25 replies to this topic

[Durruty]

Application for Smartphone that allows synchronization of data in real time. so you can use to view the map, state of the mech, etc.

If this is not possible, at least a list of statistics of players, weapons characteristics. etc.

[Mchawkeye]

I'm all for technological interconnectedness...but in have to ask what would the point be, other than time spent away from game dev and onto extrainious gadget frivolity?

[AlanEsh]

Mchawkeye, on 02 February 2012 - 07:37 AM, said:

I'm all for technological interconnectedness...but in have to ask what would the point be, other than time spent away from game dev and onto extrainious gadget frivolity?

If the devs ad the API (small task), third parties can make the apps.

[canned wolf]

The point would be having another screen to display relevent data. You could use it for lots of things. This is the kind of thing they would probably outsource, but you could make it display a damage log for the mech, detailed HTAL info, a map as mentioned above, sensor data from drones, a rear view, comms info, status of friendly units, or lots of other things. Its a way to save onscreen real estate for more important things.

[Mchawkeye]

I'd rather they allowed you to shift instuments onto other monitor displays...but if I can send it to my tablet that would be great too.

just so long as gimmicks like this don't interfere with the main developement...

[TheRulesLawyer]

Multimonitor support would be so much more useful and easy to implement.

[Gremlich Johns]

There is a TS3 beta app for android that allows you to chat with your teammates (My middle son is part fo the team that created it) He uses it for playing EVE atm.

[Durant Carlyle]

Mobile devices having direct access to real-time in-game info? Somehow I see this as a way to hack in and get info from the other team. Also, it would give unfair advantage to anyone with a smart phone or tablet.

Definite no to this idea. Not just no ... H-E-double-hockey-stick no.

Multi-monitor stuff I would support.

[Mchawkeye]

Durant Carlyle, on 02 February 2012 - 07:03 PM, said:

Mobile devices having direct access to real-time in-game info? Somehow I see this as a way to hack in and get info from the other team. Also, it would give unfair advantage to anyone with a smart phone or tablet.

Definite no to this idea. Not just no ... H-E-double-hockey-stick no.

Multi-monitor stuff I would support.

So just so long as I am clear here...Having a phone is more of an advantage than have multiple monitors??? Pretty sure more people have smart phones than MM.

I don't think we can shitcan ideas because some have them and some don't...other wise no joystick support, no multimonitor support, never mind the fact that everyones PCs are different (some more powerful than others); everyones net connection is different....

Edited by Mchawkeye, 03 February 2012 - 05:55 AM.

[Durant Carlyle]

I support multi-monitor because it's still just one computer per player/account accessing real-time in-game info.

I definitely do not support two or more devices getting real-time in-game info from the same account at the same time.

There. Clearer now?

P.S.: I have a problem with mobile devices in general having access to real-time in-game info. Use your mobile device to keep track of the leader boards on the tracking web site or for accessing the forums if you want to, but having direct access to the game? As I said before, H-E-double-hockey-stick no. There's no reason for it.

Edited by Durant Carlyle, 03 February 2012 - 02:58 AM.

[Dlardrageth]

Durant Carlyle, on 02 February 2012 - 07:03 PM, said:

Mobile devices having direct access to real-time in-game info? Somehow I see this as a way to hack in and get info from the other team. [...]

This, tbh as a major problem.

Don't see any compelling reason to do the things the OP suggested on the smartphone. As long as you cannot play MWO on a smartphone, what is the point? Doesn't your computer have his own screen so you'd have to play blindly otherwise? Kinda doubt that... And I definitely won't care for anyone viewing my player statistics on his smartphone.

What else data you want next to know about players, accessible on your smartphone? Personal phone number, body shots, sexual preferences perhaps? Or what? What would be the friggin' point?

[Mchawkeye]

Durant Carlyle, on 03 February 2012 - 02:58 AM, said:

I support multi-monitor because it's still just one computer per player/account accessing real-time in-game info.

I definitely do not support two or more devices getting real-time in-game info from the same account at the same time.

There. Clearer now?

P.S.: I have a problem with mobile devices in general having access to real-time in-game info. Use your mobile device to keep track of the leader boards on the tracking web site or for accessing the forums if you want to, but having direct access to the game? As I said before, H-E-double-hockey-stick no. There's no reason for it.

There is no reason for it, I agree. But that has never stopped anyone before.

I just don't see the difference between having info on a smartphone or having it posted on a seperate monitor.

it's not like you can control the mech though your smart phone.

[Agent CraZy DiP]

What about something like being able to customize loadouts and purchasing new gear off the market? Nothing to do with the battles themselves? Personally I like the idea of being able to tinker with my mechs where ever I am.

[Kaemon]

There might be a few reasons for this, so before we go all 'privacy invasion, counter-invade!' let's see if there's another way to look at this:

Limited data available via API: no personal stats, maybe leaderboard (if they have one) and map only, that's not unheard of and really no more invasive than an RSS feed.

$ - Let's face it, andriod apps make loot, iphone/pad the same, if you put the mechlab out there, allowed people to tinker with their mech all day (without being able to play or do anything but build variants and look at them) I bet your ROI would be pretty sweet. That would allow more freedom in the micro-transaction model (F2P) as now we have multiple revenue streams (and hopefully more of said revenue), so they won't feel the dark side (or the investors won't) urge to start down the road of selling more and more items to make the rent payments (cause we all know where that will lead).

It hasn't been done before (at least well) - to my knowledge (and I'm probably wrong) there aren't really any good app/FPS tie-ins that make sense, it's a bit of a new development, and I for one would LOVE to screw around with custom skins, weapons, chassis variants on my tablet.

Also consider the marketing aspect of this, you're now in the andriod (probably not iphone/ipad, since the game will not have Mac support on Go-Live from what I've read) marketplace, what's the userbase there? oh yeah...http://www.wired.com...-apps-detailed/

The marketing aspect of that alone is probably worth the TCO of doing the app.

So basically if we following some basic rules of phone apps:

1. No personal info on players (ever.period)
2. Limited access to game (basically mini-game)
3. Dev costs low and priority is secondary (probably better if a 3rd party does it and they split-revenue it with them)

We should have a fun little work-breaker that has very little negative impact on the game, but could be a very nice 'warm fuzzy' in return.

Just a thought.

Edited by Kaemon, 03 February 2012 - 07:05 AM.

[TheRulesLawyer]

I'd suggest instead looking for an app that allows your smartphone to act as another monitor. Some phones have hdmi ports, etc. It may be possible to turn your phone into a 2nd monitor.

[Mchawkeye]

Love the idea of the mechlab on my tablet.

Configuring my mech via touchscreen?

Awesome sci-fi greatness.


Also it would give me something to do on my commute, assuming it wouldn't require a net connection...

Edited by Mchawkeye, 03 February 2012 - 09:46 AM.

[Dlardrageth]

Mchawkeye, on 03 February 2012 - 09:45 AM, said:

Love the idea of the mechlab on my tablet.

Configuring my mech via touchscreen?

Awesome sci-fi greatness.

Also it would give me something to do on my commute, assuming it wouldn't require a net connection...

That sounds way more useful than the OP's suggestion. Especially as it nixes the need for real-time data.

[Durant Carlyle]

Mchawkeye, on 03 February 2012 - 05:58 AM, said:

There is no reason for it, I agree. But that has never stopped anyone before.

I just don't see the difference between having info on a smartphone or having it posted on a seperate monitor.

it's not like you can control the mech though your smart phone.

No, but that means two devices are logged into the same account at the same time, both receiving real-time in-game info. That's a no-no in my book. With multi-monitors, only one device (the computer) is actually logged into the account. The computer just has two monitors.

Agent CraZy DiP, on 03 February 2012 - 06:45 AM, said:

What about something like being able to customize loadouts and purchasing new gear off the market? Nothing to do with the battles themselves? Personally I like the idea of being able to tinker with my mechs where ever I am.

No access to in-game info. No market stuff. You can have a MechLab type of thing, but it doesn't pull info from the game at all -- all of the stats and such are self-contained within the app itself and a new version of the app is released when new weapons/equipment become available in the game. You can tinker with 'Mech configs and save them within the app so when you get to a computer that has MW:O you can bring it up on your mobile device use that to create a new 'Mech or whatever. There would be no transfer of info between the mobile device and the game however -- you would need to manually create the 'Mech in the MechLab. You would just be able to reference the design you already created in MobiLab (or whatever they call it).

Kaemon, on 03 February 2012 - 07:02 AM, said:

Limited data available via API: no personal stats, maybe leaderboard (if they have one) and map only, that's not unheard of and really no more invasive than an RSS feed.

What I meant by accessing the leaderboard and/or stats was simply having the mobile device access the web stat server that the game will likely have. Just like you should be able to look at public stats on the web browser of any computer even if it doesn't have MW:O installed. I don't want any mobile device to have any access to the game whatsoever.

-----

To everyone:

How about this for a reason not to do the real-time in-game mobile device thing:

LAG.

Yes, lag.

Say they've got 30,000 active accounts on day one. Everybody's logging in with their computer and futzing around with everything from the MechLab to the skins to the weapon browser, etc and playing matches as well. Now imagine that everyone has a second device pulling from the server as well, making for 60,000 devices pulling at the same time. Whether the mobile devices pull from the same servers as the actual matches or not isn't the issue -- they would likely be using the same internet pipe to get there, and that would increase lag for everyone.

Edited by Durant Carlyle, 03 February 2012 - 09:59 AM.

[canned wolf]

There's no reason for the game itsself, other than the amusement of the players and the money the company stands to make. Making the argument there is no reason for app support is just strange. The leap to worrying about picture of your junk on the internet is odd as well. I think an app for the game is a great idea. Real time data on my phone for my mech would be awsome. It wouldn't be any more of an advantage than multi monitor support or joystick support. Smith and Tinker has some experience with mobile apps, maybe they could come up with some ideas.

Wow, the post above is paranoid. Noone is using thier smartphone to read your brainwaves and cheat you out of matches. Wear your tinfoil hat if it makes you feel better.

Now I'm going to go look for an app that reads your brainwaves and allows me to cheat you out of matches.

Edited by canned wolf, 03 February 2012 - 10:05 AM.

[Mchawkeye]

Durant Carlyle, on 03 February 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

No, but that means two devices are logged into the same account at the same time, both receiving real-time in-game info. That's a no-no in my book.

Aside from lag, which is a reasonable concern...I still don't understand why my phone connecting to my account is an issue? Why is it a "no-no"?