Poptarting is now MUCH harder. Though I have not noticed screen shake, the reticle shake is very significant. Basically you need to release your jumpjets just before you shoot, which requires some significant coordination. No longer do I find myself jetting just to get a more stable firing positon compared so simply moving over uneven ground.
pg1
1942
I’m pretty disappointed by how they nerfed poptarts. I absolutely detest random shake in FPS I play. I also find it really annoying and uncomfortable to use jump jets now. I don’t mind jump jets being weakened but the way they did it I totally oppose. I do however fully support making long range jump jet sniping near useless. They had stated things in the past how they wouldn’t do cone of fire or whatever, but this is exactly what they did. Here’s a gif showing the effects of jumping and shooting at a wall ~310m away -
This game keeps getting worse and worse gameplay wise so far while the technical side is slowly improving. The shake effects anyone with jump jets too, not just pop tarts. Where is the buff to SRMs and nerf to PPCs?
This is just an odd paragraph. Firstly, they stated they were implementing cone of fire during jumpjetting and that is what they did.
“- Weapon fire spread - Aiming weapons is randomly offset while jump jets are active.”
The screen/reticle shake are cosmetic to cue the player that their fire will be inaccurate. You arent meant to try and actually use your wildly bucking reticle to hit anything at that point. Thsi is a completely satisfactory solution imho. Some people say you can just release your jumpjets and fire as you fall, but in practice this is very difficult to do reliably. If people can pull it off, more power to them.
More to the point, you support this nerf!! If not this, then what is your suggestion for making long-range jump-sniping near useless?
Lastly the nerf has been pretty damned effective, poptarting has dropped off to a bare minimum as a tactic. As for how it “feels” I would argue that jumpjets are not meant to give you a nice smooth ride. a +3 modifier to hit in tabletop and all the lore talks about how violent jumpjet use is. No question jumpjets are uncomfortable to use now.
Do i think they will smooth it out? Most likely; they have said as much. But in principle I have no problems with these changes.
Where is the buff to SRMs and nerf to PPCs?
How would you nerf PPCs? SRMs did get a buff in terms of less missile spread, and a technical buff with missile HSR, possibly they need a damage buff also but its clear they are working on it.
pg1
1944
I guess it’s odd because I am conflicted about it, I support the outcome but not the means to achieve it. Yet in the past they said they don’t want to do CoF and like skill based precision aim. They have a lot of communication issues lately and never seem to meet any deadlines they set in the press (CW 90 days after open beta, said 12v12 in 60 days in March, etc). I’ll be very surprised if they hit their release date of September 21st. Given their past history it seems more likely it’ll be pushed back till 2014 but I hope I’m wrong.
I don’t think fake cosmetic features which give players feedback are good. Why not give people the option to disable shake but keep the effects of the aim changes? The gameplay matters more than the shaking, right?
Yes, you can still fire vs targets without issue if you can time it right to shoot while falling. It has basically killed long range pop tarting because it’s very hard to do now and short range pop tarting doesn’t offer that much advantage. It’s hurt other jump jet mechs just as much as pop tarts.
First remove arm lock while jump jetting or remove it from the game entirely. It makes it much too easy to perfectly align high alpha sniper shots. Almost every high alpha sniper uses both arm and torso weapons. You can still use arm lock in the air and line up perfectly when falling after jump jetting even now. Silly and artificial. Second tweak PPC heat at least up +2 for both ER and normal PPCs. Right now they are as heat effective as a medium laser! Think about that for a second, PPC is pinpoint damage at extreme ranges. Medium laser is damage over time at short range, is it balanced for them to take the same heat for the same damage? Third add back strong SRMs so brawling is more viable. Even at their worst Splatcats were manageable and possible to counter. One time in eights we got tunnel rushed with 8 Splatcats (back when they were strong), we had a mixed setup, a few brawlers, a few strikers and a few snipers. We lined up our lines of fire better picked some off as they came in, then separated to support each other while trying to stop them swarming one person. We lost a few mechs but we beat them pretty easily. There’s a reason serious teams never used 8 Splatcats. I still think strong PPCs and weak brawling are the main issues not jump jets.
Well I’d rather have a fun good feeling game to play than one that tries to play like a +3 modifier or lore descriptions. I liked how jump jets were before and I don’t like how they are now.
I hope MWO eventually ends up going down the path of unique and strongly specialized variants for balance such as discussed here - http://www.reddit.com/r/mwo/comments/1fcpay/a_formal_constructive_attempt_to_make_more/
All dates will slip. This is a rule of thumb even with seasoned developers. It does not bother me that it takes longer than stated, it only bothers me if they outright axe features I am waiting for.
I think they have the right idea make accuracy worse when jumping. It is a single siomple change and you don’t have to mess with a dozen different things like you are suggesting. With all the changes you suggest poptarting would have a barely noticeable nerf… making brawling stronger is irrelevant if the problem is you cant close to short range without crippling damage, and making the only viable anti-poptart platform be SRM carriers seems like a poor outcome. IMHO PPCs could probably use a slight uptick in heat… weapon balance is ongoing its quite possible it will happen.
All that said; the main issues were in 8 man, which I don’t play as a general rule. On the forums I would say just eyballing it that the 8 man players are generally happier with these changes than not, and the main gripe amongst the intellectually honest critics is that the cockpit shake is too violent/jarring.
Well I’d rather have a fun good feeling game to play than one that tries to play like a +3 modifier or lore descriptions. I liked how jump jets were before and I don’t like how they are now.
The cockpit shake needs to be fixed; in part because it does not seem to be consistent across all mechs. The blackjack does not seem to suffer much shake, but the jenner bucks like a bronco.
I think the basic concept is sound. IMHO they should make the cockpit shake VERY gentle (so as to eliminate the complaints of motion sickness), and make the reticle bloom during jump rather than jump around, ala world of tanks. That would present a less jarring experince well still telling you what you need to know, i.e. your accuracy is severely impaired.
The accuracy hit also helps diminish the value of jumping during brawls. Now you will jump to avoid/spread damage but have to accept that you will deal damage less effectively during your jump. Before this change leaping around like a maniac was a no-brainer.
pg1
1946
Then explain why the best players are quitting the game? See - http://www.reddit.com/r/mwo/comments/1ftiix/kaos_legion_currently_the_most_successful/
Like myself they are sick of what’s going on with the gameplay, balance and overall meta game. Guys like myself spend more time complaining than discussing strategies or tactics. When I played competitive Quake I spent zero time complaining about gameplay and spent almost all my mental energy on tactics and strategies. In MWO it’s the opposite and I’m sick of it now, so I don’t play (unless a friend wants to). I’m sure you don’t care about top competitive teams quitting but for me it’s a terrible sign for longevity of MWO. Balance is terrible compared to a few months ago.
Here’s another link - http://runhotordie.com/index.php/forum/announcements/168-na-playoffs-brackets-and-rules
There you can see that the playoffs has all but stopped as teams have dropped out or teams have delayed because the balance is all out of wack. None of the top teams are interested anymore it seems. Just a few months ago they were (as was I). If PGI can’t balance and make 8s fun, what hope does CW have (which you have to assume will have 8s as part of it)? Also it seems comical to increase 8s to 12s as the current 8s queue is a ghost town and a 50% increase in players will make it much harder (more than 50% harder) to get games. If anything they should release an ability to play smaller matches like 4v4.
I think this is the issue more than anything. You are unable to play the game and have fun within the context of whatever balance exists. Many of us do not have that problem, but then again many/most of us do not play 8v8. Heck reading the reddit link is a convincing argument that the 8 man group experience should be utterly ignored right now.
Ask an 8v8 drop what they think needs to be changed and you’ll get 16 different answers., and 75% of those answers will be entirely self serving (like the guy posting on reddit… he’s pining for a time when SRMs were utterly broken). Maybe it’s for the best that they take a break until things stabilize hopefully around release time.
Enjoy the game for what it is, stop trying to treat a volatile beta like it should be an ubercompetitive game. There isn’t a thing at stake.
http://mwomercs.com/phoenix
Locust, Shadowhawk, Thunderbolt and Battlemaster coming to MWO starting in October.
You can pre-order the mechs with a bunch of founder-style package deals which are pretty good value though you don’t actually get the stuff until october 15th (e.g. the $80 overlord package includes nearly $200 bucks of MC value in total, assuming you pre-order before July 25).
The concept art for the locust has been released and it looks pretty good; can’t wait to see what they’ve done with the other 3.
_scout
1949
I picked up the Atlas as founder and I think I had my 60$ fun so far in the game.
I really liked the look of the old battlemaster, who AFAIK belongs to the unseen, so I’m interested in how they do that.
I would have only grabbed that one, if that would have been possible, but despite all their hiccups in their production shedule and this looking from a certain point as “we need more money sheme” from the Devs, I’m willing to throw them another 80$ so they can go on.
As basic as the game still is, just these basics IMHO feel very good (minus the balancing but that comes and goes).
I still haven’t even touched my premium time from my founders bonus, so that will just add up as far as I understand.
I got one RL friend who got really really attached to the game (previous battletech/mechwarrior board gamer) and this looks like a chance for him to grab some decent unique mechs and throw some money at it ;).
http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/124437-new-battlemech-movement-behavior/
I didn’t realize they were so close to implementing this but I like what I see. I REALLY hope they implement reduced speed in water at some point as well. Changes like these promise to shake things up considerably.
Thunderbolt looks badass. Can’t wait to see the Battlemaster art tomorrow.
What!!! How did they get the rights? Is that Harmony Gold lawsuit finally settled?
These aren’t harmony gold designs, they were drawn from other anime (crusher joe and I don’t know what else). As far as I know the classic harmony gold designs (warhammer, marauder etc) are still unusable.
_scout
1953
Yepp, haven’t played a while (no time) but definitely liking the concept.
Tweaking it will be shaking (especially with this negative loaded community on their forums) but IMHO it gives jump mechs a defined role (mobilty), slows down the bigger mechs (my poor atlas) and strengthes mediums.
I do think that the devs have the right ideas and visions for the game but as often already noticed their progress is slow, they do get trouble for every change they introduce but IMHO the concept behind it was good, the implementation still okay, while the balancig tweaking was/is always something you “have to work through”, also it’s still a beta anyway.
Certainly going to fire it up later this evening so I get the time.
Battlemaster concept art and hardpoints have been released, and I have to say it looks great! High mounted torso hardpoints, and plenty of em. 2 ballistics on the left arms open the door to a lot of interesting loadouts in additon to the standard laser/ppc boating.
Aleck
1955
Have they expanded this game beyond the initial “team deathmatch arena” that it launched with? I actually bought in to the founder’s program, out of a love of battletech, but the game left me utterly cold. Are there any plans to expand the game beyond more mechs/more maps?
Plans, yes but it’s coming only slowly. I wouldn’t expect any major game mode/ community warfare stuff before September.
For now it is just the two game modes. But I’d say if the fundamental mech combat gameplay left you cold you probably will never get into it. If you what you wanted was more sophisticated game types, within a more persistent context, then yes I think eventually that’s coming.
pg1
1957
Nope, and this is one of my big problems with the game. Other half is bad balance. It remains to be seen when significant gameplay modes are going to be added, if ever. I’d enjoy the basic play as much with 20 mechs and 5 maps as I would with 100 mechs and 25 maps. After a certain point the numbers of mechs and maps don’t increase my enjoyment at all.
I don’t know… that Shadow Hawk looks pretty close to the original: everything from the majors (squared cockpit, AC over the shoulder, ML on the arm) to the minor details (foot shape is almost exactly the same, same sort of sloping on chest, undercarriage, etc.) See here (http://www.sarna.net/wiki/File:3025_shadowhawk.jpg) for reference.
Not that I’m complaining! I love having these classic designs in the game!
Yeah for sure these redesigns look great and spiritually true to the originals. Harmony Gold are still dicks though…
_scout
1960
12 vs 12 is live as a friend just mentioned …
