125 replies to this topic

[oldradagast]

It sounds like for CW, mechs will be limited by faction, at least for the IS. While not a bad idea from a roleplaying perspective - though it should have been introduced near the end of Closed Beta, not 2 years into the game - that brings up a few questions:

1) Will Lone Wolves be able to play whatever mechs they want vs. being limited? And if so, why would anyone chose being a House member if it limits their mech choices?

2) Will there be any XP or cbill refunds for mechs that we've spent hours grinding that are now suddenly off limits to us if we want to participate in Community Warfare?

3) Will Clans have similar limits? And, if not, what effect will further reducing the IS's capabilities have on game balance?

4) What about Hero mechs, or other mechs people have spent real world money on? Will they be playable anywhere, or will they be given full refunds?

5) Will these limits only affect an OPTIONAL CW game mode, or will they be across the board once you pick a faction?

Edited by oldradagast, 10 September 2014 - 03:22 AM.

[Athalus]

As far as I can recall, the 'limitation' would simply consist of some 'Mechs/weapons being more expensive, and a discount on others, depending on what faction you're in. Then again, that might be outdated info by now...

[Jacob Side]

This only effects CW, you can still drop in any mech in the public queues, solo or group.

Edited by Jacob Side, 10 September 2014 - 03:31 AM.

[Darwins Dog]

1) I don't think there will be true "lone wolves" in CW. By that I mean you will be playing a merc or the like and probably have to be loyal to IS or clans. People will play a faction because they like the faction (at least some will).

2) Public games will still allow players to use any mech

3) My impression was that they will only restrict Clan/IS mechs, not specific chassis. There was talk in the past that holding certain planets would make certain chasses cheaper for the faction that holds them, but every house should be able to use dragons (for example). I don't Russ ever actually said anything specifically about it one way or the other though, just that you would enter the faction tab and it would filter your mechs by what was allowed.

4) Hero mechs should still be playable (see answer to #3)

5) Only affects CW matches. Public matches are still anything goes.

EDIT: more/better into

Edited by Darwins Dog, 10 September 2014 - 03:36 AM.

[Livewyr]

To my understanding, this has two effects:

1:For CWarfare planetary battles, you must use the mechs that belong to your faction (divided along IS/Clan lines)
2: When playing in public queue, you only get LP and advance your factions general position if you are in the faction appropriate mech. (IS vs Clan)


Small addition: If I understand them correctly years ago, acquiring mechs that are outside your specific house, if you are a house member, would be normal price or more expensive- while acquiring a mech that is exclusive(ish) to your house would be cheaper/easier. (House Marik acquiring the AWS-9M vs trying to acquire the AS7-K)

[Alistair Winter]

6) As a FRR Centurion Pilot, would I have to level up my Centurions outside CW matches in order to master the CN9-A mech? Because FRR doesn't have the CN9-AL or CN9-D. Which means I can't master the CN9 in CW, I guess.

[Ens]

i know there was a "which house prefers what mech" thread but i can´t find it anymore

anyone else?

[Kmieciu]

I hope it will create "a new meta" for every faction in the game. At least it will be better then "one meta" for the whole game.

[SaltBeef]

I think it is a sweet idea and plan. It is true to the Battletech Galaxy story. Certain mech factories were in certain territories and some mechs were sold, some stolen or raided, some acquired on the battlefield but certain houses fielded more of them than others and so forth. EXMPLE : The clans were no different even though some Clans had access to Timberwolves others Clans fielded more of them than others did. Clan Coyote in Clan space behind the lines had the only urbanmech IIc Factory. I am sure it is on www.Sarna.net somewhere.


There are some Kerensky mech caches with star league era tech floating around on planets out there somewhere.


Hopfully pirates can be thrown in somewhere in the timeline.

Edited by SaltBeef, 10 September 2014 - 05:01 AM.

[Belorion]

Jacob Side, on 10 September 2014 - 03:29 AM, said:

This only effects CW, you can still drop in any mech in the public queues, solo or group.

Who cares about PUG matches?

IS will be hard limited to IS mechs, and Clan will be hard limited to Clan mechs for CW.

[oldradagast]

Alistair Winter, on 10 September 2014 - 03:39 AM, said:

6) As a FRR Centurion Pilot, would I have to level up my Centurions outside CW matches in order to master the CN9-A mech? Because FRR doesn't have the CN9-AL or CN9-D. Which means I can't master the CN9 in CW, I guess.

An interesting question, but one with the usual vague answer.

Without knowing this, I have little incentive to buy any more mechs since they might be disallowed in CW if my faction doesn't have them... or maybe not... because "that was their position at the time."

While I like the IDEA of limiting at least the faction specific variants to the faction in question (-M = Marik, etc.), introducing this 2 years into the game is nuts. Yeah, yeah - it only affects CW... except CW is one of the game's supposed design pillars and, without it, leaves us with nothing but random death matches over and over again. Most people would probably like to play in CW. Most people would also like to know for certain what mechs they cannot and cannot play...

[Onmyoudo]

Hopefully the quirk pass they mentioned will really buff a lot of the weaker mechs, or we'll be seeing 2 mechs per faction when CW comes in.

[Phex]

Now... im FRR, i`ve got 3 Mechs. None are used by my fraction.
IF that means i have to buy new Mechs to play in CW ill be realy pi***!
On the other side, it would make sence.
Limiting Mechs to a Fraction would make the battles more dynamic.

But this is all speculation and we have to wait till we get more info.



Greetings Phex

Edited by Phex, 11 September 2014 - 04:33 AM.

[Joseph Mallan]

That's why my Mechs are Davion/Steiner with exception of Sara and Hellslinger. All of my Alts (minus the Clanner) are house specific with Mech choices.

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 11 September 2014 - 04:32 AM.

[Mott]

Onmyoudo, on 11 September 2014 - 04:17 AM, said:

we'll be seeing 2 mechs per faction when CW comes in.

Well that won't be the case... since you'll have to pick and provide a drop deck of 4 mechs (one in each class) to be available for planetary assault/defense calls to action at any time.

Which brings up another question... what happens to pilots who are newer/cheaper and only have one or two mechs? Will they get priority in the Q to use their customized mechs or will they be forced to drop in trial mechs, hampering their team with a severe disadvantage?

I'm all for CW limiting our mech choices, even under the still-vague description Paul provided last night. Anything to infuse this property with some new life, new challenges and a true reason to drop besides e-peen.

I enjoy having obstacles to work around.

[Phex]

Mott, on 11 September 2014 - 04:33 AM, said:

.I enjoy having obstacles to work around.

That keeps the game a chalenge!
+1

[Angel of Annihilation]

I don't understand why they would even put faction limitations on mechs.

First, there is nothing in lore that supports it. Sure mechs manufactured in a give faction territory would be more common in that territory but it is a common, established fact that salvaged mechs were often refurbished and put into service by opposing factions. This means from a lore perspective, there are virtually zero mechs that are 100% exclusive to a given faction. This goes for Wolf Dragoon and Clan mechs as well as despite these organizations being successful, they still had battlefield loses that fell into the hands of their opponents.

Second and perhaps more importantly, it adds yet another balancing headache to the game. Now not only do you have to account for balancing the individual chassis against each other, but also you have to balance the chassis available to each faction against each other faction. I mean they can't even get weapons balance right now, how are they going to balance variants where maybe only 1 out of 3-5 variants is good and the others suck.

Lastly, as some have already mentioned. How is PGI going to manage telling people that their favorite mechs that they have invested hundreds of dollars of real money on are no longer available to them if they decide to not play the faction that mech is assigned too. I mean hey, you have spent $240 on a clan pack but because you chose Davion as your faction, you can't play any of those clan mech while participating in CW. Yeah that is going to go over real well. Same goes for the Hero mechs. What happens if your variant of hero mech wasn't used by a hero in your faction?

Anyway, the reality is at this point, the game isn't designed to support splitting up mechs by faction. This is something that would have had to be designed in at the get go and that train has left the station a long time ago.

[Impyrium]

Well, you're going to get (or entitled to, really) a refund because you're not losing anything. And the devs have stated that they want to keep CW quite separate from casual play, which I respect. That's a good thing. Don't let the casual players try and turn CW into PUG matches with planets.

If anything I kinda wish they did go full faction restrictions. I was hoping Davion was going to go Davion 'Mechs only, or a penalty for non-Davion or something. Also kinda disappointed they're just focused on ClanVSis... that's going to kill variety a bit.

Still, I'd imagine that the trials will be set up to offer a equal amount of trial 'Mechs for each faction, for the newbies, so it's not like you're going to be barred out. Most decent players will have amassed a large amount of 'Mechs for most factions anyway.

[Joseph Mallan]

Viktor Drake, on 11 September 2014 - 05:05 AM, said:

I don't understand why they would even put faction limitations on mechs.

First, there is nothing in lore that supports it. Sure mechs manufactured in a give faction territory would be more common in that territory but it is a common, established fact that salvaged mechs were often refurbished and put into service by opposing factions. This means from a lore perspective, there are virtually zero mechs that are 100% exclusive to a given faction. This goes for Wolf Dragoon and Clan mechs as well as despite these organizations being successful, they still had battlefield loses that fell into the hands of their opponents.

Second and perhaps more importantly, it adds yet another balancing headache to the game. Now not only do you have to account for balancing the individual chassis against each other, but also you have to balance the chassis available to each faction against each other faction. I mean they can't even get weapons balance right now, how are they going to balance variants where maybe only 1 out of 3-5 variants is good and the others suck.

Lastly, as some have already mentioned. How is PGI going to manage telling people that their favorite mechs that they have invested hundreds of dollars of real money on are no longer available to them if they decide to not play the faction that mech is assigned too. I mean hey, you have spent $240 on a clan pack but because you chose Davion as your faction, you can't play any of those clan mech while participating in CW. Yeah that is going to go over real well. Same goes for the Hero mechs. What happens if your variant of hero mech wasn't used by a hero in your faction?

Anyway, the reality is at this point, the game isn't designed to support splitting up mechs by faction. This is something that would have had to be designed in at the get go and that train has left the station a long time ago.

Bacause Certain Factions use certain equipment. Dragons are Kurita, Jagers Davion. If your faction does not fight/trade with those factions why would you have them? Does Soviet troops use M-16? Do US forces use AK-47s? Faction specific equipment.

[Gyrok]

oldradagast, on 10 September 2014 - 03:22 AM, said:

It sounds like for CW, mechs will be limited by faction, at least for the IS. While not a bad idea from a roleplaying perspective - though it should have been introduced near the end of Closed Beta, not 2 years into the game - that brings up a few questions:

1) Will Lone Wolves be able to play whatever mechs they want vs. being limited? And if so, why would anyone chose being a House member if it limits their mech choices?

2) Will there be any XP or cbill refunds for mechs that we've spent hours grinding that are now suddenly off limits to us if we want to participate in Community Warfare?

3) Will Clans have similar limits? And, if not, what effect will further reducing the IS's capabilities have on game balance?

4) What about Hero mechs, or other mechs people have spent real world money on? Will they be playable anywhere, or will they be given full refunds?

5) Will these limits only affect an OPTIONAL CW game mode, or will they be across the board once you pick a faction?

Only in CW, you can play whatever you want in the pub queue, any time you want in the pub queue.

Also, they stated that you will not be limited to house specific mechs in phase 2. It may come later, however, at first it is just IS vs. Clans.