214 replies to this topic

[RickySpanish]

I'd say most of the players i've seen in the game have been fairly decent at piloting their Mechs, but the number one cause of death (pretty much 100% for me) is bad positioning. You spend a lot of time concentrating on the orientation of your Mech - making sure it's not smacking into walls / off buildings / into hills / about to fall off a cliff, and in doing so end up away from your main force and eaten alive in moments by the enemy team. If PGI were to 'optimize' gameplay for newer players I reckon they'd find some success in better visual indicators for the orientation and position of your Mech relative to your team-mates and objectives.

This weekend I got the minimap bug where the map froze in orientation but still moved with my Mech, I can honestly say that the incorrect visual information was far, FAR worse to me than the yellow screen bug which forces you to turn off your HUD and lose all visual indicators entirely. I was constantly out of position with respect to the rest of my team and had huge issues trying to orient my Mech and stay behind or near our Assaults. The only reason I survived was because I was floundering so much that the rest of my team became far more threatening than me, and I got ignored and carried to victory.

[Ivanzypher]

Meh. When I first started playing, about a week before founders ended, it was my first ever mechwarrior game. First ever mech game really. After about 3/4 matches I had the basics down. After about a week I was scoring middle of the board damage/kills etc. I don't really see this game as being hard to learn. Now I usually have top damage/XP in a match. Compared to games like Dota for example, it's pretty simple really. Sure a tutorial would be nice, and I'm sure one will be added for launch. But the new player experience is pretty good imo. So good infact that I have started playing the older MW games, and Classic Battletech aswell.

[Kunae]

Thirdstar, on 20 January 2013 - 11:29 PM, said:

You can't possibly be serious. You can't comprehend how people who are not Wolfways (and his wife) need tutorials?

I'm trying my damnest not to be rude here you realize.

So... you're calling everyone who's not Wolfways (and his wife) more stupid than an untrained monkey?

[Kain]

[Roadbuster]

Wolfways, on 20 January 2013 - 11:43 PM, said:

Aren't there training videos that explain all that?

Yes there are. But obviously, most new players don't watch them.
It's like players who skip the intro videos of games.
They just select a mech and join a match without even knowing how to move that thing.

Then you read things like:
"How can I move sideways?"
"Why don't my lasers shoot where I'm looking at?"
"How do you use teamchat?"
"Why does my robot shut down all the time?"
"Why can I only shoot all weapons at once?"
"Ok, what do we have to do on this map?"
"It's too dark. I can't see anything!"
"That mech killed my Commando with 1 shot!!! How can this be?! Cheater!"
"Are LRMs broken? I shot at least 200LRMs at this mech and he didn't take any damage. All missiles hit him, he was only 100m away."
...
And then, there are the questions never asked because people don't even know what's in the game.
"Wow, I didn't know you could change ECM mode."
"Ah, thx. Didn't know R was for targetting."
...

[AlexWildeagle]

tutorials are overpowered

[Sug]

If my 9 year old nephew can play I'm sure other people will figure it out eventually.

[Kraven Kor]

In Game Tutorial first.

Then you can "cave" to requests for 3rd Person or whatever but, yeah, I will have a sad when that happens.

[NintenJoe]

Death Mallet, on 20 January 2013 - 08:38 PM, said:

just too steep a hill for new players to climb. I think there are going to have to be some changes if PGI really wants to get the player base to support this game revenue-wise.

That's why things like:

3rd person view
Non-throttle movement

and other unpopular features are probably going to become a reality at some point or another.

That's going to upset a lot of people, but the truth is many of those people will still come back. And the number of people they lose due to those decisions will be dwarfed by the size of the player base they gain.

If this were true we would all still be playing single screen arcade games.

The franchise doesn't need to bend to the will of anyone.

[Protoculture]

mwhighlander, on 20 January 2013 - 09:11 PM, said:

Will utterly kill the competitive scene of this game like it did in MW3 and MW4.

Sorry, this is a universally bad aspect of any mechwarrior game, like a cancer or an incurable virus.

Uhm. So you make it where the 8 man vs 8 mans or whoever can TOGGLE it on and off. You could have it filter games like that for PUGs too, just like you can with maps. I would like to see 3rd person for spectator at the very least.

[Phalanx100bc]

Tired of the calls to dumb down this game, regardless of the rationale.

[MaddMaxx]

Quote

And then, there are the questions never asked because people don't even know what's in the game.

Just an extension of your original point. Those items are under the "Options" menu in the GAME. But then again, why would anyone, who just can't see fit to watch a short series of videos on the in game main page, that helps explain many, many things, ever think to go into the games Options menu to answer the questions you noted.

Here is a small example of what is available if one were to look, or ask, for. (took me 60 seconds) Rocket science it ain't.

http://mwomercs.com/...ic-controls-hud

[mekabuser]

OP is troll and evil.

[Tasorin]

And then the Hard Cores will stop playing due to completely gimped game play and all you Space Poors can have the sloppy thirds and fourths of what is left over of an already niche market.

What PGI needs to decide is who the hell they are making this game for and what will those people spend real life cash on and what is a price point for that content that will enable robust sales based on value to the players for the purchased content.

Basically, PGI fails at general business principals.

[Prophet of Entropy]

i played EVE at release, its learning curve was way higher then MWOs, steep learning curves arent the worst thing in the world.


what EVE had that this game still doesnt have is decent ingame information on what equipment does. information is power and PGI doesnt seem to want to give people any. you have to hunt it down in forums and other third party sites.

knowing what your gun is going to do before you take it into battle seems like a no-brainer to me.

[MeltedSnowgirl]

*I* think they need to let us assign weapon groups during the "Waiting for Pilot" and countdown phases of the drops. That way we aren't at base farting around getting groups assigned while everyone goes off to the objectives, leaving you going "QuackQuack" Or better yet, allow weapon groups to be assigned in the Mech Bay.


Tutorial zone, also a definite need. As evidenced by my stats, I'm new. I think this is my 6th day or so..give or take, I started shortly before DXP anyway.. My husband gave me a bit of a tutorial but nothing is like actually playing it. (Vids aren't the same, and my husband uses a joystick/Throttle/Rudder setup, I have mouse/keyboard) I joined a corps now I'm doing a bit better. Joining a team helps lower the learning curve a significant amount. Combine that and a tutorial zone, there shouldn't be any more "ERmahgerd TOO HARD" qqing...Wait there will always be that.

This is my *FIRST* FPS. In general the twitchy human based FPS makes me all motion sick. Mechs don't do that.

[Pupecki]

I actually think the game is perfect where it is as far as learning curve. Not trying to be rude but if after 400 games you are still learning "basics" you might just not be a very good pilot. I haven't played any battletech games since MW2 back when I was 7 and while MWO was challenging at first it is not very hard to atleast get going in the right direction. dumbing down the game just because you can't seem to master it is not good for the game and will do nothing to increase the longevity of the MWO. if anything you run the risk of making the game too easy, and doing that you make the game that much more boring everytime you play it.

[Pihb]

I dont know what defines hardcore but i am pretty sure I do not fall into it. It took me all of 1 day of playing to get used to the controls in this game. It's the little stuff like the throttle or the 1st person view that differentiate this game from others. To change that would kill off the Mechwarriorness (excuse the term please) of the game. I saw an old poll and it was heavily skewed in favor of no 3rd person view. Normally you have to take a poll with a grain of salt but this one was pretty convincing that a large portion of the vocal players of this game do not want 3rd person view.

http://mwomercs.com/...son-its-coming/

there's the ancient poll

[Adridos]

This game and hard-core? I don't want to troll, or anything, but...

This game is nothing but hard-core. Come on, I could teach a 3rd grade child to play it.

Have you ever seen games that are actually hard-core? Things like complete simulators, where you have so much controls and things to keep track of, or hard-core competitive games, where you have to train every day just to be medicore and do it as a full-time job to be good. Games where you have to learn to do thousands of things at once, games where you can't play without actually new-found reflexes. Games where you need to know every of the complex maps to the point you can navigate in them even blindfolded.

Now that's hardcore. This here, as much as I love it, is a childplay in comparison.

[Xmith]

A 3rd person view won't help as long as there is no decent joystick support. I have played MW Mercs for years in 1st person. Never had a problem because of good joystick support. Learning how to pilot keyboard and mouse was the most difficult thing for me to get use to.