187 replies to this topic

[Reno Blade]

Branding:
Legends might get in conflict with the "Living Legends" (previously Mechwarrior living legends), i guess.
And Legends sounds to be something very powerful and rare, so it's hard to use it as the basic financial backbone with that naming intention.Only if you have to earn that "Legend" title by moving through the chain of faction warfare ranks and events.

I would prefere to brand it "Faction Warfare" and make that a much larger and more interesting part. maybe even part of the season pass and keep Legend as rank.

ask yourself: What makes a player think he's legendary?
fame, power, being special.
so let's get fame through Faction Warfare that is recognizable in a large scale.


Faction play:
As a casual gamer (after playing for so long, the game is moving down the priority list of my gaming pile of shame), I would like to feel every match playing into Faction Warfare, even if it's a little.

step1: start by adding faction points for each faction into every quick play game (for the casual masses), like this:
depending on mech variant or pilot faction allegiance, and the players score (or teams win/loss), add faction conquest points to the faction and update the inner sphere meta map accordingly with these points (somehow).

step2: re-add the battles on every faction border and let the players vote on the border worlds of that conflict where the fight will go to.

with both combined, every match automatically counts towards one of the conflicts of each border automatically, even without the factionplay battles.

step3: the "real" faction play game modes can then have a much larger impact and the two teams should be of one faction type and not mixed (e.g. IS vs IS or Clan vs IS, or Clan vs Clan) and the borders that can be voted for are then pre-filtered. (e.g. if it is IS vs IS, you won't have a clan-border conflict world to vote for).

step4: seasonal faction wars
everyone starts with 0 Faction Loyalty standing and resources in each season.
- you have limited mech selection based of your faction in the Faction Warfare mode. (e.g. light Steiner mechs first)
- Loyalty Points are spend to unlock ranks and new mechs / technology / extras
- Season pass users gain more LP and get a set of higher-level unlocks from the start ( e.g. one light,med,heavy,assault of your faction)


Season Pass for Faction Play:
As subscriber for the faction play season pass, you get:
- You can choose a home planet (which will list player names + unit. and player/units will display the planet)
- you (and your unit?) can fortify your planet/base (e.g. choose different pre-defined or total manual setup of turrets and gates, maybe with 5 options each),
- place clan/faction/unit banners or other buildings / cosmetics on the base.
- place /select drop points for your base
- change dropships (cosmetic)
- bonus for faction loyalty points gain / cost


and some of these things can be accessed via CB + Faction Loyalty (which is spend), maybe reduced number and higher price , while some are reserved to season pass subscribers (without being pay2win).

[MechB Kotare]

Roodkapje, on 15 January 2023 - 10:32 AM, said:

Make some silly trading story about it like someone mentioned earlier and it's solved!

This is MWO and not TT and we all want a better game in the end!

Thats not the point. Lore/TT offers a lot more interesting options. I dont think i want the same weapon systems on both sides. MWO has enough shared weapon types already (ERPPC/ERMEDL/GAUSS/ERLL/ERSMAL/AC/UAC/SMR/sSRM etc). Adding more diversity between IS/clan is far better idea imo.

Edited by MechB Kotare, 15 January 2023 - 11:37 AM.

[Will9761]

In regards to the Mechwarrior Online Legends name, I have a better proposal:



The reasons being that it's a better showcase of how long the game has been out (10 years). It also plays on the Legends aspects with all the hero mechs we have with notable personalities being their legacies. As a player, it fits as we are defining and making our own "legacy". As we are the legacy of this game and it feels more community oriented. When you use Legends, you are focusing on the people, but when you focus on the Legacy you're focusing on the actions of the people. So events like Mechcons, The Sarah's Jenner charity and the community event of the Battle of Wazan, those are our legacies we carry with us and will live on. This is why I say that MWO: Legacy would be better, because it encompasses all of the things that this game did during the decade and celebrates it.

As for why it shouldn't be Legends is for these reasons. We already have BattleTech Legends, Mechwarrior Living Legends and now Living Legends 2. You're gonna anger people by going this route. The word "Legends" is so oversaturated these days. It's as average as an everyday sidewalk. When I think of Legends, I think of a mobile app game or an Arena shooter. I get it's supposed to celebrate MWO, but the words, "Legend" and "Legendary" are just overrated. Like I said before, "Legends" focuses on the people, not the actions.

But, if you don't like Legacy, then "Rising Star" or "Codename: Phoenix" would work fine as well.

Edited by Will9761, 15 January 2023 - 09:27 PM.

[C337Skymaster]

Horseman, on 15 January 2023 - 06:10 AM, said:

And much of the word salad you're tossing out is pure wishful thinking that in reality is either out of scope or too demanding for PGI to even attempt developing. Brand new biomes will take much longer than recycling existing assets to produce new maps. MWO is a shooter, not a MMO, and some things that would be more immersive for the latter (eg pilot damage) would be either bad design or simply feelbad mechanics for the former (we've been there - Repair & Rearm, anyone?).

I wish Repair and Rearm was a thing, and had survived the bitchfest. I didn't even have a chance to get an MWO-capable computer before all that was done and over with.

Part of the issue is: MWO was originally billed AS an MMO. It's only been through the complaints of the player base at the time that it got morphed into "just a shooter". Everything that was ever planned or promised that was going to make MWO great got left unceremoniously by the wayside, and all we've had for 10 years is the "stopgap game mode that'll give people something to do while we finish the real game".

[Steel Shanks]

Geez PGI...

Legendary Mechs is one of the most idiotic things I've ever of... Seriously... Not only will I not buy them, but I have not bought any Platinum Packs, because they're incredibly stupid...

New Mech Chassis: ALWAYS YES PLEASE! So many Mechs aren't in game... Not only Clanner Crap, but REALLY great Inner Sphere Mechs like the Razorback, The Ostsol and Ostwar, Guillotine, etc. To the people who complain about the amount of Mechs we already have... What is wrong with You? This is a drop in the bucket...

New Maps, Yes Please...

New Weapons: This worries Me... MML's would be nice, even the Lasers with ammo clips from MW5 would work, but what the hell else are ye gonna do? Yer already a little too past Lore for My tastes... That Dark Age Hatchetman variant was no bueno...

I love MWO, but... PGI the ideas You come up with... Were You all high? This is a serious question... I saw the Interview Phil did with Russ, which was... Not great... Now this Dev Blog... I don't man... You've lost Player Base due to some of the dumb things you've done in the past, and this may be another one...

I don't care about 95% of the things ye've talked about... FIX MATCH MAKER... Make Faction Play WORK! Make Faction Mechs even, show WHY Marik, Steiner, Davion, Kurita, and Liao work the ways they do, and the same for the lame Clanners too... I WANT GOOD FACTION PLAY!!

I don't care about event que, I don't care about Solaris, I don't care about a New Marketplace...

More Maps, More Mechs, Faction Recognition, and Better Match Maker and Faction Play!!!

Rebrand is stupid... Instead of Legendary Mechs, how bout Faction Mechs, in Faction Colors... Not the Marik Colors you used for MW5, those are terrible REAL Marik colors, like Marik Militia, or Free Worlds Guards... That Green You used is terrible...

Lastly, I would LOVE a combined arms Mechwarrior Online 2... But I'm quickly losing confidence that PGI can deliver anything Great... You do Good really, REALLY, well... But You don't do Great...

Cauldron built Mechs is a TERRIBLE idea... Just Sad this is Mechwarrior...

[Void Angel]

Hell no, repair and rearm sucked. You don't know, because you didn't have a computer to run it, but playing smaller 'mechs to pay for your Atlas tax wasn't a fun innovation. Nor was dropping with people who didn't repair their 'mechs, spent most of the match camping behind you, and then died immediately once they were forced into combat. Or bringing underarmed 'mechs because they spent the tonnage on more ammo than they could use to take advantage of the free partial reloads...

Mechwarrior wasn't ever an MMO beyond a concept for faction play. People complaining about the unintended consequences of repair and rearm - or realizing Jenner Football wasn't fun for anyone but the Jenner - isn't what drove the ultimate failure of that game mode.

[Void Angel]

Roodkapje, on 15 January 2023 - 10:32 AM, said:

What you are describing from back then is basically the reason that we have a very low player count right now :

- The game had a huge steep learning curve!
- Many new players were and still are like : "OK, so what do I do now ?!"
- Untill this day there is still no predictable way to see where which weapon will end up being mounted!

That... has nothing to do with what I described. Literally nothing. Also, you don't know what you're talking about - you can see where the weapons go on the 'mech model in the mechlab.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Just came to pop in because I saw the concept of Legendary Mechs and just....please no. The concept of hero mechs is only somewhat passable. The traditional problem is either you run the risk of selling power, or you end up selling hero mechs that no one really wants because they are just really bad or just aren't fun (Pretty Baby anyone?). I get that the code for the game is spaghetti, but doubling down on the hero concept isn't a way to bring back longevity (more of a sugar rush than anything). The fact that a lot of the best camos/geometry (specials, collector's editions, heroes) are locked to a single model/variant of a chassis and the same goes for the XP/C-Bill boost is the biggest problem. Some of the best camos for mechs are locked to a single variant that you may not even bother with, so why is it locked to those variants, why is this not something that you can even pay for?

I would sooner see us have to grind to unlock the special quirks that are unique to a chassis rather than variant and have that be a thing than see Legendaries be a thing, this isn't a single player game, please stop trying to sell uniqueness because you either end up selling power, or not selling anything because few people want junkers (again, looking at you Pretty Baby).



Side note, it still bugs me the mech cosmetics hasn't taken a page for the racing genre at all. Where is my ability to add pearlescent or iridescent materials. The ability to swap out arms or heads for slightly different style. Some of the special bolt-ons (which again, why aren't these purchasable) sort of accomplish this but the ability to swap out different Atlas heads would be neat. We got decals which most racing games do have but nothing else that really falls into the same category. Mechwarriors are vain, capitalize on that in a less lazy way than gold/platinum mechs plox.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 15 January 2023 - 01:27 PM.

[13Tradesman]

First, great Vlog! Straightforward, concise, generally well edited and good use of text.

I really believe the next PVP Mechwarrior game should be based on or in conjunction with the next PVE Title that is coming out later this year. So many titles have a winning strategy by having these come together. Players will 'know' the game for the PVE experience and have an easier transition over to the PVP side of things. Players are much more likely to stick with a game long term and continue buying DLCs/content if there is a multiplayer element connected to the game.

I would not be concerned about cannibalizing MWO to build the next PVP/PVE combo. The entire idea is to start with a clean slate and to get more people on board with a different experience...(along with cross platform support)

It should be more in line with current FPS games (faster pace and more incentives per match to keep playing). Make it less of a simulator like MWO is...with a million and 1 engines you spend a useless fortune for. For new players in MWO...you are not in a fight against the enemy...you are fighting against your own mech's gyro and engine first XD...struggling to climb minor hills, painfully slow torso twists and turning....no fast changes from forward to reverse. Please get rid of the 'slow and stompy' theme for the future iterations. It does not need to be Gundam Evolution level fast...just something better than MWO/MW5...everyone should try using the flying camera in the testing grounds and experience firsthand just how much the mech limits your freedom of motion. It is absurd...for things to be so slow a 1000+ years in the future. Just take a look on youtube to see what Boston Dynamics is working on in robot technology...not really slow and stompy.

Edited by 13Tradesman, 15 January 2023 - 02:26 PM.

[BLACKR0SE]

Finally, as a new mech design, it would be nice if there was a design that I can see the front hood through the cockpit

[Roodkapje]

MechB Kotare, on 15 January 2023 - 11:37 AM, said:

Thats not the point. Lore/TT offers a lot more interesting options. I dont think i want the same weapon systems on both sides. MWO has enough shared weapon types already (ERPPC/ERMEDL/GAUSS/ERLL/ERSMAL/AC/UAC/SMR/sSRM etc). Adding more diversity between IS/clan is far better idea imo.

I am not saying it should be the same, but some alternative on the other side that currently isn't available!

A while ago C337Skymaster posted this :

Quote

Clan ERPPCs were considered the penultimate PPC, and the Clans saw no reason to improve on them, hence their being the only option. Around the time the Light PPC was developed, Clans and Inner Sphere were trading with each other, so if the Clans wanted a Light PPC, they only had to buy them from the Inner Sphere.

So why not just implement it into MWO ?!?!

Void Angel, on 15 January 2023 - 01:15 PM, said:

Also, you don't know what you're talking about - you can see where the weapons go on the 'mech model in the mechlab.

Stack these on top of one another and tell me which is which :
MPL
ER ML
ER LL



And don't even get me started on mechs where weapons don't end up exactly where you expect them to be...

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 15 January 2023 - 01:21 PM, said:

Some of the best camos for mechs are locked to a single variant that you may not even bother with, so why is it locked to those variants, why is this not something that you can even pay for?

I have said it before : When I buy the Hero then I want that skin/pattern to be available on all other chassis too!

13Tradesman, on 15 January 2023 - 02:21 PM, said:

It should be more in line with current FPS games (faster pace and more incentives per match to keep playing). Make it less of a simulator like MWO is...with a million and 1 engines you spend a useless fortune for. For new players in MWO...you are not in a fight against the enemy...you are fighting against your own mech's gyro and engine first XD...struggling to climb minor hills, painfully slow torso twists and turning....no fast changes from forward to reverse. Please get rid of the 'slow and stompy' theme for the future iterations. It does not need to be Gundam Evolution level fast...just something better than MWO/MW5...everyone should try using the flying camera in the testing grounds and experience firsthand just how much the mech limits your freedom of motion. It is absurd...for things to be so slow a 1000+ years in the future. Just take a look on youtube to see what Boston Dynamics is working on in robot technology...not really slow and stompy.

And kill of MWO completely ?! LOL!

[C337Skymaster]

By Any Other Name, on 15 January 2023 - 03:28 PM, said:

Ballistic arms K2 would be a fantastic hillpeeker.  Too good? Doubtful with the amount of powercreep that's occurred since the Catapult was a thing.

Sooooo, Jagermech?

[Void Angel]

Roodkapje, on 15 January 2023 - 03:44 PM, said:

I
MPL
ER ML
ER LL

On nearly all Battlemechs, they fill in from the top down in the order you put them on the 'mech. A few of the very oldest 'mechs have bugs. But in ALL CASES, you can see. Where they go. On the mech, as you place them. You can do this by a process called "looking," which uses your eye-holes. Don't worry; I won't get you started on 'mechs that don't exist because you can always see where a gun is going as you add it to the 'mech.

[JOATMON Incorporated]

Upon further reflection I have a few questions (in decreasing order of importance) regarding the changes to how Plat mechs will be sold going forward with the new Select 4 method.

1. Will we be able to gift the new pick 4 method for Plat mechs to friends?

2. Can people end up with duplicates of the same Plat mech? (i.e. someone buys 1 and gets gifted the same mech as part of a pack.)

3. Will the 10 Jan and 10 Feb plat mechs added to the bucket be the final mechs added or will a few be continually introduced each month from here on out?

4. After all mechs get a platinum version available, will there be additional passes through the mechs so there are eventually 2 or 3 plat variants available for a single chassis?

5. Will mechs that originated outside the original plat packs such as Annual Rewards Plats from last year or the hatchetman being added to its set eventually be available in the Plat mech bucket?

I find the idea for this new pick a plat method interesting, I am just curious how far down the road PGI has planned it to go at this point.

[C337Skymaster]

Roodkapje, on 15 January 2023 - 03:44 PM, said:

I am not saying it should be the same, but some alternative on the other side that currently isn't available! https://static.mwomercs.com/forums//public/style_emoticons/default/wink.png

A while ago C337Skymaster posted this :
So why not just implement it into MWO ?!?!

Stack these on top of one another and tell me which is which :
MPL
ER ML
ER LL

https://static.mwomercs.com/forums//public/style_emoticons/default/tongue.png

And don't even get me started on mechs where weapons don't end up exactly where you expect them to be...

I have said it before : When I buy the Hero then I want that skin/pattern to be available on all other chassis too!

And kill of MWO completely ?! LOL! https://static.mwomercs.com/forums//public/style_emoticons/default/laugh.pnghttps://static.mwomercs.com/forums//public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gifhttps://static.mwomercs.com/forums//public/style_emoticons/default/happy.png

What you're agitating for is known as "Mixtech". It allows cross pollination of the tech. Rather than Clans bothering to develop their own version of a weapon, they just use the ones already made by the Inner Sphere. Something else you're failing to consider is whether the Clans would WANT to use inferior IS tech. Also, with specific regard to Light PPCs, those have been significantly buffed within MWO, far above their actual capabilities. They were meant to be a ppc that could fit on light mechs. The Clans didn't really have the need for something like that. They could put their ERPPC on anything they wanted to, with no sacrifice in firepower.

[sycocys]

Roodkapje, on 15 January 2023 - 10:32 AM, said:

How can you be sure which Tier each player had when the game doesn't show it anywhere ?!

The cadet tags, straight stock loadouts, turret mode aiming, zero (and I mean zero) heat management.

There's a lot of things that indicate towards tier 5, often times they mention it in chat, especially when they pull matches over and over with players clearly well out of their skill range.
There's things that indicate towards 4 and 3 as well if you watch how players move and fire.

[Steel Shanks]

If ye want to do MWO 2 ye do it like Planetside I and II... Combined Arms, Tanks, Planes, Mechs, BattleArmor...

Ye use that big honking Inner Sphere Map ye built, and ye have Players defend and attack said Planets... Maybe not all of them, but some of the important ones that saw action, etc. and the company planets Hesperus, Connaught, Coventry, etc.

Charge each player something like $5 US a month, plus have purchasable Mechs, Skins, hell even T-Shirts of the Houses and Clans for the Real World...

Lastly, ye watch the Money flow into yer company... Pretty sound I'd say... Lay heavier into the FACTIONS of BattleTech... I fight for MARIK, reward Me for this PGI... Give Me Faction Mechs... Give Me Marik Militia, Free Worlds Guards, Regulan Hussars, etc. Camos and Decals... Hell ye can do this in MWO too...

Legendary Mechs suck... Cauldron sucks... Solaris sucked... Give Me things that don't suck, please...

[PocketYoda]

I like the Legacy idea..

[Horseman]

13Tradesman, on 15 January 2023 - 02:21 PM, said:

It should be more in line with current FPS games (faster pace and more incentives per match to keep playing). Make it less of a simulator like MWO is...with a million and 1 engines you spend a useless fortune for. For new players in MWO...you are not in a fight against the enemy...you are fighting against your own mech's gyro and engine first XD...struggling to climb minor hills, painfully slow torso twists and turning....no fast changes from forward to reverse. Please get rid of the 'slow and stompy' theme for the future iterations. It does not need to be Gundam Evolution level fast...just something better than MWO/MW5...everyone should try using the flying camera in the testing grounds and experience firsthand just how much the mech limits your freedom of motion. It is absurd...for things to be so slow a 1000+ years in the future. Just take a look on youtube to see what Boston Dynamics is working on in robot technology...not really slow and stompy.

Mass equals inertia - a 100 ton machine is not going to move anywhere as agile as a 100 kilogram one.
Slow and stompy is THE underlying theme of BT/MW mecha.

C337Skymaster, on 15 January 2023 - 11:55 AM, said:

I wish Repair and Rearm was a thing, and had survived the bitchfest. I didn't even have a chance to get an MWO-capable computer before all that was done and over with.

There are mechanics that work better on paper than in practice, that implementation of R&R was one of them.

Quote

Part of the issue is: MWO was originally billed AS an MMO. It's only been through the complaints of the player base at the time that it got morphed into "just a shooter". Everything that was ever planned or promised that was going to make MWO great got left unceremoniously by the wayside, and all we've had for 10 years is the "stopgap game mode that'll give people something to do while we finish the real game".

And 10 years later, MWO has been running as a shooter for far too long to retrofit it into a MMO without massive backlash.

Edited by Horseman, 15 January 2023 - 10:39 PM.

[Terran123rd]

If you're taking suggestions for weapons, two that I'd be interested in seeing are thunderbolt LRMS for the Inner Sphere and chemical lasers for the clans.