New Mechwarrior game coming?

[meeper]

Interesting to hear why you guys quit, one could even argue you guys were whales ($200, etc). I was recruited into a MWO unit (~30 guys) to play with them but we’ve all quit. Most of us stopped in the first half of 2013. Probably half were founders and all of us had spent money on the game. Most of us had thousands of drops. The money arms race wasn’t why we quit however. It was because balance and gameplay in MWO is terrible. The game is all about jump sniping aka pop tarting for more than a year now. Sniping reins supreme in MWO. Given what I’ve seen of the clans mechs it seems the only mech you’d ever need currently is the Timberwolf (ultimate poptart right now). Given that maps are random and more than a few maps are extremely bias towards sniping you’re nuts to take anything but a sniping mech and ideally a jump sniper (poptart). Some maps like Canyon Network virtually require jump jets and others like Alpine heavily favor sniping.

I’ve always found brawling and up close combat more fun in a shooter. MWO had strong brawling when it first went open beta (I didn’t play closed beta) until around spring 2013. After that the CTF-3D 2xPPC/Gauss poptart reigned for roughly a year or so. Then the HGN-733C 3xPPC/Gauss followed and upped the ante. Recently the HGNs were nerfed which resulted in the VTR-DS (P2W mech) becoming the top poptart. Now we’ve shifted to TBRs (Timberwolves, more P2W). Frankly I think sniping being dominate and the only way to play kills any FPS. I can’t think of one FPS off the top of my head where sniping is dominant that is popular. Sniping is what killed the game for me, it’s random and boring. You just peek corners and hope to see a target. It’s slow and campy and punishes aggressive play. Most high level competitive matches involve poptarting for 10-15mins until either a mech is sniped or a lucky call in strike gets a kill. Then the team down 1 mech is forced to push into the enemy poptarts and they almost always lose, it’s virtually impossible to attack into jump snipers. The even worse part about it was I was good at poptarting and I still didn’t enjoy it. They promised not to let MWO devolve into poptarting like past MW titles did but they broke that promise too and now it’s crap. Poptart builds can outfight brawler builds even at short ranges. It’s sad.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to give the impression that was the sole reason we quit. Rather, the mandatory monetization (in order to play with ‘new’ toys) atop what we were already paying was the last straw. The glacial pace of development and balance issues were certainly larger concerns for us, but we had been tolerating them until that point. My gaming group’s dynamic is such that when one or two of us stop playing a game, we tend to all stop playing that game.

[pg1]

OK, that makes more sense. My gaming group splintered somewhat after MWO. We haven’t found a home so to speak. The game we are playing most is actually multiplayer EU4 of all things. I might give the new patch a try as the new match maker is getting good buzz so far. Now if I can just drag any of my friends into it…

[Soapyfrog]

BTW after the last patch there has never been a better time to solo drop in MWO. The vast majority of PUGs are now in their own queue (and group sizes anywhere from 2-10 and 12 are supported). The result is that the solo queue is made up almost entirely of solo players (max 1 pre-made of 2-4 per team, which rarely even seems to happen tbh).

edit: also I’m probably burying the lead a bit here: any size group except 11 supported! And that too is very fun.

[Timex]

And… PGI basically jumps the shark, bails on MWO, and says, “Hey guys! We’re making a new, different game? But the money you gave us for MWO is totally not going into it! So please keep buying gold mechs!”

I strongly advise anyone against giving these con men any money, for any game, ever.

[Soapyfrog]

And… PGI basically jumps the shark, bails on MWO, and says, “Hey guys! We’re making a new, different game? But the money you gave us for MWO is totally not going into it! So please keep buying gold mechs!”

I strongly advise anyone against giving these con men any money, for any game, ever.

They are making a new game with new staff and new money, MWO development continues with MWO money. MWO has done well enough that PGI gas attracted new investment to expand and make a new game.

I know the truth is kinda mundane and boring!!

[TurinTur]

And… PGI basically jumps the shark, bails on MWO, and says, “Hey guys! We’re making a new, different game? But the money you gave us for MWO is totally not going into it! So please keep buying gold mechs!”

I strongly advise anyone against giving these con men any money, for any game, ever.

Not that different when you buy a retail game. The profits serves to fund their next game. It’s the most normal thing in the world.

[Timex]

Not that different when you buy a retail game. The profits serves to fund their next game. It’s the most normal thing in the world.

Except that they are literally years behind in development of mwo, continually giving the excuse that they have limited resources to provide the content that they promised back in 2011.

They never delivered the completed game. They have been operating under the claim that the money people spent on mechs has been going to find those features they promised previously.

[Harkonis]

I’m still bummed they ‘temporarily’ removed collisions about 2 years ago and haven’t done shit about it since. Don’t even get me started on CW

[Soapyfrog]

Except that they are literally years behind in development of mwo, continually giving the excuse that they have limited resources to provide the content that they promised back in 2011.

They definitely over-promised and under-delivered.

They never delivered the completed game. They have been operating under the claim that the money people spent on mechs has been going to find those features they promised previously.

Seems like a solid claim. Not really seeing the problem, except insofar as you are dis-satisfied with MWO (a fair position depending on your expectations)

[TheWombat]

MWO was a complete waste of money for me. I love Battletech stuff, but the gameplay was so bland and the mechlab and other aspects of the game interface/environment so unfriendly that I simply stopped playing. I have several thousand of their spacebucks unspent because I can’t be bothered. I haven’t played in like a year.

[Timex]

When people asked why we still only had 6 maps, pgi accidentally gave a truthful answer and said that they couldn’t monetize maps as easily as mechs, so that’s why they invest money in constantly releasing mech chassis and almost never release new maps.

Their whole game plan here is short term monetary gain, with no consideration for the long term health of the game, which is not only terrible for us as players, but is a pretty terrible business decision.

[Aleck]

MWO was a complete waste of money for me. I love Battletech stuff, but the gameplay was so bland and the mechlab and other aspects of the game interface/environment so unfriendly that I simply stopped playing. I have several thousand of their spacebucks unspent because I can’t be bothered. I haven’t played in like a year.

That’s my feeling in a nutshell. I was a founder, backing the game well before it was released. I honestly played perhaps 2-3 hours shortly after release. It was clearly incomplete. Every time I’ve gone back to it, I’ve played a few short matches and come away completely dissatisfied. I didn’t think they could fuck up what is probably my fondest gaming series, but MWO managed to do so. So incredibly disappointing.

[Timex]

That’s my feeling in a nutshell. I was a founder, backing the game well before it was released. I honestly played perhaps 2-3 hours shortly after release. It was clearly incomplete. Every time I’ve gone back to it, I’ve played a few short matches and come away completely dissatisfied. I didn’t think they could fuck up what is probably my fondest gaming series, but MWO managed to do so. So incredibly disappointing.

What sucks is that it’s actually pretty obvious this is how it was gonna turn out, when you look at pgi’s prior history. They basically made Walmart shovelware titles.

We just didn’t investigate their history until after they were consistently incompetent for years.

Their lead designer guy, Paul Innoye, is clearly in over his depth with this one, and has no idea how to balance this kind of game. He does nothing for months at a time, and then changes all the weapons at once, somehow thinking that is going to progress towards some balanced state. He also doesn’t seem to really understand his own game, or even play it, as there have been many times when he has actually nerfed weapons that no one used because they were already considered trash tier.

I think the biggest problem with mwo is that they had a great game back in beta, but it never really developed beyond what it was. In many ways, it’s actually gotten worse.

[Aleck]

What sucks is that it’s actually pretty obvious this is how it was gonna turn out, when you look at pgi’s prior history. They basically made Walmart shovelware titles.

We just didn’t investigate their history until after they were consistently incompetent for years.

Their lead designer guy, Paul Innoye, is clearly in over his depth with this one, and has no idea how to balance this kind of game. He does nothing for months at a time, and then changes all the weapons at once, somehow thinking that is going to progress towards some balanced state. He also doesn’t seem to really understand his own game, or even play it, as there have been many times when he has actually nerfed weapons that no one used because they were already considered trash tier.

I think the biggest problem with mwo is that they had a great game back in beta, but it never really developed beyond what it was. In many ways, it’s actually gotten worse.

Yeah, I didn’t investigate PGI at all – I remember (vaguely, now) that one of the BattleTech boardgame or original Mechwarrior game people was somehow affiliated with the company, and just assumed that it had been created to build MWO.

Such a shame, really. It could have been a fantastic game.

Hey, wasn’t there another Mechwarrior themed game that was being developed around the same time?

[Timex]

Jordan Weissman was the guy you are thinking of, who made battletech and then headed FASA studios that made the prior mechwarrior titles. His company Tinker & Smith created that mechwarrior reboot trailer. Due to a lack of investors, he ended up selling the rights to PGI.

The other mechwarrior title you are thinking of may be Living Legends, which was a cry engine mod. At some point pgi “requested” that they stop development on it. I think at least some of the living legends guys embed up getting jobs at crytek.

[Aleck]

Jordan Weissman was the guy you are thinking of, who made battletech and then headed FASA studios that made the prior mechwarrior titles. His company Tinker & Smith created that mechwarrior reboot trailer. Due to a lack of investors, he ended up selling the rights to PGI.

The other mechwarrior title you are thinking of may be Living Legends, which was a cry engine mod. At some point pgi “requested” that they stop development on it. I think at least some of the living legends guys embed up getting jobs at crytek.

Ahh – Jordan Weissman if was. I didn’t realize that Tinker & Smith had just sold the rights to another developer. That’s… unfortunate.

Also, re: Piranha, Rob Merritt called it in the very first post of this thread.

[Soapyfrog]

When people asked why we still only had 6 maps, pgi accidentally gave a truthful answer and said that they couldn’t monetize maps as easily as mechs, so that’s why they invest money in constantly releasing mech chassis and almost never release new maps.

Their whole game plan here is short term monetary gain, with no consideration for the long term health of the game, which is not only terrible for us as players, but is a pretty terrible business decision.

Hmm not sure if I understand your reasoning there. Free to play games are completely dependent on ongoing sales of monetized content, and so the #1 priority is to make sure that monetized content is coming out at a rate sufficient to sustain sales, take advantage of player interest, and thus keep income flowing in so that non-monetized content can still be developed and the game evolved so that player interest does not wane.

The continuous development strategy that free to play games pursue is a LONG term play: keep the game running as long as possible, keep player interest as high as possible, and you will have steady work and steady income for years and years. They basically copied the World of Tanks model verbatim.

[Soapyfrog]

Their lead designer guy, Paul Innoye, is clearly in over his depth with this one, and has no idea how to balance this kind of game. He does nothing for months at a time, and then changes all the weapons at once, somehow thinking that is going to progress towards some balanced state. He also doesn’t seem to really understand his own game, or even play it, as there have been many times when he has actually nerfed weapons that no one used because they were already considered trash tier.

I agree with that!

I think the biggest problem with mwo is that they had a great game back in beta, but it never really developed beyond what it was. In many ways, it’s actually gotten worse.

I don’t agree with that.

[MrCoffee]

They had a great game for a beta, but not for a full release.

[Timex]

Hmm not sure if I understand your reasoning there. Free to play games are completely dependent on ongoing sales of monetized content, and so the #1 priority is to make sure that monetized content is coming out at a rate sufficient to sustain sales, take advantage of player interest, and thus keep income flowing in so that non-monetized content can still be developed and the game evolved so that player interest does not wane.

The continuous development strategy that free to play games pursue is a LONG term play: keep the game running as long as possible, keep player interest as high as possible, and you will have steady work and steady income for years and years. They basically copied the World of Tanks model verbatim.

I think you missed the point of my post.

PGI has openly admitted to not adding content that they can’t directly monetize.

The problem with their reasoning is that without that content, the game slowly withers and dies, which then kills their income from monetizing the mechs.

the fact we will have only three maps, and absolutely none of the interstellar warfare components has resulted in the player base continually shrinking.

Monetizable content depends on non-monetizable content in order to attract customers.