268 replies to this topic

[Thrael]

Yeah poor marketing become trademark of this game.
First no coverage of develoment. Nothing to discuss. Forum full of outrageous fans of BT universe which talks more about colors of mech then about possible game mechanics.
Then poor roadmap. They talk about next month like next year everything is so unsure and misty.
Then E3. Hawken everywhere and no MechWarrior on news feed.
Looks like i become more and more pessimistic about future, getting old..

[Carl Wrede]

Thrael, on 15 June 2012 - 08:22 AM, said:

Forum full of outrageous fans of BT universe which talks more about colors of mech then about possible game mechanics.

What do you expect from a forum to a BattleTech game?

[KingCobra]

Well i guess my point was IF IF MWO turns out like MoonBreakers a shallow shell of a Mechwarrior game and Segregated servers with no chat rooms of friends lists or depth no PVe or singleplayer or Character Creation I'm afraid it will fail big time.F2P models like MoonBreakers are for the gung ho type of FPS F2P games i don't think Mechwarrior should be.But this is just my opinion maybe in the beginning PGI thought this model would work for all Mechwarrior fans and past players and changed course mid development when they found out how the players and fans really felt.Plus its a blast to be all on one big server and play worldwide.

[Snib]

KingCobra, on 15 June 2012 - 08:36 AM, said:

Plus its a blast to be all on one big server and play worldwide.

As long as the server is next to me you can have your lag and rubberbanding if you enjoy it...

[JabberJon]

Exactly. Let's put the server in Europe and have everyone play from it. Lag central. Most F2P have a US, EU and Asian server to provide as many people as possible with a lag-free experience while keeping the population up. I have no doubt that with some love and a caring fanbase that this game will be successful, barring any weird or crazy problem with the game itself. However, asking for a single server just because you want to play worldwide is meh, I'd much rather have low ping and play with people who speak the same language than get a group that I can't communicate with.

[Alexander Caine]

See, the thing is KingCobra, you're posting from the USA. That means in all honesty you don't understand the issue, because you will have low pings and good server access, and alread HAVE full, clear details on your Founders deal.

We do not. And saying you would like everyone not in the US to have a worse playing experience just to fill up YOUR servers more, is extremely selfish.

World of Tanks is F2P with a similar model, and has separate NA and EU servers. And that makes millions per month, which basically invalidates the rest of your argument even above the "My game experience is more important than everybody elses" aspect.

Sorry to seem harsh, but i've seen this view a bunch of times on here now, and have to stress THE WORLD IS NOT THE US. More than half of the games market in general is outside the US. In fact, Europe ALONE gets higher sales than the US, or very close to, let alone Oceania, Asia, and Africa added in. So we are more than entitled to have the same service and performance you do, regardless of whether you would prefer more players on US servers they might not enjoy playing on.

Edited by Alexander Caine, 15 June 2012 - 09:21 AM.

[Xune]

Alexander Caine, on 15 June 2012 - 08:48 AM, said:

See, the thing is KingCobra, you're posting from the USA. That means in all honesty you don't understand the issue, because you will have low pings and good server access, and alread HAVE full, clear details on your Founders deal.

We do not. And saying you would like everyone not in the US to have a worse playing experience just to fill up YOUR servers more, is extremely selfish.

World of Tanks is F2P with a similar model, and has separate NA and EU servers. And that makes millions per month, which basically invalidates the rest of your argument even above the "My game experience is more important than everybody elses" aspect.

Sorry to seem harsh, but i've seen this view a bunch of times on here now, and have to stress THE WORLD IS NOT THE US. More than half of the games market in general is outside the US. In fact, Europe ALONE gets higher sales than the US, or very close to, let alone Oceania, Asia, and Africa added in. So we are more than entitled to have the same service and performance you do, regardless of whether you would prefer more players on US servers they might not enjoy playing on.

You wrap that up way better then i could

[hornet331]

Alexander Caine, on 15 June 2012 - 08:48 AM, said:

Sorry to seem harsh, but i've seen this view a bunch of times on here now, and have to stress THE WORLD IS NOT THE US. More than half of the games market in general is outside the US. In fact, Europe ALONE gets higher sales than the US, or very close to, let alone Oceania, Asia, and Africa added in. So we are more than entitled to have the same service and performance you do, regardless of whether you would prefer more players on US servers they might not enjoy playing on.

Just some info, the largest gaming market (overall) is still Asia, followed by EU and then the US. The US is basically console country, the PC gaming market is ~4 times bigger in the EU and ~1.5 as bigger in Asia.

[Omdra]

this is just for those who might have missed it in the "Official Developer Update"

Russ Bullock, on 15 June 2012 - 01:10 PM, said:

Okay European players, here is the answer you have been looking for: Yes you can buy the Founders Package and you will never be blocked from continuing to play on the North American servers. Also if we are able to set up servers in your region you will be given a onetime opportunity to transfer to those regions servers taking everything you own with you.

[CCC Dober]

Gentlemen, we are in the game =)

For those who missed it:
http://mwomercs.com/...veloper-update/

[Faenwulf]

Well its partly good and partly bad.
It means we can byu the packs and play the game, but it also means that we will never know how good our ping etc. is....

I'm a bit disillusioned right now...oh well. Let's see if I will be spending money...

[Jack Simmons]

chumppi, on 15 June 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

Yeah, pretty bad news

Erm ?

Well if they never setup European Servers you need to play on US Servers, and if we get localized Servers we can transfer everything its an okay solution in my book.
If they can't get a decent solution for European servers they wouldn't be able to fulfill their promise to their customers so its okay to phrase it that way. They will surely only release in NA first to have a hand on the hardware to get the kinks worked out.

@ping
i played several Games with a connection to the US, its usually quite workable. (at least from Germany)

Edited by Jack Simmons, 15 June 2012 - 01:48 PM.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

If the put the server in Vancouver, I just did a test ping 183, jitter 7, packet loss 1%. Should be playable.
The problem with migrating to Europe is if I'm in a mainly US Merc Corp then I have to change, or not transfer.

Edited by Nik Van Rhijn, 15 June 2012 - 01:52 PM.

[Omdra]

Well, imo the news is good; because lets be honest, at the end of the day they will want to make money and not just from NA people. As such, EU Servers are not so unlikely, maybe not from the start, but I am pretty confident that there will some in the long run.

just my 2 cents though

rgds
Om

Edited by Omdra, 15 June 2012 - 01:54 PM.

[CharonJr]

Well, it doesn't sound that bad to me, they are in talks with a couple of european publishers, but they have to say "if" before any deal is signed.

I dare to say that at least one of the publishers should have a fairly good idea that MW(O) has a decent number of (potential) players and unless they feel that the kickback/fee for PGI is too high one of them will mostly likely sign.

But yes, some ping information would be good, well, back to hoping to get into the beta

[Carl Wrede]

Well, well.. the countdown stopped at 4.

We have our answer:

Russ Bullock, on 15 June 2012 - 01:10 PM, said:

Hey MechWarrior fans,

Through conversations internally (as well as by the suggestion of some of our great Beta testers) we felt we needed to give everyone an update on the state of the game, especially as we head towards the Founders Program. It is important that everyone understand what exactly they are buying and what they should expect. Now there will be a new press release and email that will go out on June 19^th to launch the program, but for extra clarity I’ll go over some critical points here on the forums with you. Here is a roughly described timeline to help set your expectations:

MechWarrior Online is currently in Closed Beta and to be more specific, what we have dubbed internally as ‘Closed Beta 1.’ For Closed Beta 1 we had a goal of sending out 10,000 beta keys in total, and we should achieve that in the next week or so. Our next step will be to start selling the Founders Packages starting Tuesday June 19^th - and for clarity this is a limited time offer, which also guarantees Closed Beta access on the Injection date. Our next step comes on July 10^th where we are scheduled to move to our production hardware, and thus will have the capability of hosting many thousands of simultaneous players. Then we’ll be at the point where we move to Closed Beta 2. Once we have achieved Closed Beta 2 we continue to ramp up the beta testers to the point where we can handle the injection of the founders program. I should say that it is logical that this next round of beta testers will likely be drawn from those early purchasers of the founders program; it only makes sense since they have shown such dedication and are quite likely to be excellent beta testers.

Now the next date of course is the injection of the founders purchasers, and let me be the first to break the news, this date has shifted from July 17^th to Aug 7^th. There is a very simple explanation as to the new date - some of the key production hardware was delayed in arriving to the data center. We simply need to make sure we have a minimum amount of time to work with the production hardware and be confident that we can handle the loads of the Founders Program. Of course the next date to come along after that will be Open Beta. I cannot announce a date at this time but I can say we are still going to ship this summer as promised, so if you look at the Founders access date of Aug 7^th and when summer ends, one can probably make an accurate enough guess as to our currently planned open beta date.

Okay, back to managing expectations of the content of the game once you get access, the same logic applies to both those that are and will be lucky enough to get a beta key and those gaining access to the game on Aug 7^th through the founders program. Come Aug 7^th when the customers of the Founders Program gain access to the game we are still going to be in Closed Beta - therefore not every feature we have discussed on the web site will be playable. Currently in the beta we have been introducing a patch every 2 weeks where more features are included and that process will likely continue up until Open Beta and beyond. The end result is that we expect to have each of the features we have announced and discussed on the web site in the game by the Open Beta date with one unfortunate exception. That exception is the Community Warfare pillar; it’s a big system and extremely important to us however we did not want to delay the game especially when it is something that can so logically be added onto the product post launch. That way we can get everyone playing this summer as planned having a great time working on their Mech and pilot trees, then the depth of Community Warfare will be added into the game. I don’t have an exact projected release of the Community Warfare feature set but we fully expect to have the core of the community experience in the game within 90 days of open beta.

A note of clarification on the BattleMech’s – We have a system for announcing the Mech’s to the community on the web site but one should not assume this means that all of those Mech’s are currently present in the beta or that they are all available come Open Beta. We essentially add them into the game one at a time in very near the same way they are announced on the web site. Our expectation is that there will be 10 unique model types along with all their variants making for a total of around 40 different chassis come Open Beta. From that point forward they will continue to be added at a very regular pace.

So as it pertains to the Founders Program, they aren’t meant represent the value you receive immediately upon gaining access to the game. The value of the Founders Package is that it is a lifetime reward and recognition opportunity. All of the hard currency you get in the product will be yours to spend over the entire lifetime of the product, the Founders tag which will be available on the forums immediately after purchasing your Founders Package will mark you uniquely for the entire lifetime of the product. The same can be said for the Founder’s ’Mech’s, they will be unique on the battlefield marking you as an original founder of MWO as well as providing a boost to C-bill earning for the lifetime of the product.

In the end this new frontier of online free to play titles really is a shift in thinking for all of us. So many of us are so trained to think about retail products that barely change after they are sold to us in the store and it’s hard to grasp the concept of a game like MWO. Yes we still have lots of work to do between here and Open Beta but our work won’t stop there, we will immediately work to put in the Community Warfare features and from there it will be a sprint to the invasion of the clans and so on. While I am at it here are a few other key pieces of information people need in order to make their purchase decisions.

Okay European players, here is the answer you have been looking for: Yes you can buy the Founders Package and you will never be blocked from continuing to play on the North American servers. Also if we are able to set up servers in your region you will be given a onetime opportunity to transfer to those regions servers taking everything you own with you.

And of course the elusive System requirements:

MechWarrior Online Minimum System Spec:

CPU:
Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
Athlon II X2 245e

GPU:
GeForce 8800GT
Radeon HD 5600/5700

RAM:
4 GB

OS:
Windows Vista 32-bit

DirectX:
DX9

HDD Space:
4 GB


MechWarrior Online Recommended System Spec:

CPU:
Core i3-2500
AMD Athlon II X4 650

GPU:
GeForce GTX 285
Radeon HD 5830

RAM:
8 GB

OS:
Windows 7 SP-1 64-Bit

DirectX:
DX9

HDD Space:
4 GB

A few notes on the system requirements for absolute clarity. Right now a duo core system is our minimum spec machine but it is also our main focus of concern. It is playable on those specifications and I have tested it myself but it is currently very much a minimum spec type of experience running on low detail settings. Currently it’s obvious that a Quad core system is the key as even the earliest Core 2 Quad systems run the game very well. However at this point in time we have only been able to spend a very minor amount of time working on optimizations and it is our goal since there are still so many out there to get the Core 2 Duo systems running much faster.

Okay, hopefully that gives you guys all the information you could possibly want to be the best beta tester, potential Founders Program customer or simply consumer of MechWarrior Online. Sorry if one or more items isn’t exactly as you would hope it to be, but were working hard and we truly feel that all signs thus far say that the core experience of MWO is everything we could have hoped for. Now we just need to keep adding layers of features. Thanks for reading and remember you guys are the best community in all of gaming, keep treating each other with respect and together we will bring MechWarrior back to glory.

Russ Bullock
President
Piranha Games Inc.

It basically means that we can buy the Founders packet and start playing. But it might be wise to make a test ping just to see your personal connection to US/Canada before buying.

Edited by Carl Wrede, 15 June 2012 - 02:00 PM.

[CCC Dober]

Guys, if you think for a second that there will be no euro servers, then you don't give PGI's analysts enough credit. They know that the old world is keeping this game as much alive as the US and it would be financial suicide to ignore that. What you guys may need to realize is that in order to get the beta up and running you actually don't need to rent eu servers. They will be much more important when we are closing in on open beta, when the whole world wants to connect and play. Until then, I think we may have to accept slighty worse pings than we are used to for a while. Idk, but that is truly not a big deal IMO. If you want to play competitively in Closed Beta, now then I'd see a problem indeed. But that has more to do with what you expect from a Closed Beta, not the servers themselves. Hint: Closed Beta is meant to find and stomp bugs.

[CharonJr]

Just read that one in the update thread from Russ: "Trust me as far as regions go it is not a big IF...more on the tiny side."

[chumppi]

Russ Bullock, on 15 June 2012 - 01:52 PM, said:

Trust me as far as regions go it is not a big IF...more on the tiny side.

Garth Erlam, on 15 June 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

To sum: the 'if' is more of a 'when.'

Feeling so much better now!

Edited by chumppi, 15 June 2012 - 02:02 PM.

[Garth Erlam]

For legal reasons Russ can't run around saying "It's guaranteed!" - that said, we're not planning to be like "Euros? Who needs those guys!"

So - it is good news, regardless