54 replies to this topic

[SquareSphere]

This is a great topic. I agree with a some of the idea and concepts brought up. Personally, the death thing has to be tied to several mechanics.

Game Mode (type)

• Skirmish - classic team death match, no objectives. In this case it make sense to have only 1 life per player. Dead players can spectate or drop out and join another match. Also note this NEEDS a time limit since this is a semi pub game, you're gonna have the one guy that's going to try to hide in a corner just to be a troll
  
• Conquest - this is the objective based land grab game play. Ticket systems work great here and are a must to make the mode fun. If your team owns more than half the points your tickets go down. Also, getting killed deducts from the team tickets.

ok so let look at "After match" results. I'm assuming a few things such as experience points are separate from "cbills" which would be used to buy new mechs and or customizations. Cbills are earned by damage done and taking objectives etc, NOT by kills.

• Death causes repairs to be higher, deducted from cbills gained in match. If they're death rush prone make to where the repair cost can actually EXCEED the amount of cbills earn if all they're doing is running into battle and not firing a shot. Controls people trying to pad/power level their buddy. Obvious limit on how negative they can go. Maybe give everyone access to a non sellable crappy starter mech that is free to repair or gets deep discounts on repairs.

• Why, you only get one life EVER in MWO won't work. Simple, there is no way to escape battle. Eve works cause you can run through a vast space and maybe get away. MWO seems to be match based battle so there's no where to run. Sides if you only get 1 life, people will tend to favor long range fighting and then running as soon as it looks kinda bad.

[PewPew]

Why not have respawns tied to your lance? Only when your lance is wiped or when the retreating mechs in your lance fall back to a certain point can the entire lance be brought back into the game. A system like this would

- Prevent long respawn times in matches that could last 15 minutes
- Prevent continuous waves of spawning, which would not be realistic and would marginalize well executed strategies
- Be easy to explain through canon
- Encourage strong teamwork, at least among your lance. Operating together would provide a benefit of shortening respawn times when your entire lance wipes, and would punish those who run solo and die.

[Rathmell]

i like the no respawn idea BT is about team work your part of a unit and should work as a team and if you want to rambo it that's your call.

and as a few have suggested a hanger with mech bays in it (say 4) so if you do die leave game get new mech and join a different battle( see WoT).
but an idea for respawning is have a repair vehicle to make repairs on mechs that a player drives not a NPC or if no player has one then an NPC does it have it cost 1.5 or 2 times as much.

[Corvus Antaka]

For me the core point would be that we have both respawn and norespawn available as gametypes so fans of either can enjoy either or.

[HeavensDaemon]

Re-spawning would just cause every person grabbing the biggest assault mech with the most weapons and just running at each other. Light mechs would also become obsolete.

[Halflight]

I know there are no plans to include other battlefield units besides Mechs, but if there were, I'd propose respawning into one of those instead of back into a Mech. That way, it's possible to mostly preserve the immersion since once you lose your Mech, you're no longer a Mech pilot, but you are still able to take part in the battle, but to a much more limited extent. Aircraft, light or medium tanks, artillery, maybe even a squishy spotter on foot to call in airstrikes. It would be kind of like a mini-game, but the important thing is that you aren't sitting on your hands for several minutes at a time, while still having to endure the fact that you were beaten.

There just needs to be something active for you to do instead of cooling your jets waiting for the battle to end. Spectator mode is just too passive for me and respawning is too ADD.

Edited by Halflight, 09 November 2011 - 01:08 PM.

[Dihm]

AlienInvader, on 09 November 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

In random battles (WoT style): no respawn. You die, either watch the rest of the match, or exit battle and hop in another mech and get in another random match.

I favor this option.

[fett]

Respawn removes WAY too much of the tactical layer of the game, and is it in any way realistic?

Imagine this scenario....
My team has a Catapult, Vindicator, Griffin, and a Trebuchet (all strong in long ranged weapons)
Your team has a Hunchback, Archer, Charger, and Wolverine.

With the exception of the Wolverine's AC/5, only the Archer is a threat at range. So, our tactic might be to focus on the Archer, slow him down or take him out, and then try to keep distance between ourselves and the remaining enemies.

With respawn,.. we kill hima nd not only is any level of tactics pointless, but he has all his ammo back!

Respawn only motivates me to consider one tactic, crippling, but not destroying my enemy, and moving as far away as possible. Ie. take out the leg, but be **** sure not the head or centre torso,... boring! And totally unrealistic.

Give tactics a chance.

[Dahur]

I think that be cool if "dead" player could help his teammember to control one of weapon on his mech. (machinegun, rockets e.t.c)

Edited by Dahur, 09 November 2011 - 01:46 PM.

[Haeso]

What's realistic about your mech exploding and your pilot not being dead, but actually gaining experience for it?

And you don't see the tactical advantage in temporarily destroying the only threat to your team? It's only an advantage if permanent?

I tend to prefer single life objective style matches, but to suggest there's no strategy because of a tickets/respawn system of any sort is absurd.

I think tickets + limited respawn window say a dropship is sent every 5-10 minutes, and you have to be on it with your replacement mech before it begins it's descent, or wait for the next one. Plenty of ways to do it, if your entire team is long range, they've already lost just because of mech choice, where's the strategy in that? I'd say there's more strategy in allowing them to either A: Retreat and re-fit into better suited Mechs for the fight at hand, or charge in and do what they can before the inevitable loss (Assuming they aren't the defenders in an attack/defend scenario), and switch to more appropriate mechs. That definitely adds strategy.

Another way would be to have the outcome of the match even objective style ones, your c-bill payout and experience gains are increased if your team lost less Tonnage/BV than the enemy team or whatever the average is for that particular mission type.

Say getting 1 Tonnage/BV destroyed versus what you lost or 1-1, as the attacker would be really good, conversely as the defender a poor showing, and your payout reflects it.

[KitLightning]

SquareSphere, on 09 November 2011 - 11:21 AM, said:

Death causes repairs to be higher, deducted from cbills gained in match. If they're death rush prone make to where the repair cost can actually EXCEED the amount of cbills earn if all they're doing is running into battle and not firing a shot. Controls people trying to pad/power level their buddy. Obvious limit on how negative they can go. Maybe give everyone access to a non sellable crappy starter mech that is free to repair or gets deep discounts on repairs.

Sorry for singling you out Square, not intended as an offence or discriminating your thoughts. Though I do not see the logic that a players death should increase the cost of repairing assets. It is not productive towards new players wanting to learn the game and will outbalance the game severely. Not to say that you may have an unlucky entry to the game, making it even harder for to get back onto the field. Tying the player to an asset in the start that cannot be sold is useless and you will see a lot of vacant assets as time evolves on a map with Respawn enabled, possibly decreasing the overall server performance.

The 1 life option vs. Respawn option should be a server side setting. This is basically to ensure that MWO will attract as many players as possible. The player base of MechWarrior is very spars and the more players we can get hooked the better. Voiding the option to respawn as a server side setting will limit the player base that will be attracted to MWO.

Sure people will purchase the heaviest asset they can get. That's basic human nature. That said the Lights should serve a purpose amongst heavier assets such as intelligence gathering etc., I do not see a big issue there.

[Drayco]

It would seem a simple solution is to have both. Have 'open' death matches where there is some form of respawn, perhaps team based or increasing time penalty.

Then have world effecting battles as a 1 pilot to 1 mech and unless you have more than that (If the game even has the ability to have multiple pilots) then you are out of it. Once down and out perhaps you can stay with the game as a team only observer or perhaps man fixed defenses etc on certain maps. Otherwise it would be back to the mechlab or the like to while away the time till the match ends.

I just hope that there is no respawn in a serious game mode, that is not Battletech at all.

[The Dark Hood]

Why Don't we just add a spectator mode as an option, and if players want to they can quit the game or watch it! No respawn unless there is some sort of ticket system, but there could be an option on servers to have or not have tickets. This would satifie both side for, and not for respawning.

[CobraFive]

Depends on how long a match is.

If its a quick counter-strike style deal then no respawns, say 8v8 or 16v16, and you spectate you allies form third person (So you have something to look at).

If its a longer Battlefield-style ordeal, like 24v24 or 32v32, then either add in respawns, or let us quit the match and join another with no penalty.

If you have to sit and watch long matches finish, or are penalized for not sitting and watching the rest, I don't think I'll be playing very often.

[gregsolidus]

BF3 actually rewards you for not rage quitting,just throwing that out there.