Russ Bullock, on 26 September 2014 - 08:33 AM, said:
However internally we are now discussing tonnage limits for CW and I am pushing this notion pretty strongly. It will end up providing more flexibility to players who want to perhaps take nothing but their Jenner's out for instance. But will become more restricting as you go higher, for instance nobody is going to take 4 Direwolf's - in fact if they take 2 their last two mechs are going to be pretty dang light.
But Tonnage restrictions does allow us to change it per planet if we desire.
I know players would like to push the tonnage limit up as high as possible so they can take as many of their favorite heavy mech as possible but I currently like the number of 240 tons.
I couldn't stand to read this entire thing, so I didn't... I may be back later, but that's doubtful.
Here's my take, actually two of them...
1) Tonnage and number restrictions, but not like you think. Instead of granting each pilot between 200 and 240 tons, you FIRST make it a hard limit of 2,500 tons for the entire drop; this will give each pilot, roughly, 208 tons to mess with. SECOND, you put in the hard rule that ONE pilot can only run THREE of any one Chassis -three Atlas's, three Hunchback's, three Raven's. THIRD, each pilot is limited to FOUR 'Mechs in their bays, period, though they may decide to take less. FOURTH, if one pilot does not use their average amount of tonnage, that tonnage remains in the pot for others in the Company to use.
I've just read the post in which Russ says it's a hard-limit, four, no more no less. It's numbers, it's programming, you can do ANYTHING you want with those numbers, that programming. A hard-limit is... weak.
2) Switch everything over to Battle Value, where PGI determines a BV for MWO for EVERY component out there, using BV2 and, possibly, BV3 as a groundwork for their version of BV. Battle Value is determined in the MechLab, not in the Match Maker. A pilot's Piloting and Gunnery Skills, determined by already extant metrics that all of us are capable of seeing, and some that PGI have admitted to holding back, is used to modify, by a manner of multiplier also determined by PGI, the Battle Value of the 'Mech built in the MechLab upon saving the 'Mech after editing something. When each pilot joins a team, and they select a 'Mech to use, that 'Mechs game-determined pilot-modified BV is placed in their team's bucket. Now, instead of the Match Maker looking at 3/3/3/3, specific weight restrictions, Elo values, and the age of the searching group, it is instead looking for another team in the Match Maker starting at within 5% of the bucket-total Battle Value, whether high or low, and the age of the searching group. That 5% limit begins to be loosened at fifteen seconds by 1% every five seconds from that point outward, to a maximum of 34% difference between teams, and then it quits at 35%. At 2.5 minutes searching, the Match Maker kicks everyone back to the Launch Screen, and they can launch again. However, I don't think you would see more than fifteen seconds worth of searching before suitable matches were made.
This also has another effect on Private Matches and on Community Warfare. Player-Commander's would be in charge of determining the Battle Value size they could take, much as the Private Match allows with setting tonnage, now. PLAYERS, not the game, would be in charge of determining what size fights they wanted to have. As well, once objective warfare is introduced, and you have phases to a campaign rather than just kill each other all the time, such as Recon/intel gathering, objective raids, minor skirmishes, major skirmishes, and the final battle of the campaign, battle value ranges could be set, which the Unit Commander's would be required to make agreements to their own totals within, and you can have some real warfare.
Tonnage by itself is not the answer. Number limitations, by themselves, are not the answer, unless you're using Battle Value. 3/3/3/3 is bollocks, as we're still getting rolled or rolling someone else nine times out of ten, and our wait times in the queue are as large as they ever were. Battle Value allows players to be in charge of the game, with whatever limitations they wish to set for themselves, if any, and also takes into account the machines being used, as opposed to the hard limitations of 2300 for Elo, for a scoring system that was never designed for match making in the first place, and is for one-on-one players of Chess, not multiple players with unlimited combinations of machines on unlimited types of maps, etc. The ONLY thing that's not unlimited in this game, in fact, is Elo, which should be.
Also, Battle Value is of enormous importance, especially when modified by a MechWarrior's Piloting and Gunnery Skills, because the machine is also taken into account, not just it's tonnage or weight class. There are 'Mechs extant in the game, NOW, that have Battle Values that would place them WAY outside the average for the weight class and tonnage; as long as that is NOT taken into account, you will continue to have rolls on one side or the other.
That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
Edited by Kay Wolf, 27 September 2014 - 08:52 AM.
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