91 replies to this topic

[CoffiNail]

Hey, I am just wanting to make sure that MWO will be able to support the multi-cultural units.

MY CGB unit on MWLL has guys from Canada, USA, Germany and Australia and we all would love to play together. With a region lock we would have to disband in to seperate units, and as one of the German guys is my second in command, and easily a good friend of mine now it would be upsetting to have to split ways for MWO.

I know of a good number of other units from MWLL and a few from MW4 who are the same, and I am sure they would not want to disband guys due to a region lock.

MWLL has world-wide servers, where pings of 150-200 occasionally crop up and rarely are there any real issues. Plus I have to say that it would really suck to have to break up the MW/BT community in to different regions. One of the things I just LOVE about BattleTech and MechWarrior is how wide spread it is globally, and I would not want to see the community have to split up due to it.

Just my thoughts/worries due to the tweetchat.

- - -

Official work from Bryan Ekman on page 2.

Garth Erlam, on 17 May 2012 - 03:15 PM, said:

So I got an official explanation: You will sign up for a specific region (North America, Europe, Asia, etc) but you do not have to be from that area.

So, each Merc Corps needs to choose a region, and all members join that region.

Edited by CoffiNail, 18 May 2012 - 09:45 AM.

[Adridos]

They said they are going to have regional servers, so that means you'd all have to register on one server, or wait until th ecustom servers become available.

[Barantor]

My unit is also multi national and a region lock would cut my playing group by 33% or so.

Region locking would be bad in my opinion.

Edited by Barantor, 17 May 2012 - 10:47 AM.

[Shiinore]

I remember HoN had regional servers. These things were balanced by people from US West connecting to US East servers to balance the lag with EU players.

[Havoc2]

Can we just straight up ban people from Quebec and put everyone else together?

Quebec wants to be by themselves anyway.

[Thornn]

Good thread, Coffi.

Region locking is a barrier to players...to some it might not be a big deal, but to some folks its a deal breaker if they can't roll with their chosen crew. Some things are not always possible, but I would hope that PGI would at least look into promoting this accessibility on behalf of their fans

[CoffiNail]

}{avoc, on 17 May 2012 - 10:54 AM, said:

Can we just straight up ban people from Quebec and put everyone else together?

Quebec wants to be by themselves anyway.

Careful IGP is from Quebec, you want to play MWO right? Might not be a good idea to have the publishers dislike you

[TyR]

Agreed. Since I have been playing the various incarnations of MW over the years, there have almost in every case I can think of been at least one, often more, person from another region of the world. It would be a shame to not be able to fight along side or against people who I was able to in previous games.

In most cases, the most common barrier I see now appears to be language as connections around the world are often suitable for modern games. If the connection is fine, I see no reason to restrict by region other than possibly for language. That itself would be tough due to the fact that many people around the world are multilingual. Even if there is a language difference that is a bit of an issue for teamwork that could be helped out perhaps with some basic in game stock commands/messages.

Overall I think the best option to provide the most rewarding experience for players and that will provide the longest (most profitable) period of entertainment would be to keep the community together. This would let players team with whom they want and be able to fight against the best of the best. Over time as the population diminishes, as happens in all games, a single, larger base would be more effective in giving people a reason to stick around longer.

[Evgeny Bear]

I could live with splitted servers, but would be half the fun if we can not fight against players from all arround the world.
I hope we will have one good server to have lesser lag and all that, as long as the serverbase is strong the game will last longer.
I see no problem in language, as long as its no spam in the round and everyone focus on playing rather then chatting
(WoT polish/czech spam and so I mean.... can really be annoying)

[Gouty]

Wow! That is a long title.

But yes I agree, it would suck if I couldn't drop with my CJW trothkin around the globe. And I am sure that the majority of the community would agree. I am sure even units that are comprised of members from the same region would want to be able face off against people from other areas.

I don't see ping being as much of an issue as other more "twitchy" games.

[Garth Erlam]

What would you guys prefer, a WoT style "Do you want: Russian (or) North American?" for your account, or to pick a region when you first log in, or something else?

[Aegis Kleais]

Garth Erlam, on 17 May 2012 - 11:43 AM, said:

What would you guys prefer, a WoT style "Do you want: Russian (or) North American?" for your account, or to pick a region when you first log in, or something else?

The most minimal option is the best, to me. On first run, have it auto-detect your region and set you to it. But in options, allow players to modify it to their preference.

Depending on how things go, the amount of servers running games in North America might be low during certain times, but usually I still prefer it than accidentally skipping the pond and seeing 100-500ms jumps in pings.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Garth Erlam, on 17 May 2012 - 11:43 AM, said:

What would you guys prefer, a WoT style "Do you want: Russian (or) North American?" for your account, or to pick a region when you first log in, or something else?

Simple, something that divides the community in the smallest possible way to keep the game active with plenty of people to play at whatever time people log on to play.
But a system that does not inhibit people who have played together in various online games for DECADES from doing so in MWO because of regional servers.

So a potential solution, is a single over arching metagame whereby players can pick a home region (Asia or Everywhere else) but a facility in game that allows people to swap between regions in game uninhibited so that multi-region units can continuously play together.

Technically possible, affordable to PGI *shrug*

I can not stress enough, that regardless of other features in the game, this single point of game play will be the make or break for many many people if not done right.

Edited by DV^McKenna, 17 May 2012 - 12:11 PM.

[Dr Roshima]

Garth Erlam, on 17 May 2012 - 11:43 AM, said:

What would you guys prefer, a WoT style "Do you want: Russian (or) North American?" for your account, or to pick a region when you first log in, or something else?

having the ability to choose from all worldwide servers which one you want to join.

[MausGMR]

Regional servers for match making are fine, but make sure that we can group up with our Merc buddies and play at whatever server works out best for all of us I guess?

Anyway being able to play with US and Euro's alike is a massive selling point of this game for me, probably more so than any other single piece of content.

[Felicitatem Parco]

I think there should be simple regional matchmaking (either auto-detected or by manual choice from a list, as set by the user) for anyone who chooses to go into battle without a pre-set list of friends. That's easy enough if you're not part of a multinational group.

Also, you should be able to buddy-up outside of the missions prior to joining regional matchmaking as a group... this implies there should be some kind of in-game PM/partying system that can access all servers throughout the globe as you prepare your party, then you all move as a group to a singular regional matchaking server system.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 17 May 2012 - 01:26 PM.

[Tyrant]

Garth Erlam, on 17 May 2012 - 11:43 AM, said:

What would you guys prefer, a WoT style "Do you want: Russian (or) North American?" for your account, or to pick a region when you first log in, or something else?

Please allow people to choose where they want to play.

In WoT once your account is created on a server it cannot be moved to another (bad), having one account and choosing which server to log into sounds like a very good solution.

Many units are made up people from different time zones, please do not restrict them from playing together.

[Garth Erlam]

It seems 'let us choose our region while in game' is the most prevalent request.

[Hartsblade]

+1 for organizing the team in a lobby and then picking a server to drop into as a group regardless of region.

Edited by Hartsblade, 17 May 2012 - 02:03 PM.

[Sprouticus]

Garth Erlam, on 17 May 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

It seems 'let us choose our region while in game' is the most prevalent request.

Yes. One meta universe, for solo players, let them set the region. For groups, let the group leaders region be the setting. For North America, this allows night owls to play on Euro servers, 3rd shifters to play in Asia-Pac, and us 9-5 ers to play NA evening time.

Same for other regions and for groups with Euro or NA players playing in other regions


One issue which may or may not be a problem is people intentionally lagging themselves by playing cross continent.