20 replies to this topic

[Elwood Blues]

The Community Warfare blog says that Faction players will fight for faction worlds and Mercs will fight for border worlds. I'm just looking for a quick clarification. Does this mean that mercs and faction players are essentially in two different realms of warfare with no real contact?

[Schtirlitz]

These worlds are the worlds to own. To get money or some other form of income.
And it will be only one form of communication.
Factions may hire mercs, mercs can ally themselves with Factions.
That's all we know for now, i suppose.
No, realm will be one, just a lot of fighting reasons and areas.

[Elwood Blues]

Do you happen to have a source that shows more information? I just want something concrete to point to even if that is the devs saying it isn't concrete yet. Here is what the blog says and this is why I was questioning.

• 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. Rewards for controlling a boarder world are significant and go directly to the occupying Merc Corp.

[Astaroth]

That's not quite how it works. The game will auto-generate contracts asking for merc corps to conquer the border worlds on behalf of the faction. When a merc corp captures and is able to retain possession of one of these border worlds they get a whole bunch of bonuses for doing so. However, the faction that put out the contract in the first place still technically owns the world.

It's explained in better detail in the MWO Primer.

Edited by Astaroth, 06 July 2012 - 06:51 AM.

[Elwood Blues]

Astaroth, on 06 July 2012 - 06:22 AM, said:

It's explained in better detail in the MWO Primer.

There's no link there.

[Schtirlitz]

http://mwomercs.com/...-developer-qa-2
This.
Mercs will fight both for border words AND contracts for Factions.
As well as Faction players will fight both for core worlds AND in battles alongside with or against mercs.
Solaris arena.
And some other game modes we don't know yet.

[Astaroth]

Elwood Blues, on 06 July 2012 - 06:26 AM, said:

There's no link there.

Um... whoops?

Fixed.

[Elwood Blues]

The way I understand it, the contracts are all offered by factions, the Mercs just hold those planets on behalf of the faction. I've read that Q&A and this quote, below, leads me to believe that Mercs will not be fighting Faction players.

Quote

Can members of a Mercenary Corp also work directly for a faction, and in addition to this if no, is there any way for Mercenary Corps to assist in the fight for faction worlds, not to take for themselves, but to assist the faction. –Haeso

[MATT C] Yes Merc Corps work for factions, though the planets taken working for a Merc Corp are different from the planets taken when working within the faction.

Edited by Elwood Blues, 06 July 2012 - 07:04 AM.

[Schtirlitz]

Why not?
It Mercs fight for one Faction, it means they fight some other Faction.
They gain Loyalty points with first Faction and lose with latter one.

Edited by Schtirlitz, 06 July 2012 - 07:20 AM.

[Astaroth]

Schtirlitz, on 06 July 2012 - 06:52 AM, said:

http://mwomercs.com/...-developer-qa-2
This.
Mercs will fight both for border words AND contracts for Factions.
As well as Faction players will fight both for core worlds AND in battles alongside with or against mercs.

I assume you're referring to the question and answer from Matt C near the very end, in which case I think you've misinterpreted him.

What he's saying is merely a reiteration of what we already knew from the previous dev blog, which is that merc corps fight for border worlds and factions fight for everything else. When two factions battle for a faction world there will be 24 total player slots to fill (12 v 12). If not enough faction players are available to fill all those slots, merc and lone wolf players can be "randomly" placed into those slots in order to fill out the battle rosters. This is not the same as taking a contract, it's merely a way to keep lone wolf and merc players involved in the action. At the end of the match, the planet belongs to whichever faction won.

Elwood Blues, on 06 July 2012 - 07:03 AM, said:

The way I understand it, the contracts are all offered by factions, the Mercs just hold those planets on behalf of the faction. I've read that Q&A and this quote, below, leads me to believe that Mercs will not be fighting Faction players.

Exactly. Mercs and faction players will only be fighting each other in the circumstance I just described above. Organized matches between a merc corp team and a faction team won't happen unless something changes.

[Elwood Blues]

Schtirlitz, on 06 July 2012 - 07:19 AM, said:

Why not?
It Mercs fight for one Faction, it means they fight some other Faction.
They gain Loyalty points with first Faction and lose with latter one.

But if you are fighting over a whole different category of worlds, even if you are technically fighting for a faction, you are not fighting with or against faction players. You are only fighting against other merc companies.

This is what the scenario sounds like.

1. Mercs bid for computer generated contracts offered by the computer controlled faction to fight for a border worlds.
2. Mercs fight Mercs that are either defending that border world or are also trying to take it.
3. A flag goes up on that border world that shows which faction owns the world but the Merc unit actually holds it.

What I am gathering from the above Dev quotes is that the below scenario will not happen.

1. A contract is offered by House Steiner for a Merc unit to fight against House Kurita forces (or Mercs hired to fight for them) over planet X.
2. Merc unit succeeds and House Steiner now controls planet X.
3. Merc unit takes its money and goes on its merry way.

Now, to take the game lore and politics out of it and boil it down to who's playing against who. If I am reading this correctly, faction units will never directly fight house units.

[Schtirlitz]

Are you sure that upon taking contract merc won't have to fight against or alongside Faction players?
There may be contracts to help Faction players or fight some other Faction.

[Elwood Blues]

Astaroth, on 06 July 2012 - 07:23 AM, said:

I assume you're referring to the question and answer from Matt C near the very end, in which case I think you've misinterpreted him.

What he's saying is merely a reiteration of what we already knew from the previous dev blog, which is that merc corps fight for border worlds and factions fight for everything else. When two factions battle for a faction world there will be 24 total player slots to fill (12 v 12). If not enough faction players are available to fill all those slots, merc and lone wolf players can be "randomly" placed into those slots in order to fill out the battle rosters. This is not the same as taking a contract, it's merely a way to keep lone wolf and merc players involved in the action. At the end of the match, the planet belongs to whichever faction won.

Elsewhere in the same Q&A it says that Lone Wolves will be used to fill empty spots. Mercs are not mentioned. Do you see this somewhere else?

[Jukebox1986]

Elwood Blues, on 06 July 2012 - 07:30 AM, said:

1. A contract is offered by House Steiner for a Merc unit to fight against House Kurita forces (or Mercs hired to fight for them) over planet X.
2. Merc unit succeeds and House Steiner now controls planet X.
3. Merc unit takes its money and goes on its merry way.

I truly hope this will come true - though its not planned. And i also hope we will get the chance to fight with our faction...
Where is the fun in fighting for a faction, if i cannot fight better than them right in front of them?

[Schtirlitz]

Are you sure that upon taking contract merc won't have to fight against or alongside Faction players?
There may be contracts to help Faction players or fight some other Faction.

Well, i haven't seen the devs telling precisely that mercs will fight alongside or against Faction players.
It is just my conclusion because i find the opposite illogical and unattractive.

Astaroth, on 06 July 2012 - 07:23 AM, said:

If not enough faction players are available to fill all those slots, merc and lone wolf players can be "randomly" placed into those slots in order to fill out the battle rosters. This is not the same as taking a contract, it's merely a way to keep lone wolf and merc players involved in the action. At the end of the match, the planet belongs to whichever faction won.

Exactly. Mercs and faction players will only be fighting each other in the circumstance I just described above. Organized matches between a merc corp team and a faction team won't happen unless something changes.

Can you pease link to the devs clearly saing that this will be the ONLY possibility of joint fights.

Edited by Schtirlitz, 06 July 2012 - 07:37 AM.

[Elwood Blues]

Schtirlitz, on 06 July 2012 - 07:31 AM, said:

Are you sure that upon taking contract merc won't have to fight against or alongside Faction players?
There may be contracts to help Faction players or fight some other Faction.

That's why I'm asking. From the blogs and the Q&A, the only specific language I can find states that Mercs are fighting over border worlds, not faction worlds. I don't see anything that shows Merc units dropping into Faction fights, either.

[Schtirlitz]

Haven't seen devs saing it clearly.
As i have said before, i hope this will be true.
My conclusions from devs words may be too optimistic

Edited by Schtirlitz, 06 July 2012 - 07:40 AM.

[Astaroth]

Elwood Blues, on 06 July 2012 - 07:37 AM, said:

That's why I'm asking. From the blogs and the Q&A, the only specific language I can find states that Mercs are fighting over border worlds, not faction worlds. I don't see anything that shows Merc units dropping into Faction fights, either.

I think your very first post is correct, merc corps and factions are essentially two different realms that do not cross over.

And you're right about the devs never saying that mercs could drop into faction battles. I guess that was a conclusion I reached on my own at some point. To my mind, I think they will have to do it this way because otherwise I don't see how they could generate enough merc corp battles to keep those players busy. It also seems like at some point they would want to have merc corps be able to engage in matches against faction teams on behalf of another faction.

Regardless, this is all pretty speculative. We'll just have to wait and see what happens when the fit hits the shan.

[Insidious Johnson]

Those were just clues a long time ago to make us drool. I'm sure things will change a bit. Houses should hire mercs, that is where the money comes from besides Comstar. Who in their right minds would take a contract from Paul?

[Elwood Blues]

Insidious Johnson, on 06 July 2012 - 11:15 AM, said:

Those were just clues a long time ago to make us drool. I'm sure things will change a bit. Houses should hire mercs, that is where the money comes from besides Comstar. Who in their right minds would take a contract from Paul?

I can see why this is the initial setup (if it isn't already being changed). Adding Mercs directly into the fights among houses is tricky to balance. Players don't control the houses so they can't prefere one unit over another. I can easily see Merc units being hired to assist house units in battles. Merc units can set their price. If their reputation is worth it, people will pay. Mercs can earn their reputation in the border worlds so house units will want to hire them to assist in their faction conflicts. Merc units that have a high enough faction with a house can be offered a contract to fight x amount of battles for the house. I think there are ways to have it so the Mercs can play with the houses, I just hope to see them close to launch and not too far down the line.