61 replies to this topic

[Sevaradan]

meh games seeming less fun each patch.

[BalzaSteel]

I've only experienced a couple patches, and while I disagree with some of the things that have been done, I'm still having lots of fun.

BalzOut

[Tarriss Halcyon]

BlackBaron, on 20 November 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

This is open beta. Beta is the phase where content and the base of the game are complete (with the former not really applying to F2P titles of course) and all that is left is balancing and bug fixes. I don't really blame pgi for the bugs, but i do find it lousy that they have and incomplete matchmaker now, and still plan on developing an advance community warfare. This game is only in beta because they are calling it such, beta implies the game is finished. This game is no where near finished.

Correction. Yes, F2P games, and MMOs in particular, continue to release new content after release. I mean, look at some of the older MMOs like Maplestory (bad example, but I've played it, so I'm going to roll with it). You still get a big patch every month or two, which expands the game out much wider. Beta does NOT imply the game is finished, however. You get that impression from the companies like EA and Activision, giving out Beta codes left right and center for hardcore players. I just started playing BF3. Now I hear Battlefield 4 has beta codes going out. Is the game finished? By your logic, yes. EA has finished a completely new Battlefield game in around two years and are now getting outsiders to play it. Is it finished? By most people's logic, no. It's Closed Beta. Minecraft was released in Alpha for public use. Look how it turned out.

Remember, they aren't a massive multinational company. They're a Canadian company with a small development team split into different areas. Bugfixes are rapid. Upgraded Matchmaker, I see being in the next two or three patches, no joke. They said that at the start of Open Beta, it took them four patches to implement Phase I. Phase I has been in for two weeks, and all the hardcore group members have begun ******** about it.

Let's not forget some of the more obscure ideas - 12 v 12 is going in. There was a post confirming that 12 v 12 is being programmed. Will that alter the group-player's mind? If they still have four PUGs but eight teammates, yes. They want no pugs at all. I'm a PUG who plays at the level of a premade team member. Do premades notice? Yes. Do they care? Not really.

Besides, the Community Warfare metagame would be massive. They're working on programming in planets and such. Different percentage chances of ending up on different maps. New currencies. Etc.

[Khan Reaper]

My only issue has been this current patch. I only logged into the game for a little bit today just to purchase my Cataphract and check out the other stuff that was supposed to be added. I was pretty disappointed that they didn't deliver even a sliver of what was promised. I won't stop playing the game, as I like it a lot. But this was the first time that I thought that maybe PGI isn't as competent as I was thinking or hoping. I know it's not game breaking, but I was really looking forward to the camo skins. Speaking of which, did anyone else who received the PC Gamer Skin seem to lose it? I don't know when it happened because I've been using my Founders stuff, but I went to place it on my Cataphract today and it wasn't there.

[Butane9000]

I voted no on both.

The reason for the first question is we basically just got the BAP and Cataphract, but nothing else? No ECM? No custom mech camoflage and color system? No cockpit options?

As for the second question. How could they not fix the hitbox which is absolutely terrible? It completely favors lights and fast mechs (85 KPh+). It broke Ballistic weapons and regular SRMs. LRMs got over nerfed (the .1 damage increase spoken of in the command chair is a completely reasonable and fair buff). Simply put they seriously damaged the game two weeks ago and we hoped for a small fix last tuesday and got nothing. Now todays patch is abysmally bare bones. It's sad.

[StickEGreen]

Their track record on introducing and failing to fix bugs is pretty pathetic. I'm quickly losing faith when none of the issues my unit has been suffering from for a month have been fixed.

[Blaank]

I'm getting the same vibe I did from Eve Online all those years ago. Introduce new content, new content introduces new bugs, ignore bugs caused by previous introduction of new content.

[Tarrok]

We could really use a State of the Game post with some details on Matchmaker, Netcode+Stability+Performance and an update on things we were told would be in about now.

It doesn't matter that content didn't make it into this latest patch but there's a lot of confusion and lack of information regarding these patches which really needs to be addressed.

There's probably going to be a lot of angry replies regardless of what such a devpost will say, but it needs to be done for the hostile forum climate to tone down a bit (for now).

[Viper69]

HighGround, on 20 November 2012 - 04:58 PM, said:

1. This is BETA, you act like this is release. Beta content is always changing, and there are lots of bugs that need fixed in beta because it's not finished yet!

You know what I am sick of reading ^^. We know its not finished but our counters are going down and they are accepting money for MC. The term open beta is a loophole term used by the above person and the industry as a pass to shovel crap at you yet still accept your money with timers ever counting down. So keep the "this is beta" crap to a minimum, its not a free pass.

[Xerxys]

darknothing, on 20 November 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

I am not happy with the content and fixes for these patches that have come out, now and in the past.
it feels like this game is going nowhere FAST, for instance, performance drops patch after patch for myself, and that's a HUGE issue for me. There are alot of bugs that still have not been fixed for myself ( overheat bug ) and i find myself wondering, are they doing there best?
I feel like it will take a year before this game is truly playable or to at lease have enough content to justify spending MC or Prem time.

What say you?

Uh.... What overheating bug? The fact that the warning doesn't go away sometimes?

[Jason1138]

i'm changing my answer to crappy patch. now even mediums are teleporting around, and i've crashed the client 5x so far in the mechlab

this is getting ridiculous, seriously

[Archphor]

Yes to both. for a game still being a year from launch we are actualy testing alot of content; 5 maps , 11 mech ewach with 3 or more chasies, lots of wepons to chose from, just got new equipment and modules, and we have been geting the new stuff every 2 weeks. for beta thats not bad at all. I have been in alot of betas and this one is going well imo. everyone who is not happy needs to relize that they have internal testers who are testing 1, sometimes 2, builds/patches ahead of us. And if they say that 8V8 matchmaking is not working in there small testing group then how do you think it will work in the beta tester comunity? personaly I want new content that works and if that means something promised has to be pushed back then im fine with that. dose that mean that the internal testers will find all the bug, crashes, and imbalances? Heck no! thats our job as beta testers. i have said it before and ill say it again; test the game, report bugs, and give positive forum criticism and comments on the state of the game, its your job as a beta tester to do these things.

[Frostvectron]

Xerxys, on 20 November 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

Uh.... What overheating bug? The fact that the warning doesn't go away sometimes?

Not sure if this is the one that is being mentioned, but after overheat many times the hud has disappeared. You power up but your hud is still gone... so you have to manually shut down again then power up again. Typically you are dead by time you do this.

[Xerxys]

IMHO PGI needs to get what they already have out down to mostly bug free and balanced game play before they add more **** that doesn't work properly. Their is a serious disparity between weapon effectiveness, mostly due to lack of heat dissipation. The fps bug isn't quite as bad as it once was, but it still creeps up from time to time, and the CTD issue is a major killer. So much of the game that we have now doesn't work properly why push for more content that is broke? I'm not saying it has to be perfect, but the state of the game isn't going to get better just by adding more broken ****.
People are so fearful of the dreaded alpha strike spam and call for higher heat capacity and lower heat costs. That is a formula that will lead straight into the thing people fear most. If you keep the heat capacity the same but drastically increase the heat dissipation you literally cannot alpha strike more than once or twice w/o overheating. With lower heat cap and greater dissipation you enter the zone where you have to fight for dps instead of the burst.
Their have been so many models to prove that the game balance between weapons alone is unbalanced and the community is screaming for a revamped battle system and it's continually ignored. Instead they work their ***** off to bring you all new **** that isn't going to work properly and they'll more than likely have to go back and change anyways if they ever decide to actually balance the game out. Before this game even went to open beta every possible battle system should have been tested out BY THE COMMUNITY and then discussed. What are the good point v. bad points. Is their a possible mix between battle systems. This system has been **** since I started and has only had things like the latest missile debacle as a means to "fix" the system. They're concentrating too much on one weapon and trying to "tweak" everything to work with a broken system. It's almost passable until you sit down and do the math like MXCLL or whatever his name is did. It shows a gross difference between the weapon systems. The game is quickly losing it's luster and I've already taken a two week break after the first day of the missile boosting patch.

[Elizander]

Perhaps they are mixing their internal test server timelines with the live server timelines. In this case, perhaps it's safer to expect things to arrive two weeks after the initial stated date. Just kidding though.

I'm sure it's rough and they probably ran into some problems, though a heads up would've been nice. There are a lot of minor fixes that went in, but most players probably skipped over them when reading because they were expecting more major features to make it into the game.

We probably can't blame those who are communicating too much since it probably went like:

"Hey, you think we can get this done on xx date?"
"Yeah, no prob."
"Okay, Imma tell the players."
-24 hours to Patch Day-
"Sorry man, we couldn't finish it in time."
"Oh poop."

But again, this is an internal process issue. They can put things into place such as:

1) If it's not working 100% in the ITS, don't announce it as a done deal.
2) If something breaks 2-3 days before the patch day, prepare some statement for the patch notes.

If it was as buggy as hell and not ready, it's better to drop the feature rather than **** off the community with something that will make their head hurt. Dealing with disappointment is probably a little better than another LRM Death Rain Part 2.

The problem with today's patch is mostly with the communication. The problem with last patch was mostly the implementation. Looking forward to better patch days. You can do it PGI!

[Xerxys]

HighGround, on 20 November 2012 - 04:58 PM, said:

1. This is BETA, you act like this is release. Beta content is always changing, and there are lots of bugs that need fixed in beta because it's not finished yet!

2. I'm running this game on HIGH with a nVidia 9800 GTX and I have no issues whatsoever with performance.

3. No game goes somewhere FAST, they take time to develop. There are no fast food restaurants in PC gaming.

4. Bugs take time to fix, and they have to be careful they don't break something else in the process. They also have to isolate the line or lines of code causing the bug and that takes TIME. Be patient. They'll fix it when they figure out the problem and code a solution that doesn't create more bugs or break the game.

5. It is playable now, I'm having a blast. If you want to quit until release, go ahead. But I am BETA TESTING this game and helping the devs develop the game. The reason why a lot of you open beta players were allowed into the beta was because PGI needed your data. And no, I did not buy my closed beta key, I got in before I ever spent a dollar on this game and once in, I was impressed with the quality and gameplay so decided to become a Founder.

Patience young beta tester. All good things come to those who wait.

Beta testing is our job in this. Listening is PGI's and so far I can't see them doing a whole lot of their job with only one exception and that being the missile debacle. I didn't have the money to become a Founder and now I'm actually very grateful. The system started out broken and has kept to it's theme of lets change everything except what needs to be changed. Fixing bugs does take time, but for me the performance has dropped with each patch. It's becoming a missile/ballistics game only as energy weapons are so inefficient by comparison that PGI has made several mech variants useless. And even though I do practice fire control why the hell should I have to with an all energy spec when others don't (or at least nowhere nearly as stringent). Once you start controlling your firing you have lost substantial damage when facing anything else. For most this won't make or break the game, but for people like me who really enjoy energy weapons it takes away from the game a great deal. Energy specs have always had to take care and practice fire control and is truly one of the things I most enjoy about them, but this system just doesn't allow for anything close to an equal footing.

[Ravensol]

I can't wait untill the day comes i can log on after a patch and say hmm cool and play for more then 3 hours before switching to a differant game. I guess as soon as the game hits the mark it should have been for closed beta to start then i'll stick around but atm it's still not even close to beta it's in a inhouse testing phase not even close to alpha test yet. No game of this type has ever made it with just releasing a few maps with a 8v8 base capture and that's it. That kind of thing didnt even fly when quake came out and it was realy new thing back then.

[Lokust Davion]

The developments are going too slow, so I say no. If this patch was done for only a week then it might be fine but for two whole weeks?? Very lackluster patch I must say.

[Xerxys]

I think the "it's just beta" people within our community are going to **** themselves when the game actually launches and it still isn't close to working correctly. I can say this with a fair amount of confidence now simply by looking at the game mechanics and complete lack of balance in play. At this point it would take some MAJOR "tweaking" to accommodate what I believe to be the initial frackup. The heat system only works for mechs running things other than energy weapons. Anything with heavy reliance on energy weapons is **** outta luck at this point and I can't see any tweaking being able to make up for the lost mechanics. I'll be very happy if I'm wrong, but I doubt that I am.

In response to this issue we've heard nothing from PGI and only "learn fire control" or the now infamous "it's just beta" response. Those who write these responses can NEVER back up anything with things like facts or mathematical equations. These are opinions that have been repeated proven false, and while the whole heat issue is beating a dead horse here, I'm not going to stop until I get a straight answer from PGI as to why they're running a bunk battle system.

I just thought of another argument to the whole heat system and that is that it would make it OP. This is complete ******** and has been repeatedly proven false by mathematical fact. If all aspects of the battle system were equally adjusted to account for the faster pace of the game they would never have had to double x,y and z in an lame attempt to fix a system that was done wrong to begin with. This might not be the absolute fix to the system, but it would be a hell of a lot more in line with itself and easier to adjust for the desired balance.

All of this and the fact that PGI has continually ignored this fact. Even when it was established back during the first round of closed beta testers and they explained it. This broken system could have been fixed then or at least attempted then. If the community decides it's still broken then so bit it, but for a closed lip group of testers doing it without any explanation to the community as to why it wouldn't work this just keeps the issue ongoing. Did they test this? I'm truly curious. I really don't feel that anything the beta testers have been complaining about has actually been listened to. I've seen some really good ideas in the forums that look to be a far superior form of game mechanics compared to what we have to deal with now.

Is the game still fun? Sure, if you only use variations that avoid energy weapons as much as possible. A Commando sporting 3 SSRMs and a medium laser is vastly superior to any other possible variations I've encountered and I didn't like it because it's so damned boring. Core an Atlas? No problem. Did it many times and around then is when it got too boring. Changed to Jenner and same thing. The variation that allows for multiple SRM's is a superior damage dealer

A huge portion of our community has been ignored and game play continues to suffer because of it. These are the people that can show charts and equations to to prove the imbalance and while math doesn't automatically transfer over, it does prove that the game is broke.

Edited by Xerxys, 20 November 2012 - 07:26 PM.

[Flit Asuno]

Xerxys, on 20 November 2012 - 07:22 PM, said:

I think the "it's just beta" people within our community are going to **** themselves when the game actually launches and it still isn't close to working correctly. I can say this with a fair amount of confidence now simply by looking at the game mechanics and complete lack of balance in play. At this point it would take some MAJOR "tweaking" to accommodate what I believe to be the initial frackup. The heat system only works for mechs running things other than energy weapons. Anything with heavy reliance on energy weapons is **** outta luck at this point and I can't see any tweaking being able to make up for the lost mechanics. I'll be very happy if I'm wrong, but I doubt that I am.

In response to this issue we've heard nothing from PGI and only "learn fire control" or the now infamous "it's just beta" response. Those who write these responses can NEVER back up anything with things like facts or mathematical equations. These are opinions that have been repeated proven false, and while the whole heat issue is beating a dead horse here, I'm not going to stop until I get a straight answer from PGI as to why they're running a bunk battle system.

I just thought of another argument to the whole heat system and that is that it would make it OP. This is complete ******** and has been repeatedly proven false by mathematical fact. If all aspects of the battle system were equally adjusted to account for the faster pace of the game they would never have had to double x,y and z in an lame attempt to fix a system that was done wrong to begin with. This might not be the absolute fix to the system, but it would be a hell of a lot more in line with itself and easier to adjust for the desired balance.

All of this and the fact that PGI has continually ignored this fact. Even when it was established back during the first round of closed beta testers and they explained it. This broken system could have been fixed then or at least attempted then. If the community decides it's still broken then so bit it, but for a closed lip group of testers doing it without any explanation to the community as to why it wouldn't work this just keeps the issue ongoing. Did they test this? I'm truly curious. I really don't feel that anything the beta testers have been complaining about has actually been listened to. I've seen some really good ideas in the forums that look to be a far superior form of game mechanics compared to what we have to deal with now.

Is the game still fun? Sure, if you only use variations that avoid energy weapons as much as possible. A Commando sporting 3 SSRMs and a medium laser is vastly superior to any other possible variations I've encountered and I didn't like it because it's so damned boring. Core an Atlas? No problem. Did it many times and around then is when it got too boring. Changed to Jenner and same thing. The variation that allows for multiple SRM's is a superior damage dealer

A huge portion of our community has been ignored and game play continues to suffer because of it. These are the people that can show charts and equations to to prove the imbalance and while math doesn't automatically transfer over, it does prove that the game is broke.

[X] Told
[X] Thoroughly Told
[X] Third-degree Told
[X] Brokeback on Told-Mountain