18 replies to this topic

[Vellron2005]

Ok, so here's a few ideas for a possible next Mechwarrior PVP project - or let's just call it MWO2..

1) If you had an active account in MWO, you can carry over up to 12 mechs from MWO to MWO2. The rest you have to re-buy in the game. You get all the skill-points, cbills, and MC used on those 12 mechs refunded and re-made into whatever system MWO2 would be using.

2) Make MWO2 using Unreal 5 engine. Use all the shiny of that engine. Make it look and feel amazing. Kinda like MW5, but better.

3) Make MWO2 have random generated maps using biomes similar to Mechwarrior 5. This way, there will be less nascaring, less sniping, less spawn camping.. and more genuine mech warfare. Make it so random that getting to know one "block" of map will mean very little to a single player.

4) Make MWO2 be less about the mechs and more about the pilots. The mechs don't need to "skill up", the pilot does. The mechs can be upgraded, tweaked and modified.

5) Allow more player control over what the interior of the cockpit looks like. Yes, that means custom HUDs and custom HUD colors. Custom betty sounds, custom pilot looks.. use these as a monetization resource, same as decals, boltons and such.

6) Make the game all about faction play. Make conquering planets the main game mode. Make an economy centered about belonging to a faction and that faction having resources and options specific to that faction being the main part of the game, and how the player plays the game. For instance, if you've allied with the great houses, your choice of clan mechs and equipment is limited. Likewise, if you are, say, a Kuritan, then mechs specific to the Steiners will also be more expensive to buy, or even not available unless on the black market. Owning industrial hub planets should give a faction benefits, loosing one should bring economic penalties.

7) Next to Faction play being the main game mode, have a few other modes like Solaris. That means 1v1, 2v2, or 4v4. But these should be clearly secondary, and not the main game mode.

8) Make it very difficult for large player groups to dominate matches and the game. At this point, teamwork trully is OP..

9) Implement a strict no-funny business policy. Punish cheaters, hackers, exploiters, and bullies. One of the big reasons why faction play is not fun, and why many have stopped playing MWO altogether is because of people who are known hackers/cheaters/exploiters who ruin it for everybody, and who are never sanctioned or only get a slap on the wrist.

10) Implement a salvage and cbills based economy, not just cbills.

11) Implement a matchmaking system based on an individial mech's performance. No single player is equally good in a laser-vomit Raven and a LRM boat Catapult for instance. Weight every mech based on it's performance in the last 30 matches and assign points to it, then make a match from similarly successful mechs.

12) Make MWO2 have MW5-style melee combat.

13) Make MWO2 have a good 3rd person view.

14) Allow players that have racked up alot of play time on a single specific mech to modify that mech - adding another weapon or equipment slot, a 30% cbill or XP boost.. making it a Hero or Legendary mech.

15) When it comes to painting and adding decals to a mech - simply copy Need For Speed Heat for example. That means let us create our own designs for our mechs from basic shapes or premade decals that we can stretch, skew, bend, modify, recolor, resize and such.

16) Dont "skimp" on anything. That means don't just re-use old animations and models. Improve on them. Many mech models in MWO move and walk very awkwardly, are badly animated, or have moving geometry intersecting with other geometry while in motion. Clear those up, and make them better. When we start up a mech, make the pilot touch actual buttons, not just random buttons (like the difference between an Atlas powering up and say, a Supernova powering up).

17) Make the environment even more destructible than in MW5. Yes, that means artillery should make actual craters. Buildings need to fall down into rubble.

18) Make VTOL, Elementals and Tank squads that can be used as consumables during faction play, just as artillery and air strikes.

19) Make every mech come pre-equipped with a UAV and Cool Shots. Make it possible to increase the number of these through mech mods.

20) Make a wider array of weapons by making them fire differently or use different ammunition, just like in MW5, where we have single fire and burst fire ballistics, or stream fire and cluster fire LRMs..

21) Let us view our achievements and accomplishments in a trophy/medals room, not just as a line of text.

22) Absolutely, under no circumstances try to turn MWO2 into an E-sport. Ever. Unless in terms of Solaris. That is what that game mode is literally all about.

23) Ditch the mandatory patch release date. Release a patch when it's done. Stop embarrassing yourselves with post-patch hotfixes that fix mech geometry or game-breaking bugs.

24) Advertise the hell out of MWO2. I'm talking "get your free copy of MWO2's starter mech lance with your new PS5 or Nvidia graphics card!" Learn from big game advertisers like Star Citizen, who, when they are making a new ship, literally make a brochure for that ship that makes you feel like you're buying one in real life.

25) Pump all the lore, all the fluff, all the 40 years of storytelling that Battletech has into MWO2. That means lore and descriptions of everything in the game, in-game news reals, PGI-paid players who take on the portfolios of in-lore celebrities like Katrina Steiner, the Bounty Hunter, or The Black Widow, and play the game, leading the players to victory and glory, giving them the feeling of a living, breathing battletech universe.

26) Recreate historic battles and events in-game, make the players part of the action, and re-capture that glorious Tukkayid 1 feeling..

27) Keep the game completely free to play and not pay2win just like MWO is, but increase your revenue with extra monetization vanity options beyond just mechs (Colors, decals, patterns, boltons, pilot skins, HUDs, alternate mech geometry (one-eyed Atlas), betty sounds, pilot headquarter rooms and furnishings (trophy room, faction headquarters room, mech bay visuals), cockpit items, UAV visual types and such..

28) Let players share and trade resources, and earn an income based on their faction's success and their involvement with their faction.

29) Make every weapon system fun and viable. Yes, even LRMs.

30) Make sure that MWO2 is as optimized as possible, as smooth as possible, and runs on as many older machines as possible. Also, make it available on consoles, with crossplay available.

[Rondoe]

Those are all some interesting ideas. I especially like the one about maps being

randomly generated each time (not sure if that is possible with the unreal engine)

[sycocys]

Only two I'd argue about are consumable not taking crit slots (skills should too, or otherwise be made zero-sum) and F2P - just do a reasonable upfront cost like 20-30 bucks.

Don't mind the idea of limited mech transferring, most people I reckon wont. But honestly I use a handful of the near 200 I've accumulated so I'm sure I could figure out a dozen or so to keep, probably all heroes assuming they keep a similar currency boost because whose knows what sort of mis-balancing they'll come up with to nullify your normal favorite mechs.

The FP idea is okay, a lot of people will still rather just drop in quick play matches with no penalty to their selections when units decide x faction is the one that will be primary this month. Will be near impossible to stop that from happening.

Rondoe, on 21 January 2023 - 08:12 PM, said:

Those are all some interesting ideas. I especially like the one about maps being

randomly generated each time (not sure if that is possible with the unreal engine)

Can't be certain, but I'm reasonably sure the majority of maps in MW5 are procedurally generated. Doesn't seem like I hit the same map multiple times. A few similar ones, so there must be parameters based on the objectives but they all seem fairly different.

[INSANITARY SPLATKINS]

Also make lrms take actual skill to use. Increased tracking requirement, and having to actually keep the circle in the square so that they aren't an easy mode weapon and are on the same level as all the other weapons as far as usage.

[Saved By The Bell]

Mechs should be extremely hard to buy.

You get them from money, parts, trading, etc.

After several months of work and fights, you ll be able to get one more.

[Vellron2005]

For MW5, they made a bunch of "map blocks" with each biome, and then while your mission is loading, the engine procedurally arranged these blocks, so the maps are almost never the same, but the blocks are sometines reckognized.
For MWO2 and MW6, I suggest the blocks be smaller so they are harder to reckognize.
I remember they said inna video once that it's not yet a good sistem for a PVP game, but I hope they move past that, because in a realistic mission, both sides don't get to start on equal ground.
Random maps are the ONLY way to curb nascar, sniper nesting and spawn camping..

Edited by Vellron2005, 27 January 2023 - 05:14 AM.

[Battlemaster56]

You instantly loss me when you said ai only keep 12 mechs, I spend money to get most my mechs including the special variants. I see no point playing if I lose all my progress in my collection.

[feeWAIVER]

Battlemaster56, on 27 January 2023 - 06:14 AM, said:

You instantly loss me when you said ai only keep 12 mechs, I spend money to get most my mechs including the special variants. I see no point playing if I lose all my progress in my collection.

We need to get over this idea that we are supposed to keep anything from MWO to MWO2.
It's like buying EverQuest 2 and expecting to start the game with a lvl 65 Necromancer because you had one in EQ1.

Should people who spent money in MWO get a starter pack? Sure, that's just good marketing... But we are not owed anything in a Sequel game.

[Vellron2005]

THIS
Expecting to keep everything you paid for in MWO  to carry over in MWO2 is like expecting to get a free new car every time a newer model comes out..
You bought them, you played them, you mastered them, and some day, when PGI decides to shut down MWO servers, you will loose them all.
Deal with the reality of this.Welcome to the reality of online games

Edited by Vellron2005, 27 January 2023 - 07:20 AM.

[Wid1046]

Those are some great ideas and if PGI were capable of implementing them I'm sure that they'd make a great game. Unfortunately AAA games come with AAA development costs and PGI isn't even a AA or A level developer. They have some passionate people, but they don't have the money or manpower.

We'd be more likely to get a game like the one you describe if PGI lost the rights for developing a PvP BattleTech game to another developer. Not that any other developer is likely to swoop in and bid on those rights.

[sycocys]

Vellron2005, on 27 January 2023 - 05:13 AM, said:

I remember they said inna video once that it's not yet a good sistem for a PVP game..

Boring maps that all drive every match to the same place is not a good system for a PvP game unless you have the marketing budget (and wherewithal) to make it an absolute monster of a game with population. -also would help if the maps weren't boring and feel very unrealistic both visually and for actual flow.

feeWAIVER, on 27 January 2023 - 06:45 AM, said:

We need to get over this idea that we are supposed to keep anything from MWO to MWO2.
It's like buying EverQuest 2 and expecting to start the game with a lvl 65 Necromancer because you had one in EQ1.

Should people who spent money in MWO get a starter pack? Sure, that's just good marketing... But we are not owed anything in a Sequel game.

Personally I wouldn't be bothered one way or the other, I can see why it wouldn't hurt them to let active players keep their lot - because truthfully they aren't going to sell those packs to those players again for 95% of them or more, and it would get them to jump into the new game with less fuss.

I just look at it from the perspective that for all the current players you'll probably only sell new packs to since most of us own most of them or at the least the ones out of them we wanted already - and for the majority they won't be buying almost any of them again in the next game because they found out which ones were worth the money to them.
It also starts the next game with a wider variety of mechs for, if they market it halfway decent, new players to see in match and to want for so you can fire up those packs again at a more reasonable cost and cross promote between the games and actually sell some amount of those packs a second time around.

There's also an upsell opportunity if they don't PGI the price, sell the upfront game + a reasonable amount to carry over your IS/Clan/Both mech bundle. To me that would be the most reasonable middle ground.

[Battlemaster56]

feeWAIVER, on 27 January 2023 - 06:45 AM, said:

We need to get over this idea that we are supposed to keep anything from MWO to MWO2.
It's like buying EverQuest 2 and expecting to start the game with a lvl 65 Necromancer because you had one in EQ1.

Should people who spent money in MWO get a starter pack? Sure, that's just good marketing... But we are not owed anything in a Sequel game.

Then don't ******* bother making a MWO2 if you not gonna keep any progress and forcing to regrind all that lost progress made. Blizzard when making OW2 allow players to keep all progress including game settings and stats this shouldn't be a problem even for pgi when their test servers allow you to bring your collection over when they allow us to test changes even how few so their no excuse to bring a measly ******* 12 mechs.

And a starter pack is not a buy for any vetren player and only looks to good for new players.

[BLACKR0SE]

I never care about the old.. I'm willing to use the worst machine in a new game. as long as the game is good.

I'm so bored that I sell all the machines and buy new machines, do you think the machines are important?

[BLACKR0SE]

I get bored even if I have 1000 machines. Even if I have unlimited money, I get bored if there is no innovation.

[Meep Meep]

I basically play just one mech type at this point which is fast ecm mechs since they can adapt to any map or roster and contribute or even carry in some cases. I'd be doing much the same for any future mwo pvp game.

I don't need any carryover from this game to a new game but it would be nice if they had a veteran gift package for migrating players based on how long they have played. Gift a bunch of the in game currency and xp and skill points then you can pick and choose how you want to recreate your roster because how mechs play in the new game might not be exactly like in the old game.

[Tromoskyon Rex]

Saved By The Bell, on 22 January 2023 - 12:31 AM, said:

Mechs should be extremely hard to buy.

You get them from money, parts, trading, etc.

After several months of work and fights, you ll be able to get one more.

This is the absolute last thing that should be done... If you want literally anyone to play a game the last thing you should do is make progression take months to complete. IMO how it is now works fine, takes maybe a day of griding or a week of casual play to make, build, and skill a mech. If anything it is a bit slow for new players who can make one bad purchase and be screwed for a week trying to get more c-bills.

[Meep Meep]

Progression in pvp games are your equipment perks and skills. Mechs should be easy to acquire but then take time to skill and upgrade that way there is no real barrier to trying out anything you want but to elite it will take a bit of dedication and personal skill.

[BumbleBee]

A starter pack based on your play time would be a great start. I'd also like, say 50% off the MWO2 Mechs Package if you own (as in paid actual cash) the equivalent package in MWO.

People thinking we will get everything we own transferred to the successor game are kidding themselves. I'd love it and want it to happen, but it wont.
It is a business.
They need to sell stuff to pay the staff and overheads.

[Tromoskyon Rex]

Vellron2005, on 27 January 2023 - 07:18 AM, said:

THIS
Expecting to keep everything you paid for in MWO to carry over in MWO2 is like expecting to get a free new car every time a newer model comes out..

Cant agree with this more. As much as it might suck for those of us who have tossed a few hundred at the game either on ourselves or getting friend's accounts going we really cant complain about losing stuff from a 10 year old game. IMO every purchase I make is to keep the lights on, no more no less.


1) Some sort of system to give old players a reason to come over without losing EVERYTHING would be greatly appreciated. I liked some ideas in an older post about having some kind of token for when a mech is rolled out down the road a lot. That way there isnt a massive disparity between new players and old who have a lance of armored up assaults on day one.

3) I like the idea of RNG maps but that could case some people to shy away because a big part of gaming is memorizing map layouts and strategies. This could be a fun thing for something like faction play but not for a casual game of quick play. This could also introduce a lot of issues with randomly generated invisible walls and then cause more trouble for devs to find where and what causes them.

5) Customizable voice lines and huds would be awesome. Might cause trouble for some of the sound modders though as making our own sound .pak could then be seen as theft in a way.

6) Not sure how I feel here as I would LOVE something deeply tied into the lore (books are what got me here) but it could also cause a big barrier to incoming players. Also, it would cause trouble for people who just want to play quick play but are now screwed because all the MLG guys chose one faction and they chose a different one.

8) There is literally no way to stop teamwork from being OP in a game with high TTK or any game really. In halo teamwork is OP, in COD teamwork is OP. Any game where you aren't forced to solo queue teamwork is OP.

9) Seriously who is a known cheater? I see this repeated once a week but no one ever has an example other than an aimbot guy from like a year ago and GNX.

12) Having melee would be awesome. I side with PGI on no knockdown though, as much as I would love it.

15) Being able to freely make decals would be awesome. I would go a step further and call for full paint scheme customization too. I want to be able to make a Gundam Hatamoto.

17) Destructible environments are what make me still hold Battlefield Bad Company 1-2 above all other shooters today, a Mech Assault style destructible environment would be a HUGE W.

18) Lore based bot support could be awesome but given how MWO is I could see it giving servers and the engine hell. Then again, MW5 doesn't have much issue but it also doesn’t have PVP (other than what modders are working on).

19) Maybe not UAV but certainly standardized coolshot could make sense.

21) Unique decals or bolt ons for higher difficulty achievements would be cool too.

24) The free mech of the month does a lot to help new people but seeing an Atlas head on a 4090 box would be awesome, though certainly cost preventative. Their advertisement on Facebook for the 2021 Christmas mechs were how I found out MWO exists.

25) Lore goes a long way to get committed, really committed, players in the door. One of the biggest reasons I stuck with Halo for so long was the lore and books.

26) See 25)

27) I disagree on F2P. Even if the game is only $30 it would go a long way to fund the devs. I would much rather spend $60 now and build up my arsenal down the road then never have an MWO2 because of funding.

28) At the very lest I think I should be able to give my buddies trying the game out some c-bills.

30) Don’t make Forspoken basically.

Edited by Orion_, 27 January 2023 - 07:17 PM.