Mechwarrior Online

[Merusk]

I have sincere hopes that they take a page from WOT and don't allow more than groups of 3 in to pubbie groups.  You want to fight as an organized unit clan wars are the place for you, not pickup games.

However, Hoax is right.  If they start rolling over everyone people will just join their side and make it worse.  You will only see a minority who really care remain on the ever-losing side.  After all these years of seeing it happen in every PVP game ever I'm amazed this is even debatable.

[Ironwood]

I honestly don't understand who would care.

You get in a Mech with 3 other buddies and fight other Mechs that show up as red.  Everything else is just nonsense and, by the looks of it, Developer Controlled nonsense.

Can someone explain to me exactly HOW 4Chan are supposed to spoil my enjoyment of that ?

[Arthur_Parker]

I don't see a problem, the goons will switch houses if everyone joins their side just to annoy people.  The official forums will get trolled to hell and back if the game is any good though, mind you, that might be an improvement over what's currently going on there.

[Hoax]

I'll say again, Goons are going to all join one house en masse, their only hope will be that having big numbers can win them shit on the campaign map.

Number's won't count for much in 12 vs 12 matches. What will count will be 12 guys on the same voice comms working as a team vs 12 random people thrown together who can't talk to each other, but good luck with doing anything about that.

Because its happened before and happened in 3025? Basically territory control shifted due to total victories by a side and there was a way to queue for a match and if nobody from the opposing house could be found to fight you you would give a minor boost to your house's control. You can see why they did it that way but the end result was the big houses (FedCom) had huge advantages due to a much larger population.

Hopefully they have some smart people figuring out how to balance the need for letting players fight on the planet/campaign/battle they want to fight at while at the same time stopping the house with more people who are willing to just bumrush empty rooms to force caps (read: whatever house has the goons who will happily do shit like this all day long) from getting the level of advantage they had previously.

Cap timers, restrictions on the total battles that can be fought at a time for a particular territory, making higher ranked player victories matter more, increasing the queue time for a fight on a world that already has a larger number of fights ongoing on it etc. etc. That's the type of shit I hope they have someone thinking about but I'm betting they don't.

[Arthur_Parker]

I'd be surprised if controlling a bunch of planets is going to mean that much for the house players apart from some nice fluff.  Maybe I just haven't read enough but going from this.

Core Worlds – Are managed by the dev team.  These are worlds that necessary for future planning and part of major historical events.

Faction Worlds – Are fought over by Faction players.  These planets buffer core and border worlds, and do not play a significant role in major historical events.  Rewards for controlling these planets are directly linked to global bonuses and abilities associated with a player’s Faction.

Border Worlds – Are fought over via a contract bidding system by player run Mercenary Corporations.  These planets change hands on a regular basis, and have no impact on historical events.  Rewards for controlling a boarder world are significant and go directly to the occupying Merc Corp.

I'm taking "buffer core and border worlds" as doesn't really matter that much.  I'd love to be wrong though as that would make it more interesting, plus I don't see a major problem with a larger force having an advantage over a smaller one.

If the control of the planets does limit mech availability or something that the players really care about, then they do have a problem, it's going to appeal to fewer players.  An average player would need to join an organised large force but more importantly most players don't like losing and will try to join the other side as you said.  If the faction hit is big enough maybe that would put people off switching sides, but people losing won't log in as much.

[Ironwood]

Currently playing Mech4:Mercs and, despite it being pretty fucking awful, it's reminding me how much a joystick is needed for proper Mech control.

Dammit.

[Ghambit]

I'm hoping this game will motivate me to finally build that simulator I've always wanted.  This is assuming they don't carebear the game to the point any sense if immersion is lost.

[MahrinSkel]

Nobody has mentioned this yet?  Razer is promising a custom controller for MWO.

--Dave

[Trippy]

Nobody has mentioned this yet?  Razer is promising a custom controller for MWO.

Don't like that pad on the left side. Needs a real throttle controller.

[Fordel]

Isn't that what the slider on the left is for?



I wonder if my Sidewinder 2 still works.

[angry.bob]

I'm hoping this game will motivate me to finally build that simulator I've always wanted.  This is assuming they don't carebear the game to the point any sense if immersion is lost.

I started on building the Pod/seat/speakers. Between this and WoW, it was time to build a cockpit with joystick/throttle. I have a lot of questions about multiple monitors though which is making the design of the top/front/sides a pain. I'd like to have a front window (read monitor) two windows on each side, and a overhead window. 6 monitors sounds like too many, and I don't know about multiple monitor support with games to begin with. I also don't want to have to spend a billion extra dollars on a special motherboard that supports 3 video cards.

Anyone have a link to a place that has easy to follow instructions to build a fake cockpit? And please not one of those godawful simpit places where they make a million individual toggle switches that each actually do something in game via specially made controllers.

[Trippy]

Isn't that what the slider on the left is for?

I don't mean a throttle control -- I mean a throttle controller like this or that.

[Fordel]

I always found those cumbersome on my desk. Something about how I sit/hold it, never feels right.

[Phred]

I always found those cumbersome on my desk. Something about how I sit/hold it, never feels right.

Ya unless your hand fits the design criteria it sucks. I had the ch throttle and it was way to big for my hand and felt terrible. I never used the damn thing.

[MahrinSkel]

Anyone have a link to a place that has easy to follow instructions to build a fake cockpit? And please not one of those godawful simpit places where they make a million individual toggle switches that each actually do something in game via specially made controllers.

Pretty much all of them are aimed at pilots who want to re-create as closely as possible the environment they'll be in for their Sim Evals, so they're trying to recreate an actual cockpit from a particular model of plane.  Only real recommendation I can make is to get a 6 monitor stand that will let you remove the two mounts you won't be using, and a big L-shaped desk.

--Dave

[Ironwood]

Nobody has mentioned this yet?  Razer is promising a custom controller for MWO.

--Dave

Yes, they have.  Pages back.

Still not sure about it.

[Falconeer]

I have a hard time believing this will be better played with anything but keyboard and mouse. The mouse is a beautiful thing, leave it alone.

[Shannow]

I have a hard time believing this will be better played with anything but keyboard and mouse. The mouse is a beautiful thing, leave it alone.

Agreed.

Also, assuming the devs aren't complete idiots, they'll design it this way.

[Ironwood]

I'm not saying I disagree, I'm saying that I'm literally twisting my arms to play Mech 4 with the same setup.

[Merusk]

Spoken like a man who never actually played a MW game with a joystick, Falc.

You could do it with a mouse, yes.  You can also play flight sims with a mouse instead of a joystick.  There's better inputs for some things.

[Jherad]

Isn't that what the slider on the left is for?



I wonder if my Sidewinder 2 still works.

My Sidewinder FF2 is back in England - I've been thinking about buying another from EBay (seems you can get them second hand for about $50), but I've heard it might not be great under windows 7.

There is nothing quite like a mech game with a good force feedback joystick.

[angry.bob]

I have a hard time believing this will be better played with anything but keyboard and mouse. The mouse is a beautiful thing, leave it alone.

As far as I know a certain other game's draconian NDA is still in effect so all I can say is that piloting a plane, let alone trying to dogfight with one using a mouse and keyboard is fucking abominable.

[Shannow]

Planes are another story. Mechs hopefully should be more like tanks.

[Mrbloodworth]

Am I the only one who thinks this game looks a bit boring?  Mainly, because its just Mechs circling each other. No aircraft? No troops? Nothing..

[Falconeer]

Comparing 'mechs to airplanes is ridiculous. Mechs ARE tanks. Also, I've been there for all the MW games, and the fact that they were built around joysticks has nothing to do with the fact that they can be, now, built around mouse in a smooth, efficient, precise way.

World of Tanks is one thing. It works perfectly fine the way it is, meaning mouse and keyboard. Or do you think a couple of tank rudders would actually make it more playable?
World of Warplanes is another thing, it somehow works with mouse and keyboard but do not expect to be successful with it. Or to have any fun.

We'll see how this game plays out, but no matter how slowly the torso, the turret or the legs move, if there's aiming to do please give me a mouse.

[Lantyssa]

If you want to be authentic you'll make a neuro-helmet and pilot in your skivvies.

[Ironwood]

50 % ain't bad.

Wanna see ?

[Tmon]

would going commando in your Commando be over the top?

[HaemishM]

Not over the top so much as a little to the left. 

[angry.bob]

Jesus, I wasn't comparing mechs to planes, because for one thing the very concept of mechs is stupid as fuck and pointless except they're geekish fun. I simply meant I want a joystick/throttle/pedal setup in my cockpit, especially since it's going to do douple duty for World of warplanes. What the rest of you use for controls in the game, who gives a shit. Both types of control will probably work just fine, but for playing mechs I like joystick. Blah, blah, blah. Go die in a fucking ditch or something.

[Kitsune]

There are supposed to be planes, sorta, of a sort, kinda-maybe in the sense that some proposed skills in the command tree involve calling in airstrikes.  Just not so much in the sense of players piloting them.  Adding in infantry and ground vehicles would be dandy, but who would play them?  For every ten people in mechs you might have one who wanted to be in a not-mech, which doesn't really make for dynamic mixed-arms teams.  Planetside had a good mix by starting everyone as infantry and making it progressively more time-consuming to get the certs for vehicles and robots, and by having a large indoor component where the vehicles and robots are useless.  Mechwarrior doesn't have either of those factors in play.

Additionally, the official MWO forums are a seething maelstrom of raw stupid.  4chan looks like a pillar of calm reservation compared to the things that crawled out of the woodwork to infest MWO.  Apparently instead of hiring community mods, the company just put out a 'hey who wants to be an unpaid volunteer moderator?' post and then picked random users for the job.  Amazingly, they seem to have turned out to be largely either imbeciles or socially-retarded neckbeards with no consistent moderating policy, which must come as a shock to everybody. 

[Arthur_Parker]

What the rest of you use for controls in the game, who gives a shit. Both types of control will probably work just fine, but for playing mechs I like joystick. Blah, blah, blah. Go die in a fucking ditch or something.

 

They were meant to get production hardware today and there was a decent chance of more keys going out to the founders, but apparently the major patch, also due today, has been put back till the 12th.

[Evildrider]

I hear the patch will be Awesome.   

[Arthur_Parker]

Adding in infantry and ground vehicles would be dandy, but who would play them?  For every ten people in mechs you might have one who wanted to be in a not-mech, which doesn't really make for dynamic mixed-arms teams. 

They must be tempted to consider adding Elementals when/if they get to the Clans.  That would be a totally different experience, I don't even know if it's graphically possible to have two entirely different scales of combat going on at the same time, but I'd be tempted to play as an Elemental, the rest of the overpowered clan stuff doesn't appeal to me though.

[Evildrider]

I actually had an elemental character in the RPG and managed to last a bit of time before I bit the ac/20. 

I think the only way to make Elementals viable would be for them to allow a player to play a full star of them.  Some tanks can be pretty ruthless as well.  I don't see Aerospace ever coming into play though.