8 replies to this topic

[Polkastein]

Ban any drop deck that has a mech that has not completed the Basic Skill tree. This will eliminate all of the trial mechs that invariably show up in any pug drop. The Public Drop queue should be where pilots complete their Basic Skill tree, not CW.

and/or, make consumables mandatory in CW. They don't have to use them, but this too will eliminate trial mechs in CW.

Edited by Polkastein, 27 September 2015 - 10:36 AM.

[MechWarrior849305]

T_T
T_T T_T
T_T T_T T_T

Amirite?

[Rattazustra]

The biggest problem with trial mechs in CW is that they are so radically different and unbalanced. IS trial mechs are all (C) mechs, which means they were designed by competitive thinking players of the game, not by tabletop authors. Clan trials on the other hand are pieces of junk, underarmored and with weird boardgame-relic weaponry. Even the best of them are junk and the worst of them are barely scrap metal. If you'd pit an IS 12 man trial mech team against a clan 12 man trial mech team, IS will easily win every single time.

All in all, I do not think that trial mechs are a problem per se. I think it is okay if someone has one trial mech in his dropdeck, but no more than that. Drop decks made up entirely of trial mechs are doomed to fail. By limiting trial mechs to 1 per dropdeck only people who have at least 3 mechs of their own would be able to do CW, which is a pretty easy entry level to manage.

[Polkastein]

Since we are discussing CW, I have a few more suggestions:

CW needs to be a solo queue or group queue just like the public drops. The planets assaulted need to be pre-determined every 24 hours and the percentage of wins (not territories on the planet) determine who takes or holds a planet, this way we won’t need a ceasefire every 8 hours and all time zones can participate in the capture or defense of a planet. All pilots of a faction get into the queue to help take the planet. Groups v groups, solo v solo. Population would not be as much of an issue because you don't pick a planet, you are assigned to the target planet via the queue. If a 12 man wants to play, then hopefully there will be a 12 man for them to fight against, otherwise they will be in the queue for a while. If there are multiple fronts, you will be assigned a planet and be either defense or offense, you will have no choice in the matter (you are just a mercenary, now do what you’re told!).

If a faction has population issues, PGI can raise or lower the rewards as they said they would do at the beginning of CW and have hardly done since. However, this needs to be adjusted every 7 days to accommodate the shortest mercenary contract.

With the new ticker on the UI, you could do a news feed detailing what planet is on the attack list for that faction(s). You could even spice it up with some lore, like “With the loss of Kuzuu to (insert new Faction here), the Draconis Combine loses another agricultural world. This loss will not be received kindly by the Coordinator.” After all, the leaders of the Factions control where the war is fought, not the mercenaries under their command. We should not be able to attack any planet we want. Yes, right now we have limited choices but we could also still have those choices with a queue.

The Call to Arms pop-ups could still be utilized as a way to advise players what queues are insta-drops or you could manually enter the queues.

Take the tags off the planets and refund everyone’s money that was put into the unit coffers; It was a bad idea from the start and I don’t see any way that would work with the queue system above anyway.

However PGI decides to go, if CW doesn’t improve, this game will die.

[Rosscoe]

Polkastein, on 27 September 2015 - 10:35 AM, said:

Ban any drop deck that has a mech that has not completed the Basic Skill tree. This will eliminate all of the trial mechs that invariably show up in any pug drop. The Public Drop queue should be where pilots complete their Basic Skill tree, not CW.

and/or, make consumables mandatory in CW. They don't have to use them, but this too will eliminate trial mechs in CW.

As much as I am down for a entrance requirement into CW, this idea is just not the way to go as it will disgrunt and discourage new players to even bother to keep playing the game that already has a high learning curve for them. After all mechs are not cheap exspeailly the CLAN ones at this time.

If anything to be done as a entrance requirement I do propose the following.

1. New players must complete their cadet training.

2. After cadet training is finished new players must further play another 75 games in solo or group and the games played go to a combined total.

3. New players must also go through a CW training program that explains how things work in CW just like the new Acadmey does for understanding a mech.

Once that is all done THEN new players would be allowed to start partaking in CW.

As for the topic of trail mechs, I will say the CLAN ones still need a full repass but Id say make a set of 4 for hot maps and a set of 4 built for cold maps, and tweak the current IS trails to match that fashion.

[Polkastein]

Great idea Rosscoe. I'll back off the trial mech flaming. However,I'm hoping the way we get into a game of CW changes so we don't spend so much time waiting for a match like it is now or pugging it and coming up against a pre-made over and over again.

[Rosscoe]

Well I can't fix the premade vs pug, I just cant nor can PGI. The tools are there for pugs and its up to the pugs to pick up and try leading.

As for que times for CW I do have another idea to share though many would hate and love it.

First part of it is too reduce the amount of attack zones on the planets, CW pop is so small during non event weekends you cant flip a planet unless you get 3 12 mans togther to drop (or by a miracle you get alot of pugs to drop on the same world and have your 12 man time attacks right to keep the progress going while pugs tie up the other attackers) and spend a boring time facing no one flipping it to progress, to fix this just limit the amount of zones, right now id say four to five zones per planet and allocate them maps. Instead of a what is it now? 8 hour time window before cease fire? Remove cease fire and let the planet gets taken over on all 4 or 5 zones and open up the next planet in the attack path and keep going so its dynamicly changing on all fronts.

The 2nd thing, well its been shoved into the first one.

[Nesutizale]

A suggestion I have for CW and solo players is the following.

Simple version:
Soloplayers don't select a planet to play on but are put in a generall queue. When a team needs one or two other players to start the round, they will be filled up automaticly from that pool.
Groups are still going to the map and select their planet of choice as usual.

Complex version:
Soloplayers are still put in a generall queue but with a little addition, see below.

Solo CW players are treated like Mercs. Each player that wants to solo CW fills out a "registration" that includes his dropdeck, status of the skill tree (full basic, elite, master), Pilot skill rating and Merc rating (this is something new)

This could be pretty much be an automated process except for the dropdeck. The player would still select his dropdeck before looking for a CW game as before. Just that he can't adjust during the startingphase.

Now when a group needs to fill up an open slot they get an screen/window that shows what mercs are avaible to fill in, complete with the above mentioned informations.
That way you get a rough idea who will be joining your group and if he might need some advice or is it maybe a seasoned veteran whos group is just not online at the moment and he still wants to play a round CW.

When the game is done the groupplayers give the Merc/soloplayer a rating. Pretty much like you rate stuff on Amazon or ebay...just without the comments. Simple star system. That will hopefully encourage solo players to try to improve, to get a better rating to be more likely be picked in the next match.

I am still concerned if one should make this Merc rating realy people driven as people can be....not so friendly...even if someone was good or they simply forget to vote.
So that has to be tested but I find a more personal system better as just numbers could give a false impression. What if the Merc isn't very good at targeting but took the damage for the team so others could do their thing?
Thats hard to make up in numbers.

Another point would be that Mercs get a faction like bonus but instead of just getting points for winning or loosing a match its tied in to the rating system. Keep your rating up or improve and you get points. Be rated down and you even loose points.


I would like to have an even stronger incentive to bring solo players to be more part of the group and for the group to take solo players under their wings but currently I don't have a good idea for that. So anyone got something?


As for the topic of trail mechs....I said it in another topic and say it again. Get ride of the costum mechs in CW. It would solve balanceing issues (if you take Hero mechs out). Make the game more newcommer friendly as they don't have to play ages to get a complete custom dropdeck and we opens up a way for use of different tactics between Clan and IS players.
Clans with their hard hitting but short battle police and IS with the preferance in long fights.

[Rosscoe]

Some good ideas but alot of what your proposing is a little complicated for a quick fix :/

Maybe a long term goal if the UI ever gets less buggy.