45 replies to this topic

[Tk3997]

Maybe this has been talked about before but a quick search didn’t show much and it’s something I’ve been wondering about, so I shall be a bit selfish and stick it here. Notice I don't say "will it" I say when; because it's going to happen. That's not even up for debate if you ask me as you've got about 30 years of the best known (to current players) and developed backstory and mechs that will never, ever be used if it's not. You probably wouldn't ever actually see say the Innershpere counterattacks against the Clans for instance (almost ten years distant at real time), nevermind the fedcom war, or the Jihad era.

I personally never quite understood the logic of the choice to begin with. Now moving linearly along the timeline I got, as it provides a good roadmap for both new content and operations. It does like half the work for you no need to think of new units or battlezones, just start building them. The 1 to 1 thing though baffled me it means that tons of iconic units and battles would never make it into the game and it’s just pointlessly limiting.

I personally think the goal ought to have been to be up to about “the current day” of BT in five years tops. I feel this timeline is best as a video game tends to need a denser quantity of new content to keep it active. (Most ongoing games will aim for a major batch of new content about once a year, two max) The BT timeline doesn’t really allow this. For instance most of the TRO that add new mechs are spaced about five years apart. Yes inside the exact descriptions we see some mechs coming into service before the date on the cover, but not by huge fudge factors. The key wars and battles aren't spaced in a way to accomdate it either, there's a HUGE gap in the middle of the 50s were nothing much happens for instance.

Really the core problem is that unlike many games that are original universes Mechwarrior is set in an established setting with lots of iconic units, weapons, and battles. People are going to want that sutff in a reasonably timely manner. The game is also mostly locked into that canon and so its ability to deviate and just invent things is also limited. People are going to look forward too this stuff and saying “yeah you’re gonna have to wait about 15 years for that” isn’t going to keep many people playing.

I think this is going to become abundantly clear quite quickly and hence why this is going to go away. I think they might even already have it planned quite frankly. Personally I think they’ll stick to the real time thing for about two to two and a half years. Assuming Beta starts in July-August that would be right around the first reports of raids on the periphery, about six months into the game the Clans start hitting the edges of the Inner Sphere proper. Then you’ve got about two years of fairly intense combat until the battle at Tukayyid.
There ought to be enough in there to keep adding content and back filling mechs from the 3050/3039 TROs ought to keep that front okay, but then you hit a huge lull. I think they probably break it then and fast forward about six years to 3058/59 and pick up at the counterattack into Clan space.

[cyberFluke]

I have been wondering about this myself actually. Not quite sure what they *plan* to do, but I reckon the most sensible way they can keep the 1:1 is to just skip forward a decade (or whatever chunk of time) when we get to a dull bit and resume "playback" when it gets interesting.

Personally, I think they should drop the 1:1 in favor of 1:3 or something similar to keep things "moving along".

[Adridos]

I think they'll make some "year jumps", too, but it's not needed.

If you imagine how much stuff was made to that point, you can easily see, that even with this time, they have a lot of content to make for us.

[Shikari]

I see it this way:

By modeling the game in the 1:1 scale, the developing team tries to be cautious. They go easy on year to year basis which basically means two things:

• They won’t need to go ahead in creating tens of different Mech types and/or maps which could overstress their budget without…
  
• …knowing if the game will be a success or a failure.

If up to the next year by March (when the Clans will attack in force) MWO will hold tons of future promises (i.e. a strong fan/player base and interest) then they’ll take the game to the next level of introducing the Clans, their technology and the campaigns/maps related to their invasion. The development process will be linear and step by step ready for whatever changes might be necessary without investing in assumptions.



Another reason for it could be the knowledge induced motivation. In other words: knowing that the fan-base is large and lore-knowledgeable, they go with the hope that the players will keep playing, will still be motivated while waiting for the new stuff (Mechs, campaigns, famous battles etc.). As long as there’s a reason to keep you curious, you’ll stay curious. You know…

However, I do believe that the will of creating something new, something different than what it has been created thus far for this franchise is also a factor. Which is good.
Just my two cents…

[J0anna]

I really wonder about this myself. While 3049 is a very exciting year in BT history, I would think they would divest from the BT timeline as soon as the game goes active. Since we can't join the Clans or Comstar, does this mean we can't take part in Tukayyid? What fun would that be? A major world changing event happening completely outside any of our influence?

I would have started this in an earlier time (perhaps before the GDL found the Star League Library on Helm), to allow lower tech and easier house battles. Technically by 3049, the Federated Commonwealth had already been created in all but name so there was no distinction between being aligned with the Federated Suns or the Lyran Commonwealth.

Nonetheless, PGI definately seems as dedicated to BT as the rest of us, so we'll see where we're heading. Should be a fun ride...

[Zarkan]

Yeah I expect there will be jumps at the very least BT is bad for having 2-3 years with alot of stuff happening and thin decades with little to no events.

As far as things like Tukayyid depending on how loose they want to play with the lore the could make it so that a IS cololition took part with the com guards with out totally aborting the curret fluff.

[TimberJon]

After really looking at the timeline: http://www.sarna.net...ne#31st_Century

I would guess that they might start to compress things later on. But they don't have to follow the established timeline to the letter because this is a reboot. In this new version... something may happen that could distrub the timeline and known events may or may not happen, or else happen sooner rather than later. *shrug* they can be creative and we will love the game anyways. While their aim is to not anger the community by straying too far from the "path" if a change is acceptable we will whine but lovingly refer to the old timeline.

[Alaric Hasek]

The most interesting time story-wise for the Battletech universe is this one: when noone in the IS (except Wolf's Dragoons) have any idea where those dreaded Periphery pirates are coming from. The 1:1 time frame allows the MWO to go in a different direction than the Battletech universe as players' actions decide what planets are taken by what faction, etc.
Also, remember two words: Randall Bills. Randall has already said in an interview about MWO that if he had been in charge of the rules many moons ago, Clan tech would look a lot different (especially the idea that their weapons had so much better range than IS versions). So, this also allows the devs to make any changes they want to Clan tech.
I think that we also need to let go what we remember of the past video games, books, even the tabletop game. We'll all be much happier that way.
After all, the game's slogan is "Not Your Father's Mechwarrior".

Tk3997, on 10 March 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

Maybe this has been talked about before but a quick search didn’t show much and it’s something I’ve been wondering about, so I shall be a bit selfish and stick it here. Notice I don't say "will it" I say when; because it's going to happen. That's not even up for debate if you ask me as you've got about 30 years of the best known (to current players) and developed backstory and mechs that will never, ever be used if it's not. You probably wouldn't ever actually see say the Innershpere counterattacks against the Clans for instance (almost ten years distant at real time), nevermind the fedcom war, or the Jihad era.

I personally never quite understood the logic of the choice to begin with. Now moving linearly along the timeline I got, as it provides a good roadmap for both new content and operations. It does like half the work for you no need to think of new units or battlezones, just start building them. The 1 to 1 thing though baffled me it means that tons of iconic units and battles would never make it into the game and it’s just pointlessly limiting.

I personally think the goal ought to have been to be up to about “the current day” of BT in five years tops. I feel this timeline is best as a video game tends to need a denser quantity of new content to keep it active. (Most ongoing games will aim for a major batch of new content about once a year, two max) The BT timeline doesn’t really allow this. For instance most of the TRO that add new mechs are spaced about five years apart. Yes inside the exact descriptions we see some mechs coming into service before the date on the cover, but not by huge fudge factors. The key wars and battles aren't spaced in a way to accomdate it either, there's a HUGE gap in the middle of the 50s were nothing much happens for instance.

Really the core problem is that unlike many games that are original universes Mechwarrior is set in an established setting with lots of iconic units, weapons, and battles. People are going to want that sutff in a reasonably timely manner. The game is also mostly locked into that canon and so its ability to deviate and just invent things is also limited. People are going to look forward too this stuff and saying “yeah you’re gonna have to wait about 15 years for that” isn’t going to keep many people playing.

I think this is going to become abundantly clear quite quickly and hence why this is going to go away. I think they might even already have it planned quite frankly. Personally I think they’ll stick to the real time thing for about two to two and a half years. Assuming Beta starts in July-August that would be right around the first reports of raids on the periphery, about six months into the game the Clans start hitting the edges of the Inner Sphere proper. Then you’ve got about two years of fairly intense combat until the battle at Tukayyid.
There ought to be enough in there to keep adding content and back filling mechs from the 3050/3039 TROs ought to keep that front okay, but then you hit a huge lull. I think they probably break it then and fast forward about six years to 3058/59 and pick up at the counterattack into Clan space.

[osito]

I personally like the idea of a 1:1 time scale it allows the devs to introduce stuff in batches without being to rushed for major changes. That said i do believe they will have to do time skips to keep it interesting and allow new tech to be seen. I want my rac, my gunslinger and my i.s omnis.

[Blackfire1]

To be honest I don't think it'll be dropped. If anything there may be a year or two jump, but thats very unlikely.

[John Clavell]

I don't see why they would deviate away from this at all. There is plenty of stuff happening, and plenty of Battlemechs.

[Thorn Hallis]

It will end once the developers lack the material to implement new content due to canon-restrictions.

[Elizander]

I'm not sure what purpose is for following the 1:1 timeline, but it's not really a big issue for me if they skip and jump a few times.

Edited by Elizander, 11 March 2012 - 02:11 AM.

[Dlardrageth]

There's really no need to jump. If PGI decides to do so once or twice, fine. I just hope they don't cave in to the whiners who will consistently clamor that they totally "need" their 3062-tech OMGWTFBBQmachine, because they might lack the smarts to use a 3039 era Mech effectively. For whatever reason...

[Pockets]

To be honest, I think the biggest problem with the time-scale isn't the gap in the mid 3050s. Like you say, its easy enough to say at some point "5 years later..." and do a jump as an expansion.

The problem looks to me like there's not enough time to flesh out what's already there before the clan invasion needs doing as an expansion. After all, to start with we're looking at most likely just over a dozen mechs with only a few maps and a couple of game modes. That leaves an awful lot of scope to expand, but with very little time to do so before having to make all the clan mechs and whatever rejig of the faction system is required.

It almost seems like it should be set up to give an extra year whch would give the devs time to take a breather and have a holiday after the go-live and have the time to flesh out the IS content before having to jump straight into getting a clan expansion ready.

[Nick Makiaveli]

I think have a 1:1 timeline is great, but that launch day should have been that date in the year 30XX. That would avoid the launch date creeping up on the invasion date.

Also whose to say they want reboot the reboot and do just that. Rewind the clock a bit and call it a day.

Once things settle down in a few years, I could easily see a quick jump in the time line to smooth things out, that or since it is a reboot things could accelerate. Maybe have a contest between the IS and Clans to determine what happens. One side wins and things keep going as is, the other allows a major battle to happen etc etc.

[Zarkan]

Pockets, on 11 March 2012 - 02:25 PM, said:

To be honest, I think the biggest problem with the time-scale isn't the gap in the mid 3050s. Like you say, its easy enough to say at some point "5 years later..." and do a jump as an expansion.

The problem looks to me like there's not enough time to flesh out what's already there before the clan invasion needs doing as an expansion. After all, to start with we're looking at most likely just over a dozen mechs with only a few maps and a couple of game modes. That leaves an awful lot of scope to expand, but with very little time to do so before having to make all the clan mechs and whatever rejig of the faction system is required.

It almost seems like it should be set up to give an extra year whch would give the devs time to take a breather and have a holiday after the go-live and have the time to flesh out the IS content before having to jump straight into getting a clan expansion ready.

that's assuming they haven't actually began working on that content, even by alpha stage most of the content is set it's balancing and bug fixing, which yes is a time intensive and important part of game making. But it doesn't have much use for large numbers of textures or modelers.

[Thomas Covenant]

I think a lottery for clan mechs would be a good way to keep the numbers down to more canon numbers. My favorate clan mech, the Daishi, was actually created in 3010. By the time of the invasion some of them could be floating around[captured, sold on black markets]. I don't think they should only be bought with RL money wouldn't feel very fair(maybe tolerated for like a week-to-a month). Oh Oh I just had an idea.

Lets say you spend either $1 or X,***,*** C-Bills to obtain a data disk(lottery ticket) that you analyze to get a black market offer. Its a random mech or module, maybe a clan one. You can then choose to make that black market purchase, using either form off currency.

[Tadakuma]

I'm a big fan of the time scale, I think it adds a lot to the game and gives it a sense of history. The date is also important because of the looming clan invasion.

The fact that the biggest game changer in BT cannon is happening in two years creates what is called dramatic irony. We know that some things will never be the same and we can look forward to one of the most apocalyptic events of the BT universe.

In regards to not seeing some of the last events in the BT canon, I can live with that. I hate the Jihad story arc, it's poorly written and badly thought out. If we don't get to it I would be perfectly happy.

[Nor Azman]

I really love the 1:1 timescale in MWO right now. It gives the impression that everythings real somehow. That you are given the chance to flesh out your story in the grand BT universe. Place your name in BT lore. From what I gather about the suggestions of having the timescale faster is with the intention of getting new techs, new mechs quicker. I dont know why all the hurry is for. We will cross the bridge when we get there. The flowers beside the road are wasted if all we focus about is running. And savouring the flavour of the wine is important. Its been past 10 years since the last MW game. Dont know what will be after MWO... The PBI turtle of the Grim Determination Merc Unit with its SRM pack on its back is a nice image of our approach to time should be.

And for getting new techs and new mechs quicker. Well, to rephrase a line from Mr John Candy in Cool Runnings, "If you're not enough without it, you're never be enough with it." Cool Runnings guys. Now who's feelling very olympic today?


(What I think about time)

Edited by Nor Azman, 11 March 2012 - 10:11 PM.