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Now this are some of the ideas i think would work around creating a more balanced, fun and in-depth approach to this game mode:
Making Community Warfare Cyclical:
Make Community Warfare an event that lasts for a said amount of time, maybe 3months, for those 3 months you select a faction and you belong to that faction permanently for that cycle duration. The faction that manages to boost its economy (more on this ahead) the highest in that 3 month period wins that CW season and all players that participated on a predetermined number of battles or more for the winning faction earn a reward (x-amount of cbills or a champion variant of a mech associated with that faction, i.e- if lyran a Champion Zeus)
Introducing a Galactic Economy:
At the begining of every season each faction begins with a budget (for example purposes lets say each faction begins with 5billion c-bills). Hourly cycles consume budget on different matters that your faction needs to attend:
-Territory Upkeep
-Military Expenses/Repair and Rearm
-Mercenary Contracts
Territory Upkeep:
Each faction begins with its own territory having industrial and buffer worlds. Industrial worlds produce money for your faction every hour, so they are the most important worlds for your faction to protect. Factions with large territories like the Fed Suns, have many of these worlds, but true to their lore description they are not very developed so they produce small amounts of income (the sum of these facilities at the beginning of every season is the same for every faction), while smaller factions like Marik have less of these worlds but they produce large amounts of income. Buffer worlds on the other hand actually waste money from your faction, but they are important to protect your industrial worlds as other factions have to make a path through these worlds to get to your industrial worlds. Each faction will strive to create a balance between having enough buffer worlds to properly protect their industrial worlds but not so many it actually begins to hurt their economy, having to leave some industrial worlds a little bit more exposed. The objective in the CW Season would be to capture enemy industrial worlds from other factions to end the season as the Faction with the strongest economy. Making some worlds very strategic (you may end up as the biggest faction, but having so many worthless worlds your people can barely buy shoes
). Military Expenses/Repair and Rearm
Every battle that happens consumes a part of this budget.
-Attacking a planet consumes c-bills on drop ship costs
-Repair and Rearmed (not payed by players, but consumes budget from your faction)
By re-introducing Repair and Rearm to CW would make a more interesting experience by affecting the quality of mechs used in every match and giving a reason to use lower quality components sometimes. If your team is defending a low value world, using mechs with standard structure, single heat sinks, standard armor etc. may be more strategic as a defeat would not lose much from your faction. Defending buffer worlds with high grade meta mechs may actually hurt your faction more in repair and rearms than what that world was worth, while during defense of an industrial world you may wish to bring your A-Game mechs.
In short whether you win or lose the player makes money from the match, but your faction loses money on defeat.
Mercenary Contracts:
For every player in a a Merc Unit, your Faction would have to pay a contractual fee, making mercs a double edge sword. Merc Units can give your faction the advantage in taking that high value industrial world, but retaining a merc contract to defend worlds, may actually be more trouble than its worth. Merc contracts would be limited to a 12-hour cycle where the Faction will pay a hiring fee for every merc hired, making mercs a fleeting luxury with no loyalty to anyone who cant pay for them.
Merc Units would also have their own economy (considerably lower than faction budget, for example purposes lets say they being with 50million c-bills). They will not have access to industrial worlds but they will gain money from successful contracts. If a merc unit goes bankrupt it will have no choice but to permanently join the last faction they worked for, making merc life a risky, but potentially profitable business.
At the end of the season mercs will only win and receive rewards if they meet one of two criteria:
-They accomplish X victories or more for the winning faction
-They are currently in service of the winning faction
Succesful merc units may achieve Season rewards by contributing victories to all factions, being able to win no matter which faction they served. At the end of a particularly closed season a house may wish to hire merc units to gain that high value industrial world that may achieve them victory as well. On the other hand houses may be reluctant to keep merc contracts for too long out of fear of affecting their finances, or hire merc units at the end of the season in fear of lowering their finances too much in the case of a particularly close season. Again making the Merc way of life a potentially lucrative but also risky way of life.
Faction Alliances:
Factions can create 4 types of alliances/relationships:
-Permanent Alliance
-Military Alliance
-Commercial Alliance
-War
A permanent alliance gives both factions a huge boost to their hourly income, and during matches players from both factions may attack/defend jointly with their ally faction. However attacking a world from your Ally Faction, will permanently void this alliance for the duration of the season. Allying with an enemy of your faction will also void this alliance permanently for the duration of the season.
A military alliance can be done with any faction in order to unite against a greater enemy, it yields not financial bonuses but can help defeat a greater enemy. A military alliance is permanently established in Clan vs IS matchups between the factions belonging to those 2 factions.
Commercial Alliance only yields 25% of the financial bonus as a permanent alliance. Cannot do military joint missions against other factions. They are more resistant to inter-faction tensions, in order to break one, 5 buffer worlds or more have to be taken from the commercial ally in a period of 10 days or 1 industrial world.
Taking more than 5 buffer worlds from a faction in a period of 10 days or taking 1 industrial world sets your factions at war for 15 days, if no more hostile activities happen during those 15 days, both factions reset to neutrality, any hostile activity resets the 15 day counter. Only military alliances can be made with a Warring faction. Clans and Inner Sphere Factions are permanently set at War.
Edited by Wild Kadabra, 11 January 2016 - 01:10 PM.
