13 replies to this topic

[HammerSwarm]

Maps: Works on all maps

Additional Visuals: Medium

Additional Coding: Average to Extensive.

Type: Symmetric

Teams are evenly matched from current starting positions. Due to the destruction of a cargo ship as it left the atmosphere Unobtanium ore has began landing in the engagement area. Your forces have deployed a mobile resource recovery rocket to the spawn area along with your teams drop. The objective here is to track down Unobtanium blocks as they enter the atmosphere and move as a team to grab them. Engaging the enemy sparingly because as your team dies they lose effectiveness. And ultimately lose the engagement.

The challenges involved other than the somewhat random dropping pattern of the Ore is that only mechs with hands are able to handle the ore. Also do to the unusual density of the chunks of ore they have extremely high mass. Limiting mechs under 100 tons in speed. Also mechs carrying unobtanium ore can not fire because they risk damaging the ore due to the placement of their weapons.

Speed is calculated when hauling ore is (Mech Tonnage)/100%. So a Centurion would be 50%, a Commando would be 25%. This in addition to not shooting is designed to prevent small mechs from being pigeon holed into the role of ore hauler. It also evens the field as to which mech is best suited to haul.

Chunks of ore would not appear on radar and would need to be spotted once they land. An incoming chunk would trigger an explosion animation if it hit a building or other geography as it came to a stop after impact. Would look like a sizable metallic block on the ground.

An Example on River City:



Here is an example of the map. The Circles represent starting area, and the Yellow area represents the impact Zone. The chunks of ore would land at random intervals, and in random places on the map. They would arrive at a total 15 chunks in 15 minutes. Both teams would need to move strategically to spot where the chunks landed. how many chunks are in play. and where the enemy is.

Tactics could be to hold an area of the map and allow runners to grab the chunks. To move as a group and defend the chunk carrier. Or something I am not even considering.

Scoring: The goal would be to be the first team to gather 8 chunks to their base. Another victory condition would be to totally eliminate your enemy. Killing and gathering would be mutually exclusive victory conditions.

Killing would yield 300 points of XP to the winner and 100 to the loser. In a chunk capturing victory each team would receive 50 points per chunk captured. All other normal XP bonuses would apply.

I like the concept but what about other maps?

This works on every map, you simply divide the map in half from the spawn points and draw a bisecting line half way in between. You can change the fluff to be map or planet appropriate. Escape pods, Cargo, Etc. could all be used in place of Unobtanium Ore.

[Hellcat420]

sounds like an even worse version of conquest(mixing it with capture the flag). would not play

Edited by Hellcat420, 09 September 2013 - 09:10 AM.

[HammerSwarm]

Hellcat420, on 09 September 2013 - 09:08 AM, said:

sounds like an even worse version of conquest(mixing it with capture the flag). would not play

Well then you kinda get what I was going for. CTF but with a battle tech feel.

[MightyBolamite]

I like it. It is very, CTF-y but with a MW spin; I like that.

HammerSwarm, on 09 September 2013 - 07:36 AM, said:

Speed is calculated when hauling ore is (Mech Tonnage)/100%. So a Centurion would be 50%, a Commando would be 25%. This in addition to not shooting is designed to prevent small mechs from being pigeon holed into the role of ore hauler. It also evens the field as to which mech is best suited to haul.

That stood out to me. Very well thought out. As a light pilot I was seeing this as something I'd be forced to do, being exposed to enemy fire against my will. Then you made that statement.
Brilliant.
Now lights are not ideal for grabbing the loot, but doing what they do best, disrupting the enemy fire line.

Love it.

[HammerSwarm]

A guild mate talked with me last night about the prospect of these modes (this one and search and destroy) and that he thought they would work better as part of a drop ship system. This is a fair point but I think with or without limited respawn these game modes work. It could just descend into a crazy brawl but I don't believe that will always be the case.

I see having objectives that are different and more rewarding than just scrumming as the counter to a senseless brawl. Would you be likely to move into the middle and scrum if you knew losing could, A.) cost you the match and B.) playing the game mode win or lose would result in more rewards.

Even with just 12 mechs per side (instead of limited respawn meaning 24-48) I see it playing out something like this. Two sides staking claim to areas until it becomes apparent one team will lose without a brawl. At that point brawling or attempting to kill chunk carriers makes more sense than standing ground and losing. The random nature of the chunk landings keeps this dynamic because it won't play out the same way twice. You could control 70% of the impact zone but still lose out chunks because they aren't falling your way. Now you could stand still and lose or you could fight for that last 30%. On a large map covering the entire chunk falling zone could be hard. This will allow fast or dynamic teams to out chunk you simply because your team is moving as a blob at the speed of the slowest player.

There is a lot of potential even with 12 people, and a lot of reasons not to just die outright. Having a death match mode makes sense if you have objectives modes for people who like to do more than run around and die.

MightyBolamite, on 09 September 2013 - 03:44 PM, said:

That stood out to me. Very well thought out. As a light pilot I was seeing this as something I'd be forced to do, being exposed to enemy fire against my will. Then you made that statement.
Brilliant.
Now lights are not ideal for grabbing the loot, but doing what they do best, disrupting the enemy fire line.

Thanks MightyBolamite. I was trying to put all mechs on equal footing as far as moving chunks. A light even moving at 1/4 speed could still be the best option. I wanted to make sure all mechs would be on equal footing as far as moving chunks around. The Centurion 9D or a Trebuchet 3C might be the best options on paper for moving chunks. They'd only be slightly faster at it than an atlas though.

[Earl White]

Right, so any reason why this would not be just a straight up deathmatch? Especially considering how small that map is. Why bother carrying anything especially if it slows you and stops you from firing.

[HammerSwarm]

Earl White, on 10 September 2013 - 07:23 AM, said:

Right, so any reason why this would not be just a straight up deathmatch? Especially considering how small that map is. Why bother carrying anything especially if it slows you and stops you from firing.

The rewards are better if you play the game mode. Any mode can become a death match but having something else to do in the game will make it more fun.

I mean by your logic we only need one game mode. Death match. Because with just one life to live any mode can become a death match.

[Timuroslav]

There is only two problems I have with this, other than that I love the idea.

Problems:

-how are you going to get mechs with arms on your team? What happens when you have Jenners Ballistic Jagers and Stalkers?

-The reward for doing the objectives needs to be much higher than the reward for just flat out brawling. The Team that's losing will just want to death ball it and if the time runs out the team that just Team Death-matches, will win because of the kill Ratio instead of the resource gathering amount.

Solution:
-Change the Victory conditions to focus on the resource gathering
-Change the Reward for Victory And losses based off of Resources
(Optional) Allow respawn with up to 4 ready-ed Mechs, this will drastically minimize the Annihilation problem

Keep on Stomping on
i like this idea.

Edited by Timuroslav, 15 September 2013 - 11:04 AM.

[HammerSwarm]

Timuroslav, on 10 September 2013 - 09:40 AM, said:

There is only two problems I have with this, other than that I love the idea.

Problems:

-how are you going to get mechs with arms on your team? What happens when you have Jenners Ballistic Jagers and Stalkers?

-The reward for doing the objectives needs to be much higher than the reward for just flat out brawling. The Team that's losing will just want to death ball it and if the time runs out the team that just Team Death-matches, will win because of the kill Ratio instead of the resource gathering amount.

Solution:
-Change the Victory conditions to focus on the resource gathering
-Change the Reward for Victory And losses based off of Resources

Keep on Stomping on
i like this idea.

the flea, the locust, the jenner, the raven, the cicada, the black jack, the catapult the jager and the stalker don't have hands.

If this were a deal breaker I suppose I could live with some sort of tow cable or some other macguffin as to how mechs moved the ore. I suspect though that finding mechs with hands in most drops would not be a problem.

As to the rewards, I am willing to see those changed too. I think we agree they need to be higher to reward game play.

[BillyM]

Sounds great!

Stop making skins.
Stop making new mechs.
Stop doing 25%+ nerf/buff cycles on weapons.

...put in this game-mode. NOW.

--billyM

[Oppresor]

HammerSwarm I was sold on the idea from the point that you referenced Unobtanium, (The Core was a fantastic film). Recovery formed the basis of one of the missions in Outpost 2 Dynamix 1997 http://www.google.co....52164340,d.ZG4 where you needed to explore and recover parts of your crashed starship. In concept this type of mission can lead to many outcomes; some will follow the rules while others will still go for attrition; for that reason it may be necessary to remove the win by killing all enemy criteria for the mode to function as intended.

New Module - Recovery Unit
I see this as a way to introduce a new Module, a winch type assembly which would enable you to drag the metal blocks, or any other Salvage (Bits of enemy Mech)back to your base or Dropship. This would look awesome. Picture a large block of Unobtanium lashed behind your Catapult leaving a gouge trail in the ground or a dust trail if it takes place in Tourmaline. Assuming it's a heavy compound, the Mech would also dig in as it pulled it leaving very prominent footprints in the mud.

[Johnny Z]

I like the module idea, and the op's idea, although to complicated i think. The module could be used for other loot driven maps i am hoping for some time. Like Battlemech factory map with lostech.

Another similar idea but alot more simple is that a cargo ship has crashed with valuable cargo and 2 or 3 teams have shown up to retrieve it. First team to get the cargo and return to their drop ship evac point wins.

This would make for a short match but the search might take some time and would make for alot of fun.


Also this is way out there, but if they add aerotech some time and a cargo ship actually does get shot down over a planet then this type of mission could pop and allow recovery.

Edited by Johnny Z, 14 September 2013 - 03:33 PM.

[Death Weasel]

I like it.
Lots of interesting suggestions in the thread.
I especially agree with the idea that a team kill will get the win, but the mode should allow better XP and C-Bill rates.

[HammerSwarm]

Panzershriek, on 15 September 2013 - 08:08 AM, said:

I like it.
Lots of interesting suggestions in the thread.
I especially agree with the idea that a team kill will get the win, but the mode should allow better XP and C-Bill rates.

That's a key, even losing but having played the game mode can yield better results. than losing in a brawl. I mean I know coding this stuff would take some time but I'd like to see more variety!