167 replies to this topic

[Hoax415]

Contract Length:

Have you really removed the 1-4 month contracts from CW? If you feel its necessary to have 1 week contracts for the truly fickle fine. But leave the other contracts how they were please? If people want a 1-week contract that gives almost no LP (why would a house trust such a unit/pilot?) that seems like a good plan to help players who just can't handle commitment but changing all contracts to incredibly short length seems to play right into one of the big concerns of CW. Players swapping faction frivolously which will of course lead to the winning factions getting bigger and winning more.

Can you please explain the thought process at PGI behind this change?

The Same-Unit Restriction on Grouping:

Another thing we just heard about in the Townhall was the restriction that players can only create groups with their own unit in CW. This seems like a restriction that may be convenient for other systems of CW but it also is a pretty big restriction on players who can no longer freely group.

Any chance that restriction can be relaxed in the future? Is it a set in stone this is how CW will work thing? Because if it is I bet a lot of people who aren't in the huge 100+ member zerg units will need to reconsider their tags.

How many planets per day?

Is the plan still for ALL IS vs ALL CLAN planets? What about the southern inner sphere planets will those all be 1v1 faction or are we going to see 3 way battles or 2v1 setups? Will every faction have 1 planet under attack? 2?

[Sky Hawk]

Hmm.. I just discovered the Planetary-Defense Gauss Cannons, on Paul's gate-turret pictures.. So.. if we can SEE it, from the gate.. that means, Clans weapons can shoot it down, from there... sounds not good.. really not good...

[Sudden]

you guys are easily impressed. will there be a REAL DISTINCTION , between pirate,s mercs, and houses.roughly when will phase 3 of cw see the light of day.how many maps per planet are we looking at when cw is done and dusted. we cant have a snow map for a jungle planet.

[Lucky Noob]

Okay Boys, let us talk about the Important one here.....



....where is the Armwrestle Vid ?

[orcrist86]

First I was like., nice... then the media appeared and

[Felbombling]

Thanks for the pics and info, Paul. I agree with many people who have already commented... why the shortened contract lengths? Were you getting flack from people who were expected to stay with on faction for one measly month? Maybe we could have some longer contract lengths added to the longer term, perhaps a six month and 1 year? That should handle every kind of personality in my estimation, if you're concrete on the new term lengths.

[Olliemag]

Thanks for the info Paul, pics are awesome. Disappointed with the shorter contracts though. Maybe they are shorter to see how faction population plays out?

[TygerLily]

I feel like, as long as you can break a contract why have shorter ones?

[Wintersdark]

TygerLily, on 20 November 2014 - 08:38 PM, said:

I feel like, as long as you can break a contract why have shorter ones?

Because breaking a contract will have penalties, while a contract simply ending does not.

Short ones, so you can work with a faction for a limited engagment, gain some LP and such, but not be bound to them long term.

I'd assume breaking your contract will cost substantial LP, and as such make breaking them ineffective for growing your LP.

[Hoax415]

The Faction Relations Table:

Several updates ago it was hinted that Randall Bills was helping to work on a table that determined how the various IS factions view each other and therefore how they would look at you if you joined X opposing faction or fought to defend or capture a planet for Y faction etc. Is this table ready to go? Can we preview it? Any hints or further details on how that all works?

[That Guy]

i too liked the longer contract times. maybe the shortest contract should be 14 days, then 30, then 60. 7 days just seems too short. for some people that's only a day or two of available game time.


but I also have a question about alignment. so If i choose a permanent alignment does that dictate which units i can join? or does the new unit simply override my permanent choice?

additionally i also think that the 30 second re-spawn timer is too short. i think a longer timer would create a more dynamic experience rather than a bunch of people just YOLOing to get a new mech in a few seconds. such a short timer promotes a more wreckless mindset

maybe even consider different timers for attacker and defender. for example a 3 min timer for the attackers, and a 5 min timer for the defenders. this would help to counter the inherent advantage defenders have. this can also create a more push and pull experience, rather than just a constant stream of new arrivals. plus with a 30 second timer after 5 min of a match the sky will be buzzing constantly with drop-ships.

and there needs to be incentives for not loosing mechs. like a cb or XP multiplier for each respawn phase you are still alive. this would also be helped by having a reinforcement phase every few min rather than every few seconds

[MalodorousMonkey]

Love the teases! This is the best way to keep the community updated IMO. Having the information is great, but what really makes us squeel is the visual evidence!

[CocoaJin]

orcrist86, on 20 November 2014 - 08:19 PM, said:

First I was like., nice... then the media appeared and

And what...**** probing?

Edited by CocoaJin, 20 November 2014 - 09:31 PM.

[Eboli]

I need to add my opinion that I liked the longer contracts as well.

One week seems a little bit too short when considering that this could really be abused by players or, create an exodus of faction players when things get tough. If penalties for breaking contracts are being implemented then I do not see why short contract times need be implemented then.

I too would like a clear answer on Unit Group drops only. I really see no problems where players of the same faction (not necessarily of the same group) can get together on TS and drop together as a larger group. To me it allows greater flexibility in the game (CW) itself. ie more ability of groups joining together rather than more people just dropping solo and causing potential issues that will no doubt appears on the forums.

Is there an aim of PGI wanting to remove smaller units from the game? If that is the case I really do not see why there would be such a need to do so. I just don't like the idea of mega Group Factions controlling state of play.

Cheers!
Eboli.

[Karl Marlow]

I'm listening to the Latest Town Hall and I've had some questions.

1) Russ mentions in his example of how Solo players work in attacking a planet a scenario where 1 solo player and another solo player then a 10 man group will join forces to attack a planet. If Solo players are allowed to join this group queue will units be able to form groups of 11 in CW?

2) Do groups inside CW have to all belong to the same unit? For example lets say MGA is having a slow night. Could I hop over to Desert Rats channel and group with them to do CW drops? If so is it also possible to group with other Inner Sphere factions?

3) Will we be able to color the Dropships that we drop from in CW? It would be cool if MGA's dropships had our color scheme and our unit logo on the side.

4) How do counter attacks work? after the 24 hour period if the defender has 6 zones he successfully defends the planet. Does this immediately throw off the attacked from the other zones and move the battle to the attackers planet or do you have to capture all the zones to shift the battle back at the attacker?

5) How do faction alliances work? For example is the Alliance between Steiner and Davion simulated in CW at all?

[StonedDead]

I'd like to see longer contract lengths brought back, but why can't we have both? 7&14 days; 1,3,6 month; and year long contracts. With permanent still being a last option for die-hards.

Please give attackers some sort of cover. Otherwise they're probably toast. Especially IS attacking Clan defenders. If we don't have some kind of cover closer in, then our only means of combat is the mighty LRM, or to send in lights to destroy whatever we have to destroy. If it goes to the light mech option, the whole match would be spent trying to avoid combat. LRMs mean a long back and forth arty war, with the attackers getting massacred by the defenders after the LRMs finally run out. It might not be this bad, but the "open map" comment suggests this IMO.

Other than that, carry on, looks great so far.

[Rebas Kradd]

Sudden, on 20 November 2014 - 08:01 PM, said:

you guys are easily impressed

Or maybe you're too difficult to impress. Might go both ways there.

Back on track, I agree the 7-week contracts could be a problem.

[Fooooo]

keith, on 20 November 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

will dropship points move up? lets say like TF2 5 point cap style. as your push forward u get more of a forward base reduce your time u need to walk to the front lines. meaning your first wave of out of DS will be light/med to get close spawn points/ intail objectives then move into bigger mechs for final push.

I'd like to know this as well.

If the maps are large enough, having forward spawns or "landing pads" for dropships can add another element.

Much like in TF2 like you mention or ET. Not exactly sure how TF2's function but in ET the forward spawn can be captured and re-captured etc.

So on oasis, there is a forward spawn close to a wall you have to plant a bomb on to get through to the next phase.

Capturing the forward spawn gives a big advantage as you only have to travel for a few seconds to get to the wall instead of the starting spawn which is about 15 - 20 sec when there are no defenders inbetween...... (the defenders starting spawn is this spawn also, so capping it forces all the defenders to spawn all the way back in their main base etc)

The spawn can however be re-captured and then re-used as the defenders spawn if they can get it.


So it constantly changes hands until 1 side gets a foothold etc and the wall is eventualy blown. (once blown the forward spawn is now always the attackers and cant be re-capped).

Something like this could be interesting if the maps and objectives are set out to work with it.


IE lights scrambling to a distant landing pad trying to cap it to get assaults to spawn there because they cant physically get to that spot otherwise etc etc. ( EG some hill that has a side access to a base and no gate or turrets but only small JJ mechs can get up....unless you cap the landing pad up there etc........ )

With defenders sending out mechs from the walls / base to re-cap or hold it for as long as possible before retreating back behind the walls etc etc..


Meh, at least we will see the dropships....which gives me another Q.....


Will we actually power up inside them and have to walk out of them or we all just spawn and powerup outside it after it lands ? (or maybe some maps or spawns a small drop with some sort of JJ's slowing the fall to "fake" a small hotdrop etc like the original vid thing??)

Edited by Fooooo, 20 November 2014 - 10:30 PM.

[TygerLily]

Wintersdark, on 20 November 2014 - 08:53 PM, said:

Because breaking a contract will have penalties, while a contract simply ending does not.

Short ones, so you can work with a faction for a limited engagment, gain some LP and such, but not be bound to them long term.

I'd assume breaking your contract will cost substantial LP, and as such make breaking them ineffective for growing your LP.

Good point, although some part of me hopes that too small of a time period doesn't make a contract too frivolous. I'm hoping longer contracts give higher rewards.

[Aceramic]

So... I feel like I have to ask this now.

Those of us who purchased Phoenix packages back when CW was said to be released "Soon™" have most likely long since chosen our medallions, which grant a Loyalty Point bonus, along with the LP bonus from the 'mechs (if I remember correctly... It's been a while, y'know).

Details about how the medallions would work, or even WHAT Loyalty Points WERE was never released up until now. Will we get to re-choose our medallions now that we actually have some idea of what LP's are, what they mean, and why we want the medallions, or are we just screwed if we made a poor choice?