272 replies to this topic

[Sam Slade]

Erg... Um... news that is actually promising. I... I... this is all such a shock...

Um... Good plan. Do it.

[NuclearPanda]

I just seriously hope they can find a way to avoid griefing with the addition of a DropShip mode. If not.... well.....

[StalaggtIKE]

xWiredx, on 12 September 2014 - 07:58 AM, said:

If we're only going to be able to switch factions once every 3 months, you guys -really- need to contemplate the salvage aspect more. Locking people out of mechs that they own when they start playing CW is going to cause a certain degree of anger. Having 80+ mechs and for 3 months I can only use 24, and the next 3 months I can only use the other 60... that presents a couple of problems. Mainly, the selection isn't there for clan players, and for founder/phoenix players to have spent that money without the ability to use it unless they drop into the same queue they've been playing for years is really fkn lame.

Agreed. I think re-evaluating salvage should come first before a 3 month map reboot. Salvage has always been a big part of MW. You can also include captured factories and resources on planets. All of these are simple ways to allow players to use all of their mech inventory.

[wanderer]

Quote

..ejecting from their mech to drop in a fresh one, leaving the crippled remains of the mech standing in the still ongoing battlefield.. Epic!

Or limping your smoking wreck to an evac point/invading Dropship, which mitigates some of the damage done vs. having a unit lose and be totally obliterated. Combat-disabled units that successfully retreat off-field reduce the damaging effects of a battle in general- a commander who has his forces merely driven away vs. wrecked both has more forces to fight another day and denies the rewards of salvage to the enemy- and in worst-case scenarios, might choose to quit the field against a grossly superior opponent or even pull troops out in favor of getting a better set of reinforcements in sooner.

It's about to be ten minutes in, and your scout lance has lost a man, a second one is an armless Firestarter, and your two fire-support Stalkers are running low on ammo. You send them scurrying out the back bolthole as a fresh lance hopefully slots in...

aaaand the darn noobs are AFK. Instead of the lance of heavies, you get four guys in mediums and lights that were in the free queue since the unit queue timed out. At least they're fresh....but time for a new plan. At least if you lose this, that's 3 'Mechs worth of control points the enemy DOESN'T get fed in their meatgrinder.

[Kraven Kor]

NuclearPanda, on 12 September 2014 - 08:42 AM, said:

I just seriously hope they can find a way to avoid griefing with the addition of a DropShip mode. If not.... well.....

Just have a few Naval PPC's or something guarding the spawn zone and set up such that the defenders can't camp in spawn under the cover of such.

Get in weapons range of spawn = Orbital Bombardment to the Mech-Face.

[Apnu]

What about a lobby before the match? even with randoms. Put in a "crisis" point on the map, players or groups can click on it an they get into a lobby where they can make sure they're balanced (so then that assault player has 4 assaults readied, and that light player has 4 lights) and when all the critera are set, the whole team (premade or ad-hoc) can launch and find an opponent.

Its not much different than what we have now with groups, but adding in multiple mechs and the ability for lone wolves to find groups needing a few more to fill in, or create their own group of randoms.

This would also be great for organized units with alliances. Say I've got a lance of HHoD and can find a lance of FSAC, we could agree to join the same lobby and attack the planet together, while opening up the last lance to any Davion who wants to join.

That... that... would be the sexiest thing in the history of MWO.

[DONTOR]

I'm going to keep this simple.

F*** YA DROPSHIP!

Edited by DONTOR, 12 September 2014 - 09:05 AM.

[Syrkres]

Major problem that needs to be addressed with DROP deck/ship is that what happens when 8 players die and then they all bring their Assaults back in?

Or all bring their lights back in?

You basically lose the ability to control 3/3/3/3 drop deck.

One way you could fix this is do a check each time someone respawns to see which mechs are currently alive, and then allow the player to select one which doesn't stack the drop deck. Though this could exclude a player from being able to pick a mech and respawn (but that could be ok).

For example, if the initial drop deck is 3/3/3/3 and a player running a light dies, he then has to wait for another non-light to die because he already used his light and bringing in another weight class would tilt the balance, but then a Medium mech player dies, the light could then bring in a medium, while the medium palyer would bring in a light.

This would be ok until certain players die more often then others.

But you could put in a timer which after a certain amount of wait time it then allows him to bring in another overloaded weight class.

If you forced the drop deck of a player to bring all the same weight of the mech, then this would easily solve that problem. It probably also allow a player to bring the mechs he wants to rather than forcing to play different weight classes.

Edited by Syrkres, 12 September 2014 - 09:29 AM.

[keith]

still not a fan of just ISvsClan. have we bee gather these mechs for the last 3 years if we can not play them all? in lore clans had second line mechs to defend their backlines, was not all the mechs we have in game. yet it was some of the models. The IS after a while from the clan invasion gained some clan tech. mind u it was only the front line unit who had access to them. something fitting should be done afte x amount of time the IS can drop X% clan tech. if the clans are attacked behind their front lines they can use X% IS tech

[Tezcatli]

Hoax415, on 12 September 2014 - 08:35 AM, said:

The mentions of bidding to be the official defending player-unit for each planet indicates its actually Faction Play being left out for release CW. Notice we have also seen no reference at all to canon faction units. I think all player-units will act like merc corps for now. Some will be aligned specifically to one IS or Clan faction but it all sounds like Merc Corp Play so far.




They have put in writing that its currently planned to take days for a planet to change hands. I have no idea where people get this one battle concept. All this description of one battle is how one of the many many battles that will determine the "score" which determines if the planet is conquered or defended. The three days is just a placeholder value but its clear from that half-comment that its not one battle. Stop thinking that people.



It is definitely an early concern. I just made a long post about things that might ameliorate that problem somewhat. They may also be planning on giving defenders inherent advantages. So by design the defender would win an even match so its less of a big deal if many/some of the matches are 12 solo defender pugs versus 12-mans on voice comms.

These advantages could take the form of spawn points or victory conditions. There has been mention of defenders getting the turrets from assault or even being able to purchase them or something. Its certainly something they will need to balance but it should be possible.

Well that's good to know.

[Xarian]

Drop Ship mode sounds cool, but please do put in restrictions do you don't have teams of 12 people dropping with their Assaults simultaneously.

[Zyllos]

StalaggtIKE, on 12 September 2014 - 07:55 AM, said:

Source? I don't recall anything definite.

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__3710098

Phase 2 will not include logistics. The amount of development for logistics is just too big in scope to get into Phase 2. This has always been something we've wanted to do. Bryan even talked about it at the Launch Event. We know the fun factor that would come with logistical Unit management but we cannot put this in right at the moment. It it scrapped and completely off the table? Not in the slightest. We just want to make sure the core of the Inner Sphere vs the Clans was in place first before scoping out features like logistics.

Cimarb, on 12 September 2014 - 08:32 AM, said:

What is wrong with a queue that just lets everyone drop in assaults, like it used to be? Because then you are essentially penalized for bringing anything except assaults. We have been through that before, remember?

Well, your missing a key component. In that the side that takes lighter mechs will have more respawns. This was in the light that a single player has an available tonnage and number of available mechs to bring to a drop.

Edited by Zyllos, 12 September 2014 - 09:37 AM.

[megalo]

I think there is no reason to stick four drop slots.
Five slots is not perfect solution. but better than four slots.
Every player has every class mechs and at least two favorite mechs in drop deck.

Edited by megalo, 12 September 2014 - 09:33 AM.

[StalaggtIKE]

Zyllos, on 12 September 2014 - 09:30 AM, said:

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__3710098

Unfortunately, this is not a definitive answer.

Edit: It is a: we want to, but currently do not have the time.

Edited by StalaggtIKE, 12 September 2014 - 09:36 AM.

[Zyllos]

Syrkres, on 12 September 2014 - 09:06 AM, said:

Major problem that needs to be addressed with DROP deck/ship is that what happens when 8 players die and then they all bring their Assaults back in?

Or all bring their lights back in?

You basically lose the ability to control 3/3/3/3 drop deck.

One way you could fix this is do a check each time someone respawns to see which mechs are currently alive, and then allow the player to select one which doesn't stack the drop deck. Though this could exclude a player from being able to pick a mech and respawn (but that could be ok).

For example, if the initial drop deck is 3/3/3/3 and a player running a light dies, he then has to wait for another non-light to die because he already used his light and bringing in another weight class would tilt the balance, but then a Medium mech player dies, the light could then bring in a medium, while the medium palyer would bring in a light.

This would be ok until certain players die more often then others.

But you could put in a timer which after a certain amount of wait time it then allows him to bring in another overloaded weight class.

If you forced the drop deck of a player to bring all the same weight of the mech, then this would easily solve that problem. It probably also allow a player to bring the mechs he wants to rather than forcing to play different weight classes.

This is why I think there shouldn't be a dropdeck. Instead, players are limited by mech slots and tonnage, individually.

So the player can choose to take Assaults but have missing mechs for slots due to tonnage or can diversify into lighter options to fill out all the mechs. This allows for Team A to have 12 Assaults with no respawns vs Team B with 12 Commandos with 36 respawns worth of Commandos.

Then, matches can be modified (by dropship logistics or whatever) to be asymmetrical, so that one team might have 4 mech slots but with 85t while the other team might have 2 mech slots with 90t (to be modified by whatever variables PGI wants to implement).

This makes nobody forced to take what they don't want but is balanced by allowing lighter mechs to be fielded in higher numbers (through respawns). It also allows for a logistic mechanic for Phase 3 after the rules for CW has been placed in stone.

StalaggtIKE, on 12 September 2014 - 09:35 AM, said:

Unfortunately, this is not a definitive answer.

Edit: It is a: we want to, but currently do not have the time.

Reread the statement.

"...Is it scrapped and completely off the table? Not in the slightest..."

Either way, PGI doesn't say "Yes/No" on subjects like this. But look at the Plan.

https://mwomercs.com/theplan

Under Community Warfare, there is Inner Sphere Phase 1. Under it, Economics. This clearly explains they are interested in introducing logistics.

So, I think the combination of statements and "The Plan", they plan on adding it after Phase 2 of CW.

Edited by Zyllos, 12 September 2014 - 09:42 AM.

[StalaggtIKE]

Zyllos, on 12 September 2014 - 09:38 AM, said:

Reread the statement.

"...Is it scrapped and completely off the table? Not in the slightest..."

Read it fully. It actually says "It it...". But regardless, that's not definitive.

Edit: There has been many things listed as not "scrapped and completely off the table" that have yet to see the light of day.

Edited by StalaggtIKE, 12 September 2014 - 09:41 AM.

[deputydog]

Can you answer the questions about how merc units will come into play? Can we choose a side each time we want to participate in a planet fight? Are we stuck with a faction for 3 months or can we just drop on whichever side we want.. or which is paying more?

We have clan and IS mechs and want to be able to pick a side when a planet is contested. Maybe each side is a paying a bonus and we pick the Clan or IS side depending on what we want to drive or what the bonus is..

[Zyllos]

StalaggtIKE, on 12 September 2014 - 09:40 AM, said:

Read it fully. It actually says "It it...". But regardless, that's not definitive.

Edit: There has been many things listed as not "scrapped and completely off the table" that have yet to see the light of day.

Sure, you are correct.

But I think this one particular subject will end up being false.

[StalaggtIKE]

Zyllos, on 12 September 2014 - 09:38 AM, said:

https://mwomercs.com/theplan

Under Community Warfare, there is Inner Sphere Phase 1. Under it, Economics. This clearly explains they are interested in introducing logistics.

So, I think the combination of statements and "The Plan", they plan on adding it after Phase 2 of CW.

Just checked the Plan and this is what it says about the economics:

Nothing there on movement of troops or supplies.

Zyllos, on 12 September 2014 - 09:38 AM, said:

This is why I think there shouldn't be a dropdeck. Instead, players are limited by mech slots and tonnage, individually.

So the player can choose to take Assaults but have missing mechs for slots due to tonnage or can diversify into lighter options to fill out all the mechs. This allows for Team A to have 12 Assaults with no respawns vs Team B with 12 Commandos with 36 respawns worth of Commandos.

Then, matches can be modified (by dropship logistics or whatever) to be asymmetrical, so that one team might have 4 mech slots but with 85t while the other team might have 2 mech slots with 90t (to be modified by whatever variables PGI wants to implement).

This makes nobody forced to take what they don't want but is balanced by allowing lighter mechs to be fielded in higher numbers (through respawns). It also allows for a logistic mechanic for Phase 3 after the rules for CW has been placed in stone.

I like this concept and would prefer this to the 4 weight class dropdeck.

Edited by StalaggtIKE, 12 September 2014 - 09:51 AM.

[Wildstreak]

3 months seems like a short time period.

Combat between Houses vs Houses is needed so Marik, Liao and Davion can do something other than go all the way across the map.

Combat between Clans is needed to help slow down their invasion.