP shooter in Unreal, I played a lot of Unreal Tournament decades ago on a PC that was many generations behind the PC I have now.

Overall, looks promising, I guess Russ's comment about MWO being so "Nice" that Microsoft would not bother with trying to get a bigger developer to make a new MW game, is a good thing for PGI.

Raining Fire, on 13 January 2023 - 09:11 PM, said:

I'm just going to throw in my guess that the new 'mech will be the Axman, purely based on the fact that we got the Hatchetman and MW5 Mercs has melee now.

Crossing my fingers I'm first to get it if it's right, lol!

I'm looking forward to the map updates, brand new maps, and new weapons. The Legendary 'mechs sound fine to me, but I agree with an earlier commenter that a free version of the battlepass should exist, with limited rewards and the end reward being an un-boosted version of the legendary 'mech.

Axeman would be cool, or the Berzerker.


Note: I have loved Clan Jade Falcon since it came out and since the cartoon. When the Clans came out for the miniature game, I traded a Revised "Black Lotus" (Magic The Gathering Card) to a local game shop and bought the Jade Falcon Technical Readout and a star of mechs and paints and other things (I love those things, but kind of regret getting rid of the Black Lotus, since they sell for 10s of thousands of dollars today. Oh well, "hindsight is 20/20").

Edited by RaptorPhoenix, 13 January 2023 - 09:46 PM.