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[Moonlight Grimoire]

So Faction Play while neat ends up rather static and focused on scything down enemies at long range over anything else. This is due to the nature of not just the maps but the modes. So I have two solutions that I have come up with. The first is the easiest and I would like to see as at least a stepping stone or middle ground (so my negotiated what I will settle for now) solution.

Solution 1: Change the flow of maps and modes in FP.

This solution changes mostly siege mode as it is now known so that there is a firebase that defenders spawn in which hosts the gate control tower(s) which attackers must capture to open the gates (defenders can not reclose said gates). This forward base no only protects the internal base from attack it protects the gates from assault and is where base first responders are deployed from. This forces a fight outside the gates for the gate controls themselves. Throw 2xML 2xLRM5 style turrets around the area, maybe an ECM tower too. This is to force a fight at the beginning of the match instead of having people cower inside the gates and the attacking team having to run up a ramp to shoot over the gate into the base to blow up gate generators that some how cause the gate to move which requires energy to do? Logically fighting over the gate base makes sense. Anyone who dies on the defending team respawns via dropship at the normal dropship drop off point. Now many maps would need to be changed to accommodate this, but, that is fine. The gate controls I would also force to be hard to defend, so that way a light can sneak in, wedge itself between the gate controls and something else, shut down, and get the gates open while the rest of his or her team fight the enemy. This would aid in spicing up at least the Siege game mode.

Solution 2: This is a lot more work, but, dedicated servers akin to MechWarrior: Living Legends Theater of War.

Except for instead of spending cbills earned by doing damage, objectives, and killing mechs, stuff like that, you bring your drop deck which is hard locked in. You are play as long as you want in the conflict zone, your drop deck is not limited lives, your side has tickets as you fight over bases and resource points. This would give FP a completely different dynamic from quick play which I feel is needed to make FP worth playing. So how it would work is you make your drop deck, sign a contract if you are a merc, find a planet that your contract lets you drop on and you drop and you use what mech is best in your dropdeck for what is going on. Now, you since it is a dedicated server you can quit, which you get your cbills earned for whatever time you had in that match, and LP, and reputation, then you can change your drop deck, and rejoin the battle. This, again, would give Faction Play a completely different dynamic than quick play and allow for much longer protracted fights where objectives not kills mattered. Sure kills get you some cbills but you want those objectives. Kills are more there to lock players out from defending an objective. I feel this would also help people just get back into the game where they can sit down and just play almost uninterrupted for an evening on a planet, getting cbills, LP, all that, having fun.

Conclusion:

Both have draw backs of maps have to be redesigned or made completely from scratch to facilitate either of these, but, I honestly feel this is the direction FP needs to go as someone who played a good deal of Phase 1 and 2 with a unit and solo. It is just too static now, too dry. Like sure it is meh to have say one or two people on a server late at night slowly winning points back after a whole bunch of major wins with lots of people (probably have wins scale by how much the victory was by and how many players were involved so if it is one person effectively turret dropping it has near 0 impact on the status of the planet but they still can get some cbills and lp in the case of dedicated servers). Too often we would face ERLL spam or just get hung up at the gate, in fact the gate was generally what killed things in phase 1 and 2. I want there not to be 5 minutes of walking to the gate, taking ERPPC, GR, and ERLL fire, I want to get into the action, I want to not stall out due to it takes so long to get anywhere. Yes option 1 takes from someone else's idea of copy Battlefield's Rush idea, because it is a sound idea, I think this just gives two phases which are moderately easy to implement.