The Community Warfare as outlined by the Launch event in San Fran is a good starting point for a general outline for MWO going forward, however it needs a bit of fleshing out.
I posted this in another thread, but it would seem to be relevant here as well, concerning factions and the introduction of the clans
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From Wolfs Dragoons to the Clans?
I could see that as their progression of content, where you start CW fighting in, for, and against the enemy House faction of your group (Houses Steiner/Davion - Federated Commonwealth vs Kurita/Marik/Liao - Concord of Kapteyn, and the wildcard Free Rasalhague Republic.
Then you progress in the merc tree/faction to get the required rep with the opposing factions (say you start as a Kuritian/Liao/Marik, then once your faction is capped out, you got to go merc working for the FedComs, then the FRR to get your standing into position to join/unlock Wolfs Dragoons) another path is be a merc directly earning your faction standings having never officially joined a House faction. I would design the system to give certain exclusive perks for the House join path however, even if that perk is nothing more than a faster progression through the faction standing system.
Once Wolfs Dragoons unlocks only then would Clan technologies be available to you (i'd start with Clan weapons/equipment/engines which become available as your Wolfs Dragoons standing increases. Only once you cap the Dragoons are Omnimechs unlocked. (which would be semi-lore based as the Dragoons are the only Inner Sphere organization who has Clan tech at the start of the invasion), and once you unlock Clan tech you could then start the new progression of the 4 Clan Factions fighting for or against the Jade Falcons, Wolves, Ghost Bears, or Smoke Jaguars.
This would be the in game earnable way to Clan tech/OmniMechs.
The other way to option into the Clans is to have access to them as a founders/phoenix project style of paid content. Either buy your way into the clans, or grind/play your way in. This system would ensure that even free players could grind their way into the clans if they wished.
Now on to the battlefront / theater of combat side: (or taking/holding worlds)
You would have starting out 6 theaters of combat, each with 2 battlefronts (for this post/discussion theaters of combat are defined as the borders of the respective factions as described in the quote FedCom, Kapteyn, FRR. Battlefronts are defined as a collection of worlds controlled by a faction on that border area, for simplicity we will say each battlefront holds 25 worlds ) The theaters of combat are in clockwise rotation:
#1: Steiner/FRR border, #2: FFR/Kurita border, #3: Steiner/Kurita border, #4: Kurita/Davion border, #5: Davion/Liao border, #6: Marik/Steiner border.
(optional #7 Liao/Marik border - this one is a wildcard as both governments are Kapteyn partners, however there is lore based battles that went on between the Marik faction Duchy of Andurien and House Liao in the 3030's. If the player base is large enough to accommodate this additional theater then I'd include it, if not then the Marik and Liao factions are covered fighting the FedComs in theaters 5 and 6)
Each theater would hold at least 2 battlefronts - with each faction holding a battlefront on their side of the border. (I'd design it where there are actually 6 battlefront in each theater - 3 to each side, giving the players 3 tiers of planets that they can conquer to enlarge their factions holdings in any theater) In each battlefront you have a series of worlds (again for this post we will call it 25 per front, so each faction has 75 worlds at risk on each front) each world can plausibly contain all the maps as created so far in the game (think of battles on earth, earth is not a generic desert world, or swamp world, or ice planet, but a diverse place with many climates, nearly all of which have seen human fight over at one time or another, I would envision many worlds of the Inner Sphere to have this same dynastic basis - the only map that would not directly follow this is the planned asteroid one, however even that one can be used as a moon base for the effected world, or even a strategically important asteroid resource area in the solar system of the world being fought over) so using the existing maps and the design of them shows that a conquest of a world is a dynamic fight, not simply a little squabble over a few square miles where a few battlemechs happen to be.
To gain control of a battlefront would require complete control of all 25 worlds in it, and to control those worlds would require the 100 point victory advantage over the defending faction. There are many way to play that out, the most basic is (each battle on a world earns 1 point to the winner) the host faction (meaning the original owning faction of the planet) has the homefield advantage, so that they don't lose control of the planet until the attacking faction gains 100 more victories on that world than the defending faction. I'd also allow a formula by which homefield factions regain points over periods of time on contested worlds, meaning that the attacking faction has to keep hacking away if they want to truly conquer the world away from the defending faction (this would represent population loyalty to the defending faction).
Once a planet flips (meaning its now been conquered by the faction attacking it) it becomes held by that faction, any economic benefits of ownership of that world start benefiting the new faction, and after a period of time, the homefield adjustment is neutralized* (the population isn't actively trying to fight off the new faction by themselves, and the attacking faction has installed personnel into the key positions of political/economic power, however now the attacking faction must garrison the planet or it would slowly slip back into the original factions control, *if all attacking faction unit leave the world too soon, they start losing control points until the original faction regains control of the planet - this would allow for the garrison aspects under the merc corp umbrella).
Once all the planets of a battlefront flip, the homefield advantage is completely neutralized (throughout the entire battlefront - there is now no way for the original faction to regain those worlds short of a counter offensive) and after a period of time the new owning faction gains the homefield advantage on all the worlds of that battlefront, in essence that faction has gained a 4th battlefront in that theater. The map dynamically changes to reflect the new border.
I'll get into details on other aspects of CW (namely economic) later - this post is to long already, but I think this would give MWO a doable system of progression and game goals with the game as currently running.
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Chemie, on 28 September 2013 - 04:46 AM, said:
