5 replies to this topic

[1453 R]

So.

We have Community Warfare coming out soon, offering all of the game’s large, heavily organized player-run groups the playground they’ve been wanting since the game founded itself. That’s awesome, and I don’t blame them at all for being super excited to finally get the CW Pillar they’ve been campaigning for so long. It’s a good thing to finally see happening.

But it does absolutely nothing for me.

Hold on, there’s a point to this! It’s not just a rant thread! Stick with me, I’m going somewhere!

As a solo player, I can’t even participate in Community Warfare. Not meaningfully. Oh, I could go and drop in it, sure – but I sure as shootin’ wouldn’t be able to do anything but fill up a spare drop slot and thus let a CW team that was short one guy actually go in. Piranha’s stated outright that the mode isn’t meant for solo players and that solo players probably shouldn’t bother with it.

A’ight, coo’. It is Community Warfare, and while it’s odd to me that The Community™ is so eager to bar solo droppers from their game, a’ight. If that’s what they want to do, let ‘em do it.

BUT. When Community Warfare is done, what if we swung the other way for a little bit?

I’m thinking Solaris. Real Solaris, not the general-queue TDM modes people insist on deriding as Solaris. If we have a mode exclusively for hundred-plus man superunits to Decide The Fate of the Inner Sphere, then maybe it’d be cool if we had a mode designed for solo players to make a name for themselves, accrue glory and infamy, and have their own brand of selfish, awesome fun.

What I’m seeing is a six-man FFA mode. No teams at all – Solaris is purely solo, every man for himself. Drop in whatever you like, and as you play the mode you can accrue Glory, the same way CW players can accrue Loyalty. Obviously winning a Solaris match gives you a nice shot of Glory, but so does doing awesome stuff in the game. Use the new Reward 2.0 coding to track various awesomeness/style-points actions in the match, such that players who can win with flair and pizzazz (whatever that ends up being) build up Glory much quicker.

Earn enough Glory and you can unlock skin and cosmetic rewards, just like CW folks can earn faction-specific cosmetics with Loyalty, but the real kicker here is that the players on top of the mountain are invited once a season (whatever a ‘season’ ends up being) to participate in a Solaris Championship organized by PGI, utilizing the private match system like their other official tournaments. This would obviously necessitate some sort of Glory decay such that the championships aren’t ruled solely by the folks who’ve been playing the longest, but I think it could make for a really interesting sort of sub-game for people to track next to the overall Community Warfare aspect.

A public leaderboard could track, say, the top 24 Solaris fighters, and if they ever got match spectating in they could keep a log of aid players’ last two or three matches available to view. Make sort of an unofficial, in-universe semi-casual e-sport out of it where players are able to watch and cheer on their own favorites and can get in and participate themselves any time they want, instead of an actual e-sport which is a horrible idea and will never happen to MWO and good riddance.

I know it’s never going to happen ever in the entire future of MWO, but I think a real Solaris mode like this could be an excellent complement to unit-heavy, extremely solo-unfriendly Community Warfare. Different factions could try and set up a Champion of House Davion or what-have-you, and you could potentially even tie Solaris into CW with a champion system. Declare yourself as fighting “for the glory of the Federated Suns!” for a Solaris season, and you can earn CW Loyalty as well as Solaris Glory for your fights (if obviously not as much Loyalty as fighting on the front lines would net you). Get the players involved in trash-talking other factions’ big-ticket champions, get them behind their own guys. Maybe even set up player-run exhibition matches in private lobbies, go full WWE in this hizzouse.

I dunno. It’s a wild high-level idea that’s been itching at my brain lately and I wanted to throw it out there and see if anyone else would be interested in such a mode, or if they figured it was a waste. Either way, I suppose.

[Tristan Winter]

• Great for solo players
  
• Great for the competitive scene
  
• Great for establishing and expanding on the rich Battletech background
  
• Great for creating more variation in weekly challenges and events

I'm going to be very happy if this ever happens.

[Zanathan]

I would love an Solaris arena mode. This will effectively provide MWO with the 3 options for all gamers:

1. Community Warfare: An overarching storyline mode where players can influence the of the state of the inner sphere

2. Skirmish: Public and private queues for random and organised drops respectively

3. Solaris: For competitive players that want to compete in smaller groups (includes ladders and tournaments with seasons for 1vs1, 2vs2, 3vs3, etc)

Granted we will need a large playerbase to support all game modes.

[Tezcatli]

They have talked about on the various NGNG podcasts. And they showed interest. But it didn't sound to be a high priority.

[Burktross]

Can't get enough of that Duncan Fisher.
+All my supports.

[1453 R]

A small-group Solaris queue would effectively shut out solo droppers though, which leaves us with exactly the same situation we currently have - solo droppers make up the majority of the game's population but get the least attention/play options. Solos can't partake in CW in any realistic manner, and if you make Solaris a group thing, you get the same problem.

Solo free-for-all Solaris modes allow for individual pilots, rather than given groups, to earn a name for themselves, and also offers something new and interesting for solo players to enjoy. Not all of them will, and that's all right. Maybe you could do small-team Solaris as well later down the road, but I honestly think a mode that's restricted to just solos - NOT the public solo queue, don't get cute with me - would be an excellent counterbalance to the intensely group-heavy Community Warfare mode.

Again, something like this would be a crazy long shot, probably be another two years in development...but I'd play the heck out of it if it ever showed up.