311 replies to this topic

[Paul Inouye]

Hey folks,

Feel free to post your feedback on the latest CW update (Oct 22) found here:

Spoiler

Community Warfare - Phase 2 - Update Oct 22

Hey folks, back again with some fairly big news about CW. As per discussed in the previous update, I'll organize the information as follows:

1) New Stuff/Updates
2) Changes (Actually included in New Stuff this week)
3) Questions

The big change is the way you will be able to align yourself to a Faction on a temporary or permanent basis.

1) New Stuff/Updates

Faction Selection by All Players

On day 1 of Community Warfare release, all player accounts will be reset to a neutral state. All Faction Units and players will be reset to Merc Units and Lone Wolves respectively. Clan Units and Dagger stars will also be returned to Merc Unit and Lone Wolf status respectively.

Following the reset, all Lone Wolf players and Merc Unit leaders (all players in a Unit will be aligned to the Unit leader's choice) will be presented with a new Faction Alignment flow when entering the Faction Tab.

The first part of this new flow will ask players to select a Faction. Lore information will be given to assist new players in their decision as to which Faction to join.

Upon selecting a Faction, the player is taken to a new screen which will display contracts offered by the selected Faction. These contracts will include the following:

• [1] Month Alignment to a Faction
  
• [2] Month Alignment to a Faction
  
• [4] Month Alignment to a Faction
  
• Permanent Alignment to a Faction

*Please note these time periods are purely for example purposes only.




Players can back out of this screen and look at other Faction options until they accept one of the contracts.

Let's look at this firstly from the perspective of a Faction loyalist player. Someone who never wants to change Faction. Any of these players can simply select the Permanent alignment to their chosen Faction. The same applies to a Unit that chooses the permanent alignment option. Upon CW going live, there will not be an in-game option to change Factions if you choose this path. We may look into a solution for changing a permanent alignment but that will not be included in CW Phase 2.

Next, the way Merc Units, Lone Wolves, Clan Units and Dagger Star players interact with this system. These players can choose to align themselves to a Faction for a specified amount of time. For example, a Merc Unit selects a [1] month alignment to House Steiner. For the next month, this Merc Unit can only participate in combat either defending Steiner territories or attacking in the name of Steiner in neighboring Faction territories. The Merc Unit can (like anyone in the game) participate in the Clan/IS border invasion conflicts. Lone Wolf players, Clan Units and Dagger Star players behave the exact same with with the exception that Clan Units and Dagger Star players will be aligning themselves with a Clan.

With this system, it IS possible for a Merc Unit to align to House Steiner for [1] month and at the end of that month, switch to a [1] month alignment to Clan Jade Falcon. Note that this will NOT bypass technology locks. When the Unit is aligned to Steiner, only IS 'Mechs can be used, and when aligned to Clan Jade Falcon, only Clan 'Mechs can be used.

This feature means that we can do away with the initially proposed "Season" system. However, we do reserve the right to reset the IS Map if we find major problems in the system.

We feel that this new system allows greater flexibility for players to be able to play for a given Faction for their choice of duration. Keep in mind, we do not want players to be flipping Factions between matches or every day for that matter. Taking a contract for a House/Clan means that players will be fighting for that Faction for a while. This system also allows the more hard-core Faction players to permanently align themselves to their favorite House/Clan.

Loyalty Points

First off, upon inclusion into the game, Loyalty Points (LP) will be rewarded with an initial, lump sum injection into player accounts who own the Phoenix Package: Loyalty Point booster. From that point on, all players will be rewarded LP based on their actions and their Faction alignment.

What can affect LP gains? Killing opponents of lore based enemies. For example, a Kurita player killing a Davion player will be rewarded Kurita LP. At the same time, that same Kurita player will be losing Davion LP for the same action. Faction LP totals will not drop below 0.

Another means of gaining additional LP is by winning CW Faction conflicts. From the above example, the Kurita player partakes in the Clan/IS conflict and the IS team wins, the Kurita player will earn Kurita LP.

A bigger means of gaining LP is by completing contracts for a Faction. For example, the Kurita player is on a [2] month contract with Kurita, Kurita will reward a large amount of LP at the end of the contract period. The longer the contract, the more LP rewarded.

Special case: If a Lone Wolf player (or any player for that matter) switches Factions after completing a contract, they will lose LP for the Faction they just left. Depending on which Faction the player switches to, this LP loss for a Faction would continue depending on the Factions involved. For example, if the Kurita player from above switches to Davion after the Kurita contract expired, all kills/wins/contracts with Davion will reward Davion LP but will also reduce the LP total they had with Kurita.

Any rewards gained through LP will be retained, but cannot be used unless the LP total for the Faction is at the reward's LP requirement. For example, if the Kurita player unlocked a rank 10 skin, that rank 10 skin is only usable if their Kurita LP is at rank 10 level. In the case of titles, let's assume the Kurita player earned the title of "Gunsho" at Rank 8. If the player has an LP total of Rank 8 requirements, then they can freely use the title "Gunsho". However, if the player switches to Davion for example, and they fight for Davion against Kurita and the player's Kurita LP total drops below Rank 8 requirements, they will no longer be able to set their title to "Gunsho" even if they switch back to Kurita. At this point (we're still debating this one) the player can select "Gunsho" as their title but it will be prepended with "Honorary". The title will become "Honorary Gunsho" until the player gets their LP total back to Rank 8 requirement.

Faction LP rewards can only be used if the player is aligned to the Faction that gave the reward. In the case above, the Kurita player who switched to Davion will not be able to use any of the Kurita rewards they've earned until they switch back to Kurita.

Some planned LP rewards include titles, Faction specific skins, Rank specific skins and other novelites. The full list of rewards will be listed once we have them ironed out with both the design and art teams. On a side note, we are investigating on locations where we can have titles appear in the game and not just on the website. More on this when I have more concrete information for you.

[Daoa Hakoke]

FIRST!

Edit: Sounds pretty good. Glad to hear that LP is finally being implemented and sounds like in a pretty good way.

Many people should be happy about the seasons change and it sounds a lot more like Mercs taking contracts the way you described it.

Edited by Daoa Hakoke, 22 October 2014 - 07:44 PM.

[orcrist86]

Excellent update Paul. The unit contract methodology makes a lot of sense. I look forward to the rewards system and hope that some of it includes permanent ribbons and awards like modern military units that are displayed on a pilot's information page for all to see (maybe even displayed in the users sig). Things like campaign ribbons, service ribbons, special awards for heroic acts.

[Kirkland Langue]

If a Unit selects a contract with a faction, do all members automatically duplicate that contract? IE, if the unit selects permanent, would all members automatically have a permanent contract?

or is it that the members just join that faction for as long as they remain in the unit and as soon as they leave the unit, they will be offered the contracts?

If it is the second scenario - would a player be able to jump from one faction unit to another?

[Lindonius]

So the Clans are hiring mercenaries now?

[DEMAX51]

Awesome update!

I think the only thing I'm really curious about at this point is: After Phase 2 is out, will future CW content be released iteratively (i.e. smaller additions that occur more often - say, monthly), or more like expansion packs (i.e. larger bundles of content dropped every 3-6 months)?

[slide]

This is a much better way of doing it than forcing people/units to choose a faction and being unable to change.

[p4r4g0n]

I get that people are saying they want to be able to use all their mechs and they can't wait till the restart to switch. However, does anyone want to bet AGAINST the possibility that the there will be a fair number of units switching in month 2 and 3 as the winning side becomes clearer?

How are contracts structured? i.e. is there any point in staying loyal if the faction you chose loses every significant engagement in the first month? I haven't seen any mention about whether CW combat provides C-Bill / XP rewards or should I just assume that it will be similar to the Public queue rewards?

"Special case: If a Lone Wolf player (or any player for that matter) switches Factions after completing a contract, they will lose LP for the Faction they just left. Depending on which Faction the player switches to, this LP loss for a Faction would continue depending on the Factions involved."

If a player loses the LP of the Faction they just left when switching, how does the player continue to lose LP for that Faction since all of the Faction's LP would already have been lost after the switch?

Edited by p4r4g0n, 22 October 2014 - 08:30 PM.

[luigi256]

I'm liking what I see here as a member of a merc unit. Being able to work for whoever I wanted to during community warfare is exactly what I wanted and now that I am not forced to permanently pick a faction I am extremely pleased.

[Sam Slade]

Big Issue!

I want to buy Clan Mech Packs and Inner Sphere Mech Packs! I want to use all my Mechs in Community Warfare(I'm actually looking at upgrading 2 x Mech packs so I have enough solid Mechs for drop decks! spend spend spend)...

Oh wait... why can I not create a Clan persona and an Inner Sphere persona? I used to do that all the time in other games so I could experience playing as good and evil... ah well... now I have to decide which Mechs not to buy... not to buy... not to buy...(fade out in regretful flashback way).

QUESTION: Could we not choose both a Clan and an IS faction with the limitation that they do not fight in the same theater of operations? Avoids conflict of interest... allows me to buy your stuff

[Kageru Ikazuchi]

Paul, thanks for the continued stream of information ... I really appreciate it.

Faction Selection ... I like this ... thanks for the explanation.

Loyalty Points ... I would like more info on:
- Phoenix Package: Loyalty Point Booster
... I'm guessing these are the "Kurita Bronze" medallions hanging in some of my favorite 'mechs ... so do we get a lump sum of LP for each medallion, or bonus based on games played with it equipped, or what?
- The longer the contract, the greater the reward
... I'm going to assume that there will be an additional incentive for a permanent contract (it would suck for the true loyalist units to gain rewards slower than someone who just renewed their contract every four months).
- rewards ... titles, skins, skins and other novelites. ... cute, but not very interesting
... How about:
- - access to more dangerous (but more lucrative) contracts?
- - better CB pricing for favored 'mechs and equipment?
- - CB and XP rewards for stuff in a match?
- - LP / Faction-specific achievements?
- - access to experimental/exclusive technology?

And, finally, will Loyalty Points degrade over time?
- For example, let's say I play 12 hours a day, every day for a month, kill lots of stuff for Kurita, and get over 9000 LP. Then I take a break for a month.
- Do I still have the same LP total, even though I haven't demonstrated my continued devotion to the Coordinator's grand vision? In my view, they probably should slowly trickle away.
- Using the above example of a max sustainable gain rate of 300 per day, with a somewhat reasonable gain rate of 50-100 per day, maybe you lose them at a rate of 25 per day, beginning one week after your last LP gain.
- Perhaps to mitigate the pain caused by LP lost during a break (which the player may have no control over), the recovery rate to re-earn them could be faster.

My actual questions are underlined ... everything else is just me babbling or trying to explain stuff I don't understand yet. ... Again, THANKS!

Edited by Kageru Ikazuchi, 22 October 2014 - 09:14 PM.

[Tezcatli]

Not a fan of the idea of people being able to switch allegiance from Clan to IS. I would think the Clans would not allow them to come back after that. Not without some crazy convoluted ritual.

Clan versus IS is the only definitive division currently. At least early on they shouldn't be switching to IS.

[Kilo 40]

so it's official. CW will miss it's deadline of October from last December's State Of The Inner Sphere command chair post.

not the end of the world, but disappointing. On the other hand I'm taking some time off work for Christmas, so CW should make me a nice Christmas present.

[Tumbling Dice]

Tezcatli, on 22 October 2014 - 09:12 PM, said:

Are you a Mechsican? Or a Mechsican't?

I am a Warrior and Mechcanikill!

Edited by Wolfiac, 22 October 2014 - 09:37 PM.

[Kael Posavatz]

Questions as follows:

1a) When you say that the [140-240] tonnage bracket will "help balance the Clans out a bit" do you mean that this bracket will help the Clans or IS? (Having seen some hot Atlas hands who were also capable of cranking out 700+ damage matches in a locust...)

1b) How much more "balancing" do you believe the Clans require? (Not trying to be sarcastic, but I am interested in an answer).

2) Regarding Loyalty Points, have you made any provision to insert loyalty medallions for Clan players who bought the Phoenix Packages or are these boosters going to be restricted to Inner Sphere Factions?

[jrfellow]

I would love to see all game modes in the CW. It would enhance the experience.

Dropship mode is fine.
Conquest for battles about resources on a planet
Assault for fighting over established bases on a planet
Skirmish random fights on a planet

Including all game modes in CW would bring more diversity and allow more map rotation.

[o0Marduk0o]

JackkyChan, on 22 October 2014 - 09:54 PM, said:

PGI stupid company now make no C-bills no Xp even get good kills assists still bad C-bill &xp why you not leave rewards alone just add more xp &C-bills now you screw up game worse you just make game more bad.

What do you call good?

[Dirk Le Daring]

Sam Slade, on 22 October 2014 - 09:00 PM, said:

QUESTION: Could we not choose both a Clan and an IS faction with the limitation that they do not fight in the same theater of operations? Avoids conflict of interest...

I think this a fair question, as I have both Inner Sphere and Clan mechs.

An option I would like, but will not demand.

[Savage Wolf]

Quote

Will there ever be a PVP game mode that will be designed with the goal that you are more likely to win in a different manner, like capping for example.

Sorry about the confusion over my last response. Game modes that do not rely on total enemy annihilation is stuff that is being investigated right now. The chances of them being included with CW Phase 2 is not likely but it is something we are looking at in terms of design as a must have feature soon after.

Thank you. And looking forward to it.

[Finster]

Good to know that Phoenix buyers are getting screwed over on the LP "bonus". YAY A ONE TIME LUMP SUM! *fart*