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[Kaeseblock]

Well, the problem of implementing an asymetricals fight between a Clan Binary (10 mechs) and an IS company (12 mechs) while allowing IS and "salvaged" Clan tech on the IS-side (as stated by Bryan Ekman on twitter, Dec. 19th) really got me thinking.

Spoiler

Quote

Ed Steele ‏@EdSteeleMWO Dec 19
@bryanekman I have a Christmas bonus on the way, so give me some info that would make an IS player want a clan pack.

Bryan Ekman ‏@bryanekman Dec 19
@EdSteeleMWO lore - battlefield salvaged mechs put into service under your command. Still a valiant IS MechWarrior ready to kill clanners.

The following criteria have to be met for 10vs12 to be actually implementable in MWO (the concept idea is still kinda newborn, so please tell me if I missed a point):

• players must be able to drop with mixed IS+Clan mech groups ("salvaged" Clan mechs or Clanners and teaming up with their friends which happen to be IS loyalists, would never happen in the BT-universe but MWO is an online-game so this might actually happen quite often -> the matchmaker could possibly handle these groups as both, Clan group with salvaged IS-mechs or IS group with salvaged Clan mechs)

• every single (PUG) match has to be viable for making an impact on CW borders and planet control (mixed groups could select frontlines the don't wish to fight on, so the players teamed up in a mixed group don't fight against their own forces)

• the game has to be balanced for 12vs12 (IS vs IS, both possibly with salvaged Clan mechs)

• the game has to be balanced for 10vs10 (Clan vs Clan, possibly with salvaged IS mechs as Solahma units ?)

• the game hast to be balanced for 10vs12 (Clan vs IS, IS possibly with salvaged Clan mechs, Clans possibly with salvaged IS mechs as Solahma units?)

Short comment: I have no idea how I came up with "salvaged" IS mechs used as Solahma units in Clan drops. But it somehow seemed like a reasonable solution to enable groups of mixed IS and Clan mechs and provide them with the biggest possible pool of matches (all for the sake of finding matches reliable and fast and maybe at all ).


Balancing wouldn't be such a huge conceptual problem (though still hard to do right), if IS pilots could only pilot IS mechs and Clanners could only pilot Clan mechs. You could simply make Clan mechs a little bit stronger than IS mechs to compensate for the two additional IS Mechwarriors. But as stated above this might pose a problem for grouping up with friends and playing this game for fun piloting the mechs you like to pilot whenever you like to pilot them. And mixing unknown numbers of Clan and IS mechs on either side completely throws off the balance.



So I came up with the following (fairly short) two-step concept idea:

• IS and Clan mechs have to be of equal strenght (that's a really hard task, but at least it was announced in VLog#2 that this is what PGI is aiming for )

• In 10vs12 matches the Clan Binary gets buffed to compensate for the two additional IS Mechwarriors on the battlefield --> a set of balancing parameters indepenent of balancing mech strengths solely for 10vs12, possible ideas: slight damage buff to the Binarys weapons, increased heat dissipation on hot maps, less resources/points needed to win (Idea of Cimarb postet here: http://mwomercs.com/...64#entry3151264), anything else, let your imaginations run wild

Now I'm interested in your feedback. Do you think it's a good idea or is it simply horrible?


I for my part am convinced, that (as long as the balancing buffs are set right) it would make 10 vs 12 incredibly fun.
Feel free to cast your votes and post your own ideas, improvements, critique and random flames below


Edit for better readability

Edited by Kaeseblock, 14 February 2014 - 01:18 AM.