272 replies to this topic

[Thomas G Wolf]

Paul would it be in any way possible for a player to take part in CW both as a Clanner and as an IS player, sort of playing both sides of the coin, or at least having the choice of playing IS one day and Clan the next because losing half the mechs off from the start kinda sucks. Also I was really looking forward to kicking Liao in the privates as a Fed Com player, so it would be cool if there was an option to a) fight against the IS as a Clanner and then fight as an IS pilot against another House (or Clan vs Clan) thereby avoiding any crossover between the 2 wars so that spying and the like is not possible. I have no idear if this is technicly (or however you spell that damm word) possible but it would solve alot of heartache by not forcing a player to chose between playing only Clan or IS.

[N0MAD]

Hoax415, on 12 September 2014 - 08:23 AM, said:

You missed a step. The system picks contested planets. Then unit leaders bid (huge ???? moment) to be the official defending unit. The official defending unit basically chooses a timeslot (how long, how many per day, we dont know) and then for 3 days during the timeslot the planet is open to be attacked. When the planet is open to be attacked 12-man premades can attack it. When its attacked first the official defending unit is notified. They have 2 minutes to respond by forming a 12-man. If they can't then its PUG time and same-faction and unaligned faction players will fill the needed slots.

Everything after this assumes that multiple attacking 12-mans can drop on a given planet in a given timeslot. We don't even know if that is how it works for sure yet.

I dont read it that way, this is how i interpret it ..
System selects planets A,B,C as attackable, Group Alpha (which is a registered group with MWO and has a minimum of 12 members) and belongs to Faction X can initiate an attack, other groups(Mercs ect) that have allegiance to Faction X or get contracts from Group Alpha are eligible to play in drops as attackers (the bidding system confuses me a bit, not sure if it happens between the Groups interested in initiating the attack, or after other allegiance groups bidding to partake in the battle).
Once the battle is initiated by Group Alpha all allegiance groups or contracted groups can drop into battles.
Battle windows of several hours for different time zones are set during the day over a 3 day period.
After the 3 day period a tally is taken of W/L (points) games for the opposing side and the one with most points wins.
Players are rewarded faction points and possible other shinnies.

[Hoax415]

I gotta say I'm fairly certain your version is incorrect.

Here's what they stated about defending:
"There are 2 types of defenders for a planet. Contract defenders are the Unit that won the right to defend a planet through the bidding system. Faction defenders are the rest of the players who can defend the planet but are not part of the contract defending unit."

So as you can see its the defender side of things where there is a "contract unit" who gets priority to handle all attacks backed by pugs for the attacks the unit can't deal with.

Quote

Battle windows of several hours for different time zones are set during the day over a 3 day period.
After the 3 day period a tally is taken of W/L (points) games for the opposing side and the one with most points wins.
Players are rewarded faction points and possible other shinnies.

As far as we know this is correct. But to my eyes if you combine the idea of time windows and contract defender units you get a system where:
-the contract defender basically has a system like "siege timers" that we've seen in many other games.
-there are several time windows and the contract defender unit picks which window(s) that their planet can be attacked.
-that way if you are a EU unit you can make it so your planet only comes under attack during EU hours for instance.

Edited by Hoax415, 13 September 2014 - 12:27 AM.

[Void Angel]

Neat, thanks!

[StalaggtIKE]

Eric Wulfen, on 12 September 2014 - 11:37 PM, said:

Paul would it be in any way possible for a player to take part in CW both as a Clanner and as an IS player, sort of playing both sides of the coin, or at least having the choice of playing IS one day and Clan the next because losing half the mechs off from the start kinda sucks. Also I was really looking forward to kicking Liao in the privates as a Fed Com player, so it would be cool if there was an option to a) fight against the IS as a Clanner and then fight as an IS pilot against another House (or Clan vs Clan) thereby avoiding any crossover between the 2 wars so that spying and the like is not possible. I have no idear if this is technicly (or however you spell that damm word) possible but it would solve alot of heartache by not forcing a player to chose between playing only Clan or IS.

Allow us to create an IS and Clan player. Live out both lives simultaneously. No one wants to locked out of their mechs 3 months at a time.

Edited by StalaggtIKE, 13 September 2014 - 08:46 AM.

[L Y N X]

Wow PGI you guys stun me...stun me... just stun me... not always in a good way.

Back when fancy foils were published a year or more ago, wasn't dropship mode 3 mechs of the same weight class? That would also solve the problems you outline. Why do you guys keep flip-flopping on good ideas?

What about Mercenaries capturing whole periphery planets in their name? I do recall that was going to be a major pillar of CW. it is why I have built a merc unit from the ground up. IT IS THE ONLY REASON I HAVE STUCK AROUND THIS LONG.

[Johnny Z]

7ynx, on 13 September 2014 - 08:59 AM, said:

Wow PGI you guys stun me...stun me... just stun me... not always in a good way.

Back when fancy foils were published a year or more ago, wasn't dropship mode 3 mechs of the same weight class? That would also solve the problems you outline. Why do you guys keep flip-flopping on good ideas?

What about Mercenaries capturing whole periphery planets in their name? I do recall that was going to be a major pillar of CW. it is why I have built a merc unit from the ground up. IT IS THE ONLY REASON I HAVE STUCK AROUND THIS LONG.

Maybe this is still in Phase 2? Nothing has been mentioned about what happens after Merc Corps capture planets, just that Merc Corps have the ability to capture planets. There are a bunch of planets on the periphery....

What about contracts? So many details have not been released and just a bunch of guesses from forum goers on alot of other stuff sprinkled with misinformation lol.

All jokes aside they are putting the pieces of the faction wars together for phase 2, details of phase 3 have yet to be released or a eta. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Edited by Johnny Z, 13 September 2014 - 10:55 AM.

[Theaus]

Just wanted to say that I hope when community warfare launches PGI could give us just a week or two for just the IS to fight IS and Clans to fight Clans. Kind of like jockeying at the gate. That way it will feel like the Clans show up during a war and not there from the very beginning. I want to get my Inner Sphere hatred going before we have to set it aside to deal with the Invasion.

[Karazine]

[GreyGriffin]

John Fitzgerald Kennedy said:

We do this, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

[Kekrebos]

A couple of comments:
I'm of the camp that feels that a dropship mode of mixed weight classes isn't ideal. I find when I drop in to a fight I'm in the mood to play a certain weight class. For units, it makes it easier to decide whos doing what, and for solo drops the queing shouldn't be any different than normal. Put a % indicator on each planet for what classes are qued and then its the own player's fault if they're not taking weight classes that are needed.

As to the people saying they don't want map resets and want a persistent forever mode, I ask you to go look in to Heroes & Generals. Its a WW2 simulator, and they have a somewhat similar type of setup to what PGI is suggesting here. The map resets, and as someone who has played it, I can tell you why it is a bad bad idea to have a map that doesn't reset. Sometimes your side does really bad. It gets to be very not fun having constant losses, especially if there is a benefit to holding the land. The way they reset is when someone take over either London or Berlin. They've also been talking about adding in a % of map control, and having a supreme command that can throw in the towel. I haven't played in a bit, so they may have implimented that.
Another suggestion I have is if the seasons are to take longer than a month, have some limited way to allow individuals (but not units) to switch sides. That way if someone that is playing with friends who quit, or finds new friends, wants to join up with someone new they don't have to wait 3 months to do so.

[GreyGriffin]

Rallog, on 13 September 2014 - 12:32 PM, said:

A couple of comments:
I'm of the camp that feels that a dropship mode of mixed weight classes isn't ideal. I find when I drop in to a fight I'm in the mood to play a certain weight class. For units, it makes it easier to decide whos doing what, and for solo drops the queing shouldn't be any different than normal.

So why not just have a straight up weight limit along with a bay limit on dropship? Say, 5 bays, 200 tons. So you can bring 2 Atlases, or 3 griffins and a Raven, or 4 centurions.

[Kekrebos]

GreyGriffin, on 13 September 2014 - 12:35 PM, said:

So why not just have a straight up weight limit along with a bay limit on dropship? Say, 5 bays, 200 tons. So you can bring 2 Atlases, or 3 griffins and a Raven, or 4 centurions.

Because 2 Atlases don't equal 4 centurions.

If you want to introduce weight limits, they should be class based. So if you select an assault lance you have 350 tons to play with, so a Victor, Awesome , Atlas and Highlander. Whereas a Medium lance only gets 200 tons for example (Hunchback, Centurion, Shadowhawk and Blackjack).

I just have a feeling that being able to bring a mixed 'deck' of mechs is going to be problematic. It'll force people to generalize instead of being able to focus. If you want to be a generalist... theres always the next battle.

[GreyGriffin]

Rallog, on 13 September 2014 - 12:43 PM, said:

I just have a feeling that being able to bring a mixed 'deck' of mechs is going to be problematic. It'll force people to generalize instead of being able to focus. If you want to be a generalist... theres always the next battle.

In an idealized world, where Role Warfare and Information Warfare were real pillars instead ofpapier-mâché facades wrapped over paper towel tubes, 4 locusts would have the same value to the team as 4 Dire Wolves. This is obviously not the case. That being said, I understand the root of your criticism and present this refined alternative.

You choose a Role. This is either a weight class (Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault), an idealized role (Scout, Defender, Fire Support, etc), or even a "core chassis" that has a dynamic relationship to other chassis that you want to center your play style around.

You have 500 "points" to spend to fill 4 'Mech bays on your dropship.

Then, each chassis has a value assigned to it for each Role. For Instance, if you chose the Assault role, Atlases, Dire Wolves, and Awesomes might have a value of 90-125 points. An Orion might also have an Assault value of around 100 points, because it fills a similar role, even though it's a lighter 'mech. However, a Raven or Firestarter might cost 200 points, because it is "off-role."

Of course, balancing these roles and their value in each hangar will be a nightmare (After all, how do you differentiate Heavy Close Support from Assault?) but it's a more organic solution than just giving each hangar two different flat out tonnage limits that will just result in even more Heavy bloat than we have now.

[CyclonerM]

Rallog, on 13 September 2014 - 12:43 PM, said:

Because 2 Atlases don't equal 4 centurions.

But this would be another way to incentivize people to play mediums and lights.. Indeed, i would have chosen tonnage limits instead of 3/3/3/3 .

[Surtosi]

Well now, talk about a relationship builder. More of this please.

Will the mechs match the lists from the various faction sales? If so I'm selling all my capellan walkers.

[Cimarb]

Surtosi, on 13 September 2014 - 04:55 PM, said:

Well now, talk about a relationship builder. More of this please.

Will the mechs match the lists from the various faction sales? If so I'm selling all my capellan walkers.

No, IS factions (including Mercs/LoneWolves) can use any IS mechs they own, as well as IS trial mechs. Clan factions (including Dagger Star) can you any Clan mechs they own, as well as Clan trial mechs.

[Kilo 40]

sorry if this has already been asked, but it just dawned on me.

In dropship mode, would we have to have each of our 4 mechs equipped with their own modules, or would there be a way to swap out modules from mechs already used(and destroyed)?

[Asmosis]

You'll need all 4 mechs fully equipped.

Dropship mode sounds like a lot of fun. I would have settled for simply being able to choose 1 of 4 prebuild mechs for a map, but being able to take all 4 could work as well. On the otherhand, will "steamrolls" just get that much worse? so long as the map goal is the primary way of winning and "killing all mechs" is secondary it could be a LOT of fun, since it'd take a lot of the "I dun wanna be shot at" out of the matches and pugs might get a bit braver.

Question though. Will there be some way to play MWO outside of the conquest faction system?

I have my favorite mechs, and they aren't all in the same house or even race. If I sign up to a faction and get bored with the mechs I'm driving and/or some cool new MUSTHAVE mech gets released, im not likely to want to wait 3 months to use it.

Edited by Asmosis, 14 September 2014 - 02:36 AM.

[Deathshade]

Paul Inouye' said:

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.

You would see a role for all of these if you actually had a planetary system that was used to recon, attack, defend and raid. The battlefield has to be created first. The current system is based off PUG balance which was never close to what unit leaders actually brought to the field in an actual battle.

Edited by Deathshade, 14 September 2014 - 05:31 AM.