After seeing the umpteenth "I hate this" thread and the endless "this is broken" thread, I'm just tired of it all. I don't know about you, but it's about time we started looking at solutions instead of problems.

Since I'm starting this, and for no other particular reason, I get to go first. I'm sure this makes me and my ideas the first target, but that's the law of the pack. Bread and Circus you know.

1. Retirement. Instead, how about a monthly "restricted" tournament.

2. Prizes. Create a "Monthly Prize Kit" that venues purchase from WizKids for a reasonable fee. They can recover the fees from tournament entry fees that are also reasonable. Rotate the prizes so that players have several chances to get the prizes they want. (Side benefit, this nerfs the ebay mania) WizKids stops losing money on prize support shipping. Each kit would come with 4 - 6 tournament kits (8 - 12 LE's), allowing the venue to run 4 - 6 different events, 1 of each type, with a second of certain types. Venues pay $25 - $50 for the monthly kit, then charge a booster as an entry fee ($10) netting them a sale of merchandise for every player, and the players get an ever increasing supply of figures, just for playing.

3. Broken pieces. Better playtesting, and better use of the FAQ. No more knee-jerk reactions. Most of the "cheese" pieces have naturally occuring counters that don't take an army specifically set up as a counter to work. Arrow 4? Base contact. VTOLs? AA. Arnis? Agility.

4. New Players. Better events, that put the game infront of people, show them how exciting it can be, and how much fun it is. New players aren't turned off by the rules. They are turned off by the lack of current players. BattleTech has been around for 20 years, and is still going!! Why should MW die after 2 years??

A. It shouldn't

Have a good way to bring the game to the next level? Keep it out of the discount bins? Make it #1?? Don't be shy.

LS

In principal, your ideas are sound, xyberbratt. Unfortunately, WK is ultimately responsible for their decisions and making corrections. We can theorize and generate ideas for them all we want. But the energy it takes to get an idea through to the right people and to make them see the benefits is nearly impossible.

I was a battlemaster, playtester and I was involved in a thinktank that contained some of the World Champions from 2003 and some of the smarter people from the boards to develop solutions to the problems in MW (or create an unofficial version 2.0 trying). I had multiple DIRECT contacts into WK...

Our thoughts about the game were virtually ignored.

The sad truth is that either...

WK doesn't know how to support their products or keep their games fresh, exciting and playable. There has been absolutely NO proof that WK is even capable of these things. MK required a version 2.0 to reinvigorate it. MW and Heroclix are both horribly unbalanced and declining in popularity. From some of the mechanics I've been asked to playtest and past FAQ entries, I don't believe the designers even understand the fundamentals of their games, much less game design principals.

or

WK doesn't care. All WK cares about is addicting you to the latest plastic crack. And why shouldn't they? They are a business afterall. Businesses are in it for the money. The thing is, quality products make money and terrible merchandise usually doesn't. So, WK should be motivated to make the best products possible. From my experiences, I don't believe greed is a main motivating factor for WK, but I could be wrong. Maybe with the introduction of Topps, this ideology will manifest itself more aggressively. Only time will tell.

I think WK does care about their games and is interested in creating and maintaining their franchises. I just think the people put in charge of doing it are incompetant (though they are nice people).

I still like to keep tabs on the game to see if WK has gotten their act together. I'm willing to drop my boycott of their products if things improve....

...but I'm not holding my breath.

That's your humble opinion. IMHO ... YES some ARE turned off by some of the rules. From past experience about 50% of new players who are shown the game are happy until they learn about how mechs can run twice as far as they can shoot in a single turn (not to mention charging) ... and how arty costs/works vs mechs ability to push. That's especially true if they have played CBT or anything similar in the past.

The fact that you can shoot a laser or LRM and yet end up being able to run twice that distance in the same amount of time just simply does not make any sort of sense whatsoever to a lot of new players. It goes WAY beyond a lot of peoples' ability to suspend belief and to give the game a try. Once they see those kind of mechanics they're done ... think yer nuts ... and leave.

As far as the reference to CBT ... does it have any rules mechanics like that? Well they have charge yes ... but there's pretty much no mech in the game which can charge from outside of weapons range (unless the target mech is totally decked out for close range combat only).

Oh, solutions? That is easy. In general, there are three steps:

1- Ditch the rotation idea, quick. Every person who pawns his collection because of the rotation idea not only isnt buying product... he's probably spreading negative word-of-mouth advertising. Understand, Wizkids, that they arent necessarily pissed off at the rotation idea... they just honestly believe that you lied to them. Your counterarguement that you didnt lie to them is viewed as an insult to their intelligence. Yes, Wizkids needs to make more money. Nobody begrudges them that. Thing is, the rotation idea is hideously unpopular and doesnt address the real problems. Players arent discouraged because the old stuff is hard to find. They are discouraged by lameness.

2- Fix the game mechanics that are too easily abused. If necessary, errata or ban specific units. The details of fixing things I'll not go into here. Locally we've had a rulset that fixes the game completely for months. Less than a page of text, no new mechanics, no banned units, nothing even particularly complicated.

3- Better playtesting/development. Actually listen to your playtesters to make sure that each new set doesnt outdo every previous set in broken lameness. If you are doing this deliberately (some sort of shock & sell tactic) then stop it. Short term shock & sell tactics will run the game into the ground and kill its long-term prospects. If previous sets are any indication, it only takes about 30 minutes of reading through stat lists for veteran players to spot the broken stuff.


There are obviously some other things that should probably be looked at. The prize support system, for example, does promote an alarming level of viciousness. But really I think if those three steps above are taken, the game will really turn around and take off. MW/BT junkies WANT to spend money on this game... but not enough to invest in a game with huge balance problems, particularly when the company is willing to go through with a very unpopular course of action that wont actually solve any of the real problems anyway.

Hasnt all of this been said already in several places? Isnt it already understood? Or maybe it got drowned out by the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

WOW!

Great things stated here! :)

As for me I've always (after the big announcement) been a promoter of an alternate tournament format instead of "retirement" banning.

Corle has explained it best ... the real reason for set rotation is because the new units in future sets aren't going to be really any better than the old units.

WK and Venues both agree (which to me is understandable being an accountant) that players will not buy much if they know they won't need much. And so set rotation really does become necessary ... but WK is doing it in the lamest of ways (banning + with very limited sanctioned events).

I wish moderators would read these threads.
I wish WizKids listened to their employees and playtesters.
I wish there would be 4 events per month again (from 8 to 2 then back to 4).
I wish WizKids listened to their buyers.
I wish WizKids followed MTG and set up sanctioned ranked events that include retired.
I wish our players would come back to play with their old figures.

Corle was right. Where is he?

I've gotton into the new D&D mini game. WOTC sells the venue a prise support kit for $5. Inside are 10 LE figs. The figs have a different paint job, but the same stat card (reduces EBAY mania).

The game is grid based, and all units can move and shoot, shoot and move, move and move, or shoot and shoot. Melee and ranged combat both work real well. When you buy a booster for $10, 80% of the figs are useful. If this game was Battletech it would be perfect.

The players for the first few months are playing lots of different army builds. WOTC wants to know what players think is the best format (100 pts, 200 pts, 178 points).

And the best part, every army must be faction pure.

In this case, I wish WOTC would have bought WK instead of TOPPS. :(

@xyberbratt and Warfrail: Those are some great I idea. To bad WK got there head buried in the sand.

@WK_LostMySpprt: I believe what you are saiding, However there are people here who demand proof to what you saiding because they believe WK can do no wrong.

rayden,

The only proof anyone should need should be obvious from the state of the game, the community's attitude and the declining sales figures. If WK has any hope of saving MW, they're going to have to do something drastic.

And pissing off everyone over banning units isn't the way to start.

Neither is attacking unreasonably. Calm down a bit.

"Drastic" is never a good idea. If a plane is falling, should you jump out? No, you need to control yourself, and the plane, stop the descent and get it level again. Same thing here.

In the end, the only proof will be the continued existence of the game and company, or the lack of that existence.

Anything else is just an idea, or a whim, or a fancy. Listened to, observed, incorporated, or ignored.

The angry rhetoric just makes it easier to ignore.

I agree that perhaps we are being a bit too harsh with WK. They should listen to the play-testers though, it would aviod things like the Highlander Kodiak.

Something else. I think that WK should emphasize Faction-purity. Like rules that say that all but x pieces must be from one faction (not specified, mercs would count as 'in faction'), or something like that. I just think that would help balance the game amazingly well. ^_^

There is nothing wrong with the HL Kodiak, why do people keep saying that? We need light equipment, sure... but compared to the #### we usually get (like the Longbow)... anyway, this thread isnt about the HL Kodiak.

(Wow guys, it makes me feel really really odd to actually be defending a HL unit's usefulness... last time I felt like this was the giddy euphoria after the charging nerf...)

I like to idea to allow venues to buy additional prize support.

I agree that WK needs to put more thought into their games and take a page out of WOTC book by just supporting events more and listening to players.

Some people say MW isn't Battletech but it is, MW is set in the battletech universe if it wasn't for the BT Creators their would be no MW, Look even the name comes from BT. MW= Mech Warrior which is a term used for anyone who pilots a Battlemech.

Battletech is as the name suggets about Battles and technology why not bring in peole who work on the CBT to help in the development of MW. this could include helping to smooth out the prolems in game play and the rules system . It wouldn't hurt to get some of the old figure designers and scuplters in as there are some new copy's of old mechs that look quite ugly. The Marauder for example.

Prizes.

I wonder how much it costs Wizkids to make and ship out Redemption offers (or how much they make off of it anyways). Cause I wonder if it would be profitable for them to start a redemption for the LE prizes. Something like, for the three months after a unit has been offered up as a prize, you could send in $10(American) and 5 upc codes(bar codes of off whatever booster) and order it. That way if you win it you don't have to pay anything but if you don't you could always just get it from wizkids instead of ebay. This wouldn't include marquee or convention only prizes.

There was a redemption program. For $5 and the right form, you could send in for 6 months and recieve one of two figures from that month's prizes. The other two were only available to winners and fellowship on four weeks. WK stopped the program saying it cost too much to produce, maintain and run.

The cost of an LE is about $2.00 each, including the figure, dossier, pin (when they came with them), insert and box. Shipping that figure, dependant on weight. But then you have to add in warehouse costs, staff costs, and all the other overhead. Unless you are moving alot of these units at $5, you're losing money.

That's part of the same arguement about the cutback in the number of events per month, by the way.