3 replies to this topic

[Thorqemada]

"If you're curious how MechWarrior Online's Community Warfare developed over the last nine years: it really hasn't. It failed to fully realize the inspiration behind it's game mode and the imagination achieved by other studios. A lot of the ground work was there at release--it's a shame it hasn't really developed into much. With MechWarrior 5's release and subsequent investments, however, the assets and tools are there to fully realize Community Warfare and Faction Play. Other studios have achieved grander ambitions: PGI could, theoretically, follow."

MWO Faction Play | MechWarrior Online's (unrealized) Community Warfare Pillar - YouTube

Edited by Thorqemada, 15 January 2023 - 01:52 AM.

[MechB Kotare]

Yep, faction play (also known as community warfare)... Dream that never came true.

[sycocys]

A lot of the ground work? They never developed any functional play modes for the game beyond skirmish - well maybe skirmish+ (domination), which basically just says "this is where you ball up".

[LordNothing]

i like that he didnt talk about the usual talking points about why fp failed and never once mentioned pugs or the long tom. those have been discussed to death.

i think another one that never got addressed is the monthly patch cycle. if there was something wrong, you would have had to at minimum wait a month, in practice it turned out to be every few. fp should have had weekly patch cycles and should have been worked out until it was ready. its a lot easier to work a problem thats fresh in your mind. its like last time i tried to work on my game engine but couldn't remember how half the systems (which i wrote) functioned. i got some crude hit detection before i gave up. i had to read code for two hours just to figure out how to spawn ships from the console. if you have to re-learn everything every time you work on something, or worse, it gets handed off to someone else, then it is very difficult to make rapid development progress.

pgi had a huge problem with turn over. devs coming and going constantly. nobody in the company understood the nitty gritty internals of the product at any intimate level. the best games have programmers either in charge or at a very high level in the company. they should not disposable contract employees. everything was accretion systems were brought out, dumped, and abandoned, only to be replaced by other equally flawed systems in cases where they were addressed. that seems like a very inefficient way to do things.

time is the enemy, while you are twiddleing your thumbs players get fed up and leave in droves. and i really dont understant what the deal is with bothering to follow through when its way to late to make a dent. tyofp did that is a bad way, half the things that came out of that didnt get used. the mm if available in phase 1 or 2 would have kept the more casual units playing in a fun and constructive way. i do like the point about there being no economy, no reason to do more with less. there are fun and interesting ways to counter the skill disparities that plagued the mode with out mm or handicap systems.