So how many new players do you guys think PGI will pick up for open beta? Sadly I think everyone really interested in the game is already in. And new casual player will get put off by the non FPS controls and the lousy trial mechs.
And building crazy wacky builds in mech lab is half of the fun and new players won't have access to that.
So how many new players do you guys think PGI will pick up for open beta? Sadly I think everyone really interested in the game is already in. And new casual player will get put off by the non FPS controls and the lousy trial mechs.
And building crazy wacky builds in mech lab is half of the fun and new players won't have access to that.
I think they'll probably see about 50% more activity than you do now. So where there's normally 1200-1600 users online at a given time, I think you'll see that bump to 1800-2400, maybe. Not to say that'd be 50% more users, just that more users will be online. I think it'd be closer to about a 1/3rd increase. But that's just a wild random guess with no data to support it.
The more I think about it, the more I get the idea of going OB now. I mean, there's a few more things I think they should have nailed down before they go (at least having Phase I of the matchmaker implemented, for instance), but as for "they should have (insert in-game item here) ready before launch" well, there's always going to be the next piece of equipment that seems like it should be included before they go OB. There's always going to be one more weapon, or item, or tech, or chassis, or map. So that's a slippery slope. No reason there not to launch now (well, one reason, the fact that stuff is in the game but only as placeholder will throw people off).
I still wish they'd waited until there were no significant bugs (HEAT SINKS!) before launching, to the point of delaying new content patches until all the bugs of the previous week were stomped. But, it's Beta, and every patch will bring new bugs/glitches, so if they start out with zero issues, then the first time anything shows up, well, we've seen how the Beta boards react, it would be worse if you had a section of the user base that had experienced essentially bug-free play. So they might as well get used to a buggy experience now.
Honestly I'm trying to decide what the smallest amount of MC I can buy is to get into an effective build that I can run and enjoy. I'm thinking about picking up at least 6500 MC, buying a Hunchie SP, and then whatever the biggest/most I can buy with MC after that to sell for spacebucks to upgrade my Hunchie as desired.
I assume XP will be completely wiped, which is sad, but I grinded it once, I can grind it again.
We have found an issue with the current DHS implementation where the engine DHSs are acting like single, standard heat sinks. Unfortunately this was missed in testing on all levels of development including myself. We apologize for the oversight and have found the problem.
Since we didn't know that DHS wasn't as intended, we will be updating the game internally and retesting it with the new engine DHS fix. We will then make a call as to which system is how we want the game to pay out.
I will personally come back here and let you know that decision before it's pushed on to the live production servers. We will fast track the version that we want to put on live so you will see the fix (either way) go up on November 6th.
So if I'm reading this right, they might well end up keeping DHS in the state they're in now?
We have found an issue with the current DHS implementation where the engine DHSs are acting like single, standard heat sinks. Unfortunately this was missed in testing on all levels of development including myself. We apologize for the oversight and have found the problem.
Since we didn't know that DHS wasn't as intended, we will be updating the game internally and retesting it with the new engine DHS fix. We will then make a call as to which system is how we want the game to pay out.
I will personally come back here and let you know that decision before it's pushed on to the live production servers. We will fast track the version that we want to put on live so you will see the fix (either way) go up on November 6th.
So if I'm reading this right, they might well end up keeping DHS in the state they're in now?
It's possible, but I doubt it. Its more just "Our balancing didn't account for this, we gotta check this out."
0
FaranguI am a beardy manWith a beardy planRegistered Userregular
So how many new players do you guys think PGI will pick up for open beta? Sadly I think everyone really interested in the game is already in. And new casual player will get put off by the non FPS controls and the lousy trial mechs.
And building crazy wacky builds in mech lab is half of the fun and new players won't have access to that.
I think they'll probably see about 50% more activity than you do now. So where there's normally 1200-1600 users online at a given time, I think you'll see that bump to 1800-2400, maybe. Not to say that'd be 50% more users, just that more users will be online. I think it'd be closer to about a 1/3rd increase. But that's just a wild random guess with no data to support it.
The more I think about it, the more I get the idea of going OB now. I mean, there's a few more things I think they should have nailed down before they go (at least having Phase I of the matchmaker implemented, for instance), but as for "they should have (insert in-game item here) ready before launch" well, there's always going to be the next piece of equipment that seems like it should be included before they go OB. There's always going to be one more weapon, or item, or tech, or chassis, or map. So that's a slippery slope. No reason there not to launch now (well, one reason, the fact that stuff is in the game but only as placeholder will throw people off).
I still wish they'd waited until there were no significant bugs (HEAT SINKS!) before launching, to the point of delaying new content patches until all the bugs of the previous week were stomped. But, it's Beta, and every patch will bring new bugs/glitches, so if they start out with zero issues, then the first time anything shows up, well, we've seen how the Beta boards react, it would be worse if you had a section of the user base that had experienced essentially bug-free play. So they might as well get used to a buggy experience now.
Honestly I'm trying to decide what the smallest amount of MC I can buy is to get into an effective build that I can run and enjoy. I'm thinking about picking up at least 6500 MC, buying a Hunchie SP, and then whatever the biggest/most I can buy with MC after that to sell for spacebucks to upgrade my Hunchie as desired.
I assume XP will be completely wiped, which is sad, but I grinded it once, I can grind it again.
I also agree with their point of "people are getting really fatigued of data wipes". I know that my playtime certainly dropped off over the last few weeks mostly for that reason.
But...there haven't been any data wipes? I mean, the "refund wipe" from the last patch is the first I've seen, although I've only been playing since late September. Also they'd made it clear the only way they'd do a datawipe pre-OB launch was in the event of a catastrophic problem, which of course would still be true post-OB launch.
I don't know, the wipe thing I'm just not really buying. I feel like they addressed it, and said it wasn't going to really be a thing any more.
e: Also, how much MC does a month of premium cost?
But...there haven't been any data wipes? I mean, the "refund wipe" from the last patch is the first I've seen, although I've only been playing since late September. Also they'd made it clear the only way they'd do a datawipe pre-OB launch was in the event of a catastrophic problem, which of course would still be true post-OB launch.
I don't know, the wipe thing I'm just not really buying. I feel like they addressed it, and said it wasn't going to really be a thing any more.
e: Also, how much MC does a month of premium cost?
2500 MC for a month of premium time. If you bought 3000 MC ($14.95) you would have enough left over for a single mech bay. Obviously, buying more MC at a time nets a better discount.
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
But...there haven't been any data wipes? I mean, the "refund wipe" from the last patch is the first I've seen, although I've only been playing since late September. Also they'd made it clear the only way they'd do a datawipe pre-OB launch was in the event of a catastrophic problem, which of course would still be true post-OB launch.
I don't know, the wipe thing I'm just not really buying. I feel like they addressed it, and said it wasn't going to really be a thing any more.
e: Also, how much MC does a month of premium cost?
30 days is 2500 mc.
Also the pulse laser hunchback seems to chew up dragons quite nicely, if they're daft enough to stay within melting range.
But...there haven't been any data wipes? I mean, the "refund wipe" from the last patch is the first I've seen, although I've only been playing since late September. Also they'd made it clear the only way they'd do a datawipe pre-OB launch was in the event of a catastrophic problem, which of course would still be true post-OB launch.
I don't know, the wipe thing I'm just not really buying. I feel like they addressed it, and said it wasn't going to really be a thing any more.
e: Also, how much MC does a month of premium cost?
They said the only time they'd do any more wipes. I've been playing for about two months and I think they've done 2 complete wipes and this last refund. The refunds was fine, but the other two were annoying as hell. With the last wipe coming Monday I'm probably going to hold off playing till then.
Someone said a month of premium was $15 of MC. So 3000?
So for $30 I could buy a Hunchie SP, a Cat C4, and a month of premium time. Sell off some of the parts I won't use from each, should have enough cash to put a few things in the SP so I can run it and get Cbills to upgrade my C4 the way I want it.
I'm still not completely certain I like the C4 more than the SP. The C1 is a better comparison, since both run similar loadouts. I definitely love 2xLRM5 + 2xLRM20. That's just fun, and I don't think I've run out of missiles yet (mainly because I only fire the 5s until I know I've got a good, clear lock, then I unload the 20s until I see lots of red internals).
Really I'm amazed that, given how the various Cat hardpoints are organized, there isn't one with 2x for each of the three types of weapons. That'd be a good, balanced loadout (Basically a K2 with missiles instead of PPCs in the arms). Alas, there seems to be no such cannon variant (prior to the 32nd century, anyway).
I used to see more than 2000 concurrent users online a couple of weeks ago when I first got in. Now it's definitely less.
I think the combat side of things is already great. They didn't need to introduce ff es dh and mess up the balance. Then go open the week after. I think they should have spent a lot more effort on community warfare instead of making the combat/mech lab more complex. It's a f2p game and the meta game would be the thing that will hook on the casual / mainstream player to make it a viable business. I mean millions of people will happily play farming. the social part would really make the game successful.
I personally love mech lab and tinkering with the build but I want their business strategy to succeed and I can play this for a long time. Their approach is more like building a traditional retail game I think they maybe focused on the wrong things. Hope I am Wang, I mean wrong.
0
Judge-ZTeacher, for Great JusticeUpstate NYRegistered Userregular
I used to see more than 2000 concurrent users online a couple of weeks ago when I first got in. Now it's definitely less.
I think the combat side of things is already great. They didn't need to introduce ff es dh and mess up the balance. Then go open the week after. I think they should have spent a lot more effort on community warfare instead of making the combat/mech lab more complex. It's a f2p game and the meta game would be the thing that will hook on the casual / mainstream player to make it a viable business. I mean millions of people will happily play farming. the social part would really make the game successful.
I personally love mech lab and tinkering with the build but I want their business strategy to succeed and I can play this for a long time. Their approach is more like building a traditional retail game I think they maybe focused on the wrong things. Hope I am Wang, I mean wrong.
Its less now because a lot of people are waiting for open beta so their stuff doesn't get wiped again. I mean I've been in since the second wave of beta invites, and I can tell you as much as I love the game, getting your stuff wiped on a regular basis gets tiresome after a while.
I used to see more than 2000 concurrent users online a couple of weeks ago when I first got in. Now it's definitely less.
I think the combat side of things is already great. They didn't need to introduce ff es dh and mess up the balance. Then go open the week after. I think they should have spent a lot more effort on community warfare instead of making the combat/mech lab more complex. It's a f2p game and the meta game would be the thing that will hook on the casual / mainstream player to make it a viable business. I mean millions of people will happily play farming. the social part would really make the game successful.
I personally love mech lab and tinkering with the build but I want their business strategy to succeed and I can play this for a long time. Their approach is more like building a traditional retail game I think they maybe focused on the wrong things. Hope I am Wang, I mean wrong.
Its less now because a lot of people are waiting for open beta so their stuff doesn't get wiped again.
yup. not going to even bother until after the final wipe.
Yeah I'm kind of curious to see how much activity there will be in game this weekend, given that everything you do will just be wiped in a few days anyway.
yep. havent bothered grinding XP in a while since ittl just get wiped again. now that open beta will be monday, ill hop back on the horse. gotta nail down my play/purchase path.
Catapult C1, K2, C4 is my current plan. no idea where to go after that. Probably the Dragon or Centurion or possibly the Cicada. Jenner may even be in the mix there too.
Do what you want, but I would recommend you spend MC on things you can only buy with MC, like mech bay slots, or camo/hula girls. I can definitely understand wanting to buy one mech to not have to use the starter mechs, but you're going to want to buy things later on that you're only going to be able to buy with MC.
+1
CarbonFireSee youin the countryRegistered Userregular
So it's time to admit it; I have piloted the Jenner precisely no times since the patch. It's been all Cicada all the time. Great looking mech, both inside and out, lovely hardpoints, and quite frankly? As the metagame stands, I would much rather the enemy have another medium than a light.
320XL, 1 LLas, 2 MLas, DHS, ES, FF, all the armor and heatsinks I could want. It's my new crack.
How is your repair bill? Mine is consistently above 60k if I die. So grinding up to an atlas will take forever if I am not playing with the PA guys.
On the plus side, 3xac2 cicada is even more fun than 3xac2 dragon. Crash on exit bug is gone. Forest map is fixed for me so I can get 30 fps like the other maps instead of 5 fps.
But lbx10 seems weaker or something. I was circling around a cat unloading round after round and couldnt even blow an arm off. Maybe I was lagged or something but I remember it was more powerful than that.
The repair bill is mean. Usually 50k-80k, with the vast majority being FF. I've been considering dropping it to downgrade the Large Laser but the range on it is too useful. I have a 3xMLas and 3xSLas build that's roughly half the repair, but without the giant blue LAZOR it's not as fun for me.
0
TheExAmGerrymandered your districtsRegistered Userregular
Do what you want, but I would recommend you spend MC on things you can only buy with MC, like mech bay slots, or camo/hula girls. I can definitely understand wanting to buy one mech to not have to use the starter mechs, but you're going to want to buy things later on that you're only going to be able to buy with MC.
With how they've changed the repair prices, I can no longer rely on my fAtlas as a money maker. Going to buy a Laserback (1480 MC) and run with that for a while until I've refilled the ol' C-Bill coffers. Should only take a couple of days to have enough for an XL, and possibly one or two other mechs.
On the beta announcements forum they've indicated that they are going to upgrade the mechlab so that you can do all the adjustments for your mech at once without having to commit to the cost. I had faith that they were going to do that, because it was damn expensive going to an upgrade, and then determining that you didn't really need the upgrade, or that there were too many slots reserved for your loadout.
They also mentioned there's going to be a refinement to the repair costs. I think average repair costs are higher than what they felt was reasonable, which I agree with. I don't really mind losing money on a fully kitted out mech running multiple upgrades, but it was getting to the point where even if you won a match, and did well, you were still barely making any money.
Do what you want, but I would recommend you spend MC on things you can only buy with MC, like mech bay slots, or camo/hula girls. I can definitely understand wanting to buy one mech to not have to use the starter mechs, but you're going to want to buy things later on that you're only going to be able to buy with MC.
With how they've changed the repair prices, I can no longer rely on my fAtlas as a money maker. Going to buy a Laserback (1480 MC) and run with that for a while until I've refilled the ol' C-Bill coffers. Should only take a couple of days to have enough for an XL, and possibly one or two other mechs.
IMO, Trial mechs are a fool's errand.
I can show you a cheap reaper that is still fast and effective:
AS7-D-DC
Endo Steel
Double Heat Sinks
350 Standard Engine
Gauss Rifle - 3 tons of ammo + CASE
3 x SRM 6 - 3 tons of ammo (Arms/Legs)
2 x MLAS
AMS - 1 ton of ammo
See below picture:
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
The repeated wipes haven't really bothered me at all, but that's because I don't really care about the efficiency tree and each reset leaves me with enough MC to buy at least one mech I enjoy playing with. But if somebody didn't have any MC at all, I could absolutely see the wipes being a huge barrier to enjoyment; I've never actually had to use the trial mechs, and would likely have set the game aside for a while as well if I had to keep grinding through them.
On the beta announcements forum they've indicated that they are going to upgrade the mechlab so that you can do all the adjustments for your mech at once without having to commit to the cost. I had faith that they were going to do that, because it was damn expensive going to an upgrade, and then determining that you didn't really need the upgrade, or that there were too many slots reserved for your loadout.
They also mentioned there's going to be a refinement to the repair costs. I think average repair costs are higher than what they felt was reasonable, which I agree with. I don't really mind losing money on a fully kitted out mech running multiple upgrades, but it was getting to the point where even if you won a match, and did well, you were still barely making any money.
I can make a fair chunk of change with the YLW kitted out with several million in upgrades, but that has a Premium bonus plus the YLW's bonus factored in as well so I'm getting pretty huge bonuses to Cbill earnings from that. Probably not what they were going for in terms of cost balance.
Do what you want, but I would recommend you spend MC on things you can only buy with MC, like mech bay slots, or camo/hula girls. I can definitely understand wanting to buy one mech to not have to use the starter mechs, but you're going to want to buy things later on that you're only going to be able to buy with MC.
With how they've changed the repair prices, I can no longer rely on my fAtlas as a money maker. Going to buy a Laserback (1480 MC) and run with that for a while until I've refilled the ol' C-Bill coffers. Should only take a couple of days to have enough for an XL, and possibly one or two other mechs.
IMO, Trial mechs are a fool's errand.
I can show you a cheap reaper that is still fast and effective:
AS7-D-DC
Endo Steel
Double Heat Sinks
350 Standard Engine
Gauss Rifle - 3 tons of ammo + CASE
3 x SRM 6 - 3 tons of ammo (Arms/Legs)
2 x MLAS
AMS - 1 ton of ammo
Oh I know of the various Atlas builds (Reaper or otherwise). If I was going to run one, I'd just stick with my Founders Atlas for the C-Bill boost. But I tend to make way more money in my Laserback, as repairs are cheap and I can still put out on average 400-600 damage a match with usually a couple of kills.
Posts
And building crazy wacky builds in mech lab is half of the fun and new players won't have access to that.
Yes, a lot of damage - same as machine gun ammo. Keep it in your arms or legs.
I think they'll probably see about 50% more activity than you do now. So where there's normally 1200-1600 users online at a given time, I think you'll see that bump to 1800-2400, maybe. Not to say that'd be 50% more users, just that more users will be online. I think it'd be closer to about a 1/3rd increase. But that's just a wild random guess with no data to support it.
The more I think about it, the more I get the idea of going OB now. I mean, there's a few more things I think they should have nailed down before they go (at least having Phase I of the matchmaker implemented, for instance), but as for "they should have (insert in-game item here) ready before launch" well, there's always going to be the next piece of equipment that seems like it should be included before they go OB. There's always going to be one more weapon, or item, or tech, or chassis, or map. So that's a slippery slope. No reason there not to launch now (well, one reason, the fact that stuff is in the game but only as placeholder will throw people off).
I still wish they'd waited until there were no significant bugs (HEAT SINKS!) before launching, to the point of delaying new content patches until all the bugs of the previous week were stomped. But, it's Beta, and every patch will bring new bugs/glitches, so if they start out with zero issues, then the first time anything shows up, well, we've seen how the Beta boards react, it would be worse if you had a section of the user base that had experienced essentially bug-free play. So they might as well get used to a buggy experience now.
Honestly I'm trying to decide what the smallest amount of MC I can buy is to get into an effective build that I can run and enjoy. I'm thinking about picking up at least 6500 MC, buying a Hunchie SP, and then whatever the biggest/most I can buy with MC after that to sell for spacebucks to upgrade my Hunchie as desired.
I assume XP will be completely wiped, which is sad, but I grinded it once, I can grind it again.
So if I'm reading this right, they might well end up keeping DHS in the state they're in now?
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
It's possible, but I doubt it. Its more just "Our balancing didn't account for this, we gotta check this out."
I also agree with their point of "people are getting really fatigued of data wipes". I know that my playtime certainly dropped off over the last few weeks mostly for that reason.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
I don't know, the wipe thing I'm just not really buying. I feel like they addressed it, and said it wasn't going to really be a thing any more.
e: Also, how much MC does a month of premium cost?
2500 MC for a month of premium time. If you bought 3000 MC ($14.95) you would have enough left over for a single mech bay. Obviously, buying more MC at a time nets a better discount.
30 days is 2500 mc.
Also the pulse laser hunchback seems to chew up dragons quite nicely, if they're daft enough to stay within melting range.
They said the only time they'd do any more wipes. I've been playing for about two months and I think they've done 2 complete wipes and this last refund. The refunds was fine, but the other two were annoying as hell. With the last wipe coming Monday I'm probably going to hold off playing till then.
Someone said a month of premium was $15 of MC. So 3000?
I'm still not completely certain I like the C4 more than the SP. The C1 is a better comparison, since both run similar loadouts. I definitely love 2xLRM5 + 2xLRM20. That's just fun, and I don't think I've run out of missiles yet (mainly because I only fire the 5s until I know I've got a good, clear lock, then I unload the 20s until I see lots of red internals).
Really I'm amazed that, given how the various Cat hardpoints are organized, there isn't one with 2x for each of the three types of weapons. That'd be a good, balanced loadout (Basically a K2 with missiles instead of PPCs in the arms). Alas, there seems to be no such cannon variant (prior to the 32nd century, anyway).
less chatting, more playing
edit: from a consequentialist perspective, it will make me happier if you play than whatever you're doing is making you happy
(I have not played MWO in weeks)
I think the combat side of things is already great. They didn't need to introduce ff es dh and mess up the balance. Then go open the week after. I think they should have spent a lot more effort on community warfare instead of making the combat/mech lab more complex. It's a f2p game and the meta game would be the thing that will hook on the casual / mainstream player to make it a viable business. I mean millions of people will happily play farming. the social part would really make the game successful.
I personally love mech lab and tinkering with the build but I want their business strategy to succeed and I can play this for a long time. Their approach is more like building a traditional retail game I think they maybe focused on the wrong things. Hope I am Wang, I mean wrong.
Its less now because a lot of people are waiting for open beta so their stuff doesn't get wiped again. I mean I've been in since the second wave of beta invites, and I can tell you as much as I love the game, getting your stuff wiped on a regular basis gets tiresome after a while.
Catapult C1, K2, C4 is my current plan. no idea where to go after that. Probably the Dragon or Centurion or possibly the Cicada. Jenner may even be in the mix there too.
Atlas 'K' (most expensive 'mech)
Cat C4 (what I'd want to play on)
Hunchie 4J (because the numbers work)
1 month premium time
Works out to exactly 12kMC.
$50 funbucks, here I come.
Our Anthem
Well done....now put that in the OP :^:
The repair bill is mean. Usually 50k-80k, with the vast majority being FF. I've been considering dropping it to downgrade the Large Laser but the range on it is too useful. I have a 3xMLas and 3xSLas build that's roughly half the repair, but without the giant blue LAZOR it's not as fun for me.
Battlemans: DiscoCabbage | Elite: Dangerous: Aleksandr Khabaj
With how they've changed the repair prices, I can no longer rely on my fAtlas as a money maker. Going to buy a Laserback (1480 MC) and run with that for a while until I've refilled the ol' C-Bill coffers. Should only take a couple of days to have enough for an XL, and possibly one or two other mechs.
IMO, Trial mechs are a fool's errand.
They also mentioned there's going to be a refinement to the repair costs. I think average repair costs are higher than what they felt was reasonable, which I agree with. I don't really mind losing money on a fully kitted out mech running multiple upgrades, but it was getting to the point where even if you won a match, and did well, you were still barely making any money.
I can show you a cheap reaper that is still fast and effective:
AS7-D-DC
Endo Steel
Double Heat Sinks
350 Standard Engine
Gauss Rifle - 3 tons of ammo + CASE
3 x SRM 6 - 3 tons of ammo (Arms/Legs)
2 x MLAS
AMS - 1 ton of ammo
See below picture:
I can make a fair chunk of change with the YLW kitted out with several million in upgrades, but that has a Premium bonus plus the YLW's bonus factored in as well so I'm getting pretty huge bonuses to Cbill earnings from that. Probably not what they were going for in terms of cost balance.
Oh I know of the various Atlas builds (Reaper or otherwise). If I was going to run one, I'd just stick with my Founders Atlas for the C-Bill boost. But I tend to make way more money in my Laserback, as repairs are cheap and I can still put out on average 400-600 damage a match with usually a couple of kills.
PEW PEW.