About 13 of those don't involve extensive faction-choosing. In most you're assigned a fixed faction and play through a fixed story.
The majority of Battletech videogames have nevertheless been very fun.
All I'm doing is pointing out the fact that lots of battletech videogames have managed to be fun, and that the issue you're bringing up is a complete non-issue because it's never been an issue in the past.
Lore is free marketing. It adds the familiarity factor that people like, and Battletech is certainly a solid IP to leverage. But let's not fool ourselves. If Game A has the Battletech Lore but average gameplay and Game B has the Best Mech Combat Ever, people are going to play Game B (even if the lore in Game B is weaker.) Gameplay absolutely trumps Lore. Lore is tertiary.
FWIW, I'm actually still sorta a Battletech fanboy. Played tabletop. Played probably 12-13 of those 15 videogames. Worked on MW4 and MW4: Black Knight. Apart from the last few releases (the XBox games) I've had a ton of fun over the years in the Battletech IP. But never once was I hung up on whether a Btech game let me choose factions -- I simply rode out the fun, wherever it took me.
I had a really confrontational troll post written up but whatever.
I get it. You think a simplified "BattleTech-Lite" approach is best. That's fine. That's exactly what Kesmai did with MPBT: 3025 by only allowing people to join the five major houses. And if you wanted to boil BattleTech down to it's most simplistic state the conflict could be as myopic as "Clans vs. Inner Sphere."
That's great that you're satisfied with that.
I'm not. Don't misconstrue my slavish devotion to lore for something beyond reality such as RPing a mechwarrior in the 1st Federated Suns Armored Cavalry stationed in Crucis March under the command of Duke Sandoval; I'm not asking for that.
But to take BattleTech and s**t out "MechWarrior: Mercenaries Online" sounds f*****g lame as hell to me. If the game is going to be that simple and shallow why bother with an MMO at all? I'd rather just have another sim and play MP. Maybe in a nice NBT-like league or something.
I was thinking more along the lines that the major powers were in a truce and every player would be a merc, this would work if the game evolved around 2 factions or just FFA. True, the strengths would be pure mech combat but every once in awhile people in MMO's like to do something else no matter how much of a fan of the IP you are. You have to cater to that need.
And for progression I can't see level progression working, if there were no classes everyone would be exactly the same. If there were classes, everyone would be going combat, given the nature of the game.
So you're not going to allow players to actually join any of the major houses, any of the periphery nations, or the clans? All we get to be are IS mercs?
What a waste of time, IMO.
Mercs or attached mercs are the only ones that would make sense... so you join a major house (with a military structure).... and you'll do what exactly? Garrison stuff? How could you do anything "alone".
It's not a waste.. it makes sense from a MMORPG standpoint.
This thread isn't about your personal tastes or mine, but a realistic world view of everyone's tastes.
If you understand that your demands (for how the game should be made) are extraordinary, and that they differ from how 99.99999% of other gamers feel, and that you'd expect a game to be made according to their tastes, then there's not much left to discuss.
If you don't understand that, you're simply being ridiculous (and similarly, there's not much left to discuss.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that the Battletech/Mechwarrior (Yes, Mechwarrior did spawn from Battletech) lore would be most important in a MMO type of game. Without it the game would have the depth of a teaspoon and might as well be a simple FPS type title. The lore would be instramental in the mission system for PvE and PvP. Also in explaining the various factions and why they would like or dislike each other. Lore is key to any great MMO.
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that the Battletech/Mechwarrior (Yes, Mechwarrior did spawn from Battletech) lore would be most important in a MMO type of game. Without it the game would have the depth of a teaspoon and might as well be a simple FPS type title. The lore would be instramental in the mission system for PvE and PvP. Also in explaining the various factions and why they would like or dislike each other. Lore is key to any great MMO.
Bren
nobody really gives a shit about lore these days. For example, AION do you think people cared much for the backstory or anything, do you think people even read the quests? Most likely not.
A little back story is surfice, except with Mechwarrior the lore is already in place, you just need to pick which bits to use for an MMO
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that the Battletech/Mechwarrior (Yes, Mechwarrior did spawn from Battletech) lore would be most important in a MMO type of game. Without it the game would have the depth of a teaspoon and might as well be a simple FPS type title. The lore would be instramental in the mission system for PvE and PvP. Also in explaining the various factions and why they would like or dislike each other. Lore is key to any great MMO.
Bren
nobody really gives a shit about lore these days. For example, AION do you think people cared much for the backstory or anything, do you think people even read the quests? Most likely not.
A little back story is surfice, except with Mechwarrior the lore is already in place, you just need to pick which bits to use for an MMO
And that is one of many reasons Aion fails on so many levels. In The Battletech/Mechwarrior universe the lore IS the game. It's the very reason your fighting. Just because you're one of the kiddies that think reading quest text is a waste of time don't put the rest of us in your little box. A MMO without a backstory is a total waste of time and is one of many reasons so many MMOs fail these days. Without a good story a MMO just becomes a tedious grindfest.
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that the Battletech/Mechwarrior (Yes, Mechwarrior did spawn from Battletech) lore would be most important in a MMO type of game. Without it the game would have the depth of a teaspoon and might as well be a simple FPS type title. The lore would be instramental in the mission system for PvE and PvP. Also in explaining the various factions and why they would like or dislike each other. Lore is key to any great MMO.
Bren
nobody really gives a shit about lore these days. For example, AION do you think people cared much for the backstory or anything, do you think people even read the quests? Most likely not.
A little back story is surfice, except with Mechwarrior the lore is already in place, you just need to pick which bits to use for an MMO
It is funny that you believe nobody cares about lore, yet you have suggested a Mechwarrior MMO and have complained bitterly about Perpentuum. If the lore does not matter, then go play any sort of robojock game. Is RFO still out there? Or even just something like eXteel (sucks it does not run on Win7 64bit)...you know?
Folks do care about the lore. When you get into something like BattleTech, you're in for a world of hurt from those that have been around that IP since it was called BattleDroids.
As for Axehilt's discussion on lore in the BT games, well - it is a little different when you are talking about games where you are just playing a specific scenario and in talking about a MMO...which really should have been obvious from the start. Even the Mechwarrior (reboot) game they are working on - it is a single-player game, set during a specific scenario. That is generally how those games are done, eh? MMO's offer more variety - kind of a standard these days, you know? Just saying...
To some extent, it feels like you want a SD version of BattleTech along the lines of the Marvel SHS thing... having no idea about the world behind the game you are suggesting, and just wanting to go through the unrealistic online play from the MW games.
Others see the possibility of the game being something more than a crap twitch game for tweens.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
General thoughts on what might make an interesting MW MMO:
Set the game early in the clan invasion and have players choose either Clan or Inner Sphere. There could be multiple races (houses) that would allow for different yet balanced beginning abilities. Each group would have areas of strength or weakness.
Mercenaries could be general villians (rogues, bandits, small raiding parties hired by the enemy). There could be an expansion or addition to the game later in the life cycle of the IP to allow players to become or roll up as mercenaries.
Players will be able to own a planet for resources, crafting, researching and constructing mechs. Whether or not these planets will be special instances and safe from invasion is up to the developer. Perhaps the possibility of invasion will depend on whether or not it is on PVP server.
Open market system that will be eventually run entirely by players (ala EVE). Faction gear will be available only by completing faction quests/raids.
I would like to see skill based progression. Classes and levels are MMO standards. I would understand the decision to adopt that system, but I think skills give more player flexibility and no level cap. If you have enough different skills, a player would take virtually forever to max them all. Besides, the skills don't HAVE to overlap ie, light mech skills don't help med mech skills, etc. A minimum skill level would be needed to unlock a higher tier of skills.
The setting should allow for some story telling and intro to the lore. If players don't care about that, they can abandon those storyline missions after the tutorial. If players are really into the lore, there should be some good content that differs with each faction. The player-owned planet should appeal to crafters/builders/rpers. Guilds could own a planet with multiple lands for their members. They could also have good defenses (pooled resources) and the ability to war with other guilds. Keep in mind that the factions still had skirmishes when the Clan was fairly new.
Just some thoughts/suggestions. Not everyone will agree, but you can't please everyone.
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that the Battletech/Mechwarrior (Yes, Mechwarrior did spawn from Battletech) lore would be most important in a MMO type of game. Without it the game would have the depth of a teaspoon and might as well be a simple FPS type title. The lore would be instramental in the mission system for PvE and PvP. Also in explaining the various factions and why they would like or dislike each other. Lore is key to any great MMO.
Bren
nobody really gives a shit about lore these days. For example, AION do you think people cared much for the backstory or anything, do you think people even read the quests? Most likely not.
A little back story is surfice, except with Mechwarrior the lore is already in place, you just need to pick which bits to use for an MMO
And that is one of many reasons Aion fails on so many levels. In The Battletech/Mechwarrior universe the lore IS the game. It's the very reason your fighting. Just because you're one of the kiddies that think reading quest text is a waste of time don't put the rest of us in your little box. A MMO without a backstory is a total waste of time and is one of many reasons so many MMOs fail these days. Without a good story a MMO just becomes a tedious grindfest.
Bren
aion failed for many reasons but it wasn't because of the lore. Nice to generalise there, im sure many people here have played many mmo's do you think the majority read quest text, besides to find out where to go? Sure i'm also generalising here but prove me wrong. Maybe i've touched a fan boy nerve, when you make an MMO just to cater to teh fan boys holding the lore so dear, the game will fail, not beaucse it sucks, but because it doesn't attract the masses. Aion was just one example, of many new games. People play the games for fun, to enjoy themselves in an MMO world, not to do research on all the details of the lore. The people who probably played battletech years ago and still do are bound to be at least 30+ as it was from the 80's You'll find more MMO gamers in their teens and 20's
Mechwarrior game has many fans, i'm sure they would like an MMO that catered to actually playing a combat mech rather than some of these half-assed ideas so far.
And virus, yeah i said lore doesn't matter to me that much but since we're already taking about an established IP and not one a newely created one, it doesn't really matter does it? I'm clearly not looking for any robot game with standard MMO controls where you watch you avatar shoot while you do nothing, hence the whole point of this thread.
As for Axehilt's discussion on lore in the BT games, well - it is a little different when you are talking about games where you are just playing a specific scenario and in talking about a MMO...which really should have been obvious from the start. Even the Mechwarrior (reboot) game they are working on - it is a single-player game, set during a specific scenario. That is generally how those games are done, eh? MMO's offer more variety - kind of a standard these days, you know? Just saying...
Others see the possibility of the game being something more than a crap twitch game for tweens.
Keep in mind, "Kind of a standard" was the motto of every forgettable MMO released in the last 6-7 years.
In my ideal Mechwarrior MMO, you're a merc. You hire out to the houses, so you get each house's unique flavor but at the same time there's no undue pressure on the developer to try to "balance" each house's gameplay experience. This means the devs can focus on putting out the highest quality "quests" without worrying about balancing the quantity between them (and sacrificing quality in the process.)
PVP would likely still involve the mega-strategic map of all 5 houses, with each house putting out merc contracts which would pay more or less depending on how much in trouble the house was. Of course Houses would reward a merc company for being loyal, and this would cause players to automatically role-play a certain distaste for the cutthroat companies whose loyalty goes to the highest bidder. While the loyal mercs are rewarded with unique faction mechs, the disloyal ones would have access to the best mechs money can buy, since they'd be filthy rich.
So basically it would sidestep the gaping issue of every 4+ faction PVP game ever made: drastically unbalanced sides which create uninterestingly lopsided conflicts. There would be substantial rewards for players who constantly helped the underdog sides (and the rewards would increase in proportion to how much trouble the losing House was in,) and so unlike a perma-faction game you'd have players genuinely willing to help the underdog -- out of a desire to help themselves.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Excellent suggestion, Axehilt. I could definately go along with that. Mercs don't HAVE to be dirt poor. Sometimes lore needs to be tweaked to make a better game. The clans could come along in an expansion.
As for Axehilt's discussion on lore in the BT games, well - it is a little different when you are talking about games where you are just playing a specific scenario and in talking about a MMO...which really should have been obvious from the start. Even the Mechwarrior (reboot) game they are working on - it is a single-player game, set during a specific scenario. That is generally how those games are done, eh? MMO's offer more variety - kind of a standard these days, you know? Just saying...
Others see the possibility of the game being something more than a crap twitch game for tweens.
Keep in mind, "Kind of a standard" was the motto of every forgettable MMO released in the last 6-7 years.
In my ideal Mechwarrior MMO, you're a merc. You hire out to the houses, so you get each house's unique flavor but at the same time there's no undue pressure on the developer to try to "balance" each house's gameplay experience. This means the devs can focus on putting out the highest quality "quests" without worrying about balancing the quantity between them (and sacrificing quality in the process.)
PVP would likely still involve the mega-strategic map of all 5 houses, with each house putting out merc contracts which would pay more or less depending on how much in trouble the house was. Of course Houses would reward a merc company for being loyal, and this would cause players to automatically role-play a certain distaste for the cutthroat companies whose loyalty goes to the highest bidder. While the loyal mercs are rewarded with unique faction mechs, the disloyal ones would have access to the best mechs money can buy, since they'd be filthy rich.
So basically it would sidestep the gaping issue of every 4+ faction PVP game ever made: drastically unbalanced sides which create uninterestingly lopsided conflicts. There would be substantial rewards for players who constantly helped the underdog sides (and the rewards would increase in proportion to how much trouble the losing House was in,) and so unlike a perma-faction game you'd have players genuinely willing to help the underdog -- out of a desire to help themselves.
This sounds both doable and fun. Making the game too lore based and in depth is gonna take away from whats really fun which is blowing shit up.
As a solitary mechwarrior starting out, you would most likely have a light mech (20-35 tons). You would have no transport (jumpship nor dropship) to be able to get to the planet stipulated in your contract. Your contract to begin with would be very low pay and possibly high risk on some rim world of that House's area of control. You would start off in debt to the House, having to take advances from the contract payment (which most of it would be held in reserve until the completion of the contract) to pay for transport, room 'n board, ammunition, repairs, etc. It would be entirely possible that by the completion of the contract you would be so in debt that they would take your 'mech, if it is still functional, in payment. You would be placed under the command of some local moron who would rather risk you for everything than his own men. Odds are that you would not survive the first couple of encounters, would fall victim to the company store policy, and end up working the rest of your life in a factory or the like to pay off the debt you had amassed.
Yep, sounds like fun...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Yup thats how the game would be designed. Quit your troll posts.
Troll post? No, that is the reality of the BattleTech universe as opposed to some garbage fluff about blowing stuff up.
If you had any clue as to the BT IP, you would know that is how it would play out for an individual trying to be a merc as described. FASA put out a great book on trying to run a merc operation.
If you want more meaningless blowing up of crap, they are working on a Mechwarrior (reboot) - Smith & Tinker is working with Piranha Games on that.
If you want something meaningful, then you are going to have to deal with trying to design the game in a manner that will be fun while not willy nilly doing whatever you please.
There are more people that want a proper BattleTech MMORPG than want some meaningless FPS/TPS MMO. Deal with it.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Too much slavery to lore = bad games. The lore is tertiary to gameplay. Hence why your silly interpretation of what it would be like as a solitary merc would never be put into a game. The full lore of the battletech ip is just not implementable. It will NEVER happen.
Too much slavery to lore = bad games. The lore is tertiary to gameplay. Hence why your silly interpretation of what it would be like as a solitary merc would never be put into a game. The full lore of the battletech ip is just not implementable. It will NEVER happen.
Yep, that slavery to lore is why so many games have been around for 30-40 years. While the fluff games last how long? Yep, you're so right there...not.
You want to discard how much 'mechs cost? You want to discard the cost of getting between planets? You want to discard pretty much everything, no?
You just want a game that plays along the lines of the quick random matches from MW, eh? Again, that will be available with the MW (reboot) game.
As for it being a silly interpretation, no - not silly in the least. I mean what kind of trolling buffoon are you? You're talking out your ass about an IP you obviously know noting about...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
If you were to start out during the character creation process either ending up with one of the major or minor Houses, one of the Clans, a large mercenary organization, or even some of the Periphery pirates - you would have a much more realistic start to the game. This would also allow friends to accumulate funds to form their own mercenary group, and thus step outside whatever storylines would be taking place depending on the unit that you belong.
Course, one thing that will have to be considered is the timeframe that the game would be taking place in - because then you will be faced with knowing how certain battles turn out (unless you are stuck fighting meaningless battles as far as the overall story is concerned) which reduces the meaning of them.
The fact that Wiz took a whiz on the IP and advanced it over a hundred years puts a damper on things, possibly placing you in that period of time after that to go forward.
Course, they could always pick a point in time and state that it is an alternate universe - allowing people to start anywhere in that 3025-3070ish timeframe or possibly even going back to the 2750 era, etc... because "when" it takes place would matter a great deal as well, as far as what technology is available - what is going on in the universe, etc.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that the Battletech/Mechwarrior (Yes, Mechwarrior did spawn from Battletech) lore would be most important in a MMO type of game. Without it the game would have the depth of a teaspoon and might as well be a simple FPS type title. The lore would be instramental in the mission system for PvE and PvP. Also in explaining the various factions and why they would like or dislike each other. Lore is key to any great MMO.
Bren
nobody really gives a shit about lore these days. For example, AION do you think people cared much for the backstory or anything, do you think people even read the quests? Most likely not.
A little back story is surfice, except with Mechwarrior the lore is already in place, you just need to pick which bits to use for an MMO
And that is one of many reasons Aion fails on so many levels. In The Battletech/Mechwarrior universe the lore IS the game. It's the very reason your fighting. Just because you're one of the kiddies that think reading quest text is a waste of time don't put the rest of us in your little box. A MMO without a backstory is a total waste of time and is one of many reasons so many MMOs fail these days. Without a good story a MMO just becomes a tedious grindfest.
Bren
aion failed for many reasons but it wasn't because of the lore. Nice to generalise there, im sure many people here have played many mmo's do you think the majority read quest text, besides to find out where to go? Sure i'm also generalising here but prove me wrong. Maybe i've touched a fan boy nerve, when you make an MMO just to cater to teh fan boys holding the lore so dear, the game will fail, not beaucse it sucks, but because it doesn't attract the masses. Aion was just one example, of many new games. People play the games for fun, to enjoy themselves in an MMO world, not to do research on all the details of the lore. The people who probably played battletech years ago and still do are bound to be at least 30+ as it was from the 80's You'll find more MMO gamers in their teens and 20's
Mechwarrior game has many fans, i'm sure they would like an MMO that catered to actually playing a combat mech rather than some of these half-assed ideas so far.
And virus, yeah i said lore doesn't matter to me that much but since we're already taking about an established IP and not one a newely created one, it doesn't really matter does it? I'm clearly not looking for any robot game with standard MMO controls where you watch you avatar shoot while you do nothing, hence the whole point of this thread.
I'm a Battletech fanboy am I just because I don't agree your extremely shallow Mech game would be fun? No, I didn't even get into the franchise until the first Mechwarrior game but the one thing I liked about the franchise was the lore and the storylines. It made the missions seem like more than just 'go kill mechs'. At the same time I always felt the Mechwarrior games were short changing us quite a bit to make the 'I just want to shoot something' kiddies happy. There is a ton of lore that backs up the Mechwarrior franchise and any developer that ignores that would be a fool. Maybe you would be happy with a shallow 'shoot em up' type game but judging from this thread most fans of the franchise would not be.
These guys aren't asking for an actual BattleTech MMO; they just want giant robots. I don't understand why they give s**t about the IP since they've denounced following any type of lore or canon in every single post they've made.
And really, the use of "MechWarrior" instead of "BattleTech" signaled that...
Anyways, done posting in this thread, Axehilt and Xuition can continue to marginalize the thirty year history of BattleTech all they want.
In the meantime I'm going to watch the trailer for Mechwarrior: 3015 and yearn.
I think there's a battletech mmo that stays quite true to the board game, but it's a strategy rather than a rp i think
also if you don't already know mechwarrior 4 is now free and there's also a mod called living legends you could look up on mektek.net. They made it sound like an mmo, no idea if it has much in the way of a persistent world or not though
Comments
I had a really confrontational troll post written up but whatever.
I get it. You think a simplified "BattleTech-Lite" approach is best. That's fine. That's exactly what Kesmai did with MPBT: 3025 by only allowing people to join the five major houses. And if you wanted to boil BattleTech down to it's most simplistic state the conflict could be as myopic as "Clans vs. Inner Sphere."
That's great that you're satisfied with that.
I'm not. Don't misconstrue my slavish devotion to lore for something beyond reality such as RPing a mechwarrior in the 1st Federated Suns Armored Cavalry stationed in Crucis March under the command of Duke Sandoval; I'm not asking for that.
But to take BattleTech and s**t out "MechWarrior: Mercenaries Online" sounds f*****g lame as hell to me. If the game is going to be that simple and shallow why bother with an MMO at all? I'd rather just have another sim and play MP. Maybe in a nice NBT-like league or something.
What? i know very well battletech is the established universe. But like many have said a RPG based off that is now what i'm aiming at.
the mechwarrior games were all about combat, finding weapons, parts etc and customising your own mech.
Not hung up, just it would make a good MMO IMO.
Perpetuum is not what am looking for, it is an EVE clone as a tiny robot.
Mercs or attached mercs are the only ones that would make sense... so you join a major house (with a military structure).... and you'll do what exactly? Garrison stuff? How could you do anything "alone".
It's not a waste.. it makes sense from a MMORPG standpoint.
This thread isn't about your personal tastes or mine, but a realistic world view of everyone's tastes.
If you understand that your demands (for how the game should be made) are extraordinary, and that they differ from how 99.99999% of other gamers feel, and that you'd expect a game to be made according to their tastes, then there's not much left to discuss.
If you don't understand that, you're simply being ridiculous (and similarly, there's not much left to discuss.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
While i agree with it making a good MMO...
Have you even played Perpetuum?
I've played bother EVE and Perpetuum. and while some aspects are similar, it is FAR from a clone.
Oh and I forgot to mention in my last post that the Battletech/Mechwarrior (Yes, Mechwarrior did spawn from Battletech) lore would be most important in a MMO type of game. Without it the game would have the depth of a teaspoon and might as well be a simple FPS type title. The lore would be instramental in the mission system for PvE and PvP. Also in explaining the various factions and why they would like or dislike each other. Lore is key to any great MMO.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
yes i am in the beta, everything about the game is s EVE except you use WASD to move.
nobody really gives a shit about lore these days. For example, AION do you think people cared much for the backstory or anything, do you think people even read the quests? Most likely not.
A little back story is surfice, except with Mechwarrior the lore is already in place, you just need to pick which bits to use for an MMO
And that is one of many reasons Aion fails on so many levels. In The Battletech/Mechwarrior universe the lore IS the game. It's the very reason your fighting. Just because you're one of the kiddies that think reading quest text is a waste of time don't put the rest of us in your little box. A MMO without a backstory is a total waste of time and is one of many reasons so many MMOs fail these days. Without a good story a MMO just becomes a tedious grindfest.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
It is funny that you believe nobody cares about lore, yet you have suggested a Mechwarrior MMO and have complained bitterly about Perpentuum. If the lore does not matter, then go play any sort of robojock game. Is RFO still out there? Or even just something like eXteel (sucks it does not run on Win7 64bit)...you know?
Folks do care about the lore. When you get into something like BattleTech, you're in for a world of hurt from those that have been around that IP since it was called BattleDroids.
As for Axehilt's discussion on lore in the BT games, well - it is a little different when you are talking about games where you are just playing a specific scenario and in talking about a MMO...which really should have been obvious from the start. Even the Mechwarrior (reboot) game they are working on - it is a single-player game, set during a specific scenario. That is generally how those games are done, eh? MMO's offer more variety - kind of a standard these days, you know? Just saying...
To some extent, it feels like you want a SD version of BattleTech along the lines of the Marvel SHS thing... having no idea about the world behind the game you are suggesting, and just wanting to go through the unrealistic online play from the MW games.
Others see the possibility of the game being something more than a crap twitch game for tweens.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
General thoughts on what might make an interesting MW MMO:
Set the game early in the clan invasion and have players choose either Clan or Inner Sphere. There could be multiple races (houses) that would allow for different yet balanced beginning abilities. Each group would have areas of strength or weakness.
Mercenaries could be general villians (rogues, bandits, small raiding parties hired by the enemy). There could be an expansion or addition to the game later in the life cycle of the IP to allow players to become or roll up as mercenaries.
Players will be able to own a planet for resources, crafting, researching and constructing mechs. Whether or not these planets will be special instances and safe from invasion is up to the developer. Perhaps the possibility of invasion will depend on whether or not it is on PVP server.
Open market system that will be eventually run entirely by players (ala EVE). Faction gear will be available only by completing faction quests/raids.
I would like to see skill based progression. Classes and levels are MMO standards. I would understand the decision to adopt that system, but I think skills give more player flexibility and no level cap. If you have enough different skills, a player would take virtually forever to max them all. Besides, the skills don't HAVE to overlap ie, light mech skills don't help med mech skills, etc. A minimum skill level would be needed to unlock a higher tier of skills.
The setting should allow for some story telling and intro to the lore. If players don't care about that, they can abandon those storyline missions after the tutorial. If players are really into the lore, there should be some good content that differs with each faction. The player-owned planet should appeal to crafters/builders/rpers. Guilds could own a planet with multiple lands for their members. They could also have good defenses (pooled resources) and the ability to war with other guilds. Keep in mind that the factions still had skirmishes when the Clan was fairly new.
Just some thoughts/suggestions. Not everyone will agree, but you can't please everyone.
aion failed for many reasons but it wasn't because of the lore. Nice to generalise there, im sure many people here have played many mmo's do you think the majority read quest text, besides to find out where to go? Sure i'm also generalising here but prove me wrong. Maybe i've touched a fan boy nerve, when you make an MMO just to cater to teh fan boys holding the lore so dear, the game will fail, not beaucse it sucks, but because it doesn't attract the masses. Aion was just one example, of many new games. People play the games for fun, to enjoy themselves in an MMO world, not to do research on all the details of the lore. The people who probably played battletech years ago and still do are bound to be at least 30+ as it was from the 80's You'll find more MMO gamers in their teens and 20's
Mechwarrior game has many fans, i'm sure they would like an MMO that catered to actually playing a combat mech rather than some of these half-assed ideas so far.
And virus, yeah i said lore doesn't matter to me that much but since we're already taking about an established IP and not one a newely created one, it doesn't really matter does it? I'm clearly not looking for any robot game with standard MMO controls where you watch you avatar shoot while you do nothing, hence the whole point of this thread.
Keep in mind, "Kind of a standard" was the motto of every forgettable MMO released in the last 6-7 years.
In my ideal Mechwarrior MMO, you're a merc. You hire out to the houses, so you get each house's unique flavor but at the same time there's no undue pressure on the developer to try to "balance" each house's gameplay experience. This means the devs can focus on putting out the highest quality "quests" without worrying about balancing the quantity between them (and sacrificing quality in the process.)
PVP would likely still involve the mega-strategic map of all 5 houses, with each house putting out merc contracts which would pay more or less depending on how much in trouble the house was. Of course Houses would reward a merc company for being loyal, and this would cause players to automatically role-play a certain distaste for the cutthroat companies whose loyalty goes to the highest bidder. While the loyal mercs are rewarded with unique faction mechs, the disloyal ones would have access to the best mechs money can buy, since they'd be filthy rich.
So basically it would sidestep the gaping issue of every 4+ faction PVP game ever made: drastically unbalanced sides which create uninterestingly lopsided conflicts. There would be substantial rewards for players who constantly helped the underdog sides (and the rewards would increase in proportion to how much trouble the losing House was in,) and so unlike a perma-faction game you'd have players genuinely willing to help the underdog -- out of a desire to help themselves.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Excellent suggestion, Axehilt. I could definately go along with that. Mercs don't HAVE to be dirt poor. Sometimes lore needs to be tweaked to make a better game. The clans could come along in an expansion.
This sounds both doable and fun. Making the game too lore based and in depth is gonna take away from whats really fun which is blowing shit up.
----ITS A TRAP!!!----
As a solitary mechwarrior starting out, you would most likely have a light mech (20-35 tons). You would have no transport (jumpship nor dropship) to be able to get to the planet stipulated in your contract. Your contract to begin with would be very low pay and possibly high risk on some rim world of that House's area of control. You would start off in debt to the House, having to take advances from the contract payment (which most of it would be held in reserve until the completion of the contract) to pay for transport, room 'n board, ammunition, repairs, etc. It would be entirely possible that by the completion of the contract you would be so in debt that they would take your 'mech, if it is still functional, in payment. You would be placed under the command of some local moron who would rather risk you for everything than his own men. Odds are that you would not survive the first couple of encounters, would fall victim to the company store policy, and end up working the rest of your life in a factory or the like to pay off the debt you had amassed.
Yep, sounds like fun...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Yup thats how the game would be designed. Quit your troll posts.
----ITS A TRAP!!!----
Troll post? No, that is the reality of the BattleTech universe as opposed to some garbage fluff about blowing stuff up.
If you had any clue as to the BT IP, you would know that is how it would play out for an individual trying to be a merc as described. FASA put out a great book on trying to run a merc operation.
If you want more meaningless blowing up of crap, they are working on a Mechwarrior (reboot) - Smith & Tinker is working with Piranha Games on that.
If you want something meaningful, then you are going to have to deal with trying to design the game in a manner that will be fun while not willy nilly doing whatever you please.
There are more people that want a proper BattleTech MMORPG than want some meaningless FPS/TPS MMO. Deal with it.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
Too much slavery to lore = bad games. The lore is tertiary to gameplay. Hence why your silly interpretation of what it would be like as a solitary merc would never be put into a game. The full lore of the battletech ip is just not implementable. It will NEVER happen.
----ITS A TRAP!!!----
Yep, that slavery to lore is why so many games have been around for 30-40 years. While the fluff games last how long? Yep, you're so right there...not.
You want to discard how much 'mechs cost? You want to discard the cost of getting between planets? You want to discard pretty much everything, no?
You just want a game that plays along the lines of the quick random matches from MW, eh? Again, that will be available with the MW (reboot) game.
As for it being a silly interpretation, no - not silly in the least. I mean what kind of trolling buffoon are you? You're talking out your ass about an IP you obviously know noting about...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
If you were to start out during the character creation process either ending up with one of the major or minor Houses, one of the Clans, a large mercenary organization, or even some of the Periphery pirates - you would have a much more realistic start to the game. This would also allow friends to accumulate funds to form their own mercenary group, and thus step outside whatever storylines would be taking place depending on the unit that you belong.
Course, one thing that will have to be considered is the timeframe that the game would be taking place in - because then you will be faced with knowing how certain battles turn out (unless you are stuck fighting meaningless battles as far as the overall story is concerned) which reduces the meaning of them.
The fact that Wiz took a whiz on the IP and advanced it over a hundred years puts a damper on things, possibly placing you in that period of time after that to go forward.
Course, they could always pick a point in time and state that it is an alternate universe - allowing people to start anywhere in that 3025-3070ish timeframe or possibly even going back to the 2750 era, etc... because "when" it takes place would matter a great deal as well, as far as what technology is available - what is going on in the universe, etc.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I'm a Battletech fanboy am I just because I don't agree your extremely shallow Mech game would be fun? No, I didn't even get into the franchise until the first Mechwarrior game but the one thing I liked about the franchise was the lore and the storylines. It made the missions seem like more than just 'go kill mechs'. At the same time I always felt the Mechwarrior games were short changing us quite a bit to make the 'I just want to shoot something' kiddies happy. There is a ton of lore that backs up the Mechwarrior franchise and any developer that ignores that would be a fool. Maybe you would be happy with a shallow 'shoot em up' type game but judging from this thread most fans of the franchise would not be.
Bren
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These guys aren't asking for an actual BattleTech MMO; they just want giant robots. I don't understand why they give s**t about the IP since they've denounced following any type of lore or canon in every single post they've made.
And really, the use of "MechWarrior" instead of "BattleTech" signaled that...
Anyways, done posting in this thread, Axehilt and Xuition can continue to marginalize the thirty year history of BattleTech all they want.
In the meantime I'm going to watch the trailer for Mechwarrior: 3015 and yearn.
I think there's a battletech mmo that stays quite true to the board game, but it's a strategy rather than a rp i think
also if you don't already know mechwarrior 4 is now free and there's also a mod called living legends you could look up on mektek.net. They made it sound like an mmo, no idea if it has much in the way of a persistent world or not though