605 replies to this topic

[Bryan Ekman]

kay wolf, on 04 November 2011 - 04:03 PM, said:

I would really like to hear more about the Merc Corps HQ mentioned in the PC Gamer article, please? Will there be a similar HQ for Houses, Clans, etc. Will players even be able to play the Clans right away, or into the future? Okay, too many questions; sorry, Bryan. This was a really good blog post and I'm happy to see it.

We'll get into feature details in the coming months. We're rolling out a very cool content schedule, which includes more dev blogs, interviews with staff members, concept art, screenshots, etc etc

[Bryan Ekman]

lyonn, on 04 November 2011 - 03:58 PM, said:

Bryan you've written a big post but didn't mentionwhat you expect to sell. Lets have some examples of each type of thing

More details will come once we reveal the gameplay side of things. Plus I don't want to talk about anything that is not BETA yet.

[Sirisian]

I'm indifferent to F2P, but I'm slightly bothered by this write-up.

InnerSphereNews, on 04 November 2011 - 03:21 PM, said:

How many times have you bought a game for 60 bucks and felt disappointed? Or if you're like me, paid 60 bucks, played for 2 hours and never touched the game again because you get busy with life or work? Or loved a game so much, that you wished there was more, only to wait 2 years for a sequel! The Free-To-Play model solves this problem by allowing players to drive value and content.

It's hardly a problem. Even bad games I'll find I've enjoyed them for 25 hours before setting them down forever which equates to 2.50 USD per hour which is a fairly decent entertainment rate. Especially given that a movie in comparison can be a 5 USD/hour rate.

Trying to say you bought a game then only played it for 2 hours when it probably had a lot more content is less the game's fault and is a fairly weak argument for F2P.

InnerSphereNews, on 04 November 2011 - 03:21 PM, said:

The core experience is available to anyone for no cost at all. You as the player, get to choose how and if you spend money. And make no mistake, I want you to spend money, but only on the things YOU value. In fact, when you spend your money, it tells me that we've succeeded in creating a game players enjoy. Sounds like a basket full of carrots to me.

What if I don't value cosmetics, or I value even competition in games? How does buying items play into that.

InnerSphereNews, on 04 November 2011 - 03:21 PM, said:

These rewards take many forms, including in-game currency called C-Bills, experience points, and prestige. Players can also purchase items which make this experience more fun, engaging, or efficient depending on what matters to them.

"Efficient". Clever wording. Should have just said "convenience items". It's a lot more subtle.

InnerSphereNews, on 04 November 2011 - 03:21 PM, said:

For example, if you are an offense player like me, you will be rewarded with money, experience, and prestige by dealing damage, and killing or helping to kill the enemy. I'm also a collector; I love to own one of everything. So MWO provides me with the ability to acquire and store items of value (collector), while rewarding me for doing what I love most, crushing other MechWarriors in the field of battle (offense player)!

We are catering to all major player archetypes, the lone wolf, the team player, the collector, the efficiency/tuner, the tinkerer/builder, the leader and many more.

These aren't really exclusive to a F2P system. They're basically just describing persistent RPG mechanisms and play styles.

InnerSphereNews, on 04 November 2011 - 03:21 PM, said:

There are those who will rumble about Pay-2-Win, which equates to the person with the biggest wallet winning. I'm not going to lie, some things can and will allow you to acquire items faster, or even instantly with real cash.

Foul! Foul! You said you can't buy a tactical advantage! That's a stick! That guy with the wallet is going to be able to buy the biggest, bad assed items in the game! He's going to kick my **** with his wallet.
[snip]
One of our core pillars is Role Warfare and is designed to, well level the playing field another concept from our original design. We're doing away with the arms race and making BattleMechs of all shapes and sizes have a purpose and role on the battlefield. If you love scouting, grab that light mech, train and gear it up. Be that sneaky guy who relays critical information back to the rest of your lance. Maybe you're a commander type, who loves to multitask, directing fire support, air strikes, and multiple lances in a mech suitable to that role. If you play any of these roles well, and with skill, you will be rewarded.

So remember this, time and experience (the real kind), will always equal greater skill. Greater skill will always equal more rewards. You can't buy skill, you earn it.

I don't really see the incentive in paying money then if you're basically saying it doesn't really do anything. I mean if we have all the carrots then okay this will be interesting. Good luck.

Edited by Sirisian, 04 November 2011 - 04:15 PM.

[MajorTom]

Bryan Ekman, on 04 November 2011 - 04:04 PM, said:

We'll get into feature details in the coming months. We're rolling out a very cool content schedule, which includes more dev bligs, interviews with staff members, concept art, screenshots, etc etc

But I want all of that NAO!!! lol

Seriously, keep up the great work. Veteran BT players know that every mech has a role and, within weight classes at least, there are few mechs (or even weapons) that are heads and shoulders above their contemporaries. I saw a suggestion the other day that offered the suggestion of a Trebuchet being the mech available to routine players and the Dervish being available for $. Both are medium fire support mechs and its difficult to say one is better than the other, and I hope to see something akin to that. Get a Grasshopper with C-Bills, pay $ for a Guillotine (practically the same mech in all but name), etc etc.

[Dsi1]

This is certainly refreshing news, but I'd like to see a list of what to expect to (only be able to?) pay for before the game releases.

[Alistair Steiner]

Ah, juicy little info blurb here. Thanks, guys. I like what I see, and MWLL also has that "help kill the enemy" model. And it's not just assists. You can help by damaging the opponent, sure, but there's also the infamous NARC or TAG, as well as even sharing info via the C3 or hiding your buddies with the Guardian ECM. I made a LOT of C-Bills the other night in a Raven thanks to that. Not to mention everyone working together and minimizing losses while we steamrolled the enemy. Good times... Can't wait to see how this all works out.

Dividan, on 04 November 2011 - 03:40 PM, said:

Ok...I'm sold. I'm not even gonna buy things I'm just going to give you cash for the great game (Can I do that? Like donate?).

I feel the same way. I mean, yeah, I'd love to pay for little customization options (having an artist girlfriend does that to a guy), but I'd happily donate just to donate.

[metro]

Ladie and gents,

As I said in another post....PGI , Bryan and Russ are BT/MW fans. This game will not be everything we want it to be from the git go, but with time, patience, committment to one another and a little room for them to breathe, I believe it will evolve into everything we want it to be.

We may have to take baby steps.....but I tell ya, its better than where we were just 2 weeks ago, not too mention 2 years ago or 10.

Edited by metro, 04 November 2011 - 04:14 PM.

[Threat Doc]

Bryan Ekman, on 04 November 2011 - 04:04 PM, said:

We'll get into feature details in the coming months. We're rolling out a very cool content schedule, which includes more dev blogs, interviews with staff members, concept art, screenshots, etc etc

Oh, now I'm looking forward to all of that. By the way, I don't know who did your 'Mechs in the image from the top of this page, which were of course separated into individual images for the PC Gamer article, but they are awesome... I've never seen the Jenner look THAT awesome. I'm not a big fan of that 'Mech, personally, but it actually has some modicum of intimidation value, now, hehe, and at least the concept looks like military equipment instead of the **** we got for MWIV (the core game stuff, not the Mektek guys... their stuff was awesome).

[Bryan Ekman]

kay wolf, on 04 November 2011 - 04:17 PM, said:

Oh, now I'm looking forward to all of that. By the way, I don't know who did your 'Mechs in the image from the top of this page, which were of course separated into individual images for the PC Gamer article, but they are awesome... I've never seen the Jenner look THAT awesome. I'm not a big fan of that 'Mech, personally, but it actually has some modicum of intimidation value, now, hehe, and at least the concept looks like military equipment instead of the **** we got for MWIV (the core game stuff, not the Mektek guys... their stuff was awesome).

@flyingdebris He's wicked. You'll get to see plenty more from him soon.

[metro]

Bryan Ekman, on 04 November 2011 - 04:24 PM, said:

@flyingdebris He's wicked. You'll get to see plenty more from him soon.

Thanks Bryan, We love it. I just think people are anxious. Its kinda obvious huh?

I trust you guys...well I dug through all of your trash cans, and got your HISTORY ! =) NO not stalking.

But either way, finally........BT/MW in the hands of BT/MW pilots who know what the H E LL they are doing.

We are all cheering for ya!

[Bryan Ekman]

Sirisian, on 04 November 2011 - 04:09 PM, said:

I don't really see the incentive in paying money then if you're basically saying it doesn't really do anything. I mean if we have all the carrots then okay this will be interesting. Good luck.

I look forward to earning your time and business!

[taxman]

Hi Bryan & Crew,

Excellent work so far. As long as one cannot buy experience then I am in for the Long Haul

As I see it I should be able to earn my 20% Taxing times are here again

I Just realised My Nova Cat is wrong...... going to have to make me a new Black Hawk to keep in with the time line!! ouch.

[wargames]

rollermint, on 04 November 2011 - 03:38 PM, said:

With regards to WOT, it doesn't ruin gameplay...for random matches.

It totally ruins gameplay for competitive clan matches. You are forced to buy gold ammo and kits if you want to even hope to have a chance to be competitive.

But yes to certain mechs, custom paintjob, or forming a full lance or even multiple lances, to form a mercenary company, extra mechbays etc etc.

As a member of NDP in WOT this is untrue, the vast vast majority of the time we don't use gold ammo or anything, we win most of our matches by being good at the game.

[Tyra]

Alistair Steiner, on 04 November 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

I feel the same way. I mean, yeah, I'd love to pay for little customization options (having an artist girlfriend does that to a guy), but I'd happily donate just to donate.

My wife colors comics for a living, so customization is a big thing for us XD

I've got her sold on SWTOR (wasn't hard, we MET in WoW) but I'm having trouble selling her on Battletech

[metro]

Tyra, on 04 November 2011 - 04:48 PM, said:

My wife colors comics for a living, so customization is a big thing for us XD

I've got her sold on SWTOR (wasn't hard, we MET in WoW) but I'm having trouble selling her on Battletech

Then hit her with a PPC, and while her head is rattling, take her pocket book out and grab a $100 note and stick in your pocket and keep your mouth shut about it.

and just say yes HONEY !

[Razor Kotovsky]

I'm with Sirisian on this one. Sure i'll keep close watch on MWO but, having played three quite big F2P projects (APB, NFSW, WoT) that promised the same philosophy turned P2W or dangerously close to, i'm not holding my breath.

Spoiler

APB went full ****** on lease-only for ingame currency and instant availability for $, NFSW effectively cut content in halft, WoT doesn't evolve beyond new maps&tanks despite their huge success and cashflow (the former two haven't evolved since BETA that were more than a year ago, for ***** sake). Wargaming say they can't find new programmers, hah!

wargames, on 04 November 2011 - 04:41 PM, said:

As a member of NDP in WOT this is untrue, the vast vast majority of the time we don't use gold ammo or anything, we win most of our matches by being good at the game.

So modest. You have to be THE BEST to hold any territory in clan wars (on russian server at least) without golden ammo and consumables.
Not that it's worth it, however. Platooning with friends is where it's at.

Edited by Razor Kotovsky, 04 November 2011 - 05:00 PM.

[Alistair Steiner]

Tyra, on 04 November 2011 - 04:48 PM, said:

My wife colors comics for a living, so customization is a big thing for us XD

I've got her sold on SWTOR (wasn't hard, we MET in WoW) but I'm having trouble selling her on Battletech

It's taken a bit of time. She still hasn't made herself a pilot yet, but currently she's running a Mac (also a graphic designer), so probably won't be able to play on that system. She'll eventually get a game PC for other games she can't play (Mass Effect, Bioshock), so she'll probably hop in after that. Just takes time, mate.

[metro]

Razor Kotovsky, on 04 November 2011 - 04:52 PM, said:

I'm with Sirisian on this one. Sure i'll keep close watch on MWO but, having played three quite big F2P projects (APB, NFSW, WoT) that promised the same philosophy turned P2W or dangerously close to, i'm not holding my breath.

Spoiler

APB went full ****** on lease-only for ingame currency and instan availability, NFSW effectively cut content in half, WoT doesn't evolve beyond new maps&tanks despite their huge success and cashflow.

So modest. You have to be THE BEST to hold any territory in clan wars (on russian server at least) without golden ammo and consumables.
Not that they are worth it, however. Platooning with friends is where it's at.

thats them...this is BT/MW

We have more class!

Edited by metro, 04 November 2011 - 04:57 PM.

[wargames]

Razor Kotovsky, on 04 November 2011 - 04:52 PM, said:

You have to be THE BEST to hold any territory in clan wars (on russian server at least) without golden ammo and consumables.
Not that they are worth it, however. Platooning with friends is where it's at.

Really you just have to be above average I have found. But the Russian server does have ten times as many people as the American so that maybe a thing. But really if you go into a match with a good strat and some above average players you can do alot of work, and the same if probly true for this game.

[Vyrus]

Well I'm super excited now. I have played every MW game and if I could find people that still play the table top I would be playing that. I really hope that this works out. I have played World of Tanks and I do think that the Free- to-Play modal can work for this. I think that one of the things that the devs need to look at is that one of the things about Battletech is the number of chassis and the ability to fit it to your needs. Also losing sniping would not be a good thing. Several Mech are just for that. The Idea that all the fights would be Urban is a downer. There needs to be a lot of varied terrain. Thanks- Vyrus