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Match making system
If you are using a stock trial mech shouldn't you be up against other players with stock trial mechs? The trial mechs were a good idea but against custom mechs you can't really compete.
Skill level. Beginning players should be up against beginning players. I don't mind a learning curve. I think it adds challenge to the game which is good! But being outclassed by experienced players in custom mechs makes trying to earn enough credits to buy your first mech or even learn the game a painful grind. I have seen end game stats where the winning team had a player do 500+ damage and I am dead in my stock trial mech with a paltry 70-130 damage.
Buying your first mech
Some one in another thread suggested a try before you buy solution or have a time to return the mech with a full refund. I bought an Awesome and found it didn't suit my play style. I sold it for far less then I got it for and am stuck grinding for credits to buy another mech. This isn't fun. Considering I end up loosing a lot of matches to better equipped players this makes the experience painful to say the least.
Mech customization
This was confusing at first. Trying to understand where the hard points for what weapon type was also confusing. I figured it out but found the current system is not intuitive nor fast. If you had the old Fasa mech sheet up there so you could see all the mech slots. That would be much better. You could have notes around the mech sheet pointing to what weapon types the hard points support. Like the Fasa sheets you could have another overlay for all the armor points. So you don't have to click each section to add armor. You can just click on the spot on the sheet where you want to add or subtract armor. Changing from loadout to customization the gui keeps asking do I want to discard changes... This is really annoying. If I want to drop a weapon for more heatsinks then I have to save every time I want to change something.
Overall
The graphics are good. The feel of the mechs are good. Thermal vision is great. It makes night vision is useless. It would be nice to set up my weapon groups before the match starts or even in the mech customization screen. The overall new player experience (at least for me) is die fast and die (and loose) often till you can grind for a custom mech. Not really fun in my opinion.
Again, your millage may very.
Edit: Stupid cookie expired and saved the text with html tags. Now the subject line is screwed up. Should of said new player experience.
Edited by Talan01, 15 January 2013 - 09:25 AM.
