Ok, I got carried away below. The idea of having an invincible mech staging area before entering the battle will only be an AFK spot. Remember the early days of WoW's conversion to the honor point system and what happened to AV? *cough* afk-cavers *cough*
Also, spawn invincibility is a quick-fix, short cut, lazy-*** solution to avoid a real result. Especially since the invincible guy can shoot back. It's lame. Don't do it.
The idea of
picking your own spawn point on a tactical map, just like Planet Side 2, would be the best, imo. External, one-time use deceleration thrusters attached to the already air-tight mech would be perfect for dropping in. You're a tiny target for planetary/orbital defenses and you drop down powered down so as to not be targeted and then giving use to the mastery tree's "faster power up" skill. The boosters just fall off and lay there as a debris/LOS blocker, but they're not all that large compared to the mech and are only on 2 sides (originally attached to the legs), so very temporary shields as the enemy moves for a clear shot and you can not fire immediately back, you both have a LOS block unless they/you are already in a good spot to shoot. It gives you a few seconds, also, to get your barrings before moving out. The enemy can also have a clear indication there is a drop incoming with the bright thrusters and smoke trail, but they won't know the exact spot YOU picked to land, and since you are moving out in a few seconds, air/arty strikes would not be accurate.
Grimolfr, on 11 February 2015 - 12:00 PM, said:
Airstrikes/ arty gets dropped on dropship deploy points already. What really needs to be done (IMO) to CW is a progressive objective chain, with rolling deploy points. Think Unreal Tournament assault mode, where attackers need to take A before B, B before C, and so on. Easy (ish) way to kill off light rushes within the game? Make an objective a capture point. Force those lights to sit in a small, mostly open area for a bit of time.
Just my two cents...had a longer, more thorough post, but apparently I took too long writing it so it didn't post...
This is an excellent idea that would make CW in general more interesting. To elaborate, both attackers and defenders start off with all nodes in a neutral state. Each node is connected to 1, 2 or multiple others depending on the map design. (Usually connected 1 or 2 others with 7 nodes, 2 bases in total in UT2K4 that I'm thinking of). Each team must cap their adjacent node first before having access to other nodes, BUT, you can advance to the next sight to prepare to take it the instant it becomes available. While your team does not have access to another node for any reason, that node is invincible. Also, each team's "base" or "objective with HP" is invincible at all times unless that 1, single, adjacent node is capped by the enemy, then the "objective with HP" becomes vulnerable. Out in the main areas of the map, node points 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 could be interconnected with node 7 being the enemy's bottleneck node. Any 1 path leading to the enemy's bottleneck is all it takes to cap it and damage the objective. If multiple paths are secured, each individual path must be broken for the bottleneck node to go invincible. To break a path, each node is capable of being capped by either team, they are not bias, so long as that team owns a connecting node.
Of course while your team is off damaging the "objective with HP", the enemy team can easily re-cap that adjacent node making their "objective with HP" invincible again. This forces team members to coordinate and work together in defending and attacking nodes all along the path to the objective. Every mech class will have it's use. No light rushes, and assaults will be needed. Also, survivablity skills will go a long way as teams run out of reinforcements... (ammo replenishment will be needed, NOT repairs).
This will be a huge difference from UT2K4 and will need it's own balancing. What do you do if it comes to 1v1? Also, it's a loooong game for your 4 mechs to be locked. The MMO battle arena genre seems to be shooting for 15 minute MAX games. These could go on for over an hour. This is also a chance for PGI and MWO to stand out in it's own way away from the growing genre.
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