425 replies to this topic

[LaserAngel]

MrPenguin, on 03 December 2012 - 09:19 PM, said:

I disagree, because the weapons would still have the same problems if you had 2.0 DHS (Large Lasers would still be objectively better) and if you where to just put down the heat to LL level then LL becomes useless. Thats why I'm saying they're fundamentally broken and need more then quick fix band-aid.

Franchi, on 03 December 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

My way makes it a problem, it REDUCES op alpha potential but it also makes high heat weapons VIABLE so long as you don't alpha.

I'm having a hard time making a case for lowering the PPCs heat from where it is right now. You do start getting collisions with the Large Laser. I know the EMP effect will come around and projectile speed is debatable but another good idea. After much thought and seeing another poster suggest it, increase the PPCs damage (11-12 damage) and increase the cooldown slightly. You'll be able to push it toward being more like the Gauss Rifle instead of the AC/10 and still keep the heat levels as another mechanic to prevent spam.

Edited by LaserAngel, 03 December 2012 - 09:59 PM.

[Franchi]

LaserAngel, on 03 December 2012 - 09:56 PM, said:

I'm having a hard time making a case for lowering the PPCs heat from where it is right now. You do start getting collisions with the Large Laser. I know the EMP effect will come around and projectile speed is debatable but another good idea. After might thought and seeing another poster suggest it, increase the PPCs damage (11-12 damage) and increase the cooldown slightly. You'll be able to push it toward being more like the Gauss Rifle instead of the AC/10 and still keep the heat levels as another mechanic to prevent spam.

you did not understand my post.

[Anticheese]

My apologies for posting a new thread after obviously missing this one! I'm glad to see the real thread generating a ton of discussion, particularly where the trial mechs are concerned. While the article itself hasn't received many comments, its fascinating to see the reaction here and on Reddit.

My view on trial mechs is that a few notes on them, how they play in what roles and what their weaknesses are, would be a huge help to new players. Not just that, but players interested in testing out a new mech (such as the Cataphract) might find an overview of their potential new toy to be quite valuable. Its sort of what we try to do with our (us being TheMittani.com, though Mittani himself is largely uninvolved with our MWO coverage) trial mech articles.

But as it stands at the moment, the most helpful in-game resource for new players is other players. If you know anyone who's started playing MWO and is frustrated or unsure about something, talk to them. It'll make a huge difference to how they enjoy the game, and the community can only get better because of that.

[Eggs Mayhem]

Franchi, on 03 December 2012 - 09:50 PM, said:

Hard-points balance small laser weapons on everything in game so far except the hunchback.

Not to mention the Awesome-8Q, the Jenner-F, to a point Centurion-AL and Cataphract-1X. There's just too many exceptions, and we're likely to see more in the future. And really, all it takes is one exception and then we're back to the drawing board (streakcat being case-in-point). Honestly I feel just playing with the individual weapons is the way to go at this point, and let the bigger energy weapons either see less heat or more "benefits".

[MrPenguin]

LaserAngel, on 03 December 2012 - 09:56 PM, said:

I'm having a hard time making a case for lowering the PPCs heat from where it is right now. You do start getting collisions with the Large Laser. I know the EMP effect will come around and projectile speed is debatable but another good idea. After much thought and seeing another poster suggest it, increase the PPCs damage (11-12 damage) and increase the cooldown slightly. You'll be able to push it toward being more like the Gauss Rifle instead of the AC/10 and still keep the heat levels as another mechanic to prevent spam.

I kinda like this idea.

[LaserAngel]

Franchi, on 03 December 2012 - 09:58 PM, said:

you did not understand my post.

I had to go hunt down an even older post of yours about about changing the entire heat system and forcing 10 second shutdowns. Is that what you wanted me to read? I would prefer to avoid reinventing the wheel when DHS tweaks and PPC/ER tweaks would improve said weapon viability, avoid weapon spam, and still include a heat management mechanic.

MrPenguin, on 03 December 2012 - 10:04 PM, said:

I kinda like this idea.

It's not my idea but you KEEP the PPCs heat as limiting aspect, you help the player avoid constant usage and excessive heat with a slight longer cooldown between shots, and to avoid the DPS reduction with the increased damage. Yes you will still have to watch that heat gauge.

Edited by LaserAngel, 03 December 2012 - 10:08 PM.

[Paramemetic]

MrPenguin, on 03 December 2012 - 08:55 PM, said:

Its called cooling down. Learn to do it when you're not shooting stuff.

This is exactly the problem. Yes, cooling down is the solution. Yes, not spamming the fire button makes the mech borderline playable. Yes, if you are already a skilled player, you might be able to kill things and/or not get killed by things in a trial mech.

The people who have to use trial mechs, who earn an average of 70k c-bills per game and therefore have to play roughly 50 games to afford a good medium mech of their own, are not skilled players. They are not experienced. They cannot learn heat management in a realistic way because they are thrust into combat with a mech that overheats very fast and told "hah well if you didn't suck you'd be able to kill everyone with just a small laser and never use the PPCs and you're a noob so die." That does not encourage them to keep playing.

The attitude of "you guys suck that's why you can't use the trial mechs" is exactly the issue. Guys who suck cannot use the trial mechs. That means they cannot play the game. That means they won't ever even bother playing the 50 drops it takes to afford a ~3 million c-bill mech. And that means they will never bother with a custom mech, and never bother to buy MC, and never bother to learn to be better. Most importantly, they will not have fun.

People who click "launch" for the very first time and have only ever read about the controls, if even that, are not going to be expert mech pilots. They will suck. But the point of the game is to have fun. It's not to win. It's not to earn your Double Kerensky Bloodname. It's not even to squawk. The point of the game is to have fun. If the first experience a new player has is miserable, they will not have fun and they will not want to play the game anymore. If the first time you went to a new place they took your money, beat you bloody, and stole your shoes, you wouldn't want to go back. Why do you expect people to invest lots of time and effort into a game that is not fun at first impression?

A dude earlier said "well they should read the forum to learn to play the game." Why should they do that? Why should they have to complete a chore and do lots of theoretical reading and conceptually master abstract tabletop concepts before they can even enjoy the game? And the answer is not "well, if they want to play they should do the work." This isn't TT where the fun is in being a mathwarrior, this is a computer game. People expect to be able to click on a dude and go "pew pew" and the dude blows up and then they get some reward. A game where I have to use a calculator and read pages and pages and pages of materials before I can even boot it up, for no reward at all except to be told that if I can't be the best player using the worst robots it is my own fault for sucking, is not at all a fun game, it is a tedious job.

That you folks can have fun with it by doing math and reading and such is fine, that is how you have fun, but that is not how everyone has fun. When I play Civilization games, I automate my workers. It's not optimum build and my cities don't grow as fast as they could and it's not competitive at the world level, but I don't have fun calculating the most efficient way to use the hill resources versus the fish or whatever. I have fun sending little soldiers around to conquer little computer cities. Some people, especially very new beginners, don't have fun reading pages and pages and pages about whether or not SRM4s or SRM6s do more damage relative to heat, and why SSRMs are OP or whatever the complaint of the day is, just so they can learn that the only reasonable way to play their trial Awesome is to never shoot the ERPPCs ever because if you do you are Bad At Robots.

This attitude of "they shouldn't get to have fun if they don't work really hard at learning everything, and if they can't pilot a robot that is hard for an expert to use, they should just become an expert" is pretty similar to ridiculous things like "well poor people who can't afford shoes should just start billion dollar companies if they want to have foot protection."

I'm actually pretty scared that some of you people think that might be reasonable.

[MavRCK]

Paramemetic, on 03 December 2012 - 03:46 PM, said:

The problem with trial mechs is they aren't something that demonstrate the good virtues of the game. You try a trial mech and get pubstomped immediately.

Players get pubstomped because they're new to the game and can't play well... yet!

Am I stating the obvious?

Trial mechs - good mix of weapons and systems to learn the game!

Edited by MavRCK, 03 December 2012 - 10:24 PM.

[Sifright]

MavRCK, on 03 December 2012 - 10:24 PM, said:

Players get pubstomped because they're new to the game and can't play well... yet!

Am I stating the obvious?

Trial mechs - good mix of weapons and systems to learn the game!

Sure if you don't mind the fact that you have 3x the weapons you will ever be able to use...

being able to alpha for more than you can handle with heat isn't the problem.

The problem is you can only alpha once or twice with many of the trials before shutting down.

it's crazy.

No custom mech will have that problem because they are built for this game environment.

The trials aren't which is why they are always such turkey shoots when you play against them,

[MrPenguin]

Paramemetic, on 03 December 2012 - 10:13 PM, said:

This is exactly the problem. Yes, cooling down is the solution. Yes, not spamming the fire button makes the mech borderline playable. Yes, if you are already a skilled player, you might be able to kill things and/or not get killed by things in a trial mech.

The people who have to use trial mechs, who earn an average of 70k c-bills per game and therefore have to play roughly 50 games to afford a good medium mech of their own, are not skilled players. They are not experienced. They cannot learn heat management in a realistic way because they are thrust into combat with a mech that overheats very fast and told "hah well if you didn't suck you'd be able to kill everyone with just a small laser and never use the PPCs and you're a noob so die." That does not encourage them to keep playing.

The attitude of "you guys suck that's why you can't use the trial mechs" is exactly the issue. Guys who suck cannot use the trial mechs. That means they cannot play the game. That means they won't ever even bother playing the 50 drops it takes to afford a ~3 million c-bill mech. And that means they will never bother with a custom mech, and never bother to buy MC, and never bother to learn to be better. Most importantly, they will not have fun.

People who click "launch" for the very first time and have only ever read about the controls, if even that, are not going to be expert mech pilots. They will suck. But the point of the game is to have fun. It's not to win. It's not to earn your Double Kerensky Bloodname. It's not even to squawk. The point of the game is to have fun. If the first experience a new player has is miserable, they will not have fun and they will not want to play the game anymore. If the first time you went to a new place they took your money, beat you bloody, and stole your shoes, you wouldn't want to go back. Why do you expect people to invest lots of time and effort into a game that is not fun at first impression?

A dude earlier said "well they should read the forum to learn to play the game." Why should they do that? Why should they have to complete a chore and do lots of theoretical reading and conceptually master abstract tabletop concepts before they can even enjoy the game? And the answer is not "well, if they want to play they should do the work." This isn't TT where the fun is in being a mathwarrior, this is a computer game. People expect to be able to click on a dude and go "pew pew" and the dude blows up and then they get some reward. A game where I have to use a calculator and read pages and pages and pages of materials before I can even boot it up, for no reward at all except to be told that if I can't be the best player using the worst robots it is my own fault for sucking, is not at all a fun game, it is a tedious job.

That you folks can have fun with it by doing math and reading and such is fine, that is how you have fun, but that is not how everyone has fun. When I play Civilization games, I automate my workers. It's not optimum build and my cities don't grow as fast as they could and it's not competitive at the world level, but I don't have fun calculating the most efficient way to use the hill resources versus the fish or whatever. I have fun sending little soldiers around to conquer little computer cities. Some people, especially very new beginners, don't have fun reading pages and pages and pages about whether or not SRM4s or SRM6s do more damage relative to heat, and why SSRMs are OP or whatever the complaint of the day is, just so they can learn that the only reasonable way to play their trial Awesome is to never shoot the ERPPCs ever because if you do you are Bad At Robots.

This attitude of "they shouldn't get to have fun if they don't work really hard at learning everything, and if they can't pilot a robot that is hard for an expert to use, they should just become an expert" is pretty similar to ridiculous things like "well poor people who can't afford shoes should just start billion dollar companies if they want to have foot protection."

I'm actually pretty scared that some of you people think that might be reasonable.

Perhaps you should read my other posts before targeting me for your braveheart speech. You completely miss understood what I posted and pulled my quote out of context.

Edited by MrPenguin, 03 December 2012 - 10:32 PM.

[LaserAngel]

MavRCK, on 03 December 2012 - 10:24 PM, said:

Players get pubstomped because they're new to the game and can't play well... yet!

Am I stating the obvious?

Trial mechs - good mix of weapons and systems to learn the game!

The only trial mech I ever really used was the Centurion AL and honestly the Centurion or Hunchback trial mechs are going to be the best one to learn all that. Even with the paltry 16 SHS you could use the Large Laser + LRM 10 often enough at range and near endless use of the 2 ML + 1 SL in a close fight.

The Awesome 9M with the current state of DHS and the PPCs is nothing more than a XL powered shutdown oven for new players. I know it stands out as the worst offender but that is what I see when I see the 9M. It is cruel for me to think of it as nothing more than salvage. I can only imagine how it is for the pilot.

[MrPenguin]

MavRCK, on 03 December 2012 - 10:24 PM, said:

Players get pubstomped because they're new to the game and can't play well... yet!

Am I stating the obvious?

Trial mechs - good mix of weapons and systems to learn the game!

"Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime"

Giving a new player a fully decked out fully optimize mech won't help them in the way these advanced players suggest. They will have literally no idea how to use them and get face rolled anyway then they'll start blaming the mechs again. What we need is a proper tutorial, its not that hard to figure out. And trial mechs have there uses outside of new players. I use the Cataphract X1 trial even though I have an Awesome, commando and fully decked out and optimized hunchback 4SP for a reason.

Edited by MrPenguin, 03 December 2012 - 10:36 PM.

[Vapor Trail]

It's not really about Stock/Trial Mechs, heat discipline or not... It's more about Energy Heavy Stock/Trial Mechs.

Yes, stock loadouts are supposed to be slightly to moderately suboptimal compared to custom designs. However, they're not really supposed to be as bad as they are in MWO. And not all stock designs are created equal... some are better than others.

Lets run a quick (for certian values of quick) comparison on two stock Assaults. The Stock AS7-D, and everyone's favorite Energy Boat, the AWS-8Q. In TT, there was a BV(1.0) difference of about 200 between the two. So they're fairly closely matched as an 80 ton and 100 ton assault.

---

First the AWS-8Q:
3 PPC, 1 Small Laser, 28 heat sinks.

In TableTop: +2 heat per round of fire at max rate of fire. Mech DPS (actual Damage Per Second here) = 30 / 10 = 3.0.

Max SUSTAINABLE DPS without chance of shutdown: (30 + 30 + 30 + 30 + 20) / 50 = 2.8

A sustainable DPS of 2.8 (or an average of 28 damage per round, if you prefer it that way) is pretty repectable in TT. It's not truly stellar... but the Awesome can deliver each and every round if called for. The stock Awesome 8Q is one of the iconic long range, direct-support mechs.

Safe to say that the AWS 8-Q is supposed to be a powerful 80 tonner, when used correctly. And using it correctly isn't hard. Stay at range as best you're able, fire all three PPCs twice, then fire two. Repeat until dead or targets exhausted.

In MWO, what's the max average DPS of the stock 8Q? Well, 9 heat per PPC, 3 PPCs, 28 heat sinks. 27 heat generated per salvo, 2.8 heat dissipated per second... 27/2.8 = 9.64 seconds per salvo.

So... either you fire all three together, and wait. (~9.64 seconds between each salvo)
Or... you fire each one seperately and wait. (~3.21 seconds between each shot)
Or... you just lean on the trigger for ONE PPC for 9 seconds (3 shots) and wait. (~0.64 seconds extra after the third shot).

In other words, average DPS for the AWS-8Q doesn't change significantly between TT and MWO, right around 3 DPS.

30/9.64 = 3.11 DPS.

"But the AWS can front load damage!" Yep. But that doesn't affect it's average DPS, because when you front-load damage, you back-load cooldown time. For custom mechs, you can build around this advantage by maximizing your short term damage by maximizing both your alpha and heat cap, but this isn't about customs, it's about Stocks which weren't designed with this in mind. So, frontloading for an AWS...

Max Damage output is 30 points every 3 seconds (for two salvos, shutting on the third salvo), over a maximum period of 9 seconds (plus shutdown + cooldown of almost twenty seconds) or optimally as follows:

Heat cap is at 58.
58 - 18 = 40 (heat cap - final salvo heat) = heat capacity for Max Rate
2.8*3 = 8.4 (heat sinked per firing cycle @ max Rate)
27 - 8.4 = 18.6 (heat gain per firing cycle @ max Rate)
40 / 18.6 = 2.15 (heat capacity for Max Rate / heat gain @ Max Rate = # of firing cycles at max rate)

So 2 full salvos of 3 PPC + 1 salvo of 2 PPC = 80 damage.

Time taken (shots + cooldowns) is 9 seconds.
Time to cool down to repeat this: (heat at max - heat for last cooldown)/ 2.8, therefore 55.2 - 8.4 = 16.71 seconds.
Total time taken (all shots and all cooldown) ~25 seconds. (25.71 if you're trying to be moderately precise)

So max damage output before shutdown: 80, with ~16 seconds or so cooldown between cycles.

Or 80damage /25.71seconds... or roughly 3.11.

Which is very close to the theoretical maximum of ( Damage Per single shot of PPC / (heat per single shot of PPC/Mech heat dissipation rate) ) or ( 10 / ( 9 / 2.8) ) or 3.111... and the difference is rounding error.

What about the AS7-D?

Well Tabletop the AS7-D has twenty heat sinks. That's enough to fire the AC/20, the SRM6, and three MLs (7 + 4 + 9 = 19), every round or a max sustainable (until ammo runs out for the AC in 14 turns) DPS of 4.7 (~67.85% more than the AWS-8Q, but it will eventually run out of ammo).

In MWO the heat dissipation rate of the AS7-D is 2.0.

Well, the AC/20 has a heat of 6 and a rate of fire of once every 4 seconds. So a heat dissipation rate of 1.5 is necessary to support it at Max RoF. 20/4 is a DPS of 5 right there. But none of the other weapons can be utilized at Max RoF. But, the SRM 6 can fire once every two cycles of AC/20.

4heat / .5 heat/sec = 8 seconds, 15 damage / 8 seconds = 1.5 DPS 5+ 1.5 = 6.875

Therefore the Atlas can output 6.875 DPS sustainable until the ammo runs out on the AC (2 tons of ammo, 7 shots per ton, 14 shots, therefore 56 seconds of fire).

56 seconds of fire at 6.875 DPS (or 14 salvos at 27.5 pts per salvo, every 4 seconds)
[edit] Forgot to account for +tweak to SRMs.

Heat cap is at 40, so that's ten shots of ML, But if you try to do it, you'll shutdown, so call it 7 shots distributed however you'd like during the firing, and you stay up the entire time.

14*27.5 + 7*5 = 525 damage output

420/56 = 7.5 DPS. [Derp Edit] basically doubled the SRM damage...

Which is 267.86% ( 167.86% more than) the DPS of AWS-8Q, and can maintain that DPS for almost a minute of continuous fire without danger of shutdown, and even after the AC runs out of ammo, the AS7-D still puts out a higher DPS on 2 MLs and the SRM6 (5.75 DPS) though the ammo for the SRM6 doesn't last much longer than the AC (2 shots). Then it's down to just the MLs... which lets it put out 2.5 DPS on those alone ( 20/(16/2) = 2.5 ) by firing one every two seconds, or all four every 8 seconds.

THIS is why some Stock builds are "good" or "are viable" and why others are "junk," "garbage," or "deathtraps." The shift from TT to MWO has improved (in some cases radicallly) how certian mechs work (eg AS7-D), while making little to no change in others (eg AWS-D). The shift between TT and MWO isn't accounted for in the stock designs.

Granted, the AWS has a range advantage over the Atlas's AC/20, SRMs and Medium Lasers. But to use it, it has to stand/stay in the open... where the Atlas can simply pound on it with the (as yet unaccounted for) LRM 20 as it closes. So the AS7-D can cover it's own advance with a high percentage of the damage output of the AWS (>2/3ds even if some of the missiles miss), if it HAS to approach in the open. Much better for the Atlas if it can use cover for part or all of the approach. Alternatively the AS7-D can engage from beyond the range of the AWS-8Q, and either force it into cover or to actually begin closing the range itself, either of which the AS7-D can exploit by charging. Granted there's not much ammo for the LRMs... but it's enough to do significant damage to a mech in the open.

[Derp edit explained] When I came up with the figure for 35 pts per salvo on the AS7-D I was incorrectly salvoing the SRMs every shot of the AC, when it should have been every other shot. The figure of 27.5 damage per salvo is correct. It's always the simple stuff you screw up and catch later.

Edited by Vapor Trail, 04 December 2012 - 01:29 AM.

[Rifter]

Russ must have been high.

I mean sure i can get kills in a trial mech i havent found a mech yet i coudlnt at least get a kill in every other game at a minimum but when you compare them to custom mechs, and im not even talking like XL engine swapped, endo steel or DHS mechs but just compared to a stock varient but with lets say one weapon removed and 3-5 heatsinks added there is no contest as to which mech is better. The modified mech with only a few extra HS is always better than the stock vairent.

And when you get into fully pimped mechs like say my founders jenner vs a stock jenner its just no contest, my founder jenner is as pimped as you can get, 4 ML, 2 SRM4, XL300 and DHS and Endo and FF and still with JJ. Even a basic to medium level pilot in my founders jenner would stomp all over a expert pilot in a stock JR7-D.

The trial mechs serve a purpose i agree but saying that you are not putting your team at a very serious disadvantage by piloting them is just plain wrong and a very poor representation of the game especially coming from somone as important as Russ.

I seriously cant even count the number of PUG games ive dropped in where i look around at the start see 4-6 trial mechs and go **** this just is not going to end well and play as best as i can rack up 2-3 kills do 500+ damage and we still lose and the rest of my team did less than 200 damage between the 7 of them because they spend 50% of the game in overheat shutdown mode..

This was a poor statement and should be retracted.

[Sephlock]

FF? Who uses FF? Even on a Jenner, the benefit is miniscule compared to the HORRENDOUS OMGWTFFFFF THERE GOES LITTLE TIMMY'S COLLEGE FUND costs, and you are better served by cramming on more heat sinks (even with DHS in a 300xl engine you won't have quite enough heat-sinkage with both endo and ferro gobbling up space).

[Eggs Mayhem]

Sephlock, on 03 December 2012 - 11:01 PM, said:

FF? Who uses FF? Even on a Jenner, the benefit is miniscule compared to the HORRENDOUS OMGWTFFFFF THERE GOES LITTLE TIMMY'S COLLEGE FUND costs, and you are better served by cramming on more heat sinks (even with DHS in a 300xl engine you won't have quite enough heat-sinkage with both endo and ferro gobbling up space).

The way I see it, if you've already upgraded to ES and DHS and you still have room (and money) you can squeeze the last bit of tonnage out of your mech with FF. I'm pretty sure very very few mechs can do all 3.

I'm not a fan of the repair costs for it, however. It gets a little too easy to go negative after a match, even with premium.

[Rifter]

Sephlock, on 03 December 2012 - 11:01 PM, said:

FF? Who uses FF? Even on a Jenner, the benefit is miniscule compared to the HORRENDOUS OMGWTFFFFF THERE GOES LITTLE TIMMY'S COLLEGE FUND costs, and you are better served by cramming on more heat sinks (even with DHS in a 300xl engine you won't have quite enough heat-sinkage with both endo and ferro gobbling up space).

Want to explain how removing FF will give you more weight to add more HS? I added the FF so i could add a extra heatsink, if i removed it i would need to remove that extra heatsink. Also heat is not a issue, never overheated in that mech not even once, just dont spam the 4 ML constantly and you will be fine with 12 DHS.

Also when you get to the point of running a XL and endo and DHS the added cost of FF armor is a moot point. As it is the mech is still cheap to run with even a total destruction costing me 60-90,000 cbills. My SRM6 C4 cat or AWS-8R awesome cost more than that in missles alone let alone armor and items.

Edited by Rifter, 03 December 2012 - 11:26 PM.

[Taizan]

Rifter, on 03 December 2012 - 10:52 PM, said:

The trial mechs serve a purpose i agree but saying that you are not putting your team at a very serious disadvantage by piloting them is just plain wrong and a very poor representation of the game especially coming from somone as important as Russ.

They serve two purposes and one of them (the new player using them to learn how the game works) is currently not satisfactory. For some (me included) it seemed to work out anyway, for the general masses it doesn't.

Now putting the interview into context - about him misrepresenting the game:

Quote

I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that trial mechs are no good and you can’t win with a trial mech.

Yes, sometimes you can have a victory even if you are in a trial mech, its not an absolute rule that you automatically always have defeat when in a trial mech. Chances are much much much lower though than when using an owned mech.

Quote

So once we get the matchmaker going where we get brand new players are being matched up against other brand new players they’re gonna do fine.

Trial mechs are not "doing fine" in the current system, although decent players are able to get more out of them.

Quote

The trial ‘mechs, remember, fulfil two purposes. New players are actually only one half of it. The other half is that when there's a brand new BattleMech introduced into the game like say the Cataphract, players might want to try before they buy. Right before they spend their C-bills or their MC, so the other purpose is to just be able to trial that ‘mech before you purchase it.
[...]
So we’ve got two aspects for having the trial mechs and we’re continuously looking for ways to evolve the new player experience. Obviously, getting new players to come into the game, enjoy the game and keep playing it is incredibly important for the success of a free to play game like MechWarrior Online. Right now I think that’s tough right it’s tough for a new player to come in and get hooked for mostly those reasons we’ve discussed. Right now they’re being matched up against some pretty darn good players

The new player experience needs improvement, matchmaking trials will partially improve that, the other part is actually having new players do some tutorial in a mech that tells them how to "walk, talk, shoot and loot".

"A fault confessed is half redressed"

Edited by Taizan, 03 December 2012 - 11:58 PM.

[MavRCK]

Sifright, on 03 December 2012 - 10:29 PM, said:

Sure if you don't mind the fact that you have 3x the weapons you will ever be able to use...

being able to alpha for more than you can handle with heat isn't the problem.

The problem is you can only alpha once or twice with many of the trials before shutting down.

it's crazy.

No custom mech will have that problem because they are built for this game environment.

The trials aren't which is why they are always such turkey shoots when you play against them,

L2P - you guys complaining just want a mech you can farm on without paying repair bills. If you never owned on a trial mech then you're probably pretty damn average. Or what you're saying is that you want a new player who can't afford a top mech to carry you? Where is the logic in that? Or you're saying this F2Play game shouldn't have a way to encourage players to buy MC and get a mech to customize, thus supporting the economics of the game?

Seriously, forum heroes, you all need to get your head on straight.

Edited by MavRCK, 04 December 2012 - 12:42 AM.

[Vapor Trail]

MavRCK, on 04 December 2012 - 12:40 AM, said:

Or you're saying this F2Play game shouldn't have a way to encourage players to buy MC and get a mech to customize, thus supporting the economics of the game?

Encourage player to buy MC to get a mech to customize, yes.

Encourage said player to say "WTH is this crap? I'm not playing this." and give up on the game forever, no.

Frankly, The first time I tried an Awesome 8Q as a trial, I had the same experience of a lot of people.

"This is going to be great! Only thing better would be getting to drop as a Marauder or Warhammer... The Awesome 8Q is a long range BEAST."

and coming out of the game saying

"What did they do? I can shoot 3 times faster than TT, but I can't dissipate any more heat? This means I can fire the main battery a little more than twice, and then have to hide to cool off. Awesomes don't HIDE. They're supposed to control the long range, direct-fire battlefiled with constant fire. But the Gauss Rifle can shoot 2.5 times as fast as TT without any heat problems? This means that any mech than can mount two Gauss is going to be able to do the job that the Awesome's supposed to do. Guess I'll build a Gausskitty till weapon balance gets looked at."

When Open Beta started I made a deliberate decision to boycott the Gauss Rifle.

And over the months... I figure I'm a on a scale of:



I don't want to get to ...