179 replies to this topic

[Kassatsu]

StalaggtIKE, on 14 January 2013 - 12:50 PM, said:

Interesting. I figured balance would rank higher. I could care less about fluff such as community warfare, new maps or mechs.

If you try to balance the game before fixing the netcode, you'll just break the game for when the netcode IS fixed. Balancing the game is a never-ending process that is likely going on in the background at all times anyways, so regardless of whether or not it's actually being done, bringing the most attention to it isn't a particularly high priority compared to the massive amount of unintentional exploits (and by that I mean lag shield and such, most people aren't intentionally doing it), missing features (lobby system, voice chat), mechs (I can't say this enough, look at a list of mechs available as of the supposed point we're at in the battletech timeline, right at the beginning of the year 3050), game types (I suppose community warfare counts as a gametype, despite it likely being more along the lines of the metagame than a specific game mode used in any one match) and general bug fixing... Still get the black screen and FPS glitch every now and then, and as of the last patch I've started getting the gray texture bug on frozen city night (and ONLY frozen city night) as well.

Edited by Kassatsu, 14 January 2013 - 12:59 PM.

[Uncl Munkeh]

Netcode: You want to keep new players, make it so the hits actually work both in game AND visually.

User Experience: Which you'd get if you fixed the things we complain about on a regular basis.

Lobby: Particularly launching competitive games with stuff like map selection, etc.

[HC Harlequin]

DV McKenna, on 14 January 2013 - 11:33 AM, said:

Except your poll focuses on Fix One thing, given the title and question of this one, i think there is a distinct difference.

But that poll has more topics. This poll is missing quite a bit that people want.

[Henchman 24]

Yeah you left out:

1. Stability

[Stoicblitzer]

Mechwarrior Buddah, on 14 January 2013 - 12:30 PM, said:

whats the point of CW with as few maps as we have?
whats the point of CW with the netcode and lagshield as it is?
losing planets from sync dropping ecm lights wouldnt be fun either would it?

I'm with Buddah here. CW is way down the list for me. Maybe 1 year from now or something at the current rate of new maps.

[BerryChunks]

People talk about collision as if it doesn't exist. I frequently lose armor to a teammate stepping on me or bumping me as I try to get out of the "hell cell" that is spawn. take a 25 tonner and get stepped on by a friendly atlas, you'll see.

[Cartman726]

1. Net code
2. Lobby
3. Community Warfare

[GaussDragon]

HC Harlequin, on 14 January 2013 - 01:12 PM, said:

But that poll has more topics. This poll is missing quite a bit that people want.

GaussDragon, on 14 January 2013 - 10:54 AM, said:

I've tried to come up with 10 of what I think are the most frequent or broadly appealing demands.

I'm sorry for stepping on your toes, I didn't know your poll existed.

[Tonosama]

I want a built in VOIP that automatically group you with your drop group. For example, if I pug and drop in game with 7 others, I would like the VOIP to automatically group us with VOIP so we can talk during the game. That would help with new user experience, lobby, pug vs premade, actual tactics during game. But VOIP need to have mute on selected users if abusive.

New user experience - can help explain to new users what to do.
Lobby - can make new friends and add them.
PUG vs Premade - be less of an issue with everyone communicating. (Premade will still have a slight advantage of always playing together and learning from their mistakes, but it will be less of an gap to hurdle)
Tactics - Will be more then just lets rally here, stay together. Can call out targets or to tell lights to flank right, etc...

Just my 2 cents

[Kill Dozer]

as it stand right now:

1) Lobby / matchmaking (takes care of user experience, elo, team play and all that jazz)
2) DX11 / Improved Framerates (yay, no more single digit FPS in the brawl)
3) Netcode (now my FPS is good enough to see, lets actually get teh hit boxes right)

[Korbyn McColl]

Personally, I'm not all that worried about coding and balance. I've been gaming online since the mid 90s and one thing has remained constant: stuff changes. Just when you think things are right, someone comes along and finds a way to "exploit" the system and get an unintended advantage. Nothing is going to change that. So those issues aren't that big for me.

What do I want?

1- More maps. Right now we have 4 maps. Everything else is just lighting, weather and rules (assault or conquest). We need a LOT more maps. My wish would be for a dynamic map generator, but I'll take just a bunch more stock maps.

2- More mechs. Seeing the same mechs in game time and time again just makes me want to see the other mechs from the BT universe that much more.

3- Lobby- I see my friends pop on in game once in awhile, but if they don't join our mumble server, I have no way to communicate with them (unless I'm missing something).

4- Almost as important as all of the above: we need factions and merc units in.

Just my two c-bills. =)

[Tasorin]

Ihasa, on 14 January 2013 - 11:54 AM, said:

Yes I think we have to give them a couple of years of development time before calling PGI in over its head. Does it seem like they are struggling? Why yes it does. But there's still things they can do to change it. I'll wait til they jump the shark with lockboxes and mixed grind/pay2win equipment zones before I start calling them incompetent. Because there are so many other ways to make money...the first and foremost is by making a good game. And they started that, maybe they are just a little lost or have manpower allocated improperly right about now.

Except PGI doesn't have years to figure it out before the plug is pulled. That is the fundamental problem at PGI, experienced resources (head count) to churn and burn through the man hours needed to address the critical issues in the short term in order to retain a robust player base that will generate a revenue stream that meets the hurdle rate in order to keep the project going. In addition to the lack of head count with the ability and skills to get the job done in the short term, PGI isn't going to get any additional funding from IGP. Behind the scenes you know the PGI guys are being managed by bean counters at IGP that are measuring success based on earned value or return on investment and have PGI on a strict budget that doesn't allow PGI to go out and secure and retain the resources they need.

Welcome to the Catch-22 and one of the things that makes Brian toss back a couple every night.

I personally would be beyond happy if PGI or anyone at this point was able to deliver a quality BattleTech/Mechwarrior Title that gave us all what we really want....a Universe to Conquer and wave our e-peen about that is supported by a balanced and eloquent battle/physics engine and PvP that was worthy of our devoted time.

Like many of you, I put my money where my mouth was and purchased a Founders Pack before we had even seen any semblance of a complete framework. I don't feel it was money wasted, but I do feel as if this title is circling the drain and is either going to have a last second Hail Mary to win it all or be dead space in the near term.

[80sGlamRockSensation David Bowie]

In this order

1) Netcode
2) UI overhaul
3) Weapon / equpiment balance (and LRM overhaul)
4) Lobbies
5) BIGGER MAPS!
6) Community Warfare

[Adrienne Vorton]

honestly spoken, the game is doing well enough (at least on my end) that i would say YES to a soon appearing CW... performance and netcode are 2 things that are important, but will be done anyway and are on high priority for PGI as we can imagine...

if i could add one thing to this list, it would be mission gamemodes, which would build the basis for CW, and best appear before the CW completion...

[fil5000]

1) Netcode
2) ELO/New player experience
3) UI

I'm really surprised to see so few votes for the UI - stuff like the friends list is barely functional, the mechlab was fine when we all only had four mechs and a couple of parts but is now creaking, there's barely any of the mech stats that so many other people have pulled out of the XML visible in it, etc etc.

What I really, really want is more mechs and Community Warfare, but that's going to be no good without anyone to play it with. Currently the netcode, matchmaking and UI are the thing that's going to turn new players off this game - which is a massive shame, because if you can bludgeon your way through it you get to the fun stuff.

[Corvus Antaka]

1. ECM & LRM & Heatscale balance and functionality.

2. Netcode

3. Lobbies

4. Tournament & training are & mechlab training mechbay/slot

5. Community Warfare

6. More Maps at least 4 new maps, and way bigger maps.

[GaussDragon]

Colonel Pada Vinson, on 14 January 2013 - 02:47 PM, said:

1. ECM & LRM & Heatscale balance and functionality.

I would broadly categorize that under balance but I know what you mean. ECM has certainly changed up the LRM game.

[Alaric the Arcane]

I voted on the poll without first reading your post and came to the same conclusions. Your reasoning for the first and third priorities (netcode and lobby respectively) are sound. I just wanted to make a short comment on the new user experience.

The issue obviously encompasses far more than just Elo ratings. In fact, putting Elo together with new user experience was probably a bad idea. Elo is such a divisive topic on these forums that people who would have voted for new user experience might not have because of that dreaded three letter word.

Complex games such as MWO need to provide easy access to information for its new players. A tutorial mode is almost certainly required. Professional quality tutorial videos need to be produced. Detailed weapon/item information must be made available from within the game client. In fact, the whole UI needs to be overhauled (hopefully they are working on this).

Anyways, Elo, in my opinion, is not that important for this stage of a game. Due to the size of the player base (relatively small), this could fracture the game queues even more. If Elo, or whatever modified matchmaker rating system PGI comes up with, turns out to be a problem, and if it doesn't get resolved quickly (within 1 patch), then player retention levels will definitely drop.

[SilentWolff]

#1 Netcode
#2 Lobby
#3 ELO

[krash27]

Netcode is priority one imo, and second and third spot would be ELO and balance but not sure which should be first.

Fix whats in the game before adding more content so that its not broken by default when its added.
my two cents.