30 replies to this topic

[TopDawg]

This is mostly in line from their original concept of the four pillars (Mech, Role, Community, and Information Warfare), which I don't see present anymore anywhere on their site.

I don't necessarily have an opinion on this (yet), but I am curious what the community at large thinks of the question(s) posed in the title, as this has a rather huge influence/impact on balance and more generally on the 'direction' of the game.

[Karr285]

currently has 0 roles

http://mwomercs.com/...e-warfare-cont/

was supposed to have this but this is over a year old now so probably wont see it.

[Chavette]

Pug Lord
Cheese-builder
Lag-shielder
Forum troll (I myself choose this one)
Loudmouth-Group(ie) Man

And a combination of those, are the common ones.

[Hedonism Robot]

Chavette, on 27 February 2013 - 12:29 PM, said:

Pug Lord
Cheese-builder
Lag-shielder
Forum troll (I myself choose this one)
Loudmouth-Group(ie) Man

And a combination of those, are the common ones.

Chavette, on 27 February 2013 - 12:29 PM, said:

Pug Lord
Cheese-builder
Lag-shielder
Forum troll (I myself choose this one)
Loudmouth-Group(ie) Man

And a combination of those, are the common ones.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Dont forget:
Cry-baby
Disconnected/Crashed
Trial Mech Pilot
Try Hard PreMADer
Afker
TeamKilla

Edited by Hedonism Robot, 27 February 2013 - 01:13 PM.

[Voridan Atreides]

Karr285, on 27 February 2013 - 12:19 PM, said:

currently has 0 roles

http://mwomercs.com/...e-warfare-cont/

was supposed to have this but this is over a year old now so probably wont see it.

Was there a projected date of when we would see this?

[Murku]

Sorry to get back on topic..

Was really hoping for a Lockdown role with PPC vs ECM effects and worthwhile Flamers. That hope was quickly dispelled by reality. I guess difficulty with concepts like this is people getting grouchy over stunlock, which is understandable.

And that's the issue. Anything achievable beyond damage could get taken to an extreme and make the game less playable. So finding new roles beyond damage dealing is difficult to balance.

[Stoicblitzer]

Here are the current roles:
RVN-3L
AS7-D-DC
CPLT-A1
CTF-3D
CPLT-K2

[Karr285]

Voridan Atreides, on 27 February 2013 - 01:19 PM, said:

Was there a projected date of when we would see this?

Is there ever? It would be nice if they ever stated what they have tossed or has been pushed back, but they generally seem to hope people forget and push on.

[MadSavage]

Brawler, Skirmisher, Warrior, Sniper

if you're not one of those YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

[Tarman]

Stoicblitzer, on 27 February 2013 - 01:30 PM, said:

Here are the current roles:
RVN-3L
AS7-D-DC
CPLT-A1
CTF-3D
CPLT-K2

These are not roles. These are rides.

[Voridan Atreides]

These are what I could think of.

Long Range Support, Brawler, Skirmisher, Striker, Sniper, and Short Range Support

[Broceratops]

I used to be a pug lord but I've rerolled into a forum troll because I find it funner.

LOL @ some of the things in the original plan. My god that game would have been awesome.

InnerSphereNews, on 03 February 2012 - 11:00 AM, said:

Scout Role Skills:

• • Null Signature System – Allows the pilot to appear shut down for 5 seconds
  
• • Multi-Targeting – Allows the pilot to target multiple enemies up to 4 at a time.

Assault/Defense Skills:

• • Charging – A special attack that allows the pilot to drive their BattleMech into an enemy BattleMech without sustaining too much damage

Commander Skills:

• • Order View – Allows the pilot to right click and request friendly BattleMechs to attack or defend areas/objectives on the BattleGrid
  
• • Call Air Strike – Calls in an air strike that does AOE damage in a straight line
  
• • Call Artillery – Calls in a land based artillery bombardment on to a target area
  
• • Call Naval Bombardment – Calls in Naval artillery bombardment that has a larger and more powerful result than regular artillery
  
• • Call UAV – Calls a UAV that passes overhead of the battlefield and relays ALL enemy positions to the command pilot
  
• • Call Predator Drone – Drops a heavy explosive device on a targeted area
  
• • Call Satellite Sweep – Full detail information is passed to the command pilot including enemy location/direction/speed

Edited by Broceratops, 27 February 2013 - 01:38 PM.

[Khobai]

Agreed. The roles we have now are pretty much...

Cannon Fodder
Raven-3L
Poptart
Splatcat

The roles the game should have...
Recon, Strike, Assault, Command, Support, Pursuit/Harassment, etc...

They need to bring back the pilot skill tree.

Edited by Khobai, 27 February 2013 - 01:40 PM.

[Stoicblitzer]

Tarman, on 27 February 2013 - 01:34 PM, said:

These are not roles. These are rides.

I'm being sarcastic but I think you knew that.

[Tarman]

Stoicblitzer, on 27 February 2013 - 01:38 PM, said:

I'm being sarcastic but I think you knew that.

It's forums, best to shoot first and do fire control later. Well, not best, rather SOP.

[DaZur]

What rolls?

- Dinner
- Sweet
- Bread
And if your feeling "risky"... There's the day-old Sushi.

[TopDawg]

:Þ some of the 'troles' were pretty funny. The reason I ask though, is because this is what they used to have listed on their site:

Quote

"Welcome MechWarrior!

Piranha Games is proud to bring you the next instalment in the MechWarrior® franchise. It has been a long time coming and this synopsis will help to answer some of your questions. If you've read through Dev Blog 0, you'll know that we are a premium Free-To-Play game based on the bestselling BattleTech® Universe. When coming up with the core game features for MechWarrior® Online™, we create and focused on four pillars of design and player experience. These pillars include:

• Mech Warfare – The embodiment of Mech to Mech combat.
  
• Role Warfare – The ability for player's to customize their experience to suit their own style of gameplay.
  
• Community Warfare – The ability to let the players take part in epic combat for territorial control.
  
• Information Warfare – Bring a new element to the battlefield that incorporates information technology to help control the fight."

And then for Role Warfare in particular:

Quote

"Role Warfare:
When it comes down to play style for any given player, we want to make sure that we have as many options as possible to cater to as many player types as possible. This is where things get really interesting. Everything from choosing a BattleMech to how a MechWarrior® is trained, will allow a player to truly customize their own personal game experience. What is a player's preferred role when playing MechWarrior®? Scout? Attacker? Defender? Commander? Whatever it is, a player will be able to train their MechWarrior to specialize in their style of gameplay. Players are highly encouraged to participate in team based gameplay. The fast manoeuvrable scouts will be able to relay information back to the commander units who in turn relay that information to the attacker and defender units. As players advance their MechWarrior in a role, more skills and abilities related to their role will become available. Remember, a team who plays together will always win together."

I am curious as to why they have removed it from the site; whether they have changed these pillars somewhat, or it was just no longer serving any purpose. But regardless, and as some posters did answer, the question of roles remains as relevant as ever.

As I said initially, I don't necessarily have an exact opinion on what roles should be in the game, but I will say that I think there should be roles present (perhaps even somewhat 'forced' onto the game).

It is likely that most competitive minded players have already fashioned roles into their strategies, and then placed Mechs within them which most efficiently perform that role. With competition in mind and no restrictions whatsoever, that tends to come out to ~6 Mechs (maybe): Atlas DDC, Raven 3L, Cataphract 3D, Stalker 3F, Catapult A1/K2, then maybe a Centurion A. Note: 12s and larger maps may shuffle this, but I ultimately don't think it's going to change from only being a handful of Mechs that are primarily used.

With restrictions in place, like say the RHOD league for instance where they restrict based on weight classes (such as 2-2-2-2 where it represents Assaults - Heavies - Mediums - Lights respectively), more Mechs become 'viable' in the sense that they perform the desired role 'next best' (like the Cent, Treb, Cicada, to name a few).

This does open up a whole slew of balance questions, but I don't particularly want to touch on individual balance per se in this thread. What I want to get at is merely just the fact that roles are going to inherently dictate balance, or lack thereof.

And this isn't meant to bag on PGI or anything. They can look up my stats and see that I play a lot, as well working on getting my group up to competition level in the hopes of joining RHOD for the second season, tournaments, Community Warfare, etc.

What I'm proposing I guess, is simply not to nerf what's effective, but to buff other things making them effective (like NARC and LRMs, for instance). I believe balance is defined as having meaningful choices to choose from, i.e. having as many viable options as possible.

With all of that said, again, what kinds of roles should MWO not only support, but encourage or 'force' people into?

[Flying Blind]

These roles are currently user-defined. A role is nothing more than a plan on how to use your particular asset in the fight.
The roles my team uses are:
Brawler
Skirmisher
Scout
LRM-support
Direct-Fire support

these roles are well defined and fillable with many different mechs in the game.

our game allows a LOT of freedom of choice in how you play the game, we as individuals limit ourselves to just a few builds.

there is nothing to stop you from scouting Steiner-style in an Atlas, and while you will be playing the role of scout it seems to me you might be able to do it better in a different mech. ANY different mech. but if you can make it work, good on you. this isn't Dungeons and Dragons where we have tightly defined character classes and are only able to develop skills within that role or class. we have to develop our own definition of what our role is.

and that is a GOOD thing.


TL;DR: lack of roles in this game is not a failure of the game (it provides us with plenty of tools), it is a failure of ourselves to define and apply a role for ourselves.

[jay35]

Stoicblitzer, on 27 February 2013 - 01:30 PM, said:

Here are the current roles:
RVN-3L
AS7-D-DC
CPLT-A1
CTF-3D
CPLT-K2

Cute, but not really true. While I am glad when I see some of those on my team, the fact is players still run a diverse array of mechs and (for example) I see just as many Centurions, Stalkers, Jenners, Dragons, and Trebuchets as I do anything else.

Edited by jay35, 01 March 2013 - 08:16 AM.

[Alistair Winter]

Karr285, on 27 February 2013 - 12:19 PM, said:

currently has 0 roles
http://mwomercs.com/...e-warfare-cont/
was supposed to have this but this is over a year old now so probably wont see it.

I didn't even know about those. As has already been said, that game would have been great. Let's hope they still use some of those ideas. IMO, it needs a fourth role in addition to scout, assault and commander, namely support / long range.