22 replies to this topic

[Red October911]

As the title indicates: how do you guys believe CW is going to go down. I kind of have this hope that once CW will be out, even PUGs (like me) would be able to fight in battles which will determine the very fate of the inner sphere by just pressing the battle button.

I'm talking about finally seeing the emergence of huge maps and battle modes with objectives that must be seized, neutralized or destroyed (basically scenario/missions)

I'm also hoping it will not resemble the Clan Wars on WoT where it (imho) felt like a random battle except you were in a group of ppl on comms, and where you only fought in 1 or 2 battles depending on weather or not your Clan was competent enough (ofc if it was it went for many battles, but it doesn't change the fact that the core gameplay remained the same i.e. search enemies and destroy or capture enemy base to win)

I guess, just as much as all of you, I want things to finally divert from mindless arena combat and shift to the (hopefully) great sequel that we have been waiting for so long. (not that it's not fun atm, but MWO still hasn't implemented anything that would glue me to the game for a long time..except for the promise of this CW that seems to be the remedy).

I think these next few months will finally reveal weather or not all the time spent on CW was worth it... Let's hope it is!

[Elizander]

I really think they will need to ramp up cosmetic items to put as rewards for CW milestones/achievements. Something you can slap onto your mech to show others that "I did this." even if it's in a make-believe world of giant robots. People like that kinda thing.

[Ghogiel]

My guess is it'll be a WoT clan wars clone if we are lucky. I got off the CW hypetrain a long time ago.

[Kinski Orlawisch]

They are working so long on it that we for shure get planets with defences wich can bee upgradet by the defending unit. Defence Tower. Watch mechs wich walk around, Jumpships and dropships,. You can conquer your own mech factory. and sell the mechs yourself then. Cinematic sequences wich Shows what happened. Victor Ian Davion Steiner will bee played by Sylvester Stallone.
It will bee great. For shure we love it. You can establish jumproutes and make money with them.....................we have to wait what they will give us.

[D04S02B04]

Go on Planetside 2, a mature persistent world large scale battle that has developed through multiple stages. You'll realise that it is largely random battles with one side (whoever has is the most organised unit online) dominating everything.

That unit goes offline cause it's time to sleep after gaining control of entire map, another faction's elite units come on and captures the entire map from them.

You can never have a real persistent online battlefield when different segments of the population (and skill levels) are online at different times.

The gameplay will start allowing for asymmetrical warfare allowing for deep strikes into enemy territory (e.g. manufacturing worlds, key supply locations) and after much complaints by players (and units) incapable of understanding warfare, will be downgraded to a point to point fighting system where it is easier to understand and where choke points are easily held and frontlines easily understood.

It will still be mindless arena combat... except that now you have to walk a long distance before you reach said area or spend a lot of time waiting for strategic drops etc.

Same old, comms enjoy (Even more), PUGs just mill around joining whatever action is around.

Given PGI's competence compared to Sony, you can expect something even worse than Planetside 2.

Edited by D04S02B04, 09 September 2014 - 08:28 PM.

[Clownwarlord]

I think there will be issues with some of the faction groups, and how some might be more powerful just on the bases of numbers.

[Cavendish]

Rep grind.

Also, some factional discounts for owning certain planets (as in cheaper mechs of one type or another, and the ability to use "non-faction" mech types and models). The planetary combat will most likely be:

1) Bid on the right to assult a specific planet (using your "guilds" cofferts).
2) Normal match or string of matches to "attack" the planet.
3) Depending on funds from other "guilds" for defense of the planets, maybe we will see more turrets on the maps, longer cap times or even a numerical advantage for the defending team in the match (tho I dont know if they can manage to code that with all the statements around 10 vs 12).
4) Win or lose, adjust ownership of planet accordingly, maybe include a "safe" time period when the planet can not be attacked again to avoid flipping the planet 10 times a day if it could, for example, produce a highly wanted mech model.

I am curious as to how the Clans will be handled tho. Clans have no need to occupy ancient mech plants that produce mechs unfit for even garrission duty, they probl. have access to all 12 mech models that will be availible regardless of which Clan you belong to since there are so few models to chose from. Also, the Clans have a diffrent economy meaning that the Cbill system (which will almost certainly be used) is an odd thing indeed for them. In theory all Clan warriors are members of a regular military and should be refitted by their faction (this goes for regular house units too) so I dont know how they explain the bidding process. I have a hard time accepting that two Clans starts bidding Cbills for the right to fight instead of assets on the ground

Maybe we will only have cockpit items and skins to fight for, but hey, works for me

[Lexx]

I've been in Mechwarrior planetary conquest leagues before, and I think what we did there is probably close to what is going to happen here in MWO.

You really can't expect PGI to make a whole new set of maps just for CW. That would be a lot of extra work and consume far too much time and resources.

What they will probably do is use the big Inner Sphere map we already have in game for the logistics of which planets get attacked/defended and who fights who. Once a planet is attacked the attacker will take one side and the defender the other. Each planet will have an already existing map, or set of maps assigned to it, depending on what type of terrain that planet has.

The planet will have a percentage level of faction control. I.E. a planet that hasn't had any battles on it yet would be 100% in control of the defender. The attacker arrives, they drop onto whatever map that planet uses and the fight a normal MWO battle, like we do now every day. If the attacker wins that match then something like 10% of the control of that planet switches over to the attacker. The defender would then only have 90% control of the planet. They would keep having battles until either the attacker is driven off (by losing too many mechs), or they win enough matches to gain control. (the numbers are just examples)

This system allows for multiple matches to be fought at the same time, and even multiple factions all fighting at the same time for the same system. The server keeps track of all the battles and adjusts the planetary control percentages accordingly. (and changes the map when systems change hands)

This might not be what PGI chooses to use, or what many of the players expect CW to be. I don't have any "inside information" on the details. All I know is this has been used many times before and is still being used in Mechwarrior Planetary Conquest leagues, and it works. It would also be pretty much the fastest and easiest way for PGI to implement CW, using mainly existing assets.

Edited by Lexx, 10 September 2014 - 01:30 AM.

[NextGame]

My preferred direction for CW involves a separate map for each planet, which obviously isn't going to happen. So not really sure what to expect at the moment.

[Black Ivan]

Compared how PGI handled ths game since closed beta I think CW will be a medicore thing.
Just choose a world, the match maker gets you one the random in game maps and that's it, perhaps add in grinding for faction reputation.

Don't expect anything awesome from PGI because they won't deliver it.
I lost my trust into the company after the last days announcements.

Edited by Black Ivan, 10 September 2014 - 01:40 AM.

[Cavendish]

Oh forgot:

When it comes to "attacker" and "defender" I belive the "guild" who won the right to attack will simply meet random opponents from the group queue who gets to be defenders. I dont see how they could otherwise handle planetary combat in an orderly way. Too many diffrent time-zones are playing to allow designated defenders at specific times that suits both attackers and defenders.

[IceCase88]

I am not too excited about CW now. I think wins and losses are going to boil down to whether you won the PUG lottery or not. No consistent rhyme or reason to wins/losses. Just PUGs. Infuriating. Are you ready?!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Get pumped. Pfffffffffttttttttt

[Lexx]

IceCase88, on 10 September 2014 - 02:04 AM, said:

I am not too excited about CW now. I think wins and losses are going to boil down to whether you won the PUG lottery or not. No consistent rhyme or reason to wins/losses. Just PUGs. Infuriating. Are you ready?!!! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Get pumped. Pfffffffffttttttttt

I think it will be almost entirely group vs. group for CW. The only time "PUGs" will be involved is when one of the faction groups doesn't have enough players to fill all 12 slots. Those slots will be filled with "Lone Wolves".

[Demoncard]

NextGame, on 10 September 2014 - 01:29 AM, said:

My preferred direction for CW involves a separate map for each planet, which obviously isn't going to happen. So not really sure what to expect at the moment.

I'm of the same opinion. Playing the same maps on different planets (''You're playing River city on Terra!'' ''You're playing River city on Outreach!'' ''You're playing River city night on some starbase planetoid!''), doing the same things, just with a graphically enhanced leaderboard isn't at all what I'm after.

[oldradagast]

clownwarlord, on 09 September 2014 - 08:30 PM, said:

I think there will be issues with some of the faction groups, and how some might be more powerful just on the bases of numbers.

If mechs are limited by which faction you join as they are saying, such as no Cataphract 3-D for anyone not Davion, the game will be dominated by whichever factions have the most playable mechs. It'll be silly, but that's what I expect at this point.

[Hoax415]

None of the Great Houses are at a insurmountable disadvantage but yes you would like to think that they realize that some kind of BV or tonnage considerations would be a good idea.

However, the lore bails them out somewhat:
-All houses can field at least one variant of Atlas. None can field the DDC in 3050.
-All houses can field at least one variant of Orion.
-All houses obviously have 55-ton mediums to use. Only Marik can field the CDA-3M.
-All houses can field at least one variant of Jenner. Only Liao can field the RVN-3L. Steiner and Davion get the COM-2D. Kurita and Davion get the SDR-5D.

So as you can see every house military has access to a max tonnage chassis for each weight class and each house has access to ECM.

But still 3/3/3/3 with no tonnage considerations or BV of any kind would lead to less interesting and less varied team compositions. So its really something they ought to rework for CW.

Also there's the question of what will the game do if you try to drop in CW in a 12-man with 5 assault mechs? Just refuse to match you?

Edited by Hoax415, 10 September 2014 - 06:00 AM.

[Riverboat Sam]

I'm expecting something very similar to the current PUG queue match system with the following modifications:

1. The match will be related to a single world on the star map (attacking or defending).
2. The Clan players will be limited to Clan mechs. The IS players IS.
3. The players on each side must belong to the same faction, or an affiliated Merc faction, or maybe even an allied faction. Your personal unit will have to be associated to some Clan or House to participate. Their matching algorithm will do its' best to balance the matches as it does now.
4. The results will post to who own/controls the planet or portion thereof.
5. Matches will be fought on the current maps.

Not sure what the C-Bills bank is all about. Maybe you can use C-Bills to hire Merc units?

Other than that, I don't expect much more than an enhanced version of the current random match play.

It might make for some more interesting match play. It might be a total bomb. Will have to wait and see.

I believe the biggest thing to watch for is that players might have dramatically overblown expectations. There may be a great many very disappointed players. Personally, I like the game the way it is now. I don't expect much from Community Warfare. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised.

[Zyllos]

Lexx, on 10 September 2014 - 01:28 AM, said:

Each planet will have an already existing map, or set of maps assigned to it, depending on what type of terrain that planet has.

I hope the latter statement is correct, so you can't tailor mechs to maps but instead have to tailor the mech to a known variety of maps.

Also, I would hope the matches would follow a "staged" map combat. Meaning that as someone starts winning, the maps/objectives/ect change. A good example is that a Terra-type world initially starts off with maps like Alpine Peaks and Forest Colony. If an attacker starts to win more of the missions vs the defender, then the maps transition to River City and Mech Factory.

[Red October911]

Enlil09, on 10 September 2014 - 07:25 AM, said:

I'm expecting something very similar to the current PUG queue match system with the following modifications:

1. The match will be related to a single world on the star map (attacking or defending).
2. The Clan players will be limited to Clan mechs. The IS players IS.
3. The players on each side must belong to the same faction, or an affiliated Merc faction, or maybe even an allied faction. Your personal unit will have to be associated to some Clan or House to participate. Their matching algorithm will do its' best to balance the matches as it does now.
4. The results will post to who own/controls the planet or portion thereof.
5. Matches will be fought on the current maps.

Not sure what the C-Bills bank is all about. Maybe you can use C-Bills to hire Merc units?

Other than that, I don't expect much more than an enhanced version of the current random match play.

It might make for some more interesting match play. It might be a total bomb. Will have to wait and see.

I believe the biggest thing to watch for is that players might have dramatically overblown expectations. There may be a great many very disappointed players. Personally, I like the game the way it is now. I don't expect much from Community Warfare. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised.

Yeah...Perhaps I might be getting a little too hyped up...Maybe we'll see something similar to what Lexx proposed in the comments above.

On another note, Although I love MWO I still would like to see a bigger destruction factor upon a mech's destruction I.e. cockpits exploding similar to MC2 or 1 and ofc environmental destruction. Hopefully that's not too much to ask for

[B 0 0 M E R]

I still don't see how it can work with just a handful of maps. Will there be River City on every Planet? Do all Planets have a Mordor with a metal platform and mysterious boxes suspended over it?