8 replies to this topic

[Khan Reaper]

I used the following in a reply to another thread about ECM and 8 man/4 man drops. I admittedly went off topic some, but player numbers were addressed in the original message. I thought it might be deserving of its own thread.

I don't think that the numbers are as bad as people think. I don't recognize most of the names I see on this page (in reply to OP saying he was seeing the same players), if any. We know that most people that play the game will never visit the forums. And if numbers are down, which we have no real proof of, it's not necessarily due to a broken "this" or "that" feature. It could be that a lot of people are viewing the game as it's supposed to be viewed. As a beta. They DL, check it out, maybe play a few weeks, and then put it aside until a new patch arrives. In the mean time, they play other games. I'm playing a couple of other games myself, though I am pretty dedicated to Mechwarrior. And I'm a fanboy. So someone that isn't as passionate surely isn't going to stick around for a couple of maps, a few mechs, and what is considered "a buggy mess" when compared to fully released games elsewhere. I understand the fear of a small player base, but I don't think we're even at the point where we can say what the player base size will be.

What if a year from now, Community Warfare is present, money is rolling into PGI, who is in turn sinking the money into more features and advertising, and you are seeing commercials for it like WoT's, and a trio of blockbuster movies are releasing that take us from the third secession to the clan invasion, and it's raining gumdrops all across the land (the last two may just be wishes of mine). We may still see a rise in players if some things align. The game is already really good. Forums are known to be full of people upset because the game has slighted them in some way, or with people that are completely dedicated to the IP. So doom and gloom threads are gonna happen. But I think it's too soon to think about the number of players.

Edited by Khan Reaper, 14 December 2012 - 07:57 AM.

[MeiSooHaityu]

This game is very ambitious, and because of that, it has a lot of problems that PGI are struggling to clean up. The game has a LOT of accessories and weapons, but because of it, it has a lot of balance issues. The community warfare will be AWESOME, but I'd imagine it is so extensive and complex, that it will be a long time till we see something.

All these issues make for a very impatient player base, especially for guys like me who have been around the game a while and haven't seen the big additions to the game we were hoping to see.

I admit I am getting bored of the game and haven't been playing nearly as much as I had, but I do come back to it from time to time. It is a fun game to play (despite the frustrating PUG experiences), so that at least tells me this game has a lot to offer and has a really good foundation.

I wouldn't worry too much, I think it will be a really good game. Once we see things like Community Warfare, I think many people taking a break from the game will come back.

[PainGod30]

I imagine that once everything gets into place (i.e. community warfare) and more content gets rolling we will see an influx of players.

I think what most people are worried about is that we have to make it to that point. If pgi says "hey we're losing money on this project, pull the plug now." then we'll never know and the battletech franchise will be stuck to mods forever. I think that is the concern in the back of everyone's mind right now and why PGI wants to bring in as many new players as possible.

Haken seems to be getting a lot of big press right now which worries me. IGN put up a video about it and every other line is basically a slam on MWO. We don't need bad press because of a mechwarrior & COD hybrid. We need to come together as a community, PGI is doing a great job working with us. MWO is a much better game then Haken IMHO, i'm sure someone is going to try to argue that point against me. Haken may have come out swinging but if we can come together as a community and stop the community from going to the constant complain thread about PGI not doing enough work we'll have the better game in the long run. So yeah, OP i agree with you that all will be well when more features get going but we have to keep the rusty boat together to get that far.

Yeah, that's where i'm going to stop my rant.

[MeiSooHaityu]

PainGod30, on 14 December 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

Haken seems to be getting a lot of big press right now which worries me. IGN put up a video about it and every other line is basically a slam on MWO. We don't need bad press because of a mechwarrior & COD hybrid.

I watched a small portion of that video (really just mech selection), and I had to stop to do something else. I didn't hear them knock MWO, but then again, like I said, I didn't get very far.

I know IGN has done a few videos on MWO, and they seemed interested. I think IGN would do more articles on this game when it is more representative of a final product.

Matter of fact, they did mention it in a recent article (but more about the direction of PC gaming)
http://www.ign.com/a...re-of-pc-gaming

"[color=#000000]Kelly Zmak, president of [/color]MechWarrior Online[color=#000000] publisher Infinite told IGN about the company’s efforts to grow the game through crowdfunding, “The MechWarrior audience has been a tremendous asset to us, both in defining what the product needs to be and also in helping us validate the assumptions we were going in with.”[/color]

[color=#000000]It's a small blurb, but better than nothing. Still, it shows the game isn't forgotten in the media.[/color]

[FlareUKCS]

What gets a lot of us closed beta testers is how the game seems to be getting worse at each patch... not better.

The game I put down money to get a founders pack in (I was in the closed beta BEFORE I bought my founders) was a lot more stompy robots battling it out, now its all sniper elite and heavy mechs drop faster than lights due to TT balanced hitboxes and armor mixed with FPS accuracy.

Take the last match I just tried (checking my OS re-install and MWO total re-install) , running the trial cataphract and spotted a enemy mech on a hill , targeted it for a PPC and AC/10 alpha with some MLAS chain fire... was about to revese back into cover when my mech toppled over...dead.
In the beta even when out matched it took a good number of hits to even down a medium mech, you could have a good toe to toe brawl... now its all sniper elite.
Its like default mechs are all made out of cardboard and every enemy carries a sodding AWP.

Mechs drop too fast and too easy, cockpit shots are getting too common...and with some weapons torso coring is nearly as easy.
Whats the point of having heavily armoured and armed battle robots if they die just as fast as common soldier getting sniped, its as pointless as having a tank game where there are weapons that can 1 shot the tank (of course everyone will get that weapon, and armoured battles turn into hiding in the hills and waiting for someone to get bored).

I truely and deeply regret putting my money down on PGi's product and will not do so ever again.

Edited by FlareUKCS, 14 December 2012 - 08:38 AM.

[Nonsense]

FlareUKCS, on 14 December 2012 - 08:37 AM, said:

The game I put down money to get a founders pack in (I was in the closed beta BEFORE I bought my founders) was a lot more stompy robots battling it out, now its all sniper elite and heavy mechs drop faster than lights due to TT balanced hitboxes and armor mixed with FPS accuracy.

I don't share this view at all. I think the game is getting better each patch (minus bugs, of course).

Quote

Take the last match I just tried (checking my OS re-install and MWO total re-install) , running the trial cataphract and spotted a enemy mech on a hill , targeted it for a PPC and AC/10 alpha with some MLAS chain fire... was about to revese back into cover when my mech toppled over...dead.

Sounds like you needed a scout. If you died as fast as you're trying to make it sound, you were clearly targeted by at least 2 or 3 enemies. Situational awareness and scouting prevents these kinds of deaths.

The way you describe your deaths, it sounds like you're the type of enemy I enjoy killing quickly becaus they aren't moving enough and they simply keep their mech turned square to the enemy and never turn their torso/arms to absorb damage. I can see how that would be frustrating, but the way I see it, these kinds of things aren't the game's fault.

[Felicitatem Parco]

I call this piece: Doom on You - Caustic

Yeah, the Doom threads are prevelent, but they almost always lack foresight. For instance, there's a couple nice Doom Threads about Community Warfare where the postes have conceded that "There will be no Community Warfare, and we are waiting for PGI to just admit that it's all a scam." Yes, they have already "determined" that there will be no Community Warfare, and the employees at PGI are just twiddling their thumbs while they simply drain the Founder's income in the form of weekly salary payments and overhead without work being performed.

You'll always find that naysayers have something to say. Sometimes it's based on facts, other times it's just based on emotion.

Well, I also hate to be the bearer of Doom... but this is kind of an Off-Topic Discussion. The general Discussion section of the forums is generally meant to discuss the gameplay features or stuff like that... but posting about Doom Threads is kind of just discussing the forums, themselves, and not the actual game. I'm going to slide ths down to Off Topic for now, but leave it open for discussion.

[FlareUKCS]

Even when focused fire a mech shouldnt just topple over dead...

The cockpit should shake , alarms should sound , Betty should be howling about critical damage etc etc... not oh ... you are dead, was that fun ?

As to situation awareness... how will that save you from a cockpit full off gauss ? I was in cover... I moved out to engage the target, and I planned to move back into cover... I didnt even see incoming fire (except some green MLAS from the target), I didnt have armor reduced, critical damage applied or even register I was taking damage... the bloody mech just fell over dead.
No doubt there was a sniper gauss mech who got in a alpha into my mechs cockpit and dropped it.

I dont recall ever, not once , dropping like that in the closed beta... not in any mech I piloted at the time... now even my Atlas is squishy.

[Grraarrgghh]

FlareUKCS, on 14 December 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

Even when focused fire a mech shouldnt just topple over dead...

The cockpit should shake , alarms should sound , Betty should be howling about critical damage etc etc... not oh ... you are dead, was that fun ?

As to situation awareness... how will that save you from a cockpit full off gauss ? I was in cover... I moved out to engage the target, and I planned to move back into cover... I didnt even see incoming fire (except some green MLAS from the target), I didnt have armor reduced, critical damage applied or even register I was taking damage... the bloody mech just fell over dead.
No doubt there was a sniper gauss mech who got in a alpha into my mechs cockpit and dropped it.

I dont recall ever, not once , dropping like that in the closed beta... not in any mech I piloted at the time... now even my Atlas is squishy.

Because the longer people play a game, the worse they're going to get, right?