456 replies to this topic

[Thorn Hallis]

I read some silent anger between the lines of the answers.

For me the fix of the netcode (and the hitboxes of certain 'Mechs) is much more important then collisions. As long as I can really hit what I aim at I see no need to run my target over.

And never forget - this is not your fathers Mechwarrior, neither will it be Mechwarrior IV Part 2.

Edited by Thorn Hallis, 23 January 2013 - 01:16 AM.

[Writer]

Q: Why are there no Federated Commonwealth banners in MWO?

[Brut4ce]

Hi all, Bryan and all the people at PGI!

First of all, thanks for one of the best Q&A - "Ask the devs", post i've seen so far.
And on top of that, thanks for actively communicating along the way after the OP, which for me at least, shows a lot.

At this point i would like to say something to some ppl that posted "OH, Don't thank him, its his job to do that blah, blah blah..." They are either a$$holes, or, have never left cyberspace to live in Real Life outside the PC room. OF COURSE IT IS HIS JOB, AND WHEN ONE DOES HIS JOB, PEOPLE *DO* THANK HIM FOR THAT. WHEN ONE GOES TO A STORE AND BUY SOMETHING AND IS PLEASED WITH THE SERVICE PROVIDED BY THE STAFF THEY SAY, *THANK YOU* AND THE STAFF THEN SMILES AND WELCOMES THEM. Of course it was the staffs' job to provide that service. They did not Spit you in the face, nor SHOULD YOU, because it was 'their job' to serve you.
/endrage.

on another note, I am not a regular poster, although i must have gone through most of the forum in my time within the game, 'cause i like to stay informed, especially with a product i am very very interested and excited about (AKA Loyal Fan of Mechwarrior since early 90's). I choose when and where to post.

So it felt like this was a good place and time to post just a little suggestion i would like to make, firstly quoting another post i read earlier. So here it is;

Gorasus, on 22 January 2013 - 09:05 PM, said:

This is my first post, and it's my first post because till now, I haven't seen any words or actions from PGI that would seem to imply that you actually cared about what the player base has to say.

This latest 'Ask The Devs' post has gone a long way to convince me otherwise. You're at least listening. Now prove it with actions.
In my opinion, the most pressing things in the game which need attention are the following:

Netcode.
There are a lot of not-great players in the game and players who are also new. When starting any new game, you have to figure out how to aim, and with the hit registration being so off, it's hard to learn how to land hits, let alone become consistant. Almost every match I've played in the past month has been weighted towards light mechs lagshielding. These two things greatly hinder new players trying to start out, and and make me extremely frustrated (I would consider myself above average for aiming skill, with obvious bias accounted for).

ECM
When coupled with light mechs and netcode, ECM forms a triad of misery. With lights warping around and rubber banding through objects occasionally, it's difficult to tell where a light actually is. Since you can't tell where they actually are it is difficult to aim. Even when you visually see your lasers impacting you can't trust your peepers, so you have to have a target lock to be able to determine if you are actually hitting. ECM prevents this, further complicating things.
A suggested interim change would be to mimic MW4. MW4 ECM was powerful, but not dominating as it is in MWO.
MWO maps(small) and play style(no respawn) are such that everyone must get into a tight group, or you lose. Every mechanic in the game is favourable towards a solidified group moving as one. As such, the interpretation of guardian ECM providing coverage out to 180m is not accurate in it's effect upon the new, different game that is MWO. Any final fix should include a smaller range, and not as complete of an effect. Also one other quick point: the TAG laser is just light, there should be no reason for TAG not workign under 180m, unless you intend to also make small, medium, and large lasers also not work against ECM under 180m. It's all just light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.

Knockdowns
I haven't had the chance to play with this, but it would be glorious. There is nothing more frustrating than lining up an AC-20 on my hunchy-4g and smacking a commando in the face (with visual and ragdoll hit confirmed), only to see them zip on past at 120kph. The kinetic force of the AC-20 round, coupled with the convergence speed of the commando should send that little ****** into a world of hurt, creating a damaging effect much greater than the AC-20 round would be capable of by itself. Think Civil War muskets...if you got hit in the arm by a musketball, your arm would get ripped off at the shoulder...if you were lucky.
Also, lasers should be able to knock down mechs. Mechs stay upright because of thier gyroscope. Gyroscopes can be overloaded by any number of means, whether it's a kinetic impact, or a sudden and rapid loss of mass caused by laser damage. A simple way to implement this would be if any certain part of a mech registered a certain percentage of damage in a set timeframe, your gyroscope has a chance of overload.

There are a lot of other things that I would like to see happen, but at this point I'm going on longer than I think I'm warranted.

The first two points, netcode and ecm changes are absolutely neccessary, and knockdown comes a close third.

Although Gorasus' heart is in the right place, indicating some issues he and most players have in the battlefield, and i know many new players are disheartened by them, solving them as we say "ASAP", to me is not a viable solution, in the short term. So my suggestion if i may is this, and been said by others as well. A lobby system and manual matchmaking should go up first, to allow players to organise the matches they choose, against players they choose etc. I am not a programmer by occupation (although an experienced user), and wouldn't know the effort or time it requires to implement it, but having one could be the hidden treasure the game is looking for. And by that i mean, that it would solve problems like "OH these lights...", "OH this ECM BS...", "OH these PREMADES...", "OH this netcode..." people keep raging on and on and on.... And why? Because... You don't want lights in the game, people choose not to take one in drop, you don't like ECM in your fight, no ECM in drop, Want to go WARP 9 Mr.Sulu, everybody takes 25-35 ton mechs and have a speed fest in the field. Ofcourse, automatic matchmaking should by no means be taken out, as i find it one of the more interesting and challenging features of the game.
On top of that i feel that it would keep the interest to this game at very high levels, since leagues will form, merc corps etc etc, people will drop to train more with comrades, against comrades -in- arms, facilitate battles against other people, and so on. In my opinion, not even lag will matter anymore because of this (we didn't mind in the 90's). So in the end it should provide a more friendly environment for all, and the means for all of you guys to polish the game as you choose.

Just my 2 cents there,

Thanks again, and see you all in the battlefield !

*Brutforce*

EDIT: Spelling

Edited by Brut4ce, 23 January 2013 - 01:24 AM.

[Thorn Hallis]

Rhenis, on 23 January 2013 - 12:40 AM, said:

Q: Why are there no Federated Commonwealth banners in MWO?

Because the FedCom is officially formed in 3055.

[Nightfangs]

Wow... just... WOW.
That was more than the 5 anwers I was expecting.
I'm honestly impressed!
It may not always be the best news, but it's much better to know the facts than to know nothing.
And EU-Servers in 2013, you guys are the best. :-)
You are my heroes of the day!

[Roadbuster]

Bryan Ekman, on 22 January 2013 - 01:09 PM, said:

Q: Is your team discouraged at all by the community outrage?
A: It hurts, and you are always amazed at how nasty people can be. Some days you don’t want to deal with it. But you suck it up and try and understand why someone would call you an ***** or *******, or threaten you. I can’t tell you how many people complain, yet play dozens if not hundreds of matches a day, and spend significant amounts of money. I generally don’t take it to heart any more, especially when comments come from someone who has 100s or 1000s of posts. It’s the guy who has 1 post that I’m worried about. It took something significantly good or bad for them to come and make a post, and we tend to listen to them more carefully. And before you all go off about not listening to the core fans, we still listen to you as well. In the end, we always try our best to have compassion and see through the screen in hopes of understanding why people say the things they do. The CR team in Montreal are truly amazing people that deal with a very vocal and passionate user base, taking lumps left and right with little to no thanks. (IMHO you need to start a thank you CR team thread. Hint Hint)

While I understand that people can get frustrated sometimes, there is no reason to ever insult someone, ever.
You are doing it right if you just ignore them.

After all, both, the players and developers, want this game to offer the best MW experience possible and to be successful.
The only thing we players can do to help is to give our constructive feedback and to cheer you up sometimes

So, let me say:
You've all done a fantastic job bringing Mechwarrior back to us. Keep up the great work PGI and CR team.

[Damocles54]

Nemesiz416, on 22 January 2013 - 02:44 PM, said:

We haven't used Fortnight since we broke away from the crown. Or as the British call it, the "American Rebellion" ;P

I know this is off topic and i apologize for that but i've always wondered what the Brits used to describe that part of history. We call it the Revolutionary War, The War for Independence, etc, but i was always curious if they called it "That time those ungrateful Yanks got uppity" or some such lol.

On Topic: I love the answers, but more i love the fact that the Dev's take time TO answer questions for us. I think that there are too many people who really think that this is a finished product and cannot understand that what we're seeing is just the very beginning and a very small part of what will be a massive and immersive alternate reality. Yes, we are spending money on this small part of the whole before its even complete. But the guys/gals who are building this thing have to eat, pay their electric bills etc. PGI is NOT EA. Not to mention that if they were EA, would we even have a chance to have our voices heard while it was in progress or would we just have to wait until it was done and then say "please sir, i'd like some more"? This isn't a restaurant where if your steak is under-cooked you could send it back. With that in mind, last time you did send a steak back did you tell the waiter to call the chef an *******? I really have to wonder if any of you had parents that taught you any manners whatsoever.

That being said, I'd like to thank the dev team for the hard work. Its a Herculean task you've set upon here and i cannot wait to see the realization of the vision and i'm glad i get to participate in the journey to get there. Even if what we had now was going to be the finished product once the bugs are fixed, i dont think i'd regret a penny of the money i've spent so far.

Thanks guys!
Damo

[Akamia Terizen]

I'm currently playing MechWarrior 4, because my laptop sucks for playing this game (my computer can't handle the demanding graphics, even at the lowest settings, leading to abysmal framerate, and by extension, abysmal gameplay on my part). But it's good to hear whatever problems are occuring are being worked on. Being one that's unable to play yet (because, as I said, my computer sucks), the order of business is largely irrelevant to me at the moment.

All I ask is that by the time I have my gaming rig built, I am able to get my hands on a Timber Wolf (Inner Sphere name: Mad Cat). I freaking love that thing.

Edited by Akamia Terizen, 23 January 2013 - 01:54 AM.

[The Basilisk]

Thanks for heads up devs.
I'll stay tuned and did even consider to buy more MCs for getting more Mechbays to be filled with upcomming models *winkwink*
<*is curently trying not to droll too much*

[Peter Valentine]

Q: Collisions
A: They will return later in the year (no definitive date). We have higher priority tasks (CW).

öööö what?? Collision should be a higher priority than CW !!!! just sayin....

[Jack Bey]

cool ..a lot of info here
and the fact that we will get european servers is great!

keep it up guys

[Alex Warden]

thx guys, for not giving up^^

[Yore]

Awesome post Bryan, some nice answers there to questions that have been niggling at the back of my mind for months. Gonna love the path the game takes if you implement all of the above and i'm certainly looking forward this next year of OB.

Though I still remain sceptical about the answer given to the problem of people reconnecting. I think people need to be given that option as it potentially hobbles any team when one of their players dc's at the start, or perhaps you could introduce code that replaces a player disconnected in the first 30 seconds with another from the queue, solves the problem easily IMO.

As for people abusing you in posts, its completely wrong and such people ought to be ashamed of themselves. Just remember this is your game and they should behave in a responsible manner, even on forums where they can vent their frustration, but should do so in a proper adult fashion. Some people have no manners and will never have and as such the only way they will learn is with been treated as they treat others so you should just ban them and let that be a lesson.

Edited by Yore, 23 January 2013 - 02:30 AM.

[John MatriX82]

Several pretty, good things written in this, especially european servers, permanent paints, training grounds (finally!), battlegrid, cws and so on..

Major let-downs are Clans (looking at the answer I guess we'll see them.. very far in the future) and no collisions back in anytime soon; slightly less let downs are maps, and by this how they'll implement planetary conquest since the guess is that we'll have to play randomly on the actual, same maps even for that.

Besides this there are really several things to look after for you devs, and I know how you can be and feel overwhelmed by odds.. Keep on going.

[Tolkien]

Thanks for taking the time to put together all of this great info. Even though I only ever posted on the ECM issue, there were many other things in here that I found quite interesting to see explained or "Yes/No'd" just so we can know what to expect the future direction to be.

Having realistic dates like 'throughout the coming year' also helps to understand the timelines involved which is important to keep expectations reasonable, so I appreciate the extra effort in getting this info collected and doing the projections.

Some of the statements about regulations on the new questions are a little disturbing though, such as not answering questions that are popular (that the community wants answered), nor that have an opinion (even if based on empirical testing?). Frankly I don't think ECM would even have been addressed if the community had not kept it front row centre in a consecutive 6 week period of ask the devs. The schizophrenic dual stance of "we are collecting data" combined with Paul stating to PC gamer that "ECM doesn't need a nerf" less than 6 full days after its release shows that there is substantial spin coming from the top.

Thank you again for the feedback, though I suggest formalizing the process of ignoring constructive criticism will cause problems in the long run. Doubly so if the double standard of PR spin versus real testing continues.

Edited by Tolkien, 23 January 2013 - 02:57 AM.

[Accursed Richards]

Oh, ECM got addressed. In a very vague way, but at least we know they've noticed that people have 'personal opinions' about it, which is....a start?

Bryan Ekman, on 22 January 2013 - 01:09 PM, said:

Q: Is your team discouraged at all by the community outrage?
A: It hurts, and you are always amazed at how nasty people can be. Some days you don’t want to deal with it. But you suck it up and try and understand why someone would call you an ***** or *******, or threaten you. I can’t tell you how many people complain, yet play dozens if not hundreds of matches a day, and spend significant amounts of money. I generally don’t take it to heart any more, especially when comments come from someone who has 100s or 1000s of posts. It’s the guy who has 1 post that I’m worried about. It took something significantly good or bad for them to come and make a post, and we tend to listen to them more carefully. And before you all go off about not listening to the core fans, we still listen to you as well.

In the end, we always try our best to have compassion and see through the screen in hopes of understanding why people say the things they do. The CR team in Montreal are truly amazing people that deal with a very vocal and passionate user base, taking lumps left and right with little to no thanks. (IMHO you need to start a thank you CR team thread. Hint Hint)

You'll never eliminate flamers and trolls, but regular communication (like this thread) will do a LOT to alleviate them. It's a natural response to adopt a siege mentality when some coward on the internet insults you, but that only makes things worse--people who feel ignored or starved for information will become hostile or worse, disinterested. It becomes a vicious circle where the devs and community becomes steadily more alienated from and hostile towards each other.

So please, talk to us, tell us what progress you're making on what, and what your plans are, and the logic behind them. Ignore or ban the trolls, and respond to coherent posters who make good points.

[Reno Blade]

To all the Collision/Lobby should be nr1 prio:

Lobby system will not be much different than dropping now (sync drops) if you play in groups already.
CW will offer the long needed and asked for system to get contracts, assault planets and fight against invasion. This includes the most benefits of playing with a lobby.
You know the UnitX will attack PlanetY, you take the contracts to defend planetY so you can get matches against the UnitX guys.
A Lobby would not change the gameplay, only make it easier to find a match compared to the metagame that CW will offer.

Collision (more so knockdown than the collision damage) is dependend on netcode fix which is NR1 prio.
So how can collision be higher prio when netcode is the reason it was removed in the first hand?

Edited by Reno Blade, 23 January 2013 - 03:31 AM.

[Adridos]

It's highly ammusing to see the amount of praise aimed at this Q&A when you consider the upcry it caused about more detailed answering and as such was already changed to quantitative answering.

Thank you very much whineys.

[PhalanxDeath]

I asked my question "Q: Will there eventually be a way for Pugs to only play Pugs free of any premades?" for about 4 or the previous "ask the devs", Never got an answer. When I saw that only 5 questions would be answer at a time from now on I decided to give up, there is no chance my question would be answered, then of course, they answer at ton of questions!!!! Just cant win. . . . Don’t get me wrong! I loved these answers, they did a great job here, Its just my question is the most important one to me, and I wish I would have knows when they said 5 they meant more like 50. . . . . . . . . .

[victorvndoom]

question : Is there an option later that we can pick a planet from a large MWO universe map where we can pick fights like 'colony, river, desert,...' (the maps who are now on the 'table') ? Or does the map selection stay the way it is now ? (dont want to add a Mechwarrior online MMO layer on the game - if you look at mechwarrior 4 mercs you can pick such fights and i am oldschool gamer)