IGP and PGI have parted Ways
Tactics and MWO are not tied together in anyway and he has now idea whats going with Tactics.
No MWO money is going to new project
Some MWO programmers will switch projects (but this is normal as to prevent assett burn out)
Russ will stay on MWO and Bryan will be switching to P2.
2015 Big Question - What PVE content does the Player base want?
Getting Collisions back in game a big to do list item
Going to consider going to STEAM in the future to capture new players
No Plan to go to Monthly Subscription model
Cost to generate Map reduced? Yes - not nearly the 250k that it used to be.
2 Developers working on new maps at the moment.
IGP Blocked Map production during Clan Mech Production
Factory map coming in Mid September patch
Swamp after that
New Game Mode and New Map coming for Community Warfare
Allow to Community Generated Maps? Potential in 2015... but nothing solid or set in stone.
SMURFY Style mech back
The Store sucks needs to be redone completely
UI 2.0 lots more work coming before end of year
First Time User Experience rework wont come until 2015
New Official Tournaments? Russ wants to have new ones ASAP
Spectator Mode - New Code adds additional Specators per match + Organizer Functions + Lots of Bug fixes, still more in pipe
If user base warrents they can now spin up EU and Oceanic servers. 12 v 12 base line requires a pretty large # of players to work well with the MM. Probably going to explore EU option first.
EU and NA player base are about equal.
Graphics - SLI fix awaiting driver fix from NVIDIA
Graphics - MWO is CPU based not Graphic Card... Most important to have Quad Core to get best performance
No CBILL versions of Hero mechs? - No
Monthly Costs for MWO Online North of 1/2 a million all in. (Support, Software, Hardware, Employees)
DECALS are coming! Initial Develop Complete - Hoping to have complete for CW
No Plans for Re-Seen mechs
New Clan Mechs coming
Want to spin up Clan mech so releases are 1 to 1... IS / Clan... Not there yet but working toward it.
Chassis Reveal for Sept 15th
4 Mechs one of each weight class
Pricing Same as previous
Clan Presale Customers will get Special Mech - Ready and playable Sept 23rd.. long before the rest of the mechs.
Faction Based Skins coming
Roll out start around start of November 2 mech a month.
No Replay Feature for 2014 - Will Revisit in 2015
No MASC until after CW - Alot of Fear that the faster speeds will break balance.
Issue of 12-mans playing against smaller groups in the group queue. "It's going to happen". One of the trade-off to adding group sizes with very little limitations. Russ does a real-time check of a live solo queue match to show Elo was less than 100 difference supposedly. Proposes that MM is restricted by "hardline" options too much already. Example: a very close Elo match is not made possible because 1 group was searching for Conquest, the other was searching for Skirmish. That hard option for game mode is what prevented a good match being made.
-Suggests a VOTE option for game mode that will add a preference toward certain game modes (and maps in the future possible), but the MM will not be restricted from making a better match. For example: a group can vote for Alpine and Conquest, but the MM might find a better Elo match on Terra Therma on Skirmish (harsh example).
-Russ does not want to continually nerf mechs, especially the clan mechs. Instead he would like to introduce more quirks to improve IS mechs and specific weapons. ~2 months.
-Clan mech penalties for losing side torsos. Loss of speed and heat efficiency possible. ~2 months.
-Russ personally made the most recent clan weapon changes, not Paul. Clan mechs were unbalanced due to being extremely heat efficient compared to IS mechs.
-Russ would like for an public update from Paul for the progress on Community Warfare. Mixing technology removes immersion. Faction tab will filter what mechs you are allowed to take on a certain planet or in a unit. The current public queue will remain. Faction fights will be a separate queue of "serious roleplay" that will have specific new rules and restrictions. You will not have access to "All of your mechs" in the faction tab for Community Warfare. (what about mercenaries and Lone Wolves? guess that will depend on who you are fighting for. Seems interesting)
-Salvage. IS factions will be able to use Clan mechs that are salvaged from a victory against clans and vice versa, but not in the beginning during the initial implementation of CW.
-CW examples. Weekends events might include a particular battle from lore that involves 2 IS factions and a filter of specific mechs that were used in that battle. This information will come from Paul in more detail soon™
-Solaris Game mode. Current solution is Private lobby and community managed events. Might be possible if there is enough community
-My own question. Will Artificial Intelligence be developed and implemented, like the grunts in Titanfall, in the form of elementals, tanks, etc. adding new depth to objective play. Player vs environment. Russ believes it is going to happen as long as the customers want it. (seemed pretty quick to say that it will happen. Noticeably more than other features that might be possible after CW is added).
"CW is out, we start thinking about what's our next big thing beyond just improving the initial 4 pillars. Is it PvE, is it single player? etc... Yeah, I got to believe that it's.... it's gonna happen... it's just going to have to be priorities in the future of what the players want... and if they want that straight after CW, then we'll go there"
-Balancing group queue (again). Russ brings up possible voting system for modes and maps instead of hard-set options. MM can decide to override a player's preference in order to make a better matchup for team weight and Elo.
-Voip. Put on hold. Some in-engine support being looked at by Brian, but he has been side-tracked on CW items. Do not expect this until after CW. Russ is curious who would leave TeamSpeak and other third-party options to use the in-game option. Russ and Sean agree it is useful to speak with other players on the team that are not on a third-party option.
-Rewarding founders? Russ caught off guard a bit, can't directly answer. Talks about the clan mech reward being for clan players specifically. Basically no-comment. Phil stands up a bit for founders.
-Activate premium time in chunks. Russ throws Niko under the bus. Russ mentions that MWO is one of very few games that actually has "banked time". Suggests that people complaining about the c-bill grind should be activating their banked premium time. Russ is waiting for Niko to put out an announcement that Premium can be activated in chunks of ONE month at a time, no less. It is supposedly finished on the website end, but not finished for UI implementation.