Mechwarrior Online (Previously MW5/MW3015)

[lupi]

You're being a bit of an idiot if you think that people complaining that the game is battletech in name only is what gives the game a bad name.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

You're being a bit of an idiot if you think that people complaining that the game is battletech in name only is what gives the game a bad name.

there are legitimate reasons for people to be weary of the game. But a lot of the complaining is from people bitching about the game not being true to table top or the BT universe or whatever. that horse has been beat into a bloody pulp.
There are also plenty of legitimate complaints about the current state of the game. The constant back and forth of promises PGI has made in the past and failed to deliver on or had to push things back months. the failure to fix the high alpha meta for months. crashes, bugs and everything else game related that blatantly needs a fix. And dont get me started on matchmaking and ELO.
People love their BattleTech, and I'm no exception. People get mad when something they love and want to succeed goes through months of delays and problems.

Fact of the matter is, the core gameplay is good. its just a waiting game at this point for the rest of the game to be put in. PGI arent the best developers, but i have so many other things to do while im waiting for things to get fixed, i dont mind waiting. and i'll still put in a few hours every week to play the game.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

i still play the shit out of this game, but all the hate in this thread killed it here. I play with the guys over at the Penny Arcade forums. Great group of guys and we've all been playing since mid closed beta or earlier. Playing with dudes in teh Vent channel make the game 1000% more fun.

There are a lot of valid complaints about the game, but there are still lots of people who whine about "cannon" and balance not being like table top and all that. you just have to ignore those kind of people. the game is in a pretty decent spot with the core mechanics. Balance is still being worked on, new features are still being added. "release" is later this month, but its just a media event at this time. nothing new for release. a lot of the features that need to be implemented are waiting on UI 2.0, which is due out in November. Community warfare comes "soon" after.

But really, if you like the game, come see us at penny-arcade. the thread here will just bring you down.

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/disc...b-has-been-updated-with-the-orion-variants/p1

Thanks! I'll check that out. Although I might be too casual to join any team game at this point, or ever..

The MWO chat here really is a downer.. Maybe they're right, probably. But I guess I'm just not discerning enough in my online shooters. Are PPCs OP? maybe, I dunno. I think missiles are fun so sometimes I'll take them even though it might not be the Optimum Build (tm), or they've been over-nerfed or whatever.

It's sort-of an MMO so I don't really care if it's "finished" or not and whether they update and patch things. I see here now simultaneously someone complain that each patch change things, and somebody else say they'll never update or fix issues..

I'm out of the cadet bonus thing so it's a bit more of a grind, but doesn't seem that bad. Number of hours of play required to buy a new mech don't seem horrendous. I like that there's some work required to get new stuff, remains to be seen if I find it too much. Bought myself a medium and close to buying a heavy now.
(grind in WOW seemed worse, and that you had to pay for.. )

 

[HydroSqueegee]

Thanks! I'll check that out. Although I might be too casual to join any team game at this point, or ever..

The MWO chat here really is a downer.. Maybe they're right, probably. But I guess I'm just not discerning enough in my online shooters. Are PPCs OP? maybe, I dunno. I think missiles are fun so sometimes I'll take them even though it might not be the Optimum Build (tm), or they've been over-nerfed or whatever.

It's sort-of an MMO so I don't really care if it's "finished" or not and whether they update and patch things. I see here now simultaneously someone complain that each patch change things, and somebody else say they'll never update or fix issues..

I'm out of the cadet bonus thing so it's a bit more of a grind, but doesn't seem that bad. Number of hours of play required to buy a new mech don't seem horrendous. I like that there's some work required to get new stuff, remains to be seen if I find it too much. Bought myself a medium and close to buying a heavy now.
(grind in WOW seemed worse, and that you had to pay for.. )

Join Us! we're an extremely casual group. most weeks Im lucky to get 5 hours of play time, but i always keep up on the thread.

we're happy to have any and everybody that wants to play with us no matter how much or little time you have. nothing is really organized besides some theme nights some random individual will want to put together, then everyone that thinks its a good idea plays too with the theme.

 

[OSULugan]

There are a lot of valid complaints about the game, but there are still lots of people who whine about "cannon" and balance not being like table top and all that. you just have to ignore those kind of people. the game is in a pretty decent spot with the core mechanics. Balance is still being worked on, new features are still being added. "release" is later this month, but its just a media event at this time. nothing new for release. a lot of the features that need to be implemented are waiting on UI 2.0, which is due out in November. Community warfare comes "soon" after.

But really, if you like the game, come see us at penny-arcade. the thread here will just bring you down.

When I stopped playing over a year ago, Community warfare was coming "soon".

The complaints about getting away from canon and table-top is mainly because the original stated design intent was to be like table-top, to bring the mechwarrior games back to that, since the more recent iterations had strayed so far. Even more of the problem, is that they haven't delivered the features they promised, while continually "tweaking" and "balancing". The perception is that they are wasting resources doing monetization and balancing rather than getting the features out that they have promised (which incidentally, will affect long-term balancing issues greatly).

Also, if you ever got a chance to play MPBT:3025 from EA about 10 years ago, you would have witnessed a much better implementation that stayed close to the table-top rules. It had the start of community warfare implemented, and a much more whole game. Unfortunately, it never made it out of closed beta.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Number of hours of play required to buy a new mech don't seem horrendous.

Well you have to buy three to not be running around in a mechanically deficient chassis.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

When I stopped playing over a year ago, Community warfare was coming "soon".

The complaints about getting away from canon and table-top is mainly because the original stated design intent was to be like table-top, to bring the mechwarrior games back to that, since the more recent iterations had strayed so far. Even more of the problem, is that they haven't delivered the features they promised, while continually "tweaking" and "balancing". The perception is that they are wasting resources doing monetization and balancing rather than getting the features out that they have promised (which incidentally, will affect long-term balancing issues greatly).

Also, if you ever got a chance to play MPBT:3025 from EA about 10 years ago, you would have witnessed a much better implementation that stayed close to the table-top rules. It had the start of community warfare implemented, and a much more whole game. Unfortunately, it never made it out of closed beta.

I understand 100% why people have issues with the game. and i dont disagree with most of the issues. but everyone wants something different from the games they play.

mine are stompy robots blasting each other based in the BT universe. so they've filled my one and only criteria. everything else is icing on the cake for me.

different strokes for different folks.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

Well you have to buy three to not be running around in a mechanically deficient chassis.

eeeh. the elite skills help, but arent needed to be effective. if you are the hyper competitive min/maxer, sure. just want a new sweet ride to kill things, nah. i have 50 mechs and have only mastered a handful. quite a few arent even fully basiced.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

eeeh. the elite skills help, but arent needed to be effective. if you are the hyper competitive min/maxer, sure. just want a new sweet ride to kill things, nah. i have 50 mechs and have only mastered a handful. quite a few arent even fully basiced.

The real advantage besides speed tweak is it also doubles the basics. But if you want to continue to drop at a disadvantage I'm sure your opponents will appreciate it.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

The real advantage besides speed tweak is it also doubles the basics. But if you want to continue to drop at a disadvantage I'm sure your opponents will appreciate it.

if you're on equal footing in a brawl, you're not elited and your opponent is, he definitely has an advantage.

the best part about this game is that the disadvantage you speak of can be overcome in a lot of cases and i dont consider it a critical must have if you're just tooling around having fun.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Some people "whine" about canon just for the sake of whining about canon. Most of us are upset because instead of taking canon as the proper starting point for balancing and tweaking it to be suitable for a real time FPS they claimed the they were designing a game rooted in canon, and them promptly threw all the rich material they had to build off of out the window and made balance decisions for reach new system based on pretty much nothing without consideration to how they impacted each other and total game balance got worse with each new iteration.

Then we have to sit here and watch them implement new features like one time use boosters while the core mechanics are so broken? Give me a break. PGI has been pretty much ignoring and suppressing all serious suggestions on their forums for the better part of a year. They made their cash grab from the die-hard BattleTech fans with their empty promises so they could seed a strong community and then they promptly bait and switched all their core supporters with all these ridiculous pay walls and unfulfilled promises. PGI and MWO are one big amateur hour.

Also, community warfare has been promised for about a full year now, and realistically we should have expected it sometime in late Q1 to mid Q2 of this year.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Look at canon values for the PPC, look at what PGI finally set MWO PPC values at last patch (hint: canon values), and consider the 6+ months of PPCmageddon it took to get them there. Amateur hour indeed, it'd be laughable if it wasn't Mechwarrior they were screwing up.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

im not going to disagree with anyone's complaints, because they are valid. Except the pay wall. they've done a good job at making the entire game accessible for people that dont want to pay money. there isnt a single thing you cant get in game that doesnt cost real cash, Hero Mechs excluded there. But they arent any better than regular mechs. its a F2P game. you can spend as little or as much as you want.

also, what core mechanics of the game play itself are broken exactly?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

im not going to disagree with anyone's complaints, because they are valid. Except the pay wall. they've done a good job at making the entire game accessible for people that dont want to pay money. there isnt a single thing you cant get in game that doesnt cost real cash, Hero Mechs excluded there.

And mechbays. But they're reasonably priced. And they're pretty much the only thing that are.

But they arent any better than regular mechs. its a F2P game. you can spend as little or as much as you want.

also, what core mechanics of the game play itself are broken exactly?

Single heatsinks and by extension trial mechs that noobs are doomed to grind in at the start. And the entrench-and-snipe meta that has largely taken over in no small part due to the only weapons with a hard 270M range being rendered impotent. The game was just plain more fun in closed beta when SRM's were "overpowered."

 

[obidamnkenobi]

im not going to disagree with anyone's complaints, because they are valid. Except the pay wall. they've done a good job at making the entire game accessible for people that dont want to pay money. there isnt a single thing you cant get in game that doesnt cost real cash, Hero Mechs excluded there. But they arent any better than regular mechs. its a F2P game. you can spend as little or as much as you want.

also, what core mechanics of the game play itself are broken exactly?

Just going to say I think I agree with your sentiment in every way.

It's a game with big robots shooting stuff, and lots of tweaking of numbers which I enjoy immensely due to the disease called "engineering education". I haven't seen anything broken, and don't care if it's not starcraft level of balancing. I think that would be unrealistic and I'd rather have an evolving game where they add new features/mechs etc.

My only exposure to canon was playing MW3 singleplayer so I don't really care, but I guess I can understand that some would.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

snipe meta has been curtailed with the PPC/Gauss nerf patch (TT heat values and projectile speed decrease for the PPC and a charge up mechanic for the gauss + velocity increase). All hail your new Ultra Autocannon Overlords (which have a 15% jam rate now to offset some hit detection issues that were resolved last patch)! UACs will be nerfed next week.

im not going to ding them on the price of entirely optional items in a free to play game that needs to generate revenue in some way.

And unless they can do something unique with single heat sinks, they will remain useless and all mechs will have to pay the DHS tax. DHS are a straight upgrade, just like they were in TT. so whats the problem???

Trial Mechs are HORRIBLE. ill give you that.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

TEAMWORK IS OVERPOWERED! So are UACs in a 4 man drop.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Join Us! we're an extremely casual group. most weeks Im lucky to get 5 hours of play time, but i always keep up on the thread.

we're happy to have any and everybody that wants to play with us no matter how much or little time you have. nothing is really organized besides some theme nights some random individual will want to put together, then everyone that thinks its a good idea plays too with the theme.

sure-sure, I will!

Is there any chance this thread could be turned into actual gameplay discussion?
How do people feel about the Phoenix thing for launch? I haven't put a dime into the game and am wondering if it's better to 'buy' a few mechs outright there rather than premium time here and there to buy with CBs. A bit pricey though. Any idea how long it will be offered? I'd like to see how the launch is before I commit money..

Since I have very limited gaming time I really like that you can get 1 day of premium for a couple bucks. For those few days here and there when I think I can get a few hours in.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

Dont think theres a cutoff date yet for Phoenix. I think its worth it if you have more $ than time. Gives you a pretty big jump into the game and the Mechs + bays + premium time works out to be pretty cheap compared to buying the items piece meal.

dont expect anything from launch. Its pretty much just a media event. UI 2.0 comes in November (supposedly) and that will open the door for the rest of the features they have planned.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I wouldn't touch the Phoenix package unless you just wanted to put on a robot fashion show. If you really want to put money into this game and want the best return from it I'd look at getting an Llya Muromets (or maybe a Firebrand) and mechbays. But everything outside of mechbays is pricey and IMO there are too many unknowns about the future to justify a considerable money investment. Plus at the rate they're releasing mechs anything that looks good now might be crap once it gets here or shortly thereafter.

I'm expecting a 20% bonus MC sale at launch because they sure don't have anything else happening.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Plus at the rate they're releasing mechs anything that looks good now might be crap once it gets here or shortly thereafter.

This is partly what makes Single Heatsinks (and some other equipment) so uncompetitive. Ideally their ELO would have different tech tiers you compete in (or at least consider the mech's tech rating) as well tonnage and player skill. If/when they release clan tech things will get REALLY ugly.

 

[child of wonder]

This is partly what makes Single Heatsinks (and some other equipment) so uncompetitive. Ideally their ELO would have different tech tiers you compete in (or at least consider the mech's tech rating) as well tonnage and player skill. If/when they release clan tech things will get REALLY ugly.

Clan tech is overpowered and must be nerfed.

-Double heat sinks do 1.5 heat dissipation.
-ER PPC does 20 heat and 13 damage.
-MPL does 6 heat and 7 damage. Firing more than 2 results in immediate shut down.
-Streak SRM 6 randomly jams.
-Clan XL engine cost causes pilot to tear up and cry for starving kids in Africa causing rippling in first person view, forcing player to change to 3rd person.
-Clan Endo Steel and Ferro Fibrous require MC to buy
-Clan Gauss Rifle requires 2 second charge time to fire and permission of enemy you are targeting

 

[lupi]

Hehehe, so wrong yet so right.

 

[greenhawk]

Are PPCs OP?

I think missiles are fun


I see here now simultaneously someone complain that each patch change things, and somebody else say they'll never update or fix issues..

re ppc, some think they are, but the patch notes for the update yesterday (I checked after reading this thread had me intereted in the changes) nerfed them again. They are now 25% slower, generate more heat, and the standard now does zero damage under 90m.

Gauss is now faster(?) than a PPC (not getting started on physics) and has a delay fire / auto discharge if not used.

re missiles, they can be, but solo missiles do too little damage to matter against a basic anti-missile system unit. Add in players using upgraded anti-missile items and stock standard missiles are a waste of tonnage.

as to the patches, the last one is a good example.

- added a tutorial mode which I have no idea how long in comming. Most players worked out how to play the game buy trial and error, some upto a year ago. So a update that could be seen as a lot late.
- changed what trial mechs are on offer. Not really worth calling it a useful patch when you just swap around pre-designed units.
- 11 "balancing" items (really just editing a spread sheet of numbers)
- 10 "bug" fixes which are
5 visual effects
1 game crash which " could happen to certain users"
1 coment to getting stuck in a map (3 listed, unknown fixes)
1 damage processing (which was effecting ONE mech type)
2 issues which sound like sync issues with the server (rage doll on one mech and client displaying something the server says no to)

And what have they been doing (based on the comments and what I would expect to take a lot of programmer time to do)? designing new mechs to sell. And this has been the pattern since open beta.

Going from memory, there has been more updates related to fixing the appearance / movement of mechs just released and releasing cockpit items which no one else generally sees than actual game mechanics being fixed.

But each to their own. It is your time. Personally, I still have my founder's VIP time I have not activiated as still awaiting the game to be playable for one reason or another. The biggest one is rubber banding or lag. Both make the game unplayable at times for me.

 

[greenhawk]

DHS are a straight upgrade, just like they were in TT. so whats the problem???

in TT, double heat sink did double the work as a single heat sink.

At last check (have not seen any patches about it changing), double heat sinks in MWO do 1.5 and take up the innersphere standard 3 slots.

hardly a straight upgrade taking 200% more space for 50% extra performance.