311 replies to this topic

[RustyBolts]

Love this plan. All of it. Good job PGI.

1st question. If I am part of a unit and my leader picks a permanent contract with a faction, am I tied to that faction if if I choose to leave that unit?

2nd question. Does the unit reset effect the coffers?

3rd question. I see where you said this "This is a very delicate discussion in the office. We are talking about the possibility of having reload stations in the map but this is not 100% decided yet. I'll post more on this as we make the final call."

Have you considered placing Ammo Supply Points (ASP) on the map and allow the units to either attack it or defend it? Maybe one on each side of map or just one located on the map. It then becomes a decision of securing the ASP first or take out the gate first? Or try to do both. Make the players decide and fight over the ammo.

[Its Steve]

Hi Paul

I have just one question: I would really like to play for both (IS and CLAN) sides in CW. But my unit is strongly Kurita-based so the unit-leader will select a permanent Kurita contract.

Will I have the possibility to switch units - similar to the Faction contracts?

Thank you for answering that.

Best regards,
Steve

[Milocinia]

Unfortunately nothing that Paul is involved with fills me with any sort of confidence.

[Kill Dozer]

Quote

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.

Murphy's Law and some other units have major issues with creating a unit since the feature was first made available.

i.e. created the unit, immediately get an error and cannot proceed from there with our desired unit tag.

When you reset all players to a neutral state are you going to address this issue as well? So far no fix is available.

eta http://mwomercs.com/...07#entry3837807

Edited by Kill Dozer, 23 October 2014 - 04:30 AM.

[MostLikely2Suck]

Zanathan, on 23 October 2014 - 12:42 AM, said:

I think that isn't the most optimal approach for the following reasons:

• PGI have spent a lot of time and resources creating the existing maps, why would you not utilise them for CW and public/private games?

• Having more then one game mode out the door is preferable given one game mode and map will get stagnant VERY quickly

• You could use the existing game modes and maps as a lead up to the larger invasion mode to create a feeling of planet conquering. e.g. assault or skirmish to establish a landing zone, conquest to establish resources, additional assault/skirmish matches to progress and finally invasion. It doesn't have to be exactly linear but you get the idea

Core facet of IT - re-use as much as you can!

I tend to agree with this idea. There's been a lot of development already into maps / modes. Another concept for Community Warfare (CW) or to consider including would be to align certain planets with current maps / modes. That leads to a total of 14 maps (taking the variants of night/snow as separate maps) x 3 modes = 42 possible combinations to populate the star map. Each planet could have a specific map/mode or a "map theme". Map theme would be say a frozen/ice theme planet with lots of valuable resources using alpine/frozen city/frozen city night and conquest mode.

How would it play out? People would queue using the star map for a specific planet using a specific mech. Since they would know the specific maps/mode, they can plan their mech loadout accordingly. Matchmaker and can try and make the two opposing 12 mans using it's balance principles of who's in queue for the planet. To help players balance mech weights, there could be an indication of either how many or what percentage of each weight class are in queue for the planet (similar to what we have in the current matchmaker displaying percentage of each weight class in queue) to speed up/balance matchmaking drops.

Kinda simple idea for using existing game content and implementing it into CW. I think there's already a community run star map that uses a similar concept (however, it's leagued and run through private matchmaker). The outcome of matches and how it effects CW results or rewards is something that would have to be determined (but I think PGI have already spent quite a bit of time on that).

On the other hand, I LOVE the idea of "dropship" mode and I understand why new maps (or lots of modification to exist large maps) are needed for balance. But, it doesn't have to be the only mode with limited maps for CW, as there is lots of good material that's already been produced. They might have already thought this through for all I know and decided it was not the best option because it didn't fulfill the true CW look and feel they're trying to capture.

All in all, I'll be interested in participating in the battle over the star map; whatever method/mode is finally implemented.

Edited by MostLikely2Suck, 23 October 2014 - 05:06 AM.

[Rhialto]

Newbie here! Well because I play for over a year and a half and that I have over 500 posts does not mean that I'm an expert... when it comes to CW I'm lost so please explain what CW is as being a ham radio operator, all I know is this definition.

I wish I could post in french, it would be much easier to me but let's go...

What you need to know about me (and probably a few others as I can't be the only one)

• I know nothing about any previous MechWarrior title
  
• I know nothing about the Battle Tech universe
  
• I know nothing about the table top game

then one day...

I discovered MechWarrior Online, was assigned as Lone Wolf (Loup Solitaire, right?) and while I saw different logos for factions I never selected any as I have no idea what they mean, who is what, etc. so it would be a nightmare to choose one over the other since I have no knowledge at all about any.

For over a year and a half now I always played in PUG (public game?) with 23 other players from one of 3 game modes and that's about it. I'm having a lot of fun, or today I would not be playing anymore.

So... what is CW for a newb like me and will it modify in anyway the way I play now? I would not like to be forced to join a faction because I don't know nothing about any and I don't feel to do some intensive reading about where all this is originating from.

Thanks for any help in understanding what seems to be a big game changer coming soon...

[StalaggtIKE]

Paul, thanks for the frequent updates!

My concern: Other than length of contracts and LP there really is no difference between a House and Merc. It seems to me that Houses and Mercs should come with their own set of pros and cons. Joining a house should require less management and less risk and reward. Joining a Merc unit should require more management and have greater risks and rewards.

Houses should be ran from the top, therefore members will be limited to mostly attacking/defending designated targets that benefit the House as a whole. This lack of freedom comes with the following benefits:

• Free (or discounted) repairs and rearm
  
• Free (or discounted) transport
  
• Discounted (or free) house mechs

Were as a Merc unit should get freedom at the cost of having to foot their own bill. The freedom to:

• Choose a contract from any house at the cost of LP
  
• Not be affiliated with any House at the cost of LP
  
• Salvage mechs and tech

Is such a system being considered? Will there be any incentives to choosing one over the other?

Edited by StalaggtIKE, 23 October 2014 - 05:25 AM.

[SweetJackal]

Rhialto, on 23 October 2014 - 05:02 AM, said:

Newbie here! Well because I play for over a year and a half and that I have over 500 posts does not mean that I'm an expert... when it comes to CW I'm lost so please explain what CW is as being a ham radio operator, all I know is this definition.

I wish I could post in french, it would be much easier to me but let's go...

What you need to know about me (and probably a few others as I can't be the only one)

• I know nothing about any previous MechWarrior title
  
• I know nothing about the Battle Tech universe
  
• I know nothing about the table top game

then one day...


I discovered MechWarrior Online, was assigned as Lone Wolf (Loup Solitaire, right?) and while I saw different logos for factions I never selected any as I have no idea what they mean, who is what, etc. so it would be a nightmare to choose one over the other since I have no knowledge at all about any.

For over a year and a half now I always played in PUG (public game?) with 23 other players from one of 3 game modes and that's about it. I'm having a lot of fun, or today I would not be playing anymore.

So... what is CW for a newb like me and will it modify in anyway the way I play now? I would not like to be forced to join a faction because I don't know nothing about any and I don't feel to do some intensive reading about where all this is originating from.

Thanks for any help in understanding what seems to be a big game changer coming soon...

I can answer this for you.

In short, the game you are currently enjoying (which we shall call Public Queue) will continue to exist. CW will be added on as more like an expansion to the game rather than just a new game mode.

For CW Lone Wolves and Merc Companies will align themselves to a faction by means of a Contract. So you aren't a part of the faction but more of a Private Military Company that is being paid to assist a faction for a length of time.

So for Public Queue, nothing is changing and that is the 3 modes you have been playing to this point. For CW, you'll need to align yourself. Also, limitations to the mechs you are allowed to play with will only be applying to CW, aligning to yourself with IS will not lock out your clan mechs for public queue and vise-versa

[Sky Hawk]

As always, I am late here, but:

1. I know, the whole thing is under discussion and such, but any hope, that the LP will be "usefull"... (Specific weapons, Mechs, Modules... Anything, that we could throw after a Spider or whatever comes, later in Public-Q?)

2. Could you not manage the CW, that if somebody wins a planet, they could it hold without fear (fight) for a [week] long or such... Because, fighting for a planet 90 days long day-after-day is just boooooring?

I mean, if you will start with [4] fight-planets, but could you not rather choose a set of [4] x [7] planets, and make every [4]-planet set free [1] time a [week]... Ye, it is a bit UI-work, but so
- the winner could benefit from the winned planet, least a short time long,
- the war would be on-going, every day a "new" planet,
- that the players wouldn't thing: "Planet XYK? Not again! Crap, we fight on this rock every day, since 4 month... Would be someone so nice, and kill me now?"

Edited by Sky Hawk, 23 October 2014 - 05:30 AM.

[Bishop Steiner]

only real concern:

"I would highly recommend that you add a new restriction preventing new players (those who have not finished their first 25 cadet matches) from participating. This will prevent much rage from competitive teams.

This is something we can discuss and has been mentioned. I'll fill everyone in if anything comes of this. We do think it would not be ideal for a brand new player to drop into CW."



Really? While I agree it might not be ideal, are we catering CW to the 1% ? Am I really the only one getting tired of everything catering to the "Comp Crowd"? I am glad you are (probably) doing away with Leagues, as I am relatively certain mos tof the playerbase is not here for Esports. But I could not possibly care less about "rage from competitive teams".

Half the headaches players have dealt with over the last 2 years is spawned from Metarape from Comps. (The other half bad balancing). Give them their little leagues where they can cookie cutter meta to their hearts content.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 23 October 2014 - 05:32 AM.

[Jody Von Jedi]

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

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.

If PGI blocked moving from IS to Clan and back, lots of people couldn't use their mechs they paid RL money for. Not a good business plan if they locked people out of their own mechs.

Edit: PUG play will still allow you play what ever you want. This only affects Community Warfare.

Jody

Edited by Jody Von Jedi, 23 October 2014 - 08:04 AM.

[Lily from animove]

Most stuff sounds great.




About relaoding, I would let people add additional tonnage that they didn't spend on mechs be allowed to filled with ammo they can reequip. Otherwise we will see high dmg low ammo varants which constantly reload. That cna cause many new and other problems. With the dropship holding their ammo, they have to use it as a additional ressource and include it into dropship laodout and mech restrictions.

so when someoen is going to bring only 220t of mechs, he can then put another 20t of ammo into the dropship.
*further, MAYBE this could even be taken further to the degree of people bringing armor to get some repairs. which all in all still bears the risk, that when he is losing this mech, all the ammo is pointless.

Quote

One special note: Kay Wolf, your giant wall of text had some really good points and questions. I will address these tomorrow in this very post when I'm not sitting here with a headache from staring at computer monitors all day.

how about offering an alternate forum skin with white backrgound and blakc letters, because human engineering tells the entire world by science that white letters on blakc background is unhealthy. But yet everyone thinks its cool using it.

Edited by Lily from animove, 23 October 2014 - 06:05 AM.

[Gooner]

So if I've understood correctly, CW will launch with ONE map and ONE gamemode? None of the existing maps are included? I hope I'm wrong because if that's the case I will get bored very quickly. And no, I don't care if the existing maps are still available in the meaningless matches like we have now. The only thing that is keeping MWO installed on my PC is the hope that CW will be fun.

[StalaggtIKE]

Lily from animove, on 23 October 2014 - 05:56 AM, said:

About relaoding, I would let people add additional tonnage that they didn't spend on mechs be allowed to filled with ammo they can reequip. Otherwise we will see high dmg low ammo varants which constantly reload. That cna cause many new and other problems. With the dropship holding their ammo, they have to use it as a additional ressource and include it into dropship laodout and mech restrictions.

so when someoen is going to bring only 220t of mechs, he can then put another 20t of ammo into the dropship.
*further, MAYBE this could even be taken further to the degree of people bringing armor to get some repairs. which all in all still bears the risk, that when he is losing this mech, all the ammo is pointless.

That sounds brilliant.

[M a y h e m]

Will coffer donations be reset on the update? and if so will donations simply go back to the pilots?

AV

[Butane9000]

I would suggest that if you aren't going to have enough maps that you consider doing minor alterations of current game modes to compensate:

CW Assault - Remove one base from the game. Leaving one team to defend and the other team to capture/destroy. Spread the turrets out for a larger perimeter to prevent camping base and giving the defending team a huge set of guns. The base can be "destroyed" like the turrets but that results in a worse win condition.

Win Conditions:
Defending team prevents base capturing or destruction and time runs out.
Defending team defeats all enemy players.
Attacking team defeats all enemy players (tertiary, smallest win bonus)
Attacking team captures enemy base (primary, biggest win bonus)
Attacking team destroys enemy base (secondary, mid tier win bonus)

CW Conquest - Adjust the location of the capture points but start the game with all capture points belonging to team A while team B has to move in to cap. Once team B captures a point it cannot be reverted back. Reduce the number of captures points from 5 to 4. 3 in the middle of the map spanning across it and one main base in the back. The rear base will have a set of 3 turrets in a triangle defensive pattern around it and a assault style base behind (has no bearing on the cap, just there for looks).

Win Conditions:
- Defending team defeats all enemy players
- Defending team prevents capturing of bases (win reward is reduced for every base captured by the enemy, this is to prevent people camping the final base)
- Attacking team captures enemy bases (primary objective, full win bonus)
- Attacking team defeats all enemy players (secondary objective, secondary win bonus to encourage capturing a small bonus can be added for every base fully captured before the last defender dies)

CW Skirmish - Turn this into a "Search & Destroy" type game mode or "assassination" mode. One team is selected to be the defenders. The game auto assigns a player on the defending team to be the "commander". The goal of this game is to kill the Commander. The attacking enemy team cannot tell who is the commander. At the start of the game the attacking team is informed of which mech class (light, medium, heavy & assault) the commander of the enemy team is. The defending team can switch the commander freely until the first combat damage is dealt by the attacking team.

Win Conditions
- Defending team defeats all enemy players
- Attacking team kills defending "Commander" player (Bonus for every defending non commander player defeated)

That's my suggestion.

[Kageru Ikazuchi]

Bishop Steiner, on 23 October 2014 - 05:30 AM, said:

... Really? While I agree it might not be ideal, are we catering CW to the 1% ? Am I really the only one getting tired of everything catering to the "Comp Crowd"? I am glad you are (probably) doing away with Leagues, as I am relatively certain most of the playerbase is not here for Esports. But I could not possibly care less about "rage from competitive teams".

Half the headaches players have dealt with over the last 2 years is spawned from Metarape from Comps. (The other half bad balancing). Give them their little leagues where they can cookie cutter meta to their hearts content.

As a guy who is an active member of a comp team, I hope that everyone feels welcome to join the CW fight for the Inner Sphere. Part of the concern that some may have is the possibility that when the "call to arms" goes out, that the matches will not be evenly matched (or even close) ... if it's just the first teams that queues up to defend against and attack by one of the top teams, it could wreck the experience for both, if they're not using a match maker somehow.

(Oh, and most of the comp players dislike the "cookie cutter meta" too, but when it comes time to play only what works best to win in the style you commander wants to, you gotta bring it.)

[Jetfire]

As requested here are some suggested consumable I would love to see in game.

Smoke Bomb: Generates massive smoke plume filling rapidly but not instantly several hundred square meters at 20-30 meters high. Use cover retreat/advance or to sow confusion.

Fake Artillery/Airstrike: very low cost, drops an identical marker, no effect. Use to confuse the enemy, force unecessary panic and movement.

Inflatable Mech: Looks identical to real mech, generates radar signature and has seismic thumper. Takes fixed small amount of damage then collapses. Use to fool enemy into thinking you have committed to a certain position.

Mines: Drop a small minefield which triggers on proximity on a short timer (a light at full speed might not set it off but a slower mech will), detectable by BAP and shows on friendly radar like UAV. Use to fortify a vector to a position.

Turret Airdrop: Drop in a turret with lower life than fixed turrets. Use to fortify a position.

Command Console Upgrade: Use to drop applicable consumables in map view in any position on the grid, possibly add a consumable slot.

Edited by Jetfire, 23 October 2014 - 07:20 AM.

[Hoax415]

p4r4g0n, on 22 October 2014 - 08:28 PM, said:

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?

The concept from what I understand of it is more along the lines of:
Joe the Merc works for house Marik on a 1 month contract, murdering Steiner swine. His contract expires and he gets a bunch of FWL LP. He then signs on for a 4 month contract with Kurita. Kurita and Marik have good relations and he completed his Marik contract fully. He may lose zero of the FWL LP he had gained making the switch. Now during his four month Kurita stint as long as he doesn't work directly against Marik interests (attacking their worlds, killing their pilots etc) he won't be losing that Marik LP.

Paul, it might be a good time to release that faction relationship table that Randall Bills helped work on if its ready. It might make things a bit more clear regarding faction swapping.

Lets look at another hypothetical example. Merc Joe swaps to clan after the Kurita contract. He might/probably should lose all of his accrued IS LP on such a switch.

***

SuckyJack, on 23 October 2014 - 01:09 AM, said:

Also temporary contracts talk about getting an LP boost at the end of the contract, permanent contracts don't have such an end so how is LP distribution going to be handled? How is LP gain going to be for Permanent Contracts compared to Temporary Contracts?

I think its safe to say that LP gain will be higher for permanent players. Its also possible they will go with permanent players being able to unlock or purchase LP rewards that non-permanent players cannot take. If we think of non permanent players as the mercs the faction wouldn't be giving them faction colors, cammos etc. knowing they will be moving on at some point or whatever.

Quote

Also, is the LP system only going to be counting CW matches?

Yes of course. For many reasons like the one you outlined. Public queue will not involve LP. Pretty sure that has been stated or implied at multiple times.

Strongpaw, on 23 October 2014 - 01:35 AM, said:

[read this post and feel bad for PGI]

I have to highlight this. The guy complains first about not being able to use his clan machines with inner sphere factions and IS machines with the clans. Then has the balls to go on and bring up lore and canon to complain about something else. You can't even try to please everybody because some people are not reasonable.

Bishop Steiner, on 23 October 2014 - 05:30 AM, said:

Really? While I agree it might not be ideal, are we catering CW to the 1% ?

Its actually a good idea to have CW "unlock" after you finish cadet bonus (also cadet bonus should be more like 100 games not 25, they need a lot more money). Not because CW is for the 1% but to protect new players and get them used to the game before throwing them into the deep waters. Solo queue is a quite safe, protected place for them to suck and be matched with others who also suck. Nothing wrong with that, we all were terrible with terrible mech builds at one point.

There have been countless threads about how the step up from solo queue to group queue is way too harsh for many new and casual players. CW is going to be much worse with its lack of matchmaker protections. Its actually wise from a new player retention standpoint to protect new players from CW until they are already hooked and having fun. If you let them drop CW in the first 10 games and they just get rolled and their own team is talking **** to them...

That's a new player that probably quits.

[Bishop Steiner]

Hoax415, on 23 October 2014 - 06:54 AM, said:

Its actually a good idea to have CW "unlock" after you finish cadet bonus (also cadet bonus should be more like 100 games not 25, they need a lot more money). Not because CW is for the 1% but to protect new players and get them used to the game before throwing them into the deep waters. Solo queue is a quite safe, protected place for them to suck and be matched with others who also suck. Nothing wrong with that, we all were terrible with terrible mech builds at one point.

There have been countless threads about how the step up from solo queue to group queue is way too harsh for many new and casual players. CW is going to be much worse with its lack of matchmaker protections. Its actually wise from a new player retention standpoint to protect new players from CW until they are already hooked and having fun. If you let them drop CW in the first 10 games and they just get rolled and their own team is talking **** to them...

That's a new player that probably quits.

I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm more speaking of the "to avoid Comp Players raging BS". Getting a little tired of a handful of compies being the sounding board for all future MWO plans. That's not really good for long term casual player retention, either.