11 replies to this topic

[MacKoga]

As per Dev Blog 1, Merc groups will be able to take control of planets, specifically "border worlds." I'm assuming these are Periphery planets, and not the borders between the Houses.

If that's the case, looking at this map and the quantity and regions of those planet groupings, it would be really awesome to get a powerful "Mercinary" group that drives out periphery pirates and builds a set of allied planets at least as large as the Rasalhague Republic.

All the Houses are rife with incompetent, corrupt nobility. It's time to forge a new option.

[Meldarth Sunphot]

Yes and no - while Mercs possibly could do this; it also opens them up for possible attacks from rival houses; aka the houses they work against.......which again makes for interesting possiblities

[CookieMonster]

it would indeed. personally I dont think it'll happen for a number of reasons:

1 - we dont know if there will be a size limitation on merc corps. probably will be, id guess around 100 but they may use a 4-base (lance size and all) and go 128. yes iterations of the 'same' corps can be spawned, alliances can be made etc. but just like in other-unnamed-games, a corps will only be physically able to hold x amount of land/planets at one time due to those limitations. more territory they occupy, more attacks they have to defend against etc from bordering merc controlled worlds.

2 - i dont remember seeing any mention of pirates being anywhere in the game..but maybe thats the default planet 'owners' when the game first launches..idk (though it would be awesome if the devs/staff would field those pirate mechs in those planet's initial battles!)

3 - faction houses wont be able to attack merc corps planets, nor vice-versa. likewise, houses will not be able to place contracts on specific planets. That would imply player-control over them, and thats non-existant. At best, the houses will have standing contracts on whatever worlds the devs see fit to fight over, and merc corps would choose which house's contract to accept for that particular planet's fight. the house would see no increase in bonuses/income/territory so far as the IS map goes..again, these two dont interact that way. the contracts would only be there to facilitate merc corps combat, thats it.

[MacKoga]

Re: 1:
I would hope that there isn't a hardcoded size limitation on groups. I'd prefer something based on logistics. It's mentioned that there are benefits for merc corps doing well, so maybe those benefits are effectively diluted. Though that would more imply that you'd want your team to expand at a rate relating to your acquisition of more worlds.

Re: 2:
That would be really awesome. Also, you're right about the pirates. For the Periphery, it might be interesting if the structure of the game allowed for pirate groups to be formed, as a variant on Merc groups. Though I'd expect they'd interact with the houses differently, probably more on a raiding-your-backwater-planets basis. I think people would like to be in such groups, though that wouldn't be what I'm after. The benefit mechanics would be easy to structure, too.

Re: 3:
My impression from what I've read is that while merc corps don't randomly invade and take over house planets, merc corps do take on contracts to fight on behalf of houses, therefore, on house planets. If the merc team were to win, I'd expect that that planet would then go to the sponsering house. Perhaps that's what you were also saying.

[CookieMonster]

Re: 3: 3:

not at all what I'm saying. the shaping of the map, as it were, is completely in the realm of the house-v-house fighting. IE, the pieces of the IS pie change size/shape..but the pie itself doesnt get larger..The border planets are completely in the realm of the merc corps. it would work something like this (or at least this is how I interpreted it):

all/some planets in the border regions are placed under 'contract' by all/some houses
merc corps wanting to control that planet (for their own MC/day income) accept the contract from a house

accepting from one house increase loyalty points with that house, and lowers from the others

merc corps that accept the contracts fight it out for control of the planet, winner gets it
merc corps that dont win it initially would then, if they chose, accept the contract to take it from the controlling merc corps
rinse/repeat until The Clans come (and god knows what happens then)

even though a merc corps accepts a 'contract' from a house, it is ONLY superficial (for the purposes of merc-v-merc combat). The house gets *nothing* from it whatsoever. The planet remains in the control of the merc corps. The merc corps retains all MC income for itself.

Remember that the merc corps will be fighting in the border regions, where none of the Houses 'control' the planets.

I will say however, the way your impression is formulated is the way it *OUGHT* to be. Mercs take contracts to take X planet/destroy Y unit/whatever, from a house. Complete the job, get paid, accept another job. IMO, Merc corps shouldnt retain control of more than 1 or 2 planets EVER, for use as home bases or some such.

[Team Leader]

Whats the point in controlling a planet, besides revenue? If you cant fortify them, or mark them as explicitly as property of YOUR merc corps, what does it matter in the long run?

[MacKoga]

The answer to that, Team Leader, determines whether or not I'm interested in running in a Merc Corps.

CookieMonster, is any of what you're saying conjecture, or is that 100% dev. approved game mechanics for how border fights go? I think a lot of us would be happier if Merc Corps were involved in some of the non-merc-controllable planets, when a House needs some extra firepower in its army.

If the borderworld conflict issue is the case as you present, and other potential mercs agree that it would be better the way were thinking, perhaps this should be brought to the attention of the devs.


Further, I'd go so far as to say that the Merc-House relationships could be more interesting if players in houses were in some way in charge of large scale resource allocation / merc hiring / war direction. This would lead to better connecting the player community, instead of it feeling like there's two games: house vs. house, and mercs randomly doing their own thing. What would take this over the top would be if there were merc pricing and the ability for some corps to betray a contract. If there are actual people making decisions, then repuations should matter, allowing there to be cheap, slimy merc groups, expensive reliable groups, and some epic betrays from normally reliable groups who just get too good an offer from a rival house.

Not that betrayal's my style. It'd just be nice for contrast, and for the players who like a more rougish style that is a part of the MW universe. And those Periphery pirates I was mentioning.

Edited by MacKoga, 09 June 2012 - 09:27 PM.

[CookieMonster]

to be sure Mac, it is pure conjecture on my part after MY interpretation of the Dev blogs released. All i can do is quote the blog and intuitively assume things..rightly or wrongly :-/

"Faction Worlds – Are fought over by Faction players. These planets buffer core and border worlds, and do not play a significant role in major historical events. Rewards for controlling these planets are directly linked to global bonuses and abilities associated with a player’s Faction.

Border Worlds – Are fought over via a contract bidding system by player run Mercenary Corporations. These planets change hands on a regular basis, and have no impact on historical events.¹ Rewards for controlling a boarder world are significant and go directly to the occupying Merc Corp."²

and this..

"Border Worlds
Mercenary Corporations can bid and fight for occupation rights of border worlds throughout the Inner Sphere. Merc Corps must bid on a planet’s occupation rights via a system of contracts generated by the game.
A match or series of matches are set up between the defending Merc Corp and the challenger. The victor is determined from the results of each match, and takes control of the planet. They are rewarded with an immediate contract payout, and will continue to earn rewards while they occupy the planet."<sup>3

1</sup> - since they change hands often, they must have some mechanism for other merc corps to contiually opt to attack it for control...much like WoTs clan wars system Id imagine
² - other than the immediate payout of the contract, those "significant rewards" have *got* to be some amount of MC daily. C-bills are nice, but MC would IMO fall into that 'significant' category
³ - again, merc corps occupation of planets and their earnings here go straight to them. No mention of any Faction benefits anywhere

Personally I’d much prefer more direct interaction with houses and merc corps. But I fear that would be impossible as it would create too much player control (or attempt of control) and cause chaos in the game itself. But, yes, Mercs IMO should be fighting IN the faction houses for one house or another, changing sides if they see fit and actually have some ‘influence’ on the shaping of the IS map. Border planets are periphery because..well…theyre periphery! If all they are is the Merc Corps playground, I fear it would get very dull very fast.

[SuomiWarder]

At the moment, it would seem that the dev team plans to control possession of planets, keeping them in "NPC" server hands, so that the borders of the BattleTech universe do not drastically change. As a leader of a merc unit, I have no real idea yet what - if any - aspects of being a merc unit will affect our game play. How important are C-Bills to a merc company in the game? What does the company spend them on and how? Etc.

But we were happy to have a new BTech game to get the old team together for, and look forward to adding new comrades to our group. So however the game play evolves, we will roll with it and adjust as neccessary.

[Adrienne Vorton]

Suomi, honestly...your signature makes me a veeeery sad panda... we won´t probably see that awesome machine there for a very long time,if ever... sry for offtopic

Edited by Adrienne Vorton, 13 June 2012 - 06:42 AM.

[CommanderBoom]

Not that it has ever been mentioned, but why does everyone assume that planets will trade hands so effortlessly. As far as I can determine, the Devs have created a "playground" for merc companies... but who is to say that all the world does is apply a Cbill or MC bonus daily/weekly " Rewards for controlling a boarder world are significant and go directly to the occupying Merc Corp."². Is it not possible that your Corps repair bills are lessened as a whole for your Corp OWNING the planet? Also seeing as you own the planet is it impossible to think that Devs have incorporated a defense system purchasable and repairable by the Merc Corp. such as site predetermined Missle Launchers installed, Hovertanks, Aerospace fighters... if that were true it would keep Merc corps from gaining millions and sitting on it. It would also make them quite valuable for smaller groups who may not make as much in the way of contracts early on due to limitations on members availability for House contracts (to gain LP)
Food for thought. Most of you continue to circle around the same facts.
Then again, I could be really wrong lol

[CmdrSpider]

Speculation is just that. Right or wrong we just won't know untill we get there and even then its subject to change. Since were most concerned with Merc planets lets visit this a bit. Obviously there will be many merc units, some LARGE and some _small. My guest it that each will start off with a homeworld, which probably can't be taken from them maybe not even attacked. After all the Mechwarriors themselves aren't going anywhere so what's the point in having them constantly moving home base. the otherside ot that is their homeworld may or may not add significantly to the merc corp in the way a boarder world does. I say this because the devs post says; "Rewards for controlling a boarder world are significant and go directly to the occupying Merc Corp." My slant on this is once you take a "Boarder World" your merc corp starts receiving additional support of some sort. As to them frequently changing hands, that may be due to the devs belief that constant battling willl cause the expected change of hand. Or perhaps the amount of time a merc corp is allowed to hold a boarder world is limited before its required to move on.

Its all game dynamics and how the devs see as the best fitting way to keep the game enjoyable for all. The real question then beocme what will those dynamics be? My guest is like all things its subject to change. I can't count how many times in my life the way something was set up to happened was changed along the way to make it better. I expect the same will be true here as well. Which in itself will help the game to stay viable and not grow old and stale.