272 replies to this topic

[slide]

I am not fond of respawns either but I admit I always liked the idea of drop ship mode to prolong the length of the battle.

As opposed to respawns how about the ability to retreat back to your drop zone for a quick repair and refit such as we have seen in previous titles. Limited to ammo and armour only (internal damage not repaired) and it takes at least 1 min powered down. I feel this would prevent people just rushing in at the beginning knowing they can come back and hopefully make people think a little more tactically. This would also tend to drag out entrenched defenders trying to finish off wounded mechs.

[Fishhawk]

While I am not a fan of respawns, if done right it could be fun. Color me intrigued. Definitely want IS vs IS. Switching factions every "season" sounds fine to me. Would hate to see folks switching every other day.

[WerewolfX]

-gasp- IGP goes away and BAMF info? I have to say this week has been excellent. Also, Love what I'm reading, Stay the course. Stay the course.

[dak irakoz]

Sounds good, but my only worry is that many people (me included) don't have a clan mech for each class, meaning we're barred from siding with the clans?

[Hillslam]

Don't care either way about dropship or respawn, do as you like.

But this caught my eye: where he says something like "when WE release a planet for battle".

Quote

...we controlled the release of planets...

Quote

...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...

So I read into that as meaning we the players don't get to pick what planet we're fighting on/for/against. If this is true its a HUGE downer to me.

I was looking forward to this for 2 primary reasons:

1 - The ability to pick the environment I fight on (and I don't give a **** about "balanced mechs and the whole blargle farbgrab reasons" for not letting the customers do so. If I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin volcano I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin godd**n volcano.

2 - The ability to pick WHO we fight against. Say I want to smash Marik face. Or roll me some Laio Eggrolls. Oops, sorry can't, those worlds are not "open for fight" today? Maybe I want nothing at all to do with the "central" storyline of IS vs Clan. Maybe I've had it up to my eyeteeth with everything IS vs Clan and am just sick of looking at the things (either side - and yes I own all the clan mechs).

So please respond if we the players, the customers, will get to choose what worlds we fight on and on what borders. Or not.

Edited by Hillslam, 11 September 2014 - 06:17 PM.

[Jakob Knight]

I have to say that I'm not at all thrilled with the idea of making this game any more an e-sport or arcade game, such as is being proposed with re-spawn functionality. Maybe in the public games, as they were always supposed to be 'not real'/'don't count' games, but not in CW! Let CW be actual warfare, where you only have one life, and you have to be careful how you use it.

This is especially true if, as has been commented on, CW is intended as the 'hardcore RP' experience used to justify unit selection limits. Never, in any battle in the MechWarrior universe, did a pilot who was just shot out of their mech simply run over to the dropship, climb into a new mech, and run right back out into the same battle within seconds of their first mech dropping. If anything, CW should bring home the idea that this isn't just a mech brawling arcade game but one that requires careful strategy and tactics. One of the core strategic concerns in any actual battle is asset preservation and deployment.

As far as this representing 'reinforcements', why is it simply assumed the defender will always have reserves that they won't commit to battle? We had this with the Conquest game mode before turrets were introduced, and those teams who decided to not withhold a portion of their team for defense often had to pay the price for the increased combat power of not defending their own base of operations. That was a strategic decision, and just about the only one in the game, and it was removed as a consideration when turrets were installed to remove the work of strategy from those players incapable of understanding that there is more to fighting than charging in with everything you have. Now, you want to put that further with this? Is there going to be an inherent advantage to the attackers that will make this balanced? Maybe the games will be 6 defending vrs 12 attacking, because that is the only way this could be seen as balanced.

I strongly hope any respawn is kept out of CW. If you have to make the arcade and e-sports players happy, keep it in the part of the game that isn't supposed to be serious.

[Crazyeyes244]

Hillslam, on 11 September 2014 - 06:11 PM, said:

Don't care either way about dropship or respawn, do as you like.

But this caught my eye: where he says something like "when WE release a planet for battle".
[/size]


So I read into that as meaning we the players don't get to pick what planet we're fighting on/for/against. If this is true its a HUGE downer to me.

I was looking forward to this for 2 primary reasons:

1 - The ability to pick the environment I fight on (and I don't give a **** about "balanced mechs and the whole blargle farbgrab reasons" for not letting the customers do so. If I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin volcano I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin godd**n volcano.

2 - The ability to pick WHO we fight against. Say I want to smash Marik face. Or roll me some Laio Eggrolls. Oops, sorry can't, those worlds are not "open for fight" today? Maybe I want nothing at all to do with the "central" storyline of IS vs Clan. Maybe I've had it up to my eyeteeth with everything IS vs Clan and am just sick of looking at the things (either side - and yes I own all the clan mechs).

So please respond if we the players, the customers, will get to choose what worlds we fight on and on what borders. Or not.

I don't think they mean they choose specifically where we fight, simply which planets are available to be "contested" or open to attacks. Sort of a way for them to show the progression of the frontlines as the invasion plays out. We will be able to pick what planet to attack, just the options are limited to where the battle lines are drawn. I think. If they pick planets for us to be attacking it'd be pointless.

[Sadist Cain]

Riding a dropship into battle is the only thing that would drag myself and others back in...

We want what we came for...

[N0MAD]

Hillslam, on 11 September 2014 - 06:11 PM, said:

Don't care either way about dropship or respawn, do as you like.

But this caught my eye: where he says something like "when WE release a planet for battle".
[/size]


So I read into that as meaning we the players don't get to pick what planet we're fighting on/for/against. If this is true its a HUGE downer to me.

I was looking forward to this for 2 primary reasons:

1 - The ability to pick the environment I fight on (and I don't give a **** about "balanced mechs and the whole blargle farbgrab reasons" for not letting the customers do so. If I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin volcano I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin godd**n volcano.

2 - The ability to pick WHO we fight against. Say I want to smash Marik face. Or roll me some Laio Eggrolls. Oops, sorry can't, those worlds are not "open for fight" today? Maybe I want nothing at all to do with the "central" storyline of IS vs Clan. Maybe I've had it up to my eyeteeth with everything IS vs Clan and am just sick of looking at the things (either side - and yes I own all the clan mechs).

So please respond if we the players, the customers, will get to choose what worlds we fight on and on what borders. Or not.

Did you miss this? how about you Mischief?..

CONTESTED PLANETS
When a planet is contested, the warring factions are fighting over who will control the planet and reap the associated rewards. For each planet, there is an attacking Faction Unit and a defending Faction Unit.[/color]

• Contested planets are specially marked on the IS map and can be identified at all zoom levels.
  
• Contested planets are assignable by the design team.

So it seems the System(design team) picks what planets are contestable not the Unit leaders, unit leaders pick from a list of planets the system has chosen, and then only if you have a team that can field 12 players (12 man premade), then most likely this 12 man premade is going to fight a pug group.
Then 3 days of these premades vs Pugs games collecting points will determine who wins? really?

Edited by N0MAD, 11 September 2014 - 06:44 PM.

[Prezimonto]

Hillslam, on 11 September 2014 - 06:11 PM, said:

Don't care either way about dropship or respawn, do as you like.

But this caught my eye: where he says something like "when WE release a planet for battle".
[/size]


So I read into that as meaning we the players don't get to pick what planet we're fighting on/for/against. If this is true its a HUGE downer to me.

I was looking forward to this for 2 primary reasons:

1 - The ability to pick the environment I fight on (and I don't give a **** about "balanced mechs and the whole blargle farbgrab reasons" for not letting the customers do so. If I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin volcano I don't want to fight on a mutherfookin godd**n volcano.

2 - The ability to pick WHO we fight against. Say I want to smash Marik face. Or roll me some Laio Eggrolls. Oops, sorry can't, those worlds are not "open for fight" today? Maybe I want nothing at all to do with the "central" storyline of IS vs Clan. Maybe I've had it up to my eyeteeth with everything IS vs Clan and am just sick of looking at the things (either side - and yes I own all the clan mechs).

So please respond if we the players, the customers, will get to choose what worlds we fight on and on what borders. Or not.

If I remember correctly they've said there's 2 different versions of fighting... Faction and merc corp.... With faction being essentially driven by their choices and involving the queues, and the merc corps being much more unit controlled.

I could be wrong, but that's they way I understood things from The Plan.

That being said I'd expect that phase 2 CW is just Faction play not merc corp.

[DEMAX51]

"Drop Ship" would be awesome. I really hope the engineering team is able to overcome any hurdles.

To make one suggestion though: you should place tonnage limits on each player's Drop Ship, such that they don't have enough tonnage to simply pick the highest-tonnage 'Mechs in each weight class.

[VanillaG]

Instead of having a dropship full of mechs that can be spawned, use a ticket system for controlling both respawn and R&R. Think of it as a reverse Conquest mode where each team gets a certain amount of tickets that are redeemed for either respawning a destroyed mech or repairing and rearming a damaged mech. Each mech would get a respawn value based on equipment and it will always be cheaper to repair a mech than respawn it.

For example, each team is given [300] tickets at the start of the battle. The ticket cost of mech is [C-Bill cost/1 million] so a stock CN9-A would cost [4] tickets and a stock CN9-D would cost [8] tickets. So during the course of a battle if a CN9-A is destroyed the pilot spends [4] tickets to respawn and head back to the battle. For R&R you would need to bring your mech to the respawn point or a mobile repair depot to repairs and to reload ammo.

Using tickets allows a variable amount of respawns based on the equipment that you are fielding and brings back a bit of in match R&R. Units with only 3025 tech would get more respawns than a unit this Star League or Clan tech because of respawn costs. This would simulate the IS having to use numbers to overcome a technologically superior force while keeping the team sizes the same.

Edited by VanillaG, 11 September 2014 - 06:53 PM.

[Cimarb]

I think that all sounds great, except for the "seasonal reset"... That sounds horrible... Please, please, please do not do that. Talk about major immersion breaking! Especially just so whiny people will stop whining about not being able to run any mech at any time, because they STILL will not be able to do that even with this seasonal thing... I am all for compromise - love it - but that is just a poor way to do it.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Dropship mode would be a veritable godsend.

1 of each weight class is fine. If a player doesn't own any lights or mediums or whatever, there are Trials to run with. If nothing else, it incentivizes expanding your skillset and your stable so that you do have a personalized mech for every weight class.

Seasons are great, especially if they come with meaningful rewards for top contributors and for the sides that end the season with certain objectives successfully completed. 3 months feels about right.

I still think Loyalty Points are a very high priority, and am looking forward to future updates that might address them.

[SirDubDub]

I would still like to see an individual total drop weight, even if class slots are implemented. This is to prevent players from only using the heaviest end of the weight classes. You want to drop in an Atlas? You'll have to trade that tonnage from somewhere else by playing a catapult instead of an Orion, or a Cicada in place of a Shadowhawk.

Edited by SirDubDub, 11 September 2014 - 09:28 PM.

[IIIuminaughty]

Dirk Le Daring, on 11 September 2014 - 05:32 PM, said:

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.

but that could happen at anytime....like anytime could happen in a regular, public match.

[-Teiwaz-]

I only run mediums, so one of each weight class will not work for me, nor do I want to be forced to buy and pilot mechs that I do not want, only to participate in CW. Simply let me pilot my mediums and I will be happy.

[IIIuminaughty]

Sadist Cain, on 11 September 2014 - 06:29 PM, said:

Riding a dropship into battle is the only thing that would drag myself and others back in...

We want what we came for...

this would be dope

VanillaG, on 11 September 2014 - 06:51 PM, said:

Instead of having a dropship full of mechs that can be spawned, use a ticket system for controlling both respawn and R&R. Think of it as a reverse Conquest mode where each team gets a certain amount of tickets that are redeemed for either respawning a destroyed mech or repairing and rearming a damaged mech. Each mech would get a respawn value based on equipment and it will always be cheaper to repair a mech than respawn it.

For example, each team is given [300] tickets at the start of the battle. The ticket cost of mech is [C-Bill cost/1 million] so a stock CN9-A would cost [4] tickets and a stock CN9-D would cost [8] tickets. So during the course of a battle if a CN9-A is destroyed the pilot spends [4] tickets to respawn and head back to the battle. For R&R you would need to bring your mech to the respawn point or a mobile repair depot to repairs and to reload ammo.

Using tickets allows a variable amount of respawns based on the equipment that you are fielding and brings back a bit of in match R&R. Units with only 3025 tech would get more respawns than a unit this Star League or Clan tech because of respawn costs. This would simulate the IS having to use numbers to overcome a technologically superior force while keeping the team sizes the same.

Sooooo Battlefield 4 ok...

[Monsoon]

Some great communication and quick follow up. Keep up the good work!

[cleghorn6]

The only problem I see with the proposed Drop-ship mode is that players specialise. Allowing this actually enhances rather than dilutes the role-based aspects of various 'mechs. Piloting a light 'mech is VERY different to piloting assault 'mechs, forcing players to select one from each weight class de-values these differences.

That being said, I understand that we can't just allow players to bring their very own Steiner scout lance or Dire Whale pod.

Therefore, I have some ideas to explore for Drop-ship 'mech selection. How about if you allocate a weight slot to a player, so within the 3/3/3/3, you allocate 3 players to each weight class and they must select 4 'mechs from that class. Bonus feature: players can select either this mode, or the one from each class mode.

Alternately, allow players to select 1 'mech up to each weight class. So 1 light, 1 med, 1 heavy, 1 assault is fine. 4 lights, also fine. 1 light, 2 meds and 1 heavy, fine.

Just some ideas to explore.

I'm very pleased with this level of communication from PGI. Clearly you guys have been champing at the bit to get out here with us plebes. Keep it up and remember, if you need to ease back, just let us know first. Will save much conspiracy theorising. Thanks!