RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (Full Version)

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stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 10:21:12)

That is because you don't play that much.

And the SCMM take up a lot of staff time, which could be dedicated towards other things, like nonrare content, nonrare quests, etc.




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 10:32:21)

I wouldn't mind if we had a scmm every other month.
But the scmm would have to be twice as awesome, because they have twice the time to make it.




jamesjph -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 12:09:30)

I think the MQ devs need to look at the surgestions forum.

Basicly that is the best place to start.




ZamuelNow -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 12:12:06)

I was thinking about SCMM's and why they're a "problem". One of the things brought up last thread is that SCMMs shouldn't be the sole reason people have to upgrade. Comparisons can be made to what is available in MQ for upgrading and what is available in DF and it hit me that the comparison might be the right thing to do to brainstorm the situation.

DF's classes are essentially our mecha. Upgrading or secondary currency can get you access to better skills but both serve the same purpose so the two games are about even there.

DF has a number of things involving dragons that are upgrade only. Feeding them, special missions, Titan battles, and more. Then it hit me--we don't really have an equivalent "dragon" in MQ. In theory, our starships should fill that role but they don't. It would be a good cash sink for the super rich in credits and could add more options to the game overall.

To my understanding the old Armada idea is on a bit of a hiatus. Perhaps there's creative ways around that. The Golden Dragon on Yokai and the Arthurian Wolf on Lagos show that the game has the ability to temporarily replace our mecha with another. For special missions, create a "mech" that has the visuals of the basic starship and have the fight take place on a space background. Customization can be handled at a later date but for the moment it would be an option for SCs to do more during wars or just some regular missions.




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 12:15:43)

@James
Nice uniform. And I disagree, suggestions alone will not help MQ. Different people want different things, just because one person suggested something, does not mean everyone will like it to be released. They have been taking suggestions from players recently, (make some releases smaller to wok on important stuff like the soon list, more storyline, less SCMM, etc.) and lots of people have complained.

@Zamuel
We have that in the form of the galacti-mecha, are you suggesting we have more of that? Or something else?




ZamuelNow -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 12:30:43)

@stealthwings: While Galactimecha would be nice (and Korin said it actually will appear again for Frostval) I was meaning something else. I was meaning our actual starships that are docked in Soluna and we had to do the mission to get parts for. For a game with interplanetary travel and spaceships, we really don't use our spaceships for anything but item storage.




jamesjph -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 12:34:04)

Actually I was saying we should use the surgestions to improve it. Like Bikes around town, always in mecha...

NOT JUST USE THEM!!!

EDIT: I dont know how I got this uniform, it appeared one day.




Glais -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 12:46:13)

I think by now alot of us agree with bimonthly or trimonthly. I personally would hope for every other month but if they did do three months I'd be fine with it.
Lack of a "dragon" is a good point, I would love to see more in exploration and atmosphere which our starships could easily provide, seems odd to me that DF has more exploring value when it's just in one part of a continent.




forumlogin -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 17:16:02)

@ClashoftheTitans
That actually brings something back to power inflation. :P
Time was the Doom Harvester really was an extreme challenge.
As for making an NGMM, making an SCMM already takes up a ton of time on the staff's part. >_>

@Zamuel
DF also has several DA-only zones, and most of the quest chains have a DA-only ending. :P
While I would prefer MQ not be so saturated with SC-only areas as DF is, SCs do deserve a little more. XD




ZamuelNow -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/5/2010 17:52:10)

@ClashoftheTitans: In four turns? Did the Doom Harvester itself glitch out and downscale lower than 25?




RainBlade -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/6/2010 4:14:56)

As I said before,MechQuest should really do something about the speed of the game (example.you could click on the options button and choose the game speed like slow,normal and fast)




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/6/2010 7:25:01)

@RainBlade: The speed of the game is determined by how fast your computer is, and what quality your using. If your computer is slow, you can make mechquest faster by lowering the quality.




RainBlade -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/6/2010 22:04:41)

My laptop is fast and has hypernet, but I can see what your getting at now,my apologies




NaturallyMaria -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/7/2010 8:06:39)

I guess if I'm leaving, I might as well make a goodbye post.

I haven't found any motivation to log on to MQ for weeks now, and I don't see that changing anytime soon unless there's a MAJOR engine revamp. I don't feel like there's anything left to look forward to anymore EXCEPT monthly mechas, and those are hardly a prize when there's no quests left to use them on. MechQuest held my attention for about three weeks, which isn't exactly what I'd consider successful. But then again, the MQ team did get my $20 for the SC upgrade, so I suppose the primary goal was accomplished. Honestly, I think the primary problem here is that MechQuest LOOKS and FEELS like a dying game, and not enough people seem to care. We're seeing all the usual signs of an online game in its final days- dwindling releases, rehashed events, uncontrollable power inflation to cater to veterans, unusual shifts in narrative tone, and most of all, forum topics about how the game is dying.

I discovered the game when I saw my younger brother playing. Apparently his group of school friends had stumbled upon MQ while on the warpath through the entire online gaming world. As a game blogger and aspiring social game developer, I like to follow trends and pick up on what's popular and what's not, and kids like my brother probably represent the largest demographic of players- kids (of any age) with high expectations and low attention spans. I'm a bit more selective than my younger brother when it comes to selecting games worth my time, but MechQuest had a certain something that caught my eye from the outset. The hand-drawn art style was a refreshing change from what most developers are doing these days, the battle engine implied an extensive customization system, and the subtle tongue-in-cheek humor had a quirky charm. The one thing that sold me on the game, stupid as it might sound, was the Shadow E1's 10-minute gun animation. That was just adorable. That said, the initial appeal is certainly there, but my enjoyment was cut short by a surprising lack of quantity.

The dropship, as I've mentioned before, was a fun introduction to the game. It created an intense atmosphere, introduced a handful of characters, and inspired a sense of urgency. There's a war coming, and I'm going to be right in the middle of it! I just need to finish my training, then I'll go out and be a big galactic hero! Alright, maybe jumping the gun a little there, but I didn't expect the truth to be TOO far off. Instead, I found myself delivering pizzas for the next several days. Honestly, I was pretty much ready to quit by the time I hit level 10. Of course I understand that two days of playing isn't exactly giving a game a fair chance, but let's face it- most potential players don't give games a fair chance. In any case, I only really held on because the (utterly broken by comparison) Mecharoni nearly doubled my grinding rate, and Yokai was just barely interesting enough to hold my attention a little longer. After my hundredth Evil Sam Rye or so, a few things started to sink in. One- I hadn't upgraded mechas in a long time. I bought some other mechs with my spare cash, sure, but those weren't upgrades in any sense of the word. Even with my lowly level 13 Mecharoni being the strongest mech in my garage (and pretty much no worthwhile customizations available for it), grinding slowed to a snail's pace around level 17 or so, and there still weren't any decent upgrades available. After looking around a bit and getting a better idea of the "normal" level of game balance, I can only imagine how slow the lower levels must have been if I didn't stumble upon the Mecharoni from the start. For what it's worth, my brother quit at level 9 and has long since forgotten about MQ entirely.

Anyway, I went ahead and upgraded at level 19, probably too late to fully enjoy the benefits. I enjoyed playing around with my new SC toys for a few days, and cleaned out the rest of Soluna (minus ghost hunting) and all the other planets except Necryptos. Some missions were more fun than others, and some of those rolls got to be extremely daunting, but it was a pretty decent experience overall. The war on Lagos was the uncontested high point, while Yokai was a disappointment overall. The other planets fell mostly in the middle, with tedium being the primary detractor. I can say without hesitation that the SC upgrades made the game more enjoyable, so I'm glad that I made the upgrade before finishing those quests. However, I can say with equal confidence that enjoying those quests was nowhere near worth $20, and I have zero desire to sink even more money into Nova Gems. I know I still have all of Necryptos to finish, plus a few straggling missions on Zargon, but there's little desire to finish them. There's no story pulling me along, there's no characters I've grown to like, and I'm pretty sure that one more planet isn't going to give me the last TWENTY levels I need to reach max.

Any online game's success (and profit) comes from two places- player attraction and player retention. In MQ's case, succeeding at the former translates to convincing someone to upgrade to Star Captain, while succeeding at the latter means convincing players to buy NGs regularly. In my experience, I found that MQ only barely succeeded at the former, and outright failed at the latter. And of course, the company must succeed at both to maintain profits and maintain a strong reputation, which in turn should translate to more staff dedication to the game. Personally, I only upgraded because I felt like spoiling myself a bit for my birthday, and I happened to already be at Best Buy to do some other shopping. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to upgrade otherwise. As with most games, the staff might have the best ideas when it comes to actual content, but the players are the ones who best understand the overall "feel" of the game. After looking through the suggestion boards, I'm actually pretty glad that so few mecha/weapon suggestions are actually taken seriously; most of them are horrendous. However, the suggestions in THIS topic (and its predecessors)- those regarding balance, mechanical adjustments, and the overall player experience- are the ones that need to be taken to heart. As things stand right now, I feel that the new player experience is mediocre at best. And as everyone else has articulated so many times, the end-game balance is a mess right now because of SCMM imbalance and a severe overload of overpowered rares. As a final point, there are NO successful games on the internet with zero player interaction. I know the ideas have been shut down in the past due to the difficulty of implementation, but I think both an active market and full PvP are both integral to MechQuest's ongoing success. No game developer has ever been able to create a world so engrossing that the players need nothing else. In the end, players keep each other interested in the game, and developers can only do what they can to facilitate the natural emergence of competition.

Now, the real core of the problem? Revamping a broken game can be more difficult (in concept, not actual work hours) than starting fresh, and there's a shiny new MMO project that already addresses pretty much every single problem I see with MechQuest. From a business standpoint, there really is no benefit to dedicating the manpower to this dying community. On top of that, I know I'm not exactly in the loop here, but I also get a strong sense of company politics hampering MQ's development. Avoiding backlash from long-time players is probably a bigger concern than sacrificing the limited profits from SC/NG purchases at this point, but as the rest of you forum posters drift away, that will become less and less of a problem. The less of us hanging around here that need to be pleased, the fewer quality releases we'll get, and the cycle will continue until MQ is officially dead. I mean really, how many regular posters are there on these forums? Twenty? Thirty, tops? Not a huge number of players showing dedication, as compared to the 800+ that come and go on a typical day. I think the best outcome we can hope for is a MechQuest 2.0 in MMO format, and maybe "classic" players will get a bone thrown our way in the form of free account upgrades or special rare items. On the other hand, the era of cheap/free MMOs seems to be ending to make way for the unstoppable Zynga/Playfish bullet train, so maybe there's not much hope there either.

Anyway, this post has gone on way too long (as my posts often do). I probably sound like a terrible person too, with such scathing criticisms of such a high-quality product. I do feel obligated to say that I greatly enjoyed all the creative details that made the limited gameplay worthwhile, and I also truly appreciate the warm welcome I received on the forums here. Maybe on a different medium, or in a different era on the gaming timeline, MechQuest has the foundation it needs to be wildly successful. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate that potential coming to fruition here. And now, a quick countdown of the changes I feel are most necessary...

6) Enough content to fit the experience curve. Frankly, if 45 is the max level, I expect enough quests to get me to level 45, and a reasonable number of upgrades to enjoy along the way. I shouldn't be finishing the game around level 25, and only having used three mechs to do so. I know that simply adding more content is an unreasonable demand, but there are ways to make it more manageable. Also, the fact that hardly any customization is even worthwhile before level 20 is a huge disappointment.

5) More Star Captain missions, and a larger gap between SC and NG bonuses. Frankly, I felt ripped off by the lack of SC benefits aside from the SCMM. I'd have felt even more ripped off had I bought NGs and realized the bonuses were only marginally better than what I could get with the one-time $20 upgrade and wouldn't even scale to my level. I think NSC players could even afford to LOSE content if it means making more SC-exclusives, because that just makes the upgrade more worthwhile. If a free player gets 25 hours of decent gaming and still hasn't upgraded, chances are they never will, and I'd say that they have received enough of the dev team's time and effort.

4) Improved accessibility. MechQuest really isn't a game that demands much attention. If someone is taking the time to sit at a desk to play a game, it's probably going to be something a little more intense. Simpler games like MechQuest would be ideal for handheld devices, so as to avoid direct competition with the industry juggernauts. If there were just a battle app and a database app for phones, I think the addiction factor of MechQuest could increase tenfold.

3) A revamped Soluna, to ensure that new players get HOOKED and will absolutely want to upgrade to Star Captain ASAP. The first 10 hours of gameplay simply do not live up to the hype created by the website description and the initial dropship mission. Those first few hours are, bar none, the most vital to MQ's ongoing success. Even if people upgrade and regret it a week later, at least that money can go back into further game improvement. The limited mech selection and the mundane city jobs we have now just won't cut it.

2) More low-effort quest formats. I know that full storylines must be a pain in the ass to code and animate with such a limited staff, so I'm keeping my expectations realistic. However, a constant stream of half-assed wars (against silly turkeys, no less) isn't exactly appealing. Neither is an entire new planet populated with a grand total of TWO enemies and a blatant joke boss. Smarter use of the material that we already have (GEARS, recurring characters, houses, etc) could quite literally double the size of the game with only minimal effort.

1) Full player interaction. I know this has been shot down in the past, but it's the only thing that will save us in the end. Even the biggest developers out there really struggle to create lasting single player experiences. Games like Pokemon, Starcraft, Street Fighter, etc, still fail to deliver that, even with ten years and millions of dollars to work with. And on the far opposite end of the gaming spectrum, games like FarmVille and Cafe World go to the extreme and offer NO single player whatsoever, yet ended up being the fastest growing games of the past year. Trying to pump out story quests fast enough to keep up with players is just hopeless. Competition is what really drives the best games. And to go along with my earlier point... When the day comes that two students can whip out their iPhones and challenge each other to a mech duel on the spot, that's when MechQuest will have truly achieved success.

Okay, I'm done now. I promise. Love you all.

-Maria <3




TostiTostelli -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/7/2010 8:43:44)

Goodbye Maria, its sad to see a player with insight go.
Can we do like ALL of her ideas?[8D]
Nah im serious, some of them have genuine potential. For example the bigger difference between SC and NG, and I also like her idea of player interaction.




BRAXUS -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/7/2010 13:42:47)

I think more perm quests should be added. Also the story line is so broken. At the begining there was a great story line lots of things to look forward to. I havent played in awhile like a year and the same planets are there not much has been done. The MQ Staff need help, we also need to help. If we all are taking the time to rant on a forum then we should also take the time to come up with real ideas.

I vote for an overhaul. Nothing sparks excitment than a complete overhaul. New story line, new Classes, New events, perm quests, actuay start the pvp duel. Keep the excitment up and give hints of future stuff. All of this the MQ Staff have to do we cant implement. But we can throw our support to them. For those that understands how all this stuff woks behind the scenes knows the moment the base membership start dying off the support also drops. So if we all want to continue to enjoy this great game lets Band Together and give the staff what we can give them our support.




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/7/2010 17:07:39)

They have specifically said that live PvP is impossible with the engine.




forumlogin -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/7/2010 19:02:13)

Oh no. D:
Bye, NaturallyMaria.

Unfortunately, I don't think full-player interaction is really possible with MQ, as stealth said. :(
And as it is now, the older player (not too old, otherwise they get the weps that're terrible by today's standards) will almost always beat the new. :/




kuncles -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/7/2010 22:14:49)

Perhaps if Mechquest had Bi-weekly or monthly releases?




Glais -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/8/2010 2:02:14)

Honestly, I think we need more people like Maria, she has an actual, in depth understanding of basically everything that's gone wrong in the past year or so.
About halfway in, I didn't even care about how long the post was because everything made sense and had valid(and accurate) points. MQ really isn't going to get better if the releases are small and following the same pattern again and again. It also to me has always lacked drawing new players in. From the beginning levelling was a pain, but not to bad. I can remember how much I..raged(?) when they cut the EXP ratio by...alot during the time when the cap was 20. They basically took the toughest point of the game(and we're talking about low level enemies which new players are more common to see) and made it ten times worse. But it was ok, everyone got used to it eventually, even if they(me) didn't like it all that much/at all.

But then eventually...members just kinda vanished, and it comes down again to the small team...MQ and DF are effectively the same minus they're combat systems yet DF's doing great with it's story, weapons, and content and I'm guessing it's because they have a ton more manpower than MQ does.

quote:

I feel that the new player experience is mediocre at best.

I have to agree with this, I've always thought that if they want to draw new people, they need to make things as simple for them and cool as possible. Maybe throw in a cool cutscene to show off the animation skills during the DropShip ride. Once they get to Soluna, have someone explain basic things to give them an idea of places to go and whatnot. What also bugs me is that nearly every planet made recently is aimed at high levelled people(well, just the last two). In my opinion, all levelled planets are a bit better since anyone can jump right in and do it. In addition, there's many times where the only quest was something that required a lengthy chain but new players wouldn't be there yet. Possibly(again, the lack of manpower really messes things up) have some sort of side thing for people not caught up to do?
quote:

As a final point, there are NO successful games on the internet with zero player interaction.

I finally figured out why I keep going back to AQW, I accidentally erased this part of the quote, but you stated "people keep others interested in the game." And that is basically it, despite the fact that AQW's story is awful and everything is blatantly money based I keep going back because people keep me into it. Maybe not multiplayer, but MQ needs SOME way to keep people interested, my brother and cousin have already quit(more or less) which is pretty disheartening considering both of them like AE games in general, my brother even going to the point of making backstories, equipment, and areas for every character of his in every AE game...

Eh sorry, Maria's pot just got me sort of...inspsired? I always forget the words at the last second...sometimes.




Voigan -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/8/2010 10:58:49)

quote:

Perhaps if Mechquest had Bi-weekly or monthly releases?

Unfortunately that is a no-go. I PMed Korin last week asking what he thought of changing the releases to biweekly. He said they would like to do it but that decision is not up to them.[&o]
Personally don't want to see MQ become an MMO or be shut down and replaced with a MMO version since I despise MMOs on principle. I am probably in the minority on that. I think all of Maria's ideas are great though and should be implemented as soon as possible (with the hopeful exception turning MQ into an MMO).[:'(]




ZamuelNow -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/8/2010 11:57:22)

MQ doesn't need to be to fully become a MMO in order to increase interactivity. There's a number of things that could be done such as taking a cue from DF and having missions where we could invite other players to assist us. Would take a bit of work since it hasn't been implemented yet but it could spice things up. Some form of trade would be nice but sadly I don't see that happening since not even AQW and ED have trade yet. Even something as simple as using the Gossip Engine to acknowledge other players so there's an urge to improve based upon their accomplishments.




TostiTostelli -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/8/2010 13:05:32)

Recently, there have been a lot of posts, not to mention threads, about improving/dying MQ. Obviously.
This alone tells me that MQ needs changes. Now, there have been allot of great idea's so far, including the scaled down idea of a MMO by Wrangler.(not to forget the feedback from Maria!!)

Putting it this way: leveling is simply boring after lvl 25, so im sorry to really bang on about this, but MQ needs a main storyline, sidequests, and so on.

I know Korin and others have been working their asses off, so here is my suggestion(which I am probably gonna get flamed for): Momentarily stop making new mechs, and small wars as entertainment, instead, focus your attention on giving MQ a overhaul.
This means there will be probably a few months without new releases, but I think, in the end it will be worth it.

Edit: I do not agree with Maria, that MQ isn't worth saving. The original concept is great, expand it!




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/8/2010 14:17:22)

@Voigan
Without the weekly releases, many players would probably quit. I probably would. And for the few months without releases, they would lose nearly all of their fans. I wouldn't leave, but I probably would the day they released the overhaul, since overhauls usually kill games for me.

quote:

1) Full player interaction. I know this has been shot down in the past, but it's the only thing that will save us in the end. Even the biggest developers out there really struggle to create lasting single player experiences. Games like Pokemon, Starcraft, Street Fighter, etc, still fail to deliver that, even with ten years and millions of dollars to work with. And on the far opposite end of the gaming spectrum, games like FarmVille and Cafe World go to the extreme and offer NO single player whatsoever, yet ended up being the fastest growing games of the past year. Trying to pump out story quests fast enough to keep up with players is just hopeless. Competition is what really drives the best games. And to go along with my earlier point... When the day comes that two students can whip out their iPhones and challenge each other to a mech duel on the spot, that's when MechQuest will have truly achieved success.

2 reasons why that is not a good idea:
1. Multiplayer is expensive to make and maintain. Mechquest does not have this kind of money, if they did, it would go towards making the releases much better. Also, I do not know any multi-player game which cares about anything other than making money. MQs staff actually care about players. The staff of multi-player games care about having bits of green paper. Or sometimes other colors, depending on what country they are in.
2. Multi-player games and single player games are different. There happen to be more fans of multi-player fans than single player fans, but this does not mean that everyone prefers multi-player to single player. If MQ were to go multi-player, yes, they would end up more successful, but most of their fans would probably leave, and it would become an entirely different game.

I personally hate multi-player games.




megakyle777 -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/8/2010 15:21:23)

I will admit that I do not play a lot of MQ Nowadays, and personaly I feel as though there are two things that can improve this: Increase the quality of the quests, and increase the quality and quantity of the storyline and the cutscenes. In the end, this was the reason I quit. Honestly, aside from possibly Yokai (and I'm not sure if we can count that, it seemed a little too cliched to me to count), have we had a good story update in the last 6 months?




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