Can't believe this has as few views as it does, this is one of the best reviews for the game I've found on KZread, and the audio is really great compared to even some more active channels that upload mechwarrior content. I'd love to hear your opinions of the Solaris 7 modes and even your reviews of other mechwarrior/battletech titles!

@teratokomi8731

3 жыл бұрын

Indeed. Give it more likes so it gets recommended.

@bryo4321

3 жыл бұрын

agreed, great points especially about the betty voice. Would love to see more critiques of the diffrent games like this.

@Loctorak

2 жыл бұрын

The best quality of anything is rarely also a mainstream success. That's why IGN get heaps of views despite being a garbage review channel.

@harackmw

2 жыл бұрын

@@Loctorak Also because almost no one plays MWO anymore.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

This video took off after the dumb spongebob thumbnail I goofed around with was posted. Thank you. Solaris 7 was far too complicated for it's own good. They only needed to have two simple modes: a free for all a'la MW4 Mercs, and a 1 v 1. There could've been simple spectating for those matches and fun c-bill betting. But that's clearly not what happened. I played like two rounds and never touched it again.

Part of the issue, too, is that you pick your 'mech going in blind to what kind of match you're playing, when some 'mechs just aren't going to be viable for certain maps or matches. If I queue up in my Piranha or my zippy shotgun Cataphract, I'm pumped to go into Conquest. If I picked my snail of an Annihilator... not so much. And on the other hand, bringing lighter 'mechs to certain maps (looking at you, Polar Highlands) is a good way to have to sit on your hands for five minutes while the heavyweight long rangers go at it, lest you get instantly mauled for showing your face. Sometimes it's just not fun if you pick the wrong 'mech. And if part of your team has nothing they can contribute except sitting around and waiting for someone to blunder into their field of view, or trying to stick to another 'mech so they don't get merc'd by a wandering light, that only reinforces - and amplifies - the deathball problem.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you added this - I had about 10 minutes worth of content cut that spoke about min-max loadouts and 'mech-before-map selections.

@wulfski

5 ай бұрын

it almost feels like they wanted to have a multi-mech dropship-esque option of letting players pick which of four mechs they put into a set, to take on the mission. I don't see any other explanation for a Ready button that does nothing during the pregame menu.

"You're not really going to find highlight clips in youtube of someone winning a 1 vs 4 in mechwarior online" I TOOK THAT PERSONALY. RIGHT INTO THE HEART.

@boristheteslatrooper2440

2 жыл бұрын

Video is great, btw. You got it all right.

@Daytonaman675

2 жыл бұрын

I won a 1 v 3 in my mad dog after being AFK - they had just gotten visual on me when I sat down locked them up and burned them down

@tyworley5687

2 жыл бұрын

I don't understand this game, but watching you jump around and shoot kids across the map with a lightning bolt sniper thing looked pretty sick lol you seem to be a try hard my friend.

@boristheteslatrooper2440

2 жыл бұрын

Some say I'm the best in the trade. Probably not true, but I am certainly the most focused one.

@tyworley5687

2 жыл бұрын

@@boristheteslatrooper2440 I've never even seen this game til I watched this video the other day. It looks cool but I can't afford a computer at the moment 🤣

"The ***FINEST*** bowl of plain pasta you've ever seen" lmao its true. Glad you spent a lot of time on the atmosphere and mood, especially the music of the game -- I just finished MW5 (got it on preorder, but didnt have the specs to make it worthwhile till now), and it's pretty clear to me that PGI doesn't realize the BattleTech universe is a grim dystopia. The two tunes from MWO I actually do enjoy--the pre-2017 mech lab and the FP Inner Sphere map--have that low electronic vibe.

I have 2 unopened box copies from 1984 I'm sixty years old now. And still play table top. And you are absolutely correct the only thing missing from the game is dressing and garnish. Great video my friend and definitely time for a new sound pass.

@birthdaytruck

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you :) There's no reason I can't drop a dollar to make MWO look how I want, or how you want.

@KroMagnum4

3 жыл бұрын

@@birthdaytruck Yes sir if only they had put forth the effort. There is simply no reason why MWO should be as intricate and immersive as WOT and others games of the this type. I'd paid some dollars to drive a Demolisher or a Shrek tank.

@KaziQTR

3 жыл бұрын

I play with a friend who is 62. And he is pretty alright at this game. If you haven’t tried this game yet because you think you need to be fast, you should try. It’s free.

Dude, i want ANOTHER video about Faction's mess etc. This is gold.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

Faction Play requires footage of Faction Play. I'd like to do the video, but I might just do a voiceover of footage.

@GnarledStaff

Жыл бұрын

@@birthdaytruck Do you need help getting footage? There are a few groups that play faction regularly. I think fridays are a good time to get into a game. But I'm sure there are people who would be willing to offer footage or otherwise help.

I ended up changing the thumbnail to a goofy spongebob one and that seemed to get clicks. I'm thrilled to see the clicks were worth everyone's time - thank you everyone for the feedback and comments. I had no idea I'd come back to a 92% like dislike ratio: truth be told I was ready to be booed off the internet. Correction 11/11 22: 96% like ratio. That extra 4% matters.

@Rob_Werzner

2 жыл бұрын

1. Solid review as I haven't played MWO in years and that skill tree shocked me. 2. Make more reviews, thanks haha

@TheDashACorner

2 жыл бұрын

@Birthday Truck What are your thoughts about MW5 + unlocked mechlab mods? (Merctech, Piratetech or YAML)

@fabiankeck4492

2 жыл бұрын

But they imbalanced the game...that is not stagnation....

@ivanmonahhov2314

2 жыл бұрын

MWO Betty is more realistic. Aircraft systems have such narrator and this done in very calm female voice to prevent panic.

@Thrandi

2 жыл бұрын

This video is coming up on a year. I’d love to hear your follow up thoughts. Have you been playing?

Probably the most well thought out and well articulated argument I have heard on this topic...and trust me, it has been discussed ad nauseum. I always thought that, instead of new mechs (that are really nothing more than a different configuration than existing ones), why not "improve" existing gameplay...sure, new weapons and pretty new mechs are great and all, but if those new things don't change anything at all within the confines of the gameplay, what have you really added? Thank you for taking the time to compile and dissect the issues the game really faces...the community and the game we love needs it.

@tarron3237

2 жыл бұрын

New mechs make money. Simple. Like I wrote elsewhere, MWO devs weren't particularly skilled from the get go. No vision, no concept, bad monetization scheme! All in all very shortsighted.

This hit all the marks, totally do a faction wars video next. As a player that came in late to the party for MWO I always wondered what it was like at its peak.

@Rikki_Tikki_Tavvi

Жыл бұрын

MWO at its peak was a dumpster fire of complaints. Basically no one was happy, and I think PGI was pulled in so many directions by the community they ended up not being able to complete any one goal from their wishlist. That being said, though the criticisms in this video are spot on, the moment to moment game play and community of MWO keep me coming back day after day. In some ways, the community shrinking has been a silver lining.

@KoeSeer

Жыл бұрын

at its peak faction match is an unbalanced fight between clan vs IS. Clan with their shiny better guns will almost always win the fight against the old and lame IS variant. Clan weapons has one or more better properties than IS: could be cooldown, weight, critical slot size, reloading, damage. Could be few combination of those, but in general clan weapons are lighter and smaller with same raw damage. with lighter guns means you could add more armor/electronics/ammo/heatsink, so you could imagine how fucked IS pilot when seeing Timberwolf.

@Jsay18

Жыл бұрын

We got slaughtered at Tukayyid. It wasn't fair. It should always have been Two Clan Stars (10) vs 3 Innersphere Lances/2 Comstar Level II's (12) matches. Golden Timber Wolf Skin for $500.

you forgot to mention the soundtrack of mechwarrior 2: mercenaries

@TheDirtyone84

3 жыл бұрын

That was Awesome!

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

Caught me: I never played MW2: Mercs :(

@Charon-5582

2 жыл бұрын

I tried to play it but the disc wouldn't play on windows XP and I was 8 years old...

@boxtank5288

Ай бұрын

@@birthdaytruck Well the music is more rocker but then again, part of that might be because you a Merc, you really do not give two shits what's going on beyond 'Time to get paid' and it's meant to override any misgivings. That being said, there's sometimes where the track is tense as hell and usually the tracks come in for certain levels or missions, usually it's silent, nothing but you, the Mech, and your thoughts with the occasional enemy contact on your radar.

This is actually the best video on MWO. Amazing work. You've captured all the salient points and conveyed them well. Bravo!!

Just picked up Mechwarrior 5 and been hunting through related youtube videos before I jump in. Enjoyed the listen and the insight to mech design and gameplay relating to battletech as a whole, and will be interested in what developments continue either with Mechwarrior online or follow on titles. I think you were spot on with the gameplay loops. Great video!

@birthdaytruck

Жыл бұрын

Mw5 video is up!

When you got to the bit about the triangle... I knew you're ideas were in the right place. I couldn't help but grin remembering those moments when there are only a few mechs left and you're running on paper armour. Though (As someone who predominantly plays fast meds) I think the reality of these moments in 12v12 is that you have to let the first half of the game play out before you make these plays

I think the vs. options should be selectable. Give us the option of 4v4, 8v8, 12v12

My only two great complaints about MWO are a) kills and damage are the most important thing for your score that light mech builds are forced into doing things they wouldn't necessarily do. Capping, scouting, etc as a light is not rewarded as much as damage and kills... this is not what you play a light for. b) Matchmaker is a real hit or miss. The number of matches I've been in where one side had 6 assaults and the other 1 is not small.

This deserves so much more attention. Great analysis mate

That pasta thing was suprisingly accurate, bland, but damn the foundations are really good

@robertagren9360

3 жыл бұрын

It need jumpjets and locust swarms and laser jetbombers and space battles in space

its gotten popular again thank goodness. been playing nonstop for 4 months now. founder here. yes, I remember the IGP to PGI days and the slow decline. just happy to drop and have some good clean fun almost every night before going to bed.

It always surprises me how much love this game has been getting recently. With all the new weapons and what not. I started playing in 2016ish and am having a blast with everything that's been added over the last year or two.

I wish MechWarrior was more like a milsim game. Mechwarrior 5 has an arcady feel to it, you dont get as many options in the mechlab, cant even change the engine, the hardpoints use a size system that restricts loadouts so much, there is no thermal camera, the difficulty of the mission basically determines how many enemies are going to spawn and their level, even though you have long range weaponry, everthing comes down to close range fights as the enemies always walk up to the player on open ground, no electronic warfare(there is ECM but the enemies doesnt even try to shower you with LRMs or anything like that). Honestly, the game doesnt treat the player like an inteligent being, its more like "hurr durr, stompy mech game". Btw, great video man, i stopped playing MWO due to the nascar meta, every game became that shitfest of running around the main part of the map, even if you didnt want to play like that, the other team would and you would get overwhelmed, took out all the fun of the game.

@EmperorSigismund

2 жыл бұрын

I feel the same way, I gave up as everyone was running boats and half the time you would just get cored in 5 seconds by a power gamer after showing your face or else you would get swarmed by light mechs that you couldn't hit because the netcode is horrible and the devs didn't let you exclude servers that aren't in your region. Not to mention the greedy progression system meant you couldn't earn money unless you won games constantly. Meanwhile I only play MW5 because it's on gamepass and coop adds an extra dimension to the gameplay. MWO & MW5 make no attempt at replicating many simulation aspects of the tabletop. Your fusion engine doesn't bleed heat when damaged, you're guns don't get less accurate nor does yuour speed slow down when actuators are damaged, the pilot can't get wounded by cockpit hits and there are no adverse effects to heat unless you hit the 100 cap. What we get is a point and click action game, meanwhile there are those of use who have been waiting a long time for a Mechwarrior milsim RPG that really tries sink itself into the spirit of Battletech that the tabletop game tried to create.

@MsRiqueman

2 жыл бұрын

@@EmperorSigismund i agree completely with what you said.

@LavaDa1shi

4 ай бұрын

Nascar is not the meta, it is probably one of the worst possible strats. Because you throw away mechs too slow to keep up, and you usually throw away good positions. one of the easiest ways to win on most nascar heavy maps is to just tell your team to hold position at a powerful area and let the enemy team nascar into you and get farmed.

I just want to see MW5 evolve, time to let the last die and make MW5 the prime focus. For starters, Melee, knock down, crouch, CLANS etc

im suprised by the quality of this video, overall the best review of mwo ive found

Wow, you hit the head on the nail with this one. Literally highlighted every gripe I have with the game and then some, with possible solutions to boot. Nice work!

Absolutely loved that review from start to finish. Didn't think I would spend an hour watching. But you madman did it. I loved that you put the older MechWarrior games into perspective. This is very important. Great analysis and critique work here man!

Yeah, some of the best moments ive had in MWO have been at the end when there are 2 or three mechs left.

@kalamander8563

3 жыл бұрын

One of the best matches matches I've ever had was a conquest match where I was the lone survivor in a Warhammer with dual AC 20s and nothing else, vs three lights. For some reason the enemy lights tried to take me out instead of just winning by points and I had to carefully aim to take out the fast paced mechs. Managed to get them but we still lost by points. Good times.

i think in the past 2 months the game has been heading in the right direction with all the player input the devs are translating into rebalancing the game. I hope the game makes a comeback and the player count goes up, the game needs a second chance!

@fullgreys0n738

2 жыл бұрын

And got it better?

@Andragil717

2 жыл бұрын

@@fullgreys0n738 Debatable. Some expects definitely got polished. While others got worse. Match balance is nonexistent since they released the group players on soup queue. The seal hunt season just never over. My biggest issue is still with the weight unbalance that is present in every match. Sometimes it goes up to 200-300t of differenc that's just makes the matches totally unenjoyable for either side. Imagine a game where mostly lights and mediums trying to outgun mostly assaults and heavies.

@TheMirkosch

2 жыл бұрын

@@Andragil717 To be honest, i dont mind the imbalance tonnage wise. Alot of the time, the heavier the mechs, the less, how do i say it nicely.... apt? competent? skillfull? The players are. I remember alot of games where my team had 1 assault and a bunch of lights and mediums, versus 5 to 8 Assaults. Most of the time we managed to beat the heavy team because they simply couldnt keep up with our swarming and hit and run attacks. Sure, there also were matches where they basically one-shot us one after another, but thats how live goes. In my opinion it is more engaging to have actual variety and a challenge in the match, than slugging out the usual match that just repeats itself.

@robertbauer6218

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheMirkosch That almost NEVER happened to me in tier 1. If one team was 100t over you would usually feel and see that 100t difference towards the end of the game. Some of my FAVORITE matches ever were mostly lights and medium though. Talk about an adrenaline rush haha.

Hah, I started one of those "Change the HUD color" threads in closed Beta.

Love this review! After watching this I went back to watch your other stuff and although I don't play any of the other games you reviewed, I thoroughly enjoyed your content. Can't wait to see more from you!

Excellent analysis. Right on the money.

I'm another survivor from closed beta, and I remember well how optimistic the feeling was that we were getting a great product after so many years and frivolous Harmony Gold lawsuits. That you so much for succinctly describing what a shameless money-grab Russ turned this beloved property into.

@Zombie1Boy

4 ай бұрын

If Russ had made the game a traditional pay2play "buy this on steam" type-deal, the game itself wouldn't have lasted as long as it did.... probably wouldn't have even got MW5 plus all the DLCs (clan DLC coming out yay). Sad reality is the IP is still fairly niche in the overall games market only really being kept afloat by big spenders and the older players whom have been with the IP since the beginning. As it stands now PGI has finally given in to letting the community start balancing things. Hit and miss like all things community driven but they have made notable improvements in balancing an inherently unbalanced game along with making the more "trash" mechs more than viable.

Honestly I was expecting a big rant video but as an active player you held my attention and made some very good points. Its unfortunate that this was released when it was since PGIs fixes so far, which I feel have been pretty good. Good content!

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

It kinda was a big rant video, so I'm glad I kept your attention!

This is an incredibly in-depth, well thought analysis! Great presentation!

This is fantastic. That opening cinematic for Mechwarrior 4: Vegeance still holds up. How do we get PGI to see this?

@carlmauser1515

2 жыл бұрын

PGI only cares how many Mechs and DBXP you buy.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

Tweet/share the video to the MWO twitter accounts!

I know it was kinda abusable, but I genuinely missed knockdowns from the beta. I haven't played in maybe 5 or 4 years, but until I stopped, it was a daily game. You have accurately portrayed the nature of my greivance.

@negorbat

Жыл бұрын

cnockdown will reduce the desire of 20 ton mechs to climb on assault mechs, because they can easily survive 1-2 ac20 hits

@dirkwolf9463

Жыл бұрын

It was a golden age of realistic, tragic, hilarity. The we started shoving Commandos up Atlas butts.

Player of eight years here. I remember one, ONE SINGLE match in all those years, where I managed to win a game 1 v 5. I had a Viper, extremely agile, in Frozen City. And yes, most of the other mechs were shot all to hell and back. Honestly I think I'd be the bomber jet making the all the special deliveries on the red smoke markings if the option was given, except give me real engines, those jets in MW4 looked like they were sitting still. Living Legends was a great attempt, too bad Piranha themselves bricked them. Having an operations officer wouldn't be bad either. Someone like Castle from MW4 Mercs. Should you decide to be Lance Commander or something like that (that is already in the game btw), being able to cycle between your teammates screen and give pointers to 'Mech vulnerabilities, as well as work interference, jamming, and the like, would really put a damper on the Deathball. Imagine if you could operate ONE satellite jammer over a 750m radius. That would be one seriously nullified deathball. Particularly if the mechanic was the closer grouped the mechs were, the better the jamming, to the point of stopping the in-game voip for example. Incursion was a step in the right direction, just not hard enough I think. Also, after a significant hiatus from MWO, I missed Solaris (and the escort gamemode) entirely. I don't even know what they screwed up (as a 'Mech battle royale concept would be a difficult thing to mess up). I can't find a match in that mode at all. All in all, this was an excellent summary video. I'm sure the community is aware of these problems, but you know what else? I have yet to see a more engaged and sportsmanlike community in any other game to date. That's why I always keep coming back to the game.

Thought full video about MWO. I have a counter argument to the game play in the match types. The problem with the matches is not with type of map but with player behavior. The players turn every match into skirmish. No team work, no regard to other objectives of the match. Assault is a perfect example. There is a to part objective, capture the enemy base, defend your base. No one wants to play the match based on teh objectives. Every one just rushes out into the middle of the map to fight. Then gets pissed when some one caps a base. Because no one will defend the base. The best matches I've had were assault matches were both sides kept the objectives in mind. The concept hart is very good. But there is a problem. IT makes all the mechs look like they are all made by the same factory, using the same design team. These mechs are made by different companies, in different nations, in different time periods. They are also way to boxy. The centurion, and quickdraw are perfect examples. Both are way more slender in the original art than they are in MWO. They are walking junky billboards. Easy to pick apart. The jenner, locust, and spider are better representations.

@EmperorSigismund

2 жыл бұрын

I agree on both points. I never felt like the game did a good job making objective orientated teamplay the natural form of play. I followed Alex "Flyingdebris" before he worked on MWO and while his art is amazing I think he has been swamped under having to redesign EVERY mech in battletech history. The originals were made by a multidude of artists not to mention the designs licenced from Macross & Dougram and despite a fair few of the designs looking very... 80's, they did a great job showing how all the mechs were made across many centuries by many companies and nations across hundreds of planets. It brings back memories of how widely different the military hardware of WW2 was between each nation. You would never get confused between a Panzer 4, Sherman, T34 or Churchill. Like you said, every mech looks like it was made in the same factory. I always confuse the Kintaro with the Quickdraw and more lethally the Trebuchet with the Victor. It doesn't help that they all had the same square posture where before each mech almost had it's own character in the way it stood in the art and miniatures.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

I hate to admit it, but you make an incredibly *valid* point about the concept art. It is unified, but it does look like the same factory/design teams are building them. That's not an angle I had considered. You're also right about the player behavior -- I don't want to sit on a cap point to win, I want to fight 'mechs. But I also want to fight 'mechs over something that will influence the match: power positions, repair bays, etc.

@GnarledStaff

2 жыл бұрын

@@birthdaytruck I think the intended playstyle is to have lance based combat. Alpha defends the home base, bravo pushes with assaults and charlie rushes the enemy base with lights and mediums... or something like 2-3 stay, 6 create main force and 3-4 flank... which is 4 lances of 3 mechs. On paper, this creates something closer to the experience you are describing. Particularly if the 2 assualt lances try to take different approaches. Hell, a lot of the maps have very obvious corridors for flanking. Caverns, a flat road through a hill, a low road around a hill... I think the problem originates with the players and the devs are struggling to figure out how to make players act more strategically... the new game modes were an attempt to do this. 8v8 means that simply splitting forces into 2 groups means that one group can target the backs of the larger enemy group... meaning accidental tactic use. I think the players are ultimately optimizing the fun out of the game, but honestly, I'm super new, so I might just not have seen the tier one playstyles yet. Your point about thw 1 central feature is really interesting. Maybe the game needs maps that break up the terrain better, providing multiple routes that must each be defended by a lance, breaking up the kill circle zones... Maybe make the kill circle zones vulnerable to distance fire but give roundabout routes that are safer from snipers... I thinknthey do this actually... Idk man, map design is hard.

Seeing Titanfall footage here makes me sad. I really want to play, but you'd be lucky to get into a match after 30 minutes wait here in Asia.

yeah, there is so much potential. I think it may boil down to the fact that no one is working anything mechanical or hud related. Most of the crew at PGI are artists not writers. lots of pretty mechs hung on a scraggly tree barely able to hold itself up. It's like asking a painter to build the wall for his mural, not likely.

I remember years ago when i was playing through m4: mercs when you talked about 17:42 how the music is suposed to scare you a little, that song in specific at the time stamp i recall being on a mission where so far no enemies had been spotted and suddenly that rock song kicks in, you know shit is about to go down in seconds and sure enough 2 atlas pop up, the music design was great on that game

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

Some dynamic music ques would fit into MWO, surely. I'm confident I remember other PVP multiplayers incorporating it.

This is an awesome & detailed look at a game I keep leaving and coming back to. Yesterday, I had a fantastic experience in game, and you’ve brilliantly explained why. 3 v 4 battling for a resource point on seldom used section of a map was intense, interesting and fun. There was some hill/ corner peaking, but it was much more strategic maneuvering in nature and supported the overall narrative. Not all of the narrative. Oh, by the way, I was killed and we ended up loosing the battle for that point, but won the overall match. And I felt good about my contribution to tying up those four mechs and allowing the rest of my team an advantage elsewhere on the battlefield. Thanks for your great video!

@tarron3237

2 жыл бұрын

Sadly, the scoring most often doesn't reward those actions. Winning? Tactical achievements? No, it's just damage, damage, damage..

I can remember playing back in 2012 after the closed Beta ended, it came along ways since then. Still the NASCAR, death balling are strong. The one time was alpine peaks when we still had 8v8 and to a point now with the old polar highlands with the 5 points. it forces you not to death ball. Then the fast mediums with LRMs, 90 to 100 kph and working with a light are great for controlling space. This is still spot on, sure some things were good to add, but people were set into a rut. Comunity warfare was fun, but after a bit was too time consuming with large groups focusing areas each night. Solaris just never got enough people to play in teams and the 1v1 was just not interesting. Then the groups and single player sides of the main game were fun, but now limiting the groups size in singles is where we started out. 4 mechs working on voice with players that know each other can dominate a match. I've done it. Then the old vs new skill system. I kinda like the older one. Then the oversized engines with torso movements. The skill tree now let me buff the direwolf where I could move again or an atlas with a 400 light engine and some torso skills.

In conquest if you are rockin and rollin in an ECM light mech with speed tweak and capture assist skill nodes you can basically single handedly win the match even when your team is loosing the snowball, I find the Pirates Bane locust to be particularly good in this role. The problem however is that if you play a light mech in its intended role as scout or secondary fire support your match score and pilot score rating WILL suffer for it.

The stagnation is due to CryEngine and PGI not having specialist CryEngine coders after the initial project development. MW5 has taken far greater leaps than MWO because Unreal Engine 4 was chosen for that.

I was closed beta too. Played for about five years, my MW4 team that used player made web interfaces to track matches set up via the old MW4 hosting mechanics moved to MW5 and then never really had the chance to become a functional merc unit. Gave up after maybe 5 years and have not been back. Been playing MW5 Mercs solo game and kind of thinking of trying Online again....but I think this video has convinced me not to bother. All I can say is I miss 8v8 too.

This is very well made and thought out. Excellent pacing and tone! I think the musical feedback spent too long on individual tracks, and was one of the most subjective portions of the review (of course, all reviews are subjective, but musical preferences especially so). On the other hand, you made excellent cases for the audio and feedback alerts Unfortunately, I couldn’t make you out over the counter strike audio.

I honestly don't mind the quirks or skill trees. It makes a a variant play different from a b variant

Havent played in like 3 or 4 years because around the time of the Marauder/Warhammer mech packs I started getting the "black screen on startup" error. Couldn't get the game to work, except maybe every few months a driver update would get it working again for a week or two. This video outlines many of the issues I had with the game then. I have a few others that aren't discussed in the video, but they're less intrusive (except for the perfect weapon convergence; why PGI hasn't ever hired engine code engineers I don't understand.) Great video.I

This is master class content creation. Goes to show that talent doesn't always get rewarded on youtube, as in life. Another aspect of the game I find disappointing, well, two aspects, is the lack of a campaign (either solo or co-op) and the extreme learning curve. I played quite a lot when the game first released, but since then I've attained 3 degrees and am busy with a career as a weapon systems engineer for BAE. I don't have an awful lot of time between work and family life, so jumping in to the game in its current state is often overwhelming. I spend more time in the menu system than in battle, and I'm pitched against players who live and breath the game. I know its a "get gud" issue for me, but I don't have time to get anywhere near as good as what I need to be to have fun in the game. I've been gaming since the 80's, even regularly placed first in the Star Citizen leaderboards circa 2.6 thru 3.0 builds so I'm not lacking in general gaming skill, but the depth and complexity of MWO (which is a good thing, btw) is also a curse for people who want to play more casually. I can't imagine someone who has never played the tabletop battletech games in the 80's and 90's, and who didn't get to playing MW2, MW3 et al, trying to get to grips with this game in any kind of hurry. The complexity is great, but it's also a curse, and would drive away a lot of potential new players who just want to have some fun with the few hours a week they have spare.

i feel like only recently is PGI starting to get a little more creative with quirks, since it allows to circumvent normal weapon characteristics people would expect, in MWO you can't fire more than two PPC's together with incurring ghost heat(ghost heat is a balancing mechanic to prevent boating similar weapon systems for massive alphas) but the AWS-8Q gets a quirk that increases its ghost heat limit with PPCs to 3 instead, which is typical of the 8Q design to have 3 PPC's.

@furryai

2 жыл бұрын

Alphas were a thing back in early access. Aws with 6ER-PPC and flushes was very strong back then. Cataphract with 3 Gauss & thin armor for long range sniping with Zoom before & after they introduced the Gauss loading worked in premade teams pretty well too. I havent played for a long time so dunno if Streakapults are still a thing. Or jumping Dakka-Dakka-Mechs.

A really great analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this game. I've been playing since open beta and I agree with almost everything you've said, especially the need to go back to 8-man (or maybe have it as a option to toggle on or off.) You're also dead right about the music and sound -- thank goodness for Haven Kendrick's soundmod! The only conclusion you make that I disagree with is adding a respawn or repair function. Having to carefully husband your resources and balance damage vs output is one of the unique features that makes MWO so interesting, and I really think adding respawn/repair would undermine that. Otherwise - let's hope Russ & Co. are paying attention

@aker1993

2 жыл бұрын

I highly disagree with that due to the fact you rarely seen stock autocannons running around during the match this game needs a rearm function. I played warthunder almost 7 years now in ground battles in order to rearm your tank or ifv you need to capture the capture point in order to rearm and making that cap point a strategic value for your team making the match to run longer and far more dynamic.

@ShadowareCo

2 жыл бұрын

My imho - 8 vs 8 is degrade.

@ShadowareCo

2 жыл бұрын

But maybe, for new game mods it can help

@Carbon_Cola

2 жыл бұрын

I absolutely agree that respawn/repair would destroy one of the biggest strengths of the mechwarrior online mech battles. With rearming I am not as certain, though I think having to balance ammo against more weapons, heatsinks, armor or other systems is another one of the biggest strengths (meaningful customization and trade-offs). However, I do wonder whether there COULD be some way to have a balanced and fun re-arming mechanism in the matches. What exactly it would be I am not sure, it would have to leave the previously mentioned strengths untouched...

@beezzarro

2 жыл бұрын

The main thing that this game needs is a creative way to break up the murder ball tactic. Right now we have a game mode that nobody plays, and when they do they never play the objectives because it's easier to quickly eliminate the enemy team. Adding something like repair bays or making the main game mode something more like a battlefield conquest mode would make the game infinitely more interesting because you'd need to not only economize on your mech but also the teams firepower. Conquest mode that we have would be better if they weren't on the same maps that we have for a skirmish because you come very quickly into range of everyone. If conquest mode maps were way bigger then we might have more of an interesting time with it, although players are conditioned now to just kill everything

Excellent job on this. Best MWO review video on here. I can't believe it doesn't have more views. Anyone who gets into it should really watch this one.

Lovely video, I think a lot of the issues you addressed are still prevalent in the MWO status quo. As a newcomer to the game I'd like to go over the general points you brought up. First, you are clearly quite nostalgic about the MechWarrior games and the BattleTech universe in general. This is commendable. However, nostalgia is a blindfold, and I think an angle you failed to consider is the hold nostalgia has over the developers of MechWarrior, which is very little sway if any. Games are built on money, and there is money in nostalgia, but not as much as innovation. Similarly, an game engine change would be an amazing feat that I do not expect PGI to put money into based on previous actions. It's difficult to say what all is being held back in MWO simply because you need a better engine for the game code to handle it. Improved graphics and dated maps are part of that. Though I sympathize with your nostalgia and wish I had the chance to grow up with MechWarrior games, I do not share it, which I think puts me in a fresh perspective for the problems you discussed. As a greenhorn, MWO has a lot of fun still available to me. The gameplay is not changed much still in early 2024, but the player base seems to have dedicated vets still around as well as many new players such as myself. Your complaint about 12v12 is valid, though as a former World of Tanks player, around 15v15 is the standard in my mind. I agree that this diminishes individual player agency and makes it more difficult to be effective. The release trailer for this type of battle does in fact make it look like 1600s era dogass line formation musket line shittery. It actually reminds me of a similar animation that WoT released, where there are two lines of tanks charging each other. This approach works for naval type combat, particularly space dogfighting. In MechWarrior, it looks like both side of a chess board but every piece is moving simultaneously. For ground based tanky units be it tread or mech leg, That strategy isn't just boring, it's stupid as shit. That said, I actually appreciate the 12v12 player count. I don't have a terrible time working with my team in MWO, and I don't have the luxury of premade teammates. You DO have to be very careful where you run and where you peek, but overall feels less shitty than the WoT experience, and honestly I feel like using cover properly is as important as using your armor if not more so. Perhaps just in my mind, 4v4 would be boring and dry, the battles would simply feel less grand, and even golden triangle fights would be diminished by how short the fights would be. Some mechs are actually more powerful in 12v12 situations where they have more teammates to distract. Playing a light would be pretty glorious with some legendary highs as you knifefight, but it would be either getting oneshotted or being unkillable. Everyone would deathball or hard flank, removing more play variability. 8v8 could be a sweet spot, but I'd argue it wouldn't change much without changing other stuff. World of Tanks is the closest game in terms of gameplay model to MWO in my mind, but World of Tanks hasn't suffered much in player count and the features have been more up to date. World of Tanks has more stale gameplay than MWO in my opinion, meaning MWO's problems are visible with 12v12 but the problems would be there be it 4v4, 8v8, 12v12, or 15v15. The problem would diminish, maybe. It would not leave from tweaking the player count per match, as the problem is elsewhere. The golden triangle is something I've experienced, and it is sublime. I simply think have reduced players per match would hinder the gameplay diversity, a better solution would be to add more intelligent gamemodes like conquest, imagine having a csgo bomb type gamemode or a mode where one team has to defend a base with multiple points of entry where the defensive team must split for maximum coverage. Deathball is pretty bad but it wouldn't be that bad if the game design made it disadvantageous. Just make the players not want to deathball, and you will have more triangle fights. The golden triangle would be boring as 100% of the gameplay anyway. I can straight up agree with you on many of the other points, namely the betty systems and the cockpit/hud customization. I would particularly like melee options, and crouch would be nice but not required. The MechWarrior aesthetic is fucking peak. The music is pretty alright when you aren't nostalgic for the oldies but goodies from the older games, the rocknroll elements I would argue is pretty good in certain points, though I tune out music when I'm focused in game. Being in a losing game is alright but not great. tl;dr 12v12 deathball is indicative of deeper problems in the game design but not unsolvable ones, golden triangle is best gameplay but shouldn't be only gameplay, make betty/huds/cockpits better, music is ok. MAKE MORE GAMEMODES MAKE GOOD MAKES GAME GOODER. Game engine bad but old and hard to change, makes more stuff hard to change.

Great video; I appreciate the work that you put into this. Really curious how your view would change given the recent (in the last two or three months) community-driven updates to maps, mech weapons and agility. PGI has really stepped up and listened to the community and has begun to implement some balance changes as well as hired a dedicated map maker.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

I imagine you're referred the cauldron patch. It seems the community believes it's made more weapons/tactics/mechs more viable - which is great! But for the non-serious/competitive players, there's still no new content. The skills tree is already too much for most -- the cauldron patch spreadsheets were a chore to comprehend.

@Gakuseinozen

2 жыл бұрын

@@birthdaytruck I will agree it's a lot of updates that don't really fundamentally change how the game is played, and that for new or casual players it's really meaningless. But for those of us like myself who are already heavily invested and expected no updates at all, it was a welcome sight. I still don't have any hope for any real substantial content additions, but I'm happy to enjoy the game as it is until it finally dies.

The 12 v 12 is a double edged sword. As a PUG it does suck but if you have a dedicated group it's beautiful. I think the map designs and the messy skill tree stand out as the worst problems MWO... but I think the WORST thing and what finally made me quit is actually just PGI itself. The devs communication with the community...the very slow pace... so many times they lied...and ignoring what the community asks for in the pursuit of more mechs, more sales, more stupid add-ons and packs. I really quit playing kinda out of protest because I was tired of PGI and their bullshit. After quitting for a year I logged back in after they revamped the skill try...took one look at it and said fuck this.

@savagersd5340

Жыл бұрын

The new skill tree is excellent in my opinion, its easier simplier and more balanced. It also allows to select the skills you want without bloating with filler skills.

@mafbloggerdanny

Жыл бұрын

@@savagersd5340 This is a fair point, but I have always looked at MWO from the POV of its main strength being a competitive strategic e-sports type of game. In that context I don't like the idea of "progression" I think it should be all about the mechs and the person behind the keyboard, not -..75% heat generation or +1.25% crit chance even those small advantages taint the spirit of serious competitive play IMHO. I know it is difficult to balance the game between hardcore and casuals it is something the devs have struggled to thread the needle on since day one so I understand it is not easy, I just think from day 1 there should have been a completely separate ecosystem between casuals and teams and we went through too many years of matchmaker changes that screwed everything up again just as the community was barely getting accustomed to the way the matchmaker had been screwed up last time they changed it. Your input is well received though, this is just my experience from the early days I have long since quit.

@masontrevelyan2254

11 ай бұрын

​@mafbloggerdanny I get wear ur coming from but we all have access to it but tbh I'd rather it not exist

@03dashk64

7 ай бұрын

I think the skill tree is great. Everyone has access to the same skills, just like everyone has access to the same weapons. It’s just how you implement them and use them for your build. I am more inclined to say I don’t like Hero or Champion mechs since they have unique bonuses that can outclass other standard mechs

@eopatcjo

6 ай бұрын

The messy skill tree sure is something. I've been playing years and only found it last week.

The true answer to why PGI hasn't done anything for MWO in 8 Years: they don't care as much about Mechwarrior or the player experience, as they do scalping salaried pay-whales with a nostalgic carrot on the stick that always seems to be in reach but is never delivered. This is honestly the best review of MWO out there on the net and even having been published 2 years to date, is still current and relevant as ever. It's not only a great review of MWO, but quite nearly a review of the mechwarrior franchise on the whole. Thank you for taking the time and care to create this well crafted and curated critique of a video game that could be so much more if it were in the hands of a more capable and caring development team.

@dangwancie4797

4 ай бұрын

and now its epic mechs... wtf. because things weren't unbalanced enough

Hey man this was an extremely insightful and enjoyable video to watch, great format and pacing.

Weapon jam info would be great. Going red always makes me question if it was destroyed or just jammed

@TheFifthHorseman_

3 жыл бұрын

Betty does signal that, although there can be a bit of a delay.

Dude great video you hit the nail on the head with this one

How does this video not have more views? It's a completely honest and comprehensive analysis of the MWO situation. Spread the word.

This video is really interesting, I haven't played any mechwarrior since I lost my mw2 disk decade's ago and I popped my head in and out of the community just to see the progress but the last time I did that was easily over a decade ago. I'm stunned at the advances. To see how it peaked and then stalled out. Thank you. I hope they listen to you. You made many good points, the rest I'm afraid we're lost on my lack of in-universe contact 😅

Great video. I'm not sure I agree with the music part. I do find myself turning the music off but I think it's generally got a good vibe to it. I think if you want to blame where the music came from - Blame Pacific Rim and its rockstar-esque mech combat/look and feel maybe?

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

The rock music isn't bad, per se. I'll admit - the spooky sci fi doesn't have the wide F2P appeal for a game that needs to reach as many players as possible.

Well that was damn honest and straight to the point. I can only hope Russ watches it too. Great efforts here and thanks for doing it. Regards (cbills - stop moving I need the)

wow, just blown away at the depth and detail of this review. i didnt even realize i spent an hour watching a youtube video till it was over.

@birthdaytruck

Жыл бұрын

Nearly hour-long videos are seemingly all I can produce. Thank you! Give the video a like and share.

While long, this video NAILS every aspect of the problems we've had since BETA with this game and I'm someone who LOVES it and still plays! (10:38 Timestamp I'm in da video! :P) A bit lengthier than needed on some aspects but overall great job. It's nice to see another player with this much passion put so much effort into the game.

I remember playing MW2 cd in my room stereo. Overall my fav of the music for painting or table top games

Honestly this is the best review for this game I have ever seen, I am amazed that your channel is not more popular! You've earned a sub from me, keep making content of this quality and I'm sure your channel will really grow fast! A good tip for getting noticed is to post your videos on other websites like forums, subreddits etc where they can be shared more easily. Keep up the good work!

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Reddit is absolutely not a place for discovery. Every attempt - even with my personal account - is often auto-moderator banned. The forums are my best bet, and I think the MWO forum was fruitful in gaining traction.

Makes me wish i recorded my 1 v 3 Crab clutch win. 1 plus laser crab vs a Kit Fox, A Spider and a Griffin. It did take a lot of skill, mainly I had to stick the Kit Fox and leg them. Then leg and burn through the spider, cut off the Griffin's PPC arm and do a leg kill. no way I was going to bother with a center of mass kill when my Crab only had 50% of its armor and was getting widdled away doing hit and run tactics. Best compliment I got was "Man, those crabs can take a beating" Though there's ways to fix 12 vs 12. 1) Spawn points 2) Implementing Tonnage caps (if you want to do medium company vs medium or mix company, or full on assault brawl you'll have the ability to do so). 3) limiting assaults on the field. This is quite important, at any point there should at least be 1 assault class lace or a mix assault lance out on the field. 4) Objectives and repair bays. Make objectives worth something in fights. Having a calvary or light lance hold an Objective because it can spawn a repair bay for your team. Extra C-Bill bonus for holding a set of objectives (destroying them as well). MWO warzone suffers a lot from this issue as well, as holding objectives means little and taking advantage of doing so means nothing in the greater scheme. Getting a bonus for saving tonnage or destroying all tonnage should be rewarded.

@cool_dude_like_really

3 жыл бұрын

Yea, that's been on my mind for a while now - c-bill rewards for objective wins. It's implemented in conquest by default, and there is a small payment in assault mode, but how would the gameplay change if PGI, say tripled these rewards? What if you'd get 15k bonus per enemy mech outside the cap range in domination, if you won? 60k for base cap win in assault? That has the potential to offset the typical gameplay

I only just discovered this video and it was a great listen. I have played this for 3-4 years and a lot of the issues you highlighted were problems I had with the game: deathball plays, maps with concentrated chokepoints, and the unbalanced matches with a difference in 4+ players. I didn't consider that the big size of the teams was probably one of the factors leading to such problems but it makes the issue more understandable. The game seems to be dying a slow death. All PGI has to offer right now are number changes after 8 years with no core game changes or attempts to improve the player experience.

@birthdaytruck

Жыл бұрын

The game is still alive and populated, but nobody really knows it's future. The license for MW changes hands in a few years, if I understand correctly. MW5's development cycle has finished and a lot of folk assumed we might port MWO to MW5's unreal engine.

This was an in-depth heartfelt and informative review. I really appreciate how you addressed so many features and possible solutions so succinctly. As someone who was initially turned away by MWO after the beta but is trying to get into MW5 since it has received some significant updates for their Mechwarrior fix, I'd really like to know if you've tried MW5 since the release of the latest DLC and patch that's introduced melee? Personally, I adore the Battletech game from Harebrained Schemes; it has so much soul in its visuals. diverse character design, narrative and especially its musical score. I wish all the love and dedication from that game could be injected into the current Mechwarrior series to truly realise the franchise. Thank you so much for your effort and passion.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

I did put time into MW5, but haven't had the time to try it again since Melee. I'm not confident melee will save MW5, but I'm happy to see it working in a modern MechWarrior game. I fell into the same trap with MW5 that I fall into with fallout: play, hit technical limitation, mod, play, repeat, get overwhelmed and bothered then quit. Harebrained should have done the MW5 story and art -- the decision to attempt 3d animation and voice acting did not fit PGI's studio strengths. 2D art and narration would have suited far better.

i remember physical attacks in mwo.. Dragon bowling ahhh good times

@rangerwickett

3 жыл бұрын

I wonder how hard it would be to encode four things: 1. Mild collision damage. 2. Animations for punching attacks, for mechs with lower arm actuators. 3. A very simple mechanic to represent 'keeping your footing' after you get a heavy hit. Like, maybe you get a 'stability bar' that flashes on your HUD and starts to deplete, and you have to press a button to stabilize yourself. The faster you're moving and the wonkier the terrain, the faster the bar depletes. If the bar gets to 0, you fall over. 4. Some reason for mechs to have hands, like picking up salvage or intel, or maybe grabbing severed limbs.

Fantastic video man. You pretty much hit all the highlights that MWO has to offer, but also being objectively actuate on it's downfalls. MWO is such a weird one at this stage of it's life. It has so many things to entice a player, but offers so little reward that it makes you feel hollow after so many matches. For me, I played pretty much non stop between 2016 - 2019(ish) but then pretty much dead stopped in 2020. A person can only play 3 different skirmish modes so many times. But, I would be interested in your take on the game now that 2021 is almost over, and PGI implemented some improvements in weapon scaling, mech quirks, and map revisions. I've been diving back in here and there, and there still seems to be a glimmer of life left in this aging game from 2013.

I have to admit, this was so very well written, analyzed, and presented than I could have thought. Bravo for a fair, sometimes harsh presentation. After me and the wife putting the game away even after three trips to MechCon in Vancouver ... we're thinking of playing a bit again.

@scolack123

2 жыл бұрын

I just started again after 2 years yesterday

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

Thoughts since?

I like your ideas on what to do as a team but the one thing I seen you do was the backstabbing. As a pilot of light and medium mostly I can tell you if you attempt that u have 2 real options. A piranha with 5 small heavy laser and the rest of your slots with pulse or 2nd option is srms no less then 6 you can use a Jenner II-c or my personal favorite because the size and make the kitfox

Love the fact that clan tech is build the way it is. It makes sense for a number of reasons one if you were to re-engineer say LRM launchers to be that much lighter you would have to change how they work. IS launcher are heavier but fire large group of missiles this is so they don't blow themselves part firing all there missiles at one time. Clan LRMs stage fire so they can be lighter and solves the problem of having all that force blowing your launcher apart, Or that clan AC firing different type's ammo that fire number of projectiles but do same damage but are lighter. Or the longer burn times is why clan laser do more damage. Keeps clan tech from just being better version of IS tech that would be boring and kind make it space magic.

@Gothmetalhead13

3 жыл бұрын

I would point out that lore-wise Clan tech is a straight upgrade because the Clans had a few centuries of technical development whilst the Inner Sphere was bombing itself into a pseudo-Mad Max stoneage.

@jonathanjollimore7156

3 жыл бұрын

@@Gothmetalhead13 Nah that just makes it space magic. Talk to engineer about this stuff there still working with the same laws of physics. There tech is better but not in a stupid LOL LOL LOL this makes no sense way

@Gothmetalhead13

3 жыл бұрын

@@jonathanjollimore7156 Okay, then what about modern tanks? The idea that a tank could reach 70 mph and sit on the surface of a bog without sinking was "space magic" to ww2 tank designers, the idea that you could have an MBT that could drive across rough country at 30MPH, fire at a target 4 miles away and score a first round hit with a margin of error under a metre (or hell, under 50 metres) was "space magic" to w2 tank designers. Hell, the idea that a tank could reach 20mph cross country, or mount more than 30cm of armour was "space magic" to ww1 tank designers. What you have with the IS are people who were just starting out on post war tanks, then bombed themselves to the point that early ww2 tanks are almost impossible to make whilst the Clans simply kept developing and ended up with modern tanks. So by the time the invasion starts the IS is just rediscovering post-war technology whilst the Clans are stomping in with 21st century tanks.

@jonathanjollimore7156

3 жыл бұрын

@@Gothmetalhead13 Missing the point the way Clan tech works differently from IS tech makes sense for a technical engineering stand point. They have better tech then IS because re-engineered it. Just like we have better tanks because they are not engineered the same way as WW2 tanks. Also keeps clan tech feeling samey and unique from IS tech.

@birthdaytruck

3 жыл бұрын

@@Gothmetalhead13 We have to be really careful about pulling real-world phyics/standards into MechWarrior online. Very little of it translates. Good sound designs taken from real ballistics, though, that translates just nicely.

MWO may be the gold standard, but Mechwarrior 3 still has the heart and soul of the MechWarrior/BattleTech universe. What you said about the music is dead on, and if the PGI team were to use the music of MW3 as a template for how they revise the gameplay, it would be amazing. If they were to use the cinematic alone to guide their efforts, the MWO could evolve from a chaotic slug fest into a fascinating, horrific epic every time you land in your mech. I enjoy a heavy metal slug fest just as good as any, but what I want is to feel the gripping tension of being in an alien world, not really knowing where the enemy might be, among the men an woman whom are the elite of the elite, knowing that each battle could be my last - to be a Mech Warrior. That experience is in MW3 to a large extent from the music alone.

12v12 would be decent with larger maps and better objectives. As it is, it's hard to feel like you have that much influence on the match. Unless I guess for special scenarios like sneak captures on Conquest and possibly drawing enough attention for your team to regroup or push a different point. One of the few times I actually felt like I made a difference was when I was able to do that and I hunkered down on an unexpected cap and used the obj to block one flank to survive as long as I could. We had less mechs left but had more resources and won. Great video though. Been a while since I last played MWO but this is great. I could listen to this all day.

I liked this video and you made some really good points, especially on the map size and feel of play. For me, I feel that there is a need for PGI to look to Warthunder. Autocannons and LRM's should have different, switchable ammunition types, maps should be larger and look more realistic and there is a desperate need to scale things in so the game feels like I am piloting a giant robot. We need dynamic tactical objectives, a way to escape or repair and rearm. Hell, Warthunder has larger teams and you feel like you have agency with them. Combined Arms should be a thing, scouting and spotting for missiles/artillery should be a important, and the sodding central focus points, or 'Hills' as you call them need to die a death and stay gone.

@birthdaytruck

3 жыл бұрын

One of the larger MW5 mods included a smaller re-scale. Playing MW5 with that re-scale made things feel right. MWO feels like pacific rim at times.

@ShouldBeDrawing

3 жыл бұрын

For a game with no respawns and a 15 minute match time repairs and reloads arent really necessary, plus would mess a bit with game balance if you can actually reload.

@ShouldBeDrawing

3 жыл бұрын

Essentially asking for a differwnt game entirely

@Gothmetalhead13

3 жыл бұрын

@@ShouldBeDrawing True, I suppose, but then again would it be so bad for games to be potentially longer? Right now MWO feels like COD deathmatch with mechs, its not a real BT experience. Longer games, a reason to have strategic assets that need to be protected whilst also trying to find your opponents and destroy them... It would be fun.

@ShouldBeDrawing

3 жыл бұрын

@@Gothmetalhead13 for what it is, can always do faction play.

Funny you never mentioned MWLL which was so much better than MWO in gameplay terms nd audio design (flying debris also worked on it by the way). Can't wait to get MWLL 2 :-)

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

I attempted to play MWLL often, but it was - at the time - demanding specs wise. To be honest, MWLL is mostly what people wanted in a 'mech game. Big maps, creative endeavors, respawns, and combined arms. not a fan of the art design, but the HUD and the premise was on-point.

@NicolasAlexanderOtto

2 жыл бұрын

@@birthdaytruck Yeah one of the main issues was the engine choice. It has quite some limitations and difficulties to work with. For instance mechs were two separate animated objects (one for the legs and one for the torso to accommodate the right movements). Luckily MWLL2 uses U5 :-)

When you mentioned the music it occurred to me that I've had it off since I've started playing and didn't even notice.

I was looking up gameplay for Mech Warrior because I played MW2 on my dad's old computer back when AOL was still a thing. This has got to be the most entertaining review I've seen in a while, even if it did ward me off MWO. Hopefully another post from you is coming down the pipe.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

You should still play MWO. It is a fun game, but don't expect anything more from the experience you have the first week or so.

i would love to see a conquest mode where you can respawn mechs and drop in. make the mode all about conquest points. totally agree. every game mode being a 1 life and the match is over type game mode is a little boring. The only way to even get a similar experience is in faction, but we really need a more casual quickplay variant

@IamtheWV17

2 жыл бұрын

It's in there... hidden behind the mildly confusing faction play menus. Was probably my favourite game mode when the player base was big enough to support it.

I love using *mostly* stock loadouts, usually just adding Endo-Steel and Double Heatsinks, sometimes upgrading the engine, all to squeeze more ammo and armor into it. Both a Rifleman and a Blackjack of mine have done very well for their weight with those simple changes.

@tarron3237

2 жыл бұрын

👍🏻👍🏻

What I would love to see out of a Mechwarrior pseudo-mmo (Not speifically MWO, another may come, who knows) aside from multiplanetary drop in drop out pen world warzones (probably never happening) is a kind of semi story mode like what's seen in Armored Warfare, if anyone here is familiar with that game. Super heavy PvE focus, rotating missions, challenges hat give special, unique titles and cosmetics and boosters and such or straight up monetary and experience payouts for completion of various tiers or stages, and seasons that expand the episodic, grand storyline... It's a really good model that'd work well if the MechWarrior games had their own version of it.

I have 1 possible defense for the 12 v 12 format: it allows players to play the mech they want. Even in a 12 v 12, total team drop weight is a major deciding factor. The team with more weight, more often than not, will win. The easiest way to see this is to count how many assault mechs each team has and compare the outcome. A team with 2 or three more assaults usually wins by a wide margin (the exception being in conquest, where capping lights can swing it for a win) Drop weight is such a factor that if you drop as a group, you MUST run with heavies or assaults, or you will be putting your team at a disadvantage. If you ever see a 3 man party all running lights on your team, you can bet that the other team has a 200-300 ton weight advantage. Now imagine how much this is exacerbated in a 4 v 4 scenario. Your team could weigh up to 400 tons. If you choose a light mech, your team now weighs a maximum of 335 tons, to the enemies 400. A good pilot, or a coordinated squad of 4, can make that work, but a random team won't appreciate being handicapped in that manner. Pilots would then favour heavies and assaults to anything else. The 12 v 12 also gives the match maker more options. It isn't just grabbing 24 players and throwing them together. It makes some (if less then optimal) effort to balance the teams. With more slots to fill, it has more options for getting that balance right, and getting a mixed bag of mechs on each team. There is also something of a "soft-counter" balance circle built into the game, it's not quite rock, paper, scissors, but it matters. Mediums counter lights, heavies counter mediums, assaults counter both, and lights counter assaults/slower heavies. There is overlap between different mechs and weight classes, and different loadouts excel at different things, but broadly speaking, this is the case. In a 12 v 12 matchup, you are more likely to encounter a soft counter to whatever you are running, BUT, you can also disengage and find a more favourable fight. In a 4 v 4, if someone is countering what you are set up to do, you are stuck fighting them. This would lead to players favouring more generalist, heavier mechs, with less obvious weaknesses, in order to avoid that situation. As for the music, you must remember one thing: MWO is a multiplayer game. The music from other titles fit their theme of the horrors of war in a brutal future, which is perfect for a single player game. The music in MWO is like something an athlete listens to before a game, it gets them pumped up, and then fades into the background.

@GnarledStaff

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly this! If the main force can survive long enough, a coordinated mediun-light lance should be able to do significant damage behind enemy lines... gunna test this theory tonight.

8v8 was where it was at people complained that a single player could make all the difference, 12v12 made the game go deathball

@birthdaytruck

Жыл бұрын

That's an important distinction: in 8 v 8, a single player COULD make differences: they had agency. I'm not advocating for COD-TDM style 1 player wins a match, but 12 v 12 was a bad decision.

Bravo, this is really everything. Thank you so much for calling out the sound design and music, it's irredeemable. PGI's love of indistinct butt rock is why I didn't buy MW5.

@mistersomaru

2 жыл бұрын

yeah, MWO's sound design is pretty lack luster. one of the reasons soundpacks exist.

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

@@mistersomaru The soundpacks could so easily be a win-win. I'd happily buy them and give the artist a cut--so many F2P games have embraced *some* sort of creator content program.

Honestly though, you can say what you want about iconic sounds but. 'Incoming Missiles' will haunt me for years to come.

Creo que es El mejor video de MWO que he visto. Mucha buena información y precisa

Ironic that you describe Alex Iglesias’ artwork as defining a unified look for the battletech universe as you show screenshots of Anthony Scroggins’ designs :) It’s such a shame that Alex’s designs were always let down by such bland animations. I do enjoy most of the mech designs that came out of PGI, but the revamped designs coming out of Catalyst Game Labs have blown me away!!

@birthdaytruck

Жыл бұрын

Agh - damn, you're right. I thought they looked different. But there has been less deviation between art designs, either intentionally nor not. And 3 of the most recent PC titles (MWO, MW5, Battletech) has seen unified art designs.

Terrible news from the future. Their development cadence hasn't improved.

@TJWatkins-nb2gg

18 күн бұрын

it has now!

@drummerguy438

18 күн бұрын

@@TJWatkins-nb2gg oooo really? How so? I’d love to come back to the game

@TJWatkins-nb2gg

18 күн бұрын

@@drummerguy438 faction play is much more active now, there are a ton of new mechs and maps, balance changes are passing consistently every month, and iirc the player count is going up again as well. there's also an "event queue" on a roughly biweekly basis, which throws unique new gamemodes into the mix with modifiers (e.g. jumpjets last for an infinite amount of time, all your mechs get 100% more armor, etc.) with an in-game currency earnings multiplier.

@Marter1000

7 күн бұрын

​@@drummerguy438 A bunch of new weapons, 2 new chassis so far this year.

whatt. how does this guy have 634 subscribers. ngl i was rewatching the vid out of boredom and as it turns out he has 634. i really thought he had atleast around 6k subs. lets help this man to atleast 3000.

this vid pin points so many issues... I use to be in CWI, in MWO. had a blast. this was before the skill tech tree thing came into play... we decided that Clan wolf should own Terra. so we took it. took us a few weeks but we did it... then PGI reset the map.... and all our amazing progress went out the window... it went from clan wolf and Jade Falcon carving a nice, widening gash through IS space, to a default map over night... so we did it again in defiance... PGI reset the map...again. we did it again, they did it again, again and again and again back and forth to the point we took half of the IS with terra in a week, JUST to prove a point. (it took a few weeks the first time around, but each time we got faster, better, and more determined. finally, a patch dropped, and all clan space had the same kind of look, only the planets had different colors to them to indicate the different clans... and it killed the vibe of being part of a clan, and doing your own thing against/with other clans... it made us clanners feel like we were not worth their time. suddenly the maps were harder to control and claim, suddenly the IS could stand toe to toe with us, and though i know that that was an intentional part of the Battle tech LORE, and I'm good with that, it didn't happen over night... grrrr.... anyway, in the end, PGI was clearing the map every few days just to keep Terra from being owned by the wolf clan. maybe that was a default setting, or maybe we just went against the grain of wood they set out, and they threw a temper tantrum... i don't know, but for us, it was fun. everyone was involved... even if they didn't want to be (looking at you, Capellans). now everyone is VS everyone. IS team up against Clan, even when your faction isn't involved in the fight... i get it, the player base has shrunk, and they had to do SOMETHING... but all that, and all the hard work we put in, plus all our mechs no longer having all the upgrades, and now having to figure out these talent points... that's what initially killed MWO for me, and for many that i knew. coming back to the game is... frustrating. more and more so each time. and this 12 v 12 death ball you speak of, is infuriating. miss the old format of the game, the current version, that's been out for the last few years, isn't fun now, wasn't fun then, and wont be fun ever. your vid helped me put into words how i feel about a big part of this game as it is a beloved sore spot in my gaming life. xD thank you for putting up this vid, I'm sorry to see it took me over a year to find it but I'm glad i finally did. +1, thumbs up, thank you. lets hope for a new game that is far more fun!

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

I feel this man. Faction Play is a topic that gets my blood boiling, but I don't know if I can do a video on it.

@icenhorn4744

2 жыл бұрын

@@birthdaytruck dont blame you. I feel such a vid would be overly long and it would get angery... at least it would if i made it xD

Mechwarrior 3 missile lock sound was immersive af. And yes music and sound design in MWO suck big time (it also partially transferred to MW5)

while i do not 100% agree with all points in regards to the cons. you can have a like for a well put together video though.

With the game almost reaching 10 years and going through *another* rebrand to focus specifically on more hero mechs, it really feels like PGI threw up their hands and gave up trying to make any substantial changes. I understand its hard to invest in a niche game that yields little return, but every time I come back still feels like the same exact game with none of the problems resolved.

@birthdaytruck

11 ай бұрын

There are, though, three stations on the Vanguard: Pilot, Turret, and *engineer*. What the hell is the engineer station supposed to do in a space superiority fighter?

Very well put together and cogent review. I especially liked the discussion of why 12v12 is a bad format for the game, and why it should go back to 8v8. Edit: Additionally, what are your thoughts on the skill tree rework?

@birthdaytruck

2 жыл бұрын

Skill tree re-work declutters and organizes what is still a sub-par idea. It's progress, but I'm of the opinion it needs to be less "2.5% reload speed for LBX weapons" and more of a feature-based quirk system a la table top. These 2.5%'s here and there only complicate matters and make balance passes that much more difficult.

PGI: "too long didn't read, brb selling more $100 mechs to gamer dads with disposable incomes"

@birthdaytruck

Жыл бұрын

TLDR, brb selling a hatchetman with no working hatchet

I can't imagine ever going back to MWO after MW5: Mercenaries.

@VulcanXIV

3 жыл бұрын

Shit, I can. I only ever play phoenix hawk in majority, and once I found out that ME5 is just a get-bigger and get-badder kind of game, I dropped it. I regret those 60 bucks. It's a good game but doesn't favor mecha fans that have aesthetic/fighting style imterests. Even if I DIDN'T have to play tough missions that needed bug mechs, I surprisingly find the movement of mechs in ME5 to be annoying compared to MWO.

I've never played Mechwarrior but I love learning about cool things people are passionate about while eating my cereal. thank you for good video!

Very well constructed video