No Guts No Galaxy Podcast: Goes Live

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

Welcome all you Mechwarrior / Battletech fans! I would like to bring your attention to a project that started some time ago, and is now going live.

No Guts, No Galaxy Podcast

www.nogutsnogalaxy.net

Our Mission here at NGNG.net:

To provide a non-biased, open minded, thoughtful and sometimes skeptical perspective on all things Battletech®, including current MechWarrior® games such as the upcoming MechWarrior® Online™.

Our first podcast was recorded on Oct. 31, but due to our recorders computer bighting the dust, we had to wait to retrieve the original and edit it.

Podcast #1 was lengthy to say the least. But we thought it was only appropriate to cover the FAQ section of the forums for our first recording. It is broken up into two segments:

    Part A and B.
    As of right now Part A is up and B will follow tonight.

Our Facebook page will be operational shortly, for now please let us know what you think via these forums. We will be recording a new podcast every week and possibly short news breaks in the week depending on the content released by the DEV team.

Podcast #2 was recorded just a few days ago Nov. 4, 2011. It will be posted asap. Here are the topics we discuss:

- Battlemech, weapon, eqiupment custimization

- MPBT Solaris - no customization, only variants. No omni-tech

- Mechwarrior ⅔ - mostly based on tabletop rule-set.

- Mech Commander

    - Mechwarrior 4 - semi hardpoint system.

    - MPBT 3025

- Weapon variants: ven diagram, fast v slow firing models

- MWO Death Penalty? Units involved in planetary only?

    - Fun matches, relying on others... ugh!!

    - Do you make fun matches have death penalty?

- Creating units. Limitations? Bills? Planetary?

    - Free to play v Pay to win!! League of Legends / World of tanks, Lowe, premium accounts / balance.

- All battlemechs for everyone, but good revenue based on fictional characters: Aidan Prydes Timber Wolf etc.

We have some guest speakers lined up from various leadership positions throughout the mechwarrior/battletech community. Like our website says, please feel free to contact us with questions regarding information covered on the podcast or content you would like to hear discussed in detail in a furture podcast.

I'd like to thank Bryan & the Dev's for allowing us to do this with their direct consent! We are in awe gentlemen, thank you so much for giving so much back to the community so early in development!!

We are currently working on getting the website fully functional, thank you for your patience and let us know your thoughts! Thanks Mektek.net!!

[[CG]Anastasius Focht]

Wow, looks great
I'll be adding this to my podcasts favourites folder
+1

[Mitchpate]

Glad to see you got this off the ground.  Good luck!

[CHHš Aethon]

If you ever need any musical interludes for the show, keep in mind I play one mean kazoo. 

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

Part B going up in a few minutes!

[Profane Arbiter]

I enjoyed listening to part A. The whole thing with the clans...I can see that fitting perfectly into a free to play model. They'll introduce the clans perhaps 6 months after the game's release after everyone has their IS mechs all supped up and a ton o money dumped into them, then the clan mechs arrive...ooo, shiny, time to dump more cash. 

I've got mixed feelings on the F2P model. On one hand we should probably be able to expect regular new content and support. On the other hand, the money we'll spend for good gear (and we will spend that money regardless of any claims that we can still be a useful part of the game with el cheapo equipment) will far exceed what we would have paid for a retail game. I think its important to support a game we play and love, but when you're trying to stay competative with players with deep pockets...I've seen folks who have dumped several hundred dollars into this kind of game.

To add to the frustration, the F2P model also generates income (by my experience) from having good gear that you spend money on, and then turning around and nerfing the hell out of it, replacing it with new shiny gear. They probably won't allow you to get the money you spent back to reallocate to the new gear either. I quit the last F2P game for just this event. It was the first F2P game I even became involved with, and I can tell you it left me with a bad taste in my mouth as well as made me leary to contribute money to this business model in the future.

I wouldn't expect a player to player economy either unless they can put one together that doesn't impact the developers earn.

[Profane Arbiter]

To addess the question  of RPG, I think this is a great thing so long as its an action sim with RPG elements. I wouldn't want a mouse click fest that takes personal skill out of the equation.

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

Part B sound quality fixed!

[Profane Arbiter]

It sounds like you guys addressed the F2P thing in your part B.

I have to say that I don't get how you could think there's any chance that you will be paying for cosmetics only. They've already made it clear that money will buy capabilities.

Now, I have no problem with this. As I said I think we should support the game we play. Given thee example mentioned in your podcast, if I played the game for 4 months and put out $60 ($15/ month), that's reasonable and competative with MMOs which is ok as long as the game continues regular content and support.

My issues with F2P are twofold:

- requiring to spend copius money to keep up with the capabilities of P2W players

- unethical bait and switch techniques that get a player to spend money on equipment that then gets nerfed or devalued in some way (and the player doesn't get compensated) with the intent to get the player to buy the new stuff

Believe me when I say that I speak from experience!

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

It sounds like you guys addressed the F2P thing in your part B.

I have to say that I don't get how you could think there's any chance that you will be paying for cosmetics only. They've already made it clear that money will buy capabilities.

Now, I have no problem with this. As I said I think we should support the game we play. Given thee example mentioned in your podcast, if I played the game for 4 months and put out $60 ($15/ month), that's reasonable and competative with MMOs which is ok as long as the game continues regular content and support.

My issues with F2P are twofold:

- requiring to spend copius money to keep up with the capabilities of P2W players

- unethical bait and switch techniques that get a player to spend money on equipment that then gets nerfed or devalued in some way (and the player doesn't get compensated) with the intent to get the player to buy the new stuff

Believe me when I say that I speak from experience!

Profane, post all this stuff in our thread on the MW:O forums, we are trying to make it as active as possible to get awareness of the NGNG Podcasts. But in response yeah, it will be interesting to see what is purchasable etc.. equipment, mechs, cosmetics, premium account?!

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

Podcast #2 live!

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

Podcast #3 live!

Please let us know what you think, hit us up on Facebook or the MW:O forums!!

[SquareSphere }12thVR{]

Giving it a listen.  but first BRONIES!

[(TLL)CapperDeluxe]

Can you put the date of each recording on the front page and the archive page next to their links/description?


I figured I'd start a discussion about the contents of some of the aspects of what was talked about.


Towards the end of the 2nd podcast there was wild speculation about if they introduced unique mechs, like the Widowmaker and if they would pass hands as they get lost through salvage.  Terrible idea IMO, because you'd end up with people just hoarding these unique mechs and then probably never using them.


On another topic, with the info about the devs targeting 20 minute rounds I really doubt an EVE-like permanent destruction of mechs would even be a possibility since who would want to have to go buy a new mech potentially 3 times every hour?  I think it only really works for EVE because its that wide open MMO type universe and the game is more about exploration anyway compared to the mostly action-based universe of Battletech.  As such I would expect World of Tanks to be the closest approximation, hopefully with having to pay for repairs and such that way people will want to play a bit safer so they keep more of their earnings after the round is over.


....and listening to the 3rd podcast now

[Sean Lang "Phil"]

Can you put the date of each recording on the front page and the archive page next to their links/description?


I figured I'd start a discussion about the contents of some of the aspects of what was talked about.


Towards the end of the 2nd podcast there was wild speculation about if they introduced unique mechs, like the Widowmaker and if they would pass hands as they get lost through salvage.  Terrible idea IMO, because you'd end up with people just hoarding these unique mechs and then probably never using them.


On another topic, with the info about the devs targeting 20 minute rounds I really doubt an EVE-like permanent destruction of mechs would even be a possibility since who would want to have to go buy a new mech potentially 3 times every hour?  I think it only really works for EVE because its that wide open MMO type universe and the game is more about exploration anyway compared to the mostly action-based universe of Battletech.  As such I would expect World of Tanks to be the closest approximation, hopefully with having to pay for repairs and such that way people will want to play a bit safer so they keep more of their earnings after the round is over.


....and listening to the 3rd podcast now

Capper, yeah 20-minutes, so its seeming more like repair/maintenance bills probably, much like World of Tanks, probably a little more detailed. I would like to know if items can be destroyed on your mech and you have to replace them?!

The special variants could be purchase items, and not limited in quantity to the masses, but 1 per player? Lots to talk about in Podcast #4

And we added the dates, please check the site out, we have been gifted with a very good graphical artist!!