869 replies to this topic

[Jaeger Gonzo]

Make it asymmetrical and Stock.
Would be 10 times more popular then now instantly.

[T Mech]

Hi everyone,

Here are some suggestions for how to improve CW from the 901st Special Assault Group.

1) Reduce the number of queues by consolidating Clan and Inner Sphere factions into just two sides. Within these sides, players could choose to be free lancers, mercenaries, or loyalist to one of the subgroups within these factions (Jade Falcon, Davian, etc.). Give loyalist access to group specific camos and decals as part of their reputation rewards so they can identify themselves as members of these groups within the game.

2) Have all games contribute to a faction vs faction score. This amounts to removing quick play as a separate game mode and instead having 12 vs 12 matches count as another type of CW game. In this way, scouting matches, 12 vs 12, and planetary assault would all be game modes in CW, and all would be initiated from a single screen with with one button to enter each of the queues. This should drastically reduce wait times for cw game modes. New players could be locked into freelancer until they complete their cadet matches and then they would have the option of joining mercenary or loyalist units as normal.

3) Rework planetary assault matches so that players continue to respawn until one side has completed its objectives, with escalating respawn time penalties (while being able to pick from the mech of their choice each time from among their dropships, and remove dropship weight caps). This is intended to make planetary assaults more fast paced and intense, as well as more forgiving for new players (as they will not need to master as many mechs to be able to start playing on an even playing field).

4) Work on asymmetric planetary assault missions with more sub objectives (maybe which give rewards in terms of repairs and rearming or faster respawns for your team) and more moving parts (like the presence of enemy npcs like tanks which may add to the large battle feel of the game).

5) The reduction in the number of sides would also require a change in how planets are selected for CW games. This interface needs to be streamlined so that it is not so confusing for new players. One option would be to remove planet selection altogether and have a new planet featured during each phase of a season. A phase could be a day or more. During that time, all CW matches would contribute to each faction’s control of the planet and at the end of the phase, a winner would be determined and a new planet selected for the next phase. This would continue until an entire season has been completed at which point the galactic map would reset. Units and subgroups (individual clans and houses) that made the largest contribution to these planetary phases could be rewarded with resources and/or recognition in the game. This also opens up the possibility of having different special game rules apply to each planet to promote different styles of play. For example, one planet might offer a bonus to scouting matches so they contribute more control points than normal, thereby encouraging people to play scouting matches during that phase.

6) Have rewards for all modes properly scaled to the time required to not only complete a match but queue for a match. For example, currently it takes nearly as long to queue and complete a recon match as it does to start and finish a quick play match, thus they should give equal rewards, while it takes much longer both to complete the queue and to finish playing a planetary assault match, and thus planetary assault matches should give much more significant rewards in terms of xp, c-bills, and supply crates.

[Neput Z34]

Dear game developers, to whomever it may concern. Please implement changes to Faction Warfare :

◘ Make sense* from game play / player base perspective.

◘ Base defenses design follows common engineering / architectural standards, as in destroying a power generator does not open gates, etc.

◘ Do not grossly contradict Battle Tech Lore.

◘ Simple and easy to implement, because "Murphy's Law".

◘ Or ignore suggestion Nº2 and turn it into 12 vs. 12 "Assault", "Skirmish", "Conquest with slower cap rate", "Domination with multiple control points and respected zone timers". With re-spawn in all said above modes.

◘ Implement better spawn protection? As in not getting dropped off with my rear end facing enemy firing line.

P.S. all of them are "AND" conditions not "OR" or "XOR" conditions.

2nd edit spelling*, helps not to post when tiered.

Edited by Neput Z34, 28 July 2016 - 02:28 PM.

[MovinTarget]

Neput Z34, on 27 July 2016 - 05:24 PM, said:

"XOR"

Mathmatician or Comp Sci major?

[Anchovy]

MovinTarget, on 27 July 2016 - 02:16 PM, said:

...
I don't know if merc companies had subunits split up in lore, or even if they ever faced one another but that could be a way to balance things.

That way big units have no way to overwhelm, yet get to keep their players/identity under the umbrella of their main unit tag.

I'll keep coming up with ideas because I honestly want this to work and agree population stability would help, however, I cannot help but worry that heavy-handed concepts like unit caps will have negative consequences that should not be ignored..

I had some ideas of avoiding unit cap in my wall of text here, starting from point 2.
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__5310772

No quick-fix solutions I can think of. I think there needs to be a realisation that within the existing version, large units per se don't ruin anything if the units are well distributed, BUT multiple large swings all within a short time frame, do have negative impacts. I don't presume to speak for anyone else but I understand the desire to keep unit members together

That said, unless the large swings can be reined in really soon (in fact others have argued it's too late), you will find large units congregated on the same side (cue JF before the round table announcement) and a barren wasteland elswehere. So there's a choice:
1. wait for PGI to implement a system that does not unit cap but is able to main population stability. (no idea how long)
2. PGI implements a quick dirty solution of hard-code unit caps.
3. large unit rein in their own movements.

Is this the be-all-end-all issue of FP low player pop? No. But it isn't a small issue either.

[Naduk]

I'd like to see a more dynamic structure to deployment and a much more fluid way to find matches

At the very minimum we need a queue that let's players que for ALL available planets relevant to their faction
When you are a small team or a solo group , getting a match is the hardest part


Longer term I'd like to see the group queue merged into faction play
In my last post I mentioned a idea I called raids ( quicker missions spawned by scouting mode)
This would give the perfect opportunity for medium sized units to add their weight to the pool
If done correctly will help alleviate the wait times for both group queue and fw queues


Group players could even be injected into fw matches that use a drop deck as original players start to run dry on mechs
A single spawn reinforcement wave if you will (modified version of the rejoin system)

The main way to play the game ...solo queue
Needs to be tied , however gently to faction warfare
Solo matches could be organized by faction , players should earn a tiny amount of loyalty for a win and nothing for a loss
Let the great unwashed masses be aware they are part of something bigger (think of solo queue as the rank and file troops of the great houses)

You can even gives the true loyalists points of some kind to spend based on their factions efforts in the solo queue

Put faction play into the game more
Lessen the impact of the walls that divide the community

[50 50]

@Eiswolf
Some interesting ideas there and a few unique ones as well, great to see.
Very much on the Macro scale and there are a few problems to consider such as the time frames, catering for smaller units and solos, as well as managing player activity. Some nice suggestions though.

@AngelusDD
The problem seems to be one of scale when I look at it. Due to having players in different timezones and everyone having different personal commitments that may prevent or limit the amount of activity in MWO, to get a consistent 12 player group is difficult. The larger the unit, the better the chance of forming a large enough group that can have an impact in Faction Play. To me this is why there are only a handful of prominent units in MWO who have such large memberships. The system caters for the large scale and there simply isn't enough players to make it work. Even if there was greater participation in the mode it would still suffer from relying on the macro scale of thinking when it needs to have built it up at the micro level first.
This is a problem with having so many sectors to contest, not catering for the different server regions and not enabling the battles at a small individual scale.

@MovinTarget
Playing as a mercenary was an attractive incentive for many players but there are few issues with the implementation of how they tie in with the loyalists and the factions which need to be addressed. Once again I see this as a problem where it has been conceived at a macro scale without having the micro details to support it.
This does relate to the population question so I'll elaborate on this line of thought a bit:
I think the answer here is not to hire mercenaries at a faction level but make it an option for individual units. If the system was structured so that Mercenary units can 'relocate' to a faction due to new battlefronts opening up (new opportunities for war and profit) they could go onto a list of available mercenary units for that faction. The hiring of the mercenaries is then given to the loyalist units to bolster their numbers a lance at a time. There are other details to work out there such as costs, but this is like adapting the looking for group function to a 'looking for mercenaries' function.

So many aspects to think on with Faction Play!
I'm having fun.

[Blackcanni]

Man thats alot to read, think i only came halfway, but saw some good idea's.

In my view all FP realy needs is for ppl to get drawn into it with more fair play.

The way it is now its only fun to play for a few ppl.

So how can we bring in more ppl to get exited about FP.. thats all you need..

some things i came up with (might already been mentioned, but couldn't read all posts):

First of all FP should be endgame material, so ppl shouldnt be able to play it until they reach Tier 3.
If ppl are Tier 3 give them 25% damage bonus in FP if they are Tier 2 give them 10%, to even out imbalances a bit. And when they are alts and get above 1500 damage a few times as Tier 3 move them to Tier 2, if they get a few matches above 2000 damage as Tier 2 move them to Tier 3, this will get rid of alt accounts that do to good in this system...

Second the payout should be less based on performance and more on attending.
In this view i would say better payout after the game has finnished for both winning and loosing sides, where the winners get 10% more payout then the losers, this also means drop down the payout on performance to balance total payout. The gap between top players and bad players just is to big atm.
The payout in FP both scouting and invasion should on average be more then public drops!

Faction choices should be made a bit less important for mercs, but bigger for loyalists, so when you choose a faction you should be able to get LP of 100% when fighting for your faction, but make it able to also attack for other factions within the IS or Clan side with 50/50% pay on your faction and the other faction. so in order to get your nametag on a planet from another faction you need to do 2 times better. But still the oppertunity is there and also a way to get some reputation towards that faction. Also makes more available games for ppl to join with a good reason.
Also the map should be changed, clans more in the middle surrounded by IS so that every IS faction can attack clans.

forth point:
Merc should only be able to join factions that need it, The factions that arew inning planets should be blocked for merc units.
The way it is now its not worth avoiding the penalty on your earnings, on one side because earnings from playing pay out alot better then the faction bonus after a game, on the other hand action pays alot better then doing nothing in the waitingroom.

I suggest the attacking dropships to only drop 12 man and not 1 that died fast to run back in right before the rest of the team dies. So to force 12 man waves on attack but defenders can come back in any time, we need to adress the afk disco ppl then tho.. so if the havent moved for say 1 minute the dropshiparea gets bombed and all in there that were able to get locked(wich takes 1 minute) will die, to bad if you had to go to the bathroom, will make you think twice this way

Long Tom is bad as it is now, everyone agrees on it, but if it was changed it might work in a more fair way.
So why not make longtom drop on the dropzone as soon as the mechs fall out of the ship boom.. 5% damage to all mechs on all parts, Doesnt make the biggest impact but gives just the benefit the other team would want and make it worth scouting for without making ppl stop playing the planet, as you still can do good..

Also i can suggest for reinforcing the planet, the 2 and 4 extra zones dont realy make it i think, id rather see a 50% and 100% increase to turret damage and HP, wich only makes it more interresting and tactical to attack a planet.

And having some unique items on the end of a factiontree that everyone wants but dosn't make a HUGE impact would be nice, for example an item that you can put on 1 mech that will boost its range on all weapons by 1 percent forever, so not swapable.. would be nice to make ppl dedicate to FP alot more.


But all in all, the most important thing is to draw ppl into playing FP with decent payout, even if you stil not the topplayer everything else is way less important!

I hope eventually the war will be great again!

Gz Canni

Edited by Blackcanni, 27 July 2016 - 08:20 PM.

[DaFrog]

green
regular
veteran
elite

screw all those mercs looking for seal clubbing.

planet is held by a veteran force, a green unit can not drop unless fully made aware what they are up against.

This is why we have scouting mode right ?

[N0MAD]

I wrote this in another thread and its my last imput in this mater, for what its worth..

Adjustments to game mode, payouts etc etc may have a small chance to increase population for short periods of time, just as events have increases of pop when they are giving away free shiny things, then pop drops again.
You can try fix CW but thats going to take alot of time effort from the ideas ive heard in that player round table, in the meantime MWO is going to keep losing players.

Heres my take on the current events (Round tables).
Player numbers are declining steadily, steam charts seem to support this, PGI is at its wits end on stoping this, in an attempt to both quell the population and maybe find a solution they have instigated these round table meetings, it also buys them time, months and months of countless round tables.
Game needs something that can address Population issues quickly and with little resource, without delving into game mode mechanics, balance etc etc.
From listening to the guys in that round table it seems what they really want from CW is that half dozen leagues we had in MW2-3-4, listening to them they all wanted features that those leagues provided, really none that can be Incorporated into one grand CW experience..
MWO has been the hardest of all previous MW games to play Leagues easily, its community tools are just bad.

My quick fix..
Get PGI to announce a Zone type loby, copy it as far as you can.
The chat the ease of getting games the simplicity for leagues to communicate and play their games would bring back thousands and player retain ability would increase immediately.
Simple, cheap and nothing to do with fixing rest of game.
Tweaking the game at the moment isnt going to open the flood gates and pop grow quickly, they need a quick fix thats viable on its own and doesnt take months if not years of development.

[Basimpo]

You know what would really streamline factions? Combine all IS groups into one and combine all Clan groups into one.

That way when you join a faction you either join Clan or IS.

That will make the matches go much much quicker to fill up with players and load. Its really discouraging to jump in to play a faction match and wait 30+ minutes and finally give up. I understand the timezones is an issue, but waiting so long for a faction match that needs 12 players per team to commit is frustrating. I tried it for my first few days and decided against playing factions.

I love the idea and the maps and missions are cool, but youre stuck scouting pretty much. The multi-drop deck missions are basically kaput cause no one wants to wait.

When you join a faction it should be InnerSphere, or Clanner. Way streamlined.

[OoWhitePhoenixoO]

1. More maps
2. Less choke points
3. might consider adding multiple capping points on maps that give certain bonuses such as radar scan, ammo reloading, ground based artery support, door control to certain routes
4. Dismiss long tom or make it something which you can aim with once per match
5. Make it that factions contest one planet with multiple battlegrids per week/month or until a set objective is reached (such as capping 3 major capitals on a planet), instead of the conquer whole galaxy thing we have now
6. make new lore which may be implicated into books with these battles
7. up loyalist bonuses, maybe recieving an amount of cbills for each planet held
8. up overall FW gameplay cbil gains

[Kin3ticX]

Here is my list after gathering thoughts during the unofficial pre meeting meeting

1. Long tom removed and replaced with air/arty support denial (no arty or strikes when enemy has 90%) This is significant because this disables potential a total of 48 strikes during a match. However, no more atomics .

2. MFB worth 1 kill and is a kill tie breaker in case enemy camps spawn or the match is super close

3. Dropships nerfed bigly

4. Objective buffed slightly

5. Dropdeck system rejiggered. Slot 1 and 2 are 2/3 tonnage and slot 3 and 4 are 1/3 tonnage. So you have two tonnage pools. This allows PGI to play with tonnage without having 4 waves of heavy for bigger tonnage.

6. Unit to Unit cbill coffer transfers totally open ended and let the players RP it for whatever purpose. Hire mercs, plot to take over the inner sphere, whatever you like.


7. Remove the Loyalist LP penalty

8. Remove the unit size fee

9. tonnage handicap based on CW tier system similar to whats used in regular queue

start with conservative numbers
tier 1 - base tonnage
tier 2 - ~5 tons
tier 3 - ~10 tons
tier 4 - ~15 tons
tier 5 - ~20 tons


(note: a tonnage handicap is used in group queue but it is based only on group size)

Edited by Kin3ticX, 27 July 2016 - 10:26 PM.

[Delta1262 Scorch]

Well, as a suggestion - maybe some of the newly announced features from the rework of Assault mode for pub games will suite nicely in FW matches. We haven't seen them yet, but the explanations were nice - i mean wide array of defencive and support structures, the idea itself about the support generators diversion of which can turn off part of those defences etc.

And about the meaning of the different factions, to lure more people to some specific factions, and not just hanging in mercenaries and going where the action and other player goes, so we then have only 2-3 alive factions and bunch of ghosts where only some loyalists are still playing and you almost never see the activity on the FW map.

Ok, enought of the reasons, and to the point: The idea is to give each faction members some specific buffs, quirks, call it as you want. For some specific weaponry or mechs (you can even use lore examples here, like Clan Wolf - with their Timber Wolf, Steiner - Atlas, Smoke Jags - Ebon Jag etc, and the same goes to specific of the weaponry, each of them had specific array of mechs in mass use, with specific kind of mass used weaponry and prefered strategy). Just that can help people to make choise what are their favorite mechs, and where they can boost them, each faction units can build their own specific strategies and builds from the weaponry boosts they have, and even outside the FW, just for those who mostly play pub games - there will be profit of being part of some faction and after all - take part in FW activity, because of the empowering of his favorite mechs.
P.S. As for the bringing interest in being loyalist - there can be few levels of those buffs: for mercs - there is only one constant level, and for the loyalists - let's just say few different levels that are raising when player is reaching some specific loyalty ranks for that faction.
Well, something like that...

Edited by Delta1262 Scorch, 27 July 2016 - 11:20 PM.

[cpl axeman]

Here are a few ideas on changes that could bring back life and interest back to FP.

Making faction change for loyalist should be more difficult

Take out the long tom until it actually works - the effects shouldnt go through mountains and even getting it every 5 mins is alot

Taking a planet needing 50% is too easy, making it around 66% and giving the holding unit a chance to put in extra defences turrets, tanks ammo bunker or sensors.

Scouting shouldn't only be one lance, but multiple lances on a larger map with a few objectives and and defences.

The dropship should be bought, multiple versions with different weapon hardpoints and drop weight(number of mechs) as
well as being able to be customized. And during the drop the dropship can be called down to defend the drop site.

Maps are an important part of FP(need more of them and large in size) so instead making the gates only hold back the attacker make them hold ammo supplies, generator that shut down defences or other alterate/optional content. But make them have machinegun, laser and missle turrets so they have proper defences.

Make open the gates the same type of operastion as collecting the nodes in scouting, but its takes alot longer unless you have a command console or some module which speeds it up.

FP resources should be changed.
Loyalist should get maybe half less cbills/MC and the other half goes into a fund that the unit can
use to getting Merc units to conditional operations whether in the name of the loyalist unit or in secret not letting other know they are helping the loyalist unit. If the
Merc units obtain the objectives then the loyalist unit also gets rewarded.
Loyalists can also call/vote for Mercs to attack faction enemies. The extra funds for this could come from the faction itself which gets the funds cbills/MC from the amount of planets they hold.

Merc units as well receive less cbills/MC. But they will be able to getting more doing operations/objectives for the loyalist unit.

Thanks for the effort that has already been put into a game we all seem to like and feel passionate about.

During the Round Table discussion is there a way to listen in(muted) just to see where the whole thing is going?

Edited by cplaxeman, 28 July 2016 - 12:21 AM.

[Helene de Montfort]

To be honest, i don't have any suggestions for the game in general, or for FP in particular. I just stopped caring. And i don't think whatever they will do for FP will make me care anymore.

The suggestions i could make would require to rework so much of the game that it would probably be faster to rebuild the whole game from the ground up...

[Johnny Z]

Helene de Montfort, on 27 July 2016 - 11:54 PM, said:

To be honest, i don't have any suggestions for the game in general, or for FP in particular. I just stopped caring. And i don't think whatever they will do for FP will make me care anymore.

The suggestions i could make would require to rework so much of the game that it would probably be faster to rebuild the whole game from the ground up...

To bad. Because when you figure out how its going to come together you may think otherwise and that your comment is silly.

[Freeman 52]

I just wanted to say this thread is amazing in the number and quality of ideas presented. I would gladly pay a monthly subscription to play a BT game that would incorporate these layers of strategy, RP and skill. Well done, everyone. And if PGI borrows your idea, ask them for a cut!

[AnTi90d]

One last suggestion.. probably too late to be seen, though..

Please:

• Reset Loyalist and Merc rank trees once they're at maximum rank (10 for M, 20 for L)

OR

• Add one last rank reward that is infinitely repeatable (like, every X amount of points past maximum: earn Y)

OR

• Develop some method to allow L&Ms to spend their points. Call the store the Black Market. Maybe even stock it with a rotating or randomized loot table.

[Omaha]

Ug I hate that word "endgame" the simple fact of the matter is even if your tier one, have your mechs mastered, and fully kitted out. If your stuck in an uncoordinated group you will loose, no matter what you bring. Same goes for coordination, no matter what you bring u will usually be a winner.

I played quick play for most of my MWO gaming career. That being said, my suggestion is to fix the rush mode tactics, in both FW, and QP. As it is now, the team that balls up and rushes into the opposition, is usually the winner. (this comes from uncoordinated groups in quickplay.) Now sure you can stop this, but it requires a team drop deck and good focus firing with priorities. If your team wanted to play defensively, or is hesitant to push you will most likely loose. Unless you perform the ladder.

Just ask yourselves this, why is the deathball rush so prevalent in today's MWO gameplay? I guess you guys can call it a tactic, and well it is. Easy to share armor, easy to fire on your targets, easy to avoid fire since your moving, easy to make the enemy panic and make mistakes.

What are the down sides to this tactic?
Rubbing into friendlies, barely scratches paint. You dont fall over, and you cant step n lights killing your bro in that locust. Mechs do not explode.

Basically the only down side is friendly fire I suppose.

I still believe there are some big woes in the basic gamemplay that need solved b4 we dive fully into a FW. But I'm not suggesting to take it away or even not do it. By all means build it.

I dunno maybe im just a little jaded about the rush in every single game, it just seams rushing is the way to go in any competitive online game. To me it seems playing defensively requires more teamwork, and more planning n focus then the rush requires. I feel they should require about the same amount of skill or same amount of coordination. Maybe they do, who knows, I'm usually out there playing solo, at range if i can.

Lets say both teams rush into eachother, great! It's a real brawl! Awesome! Now sooner or later one team will be put on a defensive, that team will usually loose. Why does this happen? Back armor? No rear view to back up with?

This may make ppl rawr iin anger but what about "slight" dmg reduction if dmg is coming from multiple? To allow, an under coordinated team a slight chance to get some kills to even the odds? Similar to the target for full laser dmg thing worked. Except backwards, keep it confidential to avoid community backlash lol. After all thats all we want is closer games right?

**Deep down inside i do kinda find it funny really. The game is team based and advertised on that. Yet the scoring system is based on dmg done, solo kills, and, kills shot made. So you get ppl focus firing , and then later argue over who did the most dmg in a match or had a better score, based on the dmg done. So it promotes thsi solo style mentality based on scoring yet, is so focused on focus firing targets to get wins. Why not promote this lesser lance on lance style or even more solo scouting style gameplay?

I just want to say one last thing here before I head out into the world. I get team dynamics, and know how to work as a team, and even coordinate with others. I just don't want to see what was community warfare turn into a fully unit only ordeal. I don't just want to be stuck in quickplay. I don't want to be forced into a unit I do not want to join one, nor lead a unit. Though I am willing to work as a team while playing in a group. And are generally happy to do so. I may say some nasty things here, but Im usually a nice guy ingame. Just wanted to stess that as listening to the talk I feel or get the impression it's like well if your not willing to join or lead a unit then go F&*( off, or not be rewarded as such. GLHF Guys! Happy hunting!

Edited by Omaha, 28 July 2016 - 02:40 AM.