43 replies to this topic

[Space Captain Zor]

Not an RPG? Having read a lot on the forum so far, I think there's a lot of confusion on what to expect with this game.

http://mwomercs.com/game

If you read through that page, you won't find any "RPG" reference in it at all.

Drop your mice and grab a joystick, pilots!

[AlphaPrime]

Yeah sounds like it will be more Sim, with missions and such, and a persistent control system for the various territories. Lots of specifics we have no clue about yet so we'll see. However I highly doubt this will be anything similar to traditional MMORPGs like EQ, WoW, etc. Maybe some semblance of similarity to EvE Online perhaps in style, but I think it will be a little more lobby style than that.

[rollermint]

There is a RPG element or at leat strongly hinted at. Read the PC gamer interview.

When it comes to the pilot, you’ll be able to train your pilot to fit the role that you like. But you won’t be able to pay real cash for pilot training, for example. That would be through earned experience points or earned in-game cash. So you would actually have to play the game to upgrade your pilot. Anything that would affect or give your a tactical advantage, you can’t purchase with real cash. You have to earn that by playing the game.
So we have a pilot tree, a skill tree. As you level up you can unlock new features and new abilities. So if you want to be a scout, you would get skills related to information technology, or being able to move faster, hide, things like that. If you wanted to be more of an assault person, it would be more related to weapon control and such.

RPG doesn't necessarily only mean dice rolls, btw.

[Tyra]

There will be mechwarrior pilot skill trees from the sounds of it, there were ARE some rpg elements

[Scott Wolfpack Rider]

Why all this talk of Relay Pulse Generators? If yours is broke, get a tech over there pronto.

[Omega59er]

Look at World of Tanks. This will most likely have a combat system in that style, just of coarse changed to fit the Battletech/Mechwarrior game style.

[SyberSmoke]

Scott Wolfpack Rider, on 03 November 2011 - 04:27 PM, said:

Why all this talk of Relay Pulse Generators? If yours is broke, get a tech over there pronto.

Not really possible, Relay Pulse generators...if my memory is not totally broken, is pre-collapse technology. They are short range relays from the main HyperPulse Generator. Any way, most of that is lost technology and is under the control of ComStar to boot, you don't just fix it. You have to make sure it does not break in the first place.

As for the RPG elements, there is allot of room for role playing with in this game. I would hope that the developers, a couple of whom are original battletech designers, would make every effort to have both a rich combat experience and game world experience.

[Space Captain Zor]

rollermint, on 03 November 2011 - 04:17 PM, said:

There is a RPG element or at leat strongly hinted at. Read the PC gamer interview.

When it comes to the pilot, you’ll be able to train your pilot to fit the role that you like. But you won’t be able to pay real cash for pilot training, for example. That would be through earned experience points or earned in-game cash. So you would actually have to play the game to upgrade your pilot. Anything that would affect or give your a tactical advantage, you can’t purchase with real cash. You have to earn that by playing the game.
So we have a pilot tree, a skill tree. As you level up you can unlock new features and new abilities. So if you want to be a scout, you would get skills related to information technology, or being able to move faster, hide, things like that. If you wanted to be more of an assault person, it would be more related to weapon control and such.

RPG doesn't necessarily only mean dice rolls, btw.

I can accept stuff being enhanced that I cannot control with my PC inputs, but, stuff like engine power, speed, turn rates, damage output, fire rates, heat management... that should not be tinkered with by RPG elements in my opinion. =/

[SyberSmoke]

Space Captain Zor, on 03 November 2011 - 05:06 PM, said:

I can accept stuff being enhanced that I cannot control with my PC inputs, but, stuff like engine power, speed, turn rates, damage output, fire rates, heat management... that should not be tinkered with by RPG elements in my opinion. =/

The alterations to those attributes may be explainable through a skill though. Since a pilot that say like to tinker with and have knowledge about fusion reactors could fine tune the reactor in a way to better its performance. The same could be applied to many weapons, systems, and other elements. Basically as a way to say that this pilot likes to tune and upgrade stock components to make his mech perform better then it would at stock.

[Lori Black Widow Carlyle]

RPG works only if it comes along with a story. No story, no RPG. Coincidentally Battletech IP has a lot of story to tell over decades. Too bad to own the IP and waiste that huge potential by not telling at least a little bit of that story in MWO.

@OP: I guess it will get some RPG elements. If you like it or not.

[Space Captain Zor]

SyberSmoke, on 03 November 2011 - 05:17 PM, said:

The alterations to those attributes may be explainable through a skill though. Since a pilot that say like to tinker with and have knowledge about fusion reactors could fine tune the reactor in a way to better its performance. The same could be applied to many weapons, systems, and other elements. Basically as a way to say that this pilot likes to tune and upgrade stock components to make his mech perform better then it would at stock.

that's true, but, I fear that would in effect give people who simply have more time to play an advantage in a competitive game. Would you like to see your House losing territory to some players who have hours and hours more to invest in leveling up skill boxes than you do?

[rollermint]

Lori Black Widow Carlyle, on 03 November 2011 - 05:24 PM, said:

RPG works only if it comes along with a story. No story, no RPG. Coincidentally Battletech IP has a lot of story to tell over decades. Too bad to own the IP and waiste that huge potential by not telling at least a little bit of that story in MWO. @OP: I guess it will get some RPG elements. If you like it or not.

There is a story. It was stated that they follow the timelines according to the BT lore.

So all of the canon, all the stories, all the references will be distributed through this community portal that we have that is MechWarrior Online in the form of news stories, articles and – this is the best part – what players do. …So this allows the player, and their exploits, to actually become part of the what’s going on in the universe. So they actually contribute to the story and the timeline of the universe.
And we take all the existing canon and all the existing story and we use that as a backdrop to initiate change and create conflict for the players to participate in.

Really, a lot of you are making judgements without actually knowing much, if at all. Of course, we are not privy to the full details yet and I'm not saying this is 100% guaranteed but lets stick to information already released and readily available, at least. And not be sour grapes all the time.

So MWO has a story (multiples in fact), it has factions, it has a levelling/skill system and guess what? It allows players to participate in major events and effect change and conflict.

What else do you guys want, actually?

Edited by rollermint, 03 November 2011 - 05:43 PM.

[rollermint]

Space Captain Zor, on 03 November 2011 - 05:34 PM, said:

that's true, but, I fear that would in effect give people who simply have more time to play an advantage in a competitive game. Would you like to see your House losing territory to some players who have hours and hours more to invest in leveling up skill boxes than you do?

Even if there isn't a levelling up/pilot skilltrees, you will still get to a point that there will be players who will be able to afford better mechs and equipment simply because they have more time to play the game, get better at it, get better rewards and ultimately purchase better equipment.

So it actually will not solve that problem at all. The shooty shooty part will still majorly rely on the player's skill and twitchiness. I don't believe the game will rely on dice rolls on whether you will hit an enemy mech or not. At least, no information on that part yet.

[Space Captain Zor]

Thats all very very true. I guess I really just don't want there to be player levels. Expertise and proficiencies are ok if they don't completely make or break a fight..

[DoubleD]

From what I have read thus far (including the article quoted above) I am like the sound of the RPG elements that are being added thus far. I think that that is exactly how it should be. The enemy pilot should be where most of the 'special' comes from, not the machine. After all, a weapon is only as good as the person wielding it. And that looks like what they seem to be hinting at whether then, "the biggest mech with the heaviest firepower will always win."

[KnowBuddy]

Please, don't be ridiculous. This is going to be a video game in which players will pretend to be highly trained pilots of sophisticated massive (roughly humanoid) war machines powered by fusion reactors and electroactive polymers which replicate the function of muscles, in order to do battle with other forces using very powerful projectile, missile, and energy weapons. Obviously there is no association with any kind of role-playing in this game. Pfft.

Edited by KnowBuddy, 03 November 2011 - 06:05 PM.

[Grimm Wulf]

Great... I wall of texted again... fuuuuuun...

This comes from one of those PC Gamer articles about the game:

- - - - - -
Ekman also promises that while players will be able to buy items with real money, nobody can buy anything that will confer a tactical advantage. “Anything that would affect or give you a tactical advantage, you can’t purchase with real cash. You have to earn that by playing the game,” he says.
MechWarrior online features multiple upgrade paths, both for Mechs and pilots, but it should not be too complicated. As Bullock says, “If someone has played a combination of Mechwarrior, Call of Duty, and Diablo in their gaming life, they’re going to have seen everything that we’re offering for the most part.”
- - - - - -

Take special attention to the end part of that quote: “If someone has played a combination of Mechwarrior, Call of Duty, and Diablo in their gaming life, they’re going to have seen everything that we’re offering for the most part.”

There is a reason why Diablo is mentioned, because there are RPG elements in the game.

But what makes a game, or an element of a game, RPG can be a HUGE variaty of things. It could be how the story in the game is made, how you interact with NPC's, conversation options when talking to NPC's, the ability to effect how the game ends, your character getting better at what he/she does, earning XP, earning points to buy skills, earning skills, character stats (str, dex, int, etc), increasing stats and/or skills, loot systems, finding/buying better equipment, upgrading equipment, crafting, inventory system, dice or percentage being the factor if you hit/miss/succede/fail/etc, or the outcome might be based on a siccor-stone-paper model (like the Vampire the Masqurade LARPS are), etc, etc, etc. All of these elements are all more or less a RPG mechanic/thing/what ever.

Heck, the old MechWarrior PC games all had RPG elements in them, mainly the loot/upgrade/inventory system. And MechCommander also had RPG elements in them based on the loot/inventory stuff, how good the pilots where on each of the 4 attributes, which skills they had, etc.

So I really think the people who seem to deathly afraid of the acronym "RPG", should give it a rest. Just because they say that this game has an RPG element in it, does not mean that you will compleatly lose control over the "point and shoot" aspect that the previous MW games have had. The things that seems to be effected by the RPG elements of it more seems to deal with the stuff that us as MW players did really not have an ability to effect in the previous MW games anyway.

I mean, if you make the choice that your pilot is going to be the damage dealing type of a pilot. AKA normaly going around in a Heavy or maybe Assault sized mech, to wreak havoc on anyone who dares step infront of your weapons. The only thing you could do in the previous MW games was to get the right mech, put on the right types of weapons, and go at it... at the most your accuracy would effect it slightly by hitting certain areas.

And that would be that, nothing else you could do about it. Unlike the actual pilot in the mech. The actual pilot in the mech would have skills and knowledge etc that YOU do not have. Do you really think that just because YOU as a player know how to best do things in let's say that game World of Tanks (since so many people seem to be comparing it to MWO), that YOU would actually know how to "tamper" with what is done in an actual tank to get the most out of it? That would be a rediculous statement.

No, the way you should look at this "RPG" element, with pilots getting better and/or getting skills etc, is that these are the things that you as the player have never been able to effect even in the old games. And rather, let's say that one part of it is that you do more damage the better your pilot gets, this indicates that he either knows exacly how to trigger control the weapons to get the most out of them, or is more accurate and knows exacly where to aim for to cause more damage.

Because in the games you have for example been able to aim for an arm, and shoot at it long enough it get's destroyed... but it did not matter really where on the arm you hit, you still did the same amount of damage to the arm. But in reality, if you for example hit the shoulder rotator part of the arm, a sencetive area of the arm, you would do more damage to the arm. This is what it would mean that your pilot does "more damage" to something. And this could be aplied to pretty much anything, like the radar system for example, etc.

[SquareSphere]

Well at this point it's really all speculation till we get offical word. In the mean time I'm thinking this is more like a action RPG.

[MaddMaxx]

As long as MWO requires the PLAYER to learn how to Pilot their Mech, learn how to use it's Radar Kit, Missile Locking system etc etc etc. properly, then with practice comes proficiency, then what the Pilot/Player gains in Skill could be directly related to the Player/Pilot (synergy) in terms of RP.

If they just drop the player in a Mech, and have everyone run about using point and shoot then there will be no RP. Actually there will be no game and they won't do that so I look forward to once again becoming very efficient at the controls of a Mech, regardless of weight Class, as they all should/will have a Learning Curve. That is my hope anyways.

Edited by MaddMaxx, 04 November 2011 - 06:41 AM.

[Grimm Wulf]

*nods* I am more thinking of this as a MW Sim with a few more RPG elements added to it then existed in the previous MW games. Actually... I suddenly realized that it might be sort of a combination of the MW games AND some of the elements of the MechCommander games.

That actually makes a lot of sence to me right now based on what they have sid so far.

Edited by Grimm Wulf, 04 November 2011 - 06:44 AM.