71 replies to this topic

[Bloody Moon]

Actually if a proper matchmaking exists the whole "waiting in the lobby" aswell as player created game rooms in general are reduced to practice, clan vs clan and tournament games. By proper matchmaking i mean mechs chosen before entering the matchmaking que or chosen under a limited time period for example 2 minutes after everyone loaded into the lobby without the ability to choose the teammates unless entered the que with a lance or something.

What i wish in this game is a few numbers visible (2-4 max) which give a general idea of the player skills. A general rating (efficiency from the WoT addons or chess-like depending on how MWO will function), amount of games played measured in the hundreds, maybe winrate and hitrate tho the latter two are not necessary. Knowing the most played mechs or most succesful mechs of a player ingame is not exactly necessary but can be handy sometimes.

[Solis Obscuri]

I can't really say I want to see callsign stats in-game, since it's basically extraneous clutter that I don't need clogging up my HUD.

Out of combat, I don't really have a problem with some leaderboard stats, but I do recognize that they don't always promote the most positive team behaviors. When people begin to go after stat-padding, etc, they either begin to ditch the team's progress for their own, or get very selective about who they are and aren't willing to team with, neither of which are particularly helpful behaviors within a faction.

As for "gestures", "battlecries", and other crap, I don't see it contributing much to the immersion of the game, mostly just being juvenile spam. (Because let's face it "guy who has to spam his battlecry every three seconds" is about as much fun as "12yr old with broken mic who insists on leading".)

Unit-specific paintjobs would be cool, though, and I wouldn't mind some nose art, provided it doesn't include too many swastikas made out of crudely-drawn penises.

[Togg Bott]

i really see no reason for in battle stats. out of battle is fine with me. i would even say that untill you have eyes on a mech, by way of a scout or a UAV, there is no listing on your hud. distinctive paint schemes and Mech names sound good and i think would promote the lore.



EDIT* fer shpellin

Edited by Togg Bott, 19 March 2012 - 06:05 PM.

[Burned_Follower]

All I know guys is that if if i'm in an Atlas and i find a Flea with the name "Chuck Norris" floating above that little mech, i'm walking the other way.

Edited by XxDRxDEATHxX, 19 March 2012 - 06:23 PM.

[StonedDead]

I think in game stats upon target verification would be ok, but I see the argument of the people saying no as well. I said yes because it would indeed change how I might approach a target, however, at the same time, I really do think those should be kept out of battle. I am all for stat tracking out of battle. It would allow you to study opponents and give the feeling of "holy ****" when you realized the mech in front of you was the last person in the game you wanted to run into because you took the time to learn about your enemies. So I guess what I'm trying to say is I said yes to ingame stats, but I have no idea why. People will learn to recognize the mechwarriors who stand out on the battlfield by sight easily enough. Plus out of game stats would be a great boon for merc recruitment.

EDIT: I would suggest, in fact I will enter one, that instead of a leaderboard or actual stats, that players have a page or dossier that shows all stats privately to the player with a public view that doesn't show numbers. Just a list of strenghts and weaknesses like scouting, support, infighting, ect. And a merc rating like in MW4 for mercs, to help with merc recruiting.

Edited by Zekester81, 19 March 2012 - 06:45 PM.

[Scaryman]

I could live with it if it were part of a module and perhaps only tracked observed stats. For instance you're playing as a pilot who's deep into the commander tree and you have a module that keeps track of hit/miss stats. That seems the most reasonable way, and thus players who don't care should just ignore the module on the role tree, and players who want to know who's the real threat on the battle field have to take a little time watching a battle or at the very least targeting the mech they're checking up on.

[trycksh0t]

The only option in the poll I would vote for is in question 1; "No, as I will..." The other two questions do not have appropriate responses for my beliefs.

For 2, I would vote 'No' because 'Mech sensors have no way of knowing who is piloting a 'Mech.

And for 3, Nothing intimidates a MechWarrior. The closest thing is making him/her wait for backup.

[The Cheese]

Geaux Tiger, on 19 March 2012 - 02:12 AM, said:

Ah but the problem with that is fighting and bidding over worlds as concerns mercs is competitive and directly pits one known entity against another outside of a ladder environment. Since this is competitive should we allow stats for those merc companies that participate in that portion of game or how about the house units? Just because you do not see those battles as competitive does not mean the folks who participate in them see it the same way. Where do we draw the line? I'm not strengthening your argument, I'm pointing out how far people will go to gather intel and debunking your argument that no one would bother to do it. If the stats were public, people will look at them. They will have them open in a second window and do a quick check before public matches to figure out who is who. Or they will browse over stats in their spare time becoming familiar with players over time.

And what's wrong with that? I can't imagine one team picking a fight with another if they don't know how strong that team is. I only think this can work with Merc Corps, btw.
As for debunking my argument, I'll use WoW as an example:
There are two main groups, Alliance and Horde. Let's say you are Horde and want to play a Battleground match. You would literally have to learn, by heart, the stats of every single Alliance player on your server to be sure that you knew about every player that you might play against in that next game, because most of the time, the players you're with and against are going to be effectively random. Do you think anyone does that? I don't.
Arena matches, on the other hand, are the REAL competitive scene of WoW.. In that game, you WOULD put in the effort to learn the stats of your competition, both because it would help you, and because it was actually possible due to you knowing exactly who your opposition would be.

Again, forgive me if that example is no longer valid. It was the way of things back when I played.

Geaux Tiger, on 19 March 2012 - 02:12 AM, said:

Edit: I still think that having personal stats made publicly available will be a detriment to the strong community bond we have here. I have seen nothing good come about from such stats being in other games. It ultimately causes divisions within the community (outside of the normal faction/clan type stuff) which brings about the epeen waving snobbery and elitist attitudes.

Any kind of rank identification causes the same kinds of rifts. The BT universe basically cannot work without such ranks (and it has been confirmed that there will be player ranks and levels, see http://mwomercs.com/...munity-warfare/) as it revolves around politics. The rifts are going to be there, like it or not.

[Kurohyou]

why take a poll? Call sign/handle and their owner abilities will become 'well known' once the game goes live.

[Ryuu Tetsuhara]

Well, what if you can choose to release your data to enemy pilots? I am sure there will be an option to toggle on/off the release of own stats whether it would be during the battle or outside in a MWO stats section/page that everyone can check, even though this has not been mentioned in the above poll. If such a mechanism were to be in place I would not have any misgivings with regard to stats' release in the game because it would be one's own decision/responsibility and one's own possible consequences to bear.

Hence, I do not regard the callsign stats scanning during battle or general availability of in-game stats as an option that should be dismissed without further consideration ... in addition, I would find such a function particularly useful in competitive matches, whereas, of course, Solaris arena battles/duels come to mind. The scanning would give players the same access to critical data and not only those with a dual monitor connection (so that general stats from outside a battle could be displayed during battle on a second screen while playing the game simultaneously on the first screen). If the latter will become a prerequisite, some players are likely to have the edge over others just because the former are equipped with a PC system setup featuring a dual monitor connection.

trycksh0t, on 19 March 2012 - 06:52 PM, said:

And for 3, Nothing intimidates a MechWarrior. The closest thing is making him/her wait for backup.

... you might think differently, once you and your mech have been toasted in battle by the same enemy mechwarrior several times ... plus, in canon there is quite a lot of intimidation taking place on the battle fields, even among clansmen/-women ...

I agree though with a previous post in this thread, that audio threats/taunting or battle cries would make me laugh, too, or if someone were to play the 'Ride of the Valkyries' ('Apocalypse now' in a Valkyrie mech?) when entering the battle ... audio gestures could be a cool option though and definitely make the gameplay more enjoyable if a personal touch can be introduced during battle ...

[Shai tan]

hehhhe No offence, but none of those points are cause for FEELING intimidated. It is HOW I see a Mech being piloted that gets my wheels turning. And maybe word of mouth reputation. But otherwise that`s about it. A huge list of facts, well I can only speak for me, I wouldn`t have time to look at them. ;p

[Seabear]

Info regarding one's enemy is one of the major points in planning for a battle (check your Sun Tzu, the general not the crazy Liao). To know yourself and to know your enemy is the key to victory. I don't think the info needs to be available in combat , but if you know the unit and the persoanl styles of your opponents, then you can plan better. Much of this game will be comabt for known obectives with some knowledge of the opposition. Every house and most major merc units have their own intel units. Access to at least basic info about opponents should be available in the planning stage and would force more in depth planning to take place before an operation.

Once the reconstituded hay impacts the air movement device, no one has time to do in depth analysis of the enemy. Mech type and likely call sign are about all one will have time for.

[ENDMYSUFFERING]

Not to be rude, but why the heck would a paint job be intimidating? Are you saying I should paint glowing red eyes on front of my flea and I can scare away a whole lance of assaults? Not sure why people would vote for that. If I see a 'mech coming at me, I don't give a crap what it looks like. I'm going to rip it to pieces.

[cinco]

Flametrace, on 20 March 2012 - 03:42 PM, said:

Not to be rude, but why the heck would a paint job be intimidating? Are you saying I should paint glowing red eyes on front of my flea and I can scare away a whole lance of assaults? Not sure why people would vote for that. If I see a 'mech coming at me, I don't give a crap what it looks like. I'm going to rip it to pieces.

it's kind of like seeing a delta force patch on a guy's uniform. you're not going to "rip it to pieces", you're going to get your throat slashed and your corpse discarded in a ditch.

[HeIIequin]

Seabear, on 20 March 2012 - 03:29 PM, said:

Info regarding one's enemy is one of the major points in planning for a battle (check your Sun Tzu, the general not the crazy Liao). To know yourself and to know your enemy is the key to victory. I don't think the info needs to be available in combat , but if you know the unit and the persoanl styles of your opponents, then you can plan better. Much of this game will be comabt for known obectives with some knowledge of the opposition. Every house and most major merc units have their own intel units. Access to at least basic info about opponents should be available in the planning stage and would force more in depth planning to take place before an operation.

Once the reconstituded hay impacts the air movement device, no one has time to do in depth analysis of the enemy. Mech type and likely call sign are about all one will have time for.

If I were to have out-of-game info, this is closer to what I'd want to see. I don't want to see a persons leaderboard with 140 different stats on it. I don't want to have a magical computer that somehow tracks 100% of everything EVERYONE does, no exceptions. The idea to me is ridiculous. It works for other games because they aren't sims. MWO is (or will try to be, mostly).

The question now is, what is considered a realistic amount of info a unit or faction could logically be able to gather on an opponent just from seeing them on the battlefield (eye witness, satallite feed, etc).

-Win/loss ratio
-Estimated kills (I'd imagine that would require some fancy formula to 'guess')
-Known mechs piloted
-Preferred weapon types
-Unit name
-House Faction

Though the more I think of it, the more I like something like this:

Scaryman, on 19 March 2012 - 06:48 PM, said:

I could live with it if it were part of a module and perhaps only tracked observed stats. For instance you're playing as a pilot who's deep into the commander tree and you have a module that keeps track of hit/miss stats. That seems the most reasonable way, and thus players who don't care should just ignore the module on the role tree, and players who want to know who's the real threat on the battle field have to take a little time watching a battle or at the very least targeting the mech they're checking up on.

Anything that helps promote information warfare is cool by me. Commander has some special module, or simple unlock that allows him to collect data from around him. Then he can upload said data to whichever Clan/House/Merc unit. Heck, it could even be an unlock for anyone. No magical info gathering here. You want detailed info on your enemy? Start gathering it yourself. Commanders could then have the option to view any data on a particular player they've already got intel on.

It's a rough idea at any rate. Be fun to see that kind of idea furthered.

Edited by HeIIequin, 20 March 2012 - 07:40 PM.

[Gwenaelle Focht]

shai`tan, on 20 March 2012 - 03:10 PM, said:

It is HOW I see a Mech being piloted that gets my wheels turning. And maybe word of mouth reputation.

I concur, demonstrated piloting skills are definitely another factor that could intimidate others on the battlefield. However, word of mouth reputation will not really affect me because perceptions can differ quite a lot between players and what I may see as a strength (e.g. if someone has a unique fighting style) another may player may evaluate as a weakness (for example, due to possible predicatability) or vice versa. Moreover, one player may be a formidable foe in a light mech and a complete dud in an assault mech based on the required skills' set and nature of specific missions and gameplay.

HeIIequin, on 20 March 2012 - 05:51 PM, said:

I don't want to have a magical computer that somehow tracks 100% of everything EVERYONE does, no exceptions.

Anything that helps promote information warfare is cool by me.

Methinks, pretty contradictory statements since one will not work without the other

[HeIIequin]

Gwenaelle Focht, on 20 March 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

Methinks, pretty contradictory statements since one will not work without the other

Not really, when taking into context with the rest of what I said. Magical computer = game server. It knows EVERYTHING. In a RL situation, no tactical/satellite/observer is able to know exactly how many bullets you fired, what hit % you had with each one, how many headshots you had with each one, how many bullets hit you, how many metres you've run, the amount of time (down to seconds) you've spent using any vehicle or weapon, what your 'score' is, or how many times you held your breath in a tight spot (should I have used a ; throughout that? I never remember how to use it).

Okay that last one was a bit silly, but hopefully it helps illustrate the point a bit better.

Edited by HeIIequin, 20 March 2012 - 07:49 PM.

[Gwenaelle Focht]

HeIIequin, on 20 March 2012 - 07:48 PM, said:

In a RL situation, no tactical/satellite/observer is able to know exactly how many bullets you fired, what hit % you had with each one, how many headshots you had with each one, how many bullets hit you, how many metres you've run, the amount of time (down to seconds) you've spent using any vehicle or weapon, what your 'score' is, or how many times you held your breath in a tight spot (should I have used a ; throughout that? I never remember how to use it).

Okay that last one was a bit silly, but hopefully it helps illustrate the point a bit better.

Fair enough, probably not right from the start but you would a get close approximation after a short while ('history will be written' and intel will be put together at any time by each faction) and it will be plenty sufficient (not counting how many blades of grass you walked over with your battlemech but the relevant intel) once you have had a fair amount of gaming experience (hours in your MWO mechs) or service in real life. It would definitely be available from an intel point of view and telling to the enemy pilots/units, so that no special mech devices will be needed to gather/unlock pilot specific information that can be broadcast to others on the battlefield... this can be related to single pilots (e.g. Solaris scenario) or entire units (e.g. major battle sites).

[HeIIequin]

Gwenaelle Focht, on 20 March 2012 - 08:23 PM, said:

Fair enough, probably not right from the start but you would a get close approximation after a short while ('history will be written' and intel will be put together at any time by each faction) and it will be plenty sufficient (not counting how many blades of grass you walked over with your battlemech but the relevant intel) once you have had a fair amount of gaming experience (hours in your MWO mechs) or service in real life. It would definitely be available from an intel point of view and telling to the enemy pilots/units, so that no special mech devices will be needed to gather/unlock pilot specific information that can be broadcast to others on the battlefield... this can be related to single pilots (e.g. Solaris scenario) or entire units (e.g. major battle sites).

True, anyone can gather certain relevant info on preferred weapon types, mech types, etc. Specific numerical info would probably require some sort of module to track though. I guess it depends on what type of info MWO will track at all. If there isn't much, then maybe just leave it for commanders to use a module to access all this info in-game somehow, and make all the stat tracking automatic. Certainly makes it a lot simpler, but with more flavour then just an out of game leaderboard.

[Exilyth]

Other factors such as ...

... situation. Seeing some lights frolic through a park is several magnitudes not as intimidating as turning a corner and facing an Atlas.