4 replies to this topic

[Bocika]

I would like to give you my opinion about the game in its current state. I downloaded and played the game for a few hours yesterday.
In my opinion MWO can be a big success or a big failure. It depends on the design decisions and improvements happening in the following months. I love the Battletech Universe, but i dont like the game at all in its current state. My game experience in the first few games was terrible.

What to improve:
-The mech control in its current form is not user friendly at all.
-There are not enough feedback about the enemy mechs. I can see them from far away, i also can hit them with gauss cannon, but there are no red sign above them. If an enemy mech is visible it should receive the red mark.
-After like 20 games i still can't buy a mech and i don't earn xp, this is frustrating for new players, they won't give that much time to a new game. (i just kept playing because of the Battletech Universe)
-I already noticed a lot of afk mechs, i guess they were some kind of bot farming credits. Cheating can destroy any online game if not taken care of.
-Mechs are too fast, sometimes i feel like it is an FPS shooter with a much harder weapon management and control than any other FPS shooters out there. I can get lost in a few seconds in the heat of the battle.

My suggestions:
-Give a basic mech to every new player so they can collect xp right from the start or create much cheaper mechs (like 500-600k)
-Allow 3rd person control and combat
-Throttle should go to 0 when i release the W button. Deceleration should be faster
-My mech should turn automatically when i reach the turn limit of the torso without pressing A or D
-Put red sign above enemy mechs when you can see them visually
-Players don't need 3 form of vision (normal/heat/night), if you want you can left 2 but 3 is just too much. Combine heat and night vision
-Create a battle log history in the lobby so i can see how my battles was ended
-Allow weapon groups to be modified during startup
-Allow the battle map to be opened during startup

I don't want to write bugs or minor things before the major gameplay issues are solved. Don't get me wrong, i write this to help improve the game.

Edited by Bocika, 16 November 2012 - 08:21 AM.

[Eggs Mayhem]

What to improve:
- They've recognized this, and apparently a 3rd person camera will be coming soon to help out newer players.
- It's just that they're out of sensor range. I would think that a module to increase that range would exist in the future.
- Yea that's probably a bummer. It was a long enough grind with premium, so a F2P player probably has it pretty bad.
- In addition to afk farmers, there's often disconnects. But agreed, exploiting like that will need to be fixed sometime.
- Too fast? Maybe you're just running into too many light and medium mechs. They'll only get faster once the speed barrier is removed.

Your suggestions:
- I'm not sure how I feel with this. They are working on weapon balance next, so hopefully the trial mechs will perform better. But still, a major portion of the game is customization and it takes a while to get there. Maybe a 1-time cash injection when you register to lessen the grind?
- Coming. It shouldn't be available for community warfare aspects of the game, but it should be there for basic matchmaking for training newer players.
- That's what the X key is for. Sets throttle to 0.
- Sounds like a personal preference. Wouldn't mind if they put the option in the settings though.
- I disagree, enemy mechs outside of scanner range should be hard to find. It would ruin snipers if they could be spotted so easily.
- Get ready, we're getting a 4th. They'll be making scenarios where all of the vision modes will be important soon enough, like night maps.
- Agreed. They'll be improving the post-match screen so hopefully something like that gets included.
- Agreed.
- Wouldn't mind seeing this.

[Noth]

A lot of this stuff is already being addressed. My only issues with the OP is the claiming that the controls are not user friendly and need for 3rd person.

The controls are user friendly, you simply have to learn them since they handle differently from most other games on the market.

3rd person while it is being added would not be needed if there was a proper tutorial in the game.

[Ceribus]

I definitely disagree with throttle going to 0 when releasing the W key, my finger should not be glued there and and that would make picking specific speeds alot harder

Mechs are too fast? obviously you don't pilot an atlas different mechs have different speed levels and I personally think they are all fine

Mechs should not decelerate faster... your in a 30-100 Ton hulking war machine it's not easy to break the momentum

I do not want my mech to start turning when I max out my torso, I have my legs pointed in a certain direction on purpose... It take a little bit to get used to but controlling your legs is not hard at all and being able to control the two independently is very useful

Also I like the 3 different vision modes and am looking forward to the 4th one that is coming. They each serve unique purposes and should not be combined, otherwise people would always just use special vision mode

Edited by Ceribus, 16 November 2012 - 09:29 AM.

[Lt Limpy]

Bocika, on 16 November 2012 - 07:50 AM, said:

What to improve:

-The mech control in its current form is not user friendly at all.
Bullocks. This is the most user friendly mouse and keyboard control experience I've ever had in a Mechwarrior game. Take some time to get used to it with practice and it's fine. You don't become an expert at controls after only a few hours of playtime in any but the simplest of games. This is not a 'simple' game.

-There are not enough feedback about the enemy mechs. I can see them from far away, i also can hit them with gauss cannon, but there are no red sign above them. If an enemy mech is visible it should receive the red mark.
No. While sometimes annoying if you spot an enemy before your HUD does, this allows some measure of tactics by giving a better chance of sneaking about without getting spotted. You can see them, especially if you're tracking carefully with thermal, so you know they're there. They're likely out of range of your weapons anyway. Giving the HUD higher tracking ability would disrupt the game balance.

-After like 20 games i still can't buy a mech and i don't earn xp, this is frustrating for new players, they won't give that much time to a new game. (i just kept playing because of the Battletech Universe)
I agree with this.

-I already noticed a lot of afk mechs, i guess they were some kind of bot farming credits. Cheating can destroy any online game if not taken care of.
It's still in beta. I'm sure they're working on it.

-Mechs are too fast, sometimes i feel like it is an FPS shooter with a much harder weapon management and control than any other FPS shooters out there. I can get lost in a few seconds in the heat of the battls
NO. The speed is already about scale and it is perfectly fine. This game is already criticized for being "slow", it doesn't need to become slower and making it such will not help appeal. Again, a few hours of playtime is not enough time to become an expert.

My suggestions:

-Give a basic mech to every new player so they can collect xp right from the start or create much cheaper mechs (like 500-600k)
Yes. Keep the trial mechs but give a starting budget so that if the player would rather get something beyond a basic model they can do so at a faster pace than current.

-Allow 3rd person control and combat
NO. NOT EVER.

-Throttle should go to 0 when i release the W button. Deceleration should be faster
NO. This is a terrible idea, see above answers. You're piloting a multi-thousand pound tank at the speed of an auto on an open road. It's called inertia.

-My mech should turn automatically when i reach the turn limit of the torso without pressing A or D
Maybe, but I'd honestly be hard pressed to see this as something that would actually improve anything. What's so hard about pressing A & D? Most of the game your left hand is practically glued to those keys.

-Put red sign above enemy mechs when you can see them visually
NO. It's fine as-is. It's already easy enough to see a scout trying to do a sneaky recon.

-Players don't need 3 form of vision (normal/heat/night), if you want you can left 2 but 3 is just too much. Combine heat and night vision
Night Vision is currently useless and feels worse than Gen II, but it needs to be improved, not gotten rid of or merged.

-Create a battle log history in the lobby so i can see how my battles was ended
OK.

-Allow weapon groups to be modified during startup
If I recall correctly they said you would be able to eventually set up groups in mechlab in a future patch.

-Allow the battle map to be opened during startup
Maybe sorta, but overall trivial.10-20 seconds too much of a wait?

I don't want to write bugs or minor things before the major gameplay issues are solved. Don't get me wrong, i write this to help improve the game.

Edited by Lt Limpy, 16 November 2012 - 09:54 AM.