272 replies to this topic

[Kyle Polulak]

Howdy MechWarriors,



Please leave us your feedback on the latest big

Paul Inouye, on 11 September 2014 - 03:41 PM, said:

Hey folks,



Russ and I would like to clear up the top concerns we saw in the feedback thread for Community Warfare - Phase 2.



Faction Switching - Making use of all of your 'Mech Inventory

We were looking at how the IS Map changes over time and how slow the pace would be if we controlled the release of planets to follow the actual invasion timeline. We had reservations about this for a while and with the current feedback from the community, we have started investigating the ability for units and players to switch factions at the end of a season. Seasons would last for [3] months (still to be determined), and at the end of the Season, the IS Map will reset and players will be able to change factions for participating in Community Warfare. This allows players who have plenty of 'Mechs in each faction stable to use them all in Community Warfare in stages. We think this is a fair tradeoff for both role playing aspects and player inventory aspects in relation to Community Warfare.





Inter-Faction Combat

While the primary conflict in Community Warfare is the faction war between Inner Sphere and Clan forces, we do understand the player desires to include the inter-faction conflicts between the Houses/Clans. These are the skirmishes between Davion and Kurita for example. We currently have the ability to put any planet/system on the map up for contention and can use this feature to kick of conflicts along the house borders and clan borders as well.



While our focus is Clan vs IS, there will be opportunities in Community Warfare for players to engage in inter-faction conflicts as well. Why shouldn't Liao be able to push into Davion space? We believe this will add some very interesting dynamics to Community Warfare along with the main Invasion conflict and will be adding this ability with Phase 2.





Respawns

So yesterday when I posted the information about Community Warfare - Part 2, I mentioned it was a copy and past from the high level design doc. A few items were still being discussed so I pulled them to not put it out there quite yet. I wanted to release those other bits in the next update. But low and behold... 20 minutes after posting... Karl walked up to me and said... "You left respawn in there." After turning various shades of white/grey I saw the error. Too late.. people already commenting on it. Here's the clarification:



Originally it was planned to have 1.. ONE... respawn when the attackers breached the gate in the Invasion game mode. This gives the feeling of re-enforcements arriving because the respawn would happen in the player's respective bases. Basically players who died before the gate breach, would go into a stasis mode and observe like the current spectator mode. Once the gate was breached, everyone in stasis would respawn one time. People who had not died would have a "respawn in their pocket".



Now keep this in mind... I personally am not a fan of respawning but it just made sense for this type of game mode. Russ HATES respawns and when he saw the first design he was like "WOAH!!". So we were in talks about it. Engineering support is already done for it but everything was on hold until we made a concrete decision. Then I made the copy-paste error...



I met with the engineers involved with CW-Phase 2 and we started talking about the game mode and the idea of respawn. Wayyy back in closed Beta everyone thought Drop Ship mode would be very cool... the ability to bring in up to 4 'Mechs (1 of each Weight Class) into a match and choose non-destroyed 'Mechs to respawn back into the match with. This was a high technical risk back then and Drop Ship was put on the back burner.



In the meeting today and planning out how we will be incorporating the new game mode into Community Warfare to make a unique experience... Drop Ship came back up. Now let me tell you this... every time I mention Drop Ship, the engineering team (I'll call them Karl & Friends) would cringe back in fear with eyes that would make an anime character jealous. We all started talking.. what's best for the game?.. what would have to get done?.. everyone agreed the community would love something like Drop Ship.



I'm happy to let you know... Karl & Friends have decided bite the bullet and fully investigate the complete system requirements for Drop Ship mode. During this discussion we have found that this mode is not only cool, but it also helps with some of the match creation process that would be needed for Planetary Conquest matches. It's a scary undertaking but it's something that we are all passionate about in creating a very cool gaming experience for you the community.



Some players may have concerns about being forced into playing one of each 'Mech weight class during a Community Warfare match. Keep in mind that we've spent a lot of time creating a MechWarrior title where lights, mediums, heavies and assault all have a viable role to play on the battlefield. Bringing in your favorite 'Mech is not going to be hindered in any way and that the rest of your Drop Ship provides you with a means to support your Unit if you do happen to be destroyed in combat. Full 12-man Unit groups participating in CW might be able to ensure that they have exactly 12 'Mechs of each weight class among the 48 total. Random groups and Units that are showing up to defend will have little to no chance organizing which 'Mechs to prep and some people may end up needing to take nothing but 4 lights when they only pilot Assaults. Therefore the most balanced solution that will allow the most strategy amongst teams is to have each person bring one of each weight class into battle.



I cannot 100% guarantee Drop Ship mode at this moment, but everyone on board is going to try to make it happen. I will update you all on the final discovery in the next CW update.

[Racklesnack]

Sounds good

[Airic Gryphon]

Looks really exciting.

When the map resets after each season, is it planned to give some reward or bonus to the faction the conquered the most territory?

Keep up the good work.

[Stonefalcon]

This is something that could really re-invigorate MWO.

Dropship mode takes the normal mundane short and dull battles and turns them into a freaking WAR, Fantastic!!

If you guys do implement dropship mode please consider the possibilities of varying sizes of dropships available and make it so the class of dropship you use determines the number of respawns each member of the unit is permitted to have during the course of the battle.

[Zanathan]

Damn the information is flowing the last 2 days. Thanks a lot guys.

I can imagine the complexities of adding drop ship module but it would really make sense in terms of lore as well as have more meaningful and prolonged battles. I know it's still a work in progress and the discussions are mostly high level but does this mean merc corps need to have their own drop ships (this was mentioned earlier but unsure if it was scrapped)? And also what about house/faction players not in a merc corp?

[Reno Blade]

Thanks for the very quick update.
This sounds pretty nice so far.

IS vs IS
I definitely want to have IS vs IS battles!

Seasons
I'm not sure about 3 month seasons and a full reset, but that depends on how much the IS would be able to change in such a timeframe and what limits there are.
If that is enough for a "smaller" house to attack even up to the capital of the enemy house, it might be good to have a reset around this time.
But it could be more usefull to have some limits to how fast/how many planets can be conquered in a certain amount of time.
With the 3-days to conquer limit it will be already quite good. Nobody wants to have half of their planets taken by the time they wake up in the morning.

A full reset also means that the "meaning" of conquest might feel less important.
What does it matter if I conquer Luthien, if it's gonna be back to normal after Time X?

Rather to have seasons "just" be a mean to give rewards, but do not whipe the IS map when the Season ends.
I think it would be better to have a reset if something goes wrong, or one nation is no longer able to play, but the thrill to defend your last 3 planets is also something that needs to be there.

Economy
I hope that economy will be affected by conquering worlds in a later phase.
hopefully similar to this design: http://mwomercs.com/...and-cw-effects/


Respawn
The 1-respawn reinforcement idea sounds fun (name it siege mode or something).
And it is a lot less complicated. Just use the same class for both slots.

For the dropship mode, it might be possible/better to try it with 1 class only.
Choose your class in the beginning before you launch, just like in the Pug queue, then the MMaker will try to put you into a denfending faction team (as a faction player).
But that way you can't choose the planet yourself (because MM does it for you and your selected class).

If you have a 12man team with 3x4, the setup will stay true for each respawn, but you would have to own 4 mechs of that weight class (if not available, 4x the Trial mech of that class).
Let's say you start with a Quickdraw, giving you more speed and mobility, then you breach the gates, but die in the progress.
Then you take your Catapult to give long range support to cover the advance into enemy positions.
If you then need to respawn with a brawling Orion or Phract... You see?

Edited by Reno Blade, 12 September 2014 - 04:40 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

Good update.

[Johnny Z]

Awsome, like really awsome. I have one complaint, where did my excellent joke about the Timber Wolf getting onto the field during an Urbie Durbie go?

But seriously cant wait. Preping one of each weight class now.

[CrashieJ]

this is great and all but I would love the ability to fight in the solaris arenas.

those 5 different arenas would buy you guys enough time to put this on pen and paper

[Johnny Z]

Zanathan, on 11 September 2014 - 04:51 PM, said:

Damn the information is flowing the last 2 days. Thanks a lot guys.

I can imagine the complexities of adding drop ship module but it would really make sense in terms of lore as well as have more meaningful and prolonged battles. I know it's still a work in progress and the discussions are mostly high level but does this mean merc corps need to have their own drop ships (this was mentioned earlier but unsure if it was scrapped)? And also what about house/faction players not in a merc corp?

I think if the players had dropships the Merc Corps would actually need Jumpships to transport them.

[Asmudius Heng]

Personally I think that a limited respawn mode with different mechs like dropship ideas are not bad.

Though I like the idea of being able to capture points to drop those respawns in on rather than start back at base.

This way you might push out with lots of lights first then charge forward, then if you die you miht drop in y slow assault to defend those points .. or many other strategies might arise on how a when you drop certain mech based on capturing territory.

4 respawns with different classes seems perfect for this sort of mode. If you just start back at base you have base camping problems an looooong travel times for poor assaults sometimes rather than a more perhaps battlefield kind of experience

[Troutmonkey]

A mode with limited respawns? Yes please. I'd give anything for a substantially different game mode. It'd be cool if there was some sort of community playlist like Halo had, where there'd be an interesting new game mode to try each month or so.

[A big brave boulder of meat]

Here's an idea for respawns. Why not make it so you can create up to let's say 4 Mechwarriors. Rework the pilot tree  by splitting it into a specialized pilot tree for each of the Mechs types. When capturing a planet you would pick 4 Mechwarriors specialized in different Mech classes. I think that could add some cool variations.

That would also be a good way of adding quirks.

[Bishop Steiner]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 11 September 2014 - 04:34 PM, said:

Howdy MechWarriors,



Please leave us your feedback on the latest big

Wow.

Well, for the records. I am RABIDLY anti-respawn.

BUT.

That "single respawn of those dead befor breach as reinforcements" is actually kind of a cool way to approach it, and probably easier to code and implement than say, MM drawing in another lance of players.

There are a lot of specifics I would want details on before I could get 1''% behind it (ways to make sure the Defenders don't game the system to intentionally respawn with their heavier guns against a severely depleted attack force, or other such things).


Have to admit, Dropship Mode does nothing for me either way, but as long as it's optional, like the other game modes, no skin off my back to pursue it. I do tend to have "twitch" responses to the simple mention of respawns though, as (even though there are very competitive twitch teams and players) it seems to cater to even more solo rambo selfish play than we already have.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 11 September 2014 - 05:31 PM.

[Crazyeyes244]

This is the sort of update information we like to see. Now actually keep it up this time, and work out the actual mechanics and we could be on the road to recovery. I would definitely love to play a planetary invasion with limited respawns (the mechs in your dropship).

[Dirk Le Daring]

I am against respawning. That said, I will not hate on it....yet. (will wait and see)

The only concern I could put forward is the issue of framerates. When at 7-15 fps a light is damn near impossible to pilot. So that would force poor game experience upon a player, and create quite some frustration.

[Gwydion Ward]

Nikolai Lubkiewicz, on 11 September 2014 - 04:34 PM, said:

[color=#00FFFF]Drop Ship mode.[/color]

One thing I want to see, even if "Drop Ship" mode does NOT make it in-game. The ability to 'queue' up with multiple mech's. Then, after connecting to the match, we wind up at a screen which tells you 'what' map your playing on, as well as the 'quirks' of that map (such as high heat). Then, were allowed to 'drop' with 1 mech (from those 4) for that match.

[Deathshade]

Respawn would make it a non-stop metal battle full of blown up mechs everywhere. A constant battle that seems never-ending with the only the strongest young players able to hold the mouse off their desk. We wouldn't want that would we *slaps forhead*

Any of you ole' MW 4 Merc players remember those days. It was NON-STOP MF Battles! but meh

What kind of time line and is this phase 2 or is it 2-10?

[Xenon Codex]

Just talking off the top of my head for a second...

I like Dropship mode, but am concerned about one bit. Why make a single battles evolve around only 24 players? If you are willing to concede respawns, why not include more people? For example, 1st wave, 2nd wave, 3rd wave, and 4th wave, all different Mechwarriors! Let other unit/faction members be the reinforcements once the 1st line goes down. Lots of benefits, more people feel like they have contributed, and less "rambo" style attitudes.

Would be nice if the dead could remain in spectator mode, but don't know how that would lag the servers with 96 people in the game. Is it feasible? What if you limit the number of games during planetary conquest periods to account for the extra server load?

Thanks for the update and insights on your internal meetings, much appreciated!

[IronChance]

I like the idea of seasons. Recording results and posting during/after every season would be very cool. Stats for top 50 units, top 50 players, etc.

I wonder why the whole "gate" thing is necessary. It seems like you could easily do planetary battles using existing game modes and maps. Why do the extra work? Don't get me wrong - I'm all for new game modes and maps! But, I just don't think you should hinge CW on this particular thing. Also, the advantage seems to entirely belong to the defender in this mode, but I'm sure that can be addressed in any number of ways.

The dropship idea is ok. I'd recommend using it with repair/rearm and add it to a 3-game (45 minute) campaign mode. Force the player to decide if he wants to respawn on current map and spend another mech there, or hold his mechs in reserve for game 2 or 3.

Just some ideas. Looking forward to it!