6 replies to this topic

[Nighthawk513]

Is it just me, or are IS beatdowns versus clans happening more often now than even just a month ago?

I started faction play about a month and a half ago, and clans were doing great. Both Smoke Jag and Jade Falcon had had large swathes of territory into IS. Wolf had decent territory too. (Ghost Bears had 5 planets, now they have 4.)

Clans were holding their own, and indeed winning often enough to push farther into IS lands. Lots of attacks, not many ghost drops, clans actually winning, people actually scouting.

Fast forward to now, Ghost bear has 4 planets, Smoke Jag has 2, Wolf has a much smaller area, and Jade Falcon has stopped.
EVERY single invasion match I have dropped in as clans in the past week has ended up with IS winning 2-1, generally 3 or 4-1 on kills. With the exception of during the Kodiak event, the number of matches that clans won versus lost has been steadily dropping since about a month ago.

Most people never scout, and there are almost always urgent call to arms.

Is it just me, or is it like this for everyone in clans?
If its not just me, why is this?

[Stahlherz]

It depends on where the big mercenary units go.
It is useful to know which unit is where.

[Dawnstealer]

It's because the IS is horribly overpowered and everything they have is totally awesome. Especially Steiner. Steiner is incredibly awesome and everyone with a blue fist is the greatest person you will ever meet.

Also, MWO doesn't have a really big population and, at a guess, I'd say roughly 60% of the active players are wrapped up in a few merc groups (namely Mercstar (-MS-), 228, etc). Jade Falcon just benefited from the release of the Kodiak, and (by..."accident") all the big merc units went to Jade Falcon to stomp pugs grind out the efficiencies on their new mechs.

Now? I think Mercstar went elsewhere and FW is kind of not much improved over prior versions, so people have kind of lost interest.

[Jman5]

Stahlherz, on 27 May 2016 - 08:20 AM, said:

It depends on where the big mercenary units go.
It is useful to know which unit is where.

This

The big pushes smoke jaguar and ghost bear made through the inner sphere were driven by a couple large, successful mercenary units. Without their support these factions consistently flounder and fall apart.

The reality is a lot of players don't like attacking. They will sit in over-saturated defense queues all night while a handful of people in the attack lane are begging for more people to join. Large merc units bypass this problem by dropping in big premades and the result is they carve through territories relatively quickly.

[Commander A9]

Unfortunately, the game doesn't have a large population that consistently plays Community Warfare, aside from the major units.

Even then, their numbers are fizzling too.

Need fresh blood; more importantly, need more of a reason to play CW.

[Jep Jorgensson]

Winning in FW right now depends mostly on where the merc units happen to be. Simple as that.

Edited by Jep, 28 May 2016 - 03:27 PM.

[MovinTarget]

Even though I am in one of those "large merc units"... i can only speak for 228, but we seldom front more than a full 12 man, but we can have 4-6 throughout the day (especially NA and Euro phases).

Not too many merc groups can muster more than that except for MS that I know of...

So i would assert that its mostly us accidentally ending up in the same faction (following the bonuses) than an individual unit pushing a faction over the top...

Even though i am in one of these larger merc groups i would have no problems if there was a drop cap on mercs, i.e. "no more than X mercs of one unit may be in cw at a time"...

...but would kill cw? I don't think it would affect but the biggest of the mercs... <cough> <cough>

Also, give loyalists more incentives, merc life is too attractive

Reduce the penalty on breaking a loyalist contract that your lp goes back to the amount needed for your last level or two. 25% is harsh once you're above lvl 12 or so...

Edited by MovinTarget, 28 May 2016 - 05:19 PM.