20 replies to this topic

[Mookan]

Without seeing how the community warfare will be implemented or the Clan invasion will be handled all of this could be moot, but bare with me while I throw out some ideas.

Everything in the Battletech universe these days seems to always focus on the clan invasion era. For single player games and cartoons etc. this makes sense as it allows a steadily increasing difficulty with an associated character progression.

The problem with a multi-player game is that the inclusion of Clan gear will completely unbalance the combat and result in everyone eventually adopting Clan equipment just to stay competitive, an unrealistic scenario to the Battletech universe. There is no horde mode or AI opponents so better equipment should not override player skill. It also doesn't really fit that the only hurdles to Clan gear will be MC or C-Bills (Not sure how loyalty points will fit).

The Succession war era suits a multi-player game far better and could make for a very involving metagame. House vs house with the players deciding who will control the Inner Sphere.

Right now it seems like we are mercenaries who just jump from battle to battle chasing C-bills without any narrative to why we are fighting. If our faction allegiance helped our House expand their sphere of influence in a dynamic way it could really get players involved.

Take the game back to just after the fall of the Star League, around 3025 where the Inner Sphere is roughly divided equally. The map is used to show where battles are taking place and where houses can expand their territory. Players can choose which side to fight for and the aggregate outcome of several battles will decide which house gains the territory. This way the devs can limit the expansion of any faction so that no House will control the IS in a day etc.

I know this means ignoring decades of lore and history and breaks the devs parallel universe but it would really get players involved as they get behind their faction. You could still introduce Clan mechs, just change the lore to say they are all IS refits.

And a few more things missing from the metagame are salvage and a free market, but I won't go into them now.

In summary: Clan invasion is good for single player games, Succession wars are better for multi-player games.

Edited by Mookan, 02 October 2013 - 02:23 PM.

[Spheroid]

We already have several pieces of Lostech, nobody is going backwards to the 3rd Succession war techbase. Clan superiority will simply be balanced by a difference in numbers and or tonnage vs. the Inner Sphere team. Also remember that Omni mechs cannot change engine, armor or internal structure configurations. No custom config will make the Hellbringer more armored or the Kit Fox faster.

Edited by Spheroid, 02 October 2013 - 09:35 PM.

[Walks_In_Circles]

Make mechs associated with faction alignment. Make basic mechs generic but have each house have "specialty" mechs and equipment. In order to acquire this gear you must have the required rep in addition to money. So yeah, you can buy but you must play first regardless.

I'm not sure how lore friendly this would be, but if you see an Omni mech on the field, you'll know that they are clanner through and through. refits would also do. For example; every faction has their own omni mech. Clans have their signature and inner sphere factions have their own refits. All of which can only be obtained through faction alignment.

[General Taskeen]

Uh Both?

With lobbies we can create our own custom games and tournaments. People could create an entire tournament or rules around the Succession Wars - simulating units, planets attacked, and Mechs that can be used.

[Zyllos]

I am almost certain the 1:1 timeline is kaput (sp?) at the moment.

I would be fine to moving the timeline back to 1 year or so before the Clan Invasion.

[RandomLurker]

"Balanced and Fun"

My personal preference is for Succession Wars, because I don't see how Clan Tech can ever be balanced. If it can be done though, I'm all for it.

PS, 4th Succession War or the War of 3039 would have seen the very beginning of Lostech. Mostly in the form of prototypes, but there's enough wiggle room to squeeze them into the game. Also, the politics and infighting of the IS has always been better drama and storytelling then a Genghis Khan Clan Invasion.

[Joseph Mallan]

We can't even agree on what balance is, So even if we were playing Succession Wars there would be much whining and raging.

But the Succession Wars would be fun!

[Coralld]

I voted for what ever, but to be honest, I always thought that the Succession Wars were far more interesting. Its like, oh how did that one person put it, Game of Thrones in space but with stompy robots with less sex and far more backstabbing, drama, and violence.

Edited by Coralld, 08 December 2013 - 09:30 PM.

[Boozlebean]

I really don't want to see the clans in this game. Not until after all the house units and wars have been implemented and played out. Including the clans now is definitely getting the cart before the horse. People have absolutely no reason to support the IS in the face of the clan invasion because we haven't had a chance to actually fight as the IS.

[Johnny Z]

This is a great topic.

From closed beta I have always thought that clan tech and mechs and planet ownership should be a proper expansion like other popular and successful games do. That means 20 to 50 dollar large, in depth expansion.

Going this way would make clan mechs a paid customer only option and this is coming from someone who has not put a lot of dollars in yet and also prefers inner sphere.

I am hoping MechWarrior has a few paid for expansions, examples are pilot/crew quarters expansion, aerotech, dropship, maybe Solaris? and so on. For me paying for content is the preferred way to pay. I don't need to say this also encourages the game builders to add content although I would really like a new paint job for my mech and some decals and some other cool stuff regardless.

Also I think the core game should be the succession wars with the clan as a periphery "house" or houses including no lone wolves helping clan and so on.

Finally, don't get me started on clan tech being in any way more powerfull than inner sphere tech, how they will remain balanced is up for debate surely, but the idea that some players will be piloting "weaker units" than others makes for bad game play I am sorry.

I wouldn't mind if during a planet siege one side has access to less than another side in some way or that challenging scenarios cant be a part of the faction warfare but lets not go the route of Over powered anything if possible.

Edited by Johnny Z, 11 December 2013 - 03:42 PM.

[Xeno Phalcon]

Unfortunately they kinda picked one of the roughest timeframes to work with and stick to the lore while also tending to the wants of the lostech/clantech crowds.

They should have stuck with the succession war era timeframe, but went with near the end of the 3rd succession war - around 3000 or so and had the game divided between a mwomercs and mwoclans (with MWOM being 12v12 and MWOC 10v10) this would have largely nullified the clan vs IS tech. The big issue of course then would be maps, as people would expect M and C to have different mapsets.

[Bhael Fire]

Xeno Phalcon, on 11 December 2013 - 03:48 PM, said:

Unfortunately they kinda picked one of the roughest timeframes to work with and stick to the lore while also tending to the wants of the lostech/clantech crowds.

I agree.

Introducing Clans kind of diminishes the whole House vs House dynamic....since once the Clans invade, IS alliances start happening. I do not envy the designers in this task of making CW work during this timeframe.

The Succession Wars would have been an easier milieu to work with.

That said, a lot of the fun mechs, weapons and tech happen after 3050...so there's that.

[XtremWarrior]

It would have been great if we had both. Had the Devs put CW at the very begining of their work on MW:O, we would have fought as factions units for almost 2 years before the massives shambles that Clans invasion brings in the IS.
Right now, the simple proposal of delaying Clans something like a year after CW gets implemented will only result in a lot of rage and hatred from the community, i guess.

[Boozlebean]

Whelp. There goes that.

[Coralld]

I honestly believe that they should have stuck with the Fourth Succession War and say "Sorry guys, no Clans, they are just far to troublesome to balance." because this way things would be far easier to deal with and we still get the good stuff.

[Stardancer01]

The Succession Wars/House Wars Era should be TER 1
The Clan War Era should be TER 2

New TERs can be added as the time line progresses
New players wont miss anything, and start in less complicated Eras
New content can be added to any TER
You can chose to play in any TER that the battle/Omni Mech you have is in service for
Mastering a battle mech allows you to increase its TER


http://mwomercs.com/...-house-wars-era

[CrashieJ]

we should have started where Multiplayer Battletech 3025 left off

3025

[NextGame]

While appreciating the sentiment, and believing that both time periods in the lore would make for interesting flashpoints, this thead is a non issue as it is unlikely that community warfare will ever be implemented!

[Sandpit]

People need to abandon the idea that we're following any kind of lore timeline. PGI did away with this. We're no longer going to have the Succession Wars or Clan invasion. We're going to have a big brawl for the IS (assuming PGI gets us CW). There is no more timeline. You can't have a classic SW scenario with clans involved and the clan invasion is going to be moot in my opinion. It's going to be fighting over planets of the IS in whatever tech you want to take. I'm not saying this is good or bad I'm just saying this is the reality we have at the moment due to the way everything played out.
They can't do a timeline reset due to clans now being ordered. They can't get any of that stuff done because they haven't implemented CW

[Steven Dixon]

I prefer the succession wars era and that is what I'm enjoying right now, but I don't have a problem with the clans. It changes up gameplay and to a lot of people the clans are battletech. So I don't have a problem with it.