17 replies to this topic

[MustrumRidcully]

The current game modes are not particularly deep or complex and tend to be bland after playing them for the thousand times. So here's an idea to add some variety without it becoming overly complex.

The Concet is Optional Mission Objectives.

Examples:

Survivor Rescue
Flavour Text:
Members from a previous operaiton from [FACTION] in this area went missing. They are presumed to still be in the area. If they are still alive, there supplies will run out soon. Try to locate them so we can evacuate them / or bring them in for further questioning.

Mission Objective:
Spread around the map there may be small camps or some old mech wrecks with a few survivors. All you need to rescue them is get to their spot and wait for 10 seconds.

Rewards:
Individual Reward: +5.000 C-Bills, +25 XP
Team Reward: +5.000 C-Bills, +25 XP, +20 % salvage rewards.

Design Note:
The locations of these points should be a little outside the primary locations typically used by players (use heat map data).
The whole concept rewards teams with good scouts, and the scout himself.
The salvage rewards are in to ensure that players don't compromise the primary mission objective - you only get salvage if you win.

Bounty
Flavour Text:
Due to his previous actions, Mechwarrior [Target Player Name] has drown the attention of our leadership. We believe the target to be highly valuable and should it be encounted, taking him out the fight would be good for the moral of troops and may demoralize the enemy.

Mission Objective:
A player on the opposing team is chosen. If he can be killed, additional rewards are granted.


Rewards:
Team Reward: +5.000 C-Bills, +25 XP, and +20 % on salvage rewards.

Design Note:
The idea is to select a high ranked player (be it due to Elo or because he has the biggest mech) to provide him with additional challenge.
Open Question: One might have to wonder if the bounty also is aware that he's the bounty of the team, or if we leave this as a surprise?

Protegé
Flavour Text:
Someone higher up has taken an interest in Mechwarrior [Target Player Name]. Make sure he lives through the battle and take note of his achievements. Your efforts in supporting this Mechwarrior will not go unnoticed.

Mission Objective:
The protogé must survive until the end of the match.

Rewards:
Team Reward: +10 % on salvage rewards if the player survives, 20 % of the protogés individual rewards regardless of his survival.

Design Note:
The idea is to selected a low ranked, new, or a player in a fragile mech as protogé so that the team works to protect him and the player has a chance to learn. Giving everyone a reward for his contributions ensures that he's not just send into a corner to power down.
The opposing side does not need to know who the protogé is.


---

Now imagine that any one of these mission objectives is added randomly to a match. Maybe the enemy has a bounty, the

[Khobai]

The problem is that the gamemodes just arnt fun to begin with. Adding optional objectives isnt going to suddenly make them fun. Just like adding charge-up to gauss isnt going to fix convergence. In all likelihood it will have the opposite of the intended effect, because teams will lose the primary objective while attempting to complete the optional objectives.

What we need is a third gamemode that avoids the failings of assault and conquest, has a thematically appropriate objective, and also reinforces role warfare. Integration of respawn is also crucial since it reduces the chance of bad players, afkers, and disconnectors from ruining the game and prevents outright steamrolling.

Edited by Khobai, 26 August 2013 - 03:51 PM.

[MustrumRidcully]

Khobai, on 26 August 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

The problem is that the gamemodes just arnt fun to begin with. Adding optional objectives isnt going to suddenly make them fun. Just like adding charge-up to gauss isnt going to fix convergence. In all likelihood it will have the opposite of the intended effect, because teams will lose the primary objective while attempting to complete the optional objectives.

What we need is a third gamemode that avoids the failings of assault and conquest, has a thematically appropriate objective, and also reinforces role warfare. Integration of respawn is also crucial since it reduces the chance of bad players, afkers, and disconnectors from ruining the game and prevents outright steamrolling.

I don't disagree, but I am not even sure PGI is working on new game modes in the firs tplace, so giving them at least a "smaller" goal might be a start.

I'd love to see some well-thought out alternative mission suggestions, too, though.

[Khobai]

Quote

don't disagree, but I am not even sure PGI is working on new game modes in the firs tplace, so giving them at least a "smaller" goal might be a start.

Well a smaller goal would be to completely revamp the base assault gamemode. Base assault hasnt been majorly updated for over a year. We were originally told that base assault was just meant to be a placeholder gamemode until advanced base assault was added, which was apparently scrapped... since we havent heard anything about it since last year.

It was alluded that advanced base assault wouldve added defensive turrets to protect the bases from being captured too early. Which is the main reason why base assault is currently such a flawed gamemode. Increasing the cap time has helped but you still see cap rushes happening way more than they should.

IMO PGI needs to make fixing assault/conquest and adding new game modes a priority. New gamemodes are as integral to community warfare being successful as anything else.

Edited by Khobai, 26 August 2013 - 10:25 PM.

[Onmyoudo]

Sounds fun. Would certainly make things a little more interesting.

[Wolf Ender]

these are decent ideas and might make things a little less monotonous for some people but the effect would be so marginal i don't think it will be enough to change the minds of people who are unhappy with the current level of variety . i think what people really want is more game modes though.

I still think PGI needs to try alternate or random spawn locations on the current maps
Maybe even have the 3 lances on each team spawn spread out a bit instead of all 12 in one location.

put more randomly occurring weather changes that change the tactical situation
blizzard on the alpine map
sand storm on canyon
solar flare on tourmaline (super bright)

there is a lot more PGI could be doing with the maps it already has instead of making us wait for them to spend $3 million creating a whole new map with a whole new texture set and geometry

Edited by Wolf Ender, 27 August 2013 - 01:51 AM.

[Xigunder Blue]

I can think of a mode that would require almost nothing extra. Simply replace the mining node with a large solid target, any design, facing any direction. You can both cap and shoot the target. Any mech can shoot the target and get credit for their team only once each. Full capping has no effect on the game except at the finish (descending order of kills, assists then spotting etc...for winner, plus any target hits, will give you extra cbills and xp. Thus we will combat till the finish, capping will be for xtra cb/xp and a plus for each mech that also hits the target - max of 12. At least no 0 kills for capping. Whaddya think?

[oldradagast]

Good ideas!

I'm still disappointed in the lack of any variation per map. No changing weather effects, no change in lighting, etc. This type of stuff can't be that hard to do, and it would add some interest so when a map spawns, you don't immediately know all there is to know about that map because the weather or lighting may be different than the default. It would also add some sense of realism... and probably cost a lot less than making a new map from scratch to get variety.

If games from well over 10 years ago could handle some lighting changes and weather effects, there's no reason MWO can't handle them, IMHO.

[Zarlaren]

Lets start off small and work up big as we go along perhaps the 3rd mode can be capture the flag type. These ideas are nice but may be in the far future as the game is on its feet. So for now how about Capture the Flag style?

A chosen mech grabs a object if in a mech with fingers like commando or Atlas and has to succesfully take it back to the base without dying.

[Oppresor]

Zarla, on 30 August 2013 - 06:34 PM, said:

Lets start off small and work up big as we go along perhaps the 3rd mode can be capture the flag type. These ideas are nice but may be in the far future as the game is on its feet. So for now how about Capture the Flag style?

A chosen mech grabs a object if in a mech with fingers like commando or Atlas and has to succesfully take it back to the base without dying.

I agree with this, it's a way to introduce small and interesting side objectives that could be tied to bonus incentives such as GXP or C-Bills or even recognition at the end of the mission when the stats come up.

I like the idea of using Recon or Scout units to locate and recover or identify, collect data on things.

For example:

1. Locate Neolithic stones in the area of grid G5. - 200 C-bills
2. Capture image of text on stone. - 100 C-bills
3. Return to Drop Ship location for data download. - 20 GXP

.

[Deadmeat313]

I love this idea. I also like how the objectives can be kept in-keeping with BattleTech canon, and so improve immersion.

Many of them would be repeats of the basic "Find [Thing], then capture / shoot it", such as:

• Find The Downed RPV
  
• Rescue the VIP
  
• Loot The LosTech
  
• Survey The Landing Zone

Also there could be more personal missions

Family Feud
Two randomly selected players on opposite sides have some family vendetta going back generations. They are publicly named to both teams at match start. If one of them kills the other, then he and his team are given a fat bonus. If either are killed by anyone else then standard match rewards apply.
(Thinking about it - we could make it random but same weight class, to avoid David v Goliath situations.)


D313

[MustrumRidcully]

A dev liked my idea. I can die happy now.

Mustrum "Mein Leben" Ridcully

[Thomas Dziegielewski]

Bounty and Protegé ; + 1, I like those two a lot from a RPG standpoint.

Bounty : And then you'll know how any PGI player feels when they are in a match and usually that doesn't change the match dynamic unless the pilot knows how to be bait when the enemy is trying to swarm them. Bounties placed outside the match could make it interesting though. 10,000,000 c-bills on his head!

Protegé : One in each lance could work. But nothing is stopping the 'green' pilots from rushing in and playing as usual. You may be chivalrous that doesn't mean anyone else will be either. The Protegé could use an objective. Could just do this for any player with a low rank, inexperience compared to the rest of the team in certain drops. This would have to be communicated to the player at the start of the match as well

[SoHxPaladin]

Khobai, on 26 August 2013 - 10:16 PM, said:

Well a smaller goal would be to completely revamp the base assault gamemode. Base assault hasnt been majorly updated for over a year. We were originally told that base assault was just meant to be a placeholder gamemode until advanced base assault was added, which was apparently scrapped... since we havent heard anything about it since last year.

It was alluded that advanced base assault wouldve added defensive turrets to protect the bases from being captured too early. Which is the main reason why base assault is currently such a flawed gamemode. Increasing the cap time has helped but you still see cap rushes happening way more than they should.

IMO PGI needs to make fixing assault/conquest and adding new game modes a priority. New gamemodes are as integral to community warfare being successful as anything else.

agreed, but there are too many IF's in the way before game modes would be addressed. it is nice to see a dev take interest in a topic Thomas, maybe its an easy plug and chug and put it to test?

[xhrit]

Khobai, on 26 August 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

respawn... prevents outright steamrolling.

How exactly does respawn prevent steamrolling? It happens in games with respawns exactly the same as it happens here, only difference is in games with respawns after one side steamrolls the other they then start 'Spawn camping', turning a steamroller into a meatgrinder.

Respawn fixes nothing.

http://en.wikipedia....9#Spawn_camping

[Khobai]

Quote

How exactly does respawn prevent steamrolling? It happens in games with respawns exactly the same as it happens here

Simple really. Because in a respawn gamemode, you dont win by killing the other team, you win by completing the objective. So bad players that die a lot, arnt going to cost their team the game as often, because dying doesnt matter as much.

Also spawn camping was a problem 20 years ago. Its not a problem in modern games. Get with the times.

[SoHxPaladin]

Khobai, on 11 September 2013 - 04:46 PM, said:

Simple really. Because in a respawn gamemode, you dont win by killing the other team, you win by completing the objective. So bad players that die a lot, arnt going to cost their team the game as often, because dying doesnt matter as much.

Also spawn camping was a problem 20 years ago. Its not a problem in modern games. Get with the times.

um, Bull****. it still happens in "modern games" and will continue to happen. If/when you are paired with a crappy team you will get "spawn camped" In this game, thankfully, the other team will die as well but there will still be one sided matches often enough to say "why put this in?"

[Voivode]

1) Cap times for Assault and cap amounts for Conquest should scale with the size of the map. That would alleviate some of the griping about cap wins without making capping meaningless.

2) New game modes are totally overdue. I would prefer objective based game modes but anything that requires lances to split up would be the best. Assault and Conquest tend to be very "blob" oriented and the resulting 12mech firing squads make mechs feel weak and vulnerable. A game mode where sticking in a blob will cost you the match virtually every time (without caps being the objective) would be a breath of fresh air.