RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (Full Version)

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99th Dracopyre -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/11/2010 10:09:50)


More mechs.

Better Battle graphics.

More thrilling battles.

~D99




Mstorm -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/11/2010 18:27:57)

Alright, let's talk fixes. [WARNING: long post is long!]

Soluna

The Soluna plot, it is widely agreed, needs work. Currently, you get off the dropship with this sense of urgency about war with the Shadowscythe and then you maybe go to class and then you...deliver pizzas, or something. Yeah, doesn't really work with that whole "sense of urgency" thing. You know what the plot of MQ needs? It needs a Drakath-equivalent. (I'll call the character "Makath" from here on out. D for Dragonfable, M for Mechquest.) A really, really annoying rival, not a Shadowscythe or anything, just another GEARS student who is very talented, like you are, but is kind of a jerk. Not only does it give you someone to really look forward to beating, but it allows a reworking of the plot on Soluna.

See, after you get off the dropship, you'd be told to attend the 101-level classes, where you'd be introduced to said Drakath-equivalent character. Once you and the other GEARS students were deemed ready to go (or close enough!), you'd be shipped off to fight a battle against the Shadowscythe ASAP (the Kingadent Needs YOU!) Then, in the battle against the Shadowscythe, Makath disobeys orders and pulls some crazy reckless stunt, possibly jeopardizing the whole mission; you, naturally, being the heroic sort you are, also disobey orders and pull some crazy reckless stunt to save the mission again, and you'd end up saving Makath in the process. After the mission, you're both sent back to Soluna to Dean Warlic, where Makath claims he saved you and the mission, and you of course say he's lying...Warlic, without any real evidence to go on, decides you're both grounded for recklessly disobeying orders - stuck in Soluna, forbidden to leave or help out in the war, until you can get letters of recommendation vouching for your general good character and helpfulness from "leaders of the community" in Soluna.

Then you have a reason to be running around delivering pizzas in the middle of a war - you're not doing it just because you've horribly misplaced your priorities, you're doing it because you need to redeem yourself and prove yourself - and not only that, but you need to do it *before* that pesky Makath impresses Parma John so much that *he* gets a letter of recommendation. At the end of each job chain in Soluna, there could be one final mission where you compete with Makath somehow to get the letter of recommendation from that person, maybe beat Makath in a mecha fight or a sword fight or just "outdo" Makath in some kind of minigame, depending on the job. Once you get 3 letters of recommendation (since there's 5 jobs in Soluna, that would let you skip a couple you don't like), Warlic reinstates you, giving you permission to leave the planet (and perhaps sending you off to the moon or wherever, right away). Makath, meanwhile, would be stuck on Soluna still trying to get letters of recommendation for a while, conveniently explaining his absence from the plot for a while...of course eventually he'd get reinstated and start showing up again...who knows, maybe eventually he really would get assimilated by the Shadowscythe...

Lagos

Needs fixing, it really does. For one thing, navigating around the "planet" is a mess right now, you have to find the right options to click on in a couple different screens just to get back to the Crow's Nest. Some more uses for the submarine would be cool as well. The first thing to do, I think, is to have two cities; an Arthurian settlement and the Crow's Nest; and then you'd navigate to the wars and events and so on from the two cities as usual. If possible, the side you picked first/most in the AvP (I can't write that without thinking Aliens vs Predators, oh well) would have an impact on your character for the entire rest of the game - any time you went back to Lagos, you'd start out in "that side's" city. (Alas, probably any of that info from the AvP war is totally gone/untrackable now, so you'd just have to pick Arthurians or Pirates now.) From there of course you could navigate to the other city in two ways, one by taking a boat (which would probably involve some fights) and the other by taking your handy submarine. (Submarines are sneaky, you see, and you'd have a lower chance of fights, most likely against underwater monsters instead of [other side's] mechs.) Throw in some post-war missions about trying to keep the peace between the two sides (and maybe at this point, Makath could reappear, having [naturally] chosen the opposite side from yours) and the world would be much improved.

SPACE, the Final Frontier

So, fewer SCMMs is fine with most folks, but people quite reasonably object that there's not much of a reason to go Star Captain otherwise. (I personally disagree with them, but I can see their point.) Well, the obvious difference between Star Captains and non-Star Captains is that hey, if you're the captain of this ship, you can fly it wherever you want! Heck you can even fly around in circles if you feel like it, you're the captain! So I'd add just that: sort of like the "random battle" button, a "fly around looking for trouble" button for Star Captains. It'd have some "ordinary" random battles (including random battles from any of the current planets, like Westion/Lagos/Gark/etc), a chance of a few minigames (space battle vs some Shadowscythe ships, or a "steer your ship through the asteroid field" minigame), a small chance of happening across the location of one of the seasonal planets like Thoh, where you could replay the old seasonal content out-of-season (without any of the shops; basically just a chance for to see those enemies and/or the plot of that holiday when it's not that holiday) and maybe a small chance of a couple of unique encounters which can only be gotten to by flying around looking for trouble...sort of mini-planets kinda like Gark would be if there were nobody particularly important at the bar; those might have a loot-roll type weapon drop at the end.
(I think I stole some elements of the above idea from AdventureQuest, but honestly it's been so long since I played AQ I don't really even remember.)
Oh, and naturally, you wouldn't be able to do this until you'd gotten your letters of recommendation in to Warlic.

Interface/Gameplay/Overhaul
-Make it so the % increase in credits/xp you get for beating opponents on the harder difficulty is worth the % increase in time it takes to beat tougher opponents.
-Add a "persistence bonus" to every single random roll that starts at +0 and increases by +1 (or +2 maybe) for each consecutive time you've failed that roll previously - only consecutive, though, so it would go back to +0 if you logged off or even switched to doing some other mission for a while.

There's plenty of stuff on the S.O.O.N. list I'd love to see, but if it were all up to me that's the stuff I'd want to see first.

Over course, all this stuff requires, y'know, coders and animators and awesome people like that with the time to add it all to the game. Still, I tried to be at least a little conscious of that when writing these suggestions - the Soluna plot-reworking, for instance, only really requires two or three cutscenes and a couple fights; not that much more work than a holiday release, I would think, though of course I don't really know what I'm talking about as far as how much work this stuff really is. [&:]




Griffin the awesome -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/11/2010 18:37:46)

@Mstorm: I now crown you the king of good ideas!
Although we'll need more staff to use them, there still good ideas!
Maybe we can use them when we get more staff (if we ever get more staff).




Glais -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/11/2010 18:41:46)

@Mstorm:I like your rival idea, I think I was thinking the same thing a while back. Relating it to Drakath is a good way to get the jerk idea across.
You know what else could help? Some more Gears students with personality, all we have is StarBuck. We could use sort of a group of people to run into and fight with.

And now that you opened the door about Lagos, well I have a mixed reaction towards it.
It was going great...until the end.
Ending it with a war is fine, but the war was not relocated to Robina nor does she even mention you need to go to the war.
On top of that, Barbarossa is unfightable despite being a key villain. They should simply remove the rare rewards and re-add the Barbarossa fight.
They could also remove the war entirely and instead have every quest for the war story in a mini chain located at Robina.

The other thing odd is that we just end up at random menu's as our "home" for Lagos, maybe relocate us to an island base instead of being at Robert's camp every time?




Griffin the awesome -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/12/2010 17:28:32)

No matter how many amazing ideas we come up with, mechquest will always be struggling unless we hire more staff.
It's not like they don't have the money to hire more staff, and they would make it all back in the end.
MQ hires more staff> better releases> better game> more players> ads on the website are worth more, and more people become starcaptians> lots of money.
Hire more staff, and mechquest will thrive.

I hope this thread doesn't get forgotten, MQ needs this thread. Someone post!




LordEdwin -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/14/2010 22:49:19)

To make MechQuest better...

More content. I only play mechquest when there's a new release. Make it interesting, not just hi oh no monsters fight fight fight you win yay release over. Humour, minigames and variation are all good things to have in releases.

Easily navigable, I hate walking for ages just to get to the new release. Have a home base and buttons that teleport you to where you need to go on each planet. Lagos needs work.

Monsters cannot be impossible like that queen person I never beat and still haven't, except for one or two "super hard" places like AQW has Miltonius.

Plot is important, but not overly serious, humour is fun.

@Mstorm, your ideas are good, except for the letters of recommendation. The job quests are done for fun, not because you have to.




seventhsword2 -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/14/2010 22:59:45)

revive some of the early scmm




forumlogin -> RE: MechQuest: Improvement and Brainstorming (12/14/2010 23:01:30)

@seventhsword
Just wondering, how would that improve the game? :P




Caotica White -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/14/2010 23:09:50)

In the past, I have been a touch shrewd with the staff in regards to the recent minimalist releases, blaming it on a lack of effort.

In reality, as I have learned, the situation could not be more different.

Single individuals are working far harder than should be necesary for a single game because their main programmers are either leaving or being moved around to the extent where the MQ team has now become so understaffed that we get miniscule, unsatisfying releases despite the fact that the staff is working at over 9000 percent effort.*

Long story short, MQ is suffering because it doesn't have nearly enough staff members as the other games have. And MQ is lacking in staff because Bohn is deprioritizing MQ.

Personally, I'm not happy about this.

There are several nagging issues that could be easily fixed by the staff as is, and that might make the game better. However, lack of content is the major, glaring, colossal problem that is discombobulating** this game. The only reason this problem is present is because there aren't enough people working on the game to create the amount of content that would satisfy the players. If MQ is going to survive, we need Warlic and J6 back. These are seasoned and experienced programmers that have driven this game to an incredible level from absolutely scratch. Then J6 was abducted to join the already swollen, bloated, and heavily glorified AQW staff, while Warlic went off to make Deep Labyrinth Bladehaven.

This transfer is unacceptable for two reasons:
1) Bladehaven sucks. The graphics are just cannibalized from other games, the gameplay itself is horrible, and it costs around $200 to get all of the basic features.
2) AQW has far too many staff members as it is. None of the other games should have to sacrifice programmers for MQ because they have a proper amount of workers. Taking J6 was like giving the kidney of a homeless person to Kim Kardashian.

FIX IT.

*This statistic was exaggerated for the sake of the meme. The real statistic, however, is still ridiculously high and unrealistic.
**Yes, that is a word. Look it up.




Mstorm -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/15/2010 12:10:40)

quote:

The job quests are done for fun, not because you have to.


I kind of disagree - you don't have to do them, I suppose, but it's awfully hard to level up in the beginning of the game without doing them; you're not really going to succeed on other planets without a better mech than the starting ones, so it's do jobs or grind the "battle" button until you level up and can get a decent mech - and that's if you really know what you're doing and where to get a good mech and so on. If you're a brand new player who's just started playing, it's pretty obvious, from a pure mechanics/gameplay standpoint, that the jobs are what you're supposed to do once you get off the dropship; as Maria discussed when she was here, it kind of kills the plot's momentum to do that stuff next after the dropship. My suggestion was a way of trying to reconcile the fact that, plot-wise, the jobs are something you "just do for fun", while mechanics-and-leveling-wise, they're something you pretty much *have* to do.

glaisaurus, I completely agree about Lagos (also, Barbarossa is really genuinely unfightable? Man, I thought it was just me and that I hadn't done some quest enough times! /phew)
And yeah, aside from Starbuck, we've got...hm....Sally, Dooder, and River they could do some more stuff with, aside from introducing anyone new.

But, as other people have pointed out, it's all just fantasizing without enough staff members to add new content without killing themselves. I've complained plenty about the state of the game but I have absolutely nothing but respect for the folks that pour their efforts into it unfailingly, all the time. I just wish they all had a little more help!




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/15/2010 17:00:40)

I just realized, since Bladehaven is finished, why don't we get Warlic back?




electricwolf -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/16/2010 12:04:47)

Is this thread called 'Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It?' or is it 'Let's whine and make some unrealistic demands' ? This doesn't apply to everyone, but seriously some the ideas are just plain bad.

Revamping/Restarting the whole of MechQuest would take considerable time and effort from the staff, who are commited to making great releases every week.
Asking for a whole revamp of how ArtixEntertainment manage it's staff is ridiculous. It is entirely up to them how they staff their games and asking for people just to be removed from one game to work on mechQuest is unreasonable. While it should not be allowed for more people to be 'poached' from MQ, I don't think 'counter-poaching' from other games is a great idea.

My applause goes to those who did think of reasonable ideas for improvement.

On a more light-hearted note, I have my own (reasonable, in my opinion) suggestions for those who wish to hear them:

Game related:

SCMM: While they are a good reason for persuading people to upgrade, they seem to require a large amount of effort from the staff every month, which may be having an effect on the quality and quantity of other releases. Personally, I would support something alond the lines of a SCSM/S: Star Captain Seasonal Mecha/Shop (one every 3 months), as they would be more unique and could have the same effort put into them, but over a longer period of time.

Grindfest: Later levels of MQ are practically just grinding, which puts many people off. I'm sure with time, as more content is released, it will be easier to level up, at the moment it is just painful to level up. I think the level cap should stay as it is till a fairly large amount of new content has been released. I would also support a change in the formula for EXP, so that it is easier to level at higher levels.

Rares and Holidays: There are TOO MANY holidays. In other games, I don't think that a significant proportion of weapons are Rares and I don't see why it should be any different in MQ. Rares are nice, but rares are becoming rather common now, so much so that they seem to appear nearly every month of the year. Creating content only for it to dissappear so soon after realeased is not completely economical timewise, and with the frequency of events/holidays, it feels like non-rare releases are bcoming a rarity in themselves.

S.O.O.N. List: Keep up the work on that. :D

Community related:

MQWiki: It is not fair to say 'The low amount of staff is damaging the quality of MQ' AND 'They should make an official MQWiki like AQW has'. I think if there is to be a MQ Wiki, then it should be fan made and updated.

More interaction between players and staff: (I realise that not a lot of time can be spent on this at the moment, due to some fairly large releases being planned (Frostval)) Players are a valuable resource. Feel free to use our suggestions or ask our opinions if you want to.

Comments would be much appreciated.




ZamuelNow -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/16/2010 13:52:41)

@Mstorm: I think the most interesting thing about the "Makath" suggestion is that it's a story based way to help extend some of the low level gameplay. While it might be a little cutscene heavy, it would probably need only one or two actual missions.

@electricwolf: Tweaking the start of the game may be hard but it's important since you need to draw in new players. The other thing is that it may not actually require a huge amount of coding work. I think MQ can potentially do a lot with a few resources if they're handled properly.




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 17:21:19)

@electricwolf: No offence, but your wrong, counter-poaching is exactly what we need to do. Either that, or hire more staff. I would be ok with either one but I like the first one because it cost less.
The other games deserve counter-poaching because they poached from us.
And as I've said before:
quote:

No matter how many amazing ideas we come up with, mechquest will always be struggling unless we hire more staff.

Face it, it's the truth.
The best idea MQ could ever come up with is to get more staff.




forumlogin -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 17:23:45)

@Griffin
It's funny how much that sounds like, "You did it to us, so we'll do it back to you!"
It's not feasible. :P
I think AQW could stand to transfer some staff members though. They already have a ton. XD
Not sure about it though, since I don't hear much about the workload of each staff member. :O




ZamuelNow -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 17:31:01)

Concerning staff from other games, all I want is to get back the members we used to have. Even if it's just on a part time basis. One annoying thing is that it almost seems like MQ is being pushed into a no win situation on purpose. Staff is being taken away, yet the current staff is not allowed to restructure the release schedule into bi-weekly or monthly releases so they can be of higher quality.




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 17:33:03)

They used to have wednesday releases. Then they got rid of them in exchange for better friday releases. Then the friday releases started to get worse, and here we are now.

It would be the same with bi-weekly or monthly. They should NOT do it.




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 17:36:16)

forumlogin: It doesn't matter how mean it sounds, it needs to be done, or mechquest will die.




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 17:40:27)

@Griffin
That is not happening until MQ gets more people. That is the way AE works. MQ can't just take staff from other people. It would be a good idea, but it won't happen.




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 19:36:01)

@stealthwings: Then mechquest will die.




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 19:37:26)

There is nothing the MQ staff can do about it. Go complain to artix, or some of the other games staff who left MQ. But the MQ staff cannot do a thing.




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 19:57:18)

They can at least hire more staff.




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 20:00:15)

No they can't, they don't have the money.




Griffin the awesome -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 20:13:53)

What happened to the SC money and advertisement money then?




stealthwings -> RE: Is MQ Dying III+How Can We Improve It? (12/17/2010 20:17:06)

They are going to the current staff.




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