Saobh, on 06 December 2013 - 09:16 AM, said:
Its all very nice that Mechwarrior has this historical thing which is called a "Lance", but as long as there isn't any clear advantage of being/working in one, people will work out what actually works for them.
Thats why you get the blob mechanic in this game, because guess what when most of the team doesn't know each other and the communication tools are next to nill the sound startegy is to group up so that you profit from the safety/locking/firepower of the others (yes like herds)
Things on the ground would be totaly different if there was real commander powers as well as order markers diversity (other then just the 2 huge makers, like pointing enemy hard points, direction of assaults or needed scouting positions) as well as actual incentives for working with your squad/lance (simple stuff like xp/c-bill bonus when helping your lance or by default "see" the enemies the rest of your lance sees without locking or whatever other ways to make this interesting)
I come from the 'Project Reality' crowd (the BF2 mod) and in there you can see that when the "mindless PUGs" are given these types of tools they use them and tactical play (which you often wouldn't have imagined) appear because people crave depth (as mindless pew pew pew rinse and repeat only gets your high for so long before moving on to other games)
So as long as the sole purpose of Lances existing is because they are canon to Mechwarrior, they will be a hinderince to how people play rather then an asset for them to enjoy the game (and thus not mind putting money into it)
well, BF2 is still there, you can go play it any time you want instead of trying to make this BF2.5 (the big stompy robot expansion)