RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (Full Version)

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Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:33:24)

By Baron Dante

@Runic: I'm gonna have to disagree on the importance of story. If there was no story, there would be nothing but combat, and you can't really make games nowadays without a story. Nowadays, was it not for the story, I doubt I'd be playing MQ, or the AE games in general. Sure, I may be known for taking great enjoyment from taking on completely ridiculous challenges, but in the end, there's no real reason for me to do that here in particular. I could go play games far more challenging if I wanted (Homerun Derby oh dear) just that. But ultimately, it's the story that keeps me around.

That's why I do believe it's a shame how slowly the story is actually going forward, though at this point, it's hardly the fault of the staff itself.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:33:56)

By Glais

quote:

Homerun Derby oh dear

The Kanga trolling.
I'm not even at Christopher Robin yet.

But yeah story definitely needs to be kicked up if MQ wants to survive.
Minar's been working magic on art, so let's hope he can keep it up.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:34:16)

By madman 13

My one and only serious complaint right now is that it's got far TOO locked into storylines. All of a sudden, the planets are locked into linear order, you can't take time off to explore other places, and you can't just actively hunt down something you want, except by steamrolling through things.

now, linearity is necessary to an extent for any game, let's not pretend. There'd be no challenge if you could just skip to the final boss of each area, see the ending, grab the items, and move on. However, MQ was fun because you could decide where to go. In DF, you have countless areas on a map. You can just jump around, do a few quests here, a few there, move on, and no matter where you are in the story, you can find plenty of options.

In MQ, you had the same choice by way of picking planets at first; pick whichever one you want, and then work towards the goal of finding an ally against the SHS there, or a weapon, or just show up for the heck of it. The way it is now though, you only get one planet at a time, and beating it unlocks the next, forcing you to go from one to the next in the exact same order. And so, you run out of diversions.

There aren't enough side quests per planet for each one to stay interesting, and most don't have any side quests, just a single storyline chain. So you very quickly end up with nothing new to do, following a long unbroken line of the same missions, often repeating over and over.
The amount of grinding this forces is too serious for MQ. Before, you could swap to a different planet once this one got boring, and then later come back and try it again with renewed interest. Back when I played more seriously, I did just that; I had characters going different ways to different planets, trying things on for size, and just jumping around. Now, I can't. There are dozens of places I cannot go to anymore because I haven't done the right storyline. I tried going the long way round, but I just lose my patience with it; I wanted to go to a particular place, not grind everything else to get there.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:34:33)

By vagaran123

If MQ could actually get a pretty decently big staff (the one right now seems like the smalles of AE....though HS might be smaller....) I might actually get SC, but as it seems like right now....I can only agree to the OP, and I hope MQ can get just a few more staff members to help.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:34:56)

By Knightron2234

@madman 13: The problem with exposing more choices to new players is that it gets very confusing. They wouldn't know what to do, considering that a majority of AE's players are 13 year olds. A fixed chain of missions where you have to complete something in order to unlock the next would be helpful, since they can be guided along the storyline without experiencing confusion. However, I do agree that there should be some side stories that are available to new players the moment they set foot in Soluna City, to keep them interested as they grind for the jobs and stuff.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:35:15)

By madman 13

@Nightron: the fix for that is to actually highlight the next planet, with one of the yellow exclamation marks or something. As a general rule, to get anywhere in MQ at all, you pick up on following those quite quickly. or maybe grey out the plannets that aren't relevant yet. If they had the time, they could try fixing the news screen so it actually told you where the latest story was as originally intended, rather than just being the same broadcast.

I feel the need to point out in relation to this that aged thirteen, I would actually have got bored of playing even quicker than now, and would have preferred the openness. You have to keep things interesting if you want to keep people playing, and right now MQ has a lot of grinding quests, more so than any other AE game. in fact, I can't think of any other games with grinding in them, except WF (which was even worse, and is dead now). Grinding the same quest with no changes whatsoever becomes dull really quickly, and letting a game become boring is even more fatal than letting it be confusing.

Another thing I need to point out is that every AE game save ED was aimed at 13 year olds, and the only one I've played that restricted things in the same way was WF (which again was even worse with this, and is still dead..). All of the others just have a few pointers, Like AQW had big obvious markers in the right places on the world map, and a list of story line quests in the Book of Lore (which got a bit messed up by their redesign, actually) DF also had the storyline index in it's own Book of Lore. That is enough to avoid issues of confusion in games that have HUGE numbers of side quests and optional extras. MQ, which is far smaller and less confusing, has taken a much more extreme solution, which actually has a negative impact on those who don't need it
I don't know about you, but I really don't think that adds up.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:35:34)

By BumFoolingGuy

Well the Frostval event that pasted have new content that is seasonal anyway

The upgrade page can get a brand new rewritten and revised/revamped page that just needs on how to detail everything is now currently there in game and updated with all of the information of the SC and a quote that says something that overall make sense of the happenings and timing




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:35:54)

By Krillin

Yes but many people updated on MQ with this information given to them for a lesser product.

When I became an AQ guardian I felt that it was money well spent.


They can revamp the upgrade page, but they have still lied to the SCs about what they would be paying for

Found a post I made in April 2011 on a MQ feedback thread




-What your favourite quests were

-My favourite quest chains were the ones with rolls to unlock new ranks. like the soluna and westion ones.
- On the soluna the hospital and police quest chains had a variety of different quests which kept it fresh (mech battles, minigames, sword fight).
- The ranks in these quest chains had various shop unlocks along the way, which broke up the tedious grind
- Plus the fact that they featured funny/punny AE style humour ( this is how we identify it is an AE game in a way), our character also has some input to what goes on.

A note on these quests is that the Members only quest list if significantly small (SC Xtreme Challenge, Yokai, Zargon, Braddock Steele and the dropship one)

What you like and do not like about Mechs in the game

- whilst there should be all these themed mechs for areas, in my opinion a mech should be more military looking and less shiny all the time. (Basically alot of the mechs have unique looks to them, but for a war against the ShS we should have mass produced low colour scheme as they will likely be destroyed in war)
- Just because a mecha has 6 slots, it doesn't mean that they should always be used up. People may disagree here but by giving a person all slots used you are practically telling them to not customise.
- I am also not impressed that the game doesn't yet have a pilaf machine mech Pilaf Machine* (Now with the actual pic... I hope)

Edit

- I also think that the mechas could return to their special types, as in one of the gears classes there were enemies impervious to the ballastic type attacks. Plus we should have more missile/explosive style attacks rather than laser after laser
What do you think about the plot
- Initially the plot was about us living as a student at gears hence our part time jobs, this is valid enough for a side story about our progression through the university.
-Of course the strong plot was the driving force that the ShS were slowly taking over the galaxy. This is a fine standard plot
- After fighting on our homefront and taking down the rebel insurgency then helping them. The plot went into a bit of a slump.
We went planet hopping to make allies, however this undermined the impact the ShS had on the galaxy in the eyes of the players (think of cowardly planets giving into the ShS or ones staying impartial to survive). I think this was restored with the destruction of Westion.

I feel that there are loose ends with several important plot points.
- The first is Kingadent Slugwrath is still alive, albeit a head in a jar, but if he still lives he is due another appearance in my opinion as should his owner Mr Z who has been absent a while.
- Next is a really old one, do you remember the first war where lots of our students were infected by the ShS? Well if you remember they were never restored so it is bizarre that the ShS are interested in the university as much as they are considering they have an armarda of spies other than Hughmun and they posses the Gears mechas technology.

I feel the narration of the plot at times isn't strong at all, I am still confused as to why we landed on Necryptos as it was never explained.

The last point is that the last bit of permanent plot content was the end of yokai which was around early spetember for the end I think........ so no permanent plot for over half a year is quite shocking IMO.

* This dragonball reference is only because I know how much Artix (and everyone worth knowing) loves dragonball. So why not combine the love of dragonball with the love of MQ for that mech or at least a reference to it [8D]



Now Ignoring my idealistic dragonball mecha, the only planets that have been done in two years are 2 planets. Someone needs to firmly give us an answer rather than avoiding direct questioning.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:36:14)

By Selutu

@^
Actually 3 Planets have been released... GLaDERP, Liath and Romero, alongside the release of Zargon Part 2. Also your idea about weapon types was one that the staff decided to forgo already.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:36:35)

By Baron Dante

madman: Wait, the planets are actually locked? I always thought you were simply told where to go next, but it wasn't mandatory, for the most part.

Krillin: I don't see this false advertising here. Each and every one of those are in the game. The only one you could argue is "new areas released regularly", but they are. Just on a slower pace.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:36:54)

By Runic Lord

Urrrrg can't believe I'm back on the forums but... Here I am.

quote:

MQ really lacks the incentive for the upgrade


Ok I'll agree MQ doesn't have AS much incentive to upgrade as other AE games. But when you are a level 50 NSC who has experienced EVERYTHING the NSC world has to offer you feel like you have to upgrade in order to keep playing. And after being an NSC for a while then upgrading you become overwhelmed by all the new content and challenges. There still is a good incentive to upgrade. And one good thing about playing the game as a whole is that it never feels like upgrading is being shoved down your throat. Back in the day of DF I completed the whole bit till you get that baby dragon. Afterwards I quit DF completely because I felt like upgrading was being shoved down my throat. I still haven't returned. Upgrading in MQ feels like you are being eased into it instead of having it thrust at you.

On a separate note this thread has turned into a place where people just complain about the game. Stop saying what is wrong here and start saying how to fix it!




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:37:13)

By Krillin

We can fix it by having Artix acknowledge that MQ needs more resources




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:37:33)

By madman 13

@ Dante. Yup, you can't go anywhere except the moon until Slugwrath is beheaded. and you can't visit Westion part 2 until you've completed part one of every planet. and so on. Even the new release button just tells you that you need to complete a few other places before you can go to Romero, if you haven't opened it yet.

as for mission pointers, there were supposed to be, but they're broken.

@ Runic Lord Well, Sollutions are easy to come up with. I wrote a huge post on this just now which erased itself without being published, so here's a condensed jist of it:

Storyline/side quests:

more permanent non linear content, as well as unlocking much more of the storyline for non linear playing. There's a lot of empty buildings in places like Zargon, so if you put in more side quest areas there, it would leave more for seasoned players. And in terms of playabillity, here comes my big point;


Combat:

I think this is an overlooked point, and I only worked it out when I considered what it was I liked about the EHMs. The combat system in MQ is kinda simplistic and inflexible in battle. you customize with certain weapons to fight certain foes now, certainly, which was a step in the right direction when that came. and the EHMs kinda feel like the next step; more combos and strategy in the battles themselves. DF and AQW are the most successful games right now, and they both have combat systems where you would use certain skills to unlock certain others, or use one in preperation for a much stronger finishing blow. MQ would benefit a lot from that, just because it adds more dimensions to combat. That was what the EHMs did; WB has it's rage growing over time, whereas RH has the surge. MQ would really take off if they could make more mecha with things like this, or weapons designed to work with them (like Elite Runehawk weapons having surged specials, or WB ones doing things with the rage.) I note that the two particularly unsuccessful games, MQ and HS, are the ones where the system is the most heavily customisable, rather than interlinked like this. If the MQ team can handle making a transition like that, the game would be far more fun to play in general, and that would be a crucial step towards huge improvements.




Balu -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (1/17/2013 11:43:46)

Well the plan was to merge 2 pages of constructive opinions regarding MechQuest in this thread, but that didn`t work out to well. I apologize but I managed to add your opinions on the topic this way!

Please continue to provide your feedback regarding MechQuest here. Your opinions and thoughts are important to us but please keep it civil and constructive. ~Balu MQ GD ArchKnight




Dazza Pain -> RE: =AK= Why do you think MQ is Good/Bad? (1/17/2013 15:57:26)

What I love about MQ:Everything exept the listed below
What I hate about MQ: HATE? I hate NOTHING about MQ. the question should be: What do you find annoying about MQ?
What do you find annoying about MQ?: The recent lack of SCMMs/Perm rerelease SCMMs, Dragonoid saga (saying incomplete when I have done it all).
Why I like MQ: What is there NOT to like? it's GIANT ROBOTS WITH MASSIVE GUNS KILLING RANDOM ALIENS!!!! HOW can you dislike it???
What's good about MQ: "GIANT ROBOTS WITH MASSIVE GUNS KILLING RANDOM ALIENS!!!!". Lawlz :D
What's bad about MQ: Nothing, although they could use a few more staff members.
What makes me play MQ over other games: See Why I like MQ or What's good about MQ
What makes me play other games over MQ: CoD is awesome, AQW has chat and parties ect, DF has DRAGONS. I <3 guns, Robots, Dragons and chatting while PWNING BOSSES!!!! (Nulgath is awesome!!!)
<<TerriFiying>>
>>>Nulgath's Army<<<
>>>>>PvP ME! 13169872 (MQ ID obviously)<<<<<
<<The DragonGuards and Dragonoids are awakening>>




Belalan -> RE: =AK= Why do you think MQ is Good/Bad? (9/2/2013 4:20:26)

What do you love about MQ?

Well, I've been here from the start, and through good times and bad the art has been great. The mecha have been fun, {if somewhat mindless} and overall it's a nice game to leave running in another tab while occasionally clicking an attack button.

What do you hate about MQ?
The endless grinding. Forcing us to kill 100 foes to climb a tower does not enhance the plot or gameplay experience in any way shape or form. And damn the robina pirate waves, I dont know how many of them I have to kill, they just keep coming, and more of them each time. (It doesnt help that I only have two weapons that I use in sequence on my mech either). Anyway, enough grumbling for now.

Why do you think MQ is good?
The potential it possessed when it was first released; just how complete the soluna city and westion quests were (disregarding the previously mentioned 100 battles of endless grinding)


Why do you think it's bad?
The lack of follow through on said potential. Different damage types were introduced, and all of them do exactly the same thing; no varying resistances, no damage modifers, just different flavours for the same thing. House mechs were released; except the average damage on every weapon (ignoring the pay for +2 damage ones) is identical for each level, rendering each completely moot except for any with special effects, and those lie in the hands of the RNG gods. {Speaking of which the mystraven mech really needs a buff, I can barely get a 50% win rate on that thing while my giest mech that is 2 levels lower routinely floors enemies of the same level with hundreds of hp left over}

And last but not least the arbitrary scaling; I leveled up and got a new mech, all my enemies did too and the mech doesnt scale quite as well compared to the enemies, so it's far more efficient and rewarding for me to stick to the old mech and power my way through the game. Hell the fact that you can equip higher level weapons to lower level mechs encourages it

What makes you play MQ over other games?
I can leave it in a tab and occasionally press a button, it has low bandwidth cost and is thus playable when capped, and it's not a bad game even if it isnt quite as polished as it could be.

What doesn't make you play MQ over the other games?
Combat feels grindy and not engaging, both mech and hand to hand, lack of variation in 'strategy' and spam of two attacks to win all battles all the time.

Sorry if the tone of my post doesnt quite match that of others in the thread.





t track -> RE: =AK= Why do you think MQ is Good/Bad? (9/2/2013 9:47:45)

the thing about mechquest is that I personally like the gameplay more than any other ae game. the problem is the story. more importantly the npcs. I mean what sets df apart from the other games. every character was like tomix or drakonnan. charismatic and a reason they are the way they are. you WANT to know what happens to them next. now let's take someone like (I think his name is) zeke from the black and white planet. he doesn't like the player but there is no real in depth reason why. usual when some one has that kind of irrational fear there is a deep seeded reason for it. but nope with him he just doesn't like us. mq just lacks emotional depth.




SulkingKING -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (4/23/2015 9:24:23)

I enjoy all of the games Artix Entertainment has released. This one has giant robots fighting eachother. That's pretty cool.

Though I've found myself stuck on the starting quest for Liath for years now, it's still a great game.

The quest is the Starship Crash on Liath, the first quest in the Liath questline.
It's a 20 by 20 field, and even if you make a map, enemies spawn randomly so you might die just trying to draw out your map.
Along with monsters, the field randomly will deal small damage to you sometimes.
The mission is to find a single square in this 20 by 20 field that has your mission objective.
Every time you start the quest, the map generates every tile randomly, except for the one you spawn which is always the top left.
There's also no notable landmarks, besides the edges of the map, and rarely found healing trucks.
That's insane for a game meant for everyone.

Even though this mission was made years ago, I feel it's still too hard without it being something like a secret mission.




Meera -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (7/11/2015 22:17:54)

What do you love about MQ?

The mecha. The space exploration. The lightsabers that we can't call lightsabers.

What do you hate about MQ?

The quests that I can't get past and which the game won't allow me to skip. I have two of those right now: the Temple Entrance in Fangor Jungle (i.e. the floating rock quest) and the starting quest for Planet Liath. I know for a fact that I will never get past either one. The rune quest requires good vision, good hand-eye coordination, speedy reflexes and the ability to tell a straight line from a slightly crooked one. I have none of these abilities and never have had. But because the quest is unskippable, I am locked out of the rest of Necryptos AND the final Shadowscythe Armada story. I'm being prevented from enoying the rest of the game because I don't possess certain physical abilities. It's frustrating.

As for Liath, it's hopeless. The area you have to search is too big (20 x20? REALLY?); there's no way to permanently clear a room; enemies can and do randomly spawn as you're walking toward a recharger (or even as you're standing on a recharger); you get injured randomly by another spaceship; there are no landmarks to distinguish one area from the other; and nothing even tells you what the engine you're searching for looks like! Add in the grayness of everything--which, again, is not helpful to someone who has poor vision anyway--and Liath becomes an exercise in frustration. It's not even remotely fun.

Why do you think MQ is good?

The storyline is good. It's quite thorough, but there's still room for expansion.


Why do you think it's bad?

The cost of everything compared to the amount of time that you have to spend earning very little experience and money. It's frustrating. (There's that word again.)

What makes you play MQ over other games?

It's a single-player RPG that I can play casually. That's a huge advantage over multiplayer RPGs that demand huge downloads and deep, deep immersion. It's one of the two Artix games that I play regularly (Dragonfable is the other one).

What doesn't make you play MQ over the other games?

The aforementioned undo-able parts of quests and the grinding required to progress.

If this isn't what you're looking for, I apologize.




Fullmetal32 -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (6/18/2016 9:53:41)

i find it very annoying that you must be a star captain just to save your mech equips. it's not having having to redo my mech suit every time i log in.
quote:

Like I said, you're contradicting yourelf, now stop talking before the hole you're digging reaches the earth's core and kills us all with a massive volcano.




Lightdragon170 -> RE: =AK= MQ Gameplay Feedback Thread (8/10/2016 1:32:30)

What I love about MQ: Basically everything except what I answered for things I hate.

What I hate about MQ: Certain quests are extremely difficult (Necropolis and Liath when looking for the engine part) or rely on roll based luck which can be time consuming. I also dislike the fact that staff members were pulled out of this game to work on other projects and now Mechquest is on life-support on the back burner since they didn’t return.

What do you find annoying about MQ? How at certain levels the choice of Mechas can be poor unless you’re a Star Captain or want to spend Nova Gems. Also certain bosses are super hard to beat (Vampire bosses) even when using Mechas that have an advantage over them. I hate luck based rolls because I could complete a quest numerous time and not have the number needed to move on.

Why I like MQ: This was the first AE game I played and upgraded in and I love the idea of a world with Mechas, flying cars and energy blades.

What's good about MQ: It’s a strategy game and you have to think about which weapons to use against certain enemies. Also I can take my time to level up and complete quests without the pressure of falling behind.

What's bad about MQ: Some of the bosses are extremely hard to kill unless you have rare weapons that were only a one-time thing. This is extremely bad news if you’re a new player and weren’t around for those weapons.

What makes me play MQ over other games: The graphics and the fact that it’s a single player game and I’m not competing with other players or dealing with other players.

What makes me play other games over MQ: I love the graphics and the fact that we’re fighting in Mechas in a futuristic world. I also love how the game can be both simple and complex.

What doesn't make you play MQ over the other games? Well, the game is pretty much dead now and I’ve completed all story lines and am at max level. What else am I to do without any updates?




Eoemder -> RE: =AK= Why do you think MQ is Good/Bad? (2/22/2017 20:59:44)

I like all forms of gaming. Whether its sci-fi based or fantasy. Df vs. Mq don't really matter both are just as good.
I love gaming and fighting with magical swords or laser swords i don't care which.[;)]




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