208 replies to this topic

[Airox]

There has been a good bit of discussion about groups having to choose one side or the other (IS/Clan) for CW. Many groups (including mine) don't want to be limited to one side. Even being able to switch every month is a weak solution.

I propose that merc corps and lone wolves be allowed to join any battle on any side. However, there would be major drawbacks. These could include receiving no planetary bonuses for planets they control at all. By giving large perks to factions and denying them to merc corps there would still be incentives to avoid being a merc corp except for unit cohesion.

Edited by Airox, 09 October 2014 - 06:06 AM.

[CyclonerM]

Airox, on 09 October 2014 - 06:06 AM, said:

I propose that merc corps and lone wolves be allowed to join any battle on any side. However, there would be major drawbacks. These could include receiving no planetary bonuses for planets they control at all. By giving large perks to factions and denying them to merc corps there would still be incentives to avoid being a merc corp except for unit cohesion.

The Clans do not use mercenaries, they despise them.

A bit of salvage would be a much better solution.

[VagGR]

will we ever see a proper mercenary system where merc unit will change back the the merc faction and will be able to act like real mercenaries?

[Troy Gardenhire]

Not sure if it waqs asked already:

Will we be allowed to use a Mech twice on the dropships? Maybe with two different variants?

[Sprouticus]

Q:

Which maps & modes will be used in CW? Just Frost or will we see assault, conquest, skirmish as well.

Suggestion: If multiple modes ARE used, perhaps you could base the mode upon the conditions of the planetary assault:

0-3 'tokens' taken
Attack: Skirmish or Drop
Counter Attack: Skirmish or conquest

4-8 'tokens' taken
Attack:Assault or Drop or conquest
Counter Attack: Assaul,or Conquest or skirmish

8+ tokens:
Attack Assault or Skirmish
Counter Attack: Drop or Skirmish or Assualt.


This would represent the feeling of different phases of the PA.
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For those saying there should be reasons to defend:

It is my understanding that defense will not cost units CBills. I may be wrong on that though.

I would LOVE it if there was a bonus for defending planets your unit owned. (IE If you 'flag' a planet and it gets attacked and your unit wins a majority of the defense, you get a big fat paycheck (bigger for mercs).

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Issue:

Being able to mount multiple variants of the same mech will give a slight advantage to clan mechs (which can mount 3 of the exact same mech ). Not sure if that is a huge deal, but it is something

___________________________

Issue:

DS Mode will reduce the value of ammo based builds. I dont know if that is a horrible thing, but it is something that should be considered. Especially if you make the only DS mode map cold, further making it favor energy builds. Better to make it a hot desert as a counterbalance.



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For cross force battles, the MM should favor Faction, Mercs/clan loyalists associated with the faction, and LW's. Cross faction players should only be used if there is need (due to low population). This gives Merc and LW's value.

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Here is how LW's should work IMO:

LW should be solo players only and here should be NO units setup as lone wolves.
LW's cannot drop in groups in CW (pug play is fine).

Then you can let LW's join either side if faciton v faciton or force v force without issue. They get no loyalty points but can drop on either side (just never in a group).

If LW people want to drop in groups in CW they can switch to Merc/Clan Loyalists and pick a faciton/Force.

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I will reiterate my suggestion for CW3:

Give players 'cross force' chits for X (where X is some number of kills, wins, whatever). Each chit will allow you to put 1 cross force mech into a drop/slot in dropship mode.

Edited by Sprouticus, 09 October 2014 - 06:43 AM.

[Kirkland Langue]

It's silly to require 4 Mechs if you can't use 4 Mechs. If players can only respawn a single time - then they should be taking 2 mechs. As it is, you are making the Dropships haul that extra tonnage for no reason.

If we had to keep the same drop deck for every battle we took place in on a single planet - THAT would make sense.. but if we're allowed to change our drop deck between battles at the same planet, then it's pointless to have the 4-mech dropdeck.

Of course, I fully expect whatever solution makes the least sense will be the one that PGI goes with, and it's only the lack of other Big Stompy Robot games on the market which allows them to develop in this manner.

[Jetfire]

1. Will CW drops be profitable or a CBill sink on net assuming 50/50 wins losses? It sounds like we have to grind normal matches to raise drop funds for CW. It seems like there should be pretty sizeable CBill rewards for success in CW to reward the time investment.

2. What order of magnitude of drop fee scaling are we talking? Say 1 player dropping as a lone wolf costs X CBills are we talking 30X for a 30 man merc unit to drop a 2-12 man group? Is the idea the whole unit has to help fund the drops of putting a single 12 man into CW or that the more players you bring to an individual drop the more you pay?

Lone Wolf: X Cbills
Merc Unit: (2-12)x Cbills for a 2-12 man group

OR

Lone Wolf: X Cbills
Merc Unit: (2-12)xy Cbills for a 2-12 man group, where y is some weighting factor of say [1+(merc unit size/max unit size)]

3. Will there be LP rewards for Mercs that differ from Houses? For example allowing a merc unit to specify the colors and pattern they want to have unlocked through LP rewards to self identify or will they just be earning the same stuff that the house they currently fight for gets. If not will there be anything for Merc units to have an identity apart from houses aside from tags?

[Jetfire]

OldOrgandonor, on 09 October 2014 - 03:41 AM, said:

You really didn't answer this question at all. Please specifically indicate if you are planning on letting us change out modules between mechs in drop ship, during respawn or not.

Thanks.

I think it was a cautious way of saying, that you need to buy the modules you want to bring for each mech. If you want all 4 to have radar deprevation... buy them.

[Dracol]

Kirkland Langue, on 09 October 2014 - 06:37 AM, said:

It's silly to require 4 Mechs if you can't use 4 Mechs. If players can only respawn a single time - then they should be taking 2 mechs. As it is, you are making the Dropships haul that extra tonnage for no reason.

After a battle starts, there are three waves of reinforcements. You will drop in all 4 mechs you bring in your dropship.

[Mechwarrior Buddah]

Im sad that Paul is back on this project. Anyone else?

[keith]

DoctorDetroit, on 09 October 2014 - 03:27 AM, said:

This will make taking those 100 tonners down a major win because unlike the the normal matches, 1/3rd of a teams mechs won't be 100 tonners (unless they like locusts).

ya but lore wise that is right. the big mechs were rare. if u wish to dedicate 1/3 of your dropship to a big mech. u better use it well. the bigger mechs were only given to the best

[Zyllos]

CyclonerM, on 09 October 2014 - 06:21 AM, said:

The Clans do not use mercenaries, they despise them.

A bit of salvage would be a much better solution.

The unaffiliated Clan players (Dagger Star) are basically the Clan's "Mercs". They can fill in any slots a Clan faction is missing.

[CyclonerM]

Zyllos, on 09 October 2014 - 07:24 AM, said:

The unaffiliated Clan players (Dagger Star) are basically the Clan's "Mercs". They can fill in any slots a Clan faction is missing.

True, but they are not actually "mercs" in the true sense of the word. I see them more as loyalists whose Clan is not represented yet, though they may actually play like lone wolves.

[CutterWolf]

This question and answer is what I'm most concerned about. This breaks the whole concept of CW, there mite as well not even be any boards/territories what so ever! All House are not friendly with all Houses, all Clans are not friendly with all Clans, not to mention the logistical impossibilities for any House/Clan/Merc to be able to place mechs on any planet and anytime. There is a reason why the IS has had so many battles, they are not all just sitting around singing ***-by-ya and holding hands. The history of hate and mistrust runs very deep between some Houses and to just throw all that out the window and let everyone just drop on any planet at anytime no matter how far away they are and how many enemy territories they would have to cross would be a HUGE mistake............................... So Paul, Please tell me your not going to over look this?????

[color=#a8e558]""Isn't every battle just plain old IS vs clan? if a planet is contested, does it matter if the IS players dropping on a single planet are a mix of davion, kurita and liao, etc? or the clan players are a mix of different clans?[/color]

The invasion conflicts between Clan and IS forces will be supported by all factions under each force. This means any clan can participate in an attack on an IS planet. Any IS faction can participate in defending an IS planet from the Clans. Border conflicts between factions however will only involve the factions that share the contested border.""

[LordLosh]

240 sounds a little low. I would prefer 250-260. I can take two Atlas and 2 locust but not 2 direwolfs maybe that's a good thing but would still like to have a bit more room to play with

[Roadbeer]

Quote

Why such small drop windows? why can't the planet be available to battle for 24hrs (or 12 hour segments or 6 hour segments) so every player in the world gets a chance to attack/defend that planet during a real day?

We will adjust the conflict windows as needed. We just don't want to strain the public gameplay, where you will be doing most of your C-Bill earning, for the entire day. We will be choosing however many peak player times as possible to accomodate players from all over the world. Again, this is all adjustable based on the number of players participating.

This bothers me, a lot.
Since the beginning, Faction Warfare was one of the "pillars", and all along it has been treated as a 'Meh, we'll get to it", and now it's being treated like the private match system for the Esport crowd.

Is your game about the great Houses fighting each other, and the Clans, or not? You do realize that most of the people who have stuck with you, on and off, over the years have been waiting for CW?

CW should be your future focus, with all rewards and incentives drawing people to that. Not your rinse and repeat TDM that we've been playing for the last 2 years because we HAVE to, not because we WANT to.

[Danghen Woolf]

Thanks for the update.

I agree with both sides of the camp on the time limit that will be set for attack/defend opportunities.

Time Based:
1. Players in some time zones will be limited in participation in CW due to:
a. Low numbers of attackers
b. Low numbers of defenders
c. Imbalance in the ratio of Clan/IS players on in a specific time zone
2. Players will be forced to be reactionary if player numbers are low in that time zone for their faction
e.g. Players will only be able to defend if their numbers are lower and attackers constantly attack
3. Players in low number time zones will take longer to accumulate tokens as games will have a higher percentage of total players from any given faction in game

24/7:
1. Players in time zones with low populations may gravitate towards a single faction
e.g. I saw this happen in Chrome Hounds where players from Asia would gravitate to a single faction, during the day this faction did not have a large player base but in the evening the player base would increase significantly and some game cycles would see an entire faction wiped out in a single night
2. Players will be restricted to the developer limitations on targets and may exceed the baselines set for daily updates
e.g. Similar to EVE Online where daily updates repopulate resource belts, many times these belts would be depleted several hours before the update leaving players to find other ways to spend time (EVE has options, MWO does not other than Public/Private MM)
alibi. This will only happen if the CW managers limit the planets that are eligible for attack/defend actions on a daily basis (I beleive this was mentioned in a post before)

Those are just some things that I think may happen. I hope CW does turn out awesome and I look forward to many more updates.

[StalaggtIKE]

Now that you're adding ejection, you have a means of salvage. Kill two birds with one stone:

• allows for mixed tech
  
• decrease griefing in fear of forfeiting tech to enemy

Edited by StalaggtIKE, 09 October 2014 - 07:41 AM.

[Kael Posavatz]

Are there going to be different tonnage limits for IS/Clan units, or will there be a unified tonnage bracket?

If you implement a single tonnage bracket, how are you going to account for the Clans not having certain weight tiers even with the implementation of Wave 2?

I refer, specifically, to the 95-ton, 90-ton, 40-ton, and 20-ton mechs.

With the 240-ton cap your example used, someone could drop a pair each of Atlas and Locust, but a Clan player would be prevented from dropping similar pairs due to absence of a 20-ton mech.

Such a pairing would not work for everyone, but I have seen some amazingly competent Locust pilots (including one that could average 700-damage matches while spotting for an LRM boat). While an Atlas may not be able to one-on-one a Direwolf, an Atlas is far more maneuverable and a well-built and piloted Atlas employed as part of an intelligent strategy is an excellent anchor mech. Further, it presents the potential for a well-armored and armed ECM platform that the Clans will not be able to match.

Another possible pairing, a pair of Highlanders and Spiders. The Clans have a 30-ton mech in the Kit Fox, but lack that 90. Both sides drop to 85/35 which they can do...but now the Clans are out an ECM unit.

I realize that your example was just that, I am wondering how you are taking this issue into account.


Or are you planning on using tonnage caps as another way to bring balance to the Clans?

Either way I am most interested in your answer.

Edited by Kael 17, 09 October 2014 - 08:01 AM.

[elismallz]

This may have already been asked and answered, but:

When we die and are about to respawn, do we get to select which mech we drop in next, or does the game automatically pick the next mech in the dropship queue?