Alright, I have some questions about all of this. Overall, the basics of what you have mentioned in your post sound pretty good, but you know I’m going to push you guys. So, here goes…
Paul Inouye, on 08 October 2014 - 05:53 PM, said:
The Leopard Drop Ship is now a VTAL (Vertial Take-off And Landing) ship. It will be used to drop 'Mechs off at various respawn points on the map. This specifically allows us to either swoop the Leopard into the game space to drop 'Mechs off at low altitudes, or do high altitude/near hover drops of 'Mechs into the game space. The animations involved are in our test level at the moment and is visible in debug builds. We will probably be doing some video capture next update.
Will there be a drop statistic recorded for these things, when a ‘Mech is dropped off. I ask because I have a HALO Achievement for each of the weight classes, but each requires a certain number of HALO drops to earn the Achievement.
Armageddon Unlimited HALO Achievement
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The Drop Ship functionality of dropping a new 'Mech into a match is now ready for testing and will happen later this week.
Gabriel Iglesias excited scream!
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The gameplay logic that drives the overall Faction Warfare loop is near completion. This is the loop that involves looking at the IS Map, selecting a planet, selecting attack/defend and entering the match lobby. There are still few points to finish up but it is tracking on schedule.
My concern with this, particularly with the defense side, is that my guys are NOT going to be online 24/7, at least not yet –I’m sorry, there’s a lot that’s taken place with this game that has driven a LOT of good people off, though I believe your forthcoming marketing campaign will regain many of those numbers–, and I don’t know how a defense will be mounted against aggressors on worlds where my players are not able to be present?
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Drop Ship mode is being changed to a minimum and maximum tonnage limit rather than a strict 1 Light/1 Medium/1 Heavy/1 Assault limit. For example, we might set the Drop Ship limitation to [140] tons minimum and [240] tons maximum. You MUST take 4 'Mechs meaning you cannot take 2 100 ton 'Mechs and leave the other two slots empty.
This is something I’m still very concerned about; this change is a DEFINITE step in the right direction, and I appreciate the engineering and programming work that is going into this. I also know this is preliminary and, in all likelihood, will change if it’s proven to be onerous against players of this game. Hence, the following question... you’ve made a minimum and maximum for each pilot, with no sharing of leftover tonnage, and that’s fine; however, I would request that the maximum of 4 ’Mechs remain, while the minimum number is removed. My reasoning is this... a player bringing too many ’Mechs can really upheave a match, because they can come from multiple directions, at great speeds, and build extraordinary disruptions over the course of a drop period. However, someone bringing fewer than four is simply putting themselves at a disadvantage, as higher numbers on the other side could be used to still overwhelm the fewer numbers of available ’Mechs for the field, but not to such a great degree that better pilots will discontinue being able to drop more ’Mechs with their fewer. As well, if both sides took fewer ’Mechs to the field, the battle will be completed more rapidly, anyway.
Now, of course, if it’s an engineering issue, where artificial limitations have been set into the program, whether they are necessary for the successful function of other portions of code, or not, then this will likely be ignored. However, if these limitations are, indeed, artificial and unnecessary, then you might consider opening the playing field for your players to better control how they play the game, rather than working so very diligently to restrict absolutely everything you possibly can. May the illusion of control ever be in your court, in that case.
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It will still be required that Merc Units/Lone Wolves (MU/LW for the rest of this explanation) align themselves to a House. However, they can switch alignment after a specific amount of time has passed.
Is EVERY MechWarrior presently engaged in a single mercenary unit required to join the SAME House? If I have fifteen active people in Armageddon Unlimited, would ALL of us have to be registered with House Davion, or would EACH MechWarrior be allowed to select their own alignment, and then the compiled Loyalty Points be the overall calculation for the mercenary unit, as was discussed in the first posting concerning Loyalty Points?
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Players were concerned about being able to open the invasion gates without having jump jets. The image below shows how the level has been designed with side paths that give non-jump jet 'Mechs the ability to shoot over the gate.
Thank you. That was very kind of you to consider and put into the game.
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While we explore PVE content in 2015, this may return as something we could do to really sell the feeling of a planetary battle about to kick off.
Another GI scream!!!
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The Call to Arms is more of a "go check out the Faction Tab now" system rather than "Match 10984 is kicking off now".
Thank God! However, if this turns out to NOT be at the three fixed times per day you were talking about, recently, will we be able to opt-in to email and/or text notifications?
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If a planet is attacked, and no defenders show up within a reasonable time frame, the attackers will automatically get the win on that planet.
With the current population of this game, that is not fair in the LEAST. Please consider allowing unit commander’s to set up times and days for this? Three separate times/dates, three for each Commander, as proposals for the other Commander, should work. If the two commanders are incapable of getting people to any of the proposed times, there should be proxy units proposed by each Commander, and then each Commander can try getting a game together, the first to reach that goal being the winner, by each negotiating with the proxy unit proposed by the opposing Commander. It’s simply extremely UNFAIR and wrong for a group to work hard to gain control of a world, only to have it taken from them, without a fight, because they can’t get anyone there.
Now, get the population back up to what you had in pre-Beta 2011, and then that won’t be a problem, anymore. And, don’t try to tell ANYONE here that the population has exceeded that, because we already know it doesn’t. That’s not me being negative, that’s just the truth.
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Is the design goal of planetary conquest to give a match based more on objectives than taking out the enemy forces? To give an exampe, Conquest mode as it exists currently is still primarily focused on taking out the entire enemy team as opposed to winning on capping. Capping is the secondary objective and is the least likely victory condition.
MWO is an online multiplayer game that is always going to be focussed on the PVP aspect of a battle.
Okay, but multi-player games do not have to be “kill each other” ALL the time, as you’ve proven with Conquest mode. What I’m asking about is objective-based games that actually require intelligence and tactics to finish, not “go here, wait for the enemy, try to kill them, unless they kill you first, wash-rinse-repeat”. There SHOULD be more than one way to win a fight; for Conquest, that was meant to be in resource collection, but that mode of play is greatly ignored, now, because of how crappy it’s designed. Put some umph into it, for pete’s sake, and think about how to make the maps as they are, but with procedurally-placed points, random, where no one knows where every point is going to be all the time, and make the objectives more than “stand here, wait for a bar to turn blue, and drive on”.
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Remember that modules are considered end-game content. They are hard to unlock and relatively expensive to purchase which means the decision making behind what you spend your CBills on is a very consious decision that you make on a case by case basis.
Then don’t make them immediately available. Make it so they’re hidden until a pilot does more than collect enough GXP to purchase the skill, and then allow them to ONLY see what is available to them to spend as a result. Right now, they ARE NOT REMOTELY end-game content, should not be anywhere near as expensive as they are –GXP for each module type/skill is fine, but C-Bills are entirely too much–, and it’s ridiculous that these are available from the get-go, if they’re end-game content.
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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.
Okay, so the unique factions you have set up are, indeed, not unique at all, except in a very notional fashion? I understand the population is low, right now, but when it picks up, will you be looking at greater faction separation? When I say faction, as a veteran BattleTech player, it’s not just Clan on one side, and IS on the other, but it’s Clan Wolf, Clan Jade Falcon, Clan Smoke Jaguar, etc., and it’s House Davion, House Marik, etc., Magistracy of Canopus, Lothian League, etc., Wolf’s Dragoons, Armageddon Unlimited, etc., St. Ives Compact and Free Rasalhague Republic.
Methinks y’all better get your heads out and understand the importance of these factions, and that it’s NOT just Clan vs. Inner Sphere. You opened an amazingly HUGE can of whoop-ass, and now you gotta live with it, guys, hehe.
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Taxation for a Unit is something we can add at some point. We just want to make sure we cover the basics first. This is why there's a journal for coffer donations available to the Unit leader.
This is all fine and good and dandy, but it’s bass-ackwards. Contracts should be made between the Employer and the Merc Unit, the money goes to the Merc Unit, and then is dispersed per a system set up by the Unit Commander and/or their Command & Staff.
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We will be monitoring how the whole CW aspect plays out and will make adjustments as needed. As mentioned above, it also allows players to switch factions at some point so they can play both sides of the Clan Invasion.
What about those of us Unit Commander’s who keep track of our MechWarrior’s? This might really just put a boot straight in the ass of all the work we’ve done.
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Are there going to be any governing councils/bodies of any type in CW with real staff playing key roles in their chosen factions? Marik is a representative democracy, Davion a constitutional monarchy etc.
Not for Phase 2. The more we look at true faction role-playing, the more it becomes apparent that this is Phase 3+ content.
Will we be able to have any input, whatsoever, on what we would like to see in the Faction Management interface? Will we be able to select plug-in/module items to build our own management interface?