3 replies to this topic

[Cervantes88]

-- Skip that part if you don't care about my ranting --

Yeah that's quite the title huh ? Well I figured I'd make yet another post about that.

I really like the game, I like how the fights are made, and how ACTUAL FIGHTING STRATEGY matters.

What I don't like, and what happens way too often, are people just avoiding the fight, and running around capping bases and points, not caring at all about the rest of their team being engaged in a nice and intense battle, and winning the game by points or capture.

Some may call this strategy. It sure is, and I can understand that people actually like this global capping strategy. Just like I understand that some people don't like Aliens because it's nothing like the first Alien movie.

What I don't understand is why I am being FORCED to comply with that game mechanic that I don't appreciate nor want to play or care about. I just fight, use strategy and skills (moderately) in the fight, enjoy myself. And I don't give a flying **** about the points count or base cap. That's why I'm still playing this game. But It kind of gets frustrating when I'm deprived of a well-deserved win reward bonus because of something totally unrelated to the fight.

-- Now start reading lol --

That is why I suggest that devs make a really simple KING OF THE HILL-ish gametype. Call it what you want Capture and Hold, Seize the Salvage, you can make all kind of roleplay excuses for that, like a piece of salvaged clan tech in a container that fell and two lances fight to grab it for monies, whatever I don't know much about Battletech lore :

- ONE point at equal distance of the two teams spawns : It's already done ! It's called Theta lol.

- Your team has to step on the point to start capturing it. You have to hold it for a hefty amount of time (3-5~ mn) to win by points. Having the point being capturing actually ignore the global timer of the game (the game can last longer than 15mn if a cap is going on).

- Having several mechs on the point does NOT make the cap go faster. (VERY IMPORTANT, to avoid just blobbing straight on the point the main tactic). So that the fight can take place anywhere on the map around the cap, even quite far away, but not that far that assaults and heavy can't react in time if they're being capped.

- Having any amount of enemy mechs step on the point when you hold it stops the point counter as the point becomes contested, until all of the representatives of one of the two teams step out.

And BAM, you got yourself the best game mode. It's basically TDM, but with a fairly-placed base cap and hold mechanic to avoid the "last light mech running around and hiding" type of griefing that would surely happen in a pure raw TDM gametype.

So yeah, that's it. You already got the base models, you already got the point placement. All you have to do are the rules and I just gave you some pretty precise indicators.

Whatchu guys think about it ? Let me know in that poll I made for your clicking enjoyment lol.

Edited by Egomane, 01 April 2013 - 03:42 AM.
The rules, say only "Yes", "No" and "Abstain" for answers

[GoldenGnu]

I only read "KING OF THE HILL" and I was sold...
Yes, please... The fun part of this game is the combat... It's no fun to win or loss by capping bases IMHO.

[HammerSwarm]

TDM has no place in Mech Warrior online. Wars stopped being fought as 2 lines of warriors marching towards each other on a field for a reason. Taking military tactics back to WW1 isn't moving combat forward.

I support a king of the hill game mode but not for the reasons you've stated. Also 3-5 minutes with no re spawns and the natural locations of theta would be difficult. I suppose that is what you want because I think you want all game modes to be a brawl instead of objective based game play. As a fan of dragons, and centurions I relish the objectives because in a brawl to the death I am not as good as some comparable mech in terms of fire power v. tonnage.

King of the hill IMHO would be more like.

One of the terribly indefensible positions such as theta with a capture point that would require no more than 2 minutes to capture for a single mech. A team of 8 standing on the capture point all at once would capture in 30 seconds. Capturing would be cumulative, and would not decay. So if team S stood on the cap for 1/2 of the capture time and was chased off, then they could hold those points for another attempt. First team to X amount of capping time wins.

I am going to use 2 maps to make my point on this:

On River City theta is in the river. It is vulnerable from the citadel Lower City, Upper City, and it would involve some strategy to defend the point takers. In a scenario where 1 or two light mechs run into the capture area it would take 1-2 minutes to capture the point. Easily Allowing for one team to eat those light mechs alive if that were their focus. If a whole team rushed from either starting location they would be completely exposed by the river with no cover from snipers or missiles. Lights would have something to do as they would hunt the snipers focused on over watching and holding the capture point. Teams would have to setup to defend the poor souls they sent to cap.

On Alpine peaks this would be a running battle. A team comprised completely of lights would beat a team comprised completely of heavies every time. Having this map in the rotation would force people to be more mindful of their speed when choosing to queue for this mode. A Steiner scout lance would fail to beat a raven scout lance every time because atlasii are not scouts. Once at the cap teams would be forced into a battle, lights on lights until the fast mediums and fast heavies arrive, then it'd be more interesting, until the slower mechs arrive to clean up. Like a real battle would work.

This is the perfect 8-12 man tactical mode because you could work your team how you want. a team of 8 raven 3L would not be the match of 8 C9N-D because the C9N-D could chase them from the points with ease.

You could setup a team with lights to start the cap and then mediums and heavies to back them up as the lights engage and harass etc. Tactics would win.

I dunno maybe it's just me but I want tactics and team play to beat a brawling strategy and individual fire power every time.

Edited by HammerSwarm, 01 April 2013 - 06:01 AM.

[Roland]

Quote

TDM has no place in Mech Warrior online. Wars stopped being fought as 2 lines of warriors marching towards each other on a field for a reason. Taking military tactics back to WW1 isn't moving combat forward.

You obviously don't really grasp how TDM is played in mechwarrior.

See, removing the cap points actually makes it LESS likely that you'll have teams march directly towards each other, since they are no longer tethered to their cap point.

When you are forced to defend a little red square, then you are limited to generally making sure that the majority of your force stays between the enemy and your cap, at least to the extent that you can retreat your force to the cap point to defend it if necessary.

It's the introduction of cap points, not the removal of them, that results in the type of gameplay you describe. i.e. marching directly towards the enemy and engaging roughly around the center of the map.