19 replies to this topic

[Niven Ge]

So after taking a much needed break, I've decided I'd ask a few questions before I jump back into MWO:

Is the grind still hellish?

What was added/changed/fixed?

Are there still terrible performance issues?

I know I could probably take several days to go look up all that, but then I'd lose the want to play again. (Forums tend to do that) It's a little easier just to make a post and get links.

[Sean von Steinike]

You could just start by looking at the patch notes and Command Chair announcements.

[Vassago Rain]

They're officially removing the grind. You basically get a free mech for some basic playing in a few hours, and a whole bunch of new gear has added features to the game, like ECM.

[Niven Ge]

I have been looking at the patch notes when they come around. I do lurk the forums still.

Also, mech in a few hours worth of playing? Ok now I'm already interested in playing again. Quite glad the R&R is gone. Now I can actually try other mechs than just sticking with the Commando. I don't have the time nor patience to deal with the hyper grind. It is what caused me to stop playing in the first place.

[Vassago Rain]

Niven Ge, on 18 December 2012 - 01:03 AM, said:

I have been looking at the patch notes when they come around. I do lurk the forums still.

Also, mech in a few hours worth of playing? Ok now I'm already interested in playing again. Quite glad the R&R is gone. Now I can actually try other mechs than just sticking with the Commando. I don't have the time nor patience to deal with the hyper grind. It is what caused me to stop playing in the first place.

They're cutting the grind SEVERELY. There's a link somewhere that gives you 24 hours of free premtime, too, We're getting the stalker in literally hours, and probably ballistic changes, so they become a bit more reliable.

If you have X games logged, you get basically 7 million space bucks to spend, and if you have less, you get an increased money production. Also, new game mode.

[Niven Ge]

Vassago Rain, on 18 December 2012 - 01:12 AM, said:

They're cutting the grind SEVERELY. There's a link somewhere that gives you 24 hours of free premtime, too, We're getting the stalker in literally hours, and probably ballistic changes, so they become a bit more reliable.

If you have X games logged, you get basically 7 million space bucks to spend, and if you have less, you get an increased money production. Also, new game mode.

Good, that means I actually have a reason to buy MC now that I can get more mechs in a shorter time. There was no point at all for getting new hangars since I knew that I'd never be realistically able to get more than 2 mechs.

Really, it was frustrating and really boring to play Commando constantly. Now I can buy the mechs I want to try out without the worry of going negative for a loadout mistake on larger mechs.

[ArmandTulsen]

Use ECM, or get horribly ****** right in the ***, every time.

[Vassago Rain]

ArmandTulsen, on 18 December 2012 - 01:17 AM, said:

Use ECM, or get horribly ****** right in the ***, every time.

Not really. Just work with the ECM on your side. You don't need to have it yourself. Kong operates with 1-3 ECM mechs just fine.

[ArmandTulsen]

Okay, let me rephrase that.

Have 2-3 ECM on your team, or get horribly ****** right in the ***, almost every time.

[Niven Ge]

ArmandTulsen, on 18 December 2012 - 01:17 AM, said:

Use ECM, or get horribly ****** right in the ***, every time.

I have read about that, Vassago is right. Lone wolf-ing is now near impossible. Which is good.

[Vassago Rain]

Niven Ge, on 18 December 2012 - 01:19 AM, said:

I have read about that, Vassago is right. Lone wolf-ing is now near impossible. Which is good.

I find it works just fine.

ECM is a simple, effective system. The problem is, it's available on lagshielded lights that also get homing missiles, and need 100 atlases with ECM and their own homing missiles as a counter.

When neither side has a swarm of ravens, ECM adds a lot to the game, because you can setup traps and ambushes. We streamed a game where it came down to setting up a killbox around an enemy team, using mostly the mark 1 eyeball and common sense to predict movement.

[Niven Ge]

Well, it's good to see that the forum doesn't seem as negative now. (Aside from QQ posts)

Now I wonder if my poor aging computer will still have problems with it. At least I don't have to worry about losing money if it decides to misbehave.

[Vassago Rain]

Niven Ge, on 18 December 2012 - 01:29 AM, said:

Well, it's good to see that the forum doesn't seem as negative now. (Aside from QQ posts)

Now I wonder if my poor aging computer will still have problems with it. At least I don't have to worry about losing money if it decides to misbehave.

The game currently can't properly use futuretech, or even good graphics cards, and puts the strain on your CPU. If you have a strong dual core, you'll probably have better performance than me with my 3000 dollar laptop.

Turn off particles, post-processing, and AA in the game itself.

[Niven Ge]

Any fancy config-enabling fixes that still work?

3.0GHz Dual Core is still too shoddy for MWO without some serious tweaks. I got passable performance by ramping it down to MW3 quality through the config. I actually had to turn off trees because of some weird Cryengine3 issues with texture streaming.

[Vassago Rain]

Niven Ge, on 18 December 2012 - 01:35 AM, said:

Any fancy config-enabling fixes that still work?

3.0GHz Dual Core is still too shoddy for MWO without some serious tweaks. I got passable performance by ramping it down to MW3 quality through the config. I actually had to turn off trees because of some weird Cryengine3 issues with texture streaming.

Try going into the nvidia control panel and forcing your card to use threaded optimization, and forced off on v-sync. If you turn off the particles, post-processing, and AA in the game, it will run on much weaker specs than what they list, as long as your hardware's supported.

I guess there are benefits to running an engine that was optimized for use on the xbox 360.

[dario03]

1. The economy is changing with the patch thats coming out in 8 hours. The way you earn money will be different and if you're new you get a bonus for your first 25 matches (old players get a one time bonus of ~7,800,000)

2. Thats hard to answer since you didn't say how long you've been gone. The most recent major change was ECM which makes it so you can't lock on to mechs in ECM range and messes your radar up.

3. Yes. as far as I can tell performance still varies greatly so it runs fine for some people and very bad for others. I personally can run the game on low with mostly constant 30fps on a 3ghz core 2 quad, 4870 512MB, 4GB ram computer but I still get problems like crash to desktop bugs, yellow screen, no hud, 0.01fps, 8bit graphics, black screen probably about 1 out of 8 games

[Niven Ge]

Vassago Rain, on 18 December 2012 - 01:37 AM, said:

Try going into the nvidia control panel and forcing your card to use threaded optimization, and forced off on v-sync. If you turn off the particles, post-processing, and AA in the game, it will run on much weaker specs than what they list, as long as your hardware's supported.

I guess there are benefits to running an engine that was optimized for use on the xbox 360.

Wait, you can turn off particles now without fancy config edits? Or did I read that wrong?

[Vassago Rain]

Niven Ge, on 18 December 2012 - 01:40 AM, said:

Wait, you can turn off particles now without fancy config edits? Or did I read that wrong?

Yes, there are sliders in the options menu for many graphic options. Those are the big offenders, and particles mess up more than they add, in my opinion.

[Niven Ge]

Vassago Rain, on 18 December 2012 - 01:42 AM, said:

Yes, there are sliders in the options menu for many graphic options. Those are the big offenders, and particles mess up more than they add, in my opinion.

Nice, so maybe I can actually play the game again.

I swear it's like MWO is using a software renderer it sucks up so much CPU...

[PANZERBUNNY]

All signs point to...."what else can you play until they hopefully fix this."