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shaq_mobile
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Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:03 am

Bleh. Anyone else tried it out? To me it felt very sloppy, rushed and greedy. I got so frustrated with the store, price model and ONE round that I played, I just uninstalled it. The map was incredibly dark and nightvision was terrible. Combat was sloppy and confusing.

It's a shame they probably stole a lot of people from MWLL. I thought MWLL was much closer to what I imagined a MW game would look like, today.
 
Dizik
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:17 am

Although it's not an MMO, have you given Hawken a try?
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Mentawl
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:24 am

I had such high hopes. But all they're interested in is monetizing Battletech. :(
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Scrotos
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 12:21 pm

Freebirth scum!
 
Philldoe
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 12:30 pm

Yeah, great game actually. One round is not going to give you a proper introduction to the game. I've been playing since they did the Closed Beta. I will say that their way of doing ECM is total horse ****, but aside from that the game is quite nice.

MWO is a team game. Do not expect to do well unless you are co-ordinating with other people. Why? Because everyone else is doing so. If you are looking for a group to start playing with and learn from, shoot me a PM and I'll get you set up with my group. We have a website and Teamspeak. We have casual and Hardcore players running 4 and 8-man teams.
Fastfreak39: I feel like they should change the phrase "jumping on the band wagon" to "sailing on the pirate ship"
 
Forge
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 12:32 pm

Scrotos wrote:
Freebirth scum!


That's MY line.

I have MWO installed and would not mind assembling a star.
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Philldoe
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:53 pm

We should set up a game night. I've got TS covered :)
Fastfreak39: I feel like they should change the phrase "jumping on the band wagon" to "sailing on the pirate ship"
 
Scrotos
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:10 pm

I've been getting emails from MWO for a while, in the beta and all that, but too busy to give it a shot. I haven't played a mech game since Mechwarrior 2 + Ghost Bear (never got into Mercs). I should make time to give it a shot considering my investment in the #!@$ boardgame.
 
rythex
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:33 pm

I was in the closed beta.. I had it uninstalled for a few months, it's pretty lame. Netcode is terrible. I reinstalled it a couple days ago.. still lame.. :/

It pretty much boils down to lamers running Jenners or some other light mech lagging around and shooting you while you have to aim 10 meters ahead on screen and pray you hit them.

For an online-only cash sink game, the netcode is junk.

The game modes are pretty terrible.. Capture the point and multiple capture the point ... (whoever reaches # points after whatever minute)

Game is pretty fun when its a M/H/A mech vs M/H/A mech, lights with the **** netcode make the game unbearable and cheesy.


Kid saves up enough for Jenner/Raven/Commando and whatever the biggest engine is, runs around and shoots stuff and doesn't get hit = profit.

The game should have been in closed beta for another year
 
Philldoe
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 04, 2013 4:13 pm

The netcode issue is being blown out of proportion. I one shot lights with my 2x AC/20 Catapault K2 daily.
Fastfreak39: I feel like they should change the phrase "jumping on the band wagon" to "sailing on the pirate ship"
 
shaq_mobile
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:57 pm

Maybe I'll give it another shot. I was just so frustrated with how bad/confusing the UI was and the lighting of that city map. It's just difficult because MWLL is so fun and it's ACTUALLY free, not "pay to get the good items". I'll give it another shot when I get tired of trying to find MWLL matches.
 
shaq_mobile
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:57 pm

Dizik wrote:
Although it's not an MMO, have you given Hawken a try?


No I haven't. Worth a shot?
 
Philldoe
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:32 pm

shaq_mobile wrote:
Maybe I'll give it another shot. I was just so frustrated with how bad/confusing the UI was and the lighting of that city map. It's just difficult because MWLL is so fun and it's ACTUALLY free, not "pay to get the good items". I'll give it another shot when I get tired of trying to find MWLL matches.


You don't have to pay to get the good items. MWO is a Pay to not grind for a few days game. Not a Pay to Win game. They also have a recruit bonus that give you a ton of C-Bills for your first 25 matches, regardless of win/loss.

EDIT: All mechs and weapons can be bought with earnable game cash, you do not have to buy MC with real money to get anything aside from Hero mechs which are just normal game mechs with alternate crit slots. These mechs are no more powerful than any other mech. Take out the right shoulder or arm on the Hero Centurion and it's just become cannon fodder. Same with the Hero Cataphract.
Fastfreak39: I feel like they should change the phrase "jumping on the band wagon" to "sailing on the pirate ship"
 
NovusBogus
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:47 am

I'm a backer, was in closed beta, blah blah blah. The developer has good intentions but they don't have much experience making 'real' games and it shows. The "open beta" is really more of a public dev build where you can pay cash money get stuff quickly. Gameplay is actually pretty good when you get a good match going, but the mechanics are so simplistic that good matches almost never happen. There's no matchmaker to speak of which exacerbates all the other problems. They've got a new game mode now that's supposed to move away from "whichever 8 mech blob is more cohesive gets a steamroll victory" but the holidays and other games have had me too busy to try it out so can't comment either way about that.

It's got potential, but I agree with rythex that it should have been in closed beta for a lot longer. It just isn't anywhere near a finished product.
 
MadManOriginal
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:47 am

I got into tabletop Battletech ages ago. I have a bunch of rulebooks, tech readouts, scenario books, universe background books, and other bits and pieces in a box. When I was young I played games with friends or at hobby shops, or just read the books for fun. Just saying that to make clear I am (was - just haven't done anything with it in ages) a big and long-time Battletech fan.

There is one simple problem with all real-time Battletech games that attempt to translate the tabletop stats directly to real-time gameplay: the fact that players can aim, whereas in the tabletop game hit location was a probability based on die rolls. (2D6 so there was a bell curve distribution from 2-12; some die rolls were pure random 1D6 but not hit location.) This is exactly what rythex described.

This problem goes all the way back to the original Mechwarrior game. My favorite mech in that game was the Phoenix Hawk - I just headshotted enemies with the large laser. Now this is realistic from a Mechwarrior roleplaying point of view, but it simply does not work when weapons and armor are direct translations from the tabletop game. There are other things that don't translate well, like weapon cycle timing and heat management but those can usually be pretty well adjusted. Players aiming cannot be adjusted without making a game very few gamers would want to play. In MPBT 3025 one common tactics was to have a group of Blackjacks, a very crappy mech in the tabletop game but the only one with AC/2 - the longest range weapon - in MPBT, line up across an open field. When an enemy was nearing range, begin to backpedal, and everyone concentrate AC/2 fire on center torso or an ammo-carrying area. A lance of crappy Blackjacks could take out half a lance before it was in range to fire back but that wouldn't happen in the tabletop game because hit location is randomized. Legging was also a common tactic. Those are just a few examples of how this problem makes real-time Battletech a mess.

Until a Battletech game randomizes hit location there will always be this problem, and the amount of kludging weapon damage or armor to overcome it is not practical and wouldn't be balanced either. MPBT was fun, and probably the best first person Battletech/Mechwarrior game I played, but I don't see there ever being a good real-time Battletech game that has a chance of being successful.
 
Hawkwing74
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Thu Jan 10, 2013 10:45 am

Interesting post, I loved tabletop Battletech and played with friends and family over the years. I agree that the flaws you describe are difficult for an MMO or multiplayer PC game to overcome.

I kinda liked Mech Commander but that was a different type of game.
 
Forge
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:37 pm

A good point, MMO. I remember breaking out MW3 at a LAN party, years and years ago, and being nearly ignored. Once I fired it up and ran like I did in SP, I was one-shotting legs off and people quit left and right. Finally the last few were all on the same playbook and it got very boring, very fast. The problem was exactly what you described.
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NovusBogus
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:48 pm

Accuracy is a very good point, many of the balance issues in MWO come down to the developer trying to use the tabletop values for everything while even novice players have no problem hitting center mass every time. Even headshots are pretty common because most of the mechs are the older more industrial-looking ones that have big giant cockpits. I never played the tabletop game but in MechCommander mechs tended to die from the outside in whereas in MW games, and especially MWO due to the mechs involved, mechs die by getting CT drilled out.
 
shaq_mobile
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:31 pm

I guess what it comes down to is that I really like the idea of extreme customization. Lot's of games pretend to do that in one form or another, but ultimately steer away from it. Lots of MMOs feature talent systems that they eventually nerf/narrow so that you really just have two or three choices. Gear is all the same for everyone. Encounters have one and only one way to do them, typically. I just thought it was cool that you could customize your mech so much. You could even customize armor values. That's cool. I'd really enjoy a non pay-lots-to-have-fun or whatever model pay to play really turns into. $40, 10 maps, 3 modes, 20 mechs, 20 weapons with different subtypes, fully customizable mechs...

Hawken is okay, but its too simple. There isn't much customization and there were only two maps, I think? Two maps, a handful of mechs, 3 weapons. I did have fun, but there wasn't much to bring me back to it.
 
kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Thu Sep 19, 2013 4:17 pm

Well kids its upon us. MWO has launched. I haven't played but thought I'd try to resurrect this thread. Who's playing? is it good? How is the freemium???
 
Kurkotain
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:36 pm

I love it.

I'll admit it can get really frustrating at times, and the hardcore battletech community being in open revolt being a clear signal that some choices are not right, but still.

Been playing it for a year, since closed beta. Yeah it was more "fun" back then (not as much cheese builds) but elo and matchmaker took care of that.
The cheesewarriors:online just go up into the ladder against the pros and get their asses handed to them and mostly leave us casual teams and good pugs alone.

The only cash i've spent into the game is for mechbays (about 20) and so far i can't complain about the freemium model: If people want to spend money in the game, for a better mech (hero mech), GXP or paintjobs, let them.
It makes it only more embarrassing for them to be destroyed by freebie teamwork.

That is my point of view from a purely "game experience" point of view. If you try to shoehorn heat theory and application, pinpoint accuracy, cooldown, and all the things the hardcore community is against, it will become a long argument.
Yes, a lot of things could be done a lot better, and the ghost heat system strikes me as bandaid solution, but well. one step at a time.
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auxy
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Thu Sep 19, 2013 9:15 pm

I HATE Mechwarrior Online. I haven't tried it since launch, but I was in the closed and open beta, and it was just the most awful game. I don't have any nice things to say about it.

When I first tried to play it in the closed beta, it wouldn't even launch. I tried a few different video drivers, and fiddled around with some registry stuff, and nothing helped. Well, it's no big deal for me to wipe my system disk and reinstall Windows, so I did; lo and behold, same problem. I posted on the forums, but never got a dev reply.

I tried it again later in the open beta, and it was just so awful. The UI is terrible, the gameplay is awkward and poorly balanced, the netcode is like something out of 1995, and the graphics aren't even good. It has literally no redeeming qualities; I HATE this game! ( ≧Д≦)

If you're into mech games, the game you really need to be playing is Armored Core V. Sure, the graphics are kinda mediocre; sure, it's a console-only title. It's also the best mech game ever made, bar none. As they did with Dark Souls and the action-RPG genre, From Software is able to mesh the old-school and new hotness with absolutely flawless skill, and come away with a game that's a shining example of its genre. Nothing else even comes close. ヽ(´ー`)┌
 
kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:57 am

Kurkotain wrote:
I love it.

I'll admit it can get really frustrating at times, and the hardcore battletech community being in open revolt being a clear signal that some choices are not right, but still.

Been playing it for a year, since closed beta. Yeah it was more "fun" back then (not as much cheese builds) but elo and matchmaker took care of that.
The cheesewarriors:online just go up into the ladder against the pros and get their asses handed to them and mostly leave us casual teams and good pugs alone.

The only cash i've spent into the game is for mechbays (about 20) and so far i can't complain about the freemium model: If people want to spend money in the game, for a better mech (hero mech), GXP or paintjobs, let them.
It makes it only more embarrassing for them to be destroyed by freebie teamwork.

That is my point of view from a purely "game experience" point of view. If you try to shoehorn heat theory and application, pinpoint accuracy, cooldown, and all the things the hardcore community is against, it will become a long argument.
Yes, a lot of things could be done a lot better, and the ghost heat system strikes me as bandaid solution, but well. one step at a time.


Your appreciation seems really rare. I am an old battle tech fan, love the books and played everything after MW 2. Love mech commander games. At any rate there has always been major issues with the actual execution of all the games. None have been perfect. I didn't expect perfection but rather hoped for it. My hopes are pretty dashed at this point. The game from what I understand plays like Hawken. Not a bad game but not a battle tech game. That being said I haven't played it, applied to get into the beta was denied and haven't pursued it since. I currently am not playing any games and don't plan to but I like to be up on the state of things. I was hoping it would be a truely great sim that I could pick up when I get back into gaming.
 
kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:59 am

auxy wrote:
I HATE Mechwarrior Online. I haven't tried it since launch, but I was in the closed and open beta, and it was just the most awful game. I don't have any nice things to say about it.

When I first tried to play it in the closed beta, it wouldn't even launch. I tried a few different video drivers, and fiddled around with some registry stuff, and nothing helped. Well, it's no big deal for me to wipe my system disk and reinstall Windows, so I did; lo and behold, same problem. I posted on the forums, but never got a dev reply.

I tried it again later in the open beta, and it was just so awful. The UI is terrible, the gameplay is awkward and poorly balanced, the netcode is like something out of 1995, and the graphics aren't even good. It has literally no redeeming qualities; I HATE this game! ( ≧Д≦)

If you're into mech games, the game you really need to be playing is Armored Core V. Sure, the graphics are kinda mediocre; sure, it's a console-only title. It's also the best mech game ever made, bar none. As they did with Dark Souls and the action-RPG genre, From Software is able to mesh the old-school and new hotness with absolutely flawless skill, and come away with a game that's a shining example of its genre. Nothing else even comes close. ヽ(´ー`)┌


Hate seems like a strong word, only in that its such an active thing. Like you spend time each day meditating on the games faults or something. I get that its not a good battle tech game, its a decent though strangely not balanced hawken clone.

I wish it was more but don't want to spend my energy getting all bent out of shape about what it isn't.
 
kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:20 am

I found this article to bring me up to speed. I, like many other battle tech fans, had a well formed idea of what would make the next MW game AMAZING, and what would kill it. Seems they single hand-idly mashed in every bad idea anyone could have ever fit into the game. Its actually pretty sad. Some of their decisions blow my mind in terms of both how a Freemium models should and shouldn't be structured, and how to make an actual mechwarrior game vs not make a mechwarrior game.

http://www.gamefront.com/mechwarrior-on ... esplosion/
 
kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:33 am

WOW! Just wasted a portion of my morning reading up on MWO and it seems to not be a place for battle tech fans. Then aside from that Hawken is a better action mech game. I'm quite sad and I hope they find their way.
 
SoM
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:46 am

i'm a MW fan, tried MWO and had my ass handed to me, just like in World of Tanks, where everyone had better stuff that i couldn't compete with.

uninstalled

i'm waiting on Homeworld Shipbreakers, signed for beta but not picked yet :(

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kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:38 am

SoM wrote:
i'm a MW fan, tried MWO and had my ass handed to me, just like in World of Tanks, where everyone had better stuff that i couldn't compete with.

uninstalled

i'm waiting on Homeworld Shipbreakers, signed for beta but not picked yet :(


I'm fine with loosing in a high skill game. I played starcraft 2 online and lost for days straight, didn't stop me from playing, didn't make it a bad game. I don't play competitive games hoping I'll win, expecting I'll win, being angry if I'm not as good as someone who's played a year. Took me 2 years in counter strike to have a positive kill/death ratio. Such is the nature of competitive format. I don't know how you do anything if not being awesome stops you from doing it.

I was ok with the idea of fremium for this game. I had set aside mentally about 100 dollars to start in MWO to get the mechs I wanted setup ASAP. Get some friends in and get a lance rolling. Selling coolant flushes is a F'Ing Crime IMHO. That was a larger red flag for me that PGI had no idea what they were doing than anything. Its akin to selling double damage boosts in any other game.

I believe at any point things for MWO could turn around but the issue is that PGI seems to have no idea what they are really doing up there. They are creating a game that doesn't really appeal to existing core fans, who is going to promote their game if not the fans?

I'm really sorry Kurkotain, looks like I asked a loaded question yesterday.
 
Forge
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:06 am

I won't play MWO. My brief encounter with their game and support tells me I don't want anything to do with them, no matter whose license they've purchased.

I played a little Hawken. It seems OK, but the mechs feel small and insubstantial, at least at the lower tiers.

I've been sinking far more time than I'm comfortable with into War Thunder. There's a lot of grinding before you get to the sexy planes and highly reliable killing of other players, but it's fun at even the low levels. I've intentionally kept around a bunch of low tier planes so that I can go and play with the newbies on occasion. In proper Freemium fashion, there's a lot of grindy, and you can pay to bypass grinding, but there's not a whole lot that's cash-only.
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kamikaziechameleon
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Re: Mechwarrior Online

Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:32 am

Forge wrote:
I won't play MWO. My brief encounter with their game and support tells me I don't want anything to do with them, no matter whose license they've purchased.

I played a little Hawken. It seems OK, but the mechs feel small and insubstantial, at least at the lower tiers.

I've been sinking far more time than I'm comfortable with into War Thunder. There's a lot of grinding before you get to the sexy planes and highly reliable killing of other players, but it's fun at even the low levels. I've intentionally kept around a bunch of low tier planes so that I can go and play with the newbies on occasion. In proper Freemium fashion, there's a lot of grindy, and you can pay to bypass grinding, but there's not a whole lot that's cash-only.



Its funny the issues that PGI has because they are strangely ignoring some AMAZING points of their user base. There are other game designers producing design documents and Comprehensive charts and graphs outlining Proper weapons balance and diverse build and strategy scenarios. There is hundreds of hours of work being posted on their forums that is FREE that they seemingly ignore.

I mean its more than a bunch of whiny babies pouting. They have a community so passionate that they are trying to HELP develop the game for free!!! It basically says whenever PGI sorts themselves out or another better dev gets behind this franchise the player base is there.

The scariest thing though is how complete and comprehensive some of the design documents are from users that it makes the decision making process that PGI goes through for different things seem rather short sighted and arbitrary. Basically calling into question more than their integrity but also their general competence.

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