176 replies to this topic

[Redshift2k5]

I hope you're all as excited as I am, this week's patch is a doozy!

Some things to please bear in mind:

Server downtime typically begins around Tuesday 10 am PST (1pm EST, 6 pm GMT)

Server downtime typically lasts about 2-3 hours. Forums will be down/unstable during this downtime. You may not be able to login.

Patch deployment comes after the downtime (approx 1pm PST, 4 pm EST, 9pm GMT)

Patch notes are typically not delivered until the patch deployment phase.

Patch Notes will be available here when they are ready:

http://mwomercs.com/game/patch-notes

Currently announced for inclusion on the Dec 18 Patch:

• Double Dragon! Two Dragon Hero Mechs(video released, unconfirned date) http://mwomercs.com/...ons-hero-mechs/
  
• River City Alternate - Night (video released, unconfirmed date) http://www.youtube.c...X-RuCQmQI#t=14s
  
• Stalker (STK-3F, STK-5M, STK-3H, STK-4N, STK-5S) http://mwomercs.com/...assault/stalker
  
• Conquest Mode (new match type!) http://mwomercs.com/...-mode-conquest/
  
• Cadet bonus http://mwomercs.com/...mber-18th-2012/
  
  • New users can earn their first mech(of any weight class) in a very small number of matches
    
  • Existing users will recieve a lump-sum payment of 7.9 million C-bills
• Economic changes http://mwomercs.com/...mber-18th-2012/
  
• Phranken, Dazzle, Urban for all mechs http://mwomercs.com/...ember-4th-2012/
  
• New holiday items http://mwomercs.com/...ember-4th-2012/
  
• Piranha Hunt Winners banner/Community Contributor banner http://mwomercs.com/...ember-4th-2012/
  
• Projectile & PPC speed increase http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1546429
  
• TAG range buff and NARC duration buff confirmed for the 18th http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1546429
  
• LRM mech penetration bug fix http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1506153
  
• Floating missile bay doors bug fix http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1509018
  
• Crazy Wavy Bullets bug fix http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1554422
  
• Reduction in CTDs and overall performance improvements http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1587423

Stalker announced variants - 3F, 5M, 3H, 4N, 5S



STK-3F; 2x LRM10, 2x SRM6, 4x Medium Laser, 2x Large laser....(4 Missile 6 Energy) *base variant
STK-5M; 2x LRM10, 2x SRM6, 4x Medium Laser 1x NARC, 1x L.laser, DHS......(5 Missile 5 Energy)
STK-3H; 2x LRM20, 2x SRM6, 4x Medium laser...............................(4 Missile 4 Energy)
STK-4N; 1x LRM10, 2x SRM6, 4x Medium Laser, 2x Large Laser...............(3 Missile 6 Energy)
STK-5S; 2x LRM10, 2x SRM6, 4x M.Las, 2x L.P.las, CASE, XL engine, AMS.....(4 Missile 6 Energy AMS) *bonus AMS?
(minimum hardpoints listed based on stock weaponry)

This is an educational thread written to provide one-stop-shopping for upcoming updates. Let's stay on topic and leave complaints about individual items to their respective threads and/or the patch feedback section.

All information based on published material, sources cited where applicable. Not endorsed by PGI/IGP.

Edited by Redshift2k5, 18 December 2012 - 09:51 AM.

[J4ckInthebox]

Quote

“AFK players will now be earning little to no C-Bills/XP per game. The large rewards for winning or losing have been removed and only a fraction of what was there before will be rewarded at match end.” Take that, you lazy goons

For the love of....how hard it is to award them NOTHING? you know, nada, zero, rien, nichts, niente, ничего,
皆無 ?

AFK farmers will adapt with bots, anyway.

Edited by J4ckInthebox, 17 December 2012 - 05:03 AM.

[FiveDigits]

J4ckInthebox, on 17 December 2012 - 04:57 AM, said:

For the love of....how hard it is to award them NOTHING? you know, nada, zero, rien, nichts, niente, ничего,
皆無 ?

Quite hard actually. The problem is to reliably identify which players are AFK. Even industry giants like World of Warcraft struggle with this task in the light of fake input generated by macros/scripts/bots.

[Elkarlo]

J4ckInthebox, on 17 December 2012 - 04:57 AM, said:

For the love of....how hard it is to award them NOTHING? you know, nada, zero, rien, nichts, niente, ничего,
皆無 ?

AFK farmers will adapt with bots, anyway.

Thats the Problem they will use Bots and the People which had CTD will be punished more.

Atm i am troubled that they overdo it, and then driving a Heavy will get to expensiv.
It is right now expensiv like hell. And then you get Cored by a Gauscat that you didn't see comming because of the ECM or worse a Sixsixcat shredds you into pieces because it popped right out in front of you... then you have a repair Bill of 80k and because you did nothing only 20 Damage because you was blinded by the Missles and then you get 30k or so...

That will be far worse for MWO as the AFK farmers, when they overdo it...

Edited by Elkarlo, 17 December 2012 - 05:08 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

J4ckInthebox, on 17 December 2012 - 04:57 AM, said:

For the love of....how hard it is to award them NOTHING? you know, nada, zero, rien, nichts, niente, ничего,
皆無 ?

As long as they earn the slightest amount of money, they will continue to do it.

Part of the issue is, a baseline value is rewarded to facilitate new/inexperienced players. Of course, we are also recieving a new cadet bonus to facilitate new players instead, so we'll have to wait and see what the actual economic values end up being.

It might be easy to identify a totally non-input player, but detecting client-side scripted behavior compared to a player who is just bad is much more difficult. And even a bad player deserves some payout.

Edited by Redshift2k5, 17 December 2012 - 05:06 AM.

[CDLord HHGD]

I did not know about the Cadet Bonus. Nicely done PGI. And just by one of those links above, two more maps by Feb. Outstanding!

[Zanathan]

cdlord, on 17 December 2012 - 05:05 AM, said:

I did not know about the Cadet Bonus. Nicely done PGI. And just by one of those links above, two more maps by Feb. Outstanding!

I wonder how they are going to distinguish a new player from someone who has 'just' started? Is it a blanket, new player/new account only get this bonus? Since if it isn't, I can already hear the cries of "Its not fair|

[CDLord HHGD]

Zanathan, on 17 December 2012 - 05:12 AM, said:

I wonder how they are going to distinguish a new player from someone who has 'just' started? Is it a blanket, new player/new account only get this bonus? Since if it isn't, I can already hear the cries of "Its not fair|

The article said that the first 25 matches will get a cbill boost. So I'm guessing that'll be easy to track, like the rest of the stats). So, based on a new account only probably.

Edited by cdlord, 17 December 2012 - 05:15 AM.

[neviu]

Cant wait for the stalker!
The ppcs are gonne be rocking now!

[elbloom]

Elkarlo, on 17 December 2012 - 05:04 AM, said:

Thats the Problem they will use Bots and the People which had CTD will be punished more.

Atm i am troubled that they overdo it, and then driving a Heavy will get to expensiv.
It is right now expensiv like hell. And then you get Cored by a Gauscat that you didn't see comming because of the ECM or worse a Sixsixcat shredds you into pieces because it popped right out in front of you... then you have a repair Bill of 80k and because you did nothing only 20 Damage because you was blinded by the Missles and then you get 30k or so...

That will be far worse for MWO as the AFK farmers, when they overdo it...

Overdo it ? I beg you, Sir, not every match you play will be duds like you explain, so you will make money if you have some matches where you shine.

But when you have 2 afk, all players will get the hefty repair bill, because they WILL loose - the problem with them afk-farmers is much much worse than an individual having to grind some cash.

IMO they should make it so when you are in a match the client connects you to this match until it is finished - no quitting, no farming, if you play a match - play the WHOLE match !! And if you do 0 damage and don´t stop a cap and have no spotting assists, well, no cbills for you

[Stone Wall]

This sounds like a great patch.

[Elkarlo]

I said overdoing it,.. personally i think Upping the Cbills for Damage and Spotting and
putting the base C-Bill down to 75% would be the best solution...

But i fear we will get only 25% of the Base C-Bill and only twice of the earnings...

And that will call a Shitstorm never heard before.

As it would putt down an Average Won Battle down to 25k Basics and earnings around 80k for the good players.. so they can Pay the Bills a Lost battle well fought will be 12,5k and earnings around 60k.
+ Prem Bonus


But very often you land very fast killed by the better players and then you can't afford playing Heavy's anymore.

This are my earnings when i land on the top places of my Team. Around 50k Bonus for fighting well + Prem on that. And there is the Problems... i get 100k Flat for a win and when i fight like hell i get 50k Bonus...

75k for a win and 50k for a loose and doubled C-Bill earnings would be okey for paying the Bills but reduced down to 25k and 12k and only Double C-Bill earnings or even the Same... then it will Rain.

Edited by Elkarlo, 17 December 2012 - 05:44 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

Zanathan, on 17 December 2012 - 05:12 AM, said:

I wonder how they are going to distinguish a new player from someone who has 'just' started? Is it a blanket, new player/new account only get this bonus? Since if it isn't, I can already hear the cries of "Its not fair|

cdlord, on 17 December 2012 - 05:14 AM, said:

The article said that the first 25 matches will get a cbill boost. So I'm guessing that'll be easy to track, like the rest of the stats). So, based on a new account only probably.

Which is very unfortunate for anyone who has started very recently but has not yet amassed a large amount of c-bills- such as anyone who has playes 30-40 matches. It would actually be better to drop your account and start over again if you've played 26 or more matches but have nto yet bought your first mech(and if the person has bought MC, they'll be stuck between a rock and a hard place)

A flat-rate payout to existing accounts with more than 25 matches would be ideal, retroactively giving them what they would have earned.

Since nobody apparantly understands timestamps, the above comment was written four hours prior to the actual revelation of the cadet bonus retroactive payment details.

Edited by Redshift2k5, 18 December 2012 - 04:38 AM.

[Sebastian Helvetia]

The PPC change will not be in the patch. Read the Info in the link exactly. Btw. ...even 2000m/s is to slow if a projectil weapon can do it too

[Gristle]

Redshift2k5, on 17 December 2012 - 04:54 AM, said:

• 
  
• LRM mech penetration bug fix http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1506153
  

This is actually a fix for LRM's penetrating scenery objects, not Mechs. An interesting thing about this fix is that they did it in code, when the actual problem is with the artwork.

[xxx WreckinBallRaj xxx]

J4ckInthebox, on 17 December 2012 - 04:57 AM, said:

For the love of....how hard it is to award them NOTHING? you know, nada, zero, rien, nichts, niente, ничего,
皆無 ?

AFK farmers will adapt with bots, anyway.

Keine rewards!

[Antonio]

Sebastian Helvetia, on 17 December 2012 - 05:49 AM, said:

The PPC change will not be in the patch. Read the Info in the link exactly. Btw. ...even 2000m/s is to slow if a projectil weapon can do it too

That's right. Paul says that the autocannon projectile speed increase and the TAG and NARC changes will be in this patch. He does not mention PPCs which could just be that he forgot or that they are not going to touch PPCs this patch.

[Redshift2k5]

Sebastian Helvetia, on 17 December 2012 - 05:49 AM, said:

The PPC change will not be in the patch. Read the Info in the link exactly. Btw. ...even 2000m/s is to slow if a projectil weapon can do it too

The subsequent post reads "The above mentioned AutoCannon changes, NARC change and TAG changes will be in the Dec. 18th patch." http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__1591483

Which does not explicitly include the PPC projectile speed increase, but does not explicitly exclude it either.

Edited by Redshift2k5, 17 December 2012 - 05:57 AM.

[xRaeder]

FiveDigits, on 17 December 2012 - 05:02 AM, said:

Quite hard actually. The problem is to reliably identify which players are AFK. Even industry giants like World of Warcraft struggle with this task in the light of fake input generated by macros/scripts/bots.

Not really. If the game had been designed properly in the beginning with server browsers and immediate c-bill reward... I dunno like 90% of the other FPSes out there... it would be simple to add in an AFK kick timer and the player could be replaced by another.

Edited by xRaeder, 17 December 2012 - 06:13 AM.

[zverofaust]

So this is PGI's idea of redesigning the New Player Experience... to make them go through it twice as fast. Absolutely no thought or acknowledgement of how painful and idiotic an experience it is. It's not going to change much. New Players will still jump ship after a few games of crap.

Of course given how they've completely ignored how **** their original game mode was and all they're doing is releasing yet another **** game mode without acknowledging or confronting how broken the original is, this is pretty much PGI in a nutshell.

Edited by zverofaust, 17 December 2012 - 06:17 AM.