An Unkindness of Ravens

[Fox]

I for one, am sincerely hoping that they port the game to PC. There may be a few bad points about that (piracy, etc.), but I'm pretty sure that it would do the franchise well. That would solve most of their problems in one swift blow, and I'm pretty sure that the combined power of the ever-upgradable PC and the power of the Internet will do them lots of good.

Online and network play would be solved but that's just a fraction of the problems that have plagued AC ever since the very first iteration of the games. The true problems may never be solved based on FROM's track record.

Story

- There has never been any actual plot. We're always only give a backstory (i.e. Great destruction, mars colonization, etc) rather than a good story. Heck, you wouldn't even know about the backstories if you don't read the manual/art books. There has never been an ACTUAL story in any AC game ever.


Single Player Campaign

- Make it cohesive. Make things more personal! Players wanna see pilots. We want MEMORABLE CHARACTERS. Not just their ACs. Players want INTERACTION. Conversations through e-mail and while inside your mechs are just so impersonal. AC needs more than just variations of KILL ALL TARGETS.

Design missions so that they are progressive in difficulty. And by progressive difficulty, I don't simply mean adding more targets/bigger baddies -_-. Make the missions purposive - force players into very specific types of designs for each mission so that they can learn proper AC designing.

etc etc etc


Playability

- ALL good/successful games are easy to pick up but difficult to master. In the case of AC, it's difficult to pick up and even more difficult to master.
- For starters, FROM should AT LEAST tell players right from the beginning SPECIFICALLY what each stat does (recoil control, calorific value, blade aptitude, etc etc). With how they present things, they make players try to find out on their own. Stupid.

etc etc.


Balance

- Is this so hard to understand? There's a reason why so many designs look alike. It's because there are only so few good parts while other parts are just plain bad. FROM gets a chance to make fixes whenever they release expansions... but instead of simply fixing things, they usually end up adding even more broken/useless parts.


Controls

- We need a control scheme that doesn't take weeks(months? maybe even years) to master.

These are the real problems in EACH and EVERY AC game regardless of system. Even porting the games to the PC may not solve these.

[NiX]

LOL nice dig, Fox. I don't even remember posting that. Angry NiX was angry.

[Shintetsu]

Well, other than their own shortcomings, porting the game to PC will do them well, particularly because of the online/multiplayer fix. If your newly expanded community loves the game, they'll directly or indirectly become involved in every new aspect of the game in the long run.

As with you guys, you don't really dig the story much but instead, you're into the game. Think that by porting the game into PC, you'll get multiples of yourselves somewhere else in the world, sharing the same PvP interest as you do. The rest is self explanatory

[NiX]

PC plain and simply isn't FROM's target market. Current gen consoles are practically PCs already, anyway. And I've observed that PC gamers are a bit more casual than console gamers. Not to say that PC gamers play less, but that they play games that are easier to pick up. Even if AC was a PC game, they'd ignore or tire of it easily.

[Fox]

We don't really dig the story because there wasn't much of a story to begin with. Only a few disjointed bits and pieces of information that don't really flesh out anything that much. The way that the games present the main plotline and backstory doesn't really draw in players like other games do. If the story was consistent and continued upon in all incarnations instead of being rebooted every few years, it would've given players a lot more incentive to stay with the series. Even though the customization of mechs is still the core aspect of the game, having a consistent and encompassing story would've been integral as well.

Another thing i think wouldn't work on the PC would be the control scheme. Even though the mouse and keyboard combo might be adequate for handling shooters and RTS games, it wouldn't be enough to handle all the actions an AC does in-game. Heck, even the controller sometimes doesn't feel enough for manipulating an AC.

Yes, PCs may be powerful and all that but once most PC gamers get past all the bells and whistles, a lot of them will start griping about the very steep learning curve and will find that it's not really worth their time and then they'd switch over to something easier to grasp, something that'll provide much more instant gratification.

If FROM was planning on porting the AC series to the PC, they would've done so years ago.

[Grim]

I think a PC port could help though, if only for the fact that it might open up the game to unofficial hacking and mods. From there people might be able to edit stats, create new parts, etc etc. And then that could be the start of a new renaissance for AC.

I do understand you guys' sentiments on AC + PC gaming though. But the thing is, we keep hoping for From to give us a complete set of what we want in an AC game, and they always only give us 2/3rds of it. Maybe by opening up the game to more people someone can step up and finally give fans what they want.

At least, that's the optimist in me talking.

[NiX]

Yes, easy modding is the definite upside to a PC port. But that's the thing, see. It's not FROM addressing the issues. It's still us in the end. -_- THey do give us 2/3rds of what we want, and then they take away like 1/3rd of what we already liked. Hahaha

[Shintetsu]

I'm sensing something in that trend, is it their plan to stay afloat? By keeping people wanting more from the franchise?

Just thoughts. You guys have covered just about all of the important aspects of porting the game to the PC.

[Serene]

13+ games and still in experimentation stage... They should really ask their players directly.

[J.E_Magog]

Parang CS ba. The game already feels like an FPS with the use of dual analog sticks.

Walk Forward ------>W
Walk Backward ----->S
Strafe LEft ----------->A
Strafe Right --------->D
OB/EO --------------->Q
Extension ------------>E
Boost/Jumb ---------->Spacebar
Weapon Select ------>1,2,3
Look Up & Down, Turn Left& Right ----->Mouse
Primary Weapon ----> Left Click
Left Arm -------------> Right Click

[Shintetsu]

There goes the controls. Exteel anyone?

[Sero]

*Raises hand* Me! XD Yeah those controls feels like exteel.

Although that control for PC would prbably be easier than the PSPs port. XD

[NiX]

You guys been keeping up with the recent "events" in the US-AC communities? It's been pretty crazy.

EJRaven basically abandons ACO

ACO refugees go to Obscure's ACOi but lots of them aren't happy there so Niji creates ACU

And now, ACO is back online but not yet operational

ACG is pretty much dead and RH is still pretty much its own little world (like us )

Anyways, what're your thoughts on all this? Maybe one of you US-ravens can fill us in.

[J.E_Magog]

I think some of them got fed up with EJ not taking care of things lately. Can't really blame a person if he's starting to lose interest in the game.

[NiX]

Why they hate ACO isn't unclear to me. EJ basically ran off with their money (even though he said he didn't).

I just want people's thoughts on this further segmentation of the online community, especially with LRp and AC5 coming out.