Spoiler
Bryan Ekman, on 02 December 2013 - 11:59 AM, said:
Launching into a public match is the default gameplay path. Players simply click the launch button in the front end and they are matched against other players.
Matchmaking
A Mercenary player with no allegiance via the contract system will be placed in a random alliance bucket. Players with an allegiance will be place in their appropriate faction alliance bucket along with any other faction players. There will be [2] alliance buckets created. Once players are placed into alliance buckets, they are matched against each other by using their Elo score.
Public Ready Screen
After matchmaking, players enter a game instance and are held at the ready screen. The Public Ready Screen has two phases.
Phase One – Voting [60+] seconds
Players have three choices during the voting phase, and may only chose to vote for one option. Vote for a match, vote to shuffle the match selection, or abstain from voting. Voting options (match/shuffle) are represented by an image. To place a vote, the player needs only click on the image. The current vote count is overlaid on top of the image. Once a player has voted for either a match or shuffle, that vote is locked in. Voting for a match has no cost, while voting to shuffle has a nominal escalating CB and then MC fee for each successful vote passed. This fee is collected from all players who opted to vote for a shuffle. If a shuffle wins, two new matches are randomly created and the voting process starts over again.
NOTE: the final design of the shuffle is subject to some other design considerations currently being reviewed.
Phase Two – Ready Up [60+] seconds
Now that the match is locked in, players can begin to organize and plan for the battle. The first order of business will be meeting the tonnage restrictions. Each team tonnage total must fall between [240] and [480] tons. Players can bring up to [8] BattleMechs with them to battle. For the purposes of lore, these are transported in a DropShip. Selecting a `Mech readies the `Mech and adds it to your teams total tonnage. The team’s tonnage will be displayed at the top of the team’s player list, showing each person’s `Mech and weight. The number will show total weight and the amount above or below the min/max tonnage limits. Players are encouraged to quickly organize through a match bonus mechanism. A match CB bonus starts at [10%] and goes down to [0%] at a rate of [1%] every [6] seconds. If both teams manage to ready up quickly, each player will receive a match CB bonus on any earnings they may receive.
Once all players are readied, and the tonnage limits are met for each team, the match is locked in and a [10] second countdown clock starts.
NOTE: This ready screen will remove the need for a match ready screen.
Matchmaking
A Mercenary player with no allegiance via the contract system will be placed in a random alliance bucket. Players with an allegiance will be place in their appropriate faction alliance bucket along with any other faction players. There will be [2] alliance buckets created. Once players are placed into alliance buckets, they are matched against each other by using their Elo score.
Public Ready Screen
After matchmaking, players enter a game instance and are held at the ready screen. The Public Ready Screen has two phases.
Phase One – Voting [60+] seconds
Players have three choices during the voting phase, and may only chose to vote for one option. Vote for a match, vote to shuffle the match selection, or abstain from voting. Voting options (match/shuffle) are represented by an image. To place a vote, the player needs only click on the image. The current vote count is overlaid on top of the image. Once a player has voted for either a match or shuffle, that vote is locked in. Voting for a match has no cost, while voting to shuffle has a nominal escalating CB and then MC fee for each successful vote passed. This fee is collected from all players who opted to vote for a shuffle. If a shuffle wins, two new matches are randomly created and the voting process starts over again.
NOTE: the final design of the shuffle is subject to some other design considerations currently being reviewed.
Phase Two – Ready Up [60+] seconds
Now that the match is locked in, players can begin to organize and plan for the battle. The first order of business will be meeting the tonnage restrictions. Each team tonnage total must fall between [240] and [480] tons. Players can bring up to [8] BattleMechs with them to battle. For the purposes of lore, these are transported in a DropShip. Selecting a `Mech readies the `Mech and adds it to your teams total tonnage. The team’s tonnage will be displayed at the top of the team’s player list, showing each person’s `Mech and weight. The number will show total weight and the amount above or below the min/max tonnage limits. Players are encouraged to quickly organize through a match bonus mechanism. A match CB bonus starts at [10%] and goes down to [0%] at a rate of [1%] every [6] seconds. If both teams manage to ready up quickly, each player will receive a match CB bonus on any earnings they may receive.
Once all players are readied, and the tonnage limits are met for each team, the match is locked in and a [10] second countdown clock starts.
NOTE: This ready screen will remove the need for a match ready screen.
Please let us know what you think!