12 replies to this topic

[happy mech]

hello, my idea of the cw

requirements:

• even playing field in matches
  
• way to have individual planets defendable even if faction is low on numbers
  
• accessible to all

i will refer to the map of the inner sphere and all mechanics associated with it as the "big map"



The Big Map

the big map needs to be dynamic, players choose where to fight, fronts change
currently devs handle this
i suggest the map to have a grid over it (not just visual, relations in the system too)
players can choose which planet to attack, fronts change accordingly

Spoiler

the cycle

the cycle for whole big map lasts 24 hours (so everyone has a chance to participate during his/her day)
every half hour (can be adjusted of course), all match results for the planet (for example 10 victories 9 defeats during that half hour) are calculated into a percentage (10/(9+10) = 53% victories) which is stored
at the end of cycle, all percentages are summed and divided by the total weight (which is 48 if all half hour periods are equal) and the winner of the planet is decided by this average

on top of this, i suggest an "active timezone" for every unit, so defending vs off-peak is more possible (but you still need to win)
the unit commander selects a start of a 6-hour interval during which the unit is supposed to be active
during this 6-hour interval, all planets owned by the unit have their win/loss percentage count twice (see image)

Spoiler

logistics

traveling the map takes time (and possibly resources)
you can set up a base on a planet owned by your faction (and with a route through your faction territory to it), default is in capital
you reinforce the battles from this base (the closer the base, the shorter the travel time)
you cannot cross other faction's territory
you can pack the base up and move elsewhere (takes time too)

resources

in order to keep the gameplay interesting, resources will spawn and disappear (1 month?) randomly (with some rules) on the planets
resources are of interest to your faction (rewards)
resource will need a safe way to travel to capital
some resource may be very rare

technologies

why resources? for technologies (faction-wide, maybe a bit based on contribution)
not sure what this could mean, maybe some patterns, cockpit items, early access to new mech variants, equipment or module tokens, something that players want but is not an advantage that others could not get, just a convenience or a novelty (save some cbills or mc)
a 24/7 weekend challenge

politics

since the map will balance itself out in the long run (based on active faction polulation), the mercs (and resource demand) will be the factor which changes the map
permanent faction players will get faction-specific stuff based on the supply and management of resources
mercs will get rewards based on owning (conquering or defending) a planet for the faction, so only the winning merc unit will get the reward (competition, certain faction alignment (if they want to establish themselves) of mercs)

these are my basic thoughts on the big map, find flaws, post suggestions, what are your expectations
i may post about matches when it is more refined, anyways, im open to discussion

Edited by happy mech, 28 December 2014 - 02:59 AM.

[CarnageINC]

happy mech, on 28 December 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

hello, my idea of the cw

requirements:

• even playing field in matches
  
• way to have individual planets defendable even if faction is low on numbers
  
• accessible to all

i will refer to the map of the inner sphere and all mechanics associated with it as the "big map"





The Big Map

the big map needs to be dynamic, players choose where to fight, fronts change
currently devs handle this
i suggest the map to have a grid over it (not just visual, relations in the system too)
players can choose which planet to attack, fronts change accordingly

Spoiler

I like the idea of giving players freedom to move around. I do think this needs to be implemented. However I think there needs to some limitations. Maybe limit all factions to 3 sectors, I don't know. Why put limits on? Dilution of the player base going off into more directions then they are now. In addition, you would have to eliminate the ghost mechanic completely, which i absolutely hate so yeah for that. But you idea has merit.

happy mech, on 28 December 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

the cycle

the cycle for whole big map lasts 24 hours (so everyone has a chance to participate during his/her day)
every half hour (can be adjusted of course), all match results for the planet (for example 10 victories 9 defeats during that half hour) are calculated into a percentage (10/(9+10) = 53% victories) which is stored
at the end of cycle, all percentages are summed and divided by the total weight (which is 48 if all half hour periods are equal) and the winner of the planet is decided by this average

on top of this, i suggest an "active timezone" for every unit, so defending vs off-peak is more possible (but you still need to win)
the unit commander selects a start of a 6-hour interval during which the unit is supposed to be active
during this 6-hour interval, all planets owned by the unit have their win/loss percentage count twice (see image)

Spoiler

This is another good idea. I personally think 24 time slots would work just as good as 48 but ehhh, minor detail. How do you determine when the 'active timezone' is? By unit do you mean player unit? What if your a pug? Where does this UI addition fall in? How often can you change it? How can you prevent abuse of it? How does this work with pug and other units on the other side who are not on active timezone? Why do activetime zone units get to have more 'pull' percentage wise?

happy mech, on 28 December 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

logistics

traveling the map takes time (and possibly resources)
you can set up a base on a planet owned by your faction (and with a route through your faction territory to it), default is in capital
you reinforce the battles from this base (the closer the base, the shorter the travel time)
you cannot cross other faction's territory
you can pack the base up and move elsewhere (takes time too)

How do you travel? How is time simulated? Who determines resource flow? Who determines reinforcement flow? How does this work for individual units versus pugs? How does it work for newly arrived units? Who determine when the 'base' is packed up and moved? Is this player or PGI controlled?

happy mech, on 28 December 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

resources

in order to keep the gameplay interesting, resources will spawn and disappear (1 month?) randomly (with some rules) on the planets
resources are of interest to your faction (rewards)
resource will need a safe way to travel to capital
some resource may be very rare

When you say spawn and disappear randomly do you mean each planet has 1 resource that comes and goes or are resources randomly distributed across the map? What rewards do resourses provide? How do they travel? Who directs flow? You mentioned "some resources". Now that you have entered multiple resources, how many are there exactly and what do each of these resources do for a faction?

happy mech, on 28 December 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

technologies

why resources? for technologies (faction-wide, maybe a bit based on contribution)
not sure what this could mean, maybe some patterns, cockpit items, early access to new mech variants, equipment or module tokens, something that players want but is not an advantage that others could not get, just a convenience or a novelty (save some cbills or mc)
a 24/7 weekend challenge

This idea needs to be reworded IMO. Technologies mean better weapons or armor. That road is to dangerous to travel down IMO. Maybe call it what you describe it as, Rewards. As far as novelty items, I think this will not really work well for players in general. Everyone I know who plays has little to no attachment to any novelty item. That also creates an additionally strain on PGI to continually produce more items and take focus away from other content such as map creation and mech design.

happy mech, on 28 December 2014 - 02:58 AM, said:

politics

since the map will balance itself out in the long run (based on active faction polulation), the mercs (and resource demand) will be the factor which changes the map
permanent faction players will get faction-specific stuff based on the supply and management of resources
mercs will get rewards based on owning (conquering or defending) a planet for the faction, so only the winning merc unit will get the reward (competition, certain faction alignment (if they want to establish themselves) of mercs)

these are my basic thoughts on the big map, find flaws, post suggestions, what are your expectations
i may post about matches when it is more refined, anyways, im open to discussion

I would like for you to explain how the map will balance itself out better than just a statement. You say based on active faction population. In what way will the faction population contribute to balance? You say merc's will want resources, why exactly do they want those resources? So overall its up to faction population and mercs to maintain balance, based off of random spawnings?

The paragraph for stuff isn't really political in nature, IMO that falls under rewards or under your technologies heading.

[happy mech]

thank you for the reply

CarnageINC, on 28 December 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

I like the idea of giving players freedom to move around. I do think this needs to be implemented. However I think there needs to some limitations. Maybe limit all factions to 3 sectors, I don't know. Why put limits on? Dilution of the player base going off into more directions then they are now. In addition, you would have to eliminate the ghost mechanic completely, which i absolutely hate so yeah for that. But you idea has merit.

yes open all planets
the more you push, the more resistance you will meet, the harder it will be to sustain the frontline (many planets + travel time)
for example, one faction is pushing somewhere far away, other faction (or merc unit) can go around and cut the entire front away (if there are some supplies from capital implemented, it can be even more interesting)
will there be empty planets? yes (now are too), the number of players should be displayed next to each planet (with more icons possible), so they focus on where is the action
with the cycle being divided into timeslots, ghost wins will be hard if there is at least some resistance during the day

CarnageINC, on 28 December 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

This is another good idea. I personally think 24 time slots would work just as good as 48 but ehhh, minor detail. How do you determine when the 'active timezone' is? By unit do you mean player unit? What if your a pug? Where does this UI addition fall in? How often can you change it? How can you prevent abuse of it? How does this work with pug and other units on the other side who are not on active timezone? Why do activetime zone units get to have more 'pull' percentage wise?

how many timeslots, and any numbers generally, that all can be changed (and also needs to be probably)
unit commander can select the "active timezone" in the unit (faction) UI, and then change it by one hour up or down per day (or two days) if needed (so it is not abused)
the "active timezone" only comes in effect if the unit owns a planet (it is also displayed near the planet), all win/loss percentages on this planet (or planets) during this time (regardless of being in unit or a pug, enemy or ally) count twice in the cycle
it works both ways, just gives an opportunity to the defending unit to defend when they are active

CarnageINC, on 28 December 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

How do you travel? How is time simulated? Who determines resource flow? Who determines reinforcement flow? How does this work for individual units versus pugs? How does it work for newly arrived units? Who determine when the 'base' is packed up and moved? Is this player or PGI controlled?

the "base" is from where you launch your mechs (travel to attack or defend)
every player can select a friendly planet (and travel there) where he wants to deploy his base (no cost, just takes time)
traveling means passing through territories (the planet grid), every territory is worth some time (for example 30 seconds, base adjacent to the territory is 0 seconds), the shortest path is calculated automatically
there should be some sense of distance (you do not travel from one edge of a faction to another every minute)
the travel would be simulated by a countdown before you join the queue, later something else could be implemented (depending on the idea and dev resources)
this could complicate the unit dropship, as all group members would need to have the base on the same planet, but should be doable (or, when the group is formed, use the group leaders base, with every member counting down the travel to it (this is necessary as to not keep switching fronts instantly))
all player controlled, if you lose a base, you get a new one (the base does not materially exist)

CarnageINC, on 28 December 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

When you say spawn and disappear randomly do you mean each planet has 1 resource that comes and goes or are resources randomly distributed across the map? What rewards do resourses provide? How do they travel? Who directs flow? You mentioned "some resources". Now that you have entered multiple resources, how many are there exactly and what do each of these resources do for a faction?

there are resource deposits (iron, water, cookies, anything reasonable (or? )) which need a connection to capital
any resource deposit can spawn on any planet (maybe not so random, but basically this)
when you manage to secure a route from the deposit to the capital, your faction will start to gather the resource, you do not need to manage their transport further (but may be some game aspect later on)
various resources should go towards various technologies (progress bars), which should give rewards (provide incentive for players to go for that specific resource, possibly periodically)

CarnageINC, on 28 December 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

This idea needs to be reworded IMO. Technologies mean better weapons or armor. That road is to dangerous to travel down IMO. Maybe call it what you describe it as, Rewards. As far as novelty items, I think this will not really work well for players in general. Everyone I know who plays has little to no attachment to any novelty item. That also creates an additionally strain on PGI to continually produce more items and take focus away from other content such as map creation and mech design.

yes, it needs to be something really simple, no ingame advantage, but something the player can work on and then be rewarded, ideally utilizing what is already in the game (mech token? camo token?), but also makes some sense lore-wise (supply your faction with enough beer and get an atlas? )
also i think cbills and mc should be separated from any cw-specific currencies (like loyalty points currently, but there may be bases, sieges, supplies, all other) as they can come from outside source

CarnageINC, on 28 December 2014 - 03:54 AM, said:

I would like for you to explain how the map will balance itself out better than just a statement. You say based on active faction population. In what way will the faction population contribute to balance? You say merc's will want resources, why exactly do they want those resources? So overall its up to faction population and mercs to maintain balance, based off of random spawnings?

The paragraph for stuff isn't really political in nature, IMO that falls under rewards or under your technologies heading.

good question, when you combine the travel (cannot respond to other side of space immediately), "active timezone" (making planets reasonably defendable for competent teams), and resource locations (top priority for every faction), every faction should be able to hold their own, with some teams focusing on various parts of the front for longer time
the more active factions will probably be able to hold more planets, but pushing on more fronts or vs organized defence will be very hard
mercs will get rewards based on controlling a planet (so only one unit per planet), this will create a competition, every merc unit will be for themselves, possibly sticking to a faction for longer time if they establish themselves well, or choosing a faction where they can succeed in their quest for profit
if there will be a planet with rare resource, many merc units may decide to go for it (switch factions)
there may be more political stuff which involves voting or controlling the faction, but, you know, it always gets abused
maybe the politics is not a right name for what i said, but luring a good merc unit to fight for your faction will definitely have an impact
(there should be some way for the faction members to increase the rewards for mercs, not sure how to do it yet)

[David Sumner]

happy mech, on 28 December 2014 - 08:20 AM, said:

...
with some teams focusing on various parts of the front for longer time the more active factions will probably be able to hold more planets, but pushing on more fronts or vs organized defence will be very hard mercs will get rewards based on controlling a planet (so only one unit per planet), this will create a competition, ...

That doesn't work if you have "cannot pass through another factions territory to attack"

A large faction takes a border position, then expands outwards, there by protecting the inner planets from attack and freeing all the forces there to be moved to border worlds.

Pick the right spot and move carefully and you could probably do it with a 15 to 20 world front.

[happy mech]

David Sumner, on 24 March 2015 - 12:35 AM, said:

That doesn't work if you have "cannot pass through another factions territory to attack"

A large faction takes a border position, then expands outwards, there by protecting the inner planets from attack and freeing all the forces there to be moved to border worlds.

Pick the right spot and move carefully and you could probably do it with a 15 to 20 world front.

how do you mean? can you draw a picture?

[Sandersson Jankins]

Very good suggestions, but unfortunately, we forum warriors are very good "idea" guys. And idea guys are a dime a dozen around games.

All I can hope is that the boys at PGI heed the advice!

[happy mech]

Sandersson Jankins, on 03 April 2015 - 02:15 AM, said:

Very good suggestions, but unfortunately, we forum warriors are very good "idea" guys. And idea guys are a dime a dozen around games.

All I can hope is that the boys at PGI heed the advice!

idea is all that is needed to spark something , but yes, it is all we can do
thank you

[Doc Arachinus]

Certain planets give rewards or bonuses. like planet Hesperus might make buying certain mechs or components/weapons cheaper for controlling faction.

Collateral damage. Every thing should be damageable. for defenders you want to avoid collateral damage as it would effect your payout. Attackers might gain more pay if they manage to knock out certain buildings or cause a certain amount of damage to structures on the map. Like if 10 buildings sustain enough damage or maybe make certain buildings targets of opportunity and reward extra cash to players for destroying/ damageing them.

Ammo/armour: ammo and armour should be an inventory item and the used to repair mechs after battle.

Salvage: add or designate buildings as ammo dumps or component storage facilitys and make them capatureabe by a single unit. Maybe make capture time like 1 minute or something and only 1 mech can capture at a time. make item in these random.
As far as battle salvage beyond being award cbills for salvage you can only gain components or mechs from mechs you Solo kill. maybe to get a mech it must be salvageable like cockpit destroyed or legged or even ejected mechs. maybe extra salvage from targets you KMDD.

Defending: the more 1 side wins the more effective turrets become.

Stationing. Units involved in faction warfare need to pick a planet to station on. This would have a cost to the unit in cbills and come from unit coffers. need to be stationed within 2 jumps of targets. Can only gain rewards for planets won if you participate in attacks/defence of worlds within 2 jumps. Can still queue up and fight in other planets but will not be eligible for planetary rewards when won. Loseing stationed planet will randomly move you to nearest allied planet.

Battle phases: make contested planet phase min 1 day but can last much longer till 1 side gains the control threshold.

Domination mode. Give loyalty or cbills for being in the circle.
Caps: give loyalty for captureing points.
Assault: make base a field repair station with some turret defenses. make them small tripod lasers.

Defenders should never hot drop on to maps. Should walk out of either a big mech hanger or union class dropship.

Allow units to buy dropships. buying dropships can bolster drop zone defense. reducing spawn killing.

Add skill for mine drop in the tree with uavs and air strikes. Mines can be set for min tonnage to trigger and do equivalent damage to air strikes. though damage would be focused on legs lower torso.

[BearFlag]

Aw, depth. Would be nice. Well thought out post OP. Great ideas in reply too. These are ideas that can join the voluminous collection that this sub-forum holds. I joined the forum two and a half years ago because CW's potential excited me. I hoped that the glaring design flaws would be fixed and that immersion would become truly engaging.

But most of the major, player-draining flaws for the end-game, for the MWO would-be universe remain. QP reigns. FW is moribund. To their credit, PGI has tried to add some "depth" with loyalist voting for example (which is now pretty much meaningless). But they have also taken away what little immersion there was.

The tug-o-war removed any (small) sense of "place." No longer do you queue and fight for a planet which even then probably didn't have "planetary data" filled in. Rather it's for an abstracted bar. The contested planets have names, but who cares? Who stills votes when there's no attack lane? The "single bucket" fixed wait times (but with diminishing return). It also lumped IS and Clan into super-identities with no connection to faction surviving.

QP has no story line, no persistence, no presence and nothing worthy of fictional "suspension of disbelief." FW has no story line, no persistence, no presence and nothing worthy of fictional "suspension of disbelief."

CW was born as a bad version of QP (with potential). It has evolved into an even worse version of QP (with dubious potential).

Between "too late" and zip population, FW is a financial sink. I no longer have hope that FW will become a place, a life, a story.

Edited by BearFlag, 22 June 2017 - 11:13 PM.

[50 50]

Hi Happy Mech.

Some good ideas in your post and it's always good to see some discussion around different ideas. In the end, if we feel that there could be some small changes to the system which will:

• Add depth
  
• bring immersion
  
• attract players

Then no idea is a bad idea.
We may not be the ones developing the game, but our opinion does matter and a good idea will be noticed. All it takes is a bit of a spark of interest, a question about 'what if we do this?' that could make all the difference, so keep at it.
If nothing else, it is healthy and positive discussion.

So on that note, here are my thoughts.


I like the idea of returning to the big map with all of the individual factions. while the single bucket clan vs IS did help wait times... for a while... it did remove individual faction identity and once interest waned, it hasn't really solved the wait time problem and I do feel there is a more elegant solution.

Logistics is a great idea. We could use a few additional features in the game that add some depth to Faction Play not only in terms of game mechanics but also in terms of our faction identity. However, I would suggest looking at the idea of more in terms of 'supply lines' as you are describing it there. I think it's tricky, but not impossible. (Nothing is in programming really).
I would also suggest that we can't have a time component. It would not really work to bring in a duration, unless it was really short, that forced players to say "I'm going to planet X to fight" but they can't get there for a week. With the rate at which the galaxy changes they might get there and the battle has moved.

Which leads in nicely to your point on the phases.
24 hours sounds good.
I'd almost be inclined to extend it to a week.
Rapid and drastic change to the map raises flags and rings alarms with me.
During one reset the Ghost Bear region was reduced from it's dozen planets (or what ever it was) to a single world within the space of a few days. I watched my faction lose 4 planets in 8 hours with no chance to respond because... work etc.
Rapid and drastic change to the map not only reduces the significance of what it means to capture a planet, but losing an entire faction is a huge blow to players who put their heart and sole into belonging to that faction.
To that end, the tug of war doesn't work as well as intended, it's still 4 planets or nothing and saw prior to the rest that we lost the FRR and both Kurita and Steiner were more or less wiped out. Given in MWO that we are trying to balance between the Clans and IS, there should be very little movement with the borders.
Map resets are a bad thing when we want to have some level of progression and achievement and a sense of we ourselves forging the universe with our allies!
The occasional world here and there or perhaps an incursion when players band together and we organise our own events.

Which leads me to my next point.
The system needs to be autonomous with less control and input required from PGI.
It should be a system that they have created for us to write the story of Faction Warfare in MWO.
But that means making a few changes.

Politics? In a way we actually had it when we, as members of a faction, could vote for who we wanted to attack.
That kind of worked but needed a few extra options built in, some ways for us to interact with each other at a unit level as well as at the faction level.
Under the current clan vs Is system? means nothing.
So, fully support a move back to the faction system, more identity and more interaction.

If nothing else, Faction Play is crying out for some depth.
Just being another version of Quick Play, or having the unique siege modes and maps is not depth.
We can fight each other anywhere, anytime, but to make us feel like we belong to the universe and have a part to play.... that is the trick.

Not too sure on the resource and technologies bit.
I feel we need to maintain some differences between the Clan and IS, but what we actually need is a few differences from one clan to another, one IS House to another.
It may not be too difficult to do, but we need a few extra features added such as the logistics so we have ways to apply those differences that do not impact balance of weapons and mechs.
Without making it to complex, we could probably do something with the supply caches so you can get unique ones if you participate in Faction Play. This might be a perfect way to get access to new mechs as blue prints or something, before they are available for general release. There are a few other ideas that could be bounced around as well.

Anyway, I applaud your ideas and effort.
If we don't ask or create these ideas, nothing will happen.


Feel free to look up a few of my posts on Faction Play in the feature thread. I would like to get your comments on them.

[Doc Arachinus]

captureing planets should be a significant event. while I thought a 24 hour min is a good ideal the event could drag out a week depending on how the battle rages on the planet. but how bout this

day 1 Clan votes a planet to attack. Once they vote on a target all clans attack that one planet and all IS defend that planet.

after this planet is resolved 1 IS house votes on a target and process repeats

Process repeats until all clan/houses have had their turn (though some houses have no border... not sure how this would work.)

With new civil war coming we might have to have both IS and Clan vote on a target and have 2 invasions going at a time.

[Medicine Man]

Sounds neat. To bad that PGI doesn't listen to players.

[Lehmund]

Great thread. I've posted many CW ideas to add depth, even though I'm not a MW fanboy (MWO is my first MW game in fact, but I've been gaming for 30 years and have been involved professionally in game design for close to 15 years now.

Here are my thoughts based on the OP and other posts here that could really work here:

Unit-based travel and basing:

Units use their coffers to establish, fortify and defend bases in the map. They can only have one base of operation at any one time but that base can be upgraded and has upkeep costs costing C-Bills and Fuel (for lack of other resource name).

This base allows the Unit to do several things:

• If their planet is in contention, the whole Unit gets a special warning (Call to Arms type), and the Unit gets perks in the fight based on their Base Upgrades.
  
• Base can be upgraded. These could include: Fuel manufacture and increased manufacture rates upgrades, deployment range (more on this below), Defense capabilities (game mode turrets are more powerful or upgraded depending on upgrades and how many Unit members are on that particular drop (to keep it fair)), Repair and Rearm support (more below) etc... These give perks only to this Unit if defending their planet.
  
• Deployment range: the Unit can only deploy within a certain range in light years or whatever unit into a conflict. If they want to fight farther, they need to upgrade this further.
  
• Repair and Rearm support: depending on the upgrade, the Unit would be able to field more tonnage in a fight when defending. A simple way to represent short supply lines and availability of more ammo and armor close by.
  
• Gather Fuel to fight in conflicts or move their base of operations: Every planet would have a base Fuel modifier that would give the Unit Fuel points every cycle, modified by any upgrades. When the Unit fights within their deployment range, no Fuel is consumed (players drop normally). But if the Unit wants to fight in a conflict that is out of their base's range, they have to spend Fuel points every cycle to participate in the conflict. The farther away it is, the more Fuel it would cost. If the Unit wishes to move their base of operation, they can do so, losing some of the upgrades, at the cost of Fuel and some time to reestablish (to avoid units moving all the time and having max upgrades all the time).

Conflicts

In order to keep wait times low like now, and not to change things too much (my idea is to add political and strategic layers over what is currently there....), there still are a number of conflicts happening around the Inner Sphere where each Faction votes on. We would still vote on planets like now, modified by the Political aspect below. However many planets end up in contention during a cycle based on the Politics and faction voting, are those that go either way just as it is now.

Cycle time 24h. I like that from previous posts.

Fighting and tug of war still apply, however, if your Unit doesn't have a planetary conflict to fight in that works (see politics) within their deployment zone, they have to either Move their Base, upgrade to a larger deployment area (costing CBills), or pay the needed Fuel to participate in the faraway conflict that cycle for the Unit (unit coffers always).

Boons related to winning a planet for the Unit would be based also on whether the unit could reach the planet in question (if tagging still exists, or MC etc....).

Unit coffer management add-on

In order to facilitate Unit coffer management with the added Strategy here, Units can set a "tax rate" in C-Bills where the tax goes to the Unit Coffers.


So the Inner Sphere map could look very similar to what is is now and the war/drop mechanics would be the same. The Map would have icons and numbers we could filter in or out about base resources, where Units are located, strengths and ranges etc.... That way, Unit commanders can take decisions for their unit on where to Base, where they want to deploy etc...


Merc vs Loyalists

Loyalist would get extra C-Bills per fight as normal, while mercs would get more (because mercs).

Loyalist unit bases would have more upgrades and options and normal costs to move around within same Faction territory and higher costs to move into Ally Faction territory.

Merc unit bases wouldn't have as many upgrades but cost less than loyalist units to move around. They are meant to be more mobile after all. They have the same costs to move no matter where they go as long as they move to a Faction territory they have a contract with at the time.

Merc units can use either IS or Clan mechs/tech in their dropdecks no matter which side they are on at the time but cannot gain any benefits for winning planets (no tags, no MC etc...).

Politics

Units participate in Faction politics by toggling settings they "vote" for without the need to vote every cycle. This can just be a panel with on/off switches. Each Unit starts off with default loyalties with each Faction. Then the Units may flip some toggles changing Factions from Ally to Enemy at any time. Each Cycle, the system calculates using size of Unit and settings to see by popular vote what Faction is in fact Ally or Enemy for that cycle. This means a Clan could flag another Clan Enemy (and not vice versa necessarily) at some point, and if between the two factions there is enough sentiment, combined, to declare a War (more Enemy flags than Ally flags in number), then there is another war front.

This may change the look of the Inner Sphere map and which planet is available for attack or to be voted on by each Faction. On a Unit/player level for voting on which planet to attack, the interface would nominally show only the planets that are within range (deployment zone), as well as defensive capabilities (Base levels, unit sizes, and number of unit bases here).

Some planets will seem easier captures than others.


In the fights themselves however, even with all this extra politics, unit positioning, ranges etc..., for each side, when we line up and drop, a grouped Unit will prioritize always dropping on their base planet to defend, if contended at the time, otherwise, we drop on any other planet that is in contention within range and whatever modifiers applied due to base upgrades for defenders (if there are any in that particular drop present) are there. It's still one big bucket where people are matched up but priorities are set if possible. On the drop display, we'd be able to see the planet in contention, and what type of enhanced defenses (if any) would be deployed against the attacking group.
Long post, but I think something like this would be pretty darned cool and allow for Loyalist players/Units to really work on a strategic level, merc units/players to get their diversity and reinforce factions as they will as allegiances change, and through the politics, the inner sphere could really change with IS Factions being officially at war with each other, some Clans with each other at times, Clan vs IS always there, and even some weird alliance stuff negotiated by the bigger units for whatever flavorful reason they want.

There are lots of details here, but it's not that hard to make into a strong future update (CW 5).