2 replies to this topic

[Revalk]

I play the Conquest game mode almost exclusively because at the moment it's the most interesting mode we have.


The new spawn points dramatically alter the gameplay of Conquest and tip the balance of the game, and I think it needs some work.


The Status Quo - Before:

The previous status quo was that all mechs spawned in a big group (approximately) and the slow mechs naturally grouped up and chose a capture point to move to.

A player could always rely on that worm of slow mechs with devastating fire power to group up and take a minute to get to their target, whether it's Theta in the middle or in a ring like on the big maps.

This gave fast mechs an appropriate advantage. They could scout the worm, navigate around it, surprise mechs from behind, or take advantage of capture points if their team was down on players. It created a nice dynamic and each mech's speed / firepower balance gave it an advantage.


Now I think that's been turned on it's head. In theory I'm okay with that, but I think this change has negatively tipped the balance of the game.


The New Order - After:

With the new spawn system, a lance general spawns close to a point, but the 3x lances generally spawn close to 3x separate points. In addition, the total distance to the nearest point is much less now.

This means slow mechs don't have a reason to group up anymore. Each lance just heads towards the nearest point to take on the enemy lance. The worm of slow mechs no longer exists to be exploited by fast mechs, and instead there are high-powered, slow assaults / heavies at every point except for the spawn points.

If a fast mech and a slow mech on opposite teams both spawn near Epsilon and rush to the point, the time the fast mech has at the point until the slow one arrives is much less than it used to be. The fast mech doesn't have time to capture the point before the enemies' firepower arrives, which removes the advantage of getting there faster.

It essentially turns the game into 2x or 3x death match scenarios between lances. At first that sounds great, but it removes many of the advantages of being fast at the cost of less firepower.

A slow mech's greatest fear is being out numbered, out in the open, or not having enough local support to help take on fast lights who nip at their heels.

The new spawn algorithm makes removes those factors. A slow mech is never out numbered because an equivalent lance will reliably spawn near the same point. A slow mech is not in the open because it spawns so close to it's target point. And, a slow mech always has the local support of their lance.


Conclusion:

I'm making some generalizations, but this is *usually* the case based on human nature. Teams could execute other plans, but no one knows where they are spawning until "all systems [are] nominal" so there's usually not enough time to make a plan.

I've spent my precious XP, MC, and GXP developing beautiful fast mech builds so I have some bias, but I've been excited to build slow, devastating heavies / assaults as well. I started out in a Cataphract.

But what I'm talking about is balance. Fast, powerful mechs and slow, weak mechs should both have advantages that a player can learn and exploit.

With the new system, I think there's much less advantage to being fast.



What are your thoughts?

[Asmosis]

my thoughts? light mechs can now group up and easily pick off assault mechs that have been left behind by their faster lance mates, as they no longer have other team mates nearby.

Thats my experience at least since i purchased an Atlas.

[Lupin]

Do agree with you on the new spawn points, some of them have not been thought out very well (Alpine & Caustic Valley). And role warfare takes another blow.
But be thankful as it will be the only in-game content we will see for a while it seems.

Odd I have gone the other way for game play. As I can not seem to find regularly groups of players that understand Conquest game mode. So having had to join the shot-shot Bang-Bang players if I want to look at game for any reason.

Edited by Lupin, 06 December 2013 - 08:21 AM.