No replies to this topic

[Paul Inouye]

The Update

First I'd like to apologize for the missed Q&A last week.. it was a crazy number of meetings plus trying to get CW properly prepped.

Loyalty Point Bonuses From Contracts:

There have been numerous questions about the purpose of taking longer contracts with Factions. The varying length of contracts provide Loyalty Point reward bonuses. What this means is that every time you are awarded LP, you will recieve an extra bonus amount of XP that is directly impacted by the length of contract you have signed up with a Faction. The bonus levels are:

• 7-Day Contrate = 0% bonus.
  
• 14-Day Contract = 15% bonus.
  
• 28-Day Contract = 30% bonus.
  
• Permanent alignment = 50% bonus.

This means that if you earn 100 LP after a match, and you have selected a 14-Day contract with House Kurita, you will recieve 100+15=115 LP for that match.

LP bonuses do NOT stack with other LP bonuses. All calculations are based of the base amount of LP being rewarded.

There are 2 methods of earning LP; in-game actions and battle contract rewards. Everytime a group leader or solo player clicks on a planet they can fight on, an attack or defense contract will appear and these are the battle contract rewards. If you successfully complete the contract (win the match), you will earn the LP indicated by the battle contract.

Case Study 1:

• The player is aligned to House Davion on a 28-day contract.
  
• The player clicks a planet in Kurita space that is along the Kurita/Davion border and is under conflict.
  
• A battle contract appears and on the contract it will state that if the player succesfully wins the attack match, they will earn 50 LP.
  
• The player accepts the contract and is dropped into the match.
  
• The player wins the match and returns back to the front-end.
  
• The player is presented with the reward of 50 LP and an additional 30% for being on a 28-day contract (an additional 15 LP) for a total of 65 LP.

The other method of earning LP is in-game actions. This is very similar to how players currently earn XP/C-Bills for in-game actions. This is the current LP reward table:

Spoiler

• Component Destruction = 8LP
  
• Kill = 15 LP
  
• Assist = 6 LP
  
• Team Kill = -20 LP
  
• Kill with Most Damage = 20 LP
  
• Solo Kill = 30 LP
  
• Souting = 5 LP
  
• Flanking = 5 LP
  
• Brawling = 10 LP
  
• Tag Kill = 15 LP
  
• NARC Kill = 15 LP
  
• Hit And Run = 10 LP
  
• Lance Formation = 5 LP
  
• Protected Medium = 3 LP
  
• Protected Light = 3 LP
  
• Saviour Kill = 12 LP
  
• Defensive Kill = 12 LP
  
• UAV Kill = 7 LP
  
• Counter ECM = 10 LP
  
• Counter ECM Locked Damage = 3 LP
  
• Turret Kill = 5 LP

Case Study 2:

In the match in Case Study 1, the player got 4 assists, 2 kills, 3 hit and runs, 1 saviour kill, 1 UAV kill and 3 Turret Kills.

• The player has earned 24 LP from assists
  
• The player has earned 30 LP from kills
  
• The player has earned 30 LP from hit and runs
  
• The player has earned 12 LP from saviour kills
  
• The player has earned 7 LP from uav kills
  
• The player has earned 15 LP from turret kills
  
• This means the player has earned 118 base LP.
  
• The player is on a 28-day contract with Davion, hence will recieve an additional 30% LP bonus
  
• The player has earned 153 (rounded) LP total.

Of Note:
We have also added a 10% LP bonus to Premium Time which works exactly the same as above by being calculated using the base amount of LP earned.. not the sum of all LP plus bonuses. A reminder, Loyalty Points (LP) can only be earned while participating in Community Warfare conflicts.

---

Drop Ships and How They Work

This keeps coming up in a lot of questions so I'll try to clarify as much as I can on the topic.

Consider Drop Ships a loan from the Faction you are aligned to. You are a space hitch-hiker and they're giving you a ride to the battlefield. The reason I say this, is that for the moment, you cannot modify or engage the Drop Ships as they bring players into the game.

You MUST bring 4 'Mechs into the match. The total tonnage of all 4 'Mechs must fall between 140 and 240 tons. You will not be able to save your Drop Ship configuration until this requirement has been met.

There is only one Drop Ship loadout at the moment. This is why you can switch 'Mechs in your Drop Ship right up until the point that the Match Maker kicks in and starts putting you into a match. You will have enough time to configure your Drop Ship if needed and you will also know if you're attacking or defending.

Prior to dropping into a match, make sure you select which 'Mech you want to drop into battle with on the first pass. If you're 'Mech gets destroyed, you will see the standard death screen like you currently do in public matches. On this screen is a Drop Ship selection button which will bring up the interface to allow you to choose your next 'Mech to pilot. On this screen you also see how much time is remaining before the next wave of Drop Ships head into the battlefield. I don't want to spoil what happens during this time so you'll have to wait and see. It's pretty cool!

Once all 4 of your 'Mechs are destroyed, you will be able to spectate just you can right now in public matches.

---

Contract Length Reductions

A lot of people are not on board with the recent change in terms of contract lengths.

We wanted to make sure players had enough flexibility to play their various 'Mechs and to play the role of Mercenaries while staying within the contraints that we need to have in place to make CW work.

That being said, the 7,14 and 28 day contracts are currently implemented, but these numbers can be fairly easily changed. Russ and I have been talking about these times and we are both seeing the positives on both longer and shorter contracts. We MAY change these numbers sometime between now and the release of CW. I'll let you know when the numbers are locked down.

---

Grouping In CW

To re-emphasis what has been mentioned before. Community Warfare is primarily directed to role-playing and unit gameplay. It is because of this that groups in CW (Unit Groups) will consist of only players within the same unit. A team can have players from multiple units but groups themselves will only consist of players who are in the same group/faction.

---

Summary

We are only a few weeks away from Community Warfare being in your hands and playable. That being said, not a lot is going to change between now and December 16th. We need to stabilize the build and continue testing as much as we can to make sure the feature is ready to go on to the live servers.

This is the last major update before that time. I will however keep trickling information out as it becomes available with more and more finalized implementation and testing.

Community Warfare - Phase 2 is now in a state of fruition with numerous possibilities for growth and expansion as we head into the new year. It's an exciting time for us here at PGI and the entire development staff is eager to get it in your hands and watch a new era of BattleTech InnerSphere history unfold as you, the community, drive the direction the invasion and Faction conflicts go.


As per usual, feedback can go into the feedback thread located here: http://mwomercs.com/...dec-2-feedback/