1 reply to this topic

[Riverboat Sam]

Got to thinking about what tactics we might see in CW as it's currently described; specifically a team of four players gets to pick four mechs, one in each weight class, and then "respawn", four times using a different one of their mechs.

One way to use that would be that each player respawns and rejoins the fight immediately after being killed. I think that might not be the best tactic. It may be better for the whole team to drop as a full lance of four each time. So, if you die you just spectate until your entire lance is dead, then you all respawn together and have at it again.

Always dropping as a full lance opens up a whole new dynamic. A good team would work out ahead of time the exact load outs for their four lances and the best order to drop them in. Maybe the fastest lance first to the hardest hitting last? They would also have to balance the load out of ALL the mechs in each lance; including weapons, consumables, modules, narc, tag, ECM, probes, etc. etc. so that each lance is a balanced team.

What will this bring to the game?

Well, instead of just working out the best load out for your favorite mech you will have to work out the best load outs for each class of mech in each drop lance as a team. You will no longer be able to get away with piloting one class of mechs in every match. You will have to become a good pilot in every weight class to win.

Better than that, if you have ever been trained by the military in armored vehicle combat you know that there are a variety of formations and actions you take based upon the terrain, the enemy you're facing, and your mission.

Can you imagine the hours of practice and play testing and training with your team to work out the perfect load outs formations and tactics for each of your four lances? This game could become the greatest Battletech title of all time. I really think the potential is there.

Then....once community warfare at the lance level is pretty settled (four re-spawns), what if PGI expands it to twelve man teams? Twelve re-spawns, three in each weight class? Now you have to go through all the testing, tactics development and and team training at a full company level. Holy cow!

[Demi-Precentor Konev]

I think the attack/defend mechanics described in the posts could have an important effect on how people play the game. As has been discussed a great deal on these forums, aggression is seriously lacking in a lot of pilots. A game mode built around forcing one team to take the offensive - not to mention against hardened defensive points - is going to break a lot of people of that notion. They're going to have to expose themselves to fire and learn to co-ordinate their attacks... or the map won't be changing very much.

There's also the possibility that the community will whinge about the game mode being too skewed towards defenders and PGI will change it.